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Healey administration conceals key information about state shelter system even as it triples spending
The Healey administration has concealed key information about contracts, citing concern about anti-migrant protests.

Hotel owners are earning millions in contracts by turning their suburban outposts into shelters for homeless and migrants
The homeless and migrant crisis has been expensive for taxpayers, but it’s been a boon for some hotel owners, including two Massachusetts companies.

Rape at Peabody homeless shelter was domestic violence, state says

A Haitian national was arrested for the rape and assault of a pregnant woman in a Peabody hotel shelter. It was a case of domestic violence, the state says.

MassDOT worker hit, killed along Route 24 in West Bridgewater

The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office identified the victim Sunday as 57-year-old David Sousa, a Stoughton resident who, records show, has been working maintenance for MassDOT since 2010.

Healey administration pays consultants millions to help limit duration and cost of shelter stays

One advocate for immigrants called the state's new policy limiting the duration of shelter stays "tone deaf."

More Globe investigations

New Bedford drug trafficking case collapses following detective’s ‘gross misconduct’

The collapse of the case follows a 2023 Globe story that exposed an illicit, years-long relationship between detective Jared Lucas and the confidential informant at the heart of the investigation.

Steward Health Care executives are mired in trouble at home. In Malta, it’s much worse.

The Boston-born, national health care system is at the eye of a seismic scandal that has paralyzed Malta's government, ensnared federal officials, and jeopardized the country’s health care system.

‘Rats and bedbugs and roaches and mold’: Dismal conditions found at some hotels sheltering homeless families and migrants

State inspectors have yet to set foot in most of the hotels rented at taxpayer expense, failing to ensure that the hastily arranged accommodations meet basic health and safety standards. When they do, the results are often dismal.

State placed migrant children in hotels with registered sex offenders, Globe investigation finds

After the Globe identified sex offenders in hotels housing new migrants and homeless families, the state said it is moving the individuals.

How Massachusetts spent nearly $1 billion sheltering homeless families and migrants

A Globe review of state contracts offers a glimpse at the nearly $1 billion emergency shelter system the state is now operating for homeless families, about half of them migrants from other countries.

Mold cleanup forces all families out of Catholic Charities Inn

Homeless families and migrants are being relocated from one of the state's emergency shelters.
Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting

Blind Spot

An 11-month Globe investigation found that people nationwide are dying in crashes caused by drivers who should have had their licenses suspended. One in 10 US drivers has at least one offense — from speeding to vehicular homicide — that isn’t reflected on their driving record.

Spotlight

Fate and the fallen star

Scientist David Sabatini is hoping for a comeback after he was ousted amid sexual harassment allegations. The case raises hard questions: Is there room for lesser penalties in such complex cases? Did Sabatini deserve a second chance?

A broken bond, a shaken citadel of science

Kristin Knouse and David Sabatini, both biologists, had an intimate relationship that bridged boundaries — she is young in her career, he is globally renowned — and broke the rules at Cambridge’s Whitehead Institute. After Knouse alleged harassment and other complaints emerged, an investigation rocked Whitehead, forced out Sabatini and damaged all involved. Did it have to end this way?

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.

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.

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.

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.

The taking of Cell 15

A look at secrecy, assaults, and accountability inside Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison.

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.

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.

Last Words: 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.

Seeing Red: A Globe Spotlight report on Boston’s crippling traffic

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? The Globe Spotlight Team investigates.

Inside the secret courts of Massachusetts

The Spotlight Team delves 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.

Gladiator

How can a Super Bowl starting lineman become a convicted murderer in only a few years? In a new investigation, The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team looks hard at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez's life and terrible crimes.

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?

See more Spotlight projects ⟶