CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Naming Names

The first wild daisy of the bunch (I've been encouraging them to fill in the back gardens where they will...) unfurled in this morning's early light.

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The line of beach roses (rosa rugosa) brought back from the remnants of Willa's garden are budding up nicely, too.

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Even the birds weren't making much noise this morning, just the occasional chk chk from flocking blackbirds. It's a bit like the hush that falls over an audience just before the curtain goes up.


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This orange calendula prepares for its moment in the sun at the feet of the Coronation Gold yarrow.
Here's the Jupiter's Beard (centranthus ruber for the Latinistas...), also preparing to come into bloom. Yep, things are looking pretty sweet out there.

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This fancy marigold, and five of his seedpack mates joined the cast of the garden yesterday, as I prepare beds for the impending planting out of our great looking tomato plants.

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Heading back to tour by the gardens around the house, I found the blue columbine opening nicely...

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There's an old azalea at one end of the front garden. Last year I had to trim off lots of deadwood, and it's left looking almost standard-like, with some newer growth at the bottom. This year, at the very base of the bush, we are enjoying a single blossom. At least it's a great one!

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Yes, and there's still more spiderwort in bloom. Someone wrote to me to tell me that they are known in Provincetown as Widows Tears (a sweeter name than what I knew it by)...and I've since found that it's called that in some plant catalogs, as well. I love the common names plants are known by...and that there are so many of them...and they are so much nicer than the cold science of their Latin names.

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"Flowers we like to grow should have names that please us and its a joy to find them honoring men and women who've excelled in the world of gardens. Weeds, on the other hand, should have names we loathe, so we can go about their destruction with more zest and vim. The process of weeding is more sanative if you name the pests after your own special enemies and pet abominations. Don't bother to learn whether your new intruder is pigweed or horse nettle. Just christen it in honor of some neighbor who you find difficult to 'love as thyself' and, while abolishing it, you also may vent your spleen." -- Julian Meade, Bouquets and Bitters, 1940.
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Here's one of those lesser gardening moments: last evening, as I was tucking a few seedlings of white lobelia into this window box, it tried to re-enact the tale of the SS Poseidon, as it tumbled from its bracket and nearly capsized. What fun it was scraping up all that potting soil from the seashell path, and getting all the plant passengers firmly back in their berths.

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Once I left the yard and headed out for work this morning, I discovered the sunshine seemed to be a condition nearly exclusive to our bit of earth, as a fogbank hung over much of the rest of our part of the sandbar.

Boat Creek Marsh, Eastham, MA. 9:58 a.m. Posted by Picasa
The sun wasn't absent from the day, though: it came burning through the fog as the afternoon arrived. Here's our richly-green meadow later in the day.

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At the edge of the steps down into the meadow, I found this great trio of blue siberian iris, happily doing their thing. Hidden in some grasses (and more of the spiderwort/widows tears), they had escaped my attention before now.

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But you can see the sunset tonight was a bit of a bust, as the heavy fog and clouds of storms to come began moving in over us. Once again a good bit of rain is headed our way, with a weekend approaching. I guess that'll wash the pollen away...for now, at least.


First Encounter Beach, Eastham, MA. 8:00 p.m. Posted by Picasa

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The Joys of the Architecturally Insignificant Home

Driving Route 6A, the road that runs past my front door, is like taking a Disneyworld ride through American residential-architecture history. Instead of animatronic presidents, 6A presents salt boxes, classic Capes in their half, three-quarter and full versions, Georgian and Federal style manses and Greek revival farm homes. Many of these long-lived wonders have been restored to their original appearance with textbook accuracy. You can stop at just about any point along this winding road and find a house with historic past worthy of conversation.

Unless, of course, you stop in front of my house.

Now, if you're working on some kind of obscure doctoral thesis on classic 1960s Cape design, you might find a wealth of worthwhile information within my four walls. The use of knotty pine in just about any vertical application, say, or the evolution of speckles in vinyl tile flooring - 1965 through 1967. Otherwise, the 1,300-sq.-ft. structure that I call home is just another shingled Cape. It would fit comfortably in many aging suburban developments throughout the Northeast, but, instead, it's been plopped down in the middle of the country's longest continuous registered historic district. It's simply new-old in a land of old-old.

After just a couple months of living in it, though, I find I'm falling in love with this undistinguished - and indistinguishable – house, despite its lack of pedigree. Life within its un-historic confines is proving to be surprisingly freeing. My neighbors have windows made from 200-year-old hand-blown glass and chimneys wide as redwoods, but I feel no sense of envy toward these historically significant Joneses. I drive past centuries of style with every supermarket run, and return to my 1960s Cape on its concrete-block foundation, knowing that if a pipe bursts or an electrical outlet shorts out, I won't need an architectural-history degree to make things right again.

My last two homes in Chicago each had their own unique historical aspects, each an example of a classic style unique to that city's storied design past. My spacious condo in a circa 1904, six-unit apartment building, had a gracious, airy floor plan made for entertaining, with a split-parlor living room, beamed-ceilinged dining room and original windows throughout. My most recent home, in the city's famed Bungalow Belt, was one of about 80,000 brick houses built between the early 1910s and the late 1920s, in a collar around the city's outer borders. It had two layers of crown molding, 9-ft. ceilings and built-in, glass-door-fronted bookcases on either side of the ornamental fireplace. Both of these places had acres of full-grained oak trim, still with the original finish.

Have you ever tried decorating with that much oak? There are, perhaps, three colors that go well with it, and I used variations of these dark, earthy, depressing hues over and over and over again. I could have simply painted the trim white to accompany a brighter palette, but covering original trim in Chicago is a violation akin to doubting the Cubs will, in fact, go all the way next year. And 100-year-old windows are only beautiful until you have to live with them through a Chicago winter. I could have parasailed down the hallway in my old condo, with the wind that passed through the ill-fitting sashes.

I went into each of these purchases understanding the possible shortcomings, but I had lived in older structures my entire life, and couldn't imagine calling new construction, "home." I saw these properties as valuable, yet ignored, resources in a time when society's quest for newness was forcing our consumption of ever-larger portions of the world's limited resources. Just as importantly, I think I felt a need to surround myself with history others had created, as I worked out what, exactly, my own legacy might be.

So I stripped wallpaper, pulled out rotting sculptured-pile carpet and sought out period-looking plumbing. I collected a forest-worth of paint chips and spent hours simply sitting on the floor, staring at the samples I'd taped to the walls. In time, as I got to know the history-rich quirks that defined these two residences, they each became a home I lived in, loved and, eventually, left.

The two-lane highway I now call home serves as the picture-postcard image of Olde Cape Cod, and local historic commissions make sure it stays that way. As a result, I still have to contend with history in my 1965 Cape – changing the color of my front door, for example, could require an appearance in front of the historic commission, to argue my case for, perhaps, "autumn harvest" red over the current forest green. But within my new home's walls, I work with a clean slate. And this little house that needs work just about everywhere I turn is giving me a chance to revel in its potential.

Windows leak like sieves? Get new airtight double-panes! Think the fireplace mantle is just too wimpy? Chuck it! And what about that cheap, varnished-pine clamshell molding surrounding every door and window? I'm now buying Benjamin Moore Decorator's White by the contractor-size bucket to cover it all up. After years of having to consider architectural significance, I now have the chance to create my own, instead. It seems that, in this land of 300-year-old salt boxes, I have found new possibilities, and a home that belongs, not to history, but to me, alone.

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Western Hemisphere's Largest Wind Farm proposed for Lake Ontario

Our Canadian Cousin show the Yanks how to do it right
Trillium 1 will produce 700 Mega Watts with 140 turbines

John Kourtoff, the president of privately held Trillium Power Energy Corp. of Toronto, said today that his company will seek permits from the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments to build what would be the biggest offshore wind farm outside of northern Europe.
And his reception by Canadian provincial and national officials has been emphatic and positive. Mr. Kourtoff's company has been developing the windfarm quietly over the past 10 years. He says that in the day since the formal announcement he has received over 150 emails from around the world (even Iraq and Iran) congratulating him and asking for information.

Enthusiastic press, helpful tourist boards 

The local press and public has been equally supportive with none of the NIMBYism and flack hurled at Cape Wind here on Cape Cod.† Even the tourist officials have lauded the project pointing to the benefits of British and European wind farms as a popular attraction.

The proposed $1+ billion project called Trillium Power Wind 1 will have a potential capacity of more than 700 Mega Watts and the project has already drawn promises of financial backing from institutional investors the Trillium president said.
Trillium wants to erect more than 140 massive wind turbines in the middle of Lake Ontario in what would become the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere

Trillium says the project will provide enough clean electricity to power more than 200,000 homes and would be in waters between 1 and 80 feet about 10 miles offshore from Prince Edward County, just south of Belleville, Ontario, Canada

 The local press and public has been equally supportive with none of the NIMBYism and flack hurled at Cape Wind here on Cape Cod.† Even the tourist officials have lauded the project pointing to the benefits of British and European wind farms as a popular attraction.

The proposed $1+ billion project called Trillium Power Wind 1 will have a potential capacity of more than 700 Mega Watts and the project has already drawn promises of financial backing from institutional investors the Trillium president said.
Trillium wants to erect more than 140 massive wind turbines in the middle of Lake Ontario in what would become the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere

Trillium says the project will provide enough clean electricity to power more than 200,000 homes and would be in waters between 1 and 80 feet about 10 miles offshore from Prince Edward County, just south of Belleville, Ontario, Canada.

"If you look out on the horizon, you'll barely see anything on the clearest day," said Kourtoff, adding the project would cost more than $1 billion. "We already have the financial backers."

By going offshore, the company plans to take advantage of better wind conditions, based on 36 years of wind data.

Benefits to fishing touted

Kourtoff said the turbine bases would help support aquatic life, since fish and other water species tend to cluster and find sanctuary around underwater objects. The shallow waters also mean there is no danger of large ships hitting the structures. Studies done so far indicate that the turbines would not conflict with the flight paths of birds. "There are no flyways, no aviary issues," Kourtoff said.

The project would dwarf the largest onshore projects already underway in Ontario. Kourtoff said the turbine bases would help support aquatic life, since fish and other water species tend to cluster and find sanctuary around underwater objects. The shallow waters also mean there is no danger of large ships hitting the structures. Studies done so far indicate that the turbines would not conflict with the flight paths of birds.

"There are no flyways, no aviary issues," Kourtoff said. The project would dwarf the largest onshore projects already underway in Ontario. Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said Canada is just scratching the surface of its wind-energy potential, even though wind is expected to account for nearly 20% of new electricity generation in the next decade.

Trillium President Kourtoff said that the shallow water site in Lake Ontario where his company wants to build its project offers many advantages that are not shared by two other ambitious offshore wind projects elsewhere, both of which are stalled. One is in Massachusetts, off Cape Cod, the other in northern British Columbia between the Queen Charlotte Islands and the British Columbia mainland.

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New routes for Right Whales

Coast Guard Backs New Shipping Lanes for Atlantic Right Whale
Canal entrances are two of the new restricted routes

The U.S. Coast Guard is proposing changes in shipping routes from Florida to Boston in an effort to prevent collisions with critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Despite this course realignment plan, the Coast Guard has yet to act on speed restrictions and other safety measures in right whale migratory areas, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Ship strikes are the largest known cause of death for the North Atlantic right whale, considered one of the planet's most endangered species with less than 300 animals left in existence. In the past year, five percent of the total female breeding population has been killed, as well as two near term calves.

In a Federal Register notice posted on May 24, 2006, the Coast Guard recommended establishing:

• "Precautionary areas" at the entrance to the ports of Jacksonville and Fernandina Beach, FL, and Brunswick, GA, as well as at the entrance to Cape Cod Canal and in the vicinity of New Inlet, MA. According to the notice, a precautionary area means a routing measure "where vessels must navigate with particular caution" and subject to recommended traffic directions;
• "Two-way routes" for the ports of Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach and Brunswick (six per port) and in Cape Cod Bay to the ports of Boston and Provincetown, MA, and the entrance to Cape Cod Canal (three each), as well as one two-way recommended track from the Cape Cod Canal entrance to Provincetown. Two-way routes limit traffic lanes in order to provide "safe passage of ships through waters where navigation is difficult or dangerous"; and
• A new "Traffic Separation Scheme" for the western portion of the approach to Boston Harbor so as to widen the separation of opposing streams of traffic.

“This is a welcome first step for the Coast Guard, but if traffic routing alone is insufficient to save the right whale from ship strikes, then this may be a colossal waste of time,” stated New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, on right, a former federal biologist whose organization is also pushing for adoption of long-stalled comprehensive strategy by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that would also require reduced ship speeds and channel restrictions in sensitive calving and migratory areas.

The Coast Guard has rebuffed earlier efforts by NOAA to set speed limits or implement emergency protective measures on a timely basis during the right whale migration along the Eastern Seaboard. This past January, the Coast Guard also rejected an emergency petition by PEER to set up safety zones following the death of a right whale calf by ship strike off the Florida coast.

“The question is whether the remaining right whale population will live long enough to benefit from effective federal intervention,” added Bennett.

See the PEER report here. 

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Minerals Management Service details plans to prepare Environmental Impact Statement for Cape Wind

Map shows alternate sites 

The Minerals Management Service of the US Interior Department yesterday published a Federal Register notice describing the agency's plans to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Cape Wind proposal.

"The EIS analysis will focus on the potential environmental effects of the development, operations and decommissioning on the proposed action area and alternatives," the notice states. "This NOI (Notice of Intent) also serves to announce the initiation of the written scoping process for this EIS," which will allow "federal, state, tribal, and local governments and other interested parties to aid the MMS in determining the significant issues, potential alternatives, and mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS and the possible need for additional information."

A key provision of the notice - "The MMS is considering potential alternatives to the proposed action such as : modifying the size of the development, phasing the development, and considering alternative sites." Alternative locations cited in the notice are south of Tuckernuck Island, Nantucket Shoals, Monomoy Shoals and east of Nauset Beach, which is described as a "Deepwater Alternative."

Written comments will be accepted by mail or through the MMS website no later than July 14.
Mailed comments should be sent in an envelope addressed, "Comments on the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS on the Cape Wind project, Minerals Management Service, 381 Elden St., Mail Stop 4042, Herndon, VA 20164.

MMS is also holding 10 public hearings -- what the agency is refers to as "scoping meetings" where comments can be submitted in person --  across the country between May 18 and June 8. The only hearing in New England was held May 25 in Dedham.

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Gimme shelter, gimme Flex, gimme a town band

Harwich news of the week
May 31, 2006

Facts On Flex Following years of anticipation and months of planning, residents of the Lower/Outer Cape will be rewarded with frequent, year-round public transportation Thursday, June 1 when the innovative Flex bus begins running under the direction of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority.     The bus will run every half hour, seven days a week from 6 in the morning to about 10 p.m. through Labor Day. After then, hourly service is planned. Twelve new buses with clean-burning engines, purchased for $3.4 million by the Cape Cod National Seashore, will be used.     Flex will run along a defined route between Harwich Port and Provincetown (serving Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Brewster) but will also go up to three-quarters of a mile off its route to pick up and discharge passengers who have made a reservation at least two hours ahead of time. See the route map here... [more] Gimme shelter By Douglas Karlson/ dkarlson@cnc.com With a top-category hurricane barreling toward Cape Cod, would residents respond to evacuation orders if they couldn’t bring along, or make some arrangement, for the care of dogs or cats? Most pet owners, like Harwich Port resident Nan Poor, say they wouldn’t... [more] Dioramas illustrate town’s maritime history By Douglas Karlson/ dkarlson@cnc.com Long before the cranberry became king, Harwich lived off the sea. In the 19th century, without the harbors it has today, the town depended on merchants’ wharves in Nantucket Sound and the Herring River. Local historian John Roche has created five dioramas depicting the wharves. Three of them are on display in the front window of the House of Morgan on Main Street in Harwich Port... [more] Groundcovers don’t have to be green By Stephanie Foster/ sfoster@cnc.com The word ground cover conjures up a sea of shining green pachysandra for me. Actually in my own yard, it’s more of a puddle of yellow leaves... [more]

Harwich: The Old Comers By Fran Geberths Twenty years after the settlement of Plymouth plantation in 1620, the royal patent establishing the Plymouth Colony was transferred by the Purchasers - or as they were sometimes known - the Old Comers, to the freemen of the colony. Soon, second-generation Pilgrims began migrating to Duxbury, Marshfield and south to Sandwich and Yarmouth on Cape Cod. In 1643 the Plymouth church had purchased land from the Monomoy Indians in the area now Orleans, but a later survey showed the purchase to be too small for the growing colony’s needs. The land was then open to any wishing to settle there provided they reimbursed the colony for the cost of the purchase... [more]

Carolyn Cragin takes top job at school district By Douglas Karlson/ dkarlson@cnc.com Saying she is impressed with Harwich’s enthusiasm for its students, Carolyn Cragin last week accepted the school superintendent’s post... [more]

Good things come to those who wait By Ginny Hewitt "How come I don’t see the bestsellers at your library?" The absence of the really popular books on our "New" shelves leads some library users... [more]

Cape Cod Weekly Wildlife Sightings The following sightings were reported to Mass Audubon between May 18 and May 24, 2006. If you have questions about these sightings, or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 or send e-mail to sightings@massaudubon.org... [more]

Krenrich-Russo Lonni and Frederick Krenrich of Harwich announce the engagement of their daughter, Abby Michele Krenrich of New York to Marc Anthony Vincent Russo of New York, son of the late Anthony and Margaret Russo... [more]

Harwich's own 'military mom' By Kathy Schade Today I am wearing two hats, my "mother" hat and my "chamber" hat. Last Saturday, my 21-year-old "baby" came home. After six months in Iraq, and another month or so in Gulfport, Miss., he finally was home. For two weeks leave. Here. Harwich. Home... [more]

HMS band wins gold The Harwich Middle School band grabbed a coveted Gold Award at the Great East Music Festival in Wilbraham on May 12. According to band director Gordon Napier, the band, composed of 41 students from grades 6 through 9, performed a medley of Mozart compositions, Glenn Miller's "In the Mood," and a graduation tune called "Achievement" before two judges at Minnechaud High School... [more]

Applying for affordable housing not an easy task By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com A man in Wellfleet thinks that Barnstable County keeps a master list. A woman in Provincetown assumed that you register at town hall and put your in some sort of database and then you receive an e-mail when it's your turn. One couple who's been waiting for five years missed the last one because they didn't even know it was coming... [more]

Alleged burglary is foiled Harwich police responded late Sunday night to a report of a breaking and entering in progress at a business located on Lower County Road... [more]

The ospreys have landed! By Text and photos Stephanie Foster/ sfoster@cnc.com When the Harwich Conservation Trust and AmeriCorps volunteers installed an osprey platform in the marshlands of the Herring River in West Harwich, they kept their fingers crossed that it would get used. Well, they can uncross them. The osprey have landed. A pair has taken up residence and begun building a nest... [more]

How selectmen voted... Agreement with Cape Cod Tech regarding emergency shelter for animals No/ Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes. Increase disposal area sticker fee from $85 to $100 Yes/No/Yes/No/Yes... [more]

Read the rest of these Oracle stories here, and comment below.

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2 studies tie stronger hurricanes to global warming

MIT and Purdue researchers reach same conclusions
Home insurance premiums to rise 20-30% with hurricane deductibles

Stories today in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle report that global warming is a direct cause of the recent, stronger hurricanes to hit the U.S. coast.

Climate researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology separately reported new evidence Tuesday supporting the idea that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes.

That claim is the subject of a long-running scientific dispute. And while the new research supports one side, neither the authors nor other climate experts say it is conclusive.

In one new paper, to appear in a coming issue of Geophysical Research Letters, Matthew Huber of the Purdue department of earth and atmospheric sciences and Ryan Sriver, a graduate student there, calculate the damage that could be caused by storms worldwide, using data normally applied to reconciling weather forecast models with observed weather events.

The Purdue scientists found that their results matched earlier work by Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at MIT. Emanuel has argued that global warming, specifically the warming of the tropical oceans, is already increasing the power expended by hurricanes.

The WSJ story warned that the developments along our own coastline since the disastrous 1938 storm makes our region far more vulnerable today.

The WSJ story begins,

Bracing for the Worst
Believed at Risk of a Major Hurricane, Northeast Chafes as Insurers Pull Out

Nearly 70 years ago, a violent hurricane ripped across the south shore of Long Island, then largely farmland. The storm, locally dubbed the Long Island Express, sent 30- to 50-foot waves surging ashore, killing 50 people and 750,000 chickens in the Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk.

Tomorrow, a new hurricane season is set to begin, with the ever-present threat that a mammoth storm could deviate from recent patterns making landfall in the Southeast and follow a path similar to that of the Long Island Express. But where chickens scratched in 1938 now sit some of the most expensive homes in the U.S. As a result, the insurance  market here is showing glimmers of the kind of fragility that has plagued places like Florida.

The story goes on to state that home insurance premiums are going up as much as 20% to 30%, and hurricane deductibles may follow.

Read the stories here, here and here, and comment below.

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Police raid, Oil spill, Student stabbed, School bus accident, Arrests in Pit Bull deaths

FRIDAY JUNE 2, 2006
PEDESTRIAN CRITICALLY INJURED IN DENNIS
DENNIS – A pedestrian was critically injured after being struck by a vehicle on Route 6A in Dennis. It happened around 9 PM near the intersection of Briarfield Road. The victim was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital. Dennis Police are investigating. Further details were not immediately available.

OIL SPILL REPORTED IN BOURNE
BOURNE – Crews from Bourne Fire and the Coast Guard are on the scene of an oil spill on the water in Bourne. Booms were deployed to contain the spill. The size and cause of the spill could not immediately be confirmed. We’ll bring you further details as they become available.

STUDENT STABBED INSIDE FALMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL
FALMOUTH – A 17 year old Falmouth High School student is under arrest charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a 15-year old shortly before 11 AM. Falmouth Police tell Cape Wide News Erica Schouten, believed to be a junior allegedly stabbed a female freshman for unknown reasons. School resource officer Cheryl Atherton was at the school and responded immediately along with school officials. Police also say Schouten kicked a school official twice. No motive for the attack was given. Schouten was arrested for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (knife), assault with intent to murder, and two counts of assault and battery on a public employee. The victim’s injuries are reportedly not life-threatening. Grief counselors are expected to be made available for students who knew the victim or suspect and/or may have witnessed the attack.

TWO INJURED IN SCHOOL BUS ACCIDENT
DENNIS – Two people in a truck were slightly injured when it was rear-ended by a school bus. Police say the truck stopped to let some students cross Bob Crowell Road near Old Bass River Road around 7 AM when the bus rear-ended them. The truck driver 36-year old Frederick Van Sickle of Yarmouthport and a passenger 19-year old Alex Anderson were taken to Cape Cod Hospital for evaluation. Two other passengers were treated at the scene. None of the students on the bus or the bus driver were injured. Dennis Police are investigating the crash.

FALMOUTH POLICE EXECUTE SEARCH WARRANT
FALMOUTH – Falmouth Police acting on a tip of stolen handguns from Florida and a suspect with outstanding warrants raided a home on Pinehurst Drive Friday morning. They didn’t find the guns but with the assistance of the Mass State Police STOP team arrested 40-year old Steven Gauthier on the warrants. Police also say they did recover stolen motor vehicle parts.

TWO CAPE MEN ARRESTED IN PIT BULL SHOOTINGS
Keith Tynock of Cotuit and Todd Souderberg of Forestdale have been accused in the shooting deaths of two pit bulls referenced below. Barnstable Police Sergeant Sean Sweeney says the two men, both 26, have been arrested.

The police said the men had taken the two pit bulls from a friend who was moving, but found that the dogs were not getting along with another pit bull he already owned. Tynock and Souderberg allegedly put the dogs in the trunk of a car and drove them to a wooded area in West Barnstable, where they were shot numerous times.

Keith Kynock said the dogs did not get along. Kynock became angry and asked a friend, Todd Soderberg, to help him get rid of them. The men shot the dogs 37 times with automatic weapons in the wooded area on right.  

THURSDAY JUNE 1st, 2006 - Second Pit Bull incidsent this week;
PIT BULL SHOT DURING WARRANT EXECUTION
COPS WERE LOOKING FOR SUSPECT IN SHOTS FIRED INCIDENT
CENTERVILLE – A specialized response team consisting of Barnstable and Yarmouth police officers shot a pit bull while executing a warrant at a home on Strawberry Hill Road early Thursday morning. It all started Wednesday night around 8 PM when police responded to a shots fired call on Pine Street in Hyannis. Based on information provided by witnesses that shots had been in fact fired, police obtained a no-knock warrant for the house on Strawberry Hill Road where the 16-year old suspect’s mother lived. Police say the dog lunged at them but the occupants of the home who were handcuffed during the search per protocol disagree with that account saying the dog was not aggressive. The suspect was not at the house and is still at large. It’s the second time shots have been fired in Hyannis in the last three weeks, fortunately no one has been hit in either incident.

DRIVER EXTRICATED AFTER ROLLOVER CRASH
FALMOUTH A driver had to be extricated from their vehicle after it rolled over at the intersection of McCallum Drive and Sippewisset Road around 10 PM. The victim was not seriously injured. Falmouth Police are investigating the crash.

APARTMENT COMPLEX EVACUATED BY GAS MAIN BREAK   
DENNIS – An apartment building was briefly evacuated after the gas service was torn from the building. It happened around 6 PM. Firefighters were able to shut off the gas until Keyspan could arrived and make repairs. Further details were not immediately available.

CAPE FIREFIGHTERS HELP QUELL ONSET BRUSH FIRES
INVESTIGATORS LOOK TO SEE IF BLAZES CONNECTED TO SERIES OF FIRES
ONSET – Firefighters from Bourne were among those called from several towns to help put out over a dozen brush fires along the Cranberry Highway early this morning. Crews set up a staging area behind the Walmart in the Onset section of Wareham. No homes were threatened and no one was injured. Investigators are trying to see if the fires are connected to a series of fires in the Bournehurst Drive area.

FIRST WHALE STOLEN, THEN OTHERS VANDALIZED
HYANNIS – Earlier this week thieves made off with a 400 pound fiberglass sculpture of a whale that was part of the Cape Cod Whale Trail* exhibition. A $1,000 reward has been offered and authorities say several men were seen by an eyewitness putting the whale into a red van possible a Dodge. To add insult to injury sometime Wednesday two other whales were vandalized. The whales are to be eventually auctioned off for charity.

Read the rest of the Cape Wide News stories here, and comment below. 

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Jay Cashman files application for wind farms

According to a story in today's Standard-Times, Jay Cashman has filed his applications for the three wind farms in Buzzards Bay as he stated he would.

Here's the S-T story; 

A Quincy developer yesterday applied for state approval to build a $750 million offshore wind farm with 90 to 120 turbines in Buzzards Bay.

The turbines would provide an energy source equal to 2 percent of the current statewide electrical energy consumption, according to the application filed with the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, which will begin a review process.
Under the Buzzards Bay proposal, windmills 400 feet high would be built 3 to 4 miles off the coast of Sconticut Neck in Fairhaven, Barneys Joy in Dartmouth and Naushon Island, one of the Elizabeth Islands. The plan was first reported by The Standard-Times last week.

Read the rest here, and comment below. 

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FAA shut down 15 mid-west wind farms this year

Despite the fact that wind farm developers solved the problem with radar by installing new software at the radar installation and realigning some towers, and that the British government dropped its blanket opposition to proposed wind farms, political pressure from Senator John Warner and others has moved the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to shut down fifteen wind farm since the first of this year.

"This is a big, ugly political maneuver by a handful of people who are undermining America's energy security," said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a non-profit group that promotes renewable power adding that despite the government's recent concern about proposed wind projects, it is allowing dozens of current wind farms to continue to operate within sight of radar systems.

The government's bureaucratic entanglements come as President Bush is encouraging the use of more wind power as a solution to the skyrocketing prices of oil and natural gas, and for environmental problems such as global warming. During a speech in Milwaukee three months ago, Bush said wind turbines eventually could provide 20 percent of the nation's energy needs. 

The Chicago Tribune exposes the depth of this chicanery in this story today; 

FAA takes the wind out of wind farms
Critics blame politics after agency suspends projects in Midwest

By Michael Hawthorne,Chicago Tribune staff reporter, Published May 31, 2006

The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar.

But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts would spoil the view at their summer homes.

Opponents of the Cape Wind project include several influential members of Congress. Critics say their latest attempt to thwart the planting of 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has led to a moratorium on new wind farms hundreds of miles away in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Federal officials declined to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers said that at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of the year...

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