EXTRA...

JFK film shown; The Great Gas Rip-Off: Tribe pushing casino plan

TODAY's quote:
                                   "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,
                                    it cannot save the few who are rich." - John F. Kennedy

Wampanoag push forward on casino plan
Tribe wants to place Mashpee, Middleborough land in trust

Casino opponents are tracking the progress of the Wampanoag's federal application closely. Rich Young, president of the local anti-casino group called Casinofacts, as well as Casino Free Massachusetts, said his membership plans to go through the Wampanoag's draft environmental impact statement carefully when it is released. "We'll make certain all concerns that were raised were addressed properly," Young said. "If questions were left unanswered, we'll go back and make sure they are made to answer them."

A faltering economy and a Beacon Hill political stalemate may have quieted the hoopla over casinos in Massachusetts for now, but the Mashpee Wampanoag are marching forward in their effort to secure federal trust status for 540 acres in Middleborough targeted for a tribe-run casino.

Before their application to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs can be approved, however, the tribe must address the long list of possible impacts that have been raised by area residents and officials. Over the next two months, a consultant for the Mashpee Wampanoag will draft an Environmental Impact Statement to meet that requirement.

The tribe's consultant will look at issues relating to both the casino site in Middleborough and tribe-owned properties in Mashpee that the Wampanoag wish to place in trust. The overwhelming majority of letters and public comments made on the Wampanoag's land-in-trust application relate to the casino proposal... Globe.
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Kennedy film captures personal memories of life in ‘Camelot’
“The Center of the World - Hyannisport and
the Presidency of John F. Kennedy,”

Scenes of the President being greeted by excited children as he arrived aboard Marine One, splashing in the waters of Cape Cod with his children, and sailing with family members provided brief glimpses into the personal life of the Kennedys and “Camelot.”

Filmmaker Andrew Fone “was totally intrigued at the various possibilities” when he was commissioned by the Kennedy Museum Foundation to produce a film documenting President John F. Kennedy’s personal life in Hyannisport, MA.

For “The Center of the World - Hyannisport and the Presidency of John F. Kennedy,” Fone obtained rare archival film and photos from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester, MA, the National Archives, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and CBS News where he was a producer for eight years.

Rarely seen film footage was interspersed with clips of the memories and musings of family, friends and neighbors on Hyannisport, including Senator Ted Kennedy. The senator was interviewed last year on Christmas Eve, Fone said, before his diagnosis with a brain tumor and subsequent brain surgery.  “He was very giving of his time,” Fone said. “His inclusion made the film what it is. It’s really Senator Kennedy’s memories that drove it onward.”

The film, which became “so much more than an oral history,” was shown for only the second time after its October premiere in Hyannisport at the Boca Grande Community Center on Nov. 25... Gasparilla Gazette.

Read Cape Cod Today's coverage of the film's premiere here.

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The Great Gas Rip-Off

"A major spill along the beaches of Cape Cod, Long Island, or the Middle or South Atlantic states could devastate the areas affected . . . the Atlantic [is a] hostile environment for oil and gas operations. Storm and seismic conditions may be more severe than in the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico."

This summer, the price of gasoline had in a few short months skyrocketed in the United States to $4.50 a gallon. The oil companies claimed the fault was China and India going car-crazy and guzzling up gas, problems in the Middle East, then it was refinery capacity and, all along, if the ban on drilling in areas on the continental shelf offshore was only lifted, everything would be different.

Filling up a car at 40 or 50 bucks a shot was hurting people financially, and impacting on the national economy. Meanwhile, the oil companies were raking in record, indeed obscene, profits - many tens of billions of dollars. People were getting angrier and angrier thinking that price-rigging was going on.

Then, as suddenly, in the last few months, the price of gas went down and down. Now it's half the cost a gallon that it was in the summer. The price of a barrel of crude oil has dived - from a high of $147 a barrel in July to, this week, $51 a barrel.

And people are still car-crazy in China and India and problems continue in the Middle East. No new refineries have opened. As to that ban on drilling on the continental shelf offshore, it was lifted by Congress - but, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, if drilling starts A.S.A.P., it wouldn't "have a significant impact on domestic . . . prices before 2030"... The East Hampton Star.