Beyond COVID-19: Politics, legal news grabbed 2020 headlines myjournalcourier.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from myjournalcourier.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
William J. Kole
Massachusetts biggest story of 2020 involved something so tiny it required an electron microscope to view.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the Bay State hard, killing nearly 12,000 the nation s ninth-highest death toll and ravaging communities of color and long-term care facilities. Nearly 80 veterans died of COVID-19 at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, where investigators said utterly baffling decisions allowed the virus to spread unchecked.
But Massachusetts also played a pivotal role in the global race for a vaccine. Studies showed a vaccine developed by Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. offered strong protection against the virus, and the company began shipping it out after gaining emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Beyond COVID-19: The 9 Other Massachusetts Stories That Made Headlines In 2020
Justice Kimberly S. Budd raises her hand as she is sworn-in as the chief justice of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Dec. 1 at the State House in Boston. Budd, 54, is the first Black woman to serve in that role.
Jessica Rinaldi / Pool/The Boston Globe via AP By William J. Kole | Associated Press
December 28, 2020
Massachusetts’ biggest story of 2020 involved something so tiny it required an electron microscope to view.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the Bay State hard, killing nearly 12,000 the nation s ninth-highest death toll and ravaging communities of color and long-term care facilities. Nearly 80 veterans died of COVID-19 at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, where investigators said “utterly baffling” decisions allowed the virus to spread unchecked.
By Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
December 24, 2020
Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
Justice Serge Georges (right) embraced Robert Bruhl who flew in from Hawaii to watch his friend be sworn in at the State House. Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/Pool photo
The ceremony to swear in Judge Serge Georges to the Supreme Judicial Court, like most events during the pandemic, was scaled back from the fanfare that accompanies such affairs.
But Georges, who wore a maroon Boston College Eagles facemask while taking the oath of office, still welcomed family and friends to mark the moment, including one former classmate from his undergraduate days who traveled all the way from Hawaii.
Randolph s Serge Georges sworn in to Supreme Judicial Court I Won t Let You Down, judge Tells Baker
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
The ceremony to swear in Judge Serge Georges to the Supreme Judicial Court, like most other events during the pandemic, was scaled back from the usual fanfare that accompanies such affairs.
But Georges, of Randolph, who wore a maroon Boston College Eagles facemask while taking the oath of office, still welcomed family and friends to mark the moment, including one former classmate from his undergraduate days at Chestnut Hill who traveled all the way from Hawaii.
That friend, Robert Bruhl, wrote a letter of recommendation on Georges s behalf that Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito described as the best letter of recommendation I have ever read so good that Polito kept a folded-up copy in her pocket during Wednesday s ceremony detailing a bound, black journal that Georges gave as a gift 17 years ago to mark the birth of Bruhl s first child.