EXTRA...

Beantown mag blindsided by Glenn; Should state encourage its citizens to gamble? How much is enough? Hendricks promises to be good

Boston mag profile blindsided by Glenn Marshall

It’s the journalistic equivalent of a bad dream: Spend a couple months working on a big story, only to have the story explode once you’ve gone to press.

A week after Boston magazine’s lengthy look at Glenn Marshall and the ascendant Mashpee Wampanoag tribe was shipped out in the September issue, the Cape Cod Times reported Marshall’s 1981 rape conviction, and that he misled Congress about his military record. Following those bombshell revelations last Friday, Marshall promptly stepped down as the Wampanoag’s leader. “No one likes to be blindsided by events and have things happen when you’re on the press,” Boston magazine editor James Burnett said Wednesday. “Like every other reporter in Boston, like every other media outlet in Boston, sure, we would have loved to have those details on his background"... Herald.  
_______________________

Liar's poker: You can smell the money
Should state encourage its citizens to gamble? How much is enough?

The day that the Mashpee Wampanoag's grand billion-dollar-plus casino opens in Middleborough, no one will be able to take more credit than Glenn Marshall, convicted rapist and admitted serial liar. It seems only appropriate.  You can smell the money as the frenzy over casino gambling builds in anticipation of Governor Deval Patrick's pivotal and likely endorsement shortly after Labor Day. As he does his final research, required reading for the governor - for the House speaker, for all of us - should be the new issue of Boston magazine, which is just hitting the streets.

Irony drips off the page ... The attraction is obvious for the tiny tribe, all 1,460 members. But for the rest of us, the question is this: Does Massachusetts, which already extracts $700 a year from every man, woman, and child in the Commonwealth through our very efficient lottery, double what any other state does, really need even more gambling? Should the Commonwealth be in the business of encouraging its citizens to gamble ever more to support basic services? How much is enough?  Globe. 
____________________

Wampanoag head sees casino funds fulfilling basic needs
Hendrick promises to not be like Marshall

The new chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag expressed hope yesterday that revenue from a proposed casino in Middleborough would eventually raise the quality of life for all members of the Cape Cod-based tribe.  "I hope we, as a council and a tribe, will put the funds into health and education, human services, and housing," Shawn W. Hendricks Sr. told reporters in a conference call.

Hendricks shared his vision for the tribe after traveling to Nashville to hand deliver to the Bureau of Indian Affairs the tribe's application to place both the targeted casino site and some acreage in Mashpee into federal trust. Land in trust would be tax-exempt and subject to federal laws.  In the application, Hendricks cites high unemployment, incomes below the poverty level, physical and mental health, and housing needs among the serious challenges the tribe faces.

Gaming revenues would allow the tribe to provide affordable housing to its 1,500 members and assisted-living facilities for seniors, Hendricks said. Casino profits also would help fund cultural activities, youth training, and more educational opportunities to help "future generations to survive and prosper in the larger society"...  Globe. 

1 comment »

That Orleans sect is lightening up; lighter Labor Day weekend traffic; Saving Truro's Hooper house

Christian sect with shadowy past has 'evolved over the years'
Orleans Community of Jesus loosens up

Lightening up
The new leaders have loosened the grip on their followers and have opened up membership to people living off-site. Now, only about one-quarter of the estimated 325 members live in celibacy in the convent and friary. The rest of the group, including secular families with a range of jobs, live in nearby households in Orleans.The Community of Jesus, a small, communal Christian sect in Orleans Massachusetts that stresses discipline and rejects homosexuality has made an effort in recent years to leave behind its shadowy past and accusations of psychological abuse.

The group was founded 1958 by two Episcopal women, Cay Andersen and Judy Sorensen, or "Mother Cay" and "Mother Judy." They professed to represent God and called for absolute submission from their devotees, who lived communally in Cape Cod, said David Reed, a University of Toronto professor with expertise in cults and new religious movements.

By the early 1970s, the Community of Jesus was gaining favour as a counterculture alternative to the rampant individual freedoms and sexual liberation of the previous decade, Mr. Reed said.

"What you sometimes get is a kind of conservative overreaction," he said. "The whole community movement was a reaction to the hyper-individualism that they inherited." The 1960s spawned a slew of ecumenical groups that satisfied the need for belonging through regimented communal living, he said.  In 1985, reports that an authoritarian sect was psychologically abusing its members on the shores of Cape Cod Bay began surfacing when about 20 adherents defected, including two sons of one of the co-founders.

But controversy has not completely eluded the community in its more moderate incarnation. In the 1990s, it waged a legal battle with the Cape Cod Commission over the size of its chapel. A settlement was reached, and now four times daily the Church of the Transfiguration is filled with prayer, psalms and chants...  Globe & Mail.
________________________

Decline expected in number of travelers for Labor Day
Drop in gas prices isn't resulting in more driving
 
John Clark will not let high gasoline prices prevent him from going on his Cape Cod vacation this weekend. But they could affect how much he spends once he gets there.  "While it probably should impact my travel plans, it hasn't," Clark, 39, of Staten Island, N.Y., said while filling up yesterday at the Darien rest stop on Interstate 95. "It may impact what we do when we get there, but the travel itself is going to happen no matter what."

Other motorists are wrestling with similar dilemmas this Labor Day weekend, according to a new survey by the AAA Motor Club.  An estimated 34.6 million Americans expect to travel 50 miles or more from home this Labor Day, compared to 34.8 million who traveled last year, according to AAA's National Leisure Travel Index survey.

Of those expecting to travel this year, about 28.9 million will travel by car, just less than the 29 million who drove a year ago, the survey said...  Stamford Advocate. 
___________________________

Playing the Hopper card in Truro

Among art aficionados, Edward Hopper's name commands a deserved reverence, as much for his fame and influence as for his expertly rendered images. But among residents of what was once Hopper's summer neighborhood, the late artist's reputation has a much more useful application - as a means to stop or slow down construction of yet another oversized trophy house on the rolling hills of South Truro, overlooking Cape Cod Bay.

The preservation of the so-called "Hopper landscape" - that is, undeveloped parcels near the house that were once Hopper's a half-century ago - has been a goal of both abutters and the Truro Conservation Trust for almost a decade, and has already resulted in a couple of small open-space purchases. But the biggest plum of all, an already-developed, 9.5-acre lot in the direct view of the large, north-facing window in what was once Hopper's studio, was deemed too costly by the trust when it came on the market. Now the new owners plan to expand an existing 2,000-square-foot house and turn it into a sprawling, 6,500-square-foot mini-palace, complete with a swimming pool, all within a stone's throw of the beach...   Hamilton Kahn in today's Globe. 

Leave a comment »

Education vs Gambling; RI Tribe say M'boro is their 'hood; Making Red Tide Poison; Hendricks vs Bingham

Legislators weigh education funding against legalized gambling

As an added twist, talk about gaming legislation, which has repeatedly failed, now includes the prospect of Massachusetts trumping the Granite State by adding slots to its racetracks or even a casino in Middleborough. The state's search for a way to fund education without raising taxes is about to cross paths with an in-depth study of state-controlled gambling.

The question for legislators: Could some form of legalized gambling generate the millions of dollars needed to fund education?  "I need to find money to run the state," said Rep. Mary Griffin, D-Windham. "I'm not for gambling or against gambling, but it seems like a lot of people are interested."  A seven-member panel of the House Ways and Means Committee is spending the rest of the summer and fall studying whether some type of state-regulated gambling is feasible in New Hampshire. The committee already has taken testimony from state and local officials from Delaware, Illinois and Pennsylvania, where gambling exists.

The committee is scheduled to issue a report by November that will say whether members back expanded gambling. If the report favors more gaming, potential legislation would come on the heels of another report due in February that will give an estimate of how much revenue the state needs to pay for education ...   Eagle Tribune.  
______________

R.I. tribe seeks to halt Middleboro casino plan
Pokanoket Wampanoags say area is their historic territory

Pokanoket vs Mashpee?
Unlike the Mashpee tribe, the Pokanoket Wampanoags are not a federally recognized tribe, but Weeden said the tribe is seeking that status. He believes the Pokanokets will have their opinion heard on the Middleboro casino when it comes before the state and federal governments for review in coming months.A leader of a Rhode Island-based Indian tribe is campaigning against the Mashpee Wampanoags' plan to build a casino in Middleboro, contending that the plans are an intrusion by one tribe onto another tribe's historic lands.  Michael Weeden, president of the Pokanoket Wampanoag tribe, asserts that southeastern Massachusetts is the historic territory of his tribe alone and the Mashpee Wampanoags have been restricted to Cape Cod. He called it “culturally insensitive” for the Mashpee tribe to seek to locate tribal land and a casino in Middleboro.

“I'm not against the Mashpee having a casino, but I don't feel they ought to be doing it on our lands,” Weeden said. “It's just not proper in Indian country to do something like that.”  The Pokanokets, who are based in Bristol, R.I., profess to be descended from the tribe of Massasoit and Metacom (the latter also known as King Philip), the tribe that famously aided and fought the European settlers in the 17th century ...  Brockton Enterprise.  
__________________

Mashpee Wampanoags file petition to put land into trust
BOSTON - The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has taken another step on the road to building a casino in Massachusetts by filing a petition with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to put their land in trust. The petition filed at the BIA’s eastern offices in Nashville, Tenn., by tribal council chairman Shawn Hendricks would place more than 500 acres of land in Middleborough and 140 acres in Mashpee into a trust. The federal government will inform the state and local governments of the petition and allow a public comment period... Herald.  New Wampanoag leader dismisses rift
Tribe will press bid for casino, he says

MASHPEE -- The new leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, Shawn W. Hendricks Sr., and his supporters tried to present a unified front yesterday, gathering to dismiss concerns that a schism within the tribe was threatening the Wampanoag's effort to build a $1 billion casino in the state.  Some tribal members said they want to unseat the tribal council, then possibly reconsider the tribe's casino plans and reopen a land suit that severely damaged relations between Mashpee and the tribe in the 1970s and 1980s.

"We want to get rid of the council," said Steven Bingham, 63, one of the tribe members who wants tribe leadership replaced. "Was our tribe hijacked? Yes, it was. Are the same people still running it? Yes, they are."  Bingham and several other members of the tribe accuse the council of mismanaging money the investors gave the tribe to help fund its drive for federal recognition, granted in February.

Hendricks, speaking on the edge of a grassy field outside the tribe's headquarters in Mashpee, said the allegations are untrue and called the members making the complaints "a group that want money and want power" ...  Boston Globe.  
____________________

Making red tide poisons opens way to new research

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have finally confirmed a 20-year-old theory about how the red tide algae produce their toxins.  The finding may be a first step in protecting seaside communities, shellfish beds, marine mammals and humans from the periodic outbreaks of the dangerous tides.

Red tides are natural occurrences, when water temperature and salinity encourage overproduction of some algae and plankton. Not all red tides are poisonous, but some are.  A massive red tide struck from Maine to Cape Cod in 1972, and others have occurred in the region since. Red tide has killed manatees in Florida. And some speculate that the Bible's first plague of ancient Egypt - when the water turned to blood - was a red tide.

Associate professor Timothy F. Jamison at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science that researchers have managed to duplicate a cascade-type chemical reaction to produce the red tide toxins ...   Herald Tribune. 

Leave a comment »

Wall St. Journal ridicules Cape Wind opponents; Gainey family wants new investigation; New Oil Barges regs released today

Wall Street Journal jumps into Cape Wind controversy
A "perennially awkward story" for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

Wind Jammers
Bobby's in the wrong boat"

In what has become the consummate example of beau monde environmental phoniness, residents around Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are facing off with Greenpeace activists again over a proposed wind farm in the middle of their handsome vistas. The environmental group considers wind power a key source of renewable energy, while some of the locals consider it an offense against the scenery. The Cape Wind project for its part would plunk 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound to "gracefully harness the wind." Whatever one's preference here, the Cape Wind chronicle is a perennially awkward story for Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, whose family compound gazes out at the pristine waters. Two summers ago Greenpeace activists cruised around in a rubber raft behind a sailing yacht carrying environmentalist and wind-farm critic Robert Kennedy Jr. with a sign that said, "Bobby you are on the wrong boat." In its latest advertising barrage, Greenpeace touts a recent poll of 600 state residents that says 84% of them favor the wind farm (though that falls to 58% of those living on the Cape or the Islands). Showing clips of Mr. Kennedy and Congressman William Delahunt, it urges leaders to "do the right thing for all of Massachusetts, not just the wealthy few." See full Wall Street Journal editorial hereProponents of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound got some help from an unexpected quarter this week: the Wall Street Journal.  A Journal editorial charged opponents of the Cape Wind project with "environmental phoniness," saying they're against the project because it's an "offense against the scenery"...

The newspaper's famously conservative editorial page didn't say whether it supported or opposed the project, but that "reasonable people can disagree on the merits of putting turbines in Nantucket Sound."  The controversy, the Journal stated, was "useful mainly as a real-world test of whether some of the world's most privileged liberals wear their ideals all the time, or only when it suits them."

It also said the Cape Wind controversy is a "perennially awkward story" for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who opposes the project and whose family compound overlooks on the Sound ...  as reported in the Boston Globe. 
___________________________

The oil barge spill polluted the narrow bay with up to 90,000 gallons of thick fuel oil

New oil transport rules for Buzzards Bay to be unveiled today

The Coast Guard will announce new rules today aimed at improving oil transport safety in Buzzards Bay — which is still recovering from a spill four years ago.  That spill polluted the narrow bay with up to 90,000 gallons of thick fuel oil after the barge drifted off course and plowed into a rocky ledge.

The new rules, which will be published in the Federal Register, will regulate the transit of commercial oil tankers and tug and barge combinations through the bay, according to Coast Guard officials.  A press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne.

In March 2006, the Coast Guard published a proposed rule to improve navigational safety in Buzzards Bay. Environmental groups, such as the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, have been waiting anxiously for the agency to publish the final rule.  The coalition — which has been fighting for stricter oil transportation regulations since the April 27, 2003, Bouchard 120 spill — submitted comments on the proposed rule, calling it "inadequate" to protect the bay from a future spill...   Standard-Times.
___________________

Gainey family gets review of ship incident report
Montreal Canadiens manager's daughter lost off Cape Cod

Halifax, Nova Scotia - The accuracy of a safety investigation into how Laura Gainey (shown on right at the ship's helm) was swept off the tall ship Picton Castle is being reviewed by a Canadian agency at the request of her family.  Ken Potter, head of marine safety at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, confirmed yesterday he has a draft of the long-awaited report into the tragic incident.

Ms. Gainey, the daughter of Montreal Canadiens manager Bob Gainey, was swept overboard and disappeared Dec. 8 during a fierce storm 900 kilometres southeast of Cape Cod. The report was prepared by a review panel in the Cook Islands, the South Pacific country where the training vessel is registered, even though it is based in Lunenburg, N.S...  Globe & Mail. 

1 comment »

Tuna catches sinking fast; White named "Solar Citizen of the Month"; Ticketmaster comes to Hyannis Macy's

New study shows bluefin tuna catch sinking fast

The fishing vessel SS Melon III steamed into Gloucester Harbor about 4:45 p.m. yesterday with its prize on ice and ready for offloading.  The crew tied to the dock at D.F.C. International, a Commercial Street tuna dealer, pulled a tarp off its haul and hooked it to the winch. A 73-inch bluefin tuna, estimated at more than 300 pounds, emerged from the crushed ice, rose about 15 feet to the warehouse and was pulled onto a pallet for dressing.

These landings have been getting rarer for years as the bluefin tuna catch has declined in the United States. Those that are brought in tend to be thinner and of lower quality, according to a recent study released from the University of New Hampshire and fishermen’s anecdotes.  The study suggests several reasons...  including tougher competition from trawlers and from marine predators for food in New England waters, changes in spawning grounds because of ocean temperature and current changes, and overfishing in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea that is sending some bluefin to the west...

Tuna fishermen have been pushing for midwater trawling bans for years and recently succeeded in obtaining a summertime ban in a parcel of ocean stretching from Cape Cod Bay to the Canadian border known as Area 1A. Canada has an outright ban on midwater trawling, but does allow one research trawler...  Gloucester Times. 
______________________

Peter White named September's "Solar Citizen of the Month" by Solar Nation

When Peter White of Barnstable, Massachusetts lost his election bid last year for that state’s 10th Congressional District, people in the region might have thought he would drop out of sight. But for a lifelong progressive activist like White, the loss was simply a signal to try another route to one of his goals.

White is a firm believer in growing grass roots support for political movements on a town-by-town basis, especially in the area of renewable energy. This year, after much hard work, his evangelizing efforts paid off. The ex-candidate and his small, informal group of activists worked with residents and officials in a number of neighboring Cape Cod towns to get initiatives placed on town meeting warrants for the construction of solar panels on municipal buildings. And just last month, voters in the town of Yarmouth voted overwhelmingly to spend $50,000 of town money to put a solar panels on the roof of their town hall...   Solar Nation
____________________________

Ticketmaster Opens New Ticket Centers in 38 Macy's Stores
Hyannis location one of three in Massachusetts

Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company, is opening 38 new ticket outlets in Macy's stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, according to Ticketmaster and Macy's.

Tickets will be available every day at the 38 new Macy's locations, including the Hyannis store in the Cape Cod Mall on Route 132, during each store's hours of operation.

The expansion builds on a relationship cemented last year when the companies announced that Ticketmaster would continue to run ticket outlets in 278 department stores formerly owned by May Company Department Stores. These stores were converted to the Macy's nameplate last September following the merger of Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) and May Company.  CNN/MONEY.

Leave a comment »

WBZ says Patrick will recommend Casinos, Guv's staff denies it; YouTube kids Barnstable; McCowen featured in Hate Paper; Humpback "Megaclicks"; Inside the Tribe

YouTube has fun at Barnstable's expense
Montage of recent events make County seat look dim

Of course, anyone can create a YouTube video, but not everyone can make one that'll make Cape Codders chuckle.

Here is a typical comment on the site:
"NO PITY FOR BARSTABLE or the cronies that run the island of misfits. Yes, all are bewildered, but now wise. How BAD they are! Tigers in the cage are tame, not these LITTLE MINDS. ALL AMERICAN CITY--IT IS NOT! The JOY won't last, because their JOY ride is now over--they have finally been all exposed!" 

see YouTube here.
______________________

Gov. Patrick Will Recommend Casinos For Massachusetts
Patrick In Favor Of Some Form Of Casino Gambling

Sources tell WBZ-TV that structuring legalized gambling in a piece of legislation and keeping it under control is very complicated -- more complicated than the administration originally thought. They want to make sure they get it right the first time.BOSTON - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will recommend some type of casino for the state, WBZ-TV's Joe Shortsleeve has learned.  The governor has made his decision after studying this issue for months. He has also been reviewing a report he commissioned, which outlines the pros and cons of legalized gambling.  (See the video)

Sources tell Shortsleeve that Patrick has decided in favor of some form of gaming. Details are still being worked out, but there are three main reasons he's doing this. You just have to follow the money being spent to fix our crumbling roads and bridges, expanding education with promises of full day kindergarten for everyone and free community colleges.  Patrick has a long wish list of what he wants to get done and none of it is cheap ...   WBZ. 
___________________

No sure bet on casinos, Patrick says
TV report on decision ‘unfounded,’ according to staff

He initially said he wanted to resolve the question of allowing casinos in time for his first budget in February and had said in December he would decide on casinos by March. He later said he would put off a decision until after the budget was completed in July. At that time his administration said he would decide by the end of the summer and more recently by Labor Day, which was revised to sometime after Labor Day. Yesterday Ms. Roy said the decision was expected sometime in September. BOSTON — Administration officials yesterday denied reports that Gov. Deval L. Patrick has decided to allow casino gambling in Massachusetts, insisting that the governor, who has yet to return to his office from a monthlong vacation in the Berkshires, has made “no decision” yet on expanded gambling.

While the governor was not available yesterday, his press staff and a spokeswoman for state Housing and Economic Development Secretary Daniel F. O’Connell insisted that a Boston television report that the governor had made a decision to allow casino gambling in the state was “unfounded” and “not true.”

Deputy press secretary Cyndi Roy said yesterday she had not spoken with the governor about the report, but that his senior staff told her the governor had not yet made a decision whether to allow casinos. “They would know,” she said ...  Telegram. 

_________________

"Hate" paper draws anger
One issued featured Worthington murder as Black vs White assault
 G
REAT BARRINGTON — On front lawns and stoops from North Adams to Mount Washington yesterday, a publication called "The Truth at Last" angered local residents that racism is alive in the world by hitting close to home.  "Out of place, out of time," said Tom Martin of Imperial Drive in Pittsfield, who said he and his wife, Adriane, were surprised that their diverse community would be leafleted by such anti-diverse propaganda...

Different issues of the same publication — based in Marietta, Ga., according to its subscription invitation — include the following assertions: White rights are under assault; Mexico's population explosion could engulf America; blacks are born with lower intelligence than whites; and the "lowest type of Mexicans invade the U.S." — immigrants who are neither "neither physically nor mentally up to the prevailing American standards"...  The publication is attributed solely to editor tz whose past publications have included debunking of the Holocaust and other publications, according to an Internet search.

Issue 459, found in a Great Barrington neighborhood, reminds readers that it was a black garbage man who murdered a white fashion writer on Cape Cod in 2002, and he was convicted only after the only black juror was removed from the jury for misconduct ...   Berkshire Eagle. 
__________________

First "Megaclicks" from feeding Humpback Whales made in Stellwagen Bank by NOAA

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 842 square miles of ocean, stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod offshore of Massachusetts. Renowned for its scenic beauty and remarkable productivity, the sanctuary is renowned as a whale watching destination and supports a rich assortment of marine life, including marine mammals, seabirds, fishes, and marine invertebrates. The sanctuary’s position astride the historic shipping routes and fishing grounds for Massachusetts’ oldest ports also make it a repository for shipwrecks representing several hundred years of maritime transportation.For the first time, researchers have recorded “megaclicks” — a series of clicks and buzzes from humpback whales apparently associated with nighttime feeding behaviors — in and around NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. As detailed in the most recent issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, this study offers the first documentation that baleen whales produce this type of sound, normally associated with toothed whales and echolocation.

“We’ve known that humpback whales exhibit a variety of foraging behaviors and vocalizations, but these animals as well as other baleen whales were not known to produce broadband clicks in association with feeding,” said David Wiley, sanctuary research coordinator and leader of the research team. “However, recent work with special acoustic tags has made us reexamine our previous assumptions, with this expansion of the acoustic repertoire of humpback whales.”

The research team members are from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ...  NOAA. 
_________________________

Inside report on Monday nights' "unauthorized" Tribal Meeting
Reporter Peter Kenney takes us inside the room

It appears that Marshall and his close friends within the tribe have benfitted personally from the river of cash flowing from tribal outsiders...  Some asked, "Can we shun Glenn, now?"More than one hundred-fifty members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe gathered last night to deal with a painful chapter in their history. On a cool August evening with a full moon lighting clear skies Wampanoag Indians arrived at a function hall in Cotuit for a seven o'clock meeting called to discuss the storm of controversy swirling around them and their embattled Tribal Council president, Glenn Marshall...

Things became clear as the moon rose higher; Leonard Pocknett , Jr. arrived with another member and the two entered the hall. They carried a small canvas duffel and a basket containing the artifacts of a ceremony; incense, an eagle feather and other small things.  Shortly after they arrived,  Chief Vernon Lopez, called Silent Drum,  arrived and entered. The chief exudes dignity and pride but also steady resolve. He is a humble man who is a respected figure in both the Indian and non-Indian worlds.

What had been claimed as an unauthorized gathering that was to be shunned by members was about to become a sacred ceremony during which the tribe would practice its millenia-old form of government; open discusion and speech and a democratic vote by all members. The presence of the tribe's spiritual leader, Silent Drum, and its medicine man, Earl Cash Jr.,  told the world that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe were in full session...  Read the rest of Gadfly here.  

4 comments »

State talks to task force about casino; Homeowners raise insurance concerns; Red Lobster freshens up

State talks over casino with group

A task force made up of representatives of Southeastern Massachusetts towns pressed the state yesterday for more say in planning for an Indian-run casino in Middleborough, while the Mashpee Wampanoag confronted a leadership crisis, ousting the tribe's chairman after embarrassing revelations about his past.

By a 9-1 vote last night, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council demanded the immediate resignation of longtime chairman Glenn Marshall, denying his request for a 30-day delay.

Following a two-hour, closed-door session at council headquarters, vice chairman Shawn Hendricks Sr. moved into the chairman's seat, as dictated by the tribe's constitution. Hendricks said the council had been unaware that Marshall had been convicted of rape and misrepresented his military record.  ...  Boston Globe

______________________________

Homeowners have chance to raise insurance concerns

Amid growing concern over the rising cost of homeowners' insurance, particularly in coastal regions of the state, a special legislative commission investigating the escalating costs has scheduled a public hearing for this afternoon in Fall River.

"The SouthCoast and the Cape, obviously, are the most affected by the crisis in homeowners insurance," said Sen. Buoniconti 

At the 1 p.m. hearing, to be held at the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center at 151 Martine St., SouthCoast residents will be able to testify before committee members about issues and concerns they have with their homeowners' insurance.

"We're looking to get input from all walks of life on this issue," said Sen. Stephen Buoniconti, D-Hampden, co-chairman of the special commission. He hopes to hear from people ranging from the average citizen to insurance industry insiders to people who may have solutions to the problem, he said.

"The SouthCoast and the Cape, obviously, are the most affected by the crisis in homeowners insurance," said Sen. Buoniconti.  ...  SouthCoastToday.com

______________________________

Red Lobster freshens web site to extol brand position

In an effort to follow the market toward healthier menus, and a "fresh food" brand position, Red Lobster has launched a new rich-media Web site with video features, a "chef's blog," an interactive kitchen, a fresh-fish recipe book and videocasts.

The new Redlobster.com has content on healthy eating and video featuring Red Lobster's senior executive chef Michael LaDuke and executive chef Darryl Mickler. In the Chef's Blog, LaDuke and Mickler answer recipe requests and cooking questions, talk about seafood recipes and tout menu items like Maple-Glazed Salmon and Shrimp, which are featured in new ads.

The two will also host videocasts from different locales. The first will be on Cape Cod, which will feature fresh seafood tips and how-to preparations from Red Lobster.  ...   Marketing Daily

______________________________

South Coast Wind bird study begins

A barge loaded with equipment that will track bird migration through Buzzards Bay is preparing to leave New Bedford Harbor this morning. The barge was chartered by Patriot Renewables, LLC, which has proposed a 300-megawatt wind farm in the bay.

The company, owned by Boston developer Jay Cashman, has hired bird expert Richard H. Podolsky to perform avian studies in the bay, which are required before the $750 million South Coast Wind project can proceed.  ...  SouthCoastToday.com

3 comments »

Glenn Marshall's heroism will face FBI scrutiny

Military Awards Expert Reports Marshall To FBI
Report of five Purple Hearts, Silver Star 'raised a red flag'


The Silver Star, awared for valor, is one of the medals Glenn Marshall claimed which is under dispute.A Vietnam veteran who maintains a database of military valor awards said Monday he has turned over his research about false claims of Purple Heart and Silver Star honors associated with Mashpee Wampanoag ex-leader Glenn Marshall to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

U.S. Army veteran C. Douglas Sterner of Pueblo, CO, who operates a Web site called homeofheroes.com, said he reported the false claims to the Federal Bureau of Investigation after reading of the claims, which were made by Marshall's legal adviser James T. Morris of Boston in a profile of the tribal leader in an Aug. 18 edition of The Day.

Sterner maintains a digital database developed over the past six years that covers all branches of the military. The goal, he said, is to preserve records and publicize recipients of some of the nation's highest valor awards, including the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross and the Silver Star.  Sterner said his intent is not typically to “find phonies,” but when he does he reports them to the FBI...  The Day. 

Leave a comment »

LWV, others march on State House to protest casino; Tribe calls two meetings on Marshall; Billary does The Vineyard; Will Bay State get its casino?

Gambling opponents to march at State House
Casinofacts PAC and the League of Women Voters protest
Protest pleas
Several casino opponents said yesterday that Marshall's departure has not affected their efforts, but Richard Young, president of Casinofacts, said he hopes the new tribal leadership is more open to meeting with his group. "We, at some point, would love to meet with them and have a conversation," Young said. A tribe spokesman did not return calls for comment. Other opponents said Marshall's departure may prompt those who were swayed by his "spin on the casino" issue to reconsider.Opponents of casino gambling in Massachusetts plan to march outside the State House this morning in hopes of influencing the governor to reject a proposal for a casino in Middleborough.  Members of Casinofacts PAC and the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts said they planned today's protest to coincide with a meeting between representatives from the Regional Task Force on Casino Impacts and Daniel O'Connell, the state secretary of housing and economic development who has been advising Governor Deval Patrick on the casino issue.

The task force includes officials from 17 communities and two Southeastern Massachusetts planning agencies who want to be a part of the decision-making process at the state level. Patrick is expected to announce his position on gambling around Labor Day.  "This is not a quick fix for Massachusetts; it is not a fix at all," said Diane Jeffery, president of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. "It would be more draining on the economy than it would be beneficial."

The protest is planned amid a shift in leadership in the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which has been pushing to build a $1 billion casino...  Globe. 
___________________

Revelations about chairman fueling rift within tribe
Two Tribal meetings called to decide Glenn Marshall's fate

Mashpee mutiny
According to the Cape Cod Times on Sunday, "a possible grass-roots mutiny against disgraced tribal council chairman Glenn Marshall, members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe are being called to an "emergency meeting" Monday night at the Sons of Italy Hall on Route 28 at 7 p.m. Michelle Fernandes, one of five tribe members shunned by the tribal council in December, said yesterday: "Our people understand that we have been called to action and plan to follow up with Mr. Marshall's announcement ... We're looking to prevent Glenn Marshall from returning to the tribal council.'"BOSTON - The revelation that Mashpee Wampanoag tribal Chairman Glenn Marshall lied about his military service and was convicted of rape in 1981 is fueling a rift within the tribe as they seek to build a $1 billion casino in Massachusetts. One of five members of the tribe shunned by the tribal council in December is calling for an emergency meeting of the tribe Monday to discuss the situation.

"Our people understand that we have been called to action and plan to follow up with Mr. Marshall’s announcement," Michelle Fernandes, one of five members shunned by the council, told the Cape Cod Times. "We’re looking to prevent Glenn Marshall from returning to the tribal council." But tribal vice chairman Shawn Hendricks said only he has the authority to call meetings of the tribal council. Marshall handed over his day-to-day duties to Hendricks after the revelations were made public...  Herald
________________

Will Massachusetts Get Their First Resort Casino and Offer Poker?
Will we get two casinos?
Though the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is in the current gambling spotlight, the state is not limited to Indian gambling. In fact, state Treasurer Timothy Cahill has proposed licensing a limited number of commercial casinos as a way to boost state revenues. He said two casinos, for example, would provide the state with "a minimum of $500 million and we're looking at the possibility of up to $1 billion." A report issued earlier this month from UMass Dartmouth's Center for Policy Analysis recommended that the state license three commercial casinos, including one in Southeastern Massachusetts, and to allow the area's Indian tribes to run two of them.The Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe and the Cape Cod town of Middleboro Massachusetts USA are anxiously awaiting word from Governor Deval Patrick regarding whether he supports casinos in the state, as the tribe and town wish to develop a $1 billion Mohegan Sun-style casino in Middleboro, making it the state's first casino.

A task force led by state Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Daniel O'Connell studied the issue of gambling in the Bay State, and last month submitted their secret report to the governor, who so far has exhibited his best poker face in refusing to reveal where he stands on the issue.

Patrick promised an announcement this week.

When the Mashpee Wampanoag were granted federal recognition in May, they immediately became eligible to offer, on their own sovereign land, any kind of gambling allowed in Massachusetts. The tribe has said it will apply within the next two weeks to take more than 500 Middleboro acres into trust for the purpose of locating a $1 billion Mohegan Sun-style casino there....  PokerNews.
_________________

Clinton Fund-Raiser on the Vineyard
Hillary goes bipartisan a bit

What Carly sang
“Is it Mrs. President or Madam President?” Ms. Simon said to laughter. “Madam, right?  “I love her now, and very likely I will love her always,” Ms. Simon continued, before she and her offspring sang the Everly Brothers’ “Devoted to You.”OAK BLUFFS – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday evening that if she is elected president in 2008, she would quickly ask “distinguished Americans of both parties” to travel the world before her inauguration to proclaim a new era of “bipartisan foreign policy” in the United States.

It was one of several bipartisan notes that Mrs. Clinton struck in remarks to a crowd of a few thousand at a $50-a-ticket fundraiser at the outdoor Tabernacle here on Martha’s Vineyard.  She also mentioned a New York Republican who is supporting her; praised a University of Chicago professor’s study of education (noting his campus is not a hotbed of “liberal thinking”); and praised Presidents Lincoln and Eisenhower, both Republicans, for setting and achieving major national goals...  NY Times. 

Leave a comment »

Regions gaming scene changing fast; The two weeks which weren't

Tribal Gaming Firms Reach Out Far Beyond The Region's Casinos
Tribes looking to diversify holdings as competition looms across state's borders

As competition continues to nibble at Connecticut's gaming monopoly at the Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, its owners are looking elsewhere — far away in some cases, from San Diego to St. Croix — to diversify their holdings and keep their tribes healthy, and wealthy, for the long term.

Once the only gaming halls in New England, the two casinos now face encroaching competition just across the state's borders. Massachusetts is on the verge of deciding whether to allow casinos, with the governor's recommendation due by Labor Day. And two “racinos” featuring slots and horse racing — at Twin River in nearby Lincoln, R.I., and the Empire Raceway in Yonkers, N.Y. — are already taking a slice of the Connecticut casinos' lucrative slots earnings...  

Massachusetts' motive in allowing casinos is driven by its interest in capturing the millions of dollars of gaming revenues it's missing out on — money that could pay for social needs through a possible compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Cape Cod.
 “If Massachusetts allows one Native American casino and another commercial casino, clearly it's going to negatively affect both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods,” McGowan said. “They're probably trying right now to hedge their bets.”    The Day.  
_______________

The fortnight that wasn't
Let's not bother the beachfront property owners

A coal mine collapse in Utah killed six workers, with another three dead after a second collapse buried a group of rescuers. Opponents of Cape Wind, the embattled wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, said that while they regretted the loss of life, it was better that than forcing beachfront property owners on Cape Cod to look at tiny windmills on the distant horizon.

In Florida, NASA announced it had finally succeeded in sending a teacher safely into space. "After the Challenger disaster in 1986, many thought we were finished," said a spokesperson, "but we never wavered from our goal of putting an educator into orbit." The effort cost more than $145 billion and took nearly a quarter century, but cheering personnel at the Kennedy Space Center said it was worth it as Space Shuttle Endeavour touched down carrying teacher Barbara Morgan. "Never let it be said that NASA has lost its way," said one administrator. "True, we had originally hoped we'd be able to spend the last 20 years exploring Mars, but, really, this is just as good."

Michelle Obama told an audience in Iowa this week that, "if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House," a remark many interpreted as a slap at Hillary Clinton. Staffers for Senator Barack Obama denied that was the case. "Michelle simply meant that the White House is the president's home. As with any home, you have to sort laundry, cook, vacuum, and, of course, keep your spouse in line," explained an aide. "We're appalled that anyone would think this is an observation that's directed solely at Senator Clinton. It applies to any woman who would be president."  Read Tom Kane in The Globe here.

1 comment »