EXTRA...

Our Congressmen's finances; State begins testing shellfish; State signs Science Bill

  Massachusetts members of Congress report finances

  Congressman Niki Tsongas has a home overlooking the Chatham Fish Pier and Harbor which generates up to $50,000 annually in rental income.
  Rep. Tsongas's Chatham property earns big bucks

Six of Massachusetts' 10 House members are landlords who made thousands of dollars last year on rental properties, according to financial disclosure reports released publicly Monday.  The 2007 filings by lawmakers offer a glimpse into their personal finances, including assets, gifts, income and trips paid for by private groups. Lawmakers are not required to list exact figures on most disclosure report categories, only a broad dollar range...

The state delegation's newest member, Rep. Niki Tsongas, got between $15,001 and $50,000 rent for a house in Chatham, Mass. The Cape Cod property was valued between $1 million and $5 million.  Tsongas and her late husband, former Sen. Paul Tsongas, bought the house in 1984. It has been rented during the summer most years, Tsongas spokesman John Noble said.  Tsongas also reported capital gains between $15,001 and $50,000 on Exxon Mobil Corp. holdings...

Rep. William Delahunt, a former district attorney who represents Cape Cod and the South Shore, received $57,444 in state pension money...  Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, took eight trips where his travel expenses were paid by outside groups, including speeches to gay and lesbian political groups, the National Constitution Center, the Congress for the New Urbanism, Deutsche Bank in New York and an appearance on comedian Bill Maher's TV show...  Globe.
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 State to begin testing some shellfishMassachusetts Trumpets
Life-Sciences Funding Bill
Gov. Deval Patrick heads to California for an international biotechnology conference toting a new $1 billion life-sciences bill that he signed into law Monday.Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft joined the governor as he signed the legislation at the Joslin Diabetes Center.
   Mr. Kraft has funded medical research, and Mr. Mello is a University of Massachusetts researcher who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for medicine.
   The 10-year measure includes $500 million in capital funding, $250 million to fund research grants and $250 million in tax incentives for certified life sciences projects.
   The bill became law in the heart of Boston's Longwood Medical Center... also will help in developing five regional technology and innovation centers... Wall Street Journal.

T

he Massachusetts Department of Public Health June 16 announced plans to conduct precautionary market testing of shellfish harvested from marine waters potentially impacted by red tide.

The testing will be done on surf clams and ocean quahogs harvested from federally designated waters off the coast of Massachusetts. Testing of shellfish in state coastal waters is routinely conducted by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, but shellfish caught in federal waters is not...

Due to increasing levels of PSP toxin, DMF has closed shellfish beds in the Nauset Estuarine system in Eastham and Orleans and in waters from New Hampshire to the Bourne-Sandwich line near the east end of the Cape Cod Canal, with the exception of the Plymouth-Kingston-Duxbury Bay complex...  Ipswich Chronicle.