Also see: Coronavirus lawsuits | Coronavirus crime
A federal judge ruled today North End restaurant owners simply had no case against Mayor Wu for first ordering fees on North End restaurants that wanted to use city sidewalks and curbs for outdoor dining and then banning private patios on public ways in the neighborhood. Read more.
Two corrections officers at the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department were arrested today on charges they defrauded the state unemployment system and a federal fund aimed at helping small businesses at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic while they worked in the private sector and were not running their own small businesses. Read more.
Two registered nurses fired by Shriners Children's Hospital Boston for refusing to get Covid-19 vaccinations yesterday sued the hospital, charging that the hospital, with "evil motive or intent," was doing the bidding of federal and state governments and so deprived them of their 14th-Amendment rights to refuse when they ordered employees to become "human subjects in federally funded research activities" and get vaccinated. Read more.
Boston College is fighting back against a worker who's suing it for disregarding what he claims is his religious right to not get a Covid-19 shot in a way that other organizations facing similar suits cannot: It argues it has its own religious rights under the First Amendment to require workers to get vaccinated. Read more.
A federal judge ruled yesterday that a fired landscaper at Boston College can continue his case that his 2021 firing for refusing Covid-19 shots violated his religious rights under the First Amendment. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that what was once a two-mile road from Carlisle down towards the center of Concord is still legally open to the public and property owners need to stop blocking it with the locked gates and warning signs they first put up in the early days of the pandemic to try to bar hikers out for fresh air. Read more.
The Carlisle Mosquito buzzes that the US Supreme Court this week declined to hear arguments by a group of Carlisle residents who felt the town was trampling on their rights in 2021 by adopting regulations requiring mask use in the town library and whatever other public spaces the small town has. Read more.
Joseph Abasciano, fired as a Boston cop in 2023 for going to Washington and posting a series of tweets about the "traitors" in the Capitol and across the country before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, yesterday sued Boston and its police department, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to both free speech and religious freedom by a mayor and police commissioner allegedly out to get him. Read more.
The Boston Public Health Commission today announced a series of free flu and Covid-19 vaccination clinics where you can just walk in and get a shot: Read more.
A former MBTA employee who says she was forced to retire in 2022 after the T denied her request for a religious exemption from Covid-19 shots, is suing the agency for lost wages, lost retirement benefits and punitive damages. Read more.
A doctor who spent 29 years in the emergency room at Tufts Medical Center yesterday sued the hospital for at least $6 million for rejecting her request for a religious exemption from Covid-19 shots in 2021 because she believes the vaccines were derived from aborted fetuses and that goes against her Christian beliefs. Read more.
A group of residents in the Concord suburb of Carlisle are hoping the Supreme Court can deliver the righteous retribution they feel their hamlet deserves for daring to require people to wear masks when entering the town library or other public indoor spaces for a few months at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more.
A federal judge ruled today that a nurse who believes in Mother Nature but not most of western medicine can continue pursuing her lawsuit against Boston Medical Center for firing her in October, 2021 after she refused to comply with a hospital requirement that employees get vaccinated against Covid-19 in 2021. Read more.
A Carlisle man was indicted this week on charges that he obtained millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic based on fraudulent statements about the scores of employees he didn't actually have and then used some of the money for prohibited things: Buying a pricey New York condo and sending money to a company he controlled in India. Read more.
A federal judge yesterday threw out what was left of a class-action lawsuit by Boston College students against the school for the way it shifted classes from in person to online in the spring of 2020 as Covid-19 spread across the state. Read more.
A former Boston cop who sued the city over his firing in state court in 2022 last week filed a similar suit in federal court - but added the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association to his list of defendants he says did him wrong. Read more.
A Nigerian man indicted in Boston in 2020 for his role in a pandemic-unemployment scam ring that allegedly netted some $1.5 million was arrested at New York's JFK Airport, where he had just landed on a flight from Lagos on what would have been his first visit to the US, court records show. Read more.
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday a lower-court judge was too hasty in dismissing a lawsuit by a Milton Hospital employee who believes current Covid-19 vaccines are made from aborted fetuses and reinstated her claim against the hospital for firing her in 2022 for refusing to get vaccinated or provide her with alternative working conditions to shield her from the public and other hospital workers. Read more.
Chart from BPHC July 28 report.
The amount of Covid-19 viral particles in Boston sewers - an indicator of the virus's presence in the community - soared in July, when levels were 163% higher than in May, - still way lower than numbers around New Year's and especially two years ago - the Boston Public Health Commission said today. Read more.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
