EXTRA...

Fear & loathing in Middleborough; Huge insurance protest; Menhaden matter and they're missing; Catastrophic event fund proposed

1,000 Cape homeowners protest insurance hikes

WEST BARNSTABLE -- About 1,000 angry Cape Cod property owners met with government officials at Cape Cod Community College yesterday and demanded help against rising home insurance rates.

"We need serious government intervention," said Pat Dalziel , of Falmouth, who said her home annual insurance premium has increased 225 percent, to $2,200 in the past two years.

"We don't understand how this has been able to happen," said Dalziel, who expects her premiums to increase again next year...  Read the rest of this Globe story here.  Leave a comment
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Rural Massachusetts town fears impact of possible casino
Cranberries, Clydesdales and Casinos?

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. --Jim Reynolds watches his neighbor's Clydesdales across his stone wall during his morning coffee. The geese fly so low over his house that "I can hear them hissing."  The fifth-generation Middleborough resident says this is not the proper place for a casino, arguing that traffic, drunk drivers, and 24-hour flood lights over massive parking lots would supplant the rural appeal of his hometown.

"I fear this is going to be enormous," said Reynolds, 44. "I find it distressing."  It's a sentiment echoed by others in this southeastern Massachusetts town, where investors of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians have agreed to buy 325 acres for a possible casino site.  Middleborough, the second-largest town in the state by area, is about 40 miles south of Boston. The town of 20,000 residents is home to cranberry growers, farmers, and an increasing number of professional couples.

"Most people don't know the name Ledyard, (Conn.), but they know the name Foxwoods," said Reynolds, who runs a flower shop a quarter-mile from where the tribe bought land. "I don't know what town Mohegan Sun is in, but I know Mohegan Sun. Pretty soon I don't think anyone is going to know the name Middleborough."  Town officials -- facing budget shortfalls and possible layoffs -- reached out to the Mashpee Wampanoags in recent months, as did the city of New Bedford, as it became clear that the Wampanoags would win federal recognition as a tribe. The federal status becomes official May 23...  Read the rest of this Globe story here. Leave a comment
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Book Review: Menhaden matter, and they're in trouble
The Most Important Fish in the Sea - Menhaden and America

Last July, then-Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. posed for cameras beside environmentalists on a scenic bluff overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and made what everyone present claimed was an historic announcement.

With Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine live on a teleconference screen at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, the governors proclaimed that they were going to save the bay by imposing a cap on fishing for menhaden.

Why worry about menhaden? They are cigar-sized, oily, bony, notoriously smelly fish that no human would want to eat. They're the Rodney Dangerfields of the aquatic world - getting no respect, with their bulging eyes, oversized heads, pudgy bodies and unsavory reputation.

But menhaden are also a vital food for predators such as bluefish and striped bass, providing the main nourishment for several fish species along the Atlantic Coast. And swirling schools of the tiny fish serve as vacuum cleaners for the Chesapeake Bay, eating up algae and cleaning the waters.

Although few people have heard of them, menhaden are "the most important fish in the sea," as author H. Bruce Franklin describes them in his book by the same title, published last month by Island Press.

The fish - also known as bunkers, alewives and by more than two dozen other names - reproduced fast enough to survive these historic assaults. But in recent decades, their numbers have fallen and their range has shrunk, and they haven't been seen north of Cape Cod since 1993...  Read the rest of this Baltimore SUN book review here.   Leave a comment
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Coastal insurance crisis on radar at Statehouse
Sen. O'Leary propos "catastrophic event fund"

BOSTON — When the Cape and Islands first began to warn about a coastal home insurance crisis three years ago, the region was alone at the Statehouse. Then the problem of home insurers charging exorbitant premiums or pulling out of the market altogether began creeping up the coast, to New Bedford, the South Shore and even north of Boston.

Not coincidentally, there is much greater interest at the Statehouse today in trying to find a solution, but deep challenges remain in getting something passed. Sen. Robert O'Leary, D-Barnstable, has proposed establishing a state catastrophic event fund that would back up insurance companies in the event of a hurricane or other disaster. Rather than pushing homeowners entirely into the FAIR Plan, the state's insurance of last resort, some SouthCoast lawmakers want to create partial FAIR Plan coverage just for wind damage...  Read the rest of this Standard-Times story here.