Also see: Coronavirus lawsuits | Coronavirus crime
The owner of a Quality Inn on the Revere/Saugus line is suing the Boston Public Health Commission for the money it says it's owed for holding all of its rooms for three months in 2021 for Mass and Cass denizens who Boston never actually sent there once Revere and Saugus officials erupted in anger on learning of the plan. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the city of Boston's 2021 order requiring municipal workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19, saying public-health needs outweighed the collective-bargaining rights of the police and fire unions that sued over the policy. Read more.
Two former employees of the Barbara Lynch Collective today sued Lynch for back wages for the tips they claim she kept after they were called back to work when the state let restaurants partially re-open three months after the start of the pandemic. Read more.
Cambridge Day reports on the outbreak at the Sancta Maria Nursing Facility.
The Boston Police Department has released the detailed findings of a deputy superintendent that led to the recent firings of Sgt. Shana Cottone and officers Joseph Abasciano and Michael Geary, in response to a Universal Hub public-records request. Read more.
An empty Centre Street in Jamaica Plain on March 24, 2020, by Liz Lemongrab.
Three years ago, the streets, trains and parks of the Boston area were largely empty, as people stayed home as the pandemic exploded. Photographers across the region, though, did venture out to chronicle the newly formed voids.
Gov. Healey announced today that she'll be lifting the official Massachusetts Covid-19 public-health emergency on May 11. Read more.
Shana Cottone, who helped organize bucket-banging screamers outside Mayor Wu's house, announced last night she's been fired from the BPD sergeant's job from which she'd been suspended for more than a year. Read more.
A Methuen nurse active in spreading stories via social media that Covid-19 vaccines cause hearts, kidneys and eyes to fail, fertility to collapse and cancers to start is suing the state Board of Registration in Nursing and its chairwoman over what he says is a threat to revoke his license if he doesn't knock it off. Read more.
The owners of several North End restaurants have amended their lawsuit over the fees Boston charged North End restaurants to set up tables on sidewalks and in parking spaces last year to add a new charge: That Mayor Wu imposed the fees only in the North End because of her hatred of white, Italian men. Read more.
After Judy Martin lost her job as an EEG technician at Children's Hospital for refusing Covid-19 shots, she sued. Attorneys for Martin and the hospital today filed an agreement to dismiss the suit with prejudice, meaning she can't bring it again. The short agreement does not specify why she dropped the case.
A federal judge in Boston today dismissed a frequently imprisoned man's $100-million lawsuit against the People's Republic of China for the way he says it used commercial airliners to send Covid-19 around the world. Read more.
JJ Brannelly's, 4432 Washington St. in Roslindale, yesterday posted a photo of its new, brighter interior. The bar isn't saying exactly when a thirsty and hungry public will be let back in, but it assured long-timers that even with the reno work, it will still offer Keno.
Precious passport; in fact, she is Kenyan.
A Canton woman was sentenced to 44 months in federal prison yesterday for her role as a sort of banker for an online romance scheme targeting lonely older women and later for filing fake pandemic-relief applications. Read more.
McDonald's today sued Boston Market, for the second time, over rent it says the chicken chain owes for subleases at Massachusetts Turnpike rest areas in Framingham, Westborough and Ludlow. Read more.
A South Easton man who obtained an $836,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan in 2020 based on a claim his used-car dealership had 40 employees actually had only 3 or 4 workers including himself, so he was able to use the money to buy and move to a new house and buy a Rolls Royce and some French bulldogs - which left him enough to pay up to a 20% kickback to three Florida "recruiters" who got him involved in the scam, the US Attorney's office charges. Read more.
UMass Boston still recommends people wear masks indoors, but says that effective today, it's no longer a requirement.
The Columbia Point school had announced the return of a masking requirement as the area Covid-19 rate was rising, but now: Read more.
A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit by 19 people against the city's requirement that they show proof of Covid-19 vaccination in most indoor public spaces because they failed to prove they were actually harmed by the rule. Read more.
Loc Vo, 55, pleaded guilty this week to one count of wire fraud, admitting to government charges that he used federal aid to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic to buy hares in biotech, Web and financial services, electric-car and gaming companies. Read more.
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