Jack Spillane

Massachusetts

Columnist and Reporter at New Bedford Light

Jack Spillane is a career journalist, working primarily as a government and political reporter, editor and columnist.

Articles

New Bedford police chief defends city’s confidential informant system

1 week ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira sat down with me this week to talk about the stunning accusations made about him and the city in The Boston Globe’s “Snitch City” series. The recent Spotlight Team effort, presented in a relentlessly breathless film noir style, claims that Oliveira was the worst of the worst abusers of a troubled statewide confidential informant system long used to investigate drug trafficking crimes.
Girls consistently dominate academics at New Bedford High and Voc-Tech

3 weeks ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

Mayor Jon Mitchell has walked the walk in his efforts to restore the reputation of the New Bedford school system. Unlike many of his West End upper-middle-class contemporaries, Mitchell sent all three of his daughters to New Bedford High School. Mitchell’s youngest daughter, Lauren, ranked number 7 in last year’s graduating class and, like the mayor himself did, she is now attending Harvard as an undergraduate.
New Bedford’s Andrew O’Leary sees schools as heart of a community

1 month ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

Andrew O’Leary is the first New Bedford superintendent of schools I can remember who regularly shows up at events around town wearing the school colors of red and white. There is no doubt that this Cork, Ireland, native bleeds New Bedford red and white as he enters the third year of his leadership of the system. What he really bleeds, however, is belief in urban public education.
Retired New Bedford firefighter and wife celebrate South Coast Rail

1 month ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

Retired New Bedford firefighter David Mello and his wife Pam stared up at what’s called the Big Board in South Station midway through Monday morning. With 10 minutes to go before the 1911 train was scheduled to leave for Fall River, they were watching like old pros for the electronic schedule to post which track the train would be leaving on. The Mellos are used to driving to Boston to walk around or just see friends.
Business and residents duke it out as New Bedford waste costs spiral

1 month ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

If the solid-waste truck hauling business located at 781 Church St. in New Bedford was any more hidden away, it might be invisible. WIN Waste Innovations, a regional waste and recycling management company headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., has quietly operated a trash truck storage facility for several years at the location about a ¼ mile off Church Street in New Bedford’s North End.
Years after Michael Bianco raid, New Bedford immigrants still have to hide

2 months ago | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress or mistreat him. But the stranger who resides with you shall be to you like someone native-born among you; and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”– Leviticus, 19:33-34I remember March 6, 2007, dawning unusually cold in New Bedford that year, almost like an omen of a day that would be bigger than itself.
Herman Melville statue recognizes greatness born in New Bedford

Jan 21, 2025 | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

“If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us.”Nathaniel Hawthorne writing after a meeting with Herman MelvilleWho we are doesn’t always belong to just ourselves. Our reputation in the world is a funny thing, changeable over time, both during and after our lifetimes.
New Bedford police union head roils City Council president race

Jan 2, 2025 | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

The race to be the 2025 City Council president has turned into a knock-down, drag-out fight, led by the new president of the New Bedford police union, Lorenzo Gonzalez, and his apparent ally on local talk radio, a Republican activist turned power player in New Bedford politics, Chris McCarthy. Their target is two-term councilor-at-large Shane Burgo, a popular Cape Verdean-American councilor who finished second among the five at-large councilors in his re-election bid in November 2023.
Far North End neighborhood fights South Coast Renewables in all-American battle

Dec 2, 2024 | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

If there is a more all-American neighborhood in New Bedford than Pine Hill Acres in the Far North End, I don’t know what it is. Begun in the 1960s, the 350 or so ranch-style houses are all about equidistant from each other, with well-tended, but not overly sculpted lawns and shrubs. Over the decades, some folks have added second floors to the ranches, or a tucked-away addition out back. Pine Hill Acres is not an affluent community.
Helping out New Bedford’s Missionaries of Charity

Nov 27, 2024 | newbedfordlight.org | Jack Spillane

There’s something about people that makes them want to help other people. On this Thanksgiving Day, let me tell you about some people who like to help people, and their longstanding traditions of helping around this warmest of holidays. I’ve written several columns over the years about the Missionaries of Charity (the Mother Teresa nuns, as I call them) and their annual efforts to deliver home-cooked Thanksgiving dinners to some of the shut-ins of New Bedford.