EXTRA...

Patrick pushes meal tax; An Israeli CCBL? Governors arm wrestle; RI Tribe wants a casino too; MassMegawatts has a new idea;

Gov. Patrick pushes meals tax plan
Reiterates support for Cape Wind

WASHINGTON - Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday that he hopes to convince the Legislature to give cities and towns more power over local taxes on meals and lodging to ease the state’s property tax burden.  “In some elements of this the Legislature has been concerned about releasing some of its control over cities and towns,” Patrick said after a speech at an energy independence forum in Washington. “We’ve got to give cities and towns a little bit more latitude to manage their affairs.”  Patrick, who dined at the White House on Sunday, is scheduled to unveil his first state budget Tuesday night...

Patrick also reiterated his support for the Cape Wind project, an energy-generating wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod.  The project is “a symbol of the kind of economy I want to cultivate in Massachusetts,” he said. Patrick said the state’s “brainpower,” venture capital and entrepreneurial tradition could make it a hub for alternative and renewable energy and help the nation ease its dependence on foreign oil and hydrocarbons. “If we get this right, the whole world will be our customer,” he said... Read the rest of this Herald story here.  Leave a comment
____________________________

Israeli league won't be joke
Got idea from CCBL last summer

June 24 will be Opening Day for the Israel Baseball League, six all-new professional teams and a schedule of 45 seven-inning games. So the seventh-inning stretch and God Bless (country of your choice) come in the fifth inning and a quality start is 4-1/3 innings, OK, maybe 4-2/3, it's not worth arguing about...

The Mets have three Jewish players - Scott Schoeneweis, Shawn Green and David Newhan - and at least one Jewish owner. Yesterday, two old New Yorkers, Art Shamsky (on right), who played for the Miracle Mets of 1969, and Ken Holtzman, who pitched two no-hitters and won more games than any Jewish pitcher in history,..
...Shamsky, 65, resembles Tommy Lee Jones, and Holtzman, 61, who teaches math, looks like a hard marker. Larry Baras is the man who came up with the idea of a professional league for Israel. He was watching a game in the Cape Cod League last summer, moms and dads sitting with their kids, when the lightbulb went on over his head... Read the rest of this New York Daily News story here.  Leave a comment

WRKO's Mel Phillips remembers Shamsky and the CCBL in this post on his blog today.
______________________________

Mass Megawatts sold on the future of wind power
Worcester company has a new idea

WORCESTER— Nobody likes a bad hair day more than Jonathan C. Ricker.  The president and chief executive officer of Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc. prefers a sustaining wind, something in the neighborhood of 20 miles per hour — just enough to undo a fancy updo and generate electricity at his two Multi-Axis Turbosystems.

Mr. Ricker, a lifelong Shrewsbury resident, talks with a constant grin about harnessing wind power.  His hair flying, he points out that the grid-like setup of his wind energy power plant is far more efficient than a conventional windmill and doesn’t need to be as high...  Mr. Ricker has watched the controversy swirl around the possible placement of wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, and wondered if his MAT system might be the answer.  He said the structures would be much shorter and are nearly transparent when the newly developed blades are spinning.

He also has not found any birds that have flown into the MAT system, which was a concern of Cape Cod environmentalists. It uses fewer materials and the blades spin faster, generating more energy from the wind than larger blades, he said... Read the rest of this Telgram story here.  Leave a comment

See a short video here of the Charlton MA installation where not a single bird has been hit in five years.  The photo above on right is a 72 foot wind energy system completed in the Spring of 2005 is located in Blandford MA.
_____________________________

Foxwood poker dealer wants a casino in Rhode Island
Seaconkes to seek tribal recognition

CUMBERLAND RI — Wilfred Greene, the Seaconke Wampanoag Indian chief who recently acquired the old J.M. Mills landfill, intends to seek federal recognition of his tribe and says his goal is to open a high-stakes bingo hall in town.

The 70-year-old former Foxwoods Resort Casino poker dealer filed a letter of intent in 1997 on behalf of the 200-member tribe with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, but never followed through with the application.

He now believes that possession of land in the tribe’s ancestral territory will strengthen its case for federal recognition, as it did for the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of Foxwoods in Ledyard, who began their quest for recognition with a 26-acre reservation.

“We have enough going for us with our genealogy and history for federal recognition, and now with this land, we are ready to move forward” with an application, Greene, who is also known as Chief Eagle Heart, said yesterday...

The tribe’s land acquisition and its intent comes as the federal government last week recognized as an Indian tribe the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe of Cape Cod, one of a dozen Wampanoag clans that is unaffiliated with the Seaconke Wampanoags.

In late December, Greene received the old J.M. Mills landfill and a riverfront property from Patrick T. Conley, an East Providence lawyer and professor emeritus at Providence College noted for purchasing tax-sale properties for major developments... Read the rest of the Providence Journal story here.  Leave a comment
_____________________________

Colorada Governor to arm wrestle Governor Patrick over energy jobs
Governors Challenge Business, Labor, Environmental Leaders To Create Clean Energy Future At Apollo Summit

“Governors have wrestled with creating a clean energy economy for years.  Now they’re arm wrestling with it in the national political ring” said Toby Chaudhuri, Apollo Alliance Communications Director

Gov. Bill Ritter, D-Colo. (on right), challenged Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., to an arm wrestling match over creating a new generation of jobs in their state this morning at a gathering of business, environmental and labor leaders in Washington. The meeting, called the Apollo Summit, was convened by nearly 200 community leaders to create a strategy to promote clean energy solutions that create good jobs in America.

Gov. Patrick, who spoke before Gov. Ritter, outlined Massachusetts’ goal to attract companies working to build a green economy.  “I don’t just want wind farms. I want companies that build turbines. I want hybrid vehicle companies to consult us on conservation strategies. I want companies that design solar panels. The whole integrated industry can have a place in Massachusetts and in the U.S.,” said Gov. Patrick. “If we get this right, the whole world will be our customer.”

When Gov. Ritter heard Gov. Patrick’s remarks he made it clear that his state would compete for those same jobs, noting that investing in clean energy will provide good jobs.

"Gov. Patrick talks about bringing jobs to Massachusetts. We're going to arm wrestle you for those jobs because we want those same manufacturing plants,” said Gov. Ritter. “We want to be the vertical part of the industry. It’s a good thing to have two governors competing for those jobs, competing in this industry to build out the turbines, competing to have the wind farms located in their state. That's the right way for us to think about it."

Apollo Alliance president Jerome Ringo (on right), whose organization sponsored the summit, introduced the governors and announced that his group plans to make energy independence a key issue in the presidential campaigns.  “We are here to go beyond our institutional identities, to build a transformational movement that will build a new energy future and change America,” said Ringo. “We’re going to make energy independence a key issue in the presidential campaigns. We’re going to evaluate every major energy plan and dramatically increase our field mobilization on this issue."