In two weeks, a celestial celebration will occur across the United States as a total solar eclipse sweeps the land, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, through the Champlain Valley in Vermont.
You may be wondering; didn’t this happen in 2017? …
Massachusetts
Ex-Holyoke Soldiers’ Home leader set for change-of-plea hearing in COVID outbreak case
Former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh is set for a change-of-plea hearing in a criminal case over the deaths of dozens of elderly veteran residents of the facility in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh’s change-of-plea hearing in the case — he faces five counts of neglect — is scheduled in Hampshire Superior Court for Tuesday afternoon.
Sources say tell NBC10 Boston that Walsh won’t face any jail time under a possible plea deal, but would have to comply with certain court order for three months.
NBC10 Boston has reached out to Walsh’s attorneys for comment.
Last year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the criminal case against Walsh and and David Clinton, the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home’s former medical director, after a lower court dismissed grand jury indictments.
Clinton’s trial is set to start April 3; he’s pleaded not guilty. Walsh’s trial had been also due to start in April.
The case against Walsh and Clinton is based largely on a March 27, 2020 decision they allegedly made to combine 42 residents from two dementia units into a single unit that typically held 25 beds. Some of the veterans were symptomatic for COVID-19, and some were asymptomatic.
At least 76 military veterans who lived in the Holyoke long-term care facility died of COVID-19, prompting a flurry of investigations, terminations and resignations, regulatory reforms and lawsuits. It was one of the deadliest COVID outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the country.
Former Attorney General Maura Healey, who is now governor, announced the charges against Walsh and Clinton in September 2020, alleging that they made a series of decisions that ran counter to common infection control protocols and exacerbated COVID-19’s toll inside the home.
The State House News Service contributed to this report.
Man sentenced to 20 years for deadly 2020 Fourth of July shooting
A man convicted of manslaughter for a 2020 shooting that killed a woman in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison Monday.
Kristian Maraj, 26, was convicted in February in the shooting death of Felicity Cole…
Harvard begins listening sessions amid hate-speech controversy
Harvard is beginning a series of public listening sessions on hate speech and bias nearly three months after its last president resigned amid a controversy over such behavior on campus.
A task force appointed by interim President Alan Garber was t…
Mass. lawmakers exploring Steward Health Care crisis
Massachusetts lawmakers are holding a hearing Monday to discuss private equity ownership in healthcare.
This comes as Steward Health Care, which owns nine hospitals in Massachusetts is in the middle of a financial crisis.
The company is now considering pulling out of the state. If this happens, health care will be far less accessible for hundreds of thousands of people.
Gov. Maura Healey has placed the blame on the company’s management.
On Monday, lawmakers heard from a top government watchdog who warned that industry consolidation, for-profit ownership and private equity investment in healthcare “will only continue.”
Health Policy Commission Executive Director David Seltz presented data showing that the share of health care transactions in Massachusetts involving private equity interests has more than doubled in recent years.
The agency examined 182 provider purchases and sales between 2013 and 2023. Between 2013 and 2016, Seltz said, private equity was involved in about 25% of transactions. That jumped to 47% of transactions between 2017 and 2020 and 63% between 2020 and 2023.
Health Policy Commission leaders discussed similar data in December, before the problems at Steward erupted into public view and accelerated calls for reform.
“Our attention should also be focused on the future because the trends of private equity, for-profit ownership and consolidation of all types into larger, horizontally and vertically integrated health systems will only continue in Massachusetts and across the country,” Seltz told the Health Care Financing Committee on Monday.
He later added, “The need for urgent action could not be greater.”
State House News Service contributed to this report.
Mass. adding new requirements for migrants, opening Chelsea Soldiers’ Home site
Massachusetts will soon require migrants staying in the state’s at-capacity shelter system to begin showing they’re trying to get work or housing, according to an announcement from the Healey administration Monday.
The state also announ…
