EXTRA...

Mid-Cape Home Centers to close Hyannis store; Boston DJ gets new trial hearing; Wareham turtles taken to safety; Sylvia Earle on restoring the oceans; Norton man, 77, sets aside ills to rebuild boat; Only sisters to fly WWII Spitfires reunited

TODAY's quote: "In terms of potential layoffs, that has not been determined yet, however, we know many of the employees will be absorbed into our other seven locations." - Lynn Mason-Small on the closing of Mid-Cape Home Center's Hyannis store.

Mid-Cape Home Centers to close Hyannis store

One of Mid-Cape Home Centers eight locations will be closing up shop at the end of this month.

The full service store on Bearses Way in Hyannis will be shut down on Oct. 24, but the 15,000 square foot design showroom on Route 132 in Hyannis will remain open.

The contractor sales team will operate out of the design showroom instead of the Bearses Way location. Company officials said it is unclear if some employees will lose their job as a result of the closure.

The only sisters to fly Spitfires in World War II are reunited with iconic aircraft

The only sisters to fly Spitfire fighter planes during World War II have been reunited with one of the iconic aircraft.
    Joy Lofthouse, 86, and Yvonne MacDonald, 88 - who joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1943 after reading an advert in a magazine - delivered the aircraft throughout Britain to ease the strain on combat pilots.
    The pair were chosen from thousands of female applicants and were among just 164 women allowed into the prestigious unit, of whom there are now just 15 still alive. ...
    ... Mrs MacDonald, who now lives in Cape Cod in the U.S. described the Spitfire as a 'gorgeous' aircraft. ... Daily Mail.

“In terms of potential layoffs, that has not been determined yet, however, we know many of the employees will be absorbed into our other seven locations,” said Lynn Mason-Small, director of marketing for Mid-Cape Home Centers. ... CapeCodder.com.

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Boston DJ gets new trial hearing

After denying two motions last year by Boston deejay Barry Scott to question jurors who convicted him of resisting arrest after Provincetown police responded to noise complaints at a private birthday party, the judge sitting on the 2008 hearing has agreed to consider granting a new trial.

Orleans District Court Judge Brian Merrick will hear a motion by Scott’s attorney on Oct. 19 to grant another trial based on new evidence that has come forward. A new witness who attended the outdoor birthday party has come forward, according to Scott’s attorney, Gary Pelletier. ... Provincetown Banner.

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Turtles found in Wareham Community Garden taken to safety

More than vegetables have been plucked from the greens at the Wareham Community Garden.  Three baby turtles were recently taken from the garden to their temporary new home where they will be protected and looked after until they can be released back into the wild.

Wind turbines quiet, elegant

Dartmouth is considering the installation of one or two wind turbines at the southern Department of Public Works site on Chase Road. Some people are understandably concerned about the visual and noise impact that the wind turbines might have for them.
    I have visited a number of wind turbines in our area. One, in Hull, is located on the grounds of their high school. I stood at the base of that one, and I did not find it noisy there. Visit Hull's Web site, to see what they think about it.
    There is one on the campus of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, surrounded by school buildings. I've been by that one many times when I have taken my boat through the Cape Cod Canal, and I've never heard any sound whatsoever from it. Visit their Web site. ... SouthCoastToday.com.

The two Eastern box turtles were discovered by chance as eggs in a working area of the Garden.

“It seemed sensible in balancing risks and benefits to move the eggs to an unused garden plot at the edge of the community gardens,” said Don “the turtle guy” Lewis. “It made it easier and safer to cover the nest with a predator excluder to save the eggs from predators.” ... Wareham Courier.

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A Blueprint For Restoring The World's Oceans To Health

In her long career as an oceanographer, Sylvia Earle has witnessed the damage that humanity has done to the Earth’s oceans. But in an interview with Yale Environment 360, she says there's still time to pull the seas back from the brink.

For nearly half a century, Sylvia Earle has been exploring the world’s oceans, taking part in more than 400 expeditions and spending thousands of hours under the sea. An explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle has broken many barriers in the world of deep-sea exploration.

In 1970 she led the all-female Tektite II expedition during which she and four other women spent two weeks living in a small structure under the sea. In 1979, she descended to 1,250 feet in a dive suit, setting a women’s depth record and also walking untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth than any person ever has. In addition, she holds the women’s record for a solo dive in a submersible vehicle, reaching a depth of 3,280 feet.

Now, drawing on decades of oceanographic work, Earle has written a book in which she reflects on the profound changes she has witnessed in the world’s oceans and offers her thoughts on how to restore the health of a badly over-taxed marine environment. In The World is Blue, Earle describes the two-pronged assault on the seas: what we are pulling out of the oceans, through unfettered industrial fishing, and what we are putting into the oceans through pollutants, fertilizers, and growing amounts of carbon dioxide that are leading to a dangerous acidification of the sea. ... Yale Environment 360.

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Call him Steamboat Charlie

Norton man, 77, sets aside ills to rebuild boat

When it comes to making a 26-foot-long Navy whaleboat steam powered, Charlie Thomae is the former diesel engineman who could.

After working on it for more than a year, the retired Naval Reservist and Norton firefighter hopes this week finally to sail a 54-year-old diesel motor whaleboat that he converted into a steam-powered vessel.

Thomae, 77, says he built a steam engine room and pilot house for the boat, which he bought, minus the engine, from a Newburyport man in June 2008. The last thing on the agenda was a paint job.

"I want to try it out before the winter comes," Thomae said from his summer home in Wellfleet, a home he and his father built in 1956. ... Sun Chronicle.