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Oct. 2023

BEYOND THE GILDED GATE

A Boston Globe Spotlight report into the Massachusetts housing crisis

People in and around Boston are being challenged, in ways never before, to address the region's unprecedented housing crisis. The Globe Spotlight Team probed this question and found yet another crisis: One of consensus and will.
Part 1: Milton

Beyond the Gilded Gate

In recent decades, suburban towns have doubled down on the status quo, or made zoning even more restrictive, all but guaranteeing that single-family home prices will remain shockingly high.
Part 2: Generations

One house, one family, and the fading dream of homeownership

Within 100 years, a Watertown family has watched the seams of the American Dream coming apart — one stitch, one generation at a time.
Part 3: Luxury towers

Reckoning with Boston’s towers of wealth

Luxury high-rises are sprouting across the skyline. Why is Boston, amid a grave housing crisis, so much better at building homes for the wealthy than those in need?

How will the state’s historic rezoning mandate affect your community?

Use our interactive map to see your town's obligation to rezone under the MBTA Communities Act.

Calculator: Penciling out a project

See how several key choices made by developers in any new housing development influence the cost of a project, and the rents it needs to pencil out.
Dec. 2023
Cradle of Doubt

Judging Emily

Government officials are blaming some parents who endure the tragedy of an infant death while co-sleeping. Instead of compassion, they got mostly criticism and penalties — and this falls largely on low-income families.
Who decides if the mother is blamed?

The Internet is awash in parents who endorse co-sleeping. And public health agencies are largely silent.
Government officials can be quick to punish parents whose babies die while sleeping with them, but slow to craft a safety message that resonates with today’s parents.

New wearable, high-tech baby monitors raise questions about co-sleeping risks
Pediatricians worry about parents buying these infant monitors, many at high cost, to prevent sudden infant sleep deaths or reduce bed-sharing dangers.

Resources: What to know about SIDS and co-sleeping
Sept. 2023

Jan. 2023

Sept. 2022
PART 1

A celebrated surgeon, a trail of secrets and death

Dr. Yvon Baribeau set a record for malpractice settlements, and many colleagues tried desperately to stop him. But hospital executives let him go on and on.
How to find out if your doctor has a troubled history
Part 2

A crisis of conscience, with lives on the line

Alarmed doctors at Manchester's Catholic Medical Center tried to get a troubled colleague barred from surgery. But hospital leaders resisted. Then came the "summer of death."

Timeline: What the public didn’t know about Dr. Yvon Baribeau

Catholic Medical Center executives promoted Dr. Yvon Baribeau as a top cardiac surgeon. In reality, they knew for years that the doctor had a troubled work history.

N.H. licensing agency launches investigation into former administrators at Catholic Medical Center

Some doctors have already been subpoenaed to provide testimony about the hospital’s oversight of Dr. Yvon Baribeau’s surgery practice.

Brother of patient who died at New Hampshire hospital slams state regulators

After a Globe investigation into a celebrated surgeon’s track record of malpractice settlements and lawsuits, the state created a legislative subcommittee to investigate the Board of Medicine.

N.H. hospital promises review after revelations about doctor with 21 malpractice settlements

State legislators are also calling for an independent investigation.

Secrecy pervades medical malpractice settlements

Given how often doctors insist on secrecy, say national experts on malpractice claims, the public often never learns about allegations of wrongdoing.

New Hampshire keeps patients in the dark about their doctors’ malpractice, disciplinary records

Growing scrutiny of a quality standard that may influence end-of-life decisions for heart surgery patients ​

N.H. doctor allegedly misread mammograms, ultrasounds of two dozen women later diagnosed with breast cancer

Mar. 2022
Spotlight Team investigation

Unfinished Justice

The state’s high court in 2017 struck down a murder law that had condemned men who never killed to die behind bars. But what about those already facing that dire penalty? They are waiting.
SPOTLIGHT FOLLOW-UP

DAs favor new legislation to address possible felony murder injustices

The high court in 2017 abolished rules that caused some individuals who never killed anyone to be sentenced to life for felony murder — but did not make the changes retroactive.
VIDEO

Sentenced to 'forever,' a man who has never killed fights his felony-murder conviction

Joseph Jabir Pope has been incarcerated for more than half his life on felony-murder charges, despite playing no direct role in the killing.

Two families, two views of felony murder

A botched robbery at a McDonald’s in Walpole brings a tragic death and blame, but also allegations of an unfair murder charge.

SJC orders new trial in 1984 Dorchester felony-murder conviction but avoids ruling on broad retroactive review of similar cases

The state’s high court Tuesday ordered a new trial for Joseph Jabir Pope but bypassed the issue Pope and his supporters fervently wanted them to address: retroactively abolishing the felony murder rule that imprisons people who do not actually kill.

Suffolk DA won’t retry man convicted in 1984 Dorchester killing

The Supreme Judicial Court had ordered a new trial in June for Joseph Jabir Pope, who in 1986 was sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with a murder in Dorchester. He was released in December while the court heard his case.
Dec. 2021

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.

SPOTLIGHT FOLLOW-UP

Evergrande reneges on multimillion-dollar pledge to Harvard-led COVID project, another stumble in its ties to school

The company, which is now officially in default, has been in crisis, laboring to pay creditors as it grapples with more than $300 billion in liabilities.
Oct. 2021

Some Dana-Farber Cancer Institute trustees stood to profit from their philanthropic role

Access to trustee investments and market expertise can help the hospital. But this practice creates potential conflicts of interest at the highest level of an institution and worries about whether trustees’ financial interests can influence governance of the hospital.
Follow-up: Mass General Brigham resists the lead of hospitals banning or limiting trustee investments in its startups
Aug. 2021

The taking of Cell 15

A look at secrecy, assaults, and accountability inside Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison.
Follow-up: Legislators, advocates call for Mass. prison reforms after Spotlight investigation into excessive force allegations
Spotlight Follow-up

One correction officer, two excessive force allegations in less than two weeks

An ex-prisoner’s account focuses on an officer, with a dog, who was also cited in a Globe Spotlight report about an allegedly brutal lockdown in 2020.
May 2021

Failure of command: The inside story of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home outbreak

Governor Charlie Baker and a top deputy played key roles in events leading up to the devastating COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, but publicly faulted others. A Globe investigation examines the decisions that left the home all but leaderless when the coronavirus stormed in.
Follow-up: Questions raised about independence of Holyoke Soldiers’ Home COVID-19 probe
April 2021

Boston’s hospital chiefs moonlight on corporate boards at rates far beyond the national level

Hospital chiefs and trustees defend this as boosting public-private partnerships, but critics say these board positions — some paying millions of dollars — raise troubling issues of conflict of interest and hospital priorities.
Follow-up: A group of doctors, medical students seeks to prohibit Boston’s hospital chiefs from working on corporate boards Follow-up: In less than a year, the number of Boston hospital chiefs on corporate boards is down by half
2020

Last Words

This three-part series exposes the inequities that follow people in Massachusetts to their very last breaths. It is a deep examination into the uncomfortable topic of death, and confronts the state’s failure to protect its most vulnerable in the early days of a historic pandemic.
Part 1

Is death the great equalizer?

Quite the contrary, a Spotlight investigation shows. Death exposes in high relief the layers of inequities, in race and income, care and opportunity, that shape life down to its final hours. It is a truth the pandemic has only underscored — one hard to see, because it is so much easier to look away.
Death in Massachusetts, by the numbersRace, education, gender may influence some divergent views about death in Mass., poll shows11 takeaways from our ‘Last Words’ series

Part 2
A home to die in
They were the most vulnerable to COVID-19 — thousands of elders in nursing homes across the state. Yet for Governor Baker’s administration, praised for its overall pandemic response, they were for too long a secondary priority. The result was calamity — 1 in 7 dead, among the highest rates in the land.

Part 3
Homey, coveted, costly — and crushed by the pandemic
Families, especially those with means, sought to place their frail elders in Belmont Manor, a five-star nursing home. It was a safe refuge for the twilight years, until suddenly it became something else entirely: a case study in the coronavirus's indiscriminate power.

See the full project ⟶
2019

Seeing Red

We endure some of the nation’s worst rush hour traffic. Our aging transit system is maddeningly unreliable. It is a crisis — a very slow moving crisis — that puts our region’s economic prosperity at risk. Who is to blame? Can anything be done?
Part 1

Epic traffic paralyzes the region as gridlock grips the halls of power

Can Greater Boston continue to thrive — or even function — without fundamentally rethinking its relationship to the car?
Big numbers from Boston’s traffic crisis10 takeaways from ‘Seeing Red’
Part 2

Top companies bemoan traffic, yet many effectively entice employees to make it worse

We’re hooked on cars, despite the gridlock. Only powerful incentives will change that, but major employers make it too easy to drive.
Part 3

Ride-hailing, deliveries add traffic to Boston’s crowded streets

The get-it-now age of Uber and Amazon has delivered something unexpected to Boston’s doorstep — new traffic that worsens our soul-crushing snarl.

Video
Anatomy of a traffic jam
Boston has been cursed with some of the nation’s worst traffic. There are plenty of pinch points. But the Southeast Expressway seems like another level of hell.

See the full project ⟶

2019

The hidden titans of pot

Massachusetts legalized the sale of recreational marijuana with the ambition to be different - and better. Its law was the first in the nation to promote social justice goals, including ways to promote small and minority entrepreneurs. Other parts of the law made it clear: Big national companies weren't supposed to monopolize here. But two years since the law went into effect, troubling signs loom. This three-part series, "Hidden Titans of Pot," uncovers stealth moves by large investors poised to dominate this nascent industry and outmaneuver regulators.
part 1

You can’t own more than 3 pot shops, but these companies test the limits — and brag about it

No firm is allowed to own or control more than three recreational marijuana stores. But two companies — Sea Hunter and Acreage — are testing the limits.

Mass. marijuana industry is mostly corporate and white. Inside one Boston battle to change that

The race to open Mattapan Square’s first pot shop raises questions about trust and who gets to cash in.

For sale in the pot industry: political influence

Marijuana may be the hot, new retail business in town, but it largely plays by the old political rules.

Eight takeaways from the Spotlight series on the state’s burgeoning marijuana industry

Here are eight takeaways from The Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s three-part series on the state’s new marijuana industry.
See the full project ⟶

Spotlight: 50 years of groundbreaking investigative journalism

A look back at 15 Spotlight Team projects that changed Boston and beyond. Plus, Globe journalists share the stories behind the stories.
2018

Inside the secret courts of Massachusetts

We delve into the darkest corner of the Massachusetts criminal justice system, where the quality of justice can depend on where you live and who you know.

Inside our ‘secret courts’

In these private hearings, who you are — and who you know — may be just as important as right and wrong.
How the Spotlight Team got inside Massachusetts’ secret court system

Follow-ups

State leaders call for transparency in closed-door criminal hearings

Governor Baker and legislative leaders called for greater transparency within the state’s closed-door clerk magistrate system.

Panel is charged with reviewing state’s ‘secret courts’

A top court official has appointed a committee to evaluate potential changes to the state’s confidential clerk magistrate hearings.

Charges against Boston officer disappear after private court hearing

Private citizens sometimes seek charges against their accusers in secret courts

Clerk magistrates who oversee court filings have paperwork problems of their own

Lawmakers file bills to make controversial court hearings less secret

See the full project ⟶
2018

Gladiator

How can a Super Bowl starting lineman become a convicted murderer in only a few years? We look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez’s life and terrible crimes. Brain injuries, toxic masculinity, willful ignorance, and more are examined, and newly uncovered documents, audio, and interviews are uncovered as the real story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez is revealed.

Listen to the podcast

Part 1 | Bristol

Aaron Hernandez hid secrets behind his smile

The future football star grew up to respect — and fear — his father. And to keep much about his life to himself.
Part 2 | Florida

How college helped fuel Aaron Hernandez’s rise, and accelerated his fall

New evidence underscores how the coldly corporatized world of big-time college football indulged and exacerbated the very traits in Hernandez that would one day destroy his life and end others.
Part 3 | Foxborough

In New England, Aaron Hernandez ran for glory, and for his life

Hernandez was known within the Patriots as a top star who was beyond odd. Some teammates found him full of “red flag” behavior.
Part 4 | Murder

When Aaron Hernandez became a murderer

With Hernandez, the Patriots became the only NFL team with an active player accused in three murders.
Part 5 | Prison

Aaron Hernandez seemed oddly comfortable in jail

Hernandez found a mixture of anguish and solace behind bars, until he chose to end it all.
Part 6 | CTE

The NFL, brain damage, and Aaron Hernandez

Hernandez’s most lasting legacy in football may be one of his organs: his brain. It would show why football, through history, has generated controversy.
See the full project ⟶

Have a tip about wrongdoing or injustice for the Globe’s Spotlight Team? We want to hear from you

2017

Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.

In a series that can only scratch the surface of this complex topic, we tried to answer a question so critical to the city's identity and future: Does Boston still deserve its reputation as a place unwelcoming to Black people? If so, why — and how — can the situation be improved?
Part 1: Image & Reality

Does Boston still deserve its racist reputation?

While the city has made much progress, look at income, employment, segregation, and politics — and reevaluate how far we’ve really come.

Part 2: Seaport
A brand new Boston, even whiter than the old

Part 3: Hospitals
Color line persists, in sickness as in health

Part 4: Colleges
Lost on campus, as colleges look abroad

Part 5: Sports
The bigot in the stands, and other stories

Part 6: Power
For Black people in Boston, a power outage

Part 7: Solutions
A better Boston? The choice is ours

More:
Join the ‘Discussing Race in Boston’ Facebook GroupThat was not a typo: The median net worth of Black Bostonians really is $8
See the full project ⟶
2017

Secrets in the Sky

Part 1

Secrets in the sky

The United States remains an easy mark for drug dealers, terrorists, and others who prize anonymity when registering aircraft or getting licensed to fly. So much for the lessons of 9/11.
Part 2

Flight plan for failure

The FAA was warned in 2009 that people with terrorist ties were licensed to fly and repair aircraft. Eight years later, it is, incredibly, still the case.

The king of Swaziland’s ‘gift’ showcases the lure of American plane registration to foreign leaders

The king’s ministers said it was a birthday gift, a luxury jet registered to a bank in the United States. But the donor was a mystery.

Modeling’s glamour hides web of abuse

The fashion industry is built on glamour and allure, but many models, especially the very young, know it for something else: sexual exploitation and abuse.

Out of ‘Spotlight,’ the movie, comes the Spotlight Fellowship

The producers of “Spotlight” had just won the 2016 Academy Award for best picture, but they wanted to go further: they wanted to support new investigative journalism.
2017

Catholic priests and their children

Part 1

Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow

A Globe review finds the children are often denied love and support and pressured to keep the scandal secret. And the church has done absolutely nothing to help.

Part 2 | Father, my Father
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
He thought he was alone, being the child of a Catholic priest. He was wrong.

An invisible legion of suffering: the stories of children of priests
They can be found wherever the Catholic church has a presence, children whose fathers broke are priests who broke their vows of celibacy — and often their children’s hearts.

2017

Subpar care at N.H. veterans’ hospital

At a four-star veterans’ hospital: Care gets ‘worse and worse’

The only hospital for military veterans in N.H. has become ground zero for an extraordinary rebellion led by doctors who say care for their patients is deteriorating fast.

Follow-ups

Top 2 officials out at Manchester VA hospital
The action came after a Spotlight Team report detailed what several doctors and other staffers say is dangerously substandard care.

Veterans Affairs secretary promises ‘brand new’ review of Manchester hospital

Federal investigators looking into allegations of substandard care at the Manchester veterans’ hospital will disregard an internal report that found no serious problems.

VA Secretary ousts third official at troubled N.H. hospital
VA Secretary David Shulkin said he was responding to allegations of dangerously substandard care made by medical staff in a Boston Globe report last month.

VA hospitals flooded with complaints about care
Alleged lapses in patient care and dangerous conditions have been identified by Veterans Administration employees, who have been turning against their employer in record numbers.

2015

Clash in the name of care

Clash in the name of care

It was a battle pitting a star surgeon against a great hospital, MGH. The question: Is it right or safe for surgeons to run two operations at once? Is it right that their patients may have no idea? The conflict went on for years.
Wach the documentaryEmails offer a rare glimpse at the heated battle inside MGH

Follow-ups

Concurrent surgeries come under new scrutiny
Following controversy at MGH, the world’s largest surgeons’ group is considering new guidelines for overlapping surgery.

State acts on simultaneous surgeries

The move comes in the wake of a series of reports by the Globe Spotlight Team about double-booked operations.

Star surgeon is scrutinized on concurrent procedures

New York authorities are probing how a famed prostate specialist manages his vast patient load.

Mass. General pays $14.6 million to settle whistle-blower suit over concurrent surgeries

Anesthesiologist Lisa Wollman alleged that at least five orthopedic surgeons regularly kept patients under anesthesia longer than medically necessary because the doctors were juggling two operations at once.
See the full project ⟶
2002

Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

The story behind the “Spotlight” movie.
Jan. 6, 2002 | Part 1

Church allowed abuse by priest for years

Why did it take a succession of three cardinals and many bishops 34 years to place children out of John J. Geoghan’s reach?
Jan. 7, 2002 | Part 2

Geoghan preferred preying on poorer children

Psychiatric documents offer added insights into the Rev. John J. Geoghan’s troubled mind and the motivations behind his aberrant actions.

Follow-ups

JAN. 31, 2002

Scores of priests involved in sex abuse cases

Under an extraordinary cloak of secrecy, the Archdiocese of Boston in the last 10 years has quietly settled child molestation claims against at least 70 priests.
FEB. 24, 2002

Church cloaked in culture of silence

Catholic priests were committing crimes so unspeakable that the Archdiocese of Boston went to extraordinary — and expensive — lengths to cover up the scandal.
MARCH 14, 2002

Ex-Mass. bishop accused of ignoring abuse in NYC

The Most Rev. Thomas V. Daily is accused of brushing aside sexual abuse allegations.
MAY 12, 2002

Scandal erodes traditional deference to church

Prosecutors, judges, and politicians who once looked the other way when it came to the church’s dirty laundry are now holding church leaders to a higher standard.
AUG. 20, 2002

Ariz. abuse case names bishop, 2 priests

Documents show that the three had sex during the late 1970s and early 1980s with a Tucson teenager who was later given a chancery job to ensure his silence.
DEC. 1, 2002

Archdiocese weighs bankruptcy filing

The Archdiocese of Boston prepared to take the extraordinary step of filing for bankruptcy, as hopes faded for a settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
DEC. 4, 2002

More clergy abuse, secrecy cases

The Archdiocese of Boston for years dealt in secret with allegations against rogue priests, church records show.
DEC. 14, 2002

A church seeks healing

Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of longtime Roman Catholic archbishop Cardinal Bernard F. Law.
Read more about the series and the ‘Spotlight’ movie ⟶