fb-pixel Skip to main content
TRENDING:

Mass. mandates COVID-19 booster shots for nursing home workers and takes action to ease hospital bottlenecks

Workers who care for some of the most frail patients in Massachusetts, including those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, must receive a COVID-19 booster shot by Feb. 28, under an emergency order issued this week by the Baker administration.

Hospitals have been struggling. The state reported Thursday that 2,524 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized, a number that exceeds the peak during last winter’s deadly surge of 2,428 on Jan. 4, 2021.
Here’s why the state is changing the way it reports COVID hospitalization data
Massachusetts will soon report what proportions of patients were admitted primarily because of COVID versus those who were admitted for other reasons and happened to test positive for the virus.

THE LATEST COVID-19 NEWS

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

Ms. Guinier admired a thank you note from a speaking engagement in 2002.

Lani Guinier, civil rights champion and Harvard law professor, dies at 71

The first tenured woman of color at Harvard Law School, Lani Guinier became nationally known when President Clinton nominated her to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 1993.
Kevin Hayden
ADRIAN WALKER

New Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden comes well prepared

“He’s just a superb human being,” said former district attorney Ralph C. Martin II, who first hired him as a prosecutor in the 1990s.
Travis McMichael, pictured here, was convicted of Ahmaud Arbery's murder along with his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor William ‘’Roddie’' Bryan; all three were given life in prison.

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers sentenced to life in prison, two with no chance of parole

Almost two years after Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed, the three white men convicted of his murder were sentenced to life in prison, two of them without the possibility of parole.
Opinion
Anna Soto (left) watches her son Lyancer, 8, joke with Joseph Chaparro, 8, before receiving a COVID-19 vaccine during a Thanksgiving party at La Colaborativa, in Chelsea, on Nov. 23.
EDITORIAL

Vaccination rates for Massachusetts children, ages 5-11, are a ‘tale of two states’

Economics alone does not explain the disparities.
More than two dozen countries make voting a civic duty akin to jury duty.
IDEAS | Miles Rapoport and Alex Keyssar

How to boost voter turnout to nearly 100 percent
Activists attend a "Defend Democracy" vigil near the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
LETTERS

A still-smoldering injustice at the Capitol
Alex Beam

Omicron gives new meaning to calculated risk
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Can Mayor Wu really make the T free?
Mass. coronavirus at a glance
Vaccinations
.
Trend:
1+ dose received:
Fully vaccinated:
Cases and deaths
Total cases:
.
Total deaths:
.
Other resources:
Last updated: . NOTE: Mass DPH releases data Monday-Friday starting July 2021. Mass. population of 6,892,503 is used to calculate vaccination percentages. SOURCE: Mass. Dept. of Public Health
Special Project

UNDER THE WHEEL

This is the story of Anthony Pledger and his mother, of Anthony’s lives and deaths, of Anthony and me.

More recent stories

Tom Brady, right, lobbied to have Antonio Brown join the Buccaneers in 2020.
Antonio Brown calls Tom Brady ‘his friend,’ rips Bruce Arians in podcast appearance
The Buccaneers terminated the wide receiver’s contract earlier this week, but Brown said he hopes to play in the NFL again.

CHAD FINN
FILE -In the 2019 wild-card round, the Tom Brady era came to an end when Logan Ryan (26) intercepted his final throw as a Patriot and returned it for a touchdown during the Titans’ 20-13 win.
Wild-card weekends are anything but a given during Bill Belichick era
The Patriots are just 2-2 on wild card weekend under Bill Belichick.

Game show champion Amy Schneider on the set of "Jeopardy!"
Amy Schneider becomes first woman to surpass $1 million on ‘Jeopardy!’
On Friday, she became the fourth contestant and the first woman in the history of “Jeopardy!” to surpass $1 million in winnings during regular-season play.

Increased federal energy aid available as winter weather arrives in Massachusetts

The Biden administration and members of Congress from the region on Friday alerted low-income households to a major boost in federal money to help them keep the heat on.

Under pressure from Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz apologizes for describing Jan. 6 attack as terrorism

Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show Thursday, the conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender insisted that he had misspoken, though he has consistently described the insurrection by Donald Trump supporters as a terrorist attack over the last year.
gary washburn | on basketball

The Celtics have some problems, beginning with their inability to put teams away in the fourth quarter

On Thursday, the Knicks completed a comeback with an 18-9 run, with Jayson Tatum the lone Celtic to record a field goal in the last 7:59.

THE GREAT DIVIDE ⟶

See the latest from our education team focused on race, class, and opportunity in schools.

RHODE ISLAND ⟶

See the latest from Globe Rhode Island.

NEWTON ⟶

See the Globe’s expanded Newton coverage in partnership with Boston University.

Recommended reads

William and Carol Stewart were married for 44 years. The couple passed away, within seconds of each other, family says, after battling COVID-19.

‘True definition of soul mates’: A New Hampshire couple died of COVID-19 just seconds apart, holding hands as they took their last breaths

Bill and Carol Stewart were together for more than four decades. On the day they died, their hospital beds were wheeled into the same room so they could spend their final moments together.

Larry Edelman
For now, total employment remains 3.6 million jobs, or 2.3 percent, below February 2020 levels.
The December jobs report caps a ‘pretty mindboggling’ year
It’s a tight labor market with far more open jobs than workers willing to fill them.

Sidney Poitier appeared with Lilia Skala in a scene from the 1963 classic, "Lillies of the Field."
Oscar winner and groundbreaking star Sidney Poitier dies
He was the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw.

Ben Affleck, left, in "The Tender Bar."
Ben Affleck talks about ‘The Tender Bar,’ sobriety, and what it’s like being ‘the guy from Boston’
With “The Tender Bar” starting to stream on Amazon Prime Jan. 7 — it opened in theaters last month — we asked the Cambridge native if he had a few minutes to chat. He said sure.

video

Culture & Lifestyle

Steve Aoki (pictured in July 2021 at Lollapalooza in Chicago) performs Jan. 8 at Big Night Live and Jan. 9 at Mémoire.
THE TICKET

Things to do around Boston this weekend and beyond
Aaron LaVigne (left) as Jesus and Tommy Sherlock as Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar."
STAGE REVIEW

A ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with swagger, but imbued with sorrow
Mohammed Al-Kinani's story is included in a new book of Maine immigrant experiences. (Lilit Danielyan)
NEW ENGLAND LITERARY NEWS

A poet’s funny, poignant memories and a new book of Maine immigrant experiences
Khao soi (center), tonkotsu ramen (right), and pho tai at the Soup Shack in Jamaica Plain.
FOOD

January is National Soup Month. Here are 16 must-stop spots for soup in the Boston area

Special Projects

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, then president of Brigham Health, brought a Boston delegation in April 2018 to celebrate the opening of the Boao Evergrande International Hospital in China, constructed in a new medical tourism hub.
Spotlight team report

How Brigham Health helped create a Chinese hospital for elites — and almost nobody came

In a deal worth millions with Chinese developer Evergrande, a Harvard teaching hospital risked its reputation on what would become a near-empty shell.
An older lobsterman passed by Tanner Lazaro as he hauled up his traps in his boat, Used N Abused, on Aug. 24. During the summer Tanner hauled his own traps on whatever days his mentor Frankie Thompson or another lobsterman didn't need his help.

The lobster trap

The plentiful catch that brought wealth to fishing families is at risk, as climate change warms the Gulf of Maine. A way of life is on the line, but lobstermen can't, or won't, imagine another.
Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

Victoria Long, spiritual care coordinator at Suncoast Hospice, talks with a hospice resident in St. Petersburg, Fla.
IDEAS | ROSE CARMEN GOLDBERG

No one should die alone
Kevin Hayden, speaking with Jim Braude, host of GBH News’ "Greater Boston," in 2016 at the GBH Studios in Brighton.
MARCELA GARCÍA

Kevin Hayden must carry forward the mandate for progressive reform in Suffolk DA’s office
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Confusion is also a COVID-19 variant. The CDC is spreading it.
President Joe Biden speaks in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, marking one year since the deadly assault on the Capitol. President Biden denounced former president Donald Trump for promoting lies and tearing down American democracy because he could not stand the fact that he lost an election, accusing his predecessor of putting his own interests ahead of the country’s.
SCOT LEHIGH

Biden’s powerful warning about democracy
Health care workers put in a dialysis line in a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester on Dec. 2.
Kevin Tabb, Kate Walsh, Anne Klibanski, and Michael Dandorph

Hospitals are doing their part on COVID-19; we ask the public to do theirs
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Can Mayor Wu really make the T free?

Metro

Coronavirus Live Updates

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

The latest news and guidance on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in New England and beyond.

Season’s first storm drops more than a foot of snow in some parts of Mass.

A high-intensity storm covered Massachusetts Friday, with over a foot of snow falling in some places, forcing hundreds of schools to close and causing multiple accidents, including a fatal crash in Freetown.

Mass. mandates COVID-19 booster shots for nursing home workers and takes action to ease hospital bottlenecks

Workers who care for some of the most frail patients in Massachusetts, including those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, must receive a COVID-19 booster shot by Feb. 28, under an emergency order issued this week by the Baker administration.
ADRIAN WALKER

New Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden comes well prepared

“He’s just a superb human being,” said former district attorney Ralph C. Martin II, who first hired him as a prosecutor in the 1990s.

Sports

With an incredible performance in the free skate, Mariah Bell won her first gold medal in the Ladies Singles during the US Figure Skating Championships in Nashville.
US Figure Skating Championships

Mariah Bell becomes oldest national champion in 95 years at US nationals while Alysa Liu had to withdraw

"I was really nervous for this program and just tried my best to stay in the moment," Bell said.
Jaylen Brown scored 16 points in Thursday's loss to the Knicks, but none in the fourth quarter.
gary washburn | on basketball

The Celtics have some problems, beginning with their inability to put teams away in the fourth quarter

On Thursday, the Knicks completed a comeback with an 18-9 run, with Jayson Tatum the lone Celtic to record a field goal in the last 7:59.
Protestors gather outside an immigration detention hotel where Novak Djokovic is believed to be staying in Melbourne.
sports log

Novak Djokovic not alone in having visa problems at Australian Open

Djokovic was still in an immigration detention hotel awaiting a court hearing to challenge his deportation when the Australian Border Force confirmed action was taken against two others.
CHAD FINN

Wild-card weekends are anything but a given during Bill Belichick era
Bruins

COVID cancels Tuukka Rask’s scheduled start with the Providence Bruins
Patriots

Patriots safety Kyle Dugger will not play Sunday

Business

VW gives US plant workers 10 percent pay bump amid Omicron pressure

The German automaker on Friday reported US sales of 375,030 vehicles for 2021, a 15 percent jump from the prior year.

Fourth vaccine dose could be needed in fall, Moderna CEO says

People who received booster shots this past fall are likely to have significant protection through winter, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Cambridge-based Moderna, said at a health care conference Thursday hosted by Goldman Sachs.

Three IPOs on Friday, and more deals in Boston biotech

Treasury broadens COVID relief uses for states, localities

STAT

Dr. Monica McLemore, Associate Professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department at UCSF, stands for a portrait at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on Friday, September 10th, 2021 in Oakland, Calif.
‘Health equity tourists’: How white scholars are colonizing research on health disparities
A STAT investigation shows that researchers with little or no background or training in health equity research are rushing in to scoop up grants and publish papers.

Covid winter illustration
Winter is coming, again: What to expect from Covid-19 as the season looms
STAT spoke with infectious disease experts and others about what to expect from Covid-19 as the seasons change.

Funeral goers sing during a service for Daisy Pace at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in January 2021.
DISTANCED: Pandemic stories of Black life in the rural South
Photographer Bethany Mollenkof spent six months documenting the impact of Covid-19 on residents of rural Black communities in the South.

Boston, MA -- 05/12/21 -- Dr. Matthew Carty examines patient Jerry Majethic at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital on May 12, 2021, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Kayana Szymczak for STAT)
Groundbreaking arm amputation surgery makes a ‘phantom’ hand seem real
The procedure aims to restore proprioception, the ability to sense where our limbs are in space and how fast and forcefully they’re moving.

magazine
It's been 50 years since the groundbreaking kids' show "Zoom" debuted on WGBH.
Television

In 1972, the kids took over TV on the first "Zoom" to enter our homes
Local history

The roller-skating heroes who fought racism in Boston
Love Letters

My fiance thinks my dress is too short for our courthouse wedding
Peruvian Quinoa and Corn Chowder (Chupe de Quinoa)
Cooking

Recipes: Keep that resolution to eat better with 3 quinoa dishes

metro

A snow plow made its way up Beacon Street in Newton on Friday.

Increased federal energy aid available as winter weather arrives in Massachusetts

Here’s why the state is changing the way it reports COVID hospitalization data

‘Turned out to be a fiasco’: Mask controversy erodes Mass. educators’ faith in state

sports

Coach Bill Belichick has liked what he has seen from his Patriots this season.

Patriots’ resilience stands out to Bill Belichick as regular season winds down

Burlington’s Tim Vadnais determined not to let pandemic-related alterations derail state title goals

49ers list QB Jimmy Garoppolo as questionable for crucial season finale against Rams

business

Conceptual rendering of the proposed Longwood Place on Brookline Avenue and Pilgrim Road in Boston.

Developer proposes massive lab and housing complex where Simmons dorms now stand

What comes after Omicron? We need a plan

Biden says COVID won’t be ‘new normal’ but virus here to stay

politics

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden talked with people as they toured a neighborhood in Louisville, Colo., on Friday.

President Biden surveys Colorado wildfire damage, comforts victims

Under pressure from Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz apologizes for describing Jan. 6 attack as terrorism

Increased federal energy aid available as winter weather arrives in Massachusetts

Nation

COVID-19 tests were administered to children on Jan. 3, 2022, at L.B. Landry High School in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.

Walensky urges vaccinations for eligible children as pediatric hospitalizations rise to highest levels yet

Supreme Court skeptical of Biden’s workplace vaccine rule

President Biden surveys Colorado wildfire damage, comforts victims

World

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestured as he spoke during a press conference after the extraordinary meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Russia-Ukraine tensions at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, on Jan. 7, 2022.

NATO vows united response to Russian aggression against Ukraine

France takes EU reins with push for more sovereignty

Polish leader admits country bought powerful Israeli spyware

opinion

President Joe Biden speaks in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, marking one year since the deadly assault on the Capitol. President Biden denounced former president Donald Trump for promoting lies and tearing down American democracy because he could not stand the fact that he lost an election, accusing his predecessor of putting his own interests ahead of the country’s.

Biden’s powerful warning about democracy

Confusion is also a COVID-19 variant. The CDC is spreading it.

The shot heard around the world

lifestyle

Love Letters

My girlfriend left after I lost custody of my kids

Oscar winner and groundbreaking star Sidney Poitier dies

The best places to go sledding in Boston and beyond

food & dining

Green tea and mango ice creams at Toscanini's.

The scoop on Main Street: Toscanini’s returns

McGuirk’s Folly pops up at Middlesex Lounge; Salt + Stone comes to Somerville

January is National Soup Month. Here are 16 must-stop spots for soup in the Boston area

travel

Seth Sikes at Fire Island Pines, N.Y.

Seth Sikes on beach massages, Judy and Liza, and his upcoming show at Club Café

Orbitz switched her Aruba vacation — but not her hotel in Tahiti

AutoCamp lands in Joshua Tree, Skyspace debuts in South America, and a new lodge opens in Stowe

Arts

Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940), "Landscapes and Interiors: Through the Fields, 1899." Lithograph on paper.

‘Hue & Cry’ at the Clark explores controversy of color printmaking in 19th-century France

Mass. and Cass, cast in bronze and on canvas

Actress and advocate Taraji P. Henson is part of the Museum of Science’s upcoming programming

Books

Kathryn Schulz’s memoir ‘Lost & Found’ traces life’s gifts and sorrows

Martín Espada: stacks of books, from poetry to photography

Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel ‘To Paradise’ ponders freedom and loneliness

Movies

Sly Stone performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary "Summer of Soul."

A list of 20 movies, TV shows, and documentaries to stream during the snowstorm

Ben Affleck talks about ‘The Tender Bar,’ sobriety, and what it’s like being ‘the guy from Boston’

Looking for intimations of immortality

Television

On Sunday, when the Golden Globe winners are named, there will be no red carpet, no celebrities, and no way to tune in.

Not really missing the Golden Globes ceremony

A list of 20 movies, TV shows, and documentaries to stream during the snowstorm

Calm down: ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ has returned

music

Music director Andris Nelsons and violinist Hilary Hahn with the BSO on Jan. 7, 2022 at Symphony Hall.

At BSO, the year’s first notes are new

Antonio Oliart Ros brings artistry to sound recording at GBH and beyond

With every note, Ranky Tanky honors an ancestry

Theater/Dance

Aaron LaVigne (left) as Jesus and Tommy Sherlock as Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar."

A ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with swagger, but imbued with sorrow

The team that put ‘Mr. Parent’ in a class, by himself

Rather than try to explain Lord Buckley, he becomes him onstage

globe local

Auto shop instructor Louis Beckwith talks about brakes with students during an adult education class at the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School in Danvers.

Vocational schools offer adults a blueprint for success, with classes funded by the state

A runaway goat is apprehended in Norfolk

Jan. 6 arrests included 11 from New England. A look at who they are

Obituaries

Ms. Guinier admired a thank you note from a speaking engagement in 2002.

Lani Guinier, civil rights champion and Harvard law professor, dies at 71

Jim Corsi, Newton native who pitched for the Red Sox, dies at 60

Mary Richardson, pioneering female anchor and ‘Chronicle’ cohost, dies at 76