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‘Vaccine passports’ are on the way, but developing them won’t be easy

The Biden administration and private companies are working to develop a standard way of handling credentials — often referred to as "vaccine passports" — that would allow Americans to prove they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus as businesses try to reopen.
COVID-19 cases are rising in what experts say is a warning sign

Peter Abraham I On baseball
Red Sox manager Alex Cora put aside baseball problems for a day and focused on making sure his team was following the right safety procedures.
Uneventful Red Sox spring training got eventful in a hurry
Manager Alex Cora was thrown out of baseball last year, so it takes a lot to shake him up. But this was a test.

Read the Globe’s 2021 Red Sox season preview Red Sox report no new positive COVID-19 tests after Matt Barnes tests positive, but 8 people are isolated for contact tracing

Maya Rudolph on "Saturday Night Live."
‘We’re so close to the end, let’s ruin it!’: ‘SNL’ mocks spring breakers in Miami amid pandemic
After several weeks away, “Saturday Night Live” returned with an opening sketch that took aim at the thousands of people who have flocked to Miami Beach for spring break recently — despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Watch Maya Rudolph play Beyoncé, Kamala Harris, and more on ‘SNL’
The Mass General Brigham offices in Somerville. More than 25 years after Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals joined forces to boost their clout with penny-pinching HMOs, trustees and executives are making their most sweeping attempt yet to set aside old rivalries and work as a unified health care system.

At Mass General Brigham, a sweeping effort to unify hospitals and shed old rivalries

Executives say greater cooperation is necessary to stay relevant in a dynamic and competitive health care industry. But the aggressive push to integrate is stirring tensions and sowing discontent among doctors and hospital leaders.
Fredy Solís, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, spent the last year trying to learn from home. The Globe followed Fredy's 11-member Spanish class at Boston International Newcomers Academy through the pandemic, to better understand how school closures have affected the city's most vulnerable students.
THE GREAT DIVIDE

A year of grit and despair: For one class of immigrant students, the pandemic threatens to upend their educational dreams

To understand the remarkable forces and obstacles newcomers to America have to contend with, a Globe team closely tracked one class at Boston International Newcomers Academy — BINcA for short — for most of a year.
Read in Spanish | Leer en español
Shirley Porcena, a Roxbury mother of four, was joined by her daughter Melody Cubias, 5, as she addressed parents of color gathered at the Massachusetts State House to protest their exclusion from the discussion on school reopenings. Also seen is Julian Gayle, 5, of Boston.

Parents rally outside State House to denounce lack of input in school reopening plan

About 30 educators, union representatives, and parents who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color rallied outside the State House Saturday to protest the state’s full return to in-person learning at many schools this spring — a decision they say was made without their input.
Mass. coronavirus at a glance |
Vaccinations
Daily doses:
Weekly doses:
1+ dose received:
Fully vaccinated:
% of doses used:
7-day trend/avg.:
Cases and deaths
Cases
.
Deaths
.
Other resources:
SOURCE: Mass. Dept. of Public Health

MATTHEW GILBERT
Claire Foy and Matt Smith in "The Crown."
The streaming services’ 10 best original shows, ranked
These are my 10 favorites — plus 10 more standouts from an era that began only eight years ago.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, during a coronavirus task force meeting in Washington, June 26, 2020.
Birx says deaths ‘could have been mitigated’ last year
Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that US deaths from the virus could have been sharply reduced if mitigation efforts to slow the spread had come more quickly last spring.

The "Golem v. Golem" art installation by Julie Weitz outside Vilna Shul in Beacon Hill celebrates Passover.
Local rabbis reflect on Passover a year into the pandemic
Passover is a time of reflection and hope, and with the coronavirus pandemic’s end finally in sight, its ancient teachings are taking on new meaning for Massachusetts’ Jewish community.

Tara Sullivan
Duxbury High swiftly and justifiably fired football coach Dave Maimaron.
Changing hearts and minds is the challenge after Duxbury High football episode
Questions remain regarding the football team at Duxbury High School. It is only with answers that a path forward can be laid, with a full understanding of how much this culture needs to be changed.

Protesters against new voting restrictions passed by the Georgia state legislature at the state Capitol building in Atlanta, March 25, 2021.
Court fight against Georgia voting overhaul no sure thing
Court challenges to Republican-led election restrictions in Georgia and elsewhere face an uncertain road in a legal system that has grown more conservative in recent years.

Landlords of Massachusetts properties like these triple-deckers in South Boston are increasingly adding anti-marijuana restrictions to rental leases.
Can landlords really ban marijuana edibles? Usually not, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying
Five years after Massachusetts voters legalized marijuana, the state's 1.6 million-plus renters are at risk of losing access to the drug, as landlords increasingly foist legally questionable anti-cannabis provisions on tenants.

Opinion

Kyra Vitarisi in her culinary class at Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton on Sept. 18.
EDITORIAL

Fighting for fairness in vocational tech school admissions

The state’s education board should consider requiring a lottery system.
Justice Stephen Breyer in 2018.
Renée Graham

It might be time for Stephen Breyer to retire from the Supreme Court
A ceiling mural by José Clemente Orozco in Guadalajara's Palacio de Gobierno depicts the signing of laws that abolished slavery in Mexico in 1837.
IDEAS | Alice L. Baumgartner

Mexico’s surprising role in sparking the US Civil War
Stephen Miller films an interview for Fox News at the White House on July 15. Instead of normalizing him, more media outlets should focus on humanizing the migrants whom Miller has worked so hard to vilify.
Marcela García

Media are falling into Stephen Miller’s trap
A courtroom sketch of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, with his defense attorneys as his death sentence was read on May 15, 2015.
JEFF JACOBY

Death is the right penalty for Tsarnaev

Recommended reads

Police SWAT teams surround a stolen Rockland Police vehicle that was used by an armed robbery suspect that was pulled over on the Burgin Parkway near a BJ's gas station in Quincy on March 26, 2021.
Armed robbery suspect whom State Police shot and killed had troubled past; family believed it was behind him
A man who allegedly robbed a Rockland convenience store and stole a police car before State Police fatally shot him in a stand-off Friday had a troubled past that family believed he had put behind him.

State officials are investigating senator, wife for potential campaign finance violations

A politically powerful Massachusetts couple is asking a judge to temporarily stop the state’s top campaign finance regulator from referring an investigation into them to state prosecutors, marking an extraordinary turn in what had been a private state probe.
YVONNE ABRAHAM

It’s been a grim half-decade, but search and you shall find small pockets of joy

Though life here on Earth is in fact hard and tough, even an inveterate downer can acknowledge the value of taking heart wherever you can find it.

A ‘Not Haunted’ sign was placed outside of a home for sale west of Boston — and people have questions

Margot Bloomstein has some questions about a home in her neighborhood that recently hit the market. Thousands of other people online also had some queries.

Does WeWork still work after the pandemic? A $1.3b deal says yes

One of the biggest operators of office space in downtown Boston will go public through a SPAC.

metro

The "Golem v. Golem" art installation by Julie Weitz outside Vilna Shul in Beacon Hill celebrates Passover.

Local rabbis reflect on Passover a year into the pandemic

Passover is a time of reflection and hope, and with the coronavirus pandemic’s end finally in sight, its ancient teachings are taking on new meaning for Massachusetts’ Jewish community.

Parents rally outside State House to denounce lack of input in school reopening plan

Armed robbery suspect whom State Police shot and killed had troubled past; family believed it was behind him

Sports

Matt Polster and the Revolution lost 1-0 to the LA Galaxy on Saturday.
galaxy 1, revolution 0

New England Revolution open preseason with loss to LA Galaxy

This was the Revolution's first game since losing to the Columbus Crew in the 2020 MLS Cup Final last December.

Red Sox report no new positive COVID-19 tests after Matt Barnes tests positive, but 8 people isolated for contact tracing

UConn upperclassmen make the difference in No. 1 seed’s victory over No. 5 Iowa

business

In this March 26, 2019 file photo, Emily Ramos, of High Mi Madre Co-Operative, urged legislators to pass recreational marijuana legislation during a news conference at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

New York lawmakers agree to legalize recreational marijuana

At Mass General Brigham, a sweeping effort to unify hospitals and shed old rivalries
Shirley Leung

Asian Americans, many for the first time, are giving children and elderly parents ‘The Talk’ on how to protect themselves from hate

politics

Donald Trump.

Trump ally says social media site is coming in three to four months

Court fight against Georgia voting overhaul no sure thing

President Biden blasts Georgia elections law as ‘Jim Crow in the 21st Century’

Living Arts

Maya Rudolph on "Saturday Night Live."

Watch Maya Rudolph play Beyoncé, Kamala Harris, and more on ‘SNL’

‘We’re so close to the end, let’s ruin it!’: ‘SNL’ mocks spring breakers in Miami amid pandemic
CHRISTOPHER MUTHER

Rooftop restaurant, larger guest rooms: The former Taj Boston gets a new look

education

Shirley Porcena, a Roxbury mother of four, was joined by her daughter Melody Cubias, 5, as she addressed parents of color gathered at the Massachusetts State House to protest their exclusion from the discussion on school reopenings. Also seen is Julian Gayle, 5, of Boston.

Parents rally outside State House to denounce lack of input in school reopening plan

Harvard sanctions professor with close Jeffrey Epstein ties, closes program he ran

How many coronavirus cases have been reported in Mass. schools? Check our map

rhode island

Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston, R.I.
RI HEALTH

R.I. can start billing the feds for its state-run hospital again
RI CRIME

R.I. AG wants to charge the East Greenwich road-rage suspect with a hate crime
RI NEWSMAKERS

Breaking the cycle of abuse, from Providence to Madagascar

Newton

video

Comfort Zone

NAMES
Leonard Nimoy did his famous hand gesture after receiving an honorary degree at Boston University in 2012.
With a new sculpture, Leonard Nimoy’s legacy will ‘live long and prosper’
A hand-shaped memorial will stand outside the Museum of Science, just blocks from where the actor grew up.

COMFORT ZONE
Wellesley College's outdoor labyrinth is made from trees recovered from campus.
Walking in circles is healthy at these four local labyrinths
Find your way to relaxation with these outdoor spots around Boston.

COMFORT ZONE
Lily King's latest novel is "Writers & Lovers"
Lily King’s ‘Writers & Lovers’ will be adapted for film and directed by Toni Collette
The Mass.-native's best-selling novel, about an aspiring writer, is set in Boston

ART AUCTION
Before the auction begins, visitors will be able to attend free preview parties.
MassArt’s annual auction, virtual this year, supports student scholarships
Holding live and silent auctions virtually means no space constraints and the potential for much wider reach.

Gloria Steinem in her New York apartment
For her 87th birthday, Gloria Steinem opens her apartment to visitors, online
The virtual tour lets you see where the feminist icon has lived since 1966.

Special Projects

The Globe launches Project Takeout, an effort to help restaurants make it to the other side of this pandemic.
PROJECT TAKEOUT | DEVRA FIRST

Project takeout: Get takeout. Save restaurants you love.

Ordering dinner will help small local businesses survive the pandemic. But that’s just the start.
See the full project

On the Street

A man repacked the food he got from a food pantry on Broadway in Chelsea. Chelsea has been one of the places in Greater Boston hardest hit by the pandemic.

In tackling the pandemic, Chelsea finds new strength
A mural on the side of the Mayor Bill Carpenter Garage in Brockton.

Brockton offers a gateway to a new generation
Evening light sets upon stores and restaurants on Hancock Street in Quincy Center.

This time, Quincy Center’s revival looks legit

See more from our business series ‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

More

Jeneé Osterheldt
A Beautiful Resistance
Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

Boston Globe launches ‘Fresh Start’ initiative: People can apply to have past coverage about them reviewed
Similar to “right to forget” programs that have cropped up across the country, the undertaking is meant to address the lasting impact that stories about past embarrassments, mistakes, or minor crimes, forever online, can have on a person’s life.

Globe Spotlight Investigation
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.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

A Duxbury High School athlete stretches on a fence that surrounds the football field on March 24.
EDITORIAL

Lessons from Duxbury High: A ‘never again’ moment
Coal is transported via conveyor belt to the coal-fired Jim Bridger Power Plant that supplied by the neighboring Jim Bridger mine outside Point of the Rocks, Wyoming, in 2014.
Sharon E. Burke

The high cost of achieving net zero
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

The Boston Public Schools are in crisis. Harvard (or BC or MGH) can help.
Joan Wickersham

Messages from my mother
The Rose Kennedy Greenway featured Yinka Shonibare's "Wind Sculpture" in August 2020.
Renée Loth

From gripes to gratitude on the Greenway
IDEAS | LINDA RODRIGUEZ MCROBBIE

Just what is the BettyLab cooking up for girls?

STAT

Road ahead illo
The Road Ahead: Charting the pandemic over the next 12 months — and beyond
In this project, STAT describes 30 key moments, possible turning points that could steer the pandemic onto a different course or barometers for how the virus is reshaping our lives.

Ahoskie Mayor Weyling White, left, and Hertford County Magistrate Deborah Morrison, right, pose for a portrait on railroad tracks that divide the predominantly White and predominantly Black parts of town in Ahoskie, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (Photo © Landon Bost 2020)
From a small N.C. town to big-city hospitals, how software infuses racism into U.S. health care
The racial bias can produce huge differences in assessing patients’ need for special care to manage conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, or depression, a STAT investigation found.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 12: People walk through the snow and sleet in Manhattan on February 12, 2019 in New York City. New York City, in a winter that has been light on snow this season, is expected to receive two inches of snow before the storm moves later this evening. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Covid-19’s wintry mix: Dry indoor air helps the virus spread
The worry is not just that people might mingle more closely inside, but that the air they breathe will make the virus more dangerous.

Boston, MA -- 06/04/2020 -- Yoldana Desir displays a photograph of her late sister, Marie Deus, who died of Covid-19, after contracting it as a food service worker at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Kayana Szymczak for STAT)
In the Covid-19 death of a hospital food worker, a microcosm of the pandemic
The hospital's first employee to die of Covid-19 was a kitchen worker named Marie Deus — and her illness sparked a question. Why weren't bedside clinicians getting sick at the highest rates?

magazine
A ball of dry brown garden grass.
Perspective

Lawn care for the lazy: Turns out being eco-friendly can be the easy way
Illustration highlighting popular home renovation trends, including touchless faucets and backyard putting greens.
Globe Magazine

Most-wanted COVID-19 home renovations: More space, touchless faucets, and ... putting greens?
Savory Bread Pudding With Mushrooms, Gruyère, and Tarragon.
Cooking

Make-ahead recipes for Easter brunch
An illustration of William Shakespeare peeking through writing quills.
On the cover

How a college dropout in New Hampshire found a Shakespeare secret all the PhDs missed

sports

Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) goes up strong against the strong-armed opposition of Thunder center Moses Brown (9) in Saturday night's game in Oklahoma City.

Celtics rally late to pull out win in Oklahoma City and other observations

Report: Celtics target Andre Drummond looks headed to Lakers

Former Celtic Al Horford won’t play again for Oklahoma City

metro

People gathered for the Rally & Run To Stop Asian Hate in Hopkinton.

Rally along marathon route denounces anti-Asian hate

Howard Schnellenberger, 87, Miami, Louisville coach, dies

Liesbeth Stoeffler, a runner kept going by rare lung treatment, dies at 61

Nation

Travelers walked through the Salt Lake City International Airport on March 17.

‘Vaccine passports’ are on the way, but developing them won’t be easy

Trump ally says social media site is coming in three to four months

Court fight against Georgia voting overhaul no sure thing

World

An Indonesian policeman managed the traffic after an explosion outside a church in Makassar on March 28, 2021.

Suicide bomb hits Palm Sunday Mass in Indonesia, 20 wounded

UK eases lockdown but nervously eyes European virus surge

Two tugboats speed to Egypt’s Suez Canal as shippers avoid it

politics

Rep. Park Cannon is placed in handcuffs by Georgia State Troopers.

Georgia lawmaker arrested as governor signs sweeping voting law

Romney gets Profile in Courage Award for impeachment vote

Biden assails Republicans over voting rights and defends record on border

business

Harvard has agreed to finance a Boston drainpipe that could serve much of the land it owns in Allston.

In Harvard development standoff, state Representative Mike Moran may have the upper hand

Secondhand clothes site ThredUp jumps after $168 million IPO

Piracy fears mount as ships take long way around Africa to avoid blocked Suez Canal

lifestyle

Love Letters

Unsure about the relationship after a miscarriage

How to talk to kids about gun violence

Peeps and Pepsi have teamed up to make a marshmallow soda, just in time for Easter

marijuana

Landlords of Massachusetts properties like these triple-deckers in South Boston are increasingly adding anti-marijuana restrictions to rental leases.

Can landlords really ban marijuana edibles? Usually not, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying

New York reaches deal to legalize recreational marijuana

Five will exit White House over past use of marijuana

opinion

The lecture hall at Somerville's new high school.

Buildings don’t design themselves

Rachael Rollins takes a brave stand

Fighting for fairness in vocational tech school admissions

food & dining

Paul Barker, owner of Pauli's North End sub shop, posed for a portrait with his 14-ounce "Lobsta Sub" on April 24, 2013.

Free sandwiches after COVID-19 vaccines, Easter specials, and more

At The Farmer’s Daughter in Sudbury, brunch is the main attraction

Boston has a long tradition of Asian women chefs and restaurateurs. Here are eight standout businesses to support

travel

In one of many small touches, the hotel library features books curated by the Boston Public Library.

Rooftop restaurant, larger guest rooms: The former Taj Boston gets a new look

She loves Paris, pastries, and ‘Women Who Rock’

It’s all about nature at these four family-friendly New England resorts

Books

Caught in between in ‘Of Women and Salt’

New books about life in our galaxy, and beyond it.

C. Pam Zhang on reading books to start each day

Movies

Sir David Attenborough in London's Richmond Park.

Species threatened, corporations ascendant, death discussed

George Segal: a point man for his times

‘The Human Voice’: an Almodóvar marvel, short on length, long on everything else

Television

Maya Rudolph on "Saturday Night Live."

Watch Maya Rudolph play Beyoncé, Kamala Harris, and more on ‘SNL’

‘We’re so close to the end, let’s ruin it!’: ‘SNL’ mocks spring breakers in Miami amid pandemic

Stanley Tucci: from busy man to ‘Inside Man’

music

Elton John after performing "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," at the 2020 Oscars. John is celebrating his 74th birthday on Thursday — and he's sending fans a very rare present. Six deep cuts have been made available on streaming and digital formats for the first time.

It’s Elton John’s birthday, and he’s got rare music for fans

Sudbury singer-songwriter Lauren Weintraub on her Nashville dreams and the ‘random thing’ that got everyone’s attention

Strike up the band! Live music will return to Tanglewood this summer

Theater/Dance

Faith Soloway

With ‘Banned in Boston,’ Urban Improv keeps the Faith

New PBS documentary illuminates choreographer Twyla Tharp’s expansive, trailblazing career

With delightful studio performances, Boston Ballet celebrates the classical art form

globe local

Gov. Charlie Baker held a press conference at the State House on March 25, 2021 to provide updates on COVID-19 vaccination in Massachusetts.

Watch live: Governor Baker signs climate legislation

Newton Youth Commission reaches out with mental health campaign

Art reflecting our world: Peabody Essex Museum launches exhibits that portray today’s concerns

Obituaries

Howard Schnellenberger held the game balls prior to the start of the 2014 Boca Raton Bowl NCAA college football game between Marshall and Northern Illinois at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla.

Howard Schnellenberger, 87, Miami, Louisville coach, dies

Liesbeth Stoeffler, a runner kept going by rare lung treatment, dies at 61

Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary dies at 104