The Boston Globe

Red Sox great Dennis Eckersley, family speak on daughter’s arrest after giving birth in N.H. woods

Alexandra Eckersley “is our beloved daughter who we adopted at birth,” the family said in a statement. “Allie has suffered from severe mental illness her entire life. Allie was hospitalized numerous times for her illness and lived in several residential programs. We did our very best to get Allie all of the help and support humanly possible.”

Read the full statement from the Eckersley family

Congressional report faults FDA and Biogen for Alzheimer’s drug approval, rollout

The report faulted the Cambridge-based drugmaker for its “aggressive launch plans” despite concerns over the “efficacy, safety, and affordability” of the treatment.

Read the full congressional report STAT: Seeking maximum profits, Biogen set an ‘unjustifiably high price’ for Alzheimer’s treatment, investigation finds

What we know about XBB, the new dominant COVID variant in New England
A new coronavirus variant dubbed XBB has swiftly become the dominant form of COVID-19 spreading in the Northeast, jumping from about 35 percent of cases during the week ending Dec. 17 to just over half last week, according to CDC data.

8,327 confirmed cases and 113 deaths in a week. See the latest COVID-19 data from Mass.

Cohasset police review video of basketball game where referee was punched; Boston high school player could face discipline

N.H. police chief arrested for alleged sexual harassment of female officer

Arkansas hiker, 22, taken to hospital after medical emergency in White Mountains

Pelé helped Brazil win the World Cup over Italy in Mexico in 1970.

The incomparable Pelé, perhaps soccer’s finest player ever, dies at 82

The legendary Brazilian, who played on three World Cup champions, enchanted fans and dazzled opponents as the game’s most prolific scorer.

APPRECIATION

Recalling Pelé's impact, both global and personal, and how he touched Boston, too
The soccer legend was a larger-than-life hero, but not without sacrifice and suffering, and he spread positive vibes wherever he went.

Watch some of Pelé's astonishing career highlights that have stood the test of time
Pelé's fast, fluid style revolutionized the game of soccer. Take a look at some highlights from his career.

Larry Edelman

This fight near Shawmut Station doesn’t bode well for easing Boston’s housing shortage
Trinity Financial and abutters are at a standstill over the developer’s plan to build apartments next to the Red Line stop in Dorchester.

SURVEY SAYS | CHRISTOPHER MUTHER

These are the most in-demand destinations for 2023
Delays and inflation be damned! Travelers are dreaming of Copenhagen or Edinburgh, or, well, it depends on whom you ask.

Christopher Muther’s favorite pictures and memories from trips he took in 2022

The Patriots offense has sputtered all season with assistants Joe Judge (left) and Matt Patricia (center) running the unit for Bill Belichick (right).

Even if Patriots make the playoffs, Bill Belichick has a lot to answer for

Owner Robert Kraft was expecting a lot more out of this team this season, and he undoubtedly will be looking for fixes.

On football: It’s too risky for the Dolphins to play Tua Tagovailoa again this season

Karen Boss, a senior editor at Charlesbridge Publishing, pranked fellow office workers with little plastic flamingos for months before revealing at an office party that the birds had come from her.

How a pink flamingo prank confounded a Watertown office and intrigued viewers online

A months-long, flamingo-based office prank at a Watertown children's book publisher has been dubbed the Internet's "favorite story of the year."

Stephanie Beatriz brought expressive range to her voice work as insecure, empathetic Mirabel in last year’s Disney hit “Encanto." But she's the exception to the rule: Most major roles in today's animated films are claimed by A-list stars.

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

When it comes to animated films, stardom speaks loudly

Over the past couple of decades, animated movies have become just another star vehicle, heavily populated with the same actors who dominate the multiplex and celebrity magazines and late-night talk shows.

Opinion

Congressional candidate Nancy Pelosi waved to followers at the campaign headquarters in San Francisco on April 7, 1987.

Pelosi, Clark personify important shift in how women gain and use political power

After a decades-long battle for gender equity in employment and parenting roles, women today are less likely than in Nancy Pelosi’s generation to postpone their political careers for child rearing.

Who is the real George Santos, and how did he get $700,000 to run for Congress?

IDEAS | REBECCA TAYLOR

The enduringly lovely, dark, and deep lines published by Robert Frost 100 years ago

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s message on migrants is lost in his meanness

Real ID was a real mistake and Congress should scrap it at last

Now that Ramses Ja and Q Ward own the White Lives Matter trademark, what do these long-time social justice supporters plan to do with the power that comes with ownership?

The Emancipator

What’s next for the White Lives Matter trademark?

Now that podcasters Ramses Ja and Q Ward own the White Lives Matter trademark, what do these long-time social justice supporters plan to do with the power that comes with ownership?

High Med. Low

Select a county:

Special reports

Boston, MA—12/14/2022 - Commuters wait for the T to arrive at Ruggles Station. (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff)

Boston doesn’t work if the T doesn’t work

Members of the 2001 Patriots team that won the franchise’s first title.

Darkness on the edge of the Patriots dynasty

The 2022 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts

More recent News

World War II veteran celebrates 101st birthday with parade and visit to American Heritage Museum
Phipps, a sergeant in the Army Air Corps from 1942 until 1945, celebrated his 101st birthday with a parade outside his Hopkinton home on Wednesday and a tour of the American Heritage Museum in Hudson on Thursday, he said in a phone interview.

Tech Lab

Highlights — and lowlights — of the year in tech
Massive layoffs across the industry, the crypto calamity, and the Twitter takeover were all among the biggest headlines in the tech world this year.

Biden signs $1.7 trillion bill funding government operations

The approved funds will keep the federal government operating through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023, and provide tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine for its fight against the Russian military.

Mass. officials say state’s emergency shelter system needs more funding ASAP

Citing a lack of funding, housing officials are warning the Massachusetts Legislature they may run out of space and will not be able to place homeless families in the state’s emergency shelter system within the next three months or so unless something is done.

LOVE LETTERS

Our sex life is gone
“It’s bad, like watching paint dry.”

Some of Boston’s best speakeasies
Travel back to the Jazz Age at these cozy and somewhat hidden gems.

Boston Globe Spotlight Team

Send The Boston Globe a confidential news tip
Do you have a tip about something that needs to be investigated? Do you have documents or data we should dig into? We want to hear from you.

Recapping 2022

Clockwise from top left: Tom Brady; Davisville Middle School in Rhode Island; Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky; COVID-19 vaccinations in Massachusetts; a fire burning in Mariupol, Ukraine.

The Globe’s 10 most read stories of 2022

Hanging out with Xander Bogaerts during spring training stands out among the memories of 2022 for one Globe staff member.

Looking back at 2022: Globe Sports staff recalls their top memories of the year

A photo collage with the year 2022 in large yellow characters. It's set on a backdrop of cutout photos with what appears to be Scotch tape keeping them together. Among the photos: Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars, President Biden, Amber Heard in court, Queen Elizabeth, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Nancy Pelosi, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Dave Barry’s 2022 Year in Review

Recommended reads

Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito stood in her State House office, where a portrait of her political mentor, former governor Paul Cellucci, has hung near her desk for the last eight years.

Once Baker’s heir apparent, Karyn Polito will leave office with him. Some in the GOP hope it’s not for good.

Twice elected lieutenant governor under Charlie Baker, Karyn Polito stunned both Republicans and Democrats when she decided last December to not run for Baker’s seat after he opted against seeking reelection.

Federal prosecutors ask judge to sentence Varsity Blues mastermind William Singer to six years in prison
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence the confessed mastermind of the Varsity Blues college admissions cheating scandal to six years in prison, calling his $25 million fraud “staggering in scope” and “breathtaking in its audacity and the levels of deception it involved.”

All over the region, Sears stores are being reborn
New uses for old locations of the iconic midcentury retailer are popping up across Greater Boston.

As traffic deaths spike, Massachusetts eyes new safety laws

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety believes tougher seat belt laws for drivers, passengers, and small children, stricter limits on teen driving, and greater restrictions on drunken or drug-impaired driving would make a difference in road safety.

video

Culture & Lifestyle

Sound Museum founder and owner Bill Desmond, shown in February in his Brighton building, which will be razed to make room for a life sciences complex.

Sound Museum’s imminent closing leaves musicians wondering where they’ll plug in next

Paul T. Goldman as himself in "Paul T. Goldman."

The off-the-rails world of ‘Paul T. Goldman’

From "Titicut Follies," Frederick Wiseman's 1967 controversial documentary revealing the conditions inside the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Bridgewater, Mass.

National Film Registry gives props to two docs with Massachusetts ties

First Night Boston will again take place in and around Copley Square this year.

12+ ways to celebrate New Year’s in Boston, whether you want to stay out late or never leave the couch

Special Projects

Two Weeks in America

Two Weeks in America

We sent a dozen journalists on the road across this complex country. They found it’s better than you think.

Top Spots to Live in Greater Boston in 2022

A guide to 36 Greater Boston communities where demand — and prices — are surging.

Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance

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

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.

FROM OUR PARTNERS

product by Studio/B. What is this?This content was produced by Boston Globe Media's Studio/B in collaboration with the advertiser. The news and editorial departments of the Boston Globe had no role in its production or display.

product by BG BRANDLAB. What is this?This content was produced by Boston Globe Media's Studio/B in collaboration with the advertiser. The news and editorial departments of the Boston Globe had no role in its production or display.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

Congressional candidate Nancy Pelosi waved to followers at the campaign headquarters in San Francisco on April 7, 1987.

Pelosi, Clark personify important shift in how women gain and use political power

Republican candidate for New York's 3rd Congressional District George Santos, left, fist bumps campaign volunteer John Maccarone while campaigning on Nov. 5 in Glen Cove, N.Y.

Who is the real George Santos, and how did he get $700,000 to run for Congress?

IDEAS | REBECCA TAYLOR

The enduringly lovely, dark, and deep lines published by Robert Frost 100 years ago

Migrant families boarded a bus to transport them from near Vice President Kamala Harris's residence to an area church on a frigid Christmas Eve in Washington, D.C.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s message on migrants is lost in his meanness

A TSA employee checked documents for passengers in line at a security checkpoint at Logan Airport in 2010. Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005; the Department of Homeland Security announced this month that enforcement of the Real ID law would be delayed until 2025.

Real ID was a real mistake and Congress should scrap it at last

IDEAS | ADRIANA BARTON

The ‘Mozart effect’ is bunk. But your brain on music is still a wondrous thing.

Metro

Baker administration awards $4.1 million to improve access to reproductive health care

The Baker-Polito administration announced Thursday it will award $4.1 million in grants to 11 organizations and health care providers to improve reproductive health access in the Commonwealth.

Charts: Who has been vaccinated in Massachusetts, and how many doses has the state received?

The charts break down vaccination recipients by age, vaccination date, location, and race/ethnicity, while also outlining vaccination brand and administration site type.

World War II veteran celebrates 101st birthday with parade and visit to American Heritage Museum

Phipps, a sergeant in the Army Air Corps from 1942 until 1945, celebrated his 101st birthday with a parade outside his Hopkinton home on Wednesday and a tour of the American Heritage Museum in Hudson on Thursday, he said in a phone interview.

Pelé, the global face of soccer, dies at 82

Pelé, one of soccer’s greatest players and a transformative figure in 20th-century sports who achieved a level of global celebrity few athletes have known, died Thursday in São Paulo. He was 82.

Sports

Cardale Jones started all five games played by the XFL's DC Defenders before the league suspended operations midway through its 2020 season.

Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones signs with Massachusetts Pirates indoor team

Jones rose from third on the depth chart to steward Ohio State to the inaugural College Football Playoff championship in January 2015, but has played just one quarter in the NFL.

John Vlachos guided Watertown, his alma mater, to the Division 4 state final at TD Garden last March. With low numbers, the Raiders are teaming up with Wayland this season.

BOYS' HOCKEY NOTEBOOK

Watertown and Wayland use cooperative effort to keep boys’ varsity hockey program on ice

The lights are staying on at John A. Ryan Arena. Watertown is hosting a co-op with Wayland, which fielded just a junior varsity team last year.

Pele celebrated after winning the 1970 World Cup final against Italy in Mexico City.

Pelé, the global face of soccer, dies at 82

Pelé, one of soccer’s greatest players and a transformative figure in 20th-century sports who achieved a level of global celebrity few athletes have known, died Thursday in São Paulo. He was 82.

men's college hockey notebook

Well-traveled Harvard men’s hockey team brings some momentum back to town

Watch some of Pelé's astonishing career highlights that have stood the test of time

Recalling Pelé's impact, both global and personal, and how he touched Boston, too

Business

At its Charlestown design lab, Converse is putting reuse on full display

The Boston shoemaker has developed ways to use more scraps from the manufacturing process in its footwear.

Nearly 2,000 Mass. employers benefited from Baker administration’s HireNow program

Employers collectively asked for more than $100 million, or double what was in the program, representing more than 23,000 applications.

Highlights — and lowlights — of the year in tech

This fight near Shawmut Station doesn’t bode well for easing Boston’s housing shortage

magazine

Here's a New Year's resolution: Stop giving unsolicited advice

Someone started crashing my regular coffee group. How do we ditch him?

A photo collage with the year 2022 in large yellow characters. It's set on a backdrop of cutout photos with what appears to be Scotch tape keeping them together. Among the photos: Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars, President Biden, Amber Heard in court, Queen Elizabeth, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Nancy Pelosi, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Dave Barry’s 2022 Year in Review

Fish Poached in Tomato-Garlic Broth

Three healthy — and flavorful — fish dishes for the New Year

metro

Data posted to the Boston Public Health Commission's website show the city's test positivity for COVID-19 is rising.

Boston COVID-19 positive tests higher; residents urged to get latest booster shot

Rhode Island political news: November 2022

Truck strikes bridge over Mass. Turnpike in Newton; two lanes closed

sports

Pelé helped Brazil win the World Cup over Italy in Mexico in 1970.

The incomparable Pelé, perhaps soccer’s finest player ever, dies at 82

It’s too risky for the Dolphins to play Tua Tagovailoa again this season

Bruins are threatening to run away and hide in the Eastern Conference

business

Workers assembled the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, in production at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich., on Jan. 25. Sport utility vehicles, vans, and pickups are eligible for credits only if the manufacturer's suggested list price is less than $80,000. For sedans and other vehicles, the price cap is $55,000.

Tax credits for electric vehicles are about to get confusing

Southwest says it plans to restore normal flight schedule Friday

US ignored own scientists’ warning in backing Atlantic wind farm

politics

President Biden departed the White House for the US Virgin Islands late Wednesday. While there Thursday he signed the $1.7 trillion spending bill passed by Congress last week.

Biden signs $1.7 trillion bill funding government operations

George Santos faces federal and local investigations

Jan. 6 committee withdraws its subpoena of Trump

Nation

Officials in Toledo, Ohio, and other US cities are finalizing plans to create programs for paying off the medical debt of eligible residents, part of a new strategy to address the high cost of health care.

Medical debt is being erased in Ohio and Illinois. Is your town next?

Charts: Who has been vaccinated in Massachusetts, and how many doses has the state received?

Town-by-town COVID-19 data in Massachusetts

World

Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, gives a speech from the back of a flatbed truck during a protest to show discontent with the Maduro government, in Caracas, April 6, 2019.

End of an era as Venezuela’s opposition moves to end Guaidó experiment

Vatican: Benedict XVI lucid, stable, but condition ‘serious’

Israel swears in Netanyahu as PM of hard-line government

opinion

Migrant families boarded a bus to transport them from near Vice President Kamala Harris's residence to an area church on a frigid Christmas Eve in Washington, D.C.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s message on migrants is lost in his meanness

The bookseller’s conundrum

Boston police union needs to accept new realities of policing

lifestyle

Our sex life is gone

‘What I realized is you gotta be really sure.’ Tom Brady says he’s not contemplating retirement

12+ ways to celebrate New Year’s in Boston, whether you want to stay out late or never leave the couch

food & dining

A cocktail on the menu at Offsuit, a speakeasy in Boston's Leather District.

Some of Boston’s best speakeasies

In Woburn, The Fox Den is the ideal cold-weather refuge for pierogis and more

Dumpling Daughter will open in Boston; Simcha reopens in Sharon

travel

The American Queen

Season’s greetings from the river

As urban archeology ramps up, sometimes the best sightseeing is beneath your feet

These are the most in-demand destinations for 2023

Arts

Jason Moran, Various works on paper, 2022. At the Mass MoCA installation of "Black Stars: Writing in the Dark."

At Mass MoCA, Jason Moran’s ‘Black Stars’ pays tribute to the ghosts of jazz history

At Norman Rockwell Museum, ‘Eloise and More’ is an enchanting look at the artist who drew her

Wellesley show celebrates Ralph Coburn, a minimalist who left a major mark

Books

books illo

In Tracey Rose Peyton’s ‘Night Wherever We Go,’ enslaved women on a Texas plantation struggle with their desperate white captors

Tom Crewe’s memorable debut, ‘The New Life,’ chronicles the fortunes of a gay man and a social reformer in Victorian England

Anthony Horowitz on airport novels and plot envy

Movies

Sarah Polley

Talking about ‘Women Talking’

When it comes to animated films, stardom speaks loudly

In ‘Wildcat’ documentary, seeking redemption in the rain forest

Television

Ryan Seacrest, pictured in a previous installment of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," will cohost from Times Square this year with Liza Koshy.

Viewing the arrival of 2023 from the comfort of home

Our TV critic’s wish list for 2023

Hate-watching ‘Emily’ while loving the Paris setting

music

Burna Boy

DJ Prince’s favorite Afrobeats tracks of 2022

How a Northeastern business school grad spun his way to Afrobeats DJ stardom

Sound Museum’s imminent closing leaves musicians wondering where they’ll plug in next

Theater/Dance

Lamont Price is headlining two New Year’s Eve shows at Cinema Salem.

Comedy headliner Lamont Price will let the most wonderful time of the year linger a bit longer

Southie native David Lindsay-Abaire has fashioned a ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ that sings

A ‘Solstice Celebration’ for everyone

globe local

Northeast Dental Assisting teacher Erin Selvitella and senior Sebastian Cadavid, of Saugus, who was recognized for performing CPR in the community.

Northeast Metro Tech senior named a Heartsaver Hero for saving a woman’s life

Making spirits bright for the homeless

The Argument: Should Massachusetts lift its ban on Sunday hunting?

Obituaries

Pele celebrated after winning the 1970 World Cup final against Italy in Mexico City.

Pelé, the global face of soccer, dies at 82

The incomparable Pelé, perhaps soccer’s finest player ever, dies at 82

New Orleans guitarist Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington dead at 79