EXTRA...

How soon they forget in Ted's own precinct; Searching for the elusive Cottontail; Last gasp for a backyard tower; Wamp lawyer's other problems; U-Mass Dartmouth wins $2/3 million fed contract

TODAY's quote: "When the people in the village saw that thing going up, they were like ‘All right, what's Joe Mello doing now?'" - Jessica Sousa.

Bringing home a rabbit
Searching for the elusive Cottontail

A medium-sized brown and gray rabbit is driving people on Cape Cod to crawl on their hands and knees through the snow, searching for signs of it.
   It is the New England Cottontail, one of the rarest species in the Northeast.
Stewardship Coordinator James P. Rassman of the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR), Director Quan Tobey of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Environmental and Natural Resources Department, and John P. Kelly of the Massachusetts Army National Guard have combined their efforts to help increase the numbers of the New England cottontail in parts of Mashpee, Falmouth, Sandwich, and at Camp Edwards on the Massachusetts Military Reservation... Mashpee Enterprise.

In a Kennedy Hometown, Warm Feelings Don't Necessarily Mean Votes
Even his own precinct went for Brown on Tuesday

The residents of this cozy village on the southern shore of Cape Cod recollect with pride the sight of his unmistakable hefty, white-topped frame as they exchanged greetings on the street, waited together in line at the local ice cream shop, shared a church pew or returned his dogs - those dogs! - after they found their way into some neighboring yard...

The Town of Barnstable, made up of seven villages, the largest of which is Hyannis, voted 12,331 to 7,543 in favor of Mr. Brown. The precinct that encompassed the Kennedy family's Hyannis Port compound, and where Mr. Kennedy himself used to cast his vote, also rejected the Democrat, Martha Coakley, the state attorney general who had been considered a prohibitive favorite.... NY Times.
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Wampanoag lawyer in kerfuffle of his own
Fialkow, partner missed red flags in alleged scheme

For most of his career, Jay L. Fialkow was a prominent and politically connected Boston lawyer. He was an assistant attorney general, worked on privatization issues for Governor William Weld and efforts by the Wampanoag tribe to build a casino. A major fund-raiser for Jewish causes, he is known to friends far and wide as "Buddy.''

Now 82 and semiretired, Fialkow is facing a legal ordeal of his own. For five years, he and his partner, Jeffrey P. Ross, 65, a successful businessman in his own right, were involved with a Framingham man whom federal authorities now accuse of running a massive Ponzi scheme. They lost $2 million of their own families' money and referred others to Richard L. Elkinson, who allegedly solicited investments for a company that never existed.

Government lawsuits in the Elkinson case show that Fialkow and Ross failed to examine basic facts about the uniform peddler who would rob them and their acquaintances of millions of dollars... Globe.
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Last gasp for backyard tower
One man's unique invention powered a family of five for a generation

Bruce Gavin said he is now going to use Mr. Mello's turbine at his own home in Little Compton, giving it a second life.

Joe Mello had just a fourth-grade education, but his ingenuity and engineering skills gave him and his family free electricity for years.

His windmill, nicknamed "Mello's Wind System," was erected April 23, 1983, and became a local landmark near the intersection of Wood and Hope streets. The wind turbine stood atop a 110-foot-tall tower, made of pieces of steel he bolted together by himself.

The system generated between 400 to 500 kW hours per month - enough to supply his home and the elaborate workshop in his backyard for two decades - but it has sat idle since Mr. Mello moved back to his home in the Açores in 2004. His children decided it was time for his creation to come down as they try to sell the house... East Bay. See the rest of New England's winmills here.
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$634,639 Federal Contract Awarded to University of Massachusetts

The University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth, Mass., won a $634,639 federal contract from the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Natick, Mass., for research on the role of host-mediated phosphorylation and palmitoylation in the extended survival and stability of botulinum neurotoxin in neuronal cells.