EXTRA...

Real Estate rise; CCBL to New Bedford; Hurricane threat

Housing market on mend?
The number of single-family homes sold rose 13% in January compared to a year earlier

A sharp rise in January home sales and modest price declines indicate that the Massachusetts real estate market may be recovering from its worst slump in more than a decade.

The number of single-family homes sold rose almost 13 percent in January compared to a year earlier, the first increase in the last 10 months, according to the monthly housing report released yesterday by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Sales were strongest on the South Shore of the Boston metropolitan area and on Cape Cod. The median price of a single-family home fell to $340,000, 2.4 percent lower than a year ago but virtually unchanged for the past four months... Read the rest of this Globe story here.  Leave a comment
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Gatemen to revisit New Bedford;
Mayor Lang hopes for more baseball in Whaling City

The Cape Cod Baseball League is going off-Cape for its all-star game for the first time since 1999, and its coming back to New Bedford for at least one regular-season game this year.  Wareham Gatemen general manager John Wylde and New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang hope both are signs the league will continue to spread west.

"This is just a great opportunity for the town of Wareham and Southeastern Massachusetts," Wylde said. "In our way, we kind of represent Southeastern Massachusetts."
The Gatemen will host the Cape League All-Star Game at Spillane Field on July 28.  Wareham is the Western-most team in the league — the only organization located before the Bourne Bridge.   Read  the rest of this Standard-Times story here.  Leave a comment
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Worldchanging Interview: Kerry Emanuel, Climate Scientist

^{Kerry Emanuel, one of the world's leading authorities on hurricanes, is a professor of tropical meteorology and climate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His book, Divine Wind, delves into the history and science of hurricanes.}

Even if climate science could tell you exactly what would happen to the physical climate over the next 100 years, to undertake the analysis of the optimum route for society, what's the mixture of trying to mitigate it versus trying to adapt to it, it is a profoundly complicated problem and I would be foolish to have a shot at it.  Invariably it will be a mixture of things because unless someone discovers some absolutely spectacular alternative energy source, and we can't rule that out it might happen. People will have a demand for energy, but there are things we can do...

...How does it affect their economic welfare? As it is already happening, people are moving out of Cape Cod because they can't insure their houses, because there is a fear that the risk of hurricanes is going up, and that is when people wake up... Readv the rest of this World Changing interview here.