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Meghan Erica Irons, Journalist

Welcome to my universe of telling real stories about people who matter.  

BostonGlobe.com •

Unfinished Justice: A Spotlight Team investigation into felony murder in Massachusetts

They are men who killed nobody but have been condemned to die in prison. Men who never fired a shot or wielded a weapon, who may not even have been in the same room as the killing, or known anything about it.And yet they have been convicted in Massachusetts of first-degree murder, and sentenced to the most draconian penalty under state law.They live, and may die, in a strange corner of the state judicial system, convicted of an offense known as felony murder, which in rare cases allowed someone...
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Police deputy was appointed to state accountability panel. He was then demoted. - The Boston Globe

Chrispin, who was a key player on the Boston Police Reform Task Force that same year, said he was told his May appointment to the commission posed a conflict of interest.Eddy Chrispin, who had been serving as deputy superintendent, said that Commissioner Michael Cox gave him an ultimatum: give up his seat on the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or lose his position on Cox’s hand-picked command staff. The panel was established in 2020 under criminal reform legislatio...
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Who is Michelle Wu, the first Asian American and first woman to be elected mayor of Boston? - The Boston Globe

With a commanding lead in the polls, Michelle Wu had seemed all but assured of victory in Boston’s mayoral election, and Tuesday’s results fulfilled that expectation. For those who didn’t follow the campaign closely, here are some important things to know about the newly elected mayor and the keys to her win.Wu’s victory demonstrates the power of having a strong ground game in all areas of the city. Wu led in fund-raising, polling, and landing major endorsements. City, state, and community leade...
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Some Bostonians feel largely unheard. With MIT’s ‘Real Talk’ portal now public, here’s a chance to really listen - The Boston Globe

And a Dorchester woman named Nina raised a question about whether anyone in government is really listening to residents’ concerns about the dramatic changes occurring in their communities.In a community dialogue in East Boston this summer, a man named Alejandro inquired about whether the city’s high schools would receive the funding they need to thrive.These remarks are captured in an MIT initiative called “Real Talk For Change,” a series of community conversations now available on an online por...
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In Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, a tale of two neighborhoods - The Boston Globe

It had seemed a dream well within reach, with three strong Black candidates in the field of five. But none of them landed one of the top two spots to compete in November, a factor Goodwin blamed on Black voters splitting their ballots among the three.“It was like having Obama on the ticket,” said Goodwin, a retired pipefitter from Roxbury. “We had a chance to elect our first Black mayor.”As a Black man in his 60s, Rudy Goodwin had seen enough to know that history was on the line when he showed u...
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Acting Mayor Kim Janey was absent from 30 of 60 mayoral forums held since April - The Boston Globe

Acting Mayor Kim Janey has missed more than 30 of roughly 60 such public events since announcing her candidacy on April 6, according to a Globe review of the forums, town halls, and one-on-one interviews the candidates attended. Her four major campaign rivals, by contrast, have logged near-perfect attendance.Yet alone among the five major candidates, one was a conspicuous no-show — again.The mayoral forum hosted last Saturday by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a housing advoc...
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In a mayoral election dominated by women, some Black men turn to John Barros - The Boston Globe

Barros, the city’s former chief of economic development and a community leader himself, launched the “Black and Brown Men’s Roundtable” recently to put the focus on an often neglected group in the city — a group he and others believe isn’t getting enough attention in the pitched mayoral race.The men seated with Barros — a pastor, a retired judge, an education policy wonk, a nonprofit leader, and a formerly incarcerated man — also shared their hopes and vision for the city and themselves. They ta...
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Tito Jackson found his birth mother. Their family’s journey is a tale of Boston history - The Boston Globe

In 2018, Jackson decided to deepen his search. As a public servant he had gone to numerous events for adopted families and other community happenings. Often, he said, he would scan the faces of the older Black women, searching to see if anyone looked like him.He’d long been open about his adoption, but all he knew, based on some basic information he’d received years ago from the adoption agency, was that his birth mother was just 13 years old when she had him, and that she had been sexually assa...
BostonGlobe.com •

Tito Jackson found his birth mother. Their family’s journey is a tale of Boston history - The Boston Globe

In 2018, Jackson decided to deepen his search. As a public servant he had gone to numerous events for adopted families and other community happenings. Often, he said, he would scan the faces of the older Black women, searching to see if anyone looked like him.He’d long been open about his adoption, but all he knew, based on some basic information he’d received years ago from the adoption agency, was that his birth mother was just 13 years old when she had him, and that she had been sexually assa...
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Cosmetology is one of the most popular vocational tracks in Mass. But is it too late for a makeover of Madison Park’s beauty program? - The Boston Globe

Even before the pandemic, the salon chairs were mostly empty. Few outsiders came there to get their hair and nails done for a nominal fee by the Roxbury school’s students who were mastering their craft. Not many educators and administrators from the Boston Public Schools headquarters around the corner, or the personnel at the police headquarters on nearby Tremont Street. Or even nearby residents looking to freshen up.The years have eroded the onetime grandeur of the beauty salon at Madison Park...
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Following long tradition, Black clergy take the lead in coronavirus pandemic - The Boston Globe

“As we continue to fight this pandemic, it is so important that we trust the science and do what the experts advise, and that means receiving the vaccine, continuing to social distance and wear a mask,” Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, said in a statement Friday after he was vaccinated.Warnock’s vaccination, captured on video and shared on his Twitter feed, is highlighting the pivotal role Black pastors are playing in the fight against a pandemic that has devastated Black and l...
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Biden won Lawrence, but Republicans found new pockets of support. What gives? - The Boston Globe

Gomez said that in the eyes of some, it was as if Trump had doled out the checks himself. She noted that they also got their fill of antiabortion sermons in churches filled with evangelical Christians and staunch Catholics.That was the nickname that some people in Lawrence gave President Trump when stimulus checks arrived in the city earlier this year, immigration attorney Zoila Gomez recalled."Some of them . . . don’t think that Jesus would be a Trump supporter, but yet they vote for Trump beca...
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In Lawrence, leaders push to boost historically low voter turnout - The Boston Globe

It was one more frustration in a city where activists have been working for years to boost civic engagement. Lawrence has a lot at stake in this election, with rising coronavirus cases and climbing unemployment hitting the city hard, and community leaders want to make sure residents’ voices are heard.Staffers, wearing blue masks with the word “Vote” on them, had spent the morning making calls to registered voters to remind them to vote Tuesday. But then the Internet crashed and everything slowed...
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As schools reopen, students struggle with COVID trauma - The Boston Globe

De La Cruz, a senior, lives with her 83-year-old grandmother and father, both of whom had cancer. Her father also struggles with a heart condition. Her sister, who lives in Chelsea, was hospitalized with the coronavirus in the spring and has since recovered, she said.When some high school students return to in-person classes at the Margarita Muñiz Academy in Jamaica Plain later this fall, Alejandra De La Cruz won’t be among them.Sign up to receive a newsletter for The Great Divide, an investigat...
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‘I didn’t come to Boston because I thought it would be easy’: Boston superintendent ends tumultuous year - The Boston Globe

Her outreach seemed to help right a badly listing administration, at least temporarily. But as she enters her second year, she faces enormous hurdles made infinitely more complicated by the coronavirus and the open questioning of her approach. In less than 50 days, she must safely reopen the schools; in the longer term, she has to address racial achievement gaps, low-performing schools, and declining enrollment.Cassellius had been an energetic presence as she led Boston schools through the pande...
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Lincoln emancipation statue triggers debate on how the Black experience should be commemorated - The Boston Globe

But nearly 150 years after its debut here, the statue has become a flashpoint in the nation’s latest reckoning with public art portraying figures from the Civil War and its aftermath. What was intended as a depiction of liberation can look demeaning to 21st-century eyes: a submissive Black man bending at the feet of the president. Yet even as activists in Boston and Washington have urged the statues be torn down or repurposed, some argue against, saying the art, however challenging, is worth pre...
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Boston Latin and the biggest test of their young lives - The Boston Globe

Over the last three months, Luis has pretty much given up his PlayStation. And YouTube, once an oasis of comic relief, is now reserved for instructional videos about math.With the biggest test of his 11-year life looming, he hasn’t yet mastered how to solve algebraic equations or find the length of a triangle’s hypotenuse. He hadn’t learned either one at the James W. Hennigan K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, but both are likely to show up on the test.He’s been working hard, but at this final exam pr...
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‘My guidance counselor didn’t do any of this’: How school counselors’ roles have evolved - The Boston Globe

The teenager was on Indrisano’s “hot list” of East Boston High School students who struggle to rise in time each morning or skip classes altogether. As their guidance counselor, she is both school mother and enforcer to about 260 ninth-graders. She sees students’ pain and problems up close and doles out hugs and advice — and tough love when necessary.Just before the first school bell chimed, Jacquelyn Indrisano grabbed her cellphone and tapped out an urgent text message to one of her students.“I...
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Women allege discrimination, retaliation on male-dominated Boston police force - The Boston Globe

And two female civilians in the department say they were discriminated against because of their race and ethnicity.Pamela Besold, a sergeant detective who has spent 22 years on the force, says she has been treated with hostility because she is a lesbian.Donna Gavin, the Boston Police Department’s lone female lieutenant detective, describes being retaliated against and undermined by her former captain because she is a woman.These allegations, spelled out in four lawsuits in state and federal cour...