Mark Arsenault
The Boston Globe
Boston, MA, United States
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Past articles by Mark:
New funding for controversial MIT and Whitehead Institute scientist David Sabatini draws divided reactions
Billionaire New York hedge fund manager Bill Ackman announced last week that he and an anonymous donor had pledged $25 million over five years toward a new research lab for Sabatini, who is accused of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment. → Read More
Fallout from David Sabatini sexual harassment allegations shakes Whitehead Institute
Kristin Knouse and David Sabatini, both biologists, had an intimate relationship that bridged boundaries — she is young in her career, he is globally renowned — and broke the rules at Cambridge’s Whitehead Institute. After Knouse alleged harassment and other complaints emerged, an investigation rocked Whitehead, forced out Sabatini and damaged all involved. Did it have to end this way? → Read More
Whitehead Institute sexual harassment allegations: Inside the fall of a star MIT scientist
Scientist David Sabatini is hoping for a comeback after he was ousted amid sexual harassment allegations. The case raises hard questions: Is there room for lesser penalties in such complex cases? Did Sabatini deserve a second chance? → Read More
We can’t choose our free-speech heroes. But we need all of them.
Recent restrictions on free speech call to mind the story of John Revelstoke Rathom — a forgotten figure whose rise and fall is a cautionary tale we should consider a century later. → Read More
Corrections officers at Souza-Baranowski to get body cameras for the first time
The announcement comes as leaders at the Department of Correction face two federal lawsuits alleging excessive force against prisoners at Souza-Baranowski and intense public scrutiny over a controversial extended lockdown two years ago. → Read More
New bill proposes civilian oversight for Massachusetts prisons
Senator James Eldridge is calling for independent oversight to help reform the agency, currently facing two federal lawsuits alleging misconduct. → Read More
Federal lawsuit accuses state officials of retaliatory violence against Souza-Baranowski prisoners
A federal lawsuit filed Monday by nine Black and Latino men who are, or recently were, incarcerated at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center accuses prison officials of orchestrating “weeks of unprovoked, retaliatory violence” against prisoners as a brutal reminder about who was in charge of the maximum-security institution. → Read More
The COVID-19 pandemic will end, but at what cost?
Even if the virus is defanged, it will no doubt still pose potentially grave threats to the elderly and medically vulnerable. Still, large institutions and government agencies have quietly begun to grapple with the question of how the country learns to live with COVID-19. → Read More
One correction officer, two excessive force allegations in less than two weeks
An ex-prisoner’s account focuses on an officer, with a dog, who was also cited in a Globe Spotlight report about an allegedly brutal lockdown in 2020. → Read More
Prisoners from Spotlight investigation sue over alleged abuse at Souza-Baranowski
Two incarcerated men at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on Monday filed a federal lawsuit accusing more than 30 state and prison officials of conspiring to punish prisoners with violence, in retribution for an assault on corrections officers in early 2020. → Read More
Gov. Baker says prison shakedowns should be videotaped
Correction authorities should ensure that prison shakedowns and major reorganizations are video recorded, Governor Baker said Wednesday, in his first public comments about a weekend Globe Spotlight story on alleged abuses at the state’s maximum security prison during and shortly after a lockdown in early 2020. → Read More
Boston’s hospital chiefs moonlight on corporate boards at rates far beyond the national rate
Hospital chiefs and trustees defend this as boosting public-private partnerships, but critics say these board positions — some paying millions of dollars — raise troubling issues of conflict of interest and hospital priorities. → Read More
Hospital staff revived a man’s stopped heart — and he sued
A successful “wrongful prolongation of life” lawsuit in Montana, among other things, reflects the extent to which many ordinary Americans will go to gain — and enforce — their rights to control their final days. → Read More
What does this election say about our country, and our disconnect from it?
For Democrats who see Trump’s unfitness as blindingly obvious, it is as if a significant portion of the country has been watching a different movie for the last four years. → Read More
What if…? Here are three possible scenarios for Election Day and beyond
Near the end of this, the longest of years, we are now inside those hours of limbo on Election Day, when the only thing anyone wants to know — what’s going to happen? — is unknowable before the vote counting begins. → Read More
For a climbing challenge, try summiting the highest point in seven states
If you can't make it to Kilimanjaro, summits in New England and New York offer hikers challenges closer to home → Read More
Massachusetts death rate seems to be climbing, but it’s not the full picture
The case fatality rate of 6.5 percent seems alarmingly high, but experts say it overstates the coronavirus pandemic’s lethality. → Read More
Are we now coming down from the coronavirus plateau?
The latest trends in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations lead to cautious optimism among the state’s hospital chiefs and epidemiologists. → Read More
Amid flurry of national coronavirus data, Massachusetts remains a hot spot of infection
Washington appears to be on the backside of the curve with new infections waning, and Massachusetts has emerged as a national hotspot. → Read More
State, local experts push back on university’s bleaker COVID-19 forecast
University of Washington researchers are troubled by Mass. death rates and its social-distancing messaging. → Read More