EXTRA...

"Mother's Day morass" hurts Route 6A business; Fulcher out, Tuttle in, McAuliffe out, Holcomb, Tolley in

TODAY's quote: “Whoever conceived of this (Sagamore Bridge repair) plan should be fired.
If I were a tourist and I was caught up in that thing on Sunday, I would never go to the Cape again.’’
- Anne Kilguss,  Orleans second home owner.

"Mother's Day morass" at Sagamore Bridge angers visitors, hurts tourism here

Orleans: Fulcher out, Hodgson in

When the Orleans votes were tallied last night, longtime Orleans Selectman Margie Fulcher walked over to John Hodgson and gave him a hug and wished him good luck.
     The 41-year-old banker had knocked on 1,300 doors over the course of the campaign and racked up an almost 2-1 victory in his third run for the office.
   For what he'll do different, see his replies to our questions here.

Tuttle wins in Dennis

After his reelection last night in Dennis, Selectman Alan Tuttle said, “Wastewater is the biggest issue we face. The towns and county are now realizing that there are new ways that are more cost effective to deal with this.”

McAuliffe out, Holcomb, Tolley in

She's been an elected official in Yarmouth for a quarter century but like Margie Fulcher in Orleans, Suzanne McAuliffe may have stayed too long at the party and came in third in the town's two-man Selectman race last night losing to incumbent Erik R. Tolley and challenger Norman C. Holcomb.Route 6A businesses down 50 percent, 
Sandwich in gridlock all of Sunday

By Walter Brooks

The Boston Globe reports that with irate motorists trickling past idle equipment in the closed lanes on the Sagamore Bridge a few weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers which controls the bridges over the canal had its contractor double the number of shifts halfway through the project to meet the late-May deadline for reopening all lanes by May 24.

"Those who do not learn from history..."

The complete George Santayana quote is “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” but it's clear neither the US Army Corps or the Department of Highways have learned from theirs.

The Army Corps faced a backlash in 2009 after a resurfacing project on the Sagamore deck caused severe backups, prompting the convening of a federal, state, and local task force to work with business and civic groups and coordinate project timing and traffic management.

Former State Rep. Thomas Cahir and Cape Cod Transportation Authority chief said one part remedy would be to relocate Exit 1 which is literally at the foot of the Sagamore Bridge, to enter Route 6 some distance to the east.

Cahir says drivers who have tried to skirt Route 6 until the last possible moment, clogging Route 6A, have worsened delays while trying to merge onto Route 6 just as that highway shrinks to one lane outbound.  “I really think that’s the reason for the most frustration,’’ said Cahir.

Many drivers now leave Route 6 and try taking the alternative Route 6A which has resulted in a massive gridlock through the entire town of Sandwich bringing local travel and business to a standstill.

The Globe reported that Kerry Barrett of Twin Acres Ice Cream Shoppe said business has fallen by more than 50 percent on Sundays, normally the busiest day, and Mother's Day was by far the worst.

Read the Globe story here.

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Cape daily newspaper owner's top UK editor charged

TODAY's quote: "I have concluded ... there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction, All these matters relate to the ongoing police investigation into allegations of phone hacking and corruption of public officials in relation to the News of the World and The Sun newspapers."
- Alison Levitt QC, Principal Legal Adviser to Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions.

Rupert Murdoch's top British newspaper executive charged with conspiracy

News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks charged with perverting the course of justice.

By Walter Brooks

Rebekah Brooks headed the Murdoch newspapers in Great Britain including the tabloid News of the World which was closed after 168 years. That's Murdoch in the inset.The New York Times along with literally hundreds of other newspapers around the world report that Rebekah Brooks, the one-time  head of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire and a close friend of British Prime Minister David Cameron, was charged on Tuesday that she, her husband and four others conspired to pervert the course of justice in the hacking scandal that has burrowed into public life here.

The Times said the decision to prosecute Ms. Brooks and her husband was seen as a blow to Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Cameron, who has been depicted as maintaining a cozy friendship with her both when he was in the opposition and, since 2010, as prime minister. 

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the owner of the daily Cape Cod Times newspaper, the Barnstable Patriot and Nantucket Inquirer-Mirror weeklies, and the Standard-Times in New Bedford.

Today's charges are among the most dramatic developments of a controversy that has sent shockwaves through the British political establishment and rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire to its core.

Ms. Brooks, no relation to the owners of Cape Cod Today, faces one charge of conspiring with her personal assistant Cheryl Carter to "remove seven boxes of material from the archives of News International". The maximum sentence for perverting the course of justice is life imprisonment.

In a separate charge she is accused of conspiring with her husband, her chauffeur and a security consultant to conceal "documents and computers" from the investigating detectives. All the offenses are alleged to have taken place in July of 2011.

The other suspects were identified as Cheryl Carter, Ms. Brooks’s personal assistant; Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of the Murdoch family’s News Corporation; a chauffeur, Paul Edwards; and two security consultants, Daryl Jorsling and a second suspect who was not named.

Read the Times story here.

See the hundreds of other stories about this scandal here.

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The killers William Delahunt failed to prosecute

TODAY's quote: “Every election cycle, I take my time, I think it through, and I think, not about whether I can win or lose, but: ‘am I in a position to make a difference?’
Can I achieve what I want to achieve outside of public life?’’ - William Delahunt, 2010.

The many killers former Congressman William Delahunt ignored while DA

Gregory Cormier's murder reminds many of the Amy Bishop case and others

By Walter Brooks

Did Delahunt allow the "second"
       Amy Bishop murders?

It now appears as if Delahunt may have used his influence in Quincy to allow the files on the Amy Bishop killing of her brother in 1989 to be closed while he was Norfolk County District Attorney and in a position to prevent three later murders.
        Amy Bishop’s February 2010 arrest in the fatal shootings of three biology department colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville put her teenage brother’s death back in the spotlight.
        Amy's brother Seth Bishop’s shotgun death was ruled accidental at the time by a state medical examiner, but according to The Patriot Ledger,Braintree’s then-police chief squelched charges the day of the shooting, but then-District Attorney William Delahunt’s office said Amy Bishop could have been charged anyway.
        Braintree officers who remember the 1986 shooting said that former Police Chief John Polio dismissed detectives from the case and ordered the department to release Amy Bishop after a telephone conversation with former District Attorney William Delahunt.
        WCVB reported in 2010 that Bishop was never booked, however, and all local police records of the case have gone missing, with the exception of an entry in the police log noting an accidental shooting.
        State Police also filed a six-page report about the shooting, dated March 30, 1987.Looking back at the overly long political career of our former Congressman William Delahunt, it is difficult to understand how the "old media" ignored the countless red flags which popped up at every step in this tarnished pol's more than a quarter-century on the public payroll.

Today the Patriot Ledger reports yet another example of highly questionable prosecutorial conduct by the former 10th District Congressman.

There was the trial of two men who Bill Delahunt failed to prosecute over twenty-years ago while he was the Norfolk County District Attorney.  Jameel Williams and Kenyatte Murrell were convicted in 2002 for the murder of Milton High School graduate Gregory Cormier in his car in 1994 by Delahunt's successor William Keating.

Cormier was 20 when he was murdered in June 1994. He had played basketball for Milton High School where he graduated in 1992.

The gunmen fired 14 rounds at the car, hitting Gregory Cormier three times.  His car rolled to a stop in some bushes with Cormier dead behind the wheel.

The two Boston gang members were 27 and 30 when a Norfolk County jury convicted them of Cormier’s murder, in a 2002 cold case prosecution.

A thirty-year wait for justice

When he was Norfolk County District Attorney, William Delahunt did not pursue indictments. Delahunt's chosen successor, Jeffrey Locke did nothing as well.

In 2002, then-District Attorney Bill Keating did, and Williams and Murrell were convicted in late 2003, partly from testimony by Shawn Castle who testified that he drove the two men to the murder site and then gave them a ride back to another gang member’s house.

For some it was reminiscent of Amy Bishop shooting of her brother while Delahunt was Norfolk DA, a failure which led to her killing three others last year in Alabama.

Did the Amy Bishop case missteps speed Delahunt's retirement?

A grimacing William Delahunt as Vice President Joe Biden campaigns for Bill Keating in 2010. File photo.

CapeCodToday.com blogger and Duxbury Clipper Senior Editor D. A. Mittell reported here two years ago that on February 12, 2010,  Massachusetts native Amy Bishop is alleged to have gone on a homicidal rampage leaving three dead and three wounded at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she was a non-tenured biology professor. The academic allegedly gone wild led to the belated discovery that on December 6, 1986, the same Amy Bishop had shot her brother Seth Bishop to death in their home in Braintree, Massachusetts where William Delahunt was the DA.

In the 1986 case, Bishop was immediately released. Despite her allegedly having fled her brother's death scene and having pointed a gun at a car dealership worker during a rampage through Braintree, the shooting of her brother was declared an accident after a short and obviously incompetent or corrupt investigation.

The fix was in, and who let Amy Bishop off the hook?

Mittell added that to those who covered law enforcement in 1986 it was retrospectively plain that the fix may have been in for the daughter of a prominent Braintree family. Just as arbitrary prosecutions from those days have led to successful innocence projects, arbitrary exculpations of the well-connected were common. At the time, he was a columnist for the Braintree Forum and other Mariner newspapers, and I completely missed the Bishop story!

William Delahunt is the man who convinced Samuel Sutter, the Bristol County District Attorney, to run against Bill Keating in the Democratic Party Primary this September.

Read the Patriot Ledger story here.

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Chatham turns down $9.5M fire station, OKs $25.9M budget; Harwich approves regional school budget

TODAY's quote: "We need to stop spending more money than we are taking in." - Steve West, Chatham.

Chatham voters reject $9.5 fire station

Voters at last night's Chatham Town Meeting rejected spending $9.5 million on a new fire station.

Speakers said the proposed building was too large for the town which recently built a new police station across from the Chatham Airport leaving the old police building adjacent to the fire station for the latter's use.

The meeting did OK a $25,900,000 operating budget despite concerns about a 12 percent increase in the tax rate, and completed the session by rejecting two zoning bylaw amendments.

Regional school budget gets Harwich Town Meeting approval

Harwich voters debated the town's share of the Monomoy Regional School District budget which is $19,679,681 for nearly an hour and a half in the opening night of Town Meeting last week, but in the end offered solid support for the historic first regional school district budget heading into a Proposition 2 ½ override vote in Tuesday's election.

Read these stories in the Cape Cod Chronicle here.

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Home prices stabilizing, sales up, inventory down

TODAY's quote: “Housing supply and demand are roughly balanced with overall housing supply at the lowest level in six years, putting sellers on an even footing with buyers in most markets.” - Moe Veissi, NAR.

You can still buy a home here for less than $200,000

One Hyannis home even listed at $180,000

By Walter Brooks

The Wall Street Journal reports that the median price for an existing, or previously-owned, home rose in three-quarters of the 146 markets tracked by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) during the January-to-March period.

But the Boston Globe reports that it's still easy to find a home for well under $200,000 in many of the state's smaller towns.

According to the NAR, the national median existing single-family home price was $158,100 in the first quarter, which is 0.4 percent below $158,700 in the first quarter of 2011.  The median is where half sold for more and half sold for less.

The newspaper says that if you are looking for small town living under $200,000, your best bet is to start driving around some of the little-known hamlets scattered across Central and Southeastern Massachusetts.

The Globe gives examples in Southeastern Massachusetts which include:

• Seekonk: $192,450
• Acushnet: $191,500
• Somerset: $195,000
• Halifax: $193,375
• New Bedford: $130,000
• Hyannis: $180,000

The best bargain: Southbridge

Many of Cape Cod's "washashores" come from towns near Worcester, and if you are willing to move back, you can buy a home in Southbridge for as little as $129,250.

Read the National Association of Realtors story here.
Read the Wall Street Journal story here.
Read the Boston Globe story here.

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Historian weighs Mashpee claims vs. reality

TODAY's quote: "The only Indian groups that historically and legitimately could be called “Wampanoag” were those of the so-called "Wampanoag Confederacy" (Pokanoket, Narragansett, and Nipmuc tribes) which sided with King Philip (c. 1675) the Pokanoket tribal sachem, in their war against the colonists. Mashpee sided with the colony in that conflict and were therefore not historically 'Wampanoag.'" - James Lynch.

Historian questions Wampanoag claim, gambling commission predictions

James Lynch cites several legal obstacles to tribe and Taunton's goals

The Taunton Gazette today has a guest column by a noted Native American historian who cites half a dozen reasons why the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe may not be able to come to a deal with either the state or the Bureau of Indian Affairs for one of the three casino licenses to be granted.

Malaysian Genting Syndicate, the financial backers of the Mashpee tribe’s efforts to establish a gambling facility within Taunton, remarked in regard to the proposed casino “that the first of four phases can be built within 15 months.” That same day in an article appearing in “Massachusetts Live,” Stephen P. Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission remarked, “it will be three to five years before a casino is up and running”.In it he claims that the historical record clearly demonstrates that the Mashpee Tribe never occupied or utilized lands off of Cape Cod, especially in Taunton, nor did any lands within Taunton hold any culturally significant meaning to the Mashpee such as burial grounds or mythlogically significant locations.

Mr. Lynch is owner and principal of Waterbury CT based, Historical Consulting & Research Services, LLC. He has been a practicing Ethno-historian for more than 25 years. He is also the author of four books addressing Colonial tribe land issues, tribal history, and the development of Federal Indian Policy.

In an article he wrote for Cape Cod Today in October 2007, he wrote, "Did any "Wampanoag" greet the first arrivals at Plymouth? No. No Indians did. What William Bradford and those other first arrivals found were deserted Indian villages, the victims of smallpox epidemic that had spread south from Newfoundland. Were there "Wampanoag" in the region? Yes. The boundary between the Pokanoket and Massachusetts tribal lands was in this area. Were these "Wampanoag" members of the Mashpee tribe? No."

Lynch adds that another federal regulation that must be met by the Mashpee, is that the tribe must have a present day presence in the area in which the land being sought is located. The regulation requires, “The land is within a 25 mile radius of the tribe’s headquarters or other tribal governmental facilities that have existed at that location for at least two years at the time of the application for land into trust.”

The Mashpee recently opened a administrative office in New Bedford. That location is well outside the mandated twenty-five mile maximum radius. So the Mashpee would have to open a tribal administrative office within twenty-five miles of Taunton and wait two years before any action to take the land into trust could be taken.

Read the Gazette story here.

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Bourne Bridge Song; Sails will raise money for canal celebration

TODAY's quote: "We've been telling you about the delays at the Sagamore Bridge repair work recently, but today is the whole f***ing kit 'n' kaboodle. I nearly had to kill someone." - Ted (Nor'easter Blues).

   "First off, I do not own the song and some of the pics. Tom Doyle of 105.7 WROR a Framingham/Boston Radio station wrote and performed this song and therefore owns the rights. Anyone who knows the Cape knows that this song sings the truth about most if not ALL trips to the Cape. I put together images that match the song. Some are my own pictures that I have taken personally and some I had to get off line. I'm pretty proud of how this came out, it's a gift to my aunt and uncle who live down the Cape and get to watch first hand people like the main characters of the song." - Werewolf84820.

'Sail Trail' to bring maritime culture to the streets of Wareham

Cape Cod Canal will celebrate its centennial in 2014, events start June 17

Wareham will celebrate the centennial of the Cape Cod canal in two years, but getting there needs a little money.

That’s why 12-foot-tall sails will start going up in front of homes and businesses throughout town next spring. According to Wareham Week, the sails are a fundraiser for the Cape Cod Canal Celebration, which is planned for the summer of 2014.

The sails are being sold for $1,300 each and will be displayed from March 2013 to August 2014. The Centennial Celebration will be held over 9 days in the towns of Wareham, Bourne, and Sandwich.

The Wareham weekly reports that a few of the events planned will include a visit from the tall ships of South America, lighted tugboats, a laser show, parades, a gala, a visit from the Charles Morgan whaling ship, historical exhibits from the time period of when the canal was built, and perhaps even a visit from the president.

Events are starting now

During Father’s Day 2012, the events committee will host a family "cast-off" contest and car show to be held on the grounds of Upper Cape Regional Technical High School, overlooking the Cape Cod Canal. It is hoped this will become an annual event in 2013 and 2014.  See the rest of the planned events  here.

Read the Wareham Week story here.

Cape spared 6.7 percent FAIR Plan increase; Edaville 1982

TODAY's quote: “Ensuring that insurance rates are commensurate with the benefits provided at the most reasonable cost is the division’s priority.” - Insurance Commissioner Joseph Murphy.

Mass. insurance regulators reject Fair Plan increases

60,000 Cape Cod homeowners spared 6.7 percent increase

Massachusetts insurance regulators Friday rejected a request by FAIR Plan, the state’s home insurer of last resort, to raise its rates an average of 7.2 percent.

Edaville 1982. The Boston Globe has a slide show of photos about old Massachusetts attractions, see here.

The FAIR Plan, officially called the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriters Association, had proposed raising home and condo insurance rates by 6.7 percent on the Cape and the Islands and 9.9 percent in several other areas, including New Bedford, Worcester, and Springfield.

Insurers have argued in the past that new hurricane models show Massachusetts is more vulnerable to hurricane damages than previously estimated.

The FAIR Plan also has not received a rate hike in around six years.

The law requires that rates through the FAIR Plan are not excessive. Overall, FAIR Plan offers coverage for some 150,000 Massachusetts families.

The term FAIR Plan is short for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements.

Read the Insurance Journal report here.

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Filmmaker Adams "sorry", gets 2-3 years, must repay $4.4M

TODAY's quote: “I am deeply sorry and want to apologize to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the court, and the Department of Revenue." - Daniel Adams.

Daniel Adams gets two to three years for fraud, 10 years probation

Adams deceived state about his costs, claiming, for instance, that he paid Richard Dreyfuss $2.5 million, when the actor actually only received $400,000.He stole $4.7 million in state film tax credits, and yesterday Daniel Adams was sentenced  to two to three years in a Massachusetts prison.

But he's "deeply sorry" for his sins, and even his lawyer says the sentence was "fair".

Following his release from prison he will also have to serve 10 years on probation and pay $4.4 million in restitution to the state under the sentence imposed yesterday by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Carol Ball.

Adams, 51, defrauded the state of $4.7 million by submitting falsified budgets, bank account and investment documents and contracts for enlarged actor salaries while filming 2008’s "The Golden Boys" and 2009’s "The Lightkeeper" near his home on Cape Cod, according to court documents.

First person ever charged for MA movie fraud

Adams is the first person to be charged with conning the state out of money through its 25 percent tax credit program, which was enacted in 2006. The credits can be a lucrative source of income for filmmakers, who can sell them to companies.

According to a spokesman for the Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Adams sold his credits to Wal-Mart and Bank of America.

Read the story in The Wrap here.

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SJC rejects Cape Wind "adverse effects" claim; Salazar: GOP are "Flat Earthers"

TODAY's quote: “The president rightly pointed out that if these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they’d be charter members of the Flat Earth Society.”  - D.O.I. Secretary Ken Salazar.

Vineyard waterfront homeowner's view not reason to stop Cape Wind

The Boston Globe reports today that the Supreme Judicial Court rejected Martha's Vineyard waterfront homeowner Thomas Melone's bid to intervene in the state's approval of the Cape Wind project's deal to sell electricity because of "adverse effects" on his view.

The court threw out his claim that the proposed wind farm eight miles away on Nantucket Sound would diminish the resale value of his property or that oil or other contaminants could find their way to his private beach.

The court said the department was "well within its broad discretion in denying Melone's request to intervene in this matter.’"

Read the Globe story here.

Interior Department Secretary Salazar says Republicans are "Flat Earthers"

“There is this imagined energy world… of fairy tales, falsehoods, that we often see in Washington. It’s a divide between the real energy world that we work on every day and the imagined fairy tale world.”
                         - Ken Salazar.Audrey Hudson in Human Events reports that U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar criticized members of Congress who believe that solar and wind energy jobs are "somehow phony".

Secretary Salazar told the National Press Club Tuesday that if Europe had been run by the Republicans in 1492, Columbus would never have left Spain.

He added, "As of early 2009, not a single large-scale solar energy project had been approved for construction on public lands in this country. Offshore, Cape Wind had been languishing for eight long years."

"We’ve also approved Cape Wind’s permit and have built, from the ground-up, an offshore wind leasing program for our country."

He added that Republican lawmakers are pursuing an energy policy filled with "fairy tales" and "falsehoods" when they should be embracing President Barack Obama’s vision of alternative green energy programs.

Read Human Events here.

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