Cape & Islands News

Boch & The Vineyard still at odds

^{_{Ernie Boch built such an extravagant trophy home overlooking Edgartown Harbor that his relationship with the town has remained bumpy even after his death.}}

Vineyard Haven Boch Property Is Centerpiece of Future Plan
Tisbury officials hope to resolve the long-running conflicts between the town and the Boch family that have stymied productive use of the parcel

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This I believe

The Vision, not the View
Arrayed against this vision are many good, gifted and privileged people who use their influence, financial wherewithal, and political connections to try to scuttle the first off shore wind farm in the nation

By Bill Eddy, Falmouth 

In 1967, when I was twenty-one, I attended a party on Martha’s Vineyard where the band I was helping to manage was asked to play. For two hours I sat on a couch listening to the music, watching the people and occasionally scratching the neck of an English Springer Spaniel named Freckles. On the other side of Freckles sat Robert F. Kennedy, his owner. From time to time the two of us shared our thoughts about the music, about our lives, where we were headed.

A year later, on June 5th, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was shot.

Two months later, following my graduation from Yale, I moved to East Harlem in New York City. A group of laity and clergy had formed an organization called “The 100 Worst Buildings of New York City.” I joined their efforts. Our mission was simple: to restore the heat and hot water in buildings abandoned by their owners. Our goal was clear: to empower the tenants living in these buildings to take the buildings over and to restore them, to begin the rebuilding of their neighborhoods and their lives. The success of the work depended on the cooperation of committed people living in the buildings, people from many churches and synagogues, private developers, bankers, city, state and federal officials, even members of some street gangs. But mainly the effort was driven by the hopes and dreams of the least advantaged compelling the rest of us to listen and to act.

Now, almost thirty years later, as a parish priest, I look back and trace the beginnings of a career dedicated to a type of social change that evolves over time, a blending, if you will, of the urgency that arises within a political and social framework coupled with the patience and persistence of a spiritually driven vision. Words attributed to King Solomon, as found in the Book of Proverbs, have always held meaning for me: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The vision I first received came through a man I sat with once while listening to a band at a home on Martha’s Vineyard. The vision as it has evolved has been shaped by the many thousands of people I have met along the way, mainly people in churches and community groups who have dedicated their lives to bringing about social change.

I now work with several hundred people to help build a wind farm off the shores of Cape Cod, the place where I live. In my mind’s eye I look out over Nantucket Sound and picture a flotilla of tall ships, their masts faintly etched on the edge of the horizon. The wind farm, when built, will absolutely and definitively change the way we live and how we view our world and ourselves.

The wind farm will have as much right to be on Nantucket Sound as any cruise ship lying off Oak Bluffs or any fishing boat plying the waters off Hyannis. Navigating in and around the wind farm will present less of a challenge than going through Woods Hole or docking in Vineyard Haven or visiting the beautiful harbors of Cotuit and Osterville. Birds will fly around it, and the fishing will still be good, perhaps even better. But most of all, it will be producing our power.

Arrayed against this vision are many good, gifted and privileged people who use their influence, financial wherewithal, and political connections to try to scuttle the first off shore wind farm in the nation. They mainly fear the view of a wind farm off their shores. They also fear the change such a project represents, even when many of them know, deep down, that this would be a change for the good on every level. They, who in the larger world are often the masters and agents of change, fear being changed themselves. Ironically, the fears, the lies and the distortions that they have spread have in fact caused them to become, themselves, spiritually paralyzed, distanced from their own values. They say, “We are for environmental responsibility, for wind farms even, but not here.”

Perhaps to justify their aversion to change, even change for the better and for the common good, I often hear sentiments like this: “I look out over the waters of Nantucket Sound. So much has changed in my life. So much has been lost. But this view remains unchanging. It is, for me, a source of peace.”

Is this what we mean by peace? Or is this sentiment really nostalgia, that most seductive of emotions that attempts to replace a challenging and present reality with an imagined past and a more comforting, private future? The real world is changing before our eyes: waters are rising, storm winds are intensifying, nations are reeling, whole communities are lying in disarray. Across the world people are anxious about their lives and about their common future. Who can afford to retreat to a place in one’s mind where all seems unchanged, under control, as it once maybe was?

Long ago, Robert F. Kennedy sought the truth about things. As a result he possessed the capacity to change his mind. He changed his mind about a war in southeast Asia. He changed his focus from working exclusively within and for the more secure and stable groups of a political establishment to working within broad movements of people seeking justice and inclusion and a better society for everyone.

It is thus with a sense of gratitude and not nostalgia that I think back to a summer’s night so long ago. I would like to think that were I to sit again with Robert F. Kennedy he would be quietly pleased to know how deeply within the hearts of so many thousands of people here on Cape Cod and across the Commonwealth we have taken on his way of viewing the world, most especially now, and in the very place where not only he and I, but so many others, once briefly met. His vision still represents an ongoing legacy to a whole generation of people. Why should the promise of his legacy not lie within our sight?

To build this wind farm, in Nantucket Sound, now, would seem as a profile in courage on the ocean’s edge.

William Eddy, an Episcopal priest, lives in Falmouth and works in Weymouth. He is the president of Cape & Islands Self-Reliance and a founding member of Clean Power Now.

He built his first wind generator in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial of the nation.

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Rhode Island's US Senator weighs in on Cape Wind

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee (on right) sent a letter to four Senate colleagues urging them to reject a proposal to impose a 1.5-nautical mile restrictive zone on offshore energy production. The addition of this provision in the Coast Guard reauthorization bill would essentially terminate an ongoing pollution-free, renewable wind energy project off the coast of New England.

Mr. Chafee, a Republican, sent the following is the text of the letter sent to Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science And Transportation (CST), as well as to Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chairman and Ranking Member CST’s Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard. All four Senators are members of the Coast Guard Reauthorization Conference Committee, which is tasked with reconciling the differences between the Senate and House versions of the reauthorization legislation:

Dear Senators:

I urge you, as members of Coast Guard Reauthorization Conference Committee, to reject the proposed language that would impose a 1.5-nautical mile restrictive zone on offshore energy production. This provision, if added, will be devastating to an ongoing renewable wind energy project that is very valuable to Rhode Island and to greater New England. I encourage you instead to address concerns about maritime navigational safety in future legislation.

With the recent increase in conventional energy prices, wind energy generation is a promising option to provide much needed electricity supply to the New England transmission grid. Additional renewable electricity supply is crucial as providers strive to maintain reliable electric service at reasonable costs to consumers, while meeting incrementally rising renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Rhode Island raised its RPS to 16 percent of retail sales by the end of 2019. The project will provide up to 450 megawatts of renewable electricity generation annually, enough to meet the demands of Cape Cod and the islands, and thereby reducing strain on the grid and subsequently reducing electricity cost in surrounding areas.

Indeed, the addition of offshore wind energy for New England will not only yield an increase in supply, but will also improve air quality. Wind energy is a non-polluting, clean energy that will reduce greenhouse gas and other air pollutant emissions across New England. Initial reports, comparing traditional fossil fuel electricity generation to wind generation, estimate that the project will eliminate approximately 880,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in New England. Carbon dioxide is considered the number one greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.

Finally, it has been proposed that the project’s assembly and staging area would be located in Rhode Island at the Quonset Business Park. This phase of the project would create 600 to 1,000 jobs and spur new economic development opportunities for the state and region.

I urge that the proposed language be deleted from the final legislation and instead be debated in an open process at a future time.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

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Wampanoags promise casino if slots are approved

The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard will assert a right to build a resort casino under Indian gaming law if Massachusetts legalizes slot machines at the state’s four race tracks, the tribe’s chairman said.

The Senate overwhelming approved the slot machine proposal last fall, and it is widely expected to come up for a vote in the House as soon as March.

Tribal Chairman Donald Widdiss said the Aquinnah Wampanoag, which has hired the Boston lobbying firm of Donoghue, Barrett and Singal, is watching the House debate “very closely.”

“We’re presently a little more hopeful because it will get a hearing and be voted on this year,” Widdiss said. “So until we know what the parameters are, we are watching it closely. We have the people who are taking care of this kind of stuff letting us know and keeping us up to date. I’m sure we’ll weigh in during the hearing process.”

Read the rest of this I&Q story here, and comment below.
Read previous story on local approval of a casino here.

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David Vieira may run against Matt Patrick, again

Falmouth-Town Moderator Considers Run For State Representative

According to this week's Falmouth Enterprise, David T. Vieira, who is in his eighth year serving as Falmouth Town Moderator, is considering a run against incumbant State Representitive Matt Patrick, also of Falmouth in the Third Barnstable District.

Mr. Vieira, who is a Republican, ran once before against Mr. Patrick, who is a Democrat  in 2000, and lost.

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Cape Cod Hospital could lose $750,000 in new Health Care bill

By Steve LeBlanc, Boston Globe

BOSTON --The state Senate is set to debate a dramatically scaled-back version of a health care reform bill Tuesday, a move supporters say could break a legislative logjam and avert the loss of hundreds of millions in federal dollars.

Senate President Robert Travaglini unveiled the bill Monday. Health care advocates immediately criticized the bill, saying Travaglini was moving too fast.

Travaglini's move is the first public acknowledgment of what has become increasingly clear on Beacon Hill -- the inability of House and Senate negotiators to reach common ground on two very different, and ambitious, health care reform bills approved by both chambers last year.

Gone are many of the highlights of those two bills, including provisions mandating all individuals have health insurance and requiring employers provide insurance or face a health care payroll tax.

Travaglini's bill also avoids any expansion of Medicaid and drops other initiatives in the original Senate bill, including $25 million for screening programs, a health care quality assessment program, and a statewide infection control program.

Travaglini said he still hopes for a compromise on the more ambitious bills, but said the state needs to act now or face the loss of $385 million in federal Medicaid dollars.

The bill tries to do the minimum needed to satisfy federal overseers by letting individuals buy private health insurance plans on a pretax basis and creating a program to offer subsidies to help low-income people get insurance.

Overall, the plan will help about 305,000 of the state's estimated more than half a million uninsured individuals afford insurance, he said...

Romney's Health and Human Services Secretary Timothy Murphy released a list Monday showing how much money dozens of hospitals and community health centers in Massachusetts would lose if a bill isn't approved in time.

Mass General Hospital in Boston could lose $10.3 million. Baystate Medical Center in Springfield could lose the $6.3 million. Cape Cod Hospital could lose $750,000...

Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below.

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Sneak Attack on Cape Wind

Editorial, Tuesday, February 28, 2006 

Sneak Attack on Cape Wind
The benefits of this project are enormous in terms of local air pollution, global warming and other problems associated with the burning of fossil fuels

Any serious effort to deal with global warming and oil dependency is going to outrage somebody. Whether it is a proposal to import liquefied natural gas to reduce the use of a dirtier fuel like coal or to build a nuclear plant for the same reason, someone in the neighborhood is going to scream.

So it is with an ambitious proposal called Cape Wind, a large wind farm that a Massachusetts energy company wants to build off Cape Cod, about six miles from shore. The proposal involves constructing 130 giant turbines whose windmill arms would reach 400 feet above the water. They would be visible, though barely so, on the distant horizon.

The benefits of this project are enormous in terms of local air pollution, global warming and other problems associated with the burning of fossil fuels. Cape Wind would displace 113 million gallons of oil per year (or 570,000 tons of coal, or 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas), while generating three-fourths of the energy needs of the Cape, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. It has the support of residents, regional newspapers and just about every major environmental organization in America.

Nevertheless, a group called the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound — which includes ordinary folk but is bankrolled by some very rich people with very nice views — has spent large sums lobbying against the project. The group has raised concerns about threats to marine and bird life, all of which are being addressed in environmental impact studies. But their biggest beef is about the sheer proximity of the turbines. Their preferred outcome is to wait until the technology is available to build wind farms much farther out to sea, a delay the country simply cannot afford.

Into this debate steps Don Young of Alaska, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Mr. Young has fashioned an amendment that he apparently intends to attach to a financing bill for the Coast Guard when that bill reaches a Senate-House conference committee. Committee chairmen often act imperiously in this way, even though the amendment has never been debated by either house.

The amendment would ban the construction of wind turbines within 1.5 nautical miles of a shipping lane or ferry route. That would kill Cape Wind, parts of which would come within 1,500 feet of a ferry route. Mr. Young says he's concerned about safety. Yet offshore oil rigs are allowed within 500 feet of shipping in this country. And Mr. Young has no objection to a wind farm in Long Island Sound that would lie only 1.65 miles from shipping.

It's clear that Mr. Young's sole purpose is to kill Cape Wind. It's not clear why he wants to do this — Nantucket Sound, after all, is a long way from Alaska. Whatever his reasons, his colleagues in the House and Senate — reliable environmentalists like Olympia Snowe of Maine, for instance — cannot let him get away with it.

Cape Wind has been the subject of endless environmental reviews. We believe it should be approved. But if there are objections to be made, they should be made in the open and not by stealth.

The New York Times, February 28, 2006

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WHOI will listen for earthquakes in Pacific

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod says it's getting ready to deploy 40 seismometers (see photos) on the East Pacific Rise, an underwater volcanic mountain system that's mostly off the west coast of South America.

The goal is to glean information that would be helpful in understanding earthquakes that hit heavily-populated areas like the Tsunami last year.

"We will be able to record large undersea earthquakes directly on top of the faults that generate them," Jeff McGuire, a WHOI researcher says in a release. "Although our test area is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this technology will have broad application to other faults zones, including those of significant societal relevance such as the nearshore subduction zone off Oregon and Washington."

PHOTO: An ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) is deployed for earthquake studies. Click here or on the photo to enlarge.

 (The following is from the WHOI press release.)

New Instrumentation May Help Scientists Understand Earthquake Mechanics
$1 Million Grant from the W. M Keck Foundation Will Support the Project

Hundreds of earthquakes occur every day around the world, most of them underneath the oceans, while the vast majority of instruments used to record earthquakes are on land. As a result, advances in understanding basic earthquake processes have been limited by the available data. Scientists are improving this situation by developing an instrument that records both small and large earthquakes on the seafloor.

(PHOTO: John Collins (left) and Jeff McGuire with some of the OBSs at WHOI, part of the national OBS pool. The seismometer is the gray device at right.

Jeff McGuire and John Collins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) plan to deploy 40 ocean bottom seismometers, or OBSs, on the ocean floor along the East Pacific Rise in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Their target area is a section of ocean about the size of the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.

The instruments will use a pair of seismometers, one known as a broadband seismometer, the other as a strong-motion accelerometer, to record the ground movements from undersea earthquakes, just like seismic arrays on land. They will be placed on the Quebrada/Discovery/Gofar (QDG) transform fault system for one year starting in early 2007. This area is known to have large earthquakes, greater than magnitude 5, preceded by foreshocks, or small shocks around magnitude 3, in the last hour before a large rupture occurs. Current ocean bottom seismometers record moderate ground motions from nearby small earthquakes and can register the foreshocks, but do not have the range to record the main shocks, McGuire said.

McGuire and Collins have received a $1 million grant from The W. M. Keck Foundation to develop a new suite of OBSs capable of accurately recording both foreshocks and mainshocks. Ten will be built, to be used in conjunction with current instruments from the U.S. national Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool or OBSIP, which supplies OBSs to researchers around the country for their research projects. WHOI and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography maintain and operate the pool.

(PHOTO: John Collins (left) and Jeff McGuire check an electronic data logger, which records seismic wave measurements, in the ocean bottom seismometer lab.

“This grant from the Keck Foundation has enabled us to take a major step forward,” McGuire said. “Together with existing pool instruments and ship time, both supported by the National Science Foundation, we will be able to record large undersea earthquakes directly on top of the faults that generate them. Although our test area is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this technology will have broad application to other faults zones, including those of significant societal relevance such as the nearshore subduction zone off Oregon and Washington.”

Advances in electronics in the past five years or so, including electronics that require less battery power, have made a new generation of OBSs possible. While some parts of the new OBSs will be bought from commercial firms, other aspects of the instruments will be designed and built by WHOI scientists and engineers. The new generation OBS will be tested this summer and fall and prepared for deployment on the East Pacific Rise in water depths of 3,500 to 4,000 meters (about 11,500 to 14,000 feet).

The W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company, with the goal of providing far-reaching benefits for humanity. With assets of more than $1 billion, the Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the nation. Supporting pioneering discoveries in science, engineering and medical research has been a mandate of the Keck Foundation for a half-century. By funding the work of leading researchers, the building of labs and research centers, and the purchase of sophisticated instruments, the Foundation lays the groundwork for breakthrough discoveries and new technologies that will save lives, provide innovative solutions and add immeasurably to our understanding of life on Earth and our place in the universe.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research and higher education at the frontiers of ocean science. Located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth, MA, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, the Institution is organized into five departments, interdisciplinary institutes and a marine policy center, and conducts a joint graduate education program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

See the WHOI release here.

 

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Fossil fuel gluttony takes 33 acres of Cape Cod every year

Boston Globe Op Ed
Wind power with no direction

By Philip Warburg (right) and Susan Reid, Conservation Law Foundation

IN NEW ENGLAND and elsewhere, our fossil fuel gluttony is already taking its toll. Roughly 33 acres of Cape Cod's shoreline wash away each year due to sea level rise, and the rate of loss is accelerating. The estimated cost of damage from sea level rise over the next century tops $90 billion for metropolitan Boston alone.

Absent fundamental and prompt changes in local and global energy consumption, New England's natural heritage will witness devastating changes in the coming decades.

We cannot sit back and watch this devastation unfold. Significant technological advances have already brought clean, renewable, domestic energy resources within reach. Even the Bush administration sees renewable energy as a key to cutting our dependence on oil.

Massachusetts' political leadership should be eagerly leading the charge toward a renewable energy future. Back in 1997, the Bay State was one of the first in the nation to give marketable credits to power producers tapping such resources as wind and solar energy. Today, instead of giving us the bold leadership we need to get renewable energy projects built, Bay State political leaders are standing in the way of solutions.

The Cape Wind proposal presents us with a first-in-the nation utility-scale wind energy project off our shores, one that could provide up to 75 percent of Cape Cod's electricity supply while cutting both greenhouse gas emissions and costs to consumers. Renewable energy developers and concerned citizens throughout the country view this project as a barometer of the prospects for other domestic projects that would tap our abundant offshore wind resources. Yet several of our state's leading elected officials will not even allow the project a fair review.

Governor Mitt Romney has publicly opposed Cape Wind, proclaiming himself ready to do so using every tool at his disposal. As the top elected executive in Massachusetts, just whom is he purporting to represent? The citizens of Massachusetts, who support the project by a 6-to-1 ratio? Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and Attorney General Thomas Reilly have also chosen to oppose the project rather than support a fair review.

In Washington, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's longstanding vocal opposition to Cape Wind defies his lengthy track record as a supporter of sound energy policies. His unwillingness to look beyond local aesthetics to a broader view of sustainable energy solutions is deeply disappointing. Ironically, the very coastline whose vistas he seeks to preserve is on the front line of the battle against climate change -- a battle we will lose if we dare not advance projects like Cape Wind.

Most recently, Bay State citizens should all be alarmed by the failure of our congressional delegation to stand up to a very direct attack on the Cape Wind project by Representative Don Young of Alaska. Congressman Young is pushing for an amendment to the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2005 that would cripple Cape Wind.

Introduced in conference committee to avoid debate on the House or Senate floor, the amendment would require the Coast Guard to prohibit offshore wind farms from being within 1 1/2 nautical miles of a shipping channel or ferry route.

Our elected officials in Washington must act swiftly to ensure that Cape Wind moves forward with its environmental review. Senator Kennedy and the rest of the Massachusetts congressional delegation should join Senator Kerry's 11th-hour call, this past Friday, to stop Congressman Young's abuse of the legislative process. We also look to the ongoing leadership of Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine, who should employ her critical role on the conference committee to further her legacy as a champion of renewable energy, rather than tolerating this misguided step backward.

To avert the ravages of climate change, we will need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 75 to 85 percent in the coming decades. To meet that challenge here in Massachusetts, developing our offshore wind resources is a pragmatic first step. Taking that step calls for strong political leadership.

Philip Warburg is president and Susan Reid is a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation.

This appeared in The Boston Globe on Monday, February 27, 2006

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Keyspan sold, is NStar the next to go British

Deals spark buzz that NStar may be next
Firm would mesh well with British giant, analysts say

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | February 28, 2006

Is NStar next?

Just days after it said it would buy a 250,000-customer gas utility in Rhode Island, British energy giant National Grid PLC said yesterday it hopes to close a second deal that will bring 800,000 KeySpan Energy Delivery gas customers in Eastern Massachusetts into the National Grid corporate fold.

The two deals leave NStar looking more and more like the hole in National Grid's doughnut, fanning speculation that the Westwood-based electric and gas utility may be the next takeover target for an aggressively acquisitive National Grid.

''They certainly have NStar completely surrounded now," said Gary P. Sullivan, president of Local 369 of the Utility Workers Union of America, which represents about 1,900 NStar electric and gas workers.

NStar provides electric service to 1.1 million homes and businesses in Boston and 80 suburbs and natural gas to 300,000 customers in Eastern Massachusetts. NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen said, ''We don't discuss speculation about merger and acquisition activity in our industry."

From Lowell to Worcester County to Cape Cod, NStar will closely overlap or abut a combined KeySpan-National Grid, which owns utilities formerly known as Boston Gas Co. and Massachusetts Electric Co. and extends to Long Island and western New York.

Asked whether National Grid is interested in buying NStar, National Grid USA chief executive Michael Jesanis declined to comment but added: ''Everybody wonders who's next. We will one day again expand, but we've got plenty to do over the next 12 months. There'll be time to think about the next expansion as it's appropriate."

With 2005 revenue of more than $3 billion and steadily growing profits, NStar is also under no immediate pressure to do a deal, industry executives say. Its chief executive, Thomas J. May, is 58.

How close a utility's chief executive is to retirement age -- KeySpan chief Robert B. Catell is 69 -- is often a surprisingly crucial determinant of whether it will agree to a takeover offer, said John Dingle, managing director of Navigant Consulting, a Chicago utility consulting firm...

Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below.

KeySpan sold to British company
National Grid PLC Agrees To $7.3 Billion Deal

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Washington Post chimes in on Cape Wind farm

By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 26, 2006; Page A08

BOSTON -- A proposal before Congress that would limit the construction of wind turbines near shipping lanes could effectively doom plans to build the country's first offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, the project's supporters say.

Officials at Cape Wind Associates LLC say that the rule, being considered as an amendment to a bill in a House-Senate conference committee, would rule out so many crucial sections of Nantucket Sound that there would not be enough space for their 130-windmill complex.

"This is a dire moment for us," said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman. He said the rule "would be totally fatal" for the project.

The Cape Wind project, begun four years ago, has proved consistently controversial: Though environmentalists have praised it for providing a renewable source of energy, Cape Wind has determined opponents who are concerned about its impact on fishing, navigation and beachfront views.

Those against it are a powerful and bipartisan group, including Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

The latest move against the wind project has come from Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In a letter to his colleagues that was released by Cape Wind officials, Young has called for an amendment banning all wind turbines within 1.5 nautical miles of shipping and ferry lanes.

He said the ban was based on research in Britain, which found that the turbines' massive blades could interfere with shipboard radar. In the letter, Young singled out the Cape Wind site -- which is surrounded by sea routes between Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard -- as particularly unsafe.

"The Cape Wind proposal provides in some places only a 1,200-foot separation" between sea lanes and wind turbines, ". . . threatening loss of life, injury and pollution," the letter says. A spokesman for Young did not respond to calls for comment about the letter.

Officials at Cape Wind call the concerns about navigation a pretext for killing the project. They noted that a risk assessment completed by a contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers in 2003 found that "the presence of the Wind Park . . . is not expected to create negative impacts to navigational safety."

The project has been closely watched because it is one of the most advanced proposals to build a wind farm in U.S. waters. The country has numerous windmill farms on land, but experts believe offshore turbines could take advantage of strong sea winds and the ease of transporting electricity to nearby coastal cities.

Its supporters say that, in normal wind conditions, the Cape Wind project could provide three-fourths of the power needed by Cape Cod and the nearby islands. After a tortured history in the federal bureaucracy, the federal Minerals Management Service is scheduled to render a final verdict on it early next year.

Supporters said that the move to stop the project was particularly galling in light of President Bush's recent push for the development of alternative and renewable energy sources such as wind.

"This is sort of backdoor politics at its worst, for the worst possible reasons," said Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Washington Post, Sunday, February 26, 2006

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New reality TV show "P-town" casting in Boston

Casting crews will be at Felt in downtown Boston this afternoon looking for 10 people to be part of the new reality TV show ''P-Town" that's slated to be filmed this summer in (where else?) Provincetown. Producer Josh Kletzkin dropped in on Felt's Thursday night dance party to encourage lesbians to attend today's casting call. (He was at Buzz last week to get the guys to turn out.)

P-town producer Jennifer Lane (on right) told the Provincetown Business Guild last Wednesday that the gay-reality-docu-soap “P-Town” will cast the town in a positive light. 

The reality show is being produced by the same folks who brought ''Laguna Beach" to Logo, MTV's new gay-centric cable channel. Why P-Town? ''Laguna Beach was like a paradise. P-Town is like a gay paradise," said Kletzkin. . . .

At the Coors Light Maxim Model Search Thursday night at the Roxy, the winner was Christina Vargas, a 25-year-old model. In addition to winning the title and bragging rights, Vargas gets a trip to Vegas. The judges were Brian ''Average Joe" Worth, ''The Apprentice 3" contestant Michael Tarshi, New England Patriots player Dan Koppen, and Kenn Gray from the Travel Channel's ''Travel Spies." Also adjudicating was Bruins goalie Hannu Toivonen, who brought a few friends, including Nick Boynton and Andrew Raycroft.

Read the fourth paragraph in this Globe article here, and comment below. 

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More monitors, Up-to-date technology needed at Pilgrim Nuclear

Planners want more monitors for Pilgrim
Up-to-date technology wanted to predict where and how far radioactive emissions might travel

By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent

Emergency planners need more wind monitors and up-to-date technology to predict where and how far radioactive emissions from the Pilgrim nuclear power plant might travel in the event of a nuclear accident, according to Plymouth's Nuclear Matters Committee and an environmental consultant who has studied air flow in Southeastern Massachusetts.

''We need to know where the plume is going -- if there is one -- and how it would be affected by wind changes," said Jeff Berger, chairman of the town committee charged with advising selectmen on issues raised by Entergy Corp.'s plan to extend Pilgrim's operating license through 2032.

Without such information, emergency planners and public safety officials would not know whether residents should evacuate or ''shelter in place" inside their homes, Berger said.

If evacuation is warranted, police need to know which areas are evacuating in order to manage traffic.

Air-flow monitoring was identified as an emergency planning problem in the committee's January report to selectmen on Pilgrim's relicensing. Currently there are only two places where wind speed and direction are monitored, both on site at Pilgrim -- a situation Berger called ''absurd."

Current meteorological monitoring is deemed ''absolutely unreliable for evacuation planning purposes," according to Richard Rothstein, a committee member who is a certified consulting meteorologist.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Diane Screnci said current regulations require only that all nuclear power plants have ''monitoring equipment and systems adequate for monitoring off-site consequences for a radiological emergency." She said that NRC regulations for emissions monitoring are generally incorporated into emergency plans for each plant... Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below..

No easy answer to questions on nuclear power
By John P. Gregg/ MetroWest Local Columnist

When President Bush delivered his State of the Union speech last month, he drew much attention to his acknowledgement that "America is addicted to oil."

What may be more significant was what he said immediately afterward -- his proposal to increase spending on "clean-energy" research in the belief that new technology can meet our ever-growing demand for electricity.

"To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy," Bush said to applause.

Superficially, it certainly sounds promising, but energy production is not such a breezy, problem-free issue, by any means.

Leaving aside the question of how burning coal could be "zero-emission," let’s not forget that mining it is not only dangerous work, but also wreaks havoc on the landscape.

Even wind turbines are environmentally -- or at least aesthetically -- touchy subjects; just ask the proponents of the wind-power project proposed off Cape Cod.

But the most serious issue to ponder is the Bush administration’s obvious belief that nuclear power represents an important component of the long-range solution to American energy needs.

For 50 years, now, nuclear power has been touted as an easy source of energy, and it has, indeed, become a major source of electricity in places like Japan, France and parts of the United States. There are now some 64 reactor sites in 31 states.

But given the toxic, radioactive waste it produces, it can hardly be characterized as "clean." And given both terror threats and the man-made disasters at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, describing nuclear energy as "safe" could require supernatural optimism about the future.

This is no small issue, especially here in New England. Entergy Nuclear, the Mississippi-based company, owns nine nuclear facilities around the country. Locally, Entergy is seeking to boost power production at its Vermont Yankee plant, along the Connecticut River not far from Greenfield, Mass., and also extend its operating license by 20 years when it expires in 2012.

In Massachusetts, Entergy is also seeking to extend the license for the Pilgrim nuclear plant it owns in Plymouth... Read the rest of this MetroWest article here, and comment below.

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Young on side of Kennedys in windmill tilt, showdown looms this week

By LIZ RUSKIN. Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Don Young has stepped into a raging Nor'easter over a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod, and now he is tossing in an ocean of ironies that has him on the same side of the feud as two renowned liberals -- Sen. Ted Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The wind farm towers, six miles from shore, would be visible from the Kennedy compound at Hyannisport, Martha's Vineyard and other towns famous for their beautiful coastal setting. The Kennedys oppose the project, as do lots of locals, boaters and tourism boosters. And Alaska's Don Young.

Young is pushing for a buffer of 1.5 nautical miles between offshore windmills and shipping lanes, which developers says would kill the project.

"Around here, everyone is asking why does an Alaska congressman care about this issue," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman in Cape Cod for Cape Wind, the company that wants to build the project.

Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has said little publicly about his position.

"We've tried to meet or at least have a phone conversation with Congressman Young for two months," Rodgers said. "He's refused to talk to us at all."

But at a press conference in Anchorage on Thursday, Young did answer a reporter's question on the subject. He said his concern is for marine navigation.

"The Coast Guard raised this question first," he said.

"But more than that, I have a report -- I follow this business of navigation real closely -- a report from the United Kingdom, that they allowed windmills to be built on some of their traffic channels and it was a disaster."

Rodgers said the UK report calls for mandatory buffer zones of 500 meters. Young, he said, wants to impose one five times larger.

One curiosity in the Cape Cod flap is a five-page letter Young wrote to his colleagues on the subject. The letter's evocative language sometimes strikes the tone Young's traditional enemies, the environmentalists, use when they're trying to thwart his dream of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

"The proposed Cape Wind project is a massive undertaking in the heart of Nantucket Sound," Young wrote. "It will include 130 towers -- each reaching up to 417 feet in height and spread out over 24 square miles. The span of the turbine blades would approximate the length of a football field.

"It is located in the heart of Horseshoe Shoal which is a rich fishing area and provides some 60 percent of the fish that commercial fisherman catch in the area."

Among the ships that travel to Nantucket regularly is one called the Gray Gull, which, he wrote "holds 1.3 million gallons of oil. ... A Gray Gull collision with a wind turbine would be an ecological disaster in Nantucket Sound."

Arguing against energy development? Predictions of environmental doom?
Is this Alaska's Don Young?

In his letter, which his committee spokesman wouldn't give out but the Daily News obtained, Young said he's not necessarily against the project, but his concerns about it extend to national security and hurricanes.

The Nantucket ruckus has split environmentalists, who are torn between yearning for clean energy and aversion to industrial development in beautiful places.

Mark Forest, chief of staff to Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat who represents Hyannis, said outsiders who say it's just about rich people trying to protect their view "don't know Cape Cod. They don't know our region," he said. "It's infuriating."

That sentiment -- that outsiders don't understand the area and their ignorance shouldn't rule its future -- is one Alaskans sometimes use for drilling in ANWR. Forest's boss opposes Young on that one. Read The Anchorage Daily News here, and coment below. 

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Congressional showdown looms this week on Cape wind farm
Could be decided soon at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill

By ANDREW MIGA, Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON (AP) - After a long, loud and costly public fight, the fate of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm could be decided soon at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.

Backers of the Cape Wind Associates project say an amendment quietly slipped into the $8.7 billion Coast Guard reauthorization bill could shatter their hopes - possibly as soon as this week when Congress returns from a holiday recess.

"If this passes, we'd be facing some tough options," said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers.

The legislative intrigue in Congress involving the wind farm has been cloaked in secrecy.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, inserted language in the Coast Guard bill that would create a 1.5-mile buffer zone between wind turbines and shipping and ferry lanes.

The measure would effectively kill Cape Wind's wind farm by forcing the removal of so many of the proposed 130 turbines that the project would not be economically viable, according to project officials.

Young stoked Cape Wind fears recently when he circulated a five-page letter urging fellow lawmakers to support his amendment. A group of House and Senate conferees are to meet behind closed doors to hash out the final details of the Coast Guard bill.

Young, who has avoided public comment about Cape Wind since reports about his amendment surfaced last year, outlined his opposition to Cape Wind over five pages.

Young said Cape Wind chose a site "with few guidelines and no royalties or payment to the federal government." But he concluded that "the most critical problem with the proposed siting of the Cape Wind project is the navigational safety issue."

Ferry routes to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket transport 3 million passengers a year and come within a few hundred yards of the proposed turbines, Young said.

Cape Wind, however, believes the safety issue is a smoke screen for old-fashioned hardball politics involving Washington lobbyists with close ties to Young.

"He's doing it at the behest of Cape Wind opponents," said Rodgers. "He refuses to meet with us."

A spokesman for Young did not return telephone calls for comment.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposes the wind farm, insisted the amendment is about safeguarding boaters and others.

"It's a matter of public safety and that's my understanding of why the congressman introduced it," said Charles Vinick, president of the alliance. "All this amendment does is set up some criteria for public safety."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., opposes the project along with Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, whose district includes Cape Cod. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has not taken a position on Cape Wind.

"An insult to Americans who care about good government"

Kerry, however, said he is opposed to Young's amendment.

"The Young amendment is an insult to Americans who care about good government," Kerry said in a statement. "I oppose this backdoor amendment to the Coast Guard Authorization Bill which - if passed - will derail offshore wind projects across the nation."

Kennedy has voiced concerns about the environmental and economic impact on Cape Cod. He has also complained about the lack of a national policy to regulate such offshore projects.

"Given the potential dangers of siting one of these giant wind farms in a busy shipping area, he thinks (the amendment) is worth the conferees' consideration," said Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner.

Cape Wind, meanwhile, is trying to rally opposition on Capitol Hill. It began e-mailing supporters, urging them to contact four senators who are key conferees: Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

"If this isn't stripped out in the conference committee, it's going to be very difficult," said Rodgers.

Young's amendment has not been the subject of any congressional hearings, Rodgers noted, and it has not been voted on by either the House or Senate.

"This is exactly the kind of practice the American people are disgusted with and want to put an end to," said Rodgers, citing the recent furor over Washington's lobbying scandal. "It would send a terrible message."

Conference committees were supposedly designed to hammer out differences between competing versions of legislation that have been approved by the House and Senate, Rodgers added.

Cape Wind officials said it was unclear whether there might be a legislative remedy to counter Young's amendment.

"We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it," said Rodgers. See the Anchorage Daily News here.

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Washington's Ill Wind

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Capitol Hill's ill wind

FOR A textbook case of why the public holds Congress in such low esteem, look no further than the way an Alaska congressman is short-circuiting the legislative process to sabotage the Cape Wind project off the coast of Cape Cod. Representative Don Young is trying to tack an amendment banning the project onto a bill to authorize funding for the Coast Guard. The stealth amendment has not been debated by any committee of Congress.

The best hope for heading this off rests with Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who is said to be working with other senators on the conference committee to respond to Young's attack. If Snowe and the others do not succeed in removing Young's language from the final bill, they will share blame for killing one of the country's most important renewable energy initiatives. Cape Wind would generate enough electricity to supply three-quarters of the power needs of Cape Cod and the islands without emitting any greenhouse gases.

The Young amendment would ban offshore wind turbines within 1.5 nautical miles of navigation channels or ferry routes. This would stop construction of Cape Wind's 130 turbines, some of which are as close as 1,500 feet to shipping lanes. Young's measure is opposed by the Coast Guard, which doesn't want to lose authority over approving turbine sites. Offshore oil rigs are permitted within 500 feet of shipping channels. In Copenhagen harbor, wind turbines are within a quarter mile of shipping lanes that get far more traffic than the Cape Wind site.

Young bases his no-turbine zone in part on a United Kingdom study of possible marine radar interference caused by the structures. But the exclusionary area called for by Young is four times as large as the one recommended in the UK report.

Congress would have had a chance to debate information like this if the Young amendment had been offered during consideration of the Coast Guard funding bill. Rather than subject it to such scrutiny, however, the Alaskan is trying to insert it into the authorization measure. Backers of Cape Wind suggest the reason that Young is drawing a bead on Cape Wind is that a longtime associate, Guy Martin, works for a Washington firm that has been hired by Cape Wind opponents to lobby against the project. Martin said Friday he has had nothing to do with Young's amendment.

If senators on the conference committee let Young's measure go through, either chamber could vote the entire bill down, but rejecting the funding for an agency as pivotal to national security as the Coast Guard would require inordinate political courage in an election year. Snowe, who has been an advocate of diversifying the nation's energy sources, should take the lead in protecting Cape Wind from a backroom assassination in the Capitol.

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What Would Jackie Do?

How to be like Jackie Kennedy
A dozen years after her death the wolrd still admires her

See the WHDH-TV video here.

Almost 12 years since the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis she is still admired and adored her style and social savvy. And Caterina Bandini tells us about a new book "what would Jackie do?" Can teach you the secrets to being "just like Jackie"

She was the most photographed woman in the world: adored for her style, her beauty and her picture-perfect family. She always knew the right thing to do: a woman everyone would like to get a little advice from - right?

Shelly Branch "What would Jackie do?"
This sort of became a running theme with my girlfriends and myself. What would Jackie do?

And now this new book offers advice author Shelly Branch thinks Jackie would have given-- if you'd been lucky enough to ask her.

Jackie on fashion and style:

Jackie was famous for fashion but her biggest style secret: bargain shopping:

Shelly Branch "What would Jackie do?"
She loved a bargain more than anyone.

"Would Jackie use a consignment shop?" You bet

Shelly Branch "what would Jackie do?"
She might buy a lavish outfit but after a few years she would consign it. It was a way to fund new purchases.

Designers did everything they could to get her to wear their fashions - but most of the time she stuck to a few stylish staples.

Would Jackie wear the latest trend? Not always...

Shelly Branch "What would Jackie do?"
She was very good at figuring out what looked good on her own body

Jackie on home decor:

From the White House...to park avenue...to Martha's Vineyard: Jackie did a lot of decorating.

"Would Jackie buy all new things to furnish a room"? Oh no.

Shelly Branch "What would Jackie do?"
Jackie was definitely a big believer in recycling

Jackie was known for moving old pieces around from room to room make it seem new. And in this age of catalog shopping - she would never tear out a page and copy a whole look...

See the whole WHDH-TV video here.
Read the rest of the WHDH story here.
See the book on Amazon here.

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Eastham Village Center advances, other Lower Cape news

Village center proposal moves forward By Marilyn Miller/ mmiller@cnc.com EASTHAM - Some say Eastham is a town without a center. The stately town hall and the village green with its historic windmill front busy Route 6.... [more]

Preservation group allocates $264k
By Marilyn Miller/ mmiller@cnc.com
Only three applications for funding were received by the Wellfleet Community Preservation Committee by the 9 a.m. deadline Feb. 22, and all three... [more]

See all these stories from The Cape Codder here, and comment below. 

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Truck Co. guilty in officer's death, No fireworks in Ptown

HEAD-ON CRASH SNARLS ROUTE 132 TRAFFIC
BARNSTABLE – A head-on crash caused major delays for commuters along Route 132 in Barnstable this afternoon. The crash happened shortly before 5 PM by the Hyannis Golf Course. A report from the scene said one driver had to be extricated but escaped serious injuries. Traffic was jammed until the wreckage could be cleaned up.

YARMOUTH MAN ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES
YARMOUTH – A West Yarmouth man was arrested on narcotic charges after police executed a search warrant at 95 Lewis Road on Tuesday. 36-year old Obed Story (pictured) was charged with possession of class B, possession of class D, possession of class E, possession with intent to distribute class A (heroin), possession of class B (cocaine) with intent to distribute. Detectives confiscated an undisclosed amount of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, various pills, digital scales and 900 hypodermic needles.

TRUCKING COMPANY FOUND GUILTY IN OFFICER’S DEATH
 YARMOUTH – The State Judicial Court has found the Angelo Todesco Corporation guilty of motor vehicle homicide in the December 1st, 2004 death of Yarmouth Officer Brad Erickson (pictured). A jury had previously convicted the company but the decision was overturned by an appeals court on grounds of insufficient evidence of negligence on the part of the truck driver Brian Gauthier. Ofc. Erickson was run over by a dump truck backing up while he was directing traffic at a road detail.

PROVINCETOWN CANCELS 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS
PROVINCETOWN – In a surprise reversal the Provincetown Board of Selectmen voted at their Monday meeting not to have fireworks on the Fourth of July. The unanimous decision was made after public safety officials told the selectmen they did not have the resources to deal with the crowds the event has been drawing. A near riot broke out after the 2005 event. The town had held meetings after the melee and had been taking a community oriented policing approach toward resolving the problem by several means including curbing public drinking. Selectmen raised the hope of having fireworks on another day possibly during the Portuguese Festival. A financial bind in the town will reportedly result in a drastic cut in summer police officers this summer.

FIREFIGHTERS BATTLE BLAZE IN MASHPEE
MASHPEE – Firefighters from several towns were called to the scene of a house fire in Mashpee this morning. The two-alarm blaze at 92 Blue Castle Drive broke out shortly after 5 AM in the basement of a 2 story raised ranch home. The occupants escaped safely and are being assisted by the Red Cross with shelter. Temperatures in the teens caused ice to form and made the job more difficult for firefighters. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 28th, 2006
CHILD CREDITED WITH PREVENTING MAJOR BLAZE
WEST BARNSTABLE – Officials say a child'squick but cool thinking prevented what could have been a major fire tragedy late this afternoon in West Barnstable. It all started when 13-year old Hannah Driscoll told her 11-year old brother Joshua there was a fire in a second floor bedroom of their home at 311 Church Street around 4:30 PM. Joshua dialed 911 and they both rescued several animals including this pet snake
Joshua is seen holding before running out onto the snow covered ground without their shoes on. The Times reports their mother Suzanne was on the way home at the time. Firefighters were able to quickly knock down the fire and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation but may have started in the furnace room. Firefighters had reportedly been to the residence earlier in the day to check an electrical odor and shut down the furnace until it could be checked. It is believed the furnace was inadvertently turned on causing the fire. The family is staying with friends until repairs can be made.

FISHERMAN INJURED IN SHIPBOARD ACCIDENT
CHATHAM – A fisherman suffered abdominal trauma during an accident aboard ship east of Cape Cod. The 71 foot trawler Captain Domenic radioed the Coast Guard from a position east of Cape Cod (where the red star is on the map) to report the incident. The injured man was brought into the Chatham Fish Pier where a Chatham Fire ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital for treatment. Further details on how the accident happened were not immediately available.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 26th, 2006
MYSTERY ILLNESS FORCES EVACUATION OF YMCA
 WEST BARNSTABLE – West Barnstable firefighters were called to the YMCA on Route 132 shortly before 3:30 PM Sunday after several people reported feeling ill. Firefighters checked out several possibly sources including chlorine from the pool or carbon monoxide. They also theorized fumes from chemicals recently used to clean carpets may have been the cause but nothing was positively identified as causing the problem. 3 or 4 people were treated on scene by Barnstable and West Barnstable EMTs but no one needed to go to the hospital. The building was ventilated and as a precaution YMCA officials decided to close it for the rest of the day.

BOURNE STRUCTURE FIRE UNDER INVESTIGATION
BOURNE – Fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire in a building at 185 County Road around 3:30 PM Sunday. The blaze was quickly knocked down and no injuries were reported. Mutual aid from Falmouth and the Otis Base covered Bourne stations. Further details were not immediately available.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 25th, 2006
TWO TEENS CRITICALLY INJURED IN MASHPEE CRASH
MASHPEE – Two teenagers were critically injured in a horrible crash in Mashpee Saturday afternoon. The two-vehicle crash happened shortly before 4:30 PM on a sharp bend on Quinaquisset Avenue near Route 28. It took firefighters from both Mashpee and Cotuit using 2 sets of the Jaws of Life to free the two teens as well as a third seriously injured person. They were all taken to Cape Cod Hospital by Mashpee, Sandwich & Cotuit ambulances. A fourth person was also taken to a hospital with less serious injuries. It had snowed lightly and that will be among factors considered by Mashpee Police as they try to determine the cause of the crash.  

DECEASED BIRDS STALL ROUTE 28 TRAFFIC
HYANNIS – No, it wasn’t the bird flu coming to the Cape but a freak accident perhaps aggravated by the strong winds. It seems a large number of birds were roosting on power lines and nearby along Route 28 by the Radisson in Hyannis this afternoon when something startled them. The wind may have kept them from gaining as much altitude as usual and unfortunately a large truck happened to be passing by at the same time. The tragic result was about a dozen birds were killed. Traffic was stalled while wildlife officers cleared the scene.

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Patrick calls Romney, Healey, Reilly `gang-of-three' on Cape Wind

Patrick calls Romney, Healey, Reilly `gang-of-three' on Cape Wind
Kerry "adamantly opposed to Young bill" (see video)

By Glen Johnson, Globe

Congressional language that could kill a wind farm proposed off Cape Cod prompted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick to lash out Friday at Gov. Mitt Romney, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Attorney General Tom Reilly.

Patrick, a Democrat running for governor along with Healey and Reilly, chastised them and Romney for not opposing language that would restrict wind farms near shipping lanes. The measure, part of an $8.7 billion Coast Guard reauthorization bill, is being considered by a House-Senate conference committee that has been meeting in private.

Patrick favors the Cape Wind project, and said the silence by Romney, Healey and Reilly amounted to implicit support for the proposed restriction. It was offered by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation Committee and a proponent of Alaskan oil development.

"I think Romney and Healey and Reilly are acting like the new gang-of-three, because they're going to stand by and let a backdoor maneuver kill a plan that they oppose but that the regulators have approved," Patrick said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I think what they ought to do is show real public leadership. They should be down in Washington, through our legislative delegation, trying to rally support for defeating this Young amendment."

Patrick pointedly did not include two congressional Democrats -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt -- in his criticism. Delahunt represents the Cape, while Kennedy has a summer home there. Like Reilly, a fellow Democrat, and Romney and Healey, both Republicans, they oppose the plan, which calls for constructing 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound.

"Sen. Kennedy and I have talked about this," said Patrick, a former Clinton administration official. "I think that he has a point when he talks about the importance of having a regulatory framework to review offshore projects in federal waters. Where we differ is that he thinks we should have that regulatory framework in place before any projects proceed. I think that we have, in fact, built that regulatory framework over the course of review of this project."

Reilly's spokesman accused Patrick of betraying their party... In the interview, Patrick said such private deliberations erode public confidence in government.

"You got all these agencies that have been charged with different levels of review and they have each discharged their responsibility and approved the project, and when it looks like we have run out of regulatory hurdles, along comes U.S. Rep. Young," he said. "This is what causes people to become dismayed with how government works..."Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below.

Senator John Kerry is adamantly opposed to Young bill;
"The Young Amendment is an insult to Americans who care about good government."

Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry against a last-minute amendment to the Coast Guard Authorization Bill introduced by Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Coast Guard Authorization Bill has already passed both the Senate and House without this latest proposal from Young, which would significantly impact the ability to site offshore wind projects throughout the nation.

“The Young Amendment is an insult to Americans who care about good government. I oppose this backdoor amendment to the Coast Guard Authorization Bill which - if passed - will derail offshore wind projects across the nation. At a time of increasing energy demand and sky-high costs, I am very concerned about any legislation that limits our options in pursuing renewable energy.”

John Keller Reports:  

On John Keller's program Friday evening he reported,  "In a phone interview Friday, a spokeswoman for Maine senator Olympia Snowe, a member of the conference committee that will vote on young's amendment, told CBS4 'everyone needs to take a step back. Fairness and process have always been important to Sen. Snowe. There are some policy implications to this that the senator has some concerns about. We're going to have to find some kind of compromise on this...' " 

See John Keller's report on video on CBS4 here.

Sparing the kilowatts

February 25, 2006 - Globe Editorial

A mild winter has spared the Northeast a season of confiscatory heating and electricity bills, but the region still faces long-term energy problems. One of them is a looming shortage in electric-generating capacity, since the region has just one major new facility on the drawing boards, Cape Wind's worthy wind-power project. Massachusetts -- and New England -- could make better use of existing power plants with progress on two technical fronts: more efficient use of transmission lines and development of smart, indoor residential and commercial meters that would notify consumers of electric-rate peaks and allow them to shut off appliances temporarily. State and utility officials should give a high priority to advancing these technologies before asking the public to pay for new power plants... Red the rest of this Globe article here, and comment below.

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Barnstable family flies to China for Stem Cells, town sued

By Paul Gauvin, pgauvin@barnstablepatriot.com

In the process of developing the story and reading about stem cell research and treatment, it was clear that some scientists feel the United States is falling behind other countries in an endeavor many believe is the medicine of the future, the panacea, the Holy Grail of well being for many.

Then last week, Harvard University announced it was going to build a 500,000 square foot science building at its Allston campus, at the center of which will be a state of the art stem cell laboratory.

The irony of Harvard’s announcement is that just a few weeks before, Robert Raylove, an acupuncturist and Jonathan’s devoted father, had expressed a hope that someday his son could be treated just an hour’s drive away.

But a lot can happen in three weeks, and now, instead of a closer treatment facility like Harvard, the Rayloves are going to carry Jonathan all the way to China for pioneering stem cell treatment that for them is the only hope of reconstituting Jonathan’s brain cells.“We’re leaving March 13,” Raylove said. “I’m staying a week with my daughter then we have to get back for work and school. My wife will remain with Jonathan for a month.”

Jonathan has hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen as the result of trauma. He cannot see, chew, swallow, walk, laugh. Neither Western medicine nor traditional Chinese treatment holds the promise of a cure as does stem cell treatment, Raylove believes... The rest of this Patriot story is here, and you may comment below.

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Wind turbines gaining power, John Keller was right, Saudi oil facility attacked

Wind turbines gaining power
Smaller communities, colleges plan projects

^{_{Hull Light Department's 240-foot-tall wind turbine was erected in 2001 and produces about 1.5 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, saving the municipal electric company about $185,000, including the cost of running the town's streetlights and traffic lights. The turbine paid itself off within about three years, according to officials. A 330-foot turbine is planned to be built at the town's landfill, generating 4.7 million kilowatt hours a year that it is hoped will save $500,000 more on power costs. (Globe Staff Photo / Tom Herde)}}

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Kennedy student heckler rebuked but not disciplined - 2 STORIES

'Chappaquiddick Kid' off hook with college
Officials won't discipline self-described liberal who heckled Kennedy as senator began speech by yelling "Remember Chappaquiddick!"

By Ron Strom, WorldNetDaily

The college where a student shouted 'Remember Chappaquiddick!' as Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., began a speech will not discipline the 20-year-old – even though campus police had warned the man of possible consequences of his action.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Paul Trost, a student at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Mass., was upset by an introduction of Kennedy given by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., Tuesday in which the congressman noted how the long-time senator overcame hardship in life on his way to success.

"Lynch said Kennedy had overcome such adversity to get to the place he was, and that's a bunch of bull," Trost said of the introduction, which occurred in the school's student center.

Just as Kennedy began speaking, Trost was walking out of the room when he shouted, "Remember Chappaquiddick!"

"Most of the crowd gasped," Trost said. "Then I walked out of the student center."

The student says a campus police officer went outside and stopped him. He also saw some state troopers go outside, the type who accompany Kennedy around the state to provide security.

Trost says the cop took down his information and told him he would be hearing from school officials about disciplinary action. A spokesman with the campus police verified the incident but stressed that Trost was not arrested.

Dick Cronin, a spokesman for Massasoit Community College, told WND today that Trost is off the hook.

"The college plans absolutely no disciplinary action against Mr. Trost," Cronin said. "It was simply a matter of communication from our campus police to Mr. Trost. The matter is now dropped."

A representative of the United States Justice Foundation offered pro bono legal assistance to Trost had he faced sanctions from the college.

'Can't you forgive him?'

Trost said one of his teachers confronted him after a class Tuesday about the Chappaquiddick issue.

"One of my teachers called me ignorant and told me this was an embarrassment to the school," Trost told WND. "She said to me, 'Can't you forgive him after all these years?' And I said, 'No, he killed somebody.'

"If it had been me or any other person, we'd be in jail," Trost says he told his instructor.

Referring to his two-word shout, Trost said, "I did it because I know about Kennedy's past. I know what happened at Chappaquiddick.

"I wanted to send a message to him that my generation still knows about it. We haven't forgotten about it."

Trost said he was satisfied to know that students on campus were talking about the Chappaquiddick incident later in the day – some of whom, in fact, were not familiar with it.

In 1969, Kennedy was driving a car that went off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. His passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed after the car landed upside down in the water. No autopsy was ever performed to determine her exact cause of death.

At the time, Kennedy claimed he tried several times to swim down to reach Kopechne to no avail. He came under fire for not reporting the incident to authorities until the next morning. In the interim he reportedly made an effort to call a family legal adviser.

Trost, a liberal arts major who has protested the Iraq war, says he's not a right-winger.

"I tend to have what would be considered liberal views," he explained, "but I go with whatever I think is right."

Said Trost: "I don't regret what I did."

Trost's father, Edward, who calls himself a conservative, says he's proud of his son.

"He didn't do it to be obnoxious," Edward Trost said. "He was really offended." 
- WorldNewsDaily

Kennedy student heckler rebuked: Shouted "Remember Chappaquiddick!"
He told his father "was tired of listening to hypocrisy"

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Yarmouth tourism loss, East Dennis marsh can be saved

By Craig Salters/ csalters@cnc.com

In 1998, town-owned golf courses in Yarmouth saw 107,297 rounds played, a figure reflecting 38,599 daily-fee rounds and 68,698 annual-fee rounds.

In 2005, those courses hosted 91,850 rounds of golf, of which 34,665 were daily-fee and 57,185 were annual fee.

In 1998, Yarmouth issued 23,702 beach passes. In 2005, the town issued 20,032 beach passes, a 9 percent decrease from 2004's figure of 22,007.

Both beach use and golf play are activities heavily dependent upon the weather. As a result, annual statistics between 1998 and 2005 zigzag accordingly with temporary gains and losses. In addition, the slowdown of the golf industry is a nationwide phenomenon after several years of booming growth.

But the overall numbers, said Bob DuBois, executive director of the Yarmouth Area Chamber of Commerce, point to a downward trend in beach use, golf play and motel use that troubles the business community... Read the rest of this Register story here, and comment below.

Culvert plan promises to restore East Dennis salt marsh
Bridge Street project "a once in a lifetime opportunity"

By Nicole Muller/ nmuller@cnc.com

Dennis Natural Resources Officer George Macdonald calls the proposed Bridge Street restoration project "a once in a lifetime opportunity."

The proposal would replace the failing 24-inch-diameter culvert with a 24-foot-diameter box culvert 60 feet north of the present location at a cost of just over $1 million.

Macdonald described the upstream, salt marsh area west of Bridge Street in East Dennis as approximately 60 acres of degraded wetlands, 40 of which the conservation commission seeks to restore. Tidal waters entering and leaving the upstream creek are seriously limited by the existing, deteriorating 24-inch culvert, resulting in failing infrastructure in the roadway, degraded habitat, and invasive tall reeds and cattails choking out the water.

In 2003, Town Meeting appropriated $150,000 for the project, and the conservation commission is seeking additional capital funding from the town, possibly at May Town Meeting. "Dennis has a window of opportunity with a $2 grant match for every dollar it spends," said Brian Howes of the School of Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth... Read the rest of this Register story here, and comment below.

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America's 2nd. oldest dam is a hazard, DNR brouhaha continues in Bourne

Upper Shawme Pond Dam a 'significant hazard'
May be the second oldest dam in the country

By Silene Gordon/ sgordon@cnc.com

It may be the second oldest dam in the country, but one thing is certain: the Upper Shawme Pond Dam is a significant hazard, according to the Massachusetts Office of Dam Safety.

At 350 years old, the dam (in lowercenter of map on right) is an earthen embankment that is 10 feet wide and 190 feet long and sits between the upper and lower portions of Shawme Pond. Large trees that have grown on the top of the dam as well as a lack of maintenance on the dam are causing stress to the structure, which officials fear could cause damage to people and property if a failure in the dam were to occur.

"If the dam fails, you're looking at a possible failure of the lower dam," said Sandwich Natural Resources Director Mark Galkowski. "There are several structures along Route 130 and Water Street that could be affected. There is the potential for loss of life if that would happen."

The situation is at a critical crossroads. In addition to the disrepair of the dam itself, steep slopes on either side of the dam as well as a 24-foot makeshift wooden spillway pose a hazardous situation, said Galkowski. The project's price tag has town leaders wondering aloud how the town will fund the project.

All agree that ignoring the problem is not an option.

"There's a huge liability here," said Kurt Staller of Gannet Flemming, the project engineer. "The town has ownership of the dam and they are doing the right thing to bring it up to code. If the dam fails, someone could lose their life. There are a myriad of ways that it could happen."

Town administrator Bud Dunham is recommending an article for the May Town Meeting requesting repair funds through a bond or capital debt exclusion. Although the project is now estimated to cost $750,800, this number is softened by a contribution from the state of $350,000, as well as a fishway grant of $20,000...

Read the rest of this Upper Cape Codder story here, and comment below.

Bourne Selectmen resist criticism, refuse to ditch DNR change
Speakers opposed the controversial DNR revamping 23 to 2 at meeting

By Paul Gately/ pgately@cnc.com

Bourne Selectmen resisted overwhelming and forceful public sentiment Tuesday night and refused to drop their controversial plan to reorganize the Department of Natural Resources and eliminate DNR Director George Weinert's position. The changes are expected to save the town nearly $1 million over the next decade.

The public hearing filled the Community Center as 23 speakers opposed the controversial DNR revamping and two expressed approval of it.

Selectmen listened, but some did not appreciate the critical barrage. Selectman W. Thomas Barlow said Selectman Richard LaFarge, seeking reelection in April, had stacked the proceeding. "There are many more people in the community than are here tonight," Barlow said.

Selectwoman Linda Zuern similarly said she would not accede to shouted demands to reconsider the DNR elimination plan proposed by Town Administrator Thomas Guerino because there are residents who like some of its aspects.

"Just to let you know, I've talked to people who don't want me to reconsider this," Zuern said. "I have to listen to their opinion."

This sentiment did not play well. William Grant of Cataumet, head of the Bourne Concerned Citizens seeking to recall Selectman Galon "Skip" Barlow and Selectwoman Carol Cheli, said "They just don't get it. They haven't listened...

Read the rest of this Upper Cape Codder story here, and comment below.

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Prisioner dies in PD lockup, Brush fires, Rollover, Power outage

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
PRISONER DIES IN BARNSTABLE POLICE DEPARTMENT LOCKUP
BARNSTABLE – A prisoner died while in custody of the Barnstable Police Saturday night. According to the Times, police and Hyannis EMTs first came across 40-year old Kenneth Lyons at the motel he was staying at when someone called to report he was having seizures. The paper reports Lyons had a history of alcoholism and diabetes. Lyons refused medical treatment at the scene and was subsequently arrested on two outstanding larceny warrants. At booking he was again asked if he was ill which he replied he was not but wanted to eat. Like all prisoners a matron began checking on Lyons every 15 minutes. During one of these checks after Lyons had been given a hamburger the matron observed him being sick over the toilet and went to get her supervisor. When they returned Lyons was unconscious. CPR was started but Lyons could not be revived. To avoid any appearance of impropriety the State Police are conducting an investigation into the incident.

BRUSH FIRE THREATENS HOMES IN DENNIS
DENNIS – Some anxious moments in Dennis when a brush fire breaks out behind several homes near the intersection of Cove Road and Farm Lane about 2 PM. Firefighters worked quickly and were able to keep the flames from spreading to the homes. No one was injured and the cause of the fire is under investigation. Another brush fire in Sandwich destroyed a shed.

MINOR INJURIES IN ROLLOVER CRASH
MARSTONS MILLS – Authorities were amazed there were only minor injuries in a three car crash on Route 28 around 1:45 PM in which one of the cars rolled over. The crash forced the closure of Route 28 between Route 149 and South County Road until the wreckage was cleared. Barnstable Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

DOWNED POWER LINE CAUSE OF SANDWICH OUTAGE
SANDWICH – A power failure affected about 70 customers in part of Sandwich this morning. The trouble started with a downed line on Falmouth Sandwich Road. A broken insulator apparently allowed the line to fall to the ground.

Read the rest of the stories on Cape Wide News here, and comment below. 

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Torpedoing Cape Wind

Cape Wind, the touted project to bring clean energy to our region, is in grave danger in Congress. The powerful Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) is using deceptive arguments to try to kill, behind closed doors, the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm.

Mr. Young (who brought taxpayers the Alaska "bridge to nowhere") is pitching an amendment to the Coast Guard reauthorization bill -- now being considered by a closed-door Senate-House conference committee -- that would essentially kill Cape Wind, by prohibiting turbines within 1 1/2 miles of shipping and ferry lanes.

By swaying the committee, Mr. Young could avoid an open debate and public hearings on the merits of wind power. He has good reason to fear such a debate: Wind projects enjoy strong support from citizens who care about the environment and want to cut U.S. dependence on Mideast oil.

Moreover, a bill reported out by a conference committee must be voted up or down; it cannot be amended. And there would be strong pressure to vote for a bill to fund the Coast Guard even if the legislation contained a poison pill for Cape Wind.

As in the case of many Capitol Hill struggles, powerful interests rather than the public good seem to be behind the effort. Among those who have lined up against Cape Wind's project is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.), who might on a clear day be able to see the wind turbines from his family's Hyannisport compound, and Sen. John Warner (R.-Va.), whose daughters have summer houses in Osterville, a Cape Cod hotbed of opposition. Other opponents have connections to oil and natural-gas interests.

Mr. Young argues, in a letter to colleagues, that a British study finds wind turbines a threat to safe navigation. But he neglects to mention that the study is predicated on a buffer of only one-third of a mile!

If there are concerns about turbines and safe navigation, they should be discussed in the open, before congressional committees, with the public in attendance -- not behind closed doors. Cape Wind and similar projects are too important to our country's energy security to be thus disposed of.

The Providence Journal.

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Ptown's first-ever override, Advocate online back to 1800's

By Mary Ann Bragg, Banner Staff

PROVINCETOWN — The Board of Selectmen will be asked this week, for the first time in the town’s history, to place a Proposition 2 1/2 override question on the annual town election ballot.

The surprise is not that an override is on the horizon. The topic has been in the air for several weeks. The surprise is that it will be for the current fiscal year, rather than for next fiscal year. As it stands now, according to Town Hall paperwork, the town needs a $350,000 override just to make it through June 30.

And that override comes with an additional twist: if the money is approved for the current year, then roughly that same amount is available for spending in future years.

Thus, at least for the moment, an override now would eliminate the need for an override next year, according to material to be considered by the selectmen on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

The town of Provincetown is the only town on Cape Cod to have avoided an override since the passage of a state law, known as Prop 2 1/2, in 1980. That law requires ballot approval for property tax increases beyond prescribed limits...

Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

Putting the pieces together
Library assembles Advocate archives online

By Rob Phelps, Banner Staff

PROVINCETOWN — History was literally falling to pieces. Library Director Debra DeJonker-Berry recalls a time when the Advocate archives, dating back to the 1800s, were stored in the stacks with other rare documents, all in danger of disintegration.

“It was way before I arrived,” DeJonker-Berry says, “back in the ’70s, I suspect.” But tattered pages were crumbling to dust at the hands of PHS students researching reports, offspring looking up ancestral records and historians hunting lost treasure.

A few decades ago, these bound volumes were pulled from use and offered only on microfilm, a research tool about as user-friendly as a tickertape machine. It’s been like that at most libraries ever since.

Those days are over in Provincetown, where the public library is among the first on the Cape to introduce an online database of rare documents. Only Chatham and Barnstable have also recently begun digitizing... The Advocate Live is debuting on the library’s website, www.ptownlib.com. Only a click away are issues from 1918, 1931-’34 and 1936-’67, and soon all available issues published before 1918 will be up as well. The whereabouts of 1919-’30 and ’35 remain a mystery...

Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

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Starwars on the Upper Cape

Falmouth-Starwars Enthusiast Is One Of Many Who Make A Galaxy Far, Far Away Seem Real

By CHRISTOPHER KAZARIAN. Enterprise Newspapers

The force is strong in Falmouth.

No, the town did not open a Jedi Academy. Beebe Woods has not been changed into an Ewok village, and landspeeders are not being used for public transit.

This is on a much smaller scale. In fact, this Imperial assault is being led by one man, James B. Rogers, an officer in the Falmouth Police Department.

A galaxy that was once far, far away has been brought a little closer to home, thanks to Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Rogers, a Star Wars enthusiast, is a member of the 501st Legion, a costumed group portraying a group of villains from George Lucas’s universe.

It started with “Star Wars: Episode IV,” which Mr. Rogers saw in 1977 at the Nickelodeon Theater on Route 151.

That original Star Wars episode is still his favorite because of its storyline, engaging characters such as Han Solo, and one group that stuck out, Darth Vader’s lackeys, otherwise known as stormtroopers, he said.
Last April, before “Revenge of the Sith” came out, Mr. Rogers recalled watching weatherman Al Roker from NBC’s “Today Show” at Celebration III, at a Star Wars convention held in Indianapolis to promote the last installment of the science fiction saga.

Mr. Roker was surrounded by stormtroopers, interviewed one, and the stormtrooper talked. The moment when the stormtrooper actually spoke was a seminal one for Mr. Rogers.

Prior to that, Mr. Rogers had seen people dressed up in stormtrooper costumes on TV, but said he thought they were nerds and geeks.

After doing some research online, he decided to pay the $580 for the stormtrooper outfit kit kit and went to work on building his costume in May. At that time, he applied to the New England “garrison” of the 501st Legion and was assigned to its academy. Making the costume took three months, and Mr. Rogers often consulted other legion members for help.

When he finished, he estimated that he had spent close to $1,000 for the entire outfit. He then took two pictures of himself, one with the helmet on and one with it off, and sent them to the 501st for approval.

The 501st requires that all costumes be screen accurate and, in August, once he was approved, Mr. Rogers became an official member of the 501st...

Read the rest of this Enterprise story here, and comment below.

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Harwich RC school closes gardes 6-8, Chatham revisit Town Hall issue

Harwich's Holy Trinity School To Lose Grades 6-8 Next Year
Move shocked and angered some parents

by Alan Pollock, Chronicle

WEST HARWICH — In a move that shocked and angered some parents, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River has announced plans to close middle school classrooms at Holy Trinity School next year, sending the children to attend classes in South Yarmouth.

In a meeting with parents of Holy Trinity students last Thursday, diocesan Superintendent of Schools Dr. George Milot announced plans to discontinue grades 6,7 and 8 in the 2007-2008 school year. Students will be sent to attend an expanded middle school program at St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth, Milot said.

The surprise announcement came as a disappointment for many parents, including Ellen Pagliaro of East Harwich, who has two boys in the middle school at Holy Trinity.

“It was quite emotional. There was yelling and screaming, there were people crying,” she said. “It seemed like the deal had been sealed, and they were just telling us.” Pagliaro said for her children and many others, Holy Trinity is the only school they’ve ever known.

“We picked Holy Trinity for a reason,” she said. One advantage the school has is its individualized learning environment, which allows more one-on-one interaction between students and teachers. Pagliaro said her 14-year-old son earned a round of applause at the meeting for making that point...

Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.
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Chatham Selectmen To Revisit Consolidated Town Hall Concept
Search for a consultant for complex in West Chatham put on hold

by Tim Wood, Chronicle

CHATHAM - The search for a consultant to develop preliminary plans for a police station/town hall annex complex in West Chatham has been put on hold until selectmen can once again explore the concept of consolidating all town departments in a single building.

Selectman Sean Summers asked that the board revisit the issue before the annex/police station project goes any further.

“I just think we should talk about it,” Summers said.

While Chairman David Whitcomb doesn’t mind discussing the idea, he’s a firm believer in keeping the town hall where it is.

“I don’t think in this day and age you need to have all the facilities in one spot,” he said. “I think it’s more important to have a town hall presence downtown.”

A designer selection committee interviewed several of the 13 architectural firms that responded last month to a request for proposals for preliminary design services for the police station/annex project. The group is in fact poised to make a recommendation on a contract award, but Town Manager William Hinchey said he won’t make an announcement until the exact scope of the project is finalized.

If selectmen decide to further explore the idea of consolidating all town offices at the five-acre annex property, he would have to consult with the finalist to make sure they are interested in expanding the scope of the project, Hinchey said.

The idea of consolidating town offices at the Main Street School (photo above) was extensively studied and, in fact, was endorsed by several town committees, including at one point a divided board of selectmen. While town meeting voters initially agreed to appropriate money to develop plans for a town hall at the site, the concept was ultimately rejected. Construction of a community center was eventually endorsed and preliminary work on converting the former school is now underway...

Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.

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Harwich's Silbert, "It's the econonmy, Town Mgr. leaves

Harwich’s Andrea Silbert: It’s all about the economy

Andrea Silbert, the Harwich Democrat who is running for lieutenant governor, said her goal is simple - help rebuild the Massachusetts economy. The... [more]

Two escape house fire on Periwinkle Way By Douglas Karlson/ dkarlson@cnc.com Two South Harwich residents are lucky to be alive after a fire engulfed their home early Sunday morning. Harwich Fire Captain Kent Farrenkopf was... [more]

State-level elections: The race so far
Lieutenant governor: Deborah Goldberg (D), ex-Brookline selectwoman board chairwoman, businesswoman and attorney Sam Kelley (D), physician, former... [more]

See all this week's Harwich Oracle stories here, and comment below.

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Scientists study Bay Algal Bloom, Falmouth: 2 new 40B Housing Projects

Scientists Seek More Data On Buzzards Bay Algal Bloom
Could be an indicator of ecosystem-wide degradation in the bay

By CATHERINE B. CRAMER, Falmouth Enterprise

The appearance of a substantial rusty-red algal bloom in the waters of upper Buzzards Bay last fall could be an indicator of ecosystem-wide degradation in the bay, said scientists and volunteers involved in long-term monitoring of the bay’s water quality. They also said more data is needed to make an accurate prognosis for the future health of the watershed.

The bloom, which lasted slightly over a month, from late August through early October 2005, was caused by the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium heterolobotum. While this dinoflagellate is not toxic to humans and should not be confused with Alexandrium, which was responsible for the closing of many shellfish beds around the Cape and Islands last spring and summer, it has been responsible for fish kills in Asia and shellfish larvae mortality in other parts of the world. David Kulis, a senior research assistant in Donald M. Anderson’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was brought a sample of the bloom and identified it as Cochlodinium, a determination which was later confirmed with additional samples.

“One sample we saw [from Buzzards Bay] was very heavy,” said Mr. Kulis, “around seven million cells per liter. The Chesapeake area has seen 100 percent mortality of oyster larvae caused by densities of four to five million per liter. This bloom was significant because these patches were so dense and dense patches can grow exponentially,” he said.

There is general agreement as to the cause of the bloom, if not what to do about it. According to David Whittaker, aquatic biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in Pocasset, Cochlodinium needs fresh water, nutrients, and sunshine. “It will take off if it has the right conditions,” he said. “It’s always there in Buzzards Bay, and just needs to be fed. Cochlodinium produces a cyst which overwinters and then can germinate, given the right conditions. After two big rain events last August, tons of rainwater washed into the bay. Combine that with nutrients in runoff, plus sunshine, and it went on a feeding frenzy,” Mr. Whittaker said. Coastal development has increased the flow of rainwater into the bay, as less groundcover is available to slow runoff. In addition, there have been substantial increases in nutrients entering the bay from rainwater runoff carrying lawn fertilizer, causing nitrogen loading, as well as from outflow from wastewater treatment systems.

Joaquim Gomes and Helga Gomes, both researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, published an article in the journal “Science” last April, showing that changes in currents, increased rainfall, and additional nutrients in the waters around India and Bangladesh have caused phytoplankton to multiply by 350 percent in the surface waters, creating blooms. The Gomeses further went on to show that proliferating blooms on the water surface mean less oxygen and sunlight deprivation for the deeper waters...

Read the rest of this Falmouth Enterprise story here, and comment below. 

Developers File Proposals For Two More Chapter 40B Housing Projects
40-unit project on Brick Kiln Road near Falmouth High School & an eight-unit development on Pine Street in North Falmouth

By MARK A. BROWN, Falmouth Enterprise

Plans for two new 40B condominium developments were filed with selectmen last week.

The proposals include a 40-unit project on Brick Kiln Road near Falmouth High School and an eight-unit development on Pine Street in North Falmouth.

Both projects were first filed with the state. Chapter 40B is the state statute that allows developers to bypass local zoning laws if they include affordable housing as 25 percent of the development.

Plans for both developments were filed Thursday by Stephen O. McKenzie, a Falmouth real estate consultant, who is representing both applicants.

Previous plans for an eight-unit development at the Pine Street location were withdrawn in December 2004, after neighbors mounted a legal challenge before the Falmouth Board of Appeals. Area residents had vigorously opposed the project, citing concerns about traffic, safety, and neighborhood character.

The applicant for that project was William B. Kelly of Hillcrest Drive. Plans for the latest proposal were filed on behalf of Benjamin LLC, and a letter from Mr. McKenzie lists Mr. Kelly as manager of that company...

Read the rest of this Falmouth Enterprise story here, and comment below.
Read about the Mass. 40-B regulations and reasons here.

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135 Cape burial sites with gravestone inscriptions online

Cape Cod gravestones can be viewed online
135 local burial grounds included, 26,000 names

By Roxanne Moore Saucier, Bangor Daily News
(Old Brewster Burial Ground on right)

So far, I can't get beyond Daniel Eldridge of Clinton to his forebears who may well be from Cape Cod, Mass. I'm guessing he would be at least a cousin, if not a descendant, of Elisha Eldredg, buried in Duck Creek Cemetery in Wellfleet.

I've never been there, but I've seen his gravestone, and I know that it reads: "Here Lyes Ye Body of Mr Elisha Eldredg Dec'd October 14, 1739 In Ye 87th Year Of His Age."

It's the oldest existing gravestone in the cemetery, according to a wonderful Web site at capecodgravestones.com.

Other 18th century gravestones in the cemetery which may be viewed online include those for Sarah Smith, Abiah Harding, Hannah Smith, Benjamin Sweat, William Treet, Rebeckah Young, Moses Cohoon, Elisha Doane, Zoheth Smith, Henry Worhmsley, Ebenezer Freeman, Benjamin Wiley, Elizabeth Mayo, Hudson Vickery and more.

Even more names are included in the chronological listings of Wellfleet gravestones from 1739 to 1860 and later, done generally in 10-year groupings.

The Web site is the project of Robert Paine Carlson, who not only wanted to photograph interesting old gravestones in Barnstable County, but also to provide gravestone records from 1683 to at least 1860.

Since many old gravestones are gone, the listing isn't complete, but there are 26,000 names and dates listed by cemetery. Of the 3,700 from the 1700s, only about 2,600 of those gravestones still exist, Carlson states.

You can look at the listings by cemetery in each town if you like, an approach which is worthwhile if you know where your ancestors lived.

As for an overall index by name, Carlson says the best way to look up a name is to use the Google search engine. In the search box, enter capecodgravestones+name, with no spaces.

For instance, I looked up my ancestor Edmond Freeman by entering capecodgravestones+edmond+freeman.

I found the Sandwich Saddle & Pillion Cemetery, with listings and photographs for two gravestones:

Edmond Freeman Born In England 1590, Died in Sandwich 1682, A Founder of the Town of Sandwich in 1637, Assistant to Governor Bradford 1640-1647.

Elizabeth Freeman Wife of Edmond Freeman Born in England 1600, Died in Sandwich 1675-6. These look to be plaques that were placed later on the gravestones, flat on the ground.

Photographs of original gravestones include those for Jeremiah Mayo, who died Nov. 9, 1765, in his 65th year, and is buried in Duck Creek Cemetery in Wellfleet.

Carlson also has made an effort to include listings from elsewhere when possible. In addition to names and dates for Eastham Cove Burying Ground, there is a separate section for those who may be buried in unmarked graves in that cemetery. It offers deaths from Eastham Vital Records up to 1750, taken from The Mayflower Descendant Volumes 3-33.

Read the rest of this Bangor Daily News story here, and comment below.

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Chatham to host another trans-Atlantic rower

By Walter Brooks 

Wave Vidmar, 41 on right, is preparing for his solo/unsupported ocean row from Chatham to Europe. Starting in early June 2006 (exact date will depend on favorable weather) Vidmar will launch from  Chatham in a custom 24-foot row boat. He hopes to end his row in England, but could be blown off-course and end up anywhere from Ireland to Spain. If he reaches Europe, he will become the first American to complete this route.

The row is expected to take between two and five months, possibly battling 60 feet waves,  lingering storms from hurricanes further south, dodging cargo and tanker ships, as well as  whales, sharks, and everything else mother nature might throw at him. The boat will have no sails, motor, or other propulsion, only Wave Vidmar's muscles and oars.

The distance is around 3,700 miles as the crow flies, and he’ll likely row many more miles than that, due to winds and eddy currents which at times can push him backward, sometimes for days.

Would become 5th. to perform feat, first American

Only four other people have rowed solo/unsupported across the mighty north Atlantic from USA to Europe. The only other American to attempt this route was lost at sea just 230 miles off the coast of Ireland. Considered one of the most challenging of ocean rows, Vidmar has been preparing for the expedition for over 2 years at his home near San Francisco California.

The explorer, has helped design his own, all-composite ocean row boat. According to yacht engineer/designer Doug Frolich of Marshall Yacht Design, Vidmar “would have to work very hard to sink this boat”.

The specialized 24-foot ocean row boat is currently being constructed by the Maritime Knowledge Center in Delfzijl, Holland. The one-piece hull is nearly an inch and a quarter thick, with a foam core and external skins of carbon fiber, and internal skins of aramid fibers (Kevlar), infused with epoxy.

“Every system on the boat has backups and redundant systems”, says Vidmar. “I researched all of the previous ocean rows, paying special attention to problems other rowers have had, and have worked hard to mitigate any of those potential problems for my own row. I don’t have a death wish, safety is paramount”.

State of the art electronics aboard

He will have several EPIRB emergency beacons, survival immersion suit, life jackets aboard, and he'll be tethered to the boat in rough weather. Should the weather and seas become too rough, Vidmar,shown training on a rowing machine on right, can strap himself into his sleeping cove and ride out the storms. He expects to be capsized at least a dozen times, and may even be ‘pitch-poled’ (where the boat is tossed end-over-end). He may be the first ocean rower to bring a helmet. In the event of a capsize, his boat has been designed to be self-righting.

With enough food for six months, including 220 freeze-dried dinners. He’ll be able to cook his food at several locations on the boat using two types of solar panels storing energy in gel-cell batteries. Water will be made using a reverse osmosis desalinator. If it were to fail, Vidmar can attach it to his rowing seat and make water by rowing.

Navigation will be by compass and GPS, along with digital charts on computer. Should the GPS satellites have a problem, he also has a sextant and paper charts. He’ll utilize satellite phones for communications, and will be able to update his website directly from the boat without any outside assistance, send and receive emails, give ‘live’ media interviews, and receive weather and other logistical information. There will be three different satellite communications systems onboard (Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar), along with VHF radios.

Vidmar tried to row to North Pole in '04 

When asked why he would attempt such a risky adventure, Vidmar states “It’s the challenge I pursue and thrive on”. Indeed, Vidmar was the first American to attempt a solo/unsupported expedition to the North Pole in 2004, photo on right. He also has several more ocean rows in the planning stages, and hopes to accomplish his South Pole Solo and Arctic Ocean crossing in the coming polar seasons.

Those interested will be able to track Vidmar’s progress via the internet at his expedition website , as well as at the Ocean Rowing Society’s website.  Vidmar likes to include a strong educational component to his expeditions and invites schools around the world to participate.

The first to row from Cape Cod 40 years ago this June

In June 1966 very few people were thinking about rowing across the Atlantic until two intrepid Englishmen showed up on Cape Cod. 

John Ridgeway and Chay Blyth were media stars on the Lower Cape in May and June of 1966 when they trained here before their rather primitive attempt at crossing 3,500 miles of angry ocean.

When they left Nauset Inlet in Orleans (not Chatham as most others) many of the townsmen and women waded out in waist-deep water to shake their hands.

The photos on right were taken by this reporter when he worked at The Cape Codder. That's Ridgeway behind Blyth in both photos.  Click on the images to see them full size.

"The Coast Guard had predicted a 95 percent chance of our committing suicide," John Ridgeway explained later, "and a lot of people wanted to be the last to shake our hands. Once you say you're going to do something, there's millions of people wanting to see you die" he added as they shot through the rip tide at the entrance of Nauset Inlet, Orleans for the first successful crossing in the 20th. century.

It took the two of them two weeks in a far different boat, the "English Rose III", to reach the Gulf Stream making only 11 miles a day, but after a hurricane and being resupplied by a passing freighter, they reached Europe.

The photo on right shows Captain Ridgeway wading out to the "English Rose II" in Nauset Inlet in June 1966 accompanied by a much younger and thiner me in sunglasses. Chick the photo on enlarge. 

See the "English Rose II" story on the Ocean Rowering Society web site here.

Read Chronicle story about the last trans-Atlantic rowers to leave Chatham in June of 2001 here. 

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Cape Cod Community College seeks to build dorms

What's next for our growing two-year college?
Currently, no Mass. community college has dorms on campus

Massachusetts community colleges, including Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, are seeking approval of plans to build dormitories in a move that could change the profile but not the mission of the these two year colleges which were originally created to serve local communities whose students were near enough to drive to school.

200 students commute from the islands 

The proposed change would serve a different community today. In Cape Cod's case over 200 students commute from the islands, a dangerous and costly trek during much of the school year. The cape college also serves many students who must travel over 100 miles round trip daily from as far away as Provincetown and Kingston.  Under the plans being proposed "work needs" and commuting problems would be factored into the choice of which students were given dorm space.

College President, Kathleen Schatzberg on right, says, "Student housing is needed at CCCC because of the unique geography of our service area - with two islands and the length of our service area, students can spend an hour or more getting to the campus. Also, with a serious shortage of affordable housing, our students sometimes move multiple times a year in search of affordable housing.

"Our housing would be garden-style apartments, housing 2 to 4 students each, and we would give preference to students living farthest from our campus within our service area, and to students who are pursuing studies in areas with demonstrated workforce shortages in our area (healthcare and hospitality, at the moment)."

Dr. Schatzberg continued, "The Commonwealth recognizes lack of affordable workforce housing as a severe barrier to economic development and funded the College (via the Cape & Islands Regional Competitiveness Council) for $35,000 to conduct a feasibility study, which showed a demand in excess of 300 beds. We would probably begin with 200 units to insure our ability to fill the units, since the cost of construction would be covered via bonds that would be repaid over time by the rental charges."

Currently, no community colleges in the state have dorms on campus, and politically much of the pressure to prevent it comes from other colleges trying to protect their own turf.

Which colleges are seeking dorms? 

Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Mount Wachusett in Gardner, Greenfield and  are the ones seeking to build housing. The proposals are in the early stages, and financing hasn't been determined nor designs chosen yet.

According to Sunday's Boston Globe the state Board of Higher Education, which plans to study the idea for six months to a year, must approve the residential construction.

"Housing could make it easier to pursue a degree or at least to advance through the system," said Stephen Tocco, chairman of the Board of Higher Education is quotedas saying in the Globe story.

4 C's, as the college is known locally, currently serves over 4,000 students taught by a 42 member faculty. The College (see aerial below of campus) offers Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees, and Certificates in a variety of program areas. Advanced degrees are offered in partnership with other colleges and universities. Today, the campus consists of 116 acres and 9 buildings, totaling 305,494 square feet. See a related story here.

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What's Killing All Those Whales? Three stories

Mexico's Maritime Mystery: What's Killing All Those Whales?
9 dead within 2 weeks. Usually there are 10 death a year

Feb. 18 — Mexican authorities are investigating the mysterious deaths of eight whales found washed ashore along the Sea of Cortez (see map below) last month, an unusually large number that suggests someone or something is killing them off.

The whales come from several plankton-eating species and apparently died at sea in November and December, biologists said. But they do not show any signs of having been caught in long-line fishing nets, which sometimes suffocate the mammoth animals. Nor have biologists found any signs of a toxic spill or outbreak of disease that would account for their deaths.

"Right now it's a mystery," said Luis Fueyo, an assistant federal prosecutor for environmental crimes, who is overseeing the investigation. "We have a puzzle."

The first sign something was wrong came on Jan. 4, when the remains of two humpback whales were spotted on the shore near the town of El Dorado in Culiacan State.

Scientists determined they had died in early November. Since then, six more giant bodies have turned up, among them a third humpback, a minke whale, a fin whale and a baby gray whale. Three bodies were discovered on Jan. 18 during an aerial search of the Sinaloa coast.

The discovery of the carcasses set in motion a frantic search for forensic evidence worthy of an episode of "C.S.I." Biologists tracked currents to determine if all the whales might have been in the same place when they died, even though they ended up scattered over a 500-mile coastline.

The investigators also looked for signs of disease or poisons, both natural and synthetic. It was slow going. All of the bodies were badly decomposed. Only the baby gray whale provided enough tissue to test for diseases or poisons.

On Friday, environmental officials announced that those tests had found no evidence of a toxic algae bloom, other poisons or infections. Nor have the investigations turned up signs of mistreatment by fishermen.

The deaths occurred just as about 2,000 gray whales began arriving in the Sea of Cortez, where they spend winter every year as part of a centuries-old migration. Mexican officials say they usually find about 10 dead whales a year; 9 in the space of two weeks have set off alarm bells.

Environmentalists say the Sea of Cortez, one of the world's richest fisheries and most diverse marine habitats, is poorly policed and substantially overfished, because the Mexican government has granted more and more permits for trawlers to use long-line nets...

"I'm worried," said Homero Aridjis, a poet and naturalist who heads the Group of One Hundred, an environmental organization. "We are just starting the year and already we seem to see a dead whale every day. Something is happening there and it needs to be investigated."

Mr. Fueyo, however, said none of the bodies showed signs of wounds from nets on their fins, nor signs of other trauma that might have been caused by fishing boats.

Biologists also did not find the usual tell-tale massacres of fish and sea birds that would accompany a toxic bloom of algae or another release of poisonous materials.

"What's happening is totally irregular," he said. Read the story in the International Herald Tribune here, and comment below.

Whale's death sparks temporary gill net ban in East Coast waters

JACKSONVILLE -- The death of an endangered North Atlantic right whale last month has prompted federal officials to temporarily ban all gill net fishing off the Florida and Georgia coasts through the end of their calving season.

The area from Savannah, Ga., through Sebastian Inlet, Fla., will be closed to gill net fishing through March 31, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service said. Both Florida and Georgia ban gill net fishing in state waters, so most of the gill net activity occurs well off shore. David Bernhart, assistant regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Service, said officials estimate the ban will affect about 15 fishermen and have a total economic impact of about $75,000...

Recreational boaters reported the dead 18-foot right whale calf to the U.S. Coast Guard on Jan. 22. The whale was towed to shore in Duval County where experts from the Marine Mammal Stranding Network performed an examination of the carcass.

The calf had wounds from entanglement in gill net fishing gear and had not been able to nurse for at least a day before its death. The North Atlantic right whale population is now estimated to be approximately 300 animals and is listed as an endangered species...This is the second right whale calf to have died off of Florida's northeast coast this year. The first calf was reported on Jan. 10. Preliminary findings suggest that the whale was struck by a ship... Read the rest of this Sun Sentinel story here, and comment below.

Japanese testing new whale killing 'warhead'
By JONATHAN LEAKE and JULIAN RYALL, CNN

TOKYO, Japan (30 Jan 2006) -- Japanese whalers  are testing a high-tech fragmentation harpoon (on right), equipped with an enlarged charge of high explosive, to help to slaughter endangered whales in the seas around Antarctica.

The device is being used to kill humpback and fin whales, after Japan's unilateral decision to break with an international consensus to protect them.

The revelation comes just a week after Britain was held spellbound by attempts to rescue a bottlenose whale that became disoriented in the Thames. It died of dehydration.

The explosive harpoons hurl shards of metal through the whale's body to sever major nerves and blood vessels and so cause rapid death.

Experts from Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research are aboard the whaling fleet of eight catcher boats plus support vessels to determine the effectiveness of the super-harpoon.

Masayuki Komatsu, executive director of the Japan Fisheries Research Agency, said that standard harpoons, used to kill minke whales, could not ensure a swift death for larger whales.

"Because new species have been added to the research project this year which are larger than a minke whale, we thought we would need a bigger grenade on the end of the harpoon to ensure the killing is instantaneous," he said.

The move has infuriated Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, a more radical group, which regard it as a step towards the resumption of commercial whaling...Read the rest of this CNN story here, and comment below.

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Hartford is pissed off at Barnstable

Town Puts Tax Hit On Off-Cape Owners
Barnstable charges out-of-town owners of second home owner more

By ROBIN STANSBURY, Courant Staff Writer

A Cape Cod resort town has come up with a new way to ease the property tax bills of year-round residents: charge out-of-town owners of second homes more money.

And that's not sitting well with at least some of the more than 700 Connecticut residents who own homes there.

Such as Al Aguiar of East Hartford.

Aguiar, a retired mechanic from Pratt & Whitney who owns a second home in Hyannis, is outraged that he is now being asked to pay almost double in taxes what a year-round resident would pay for the same home.

"It's discrimination," said Aguiar, 61. "They are lowering their taxes and raising ours. It isn't fair. It's insulting and it burns me up."

But under Massachusetts law, it's also perfectly legal.

Last November, the Barnstable Town Council - which covers seven villages on the Cape, including Hyannis - took advantage of a state law to provide a tax break for year-round residents, reducing their property assessments by 20 percent of the average assessed value of all homes in town, which is just over $500,000. As a result, all year-round homeowners will see their assessments reduced by $100,100.

The council raised the tax rate to compensate, but most year-round residents will still see smaller tax bills while part-time residents will pay more.

An out-of-town homeowner such as Aguiar, whose property is assessed at $207,500, will pay about $1,309 a year in taxes. A year-round homeowner with the same assessment will, after the reduction, pay $677...

Read the rest of this Hartford Courant story here, and comment below.

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Cape Wind blocker linked to Jack Abramoff

Blog hints at Abramoff, Young link
Abramoff delivers: The man who would stop Cape Wind here had free trips

Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Back in 1999, Alaska Congressman Don Young led a congressional delegation to the Marshall Islands, a group of atolls in the South Pacific. At the time, a lobbyist named Jack Abramoff represented the local government of the Marshalls.

Now a political Web site (see links between Don Young and Jack Abramoff here) has run an article suggesting the trip Young led was all Abramoff's doing.

"And Abramoff delivered," the Web article, by Brooklyn-based writer Paul Kiel concludes on talkingpointsmemo.com.

Young's office says the article is wrong and that the trip was a normal part of his work then as chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has oversight over matters involving the Marshalls and other U.S.-affiliated islands.

These days, with Abramoff awaiting sentencing for bribery, reporters and political snoops are retracing his steps on Capitol Hill, looking for connections to this or that Congress member. Lawmakers on the spot insist they don't know Jack. Or don't know him well. Some rushed to dump his past campaign contributions. The White House is keeping a lid on its photos of Abramoff and the President.

Meanwhile, Kay Brown, Alaska communications director for the Democratic National Party, saw Kiel's blog on Young and alerted the media.

"Overall it appears there's a pattern of Don Young doing favors for Abramoff and his clients," she said.

According to the blog: A former Marshall Islands government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TPMmuckraker.com that after Abramoff was hired, he told RMI officials: "You need Congress to come out to the Marshall Islands. Let me see what I can do about that." And Abramoff delivered. At least three Members of Congress and three non-voting delegates accompanied Young on the February 1999 trip...

Young's spokesman, Grant Thompson, said Abramoff didn't help plan the congressional delegation tour, or CODEL, as they're called.

"CODELs are planned and executed as official government travel. They are planned and executed in strict compliance with the law," Thompson wrote in an e-mail in response to the Daily News' questions.

He reiterated Young's previous assertion that he has had no personal or professional relationship with Abramoff. Further, he said, Young doesn't recall ever meeting the lobbyist.

Kiel's article is based in part on documents that emerged in a lawsuit. The Republic of the Marshall Islands balked at paying nearly $500,000 in lobbying fees. Abramoff's old firm, Preston Gates and Ellis, sued in 2001. To support its demands, the firm wrote that among the lobbying services it provided was "organizing a visit by a congressional delegation led by Representative Don Young (R-AK) to the RMI ... and coordinating the delegation's activities with the RMI military."

Thompson suggested Abramoff might have misrepresented his work to his clients.

The Marshall Islands is a fourth strand drawn between Young and Abramoff, all of which Young says amount to nothing.

• In 1997, Young sponsored a bill to hold a vote in Puerto Rico on statehood for the U.S. territory. Abramoff was a lobbyist for a group called Future of Puerto Rico that wanted the same thing. Young said it was the local representatives he worked with, not Abramoff.

• In 2000, after visiting the Northern Mariana Islands, Young blocked a bill that would have made the garment industry there comply with federal labor laws. Abramoff represented garment manufacturers and the local government of the islands, which did not want the federal laws applied. Again, Young said he worked with the governor of the islands, not Abramoff.

• In 2002, Young and another congressman signed a letter requesting that the administration favor minority and disadvantaged bidders for the redevelopment of a historic Washington, D.C. post office. Abramoff wanted the same rules applied to the project, and was seeking congressional signatures on a letter to that effect. Young says it was House aides who submitted the letter to him.

Abramoff never gave political contributions to Young, but his clients gave the congressman about $20,000, mostly through his Midnight Sun political action committee. Young, in response to a newspaper editorial, called it "reprehensible" to accuse him of accepting contributions in return for his official work.

Kiel slipped this disturbing note into in his blog: Young, according to an unnamed former government official in the Marshalls, addressed the parliament wearing Bermuda shorts.

Don Young in Bermuda shorts? The congressman's office had no comment.

CLOSE TO THE ACTION

No longer in charge of the piggy bank: Jack Ferguson, a big-time lobbyist with close ties to Rep. Young, used to be treasurer of Young's leadership fund, the Midnight Sun Political Action Committee. But in these post-Abramoff days, it's frowned upon to have lobbyists so openly rounding up the checks for the people they lobby. On Feb. 10, the Midnight Sun PAC removed Ferguson as treasurer, and in his place named former Alaska first lady and beloved octogenarian Ermalee Hickel.

But Ferguson won't be too far from the action on Midnight Sun, a fund that took in $400,000 in the 2004 election cycle. Linda Harrigan will be the PAC's official records custodian, according to the form she filed with the Federal Election Commission. She listed as her address the address of the Jack Ferguson Associates office on Capitol Hill.

Harrigan is Ferguson's longtime office administrator, and according to the firm's Web site "assists with fund raising and event planning for members of Congress."

Read the Anchorage Daily News story here, and comment below.
Read today's Cape Cod Times story about Young's interference in Cape Cod here.
Read local reaction to Young's actions here, and comment below.

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2 die in Onset fire, Barnstable Hit & Run, and 3 car crashes

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21st, 2006
DOUBLE FATAL FIRE ONSET
ONSET (Wareham) – Two people were found dead early Tuesday morning in a Wareham home, after firefighters put out a fire there. The couple has not been identified, but officials say it was an older couple who had lived in the house for some time. (Click image on right or here to see CBS4 video of fire.)

Firefighters were called to the home at 28 Cohassett Road in the Onset section shortly after midnight, after neighbors said they heard cries for help.When firefighters arrived, they could not get into the house because of the flames and heavy smoke.

Once they knocked down the fire, they went inside and found the bodies of a man and woman in the front room of the home. There's no word yet on how the fire started.

An engine from Bourne assisted at the fire scene while a second Bourne engine covered the Onset station.   See video of fire on CBS4 HERE.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19th, 2006
BARNSTABLE POLICE SEEK HIT & RUN DRIVER
MARSTONS MILLS – Barnstable Police are looking for the driver who struck a pedestrian on Lovells Road near Route 149 shortly before 6 PM and then fled the scene. The crash happened yards away from the scene of another serious crash earlier this morning (see related story below). The victim was taken to Cape Cod Hospital with what are believed to be non life-threatening injuries. The vehicle is described only as a white pickup at this time. If you have any information you are asked to contact Barnstable Police.

 QUICK WORK BY FIRE-FIGHTERS SAVES HOUSE
OSTERVILLE – An alarm system and quick work by Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills firefighters saved an Osterville house from major damage when a small fire broke out in the basement around 4:45 AM. No one was home at the time and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

FIRE DAMAGES HARWICH HOUSE
HARWICH – A fire caused extensive damage to a home at 38 Periwinkle Way in Harwich about 4 AM. A fire in the fireplace apparently extended up a wall into the attic. All of the occupants made it out safely. Firefighters had to battle frigid 14 degree temperatures and gusty winds which created sub zero wind chills while trying to control the fire. Mutual aid from Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham and Orleans responded to the scene or to cover empty fire stations. The Red Cross is providing temporary shelter for the displaced residents.

DRIVER EXTRICATED, AIRLIFTED AFTER CRASH
MARSTONS MILLS – Barnstable Police are investigating a serious crash in Marstons Mills early Sunday morning. The crash happened shortly after 1 AM on Route 149 near the intersection of Lovells Road when the vehicle struck a tree. It took firefighters using the Jaws of Life about 30 minutes to free the male driver who was then taken to the Marstons Mills Elementary School and Medflighted to a Boston Medical Center with serious injuries. Further details were not immediately available.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18th, 2006
PERSON SERIOUSLY INJURED IN DENNIS CRASH
DENNIS – One person was seriously injured in a crash on Route 6A in Dennis about 8:45 PM. The victim had to be extricated from the wreckage. Rescuers were considering airlifting the victim at press time. The crash is under investigation by Dennis Police. Further details were not immediately available. Also in Dennis a driver escaped serious injury after a roll over crash at the intersection of Center Street and Hydaway Lane about 10:30 PM. 

VICTIM BADLY BURNED IN DENNIS HOUSE FIRE
DENNIS – One person suffered serious burns in house fire in West Dennis about 7:15 AM this morning. Flames were pouring out of the building at 191 School Street when firefighters arrived. One person was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital with serious burns suffered in the blaze. A Medflight helicopter was reportedly on standby to airlift the victim to a Boston burn center. Firefighters had to battle some of the coldest temperatures so far this winter which caused ice to form everywhere. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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Cape Cod Yachting Time Shares

Floating A Novel Idea
Timeshares Work For Condos And Airplanes, So Why Not For Luxury Watercraft?

By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ, Courant Staff Writer

So there's no way in this lifetime you'd be able to drop $180,000 on a luxurious 35-foot yacht like the Catalina 350 on right. Or maybe you could, but you haven't the time or patience required to maintain such a sophisticated vessel.

Either way, a fledgling company based in Stamford is now making it easier to get, quite literally, a slice of the yachting life. WindPath Sailing, launched about a year ago, is joining several companies around the country that offer a so-called fractional sailing program, a sort of timeshare for the sailing set.

"One of my dreams ... has always been to sail off into the sunset or go around the world," said Ian Treibick, a 29-year-old Greenwhich native and president of WindPath. Between a boat's hefty price tag and the cost and time to take care of it, the scenario would remain in the realm of fantasy.

But what if a group of sailing buffs carved up their time and dollars to make it a reality?

$479 to $1,179 a month for sailing dates

Treibick saw the formula work for vacation homes, jet planes, even cars. "And I said, `There's no reason this couldn't be applied to sailboats'," he says.

And so he did. WindPath now has six boats, all Catalina Yachts, in five bases. Four sit on the East Coast, including Stamford and Cape Cod, and one just opened on the west coast in San Francisco. Each boat takes up to eight members, who pay $479 to $1,179 a month for at least seven guaranteed sailing opportunities in the same period. (The cost varies by yacht model and base location, and the only other fees are a $2,500 security deposit and $1,000 for training, if needed)

The Cape Cod location 

Red Brook Harbor (on right) on in Catamet at Kingman Yacht Center offers easy access to the world-renowned sailing grounds and cruising destinations of Buzzards Bay, Block Island Sound, Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound, along with Cape Cod Bay, a short motor away through the scenic Cape Cod Canal.

Or just stay put and enjoy the picturesque sunsets from a safe anchorage, swimming and beach-combing at nearby Bassetts Island, authentic Cape Cod dining with the local characters at the Chart Room Restaurant and Piano Bar, shopping for provisions or gifts at unique shops and art galleries, all at Cape Cod’s largest full-service marina.

Members don't share ownership of the boats, just sailing time, which, unlike traditional timeshares, is scheduled online in real time. WindPath takes care of maintenance or refueling, with members responsible for washing down the boat after each use and tidying up for the next member...

Read the rest of this Hartford Courant story here, see the WindPath site here, and comment below.

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The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

Reviewed by Anita Shreve in Washington Post, Sunday, February 19, 2006; Page BW02. There is a link to the first chapter at the bottom of this review.

THE WIDOW'S WAR
A Novel
By Sally Gunning (on right)

Morrow. 305 pp. $24.95

With all the recent talk about the illicit use of fiction in nonfiction, little has been said about the reverse: the occasional necessity or desire to report real events in a novel. History may provide the underpinning upon which a novel is based, or fiction may underscore an important character or event in a given era. Sally Gunning, in The Widow's War , seamlessly does both. Skillfully employing the language, imagination and character that literary fiction demands, she illuminates a fascinating moment in our past: the years just prior to the War of Independence, when ideas of rebellion -- for men and women -- were fomenting.

Lyddie Berry becomes a widow on the day her husband responds to a cry of "Blackfish in the bay!" The view from the Berry house in Satucket Village (now Brewster on Cape Cod, Mass.) is all black whales, hundreds of them, being herded to shore. With hardly a backward glance, Lyddie's husband, Edward, runs down to the beach, never to return: His boat capsizes, and though the other four whalers aboard are saved, Berry is drowned.

Before the day is over, Lyddie, no stranger to tragedy (she has already lost four of her five children), will be ousted from her house as is required by law and ensconced in the home of her son-in-law, Nathan Clarke, a man more interested in property than in women. Little time or language is wasted on grief. Sam Cowett, an Indian who lives as an Englishman and was the last to see Edward Berry alive, comes to pay his respects to the widow:

"About your husband."

" . . . Yes."

"I had him. A good grip. He was alive. I felt him take hold."

"Yes. All right."

"It tore."

"What?"

"The coat tore."

"All right. Yes."

Lyddie lives a life as austere as her speech. When removed from her house to reside with her daughter and husband, she is allowed to take only those precious few possessions she brought with her to the marriage. Clarke, as her nearest male relative, will receive title to all of the Berry property, while Lyddie, "as Edward's relict," is entitled to the "standard 'widow's third' " -- "a third of either the physical property itself or a third the interest resulting from its sale."

Nathan, of course, wants to sell the property as soon as possible for the money. But Lyddie elects to return to and occupy her third of the house, setting up her own separate fire in the east corner of the keeping-room hearth, putting a bed in the southeast chamber and taking charge of the pantry. Clarke and the men around him are appalled. When Lyddie wonders why her husband didn't leave her more independent, his lawyer asks sarcastically if she would rather have been left alone. "How many months in the year was I alone?" she replies. "In spring my husband sailed for Carolina and in summer for Canada, in fall he went to Boston for weeks at a time. . . . Do you think I don't know how to be a woman alone?"

Lyddie's act of rebellion may have been encouraged by the news of James Otis, a radical lawyer in Barnstable. Otis had challenged the Trade Acts by speaking out on behalf of the fundamental rights of man (and woman) -- principles, we are told in an afterword, on which future revolutionary activity was grounded. (John Adams later wrote, "Then and there the child Independence was born.") Lyddie's first bid for freedom inevitably leads to others. The widow not only refuses to attend church on the Sabbath, but she also breaks another law by working on that day, trying to sell cheese to make enough money to eat in her third of a house.

Drawn to the household next door, Lyddie cares for Sam Cowett's wife, who is dying, and then attends to Cowett himself when he becomes ill. She receives pay in the form of food for these attentions and ignores the scandalized townspeople when she must occasionally spend the night in the Cowett house. Turning to Cowett for human warmth, Lyddie becomes the Indian's lover, further alienating herself from society -- and from her late husband's lawyer, who has proposed to her. Life with a wealthy, respected man is tempting, but she also knows that if she marries him, she will lose all rights to her "widow's third." The cost of her decision is high either way: "You're no mother to me or to my wife," Nathan Clarke shouts at her. "As of this day you're cut loose."

A good novelist creates layer upon layer of reality so that when the central character makes an extraordinary leap, the reader is willing to go along. A fine balance, however, between detail and art must be struck. Too much research, and the word "research" might as well be stamped across the page. Too little, and the all-important quality of verisimilitude is lost. Gunning chooses her facts and details with care, allowing the strong-willed Lyddie to command our attention. One is revolted by the stink of the "try pots" (as is Lyddie) and thoroughly chilled by the cold ("First the well froze, then the clock, next the ink, and finally the bay, in great chunks"), but the grief, struggle and courage of this ordinary woman are what finally resonate.

Many historical novels die on the page, the characters never having drawn breath. In Gunning's capable hands, a novel of history is allowed to be as vivid as the smell of a man: "Tobacco and sweat, but a different sweat, and something like sassafras but not sassafras."

Anita Shreve's most recent novel is "A Wedding in December." Read The Washington Post here.

Read the first chapter of Sally Gunning's new book here. 

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Congress pushed on seasonal worker's visas

New England officials cite summer needs
Cape Cod & The Islands bring in more than 5,000 seasonal workers from nations ranging from Jamaica to Bulgaria

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- New England lawmakers, worried that seasonal businesses will face shortages of laborers to cut timber, press apple cider, staff summer camps, and wait on tables at resort areas, are pushing Congress to allow tens of thousands more immigrant workers to temporarily enter the country.

But their legislation, filed this week, is drawing fire from anti-immigration activists who argue that increasing seasonal immigrant employment hurts American workers by helping businesses keep wages low.

''Businesses that hire temporary immigrant workers know very well that they are going to pay them less than they would have to pay Americans," said Paul Egan of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates reducing all forms of immigration. ''So [temporary worker visas] contribute to the further deterioration of wages and working conditions for American workers."

Supporters, however, say the legislation would still require businesses to prove that they cannot find Americans to fill the jobs before they are allowed to bring in seasonal workers. Backers expressed hope that the bill will pass before summer, but its prospects are unclear in a political climate resistant to increased immigration.

Still, they say, more seasonal workers are critical to help resorts and other summer industries supplement their workforce.

''Very few people apply for these jobs," said Jane Nichols Bishop, who recruits seasonal workers for businesses in the Cape Cod region. ''Most Americans would prefer year-round employment. And you must offer the state's minimum wage for that industry. So [seasonal] visas do not take away jobs from Americans. The jobs are offered to the Americans first."

Bishop said businesses on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard bring in more than 5,000 seasonal workers from nations ranging from Jamaica to Bulgaria each summer. She said the temporary immigrants earn about $9 to $12 an hour working as landscapers, bus drivers, housekeepers, cooks, waitresses, and busboys, then return home in the winter.

The federal government has long capped the number of seasonal worker visas at 66,000 a year. But in 2004, the demand by seasonal businesses exceeded 66,000 for the first time, and Cape Cod businesses were especially hard hit... Read the rest here.

See the US Government site about H 1B visas here. 

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Nauset Beach loss, No Marine Band, New Transportation Center, Ptown problems

That Nauset Beach is a draw is undeniable.

"The records show that about 1.2 million people go to the beach annually," said Leslie Fields, a Woods Hole Group coastal geologist, and those people added about $1.1 million annually to the town’s coffers, not counting revenue from the sale of ORV stickers to drive on the beach.

However, what is also undeniable is that the beach is eroding. From 1938 to 1996, the shoreline receded 3.7 feet per year, but overall, it has lost an average of 4.8 feet annually, so erosion rates have been much higher over the past nine years.

"In some places, it was up to almost 20 feet per year," Fields told selectmen Wednesday night.

As part of a report Woods Hole Group prepared for the town, Fields recommended moving buildings and parking back from their current locations over the next 15 to 20 years by acquiring property owned either privately or by Cape Cod National Seashore.

"In 25 years, the potential to flood the parking lot is pretty great," she said. "You’ve got a thin little ribbon between the parking lot and the edge of the dunes..." Read the rest here.

Transportation troubles scuttle Marine Corps ceremony
By Bill Fonda/ bfonda@cnc.com

There are certain events that symbolize summer in Orleans - the July Fourth parade and fireworks, Cardinals games and the block party on Main Street.

The Marine Corps battle color ceremony is another one of those summertime stalwarts, taking place annually for more than 20 years with only one rainout. Last year, thousands of people gathered at Eldredge Park to hear the patriotic songs of "Singing State Trooper" Dan Clark and the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps.

However, Cape and Islands Marine Corps League Detachment 955 has canceled this year's event due to transportation worries.

"It's not a problem with the Marines. It's not a problem with money. It's not a problem with the town," Commandant Bill Stokes said.

Stokes explained that military transport planes are otherwise committed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so the league cannot guarantee that the performers would be able to get from Washington, D.C., to Cape Cod... Read the rest here.

Transit center targeted at MacMillian Wharf
By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com

PROVINCETOWN - It may not be Grand Central Station, but if constructed, it would be the Outer Cape's first comprehensive transportation center.

The board of selectmen heard this week from Cape Cod Commission officials, planning committee members and consultants about the preliminary results of a feasibility study regarding a multi-modal transportation center to be built near the base of MacMillian Wharf.

"There will be a lot more community interaction," said Cape Cod Commission transportation planner Clay Schofield. "This is not a done deal yet."

Two different proposals and plans were presented. One would have a two-story structure in place of where the public rest rooms are now located next to the Chamber of Commerce. The new building would have additional rest room facilities, as well as the possibility of conference rooms, exhibits from the Cape Cod National Seashore, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Life Sanctuary and Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. Outside, would be a terminal for the numerous tour buses, as well as for the Provincetown to Boston bus, beach shuttles and the new FlexRoute buses. The other plan would to build a one-story structure over the water on the opposite side of the MacMillian Wharf parking lot, with all the same amenities.

The transportation center is being proposed with a yet to be determined amount of federal funding as Congressmen William Delahunt is requesting money in the Fiscal 2007 federal budget. Estimates put the total costs at $2.8 to $3.9 million if built on land and $4.5 to $6.2 million if built over water... Read the rest here.

What’s happening to downtown P’town?
By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com

PROVINCETOWN - A walk down Commercial Street in the winter can be a solitary experience. Dodging puddles and snowdrifts, passing by stores and restaurants closed until spring. Thoughts of the days of warm sun and throngs of tourists are interrupted by a cold gust of wind off the harbor. But another chill is running down the spine of residents - the large number of empty storefronts, with no prospective businesses moving in. Provincetown is starting to resemble a Wild West ghost town on the tip of Cape Cod.

It happens every winter. Provincetown residents try to gauge whether there are more or less empty storefronts than the winter before. Businesses come and go in Provincetown, but there seem to be a lot more going than coming, by the number of vacant shops along Commercial Street.

"There are more than I have ever seen," said Candace Boden Collins, executive director of the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce for 32 years.

Some call it the off-season shuffle, when businesses swap retail spaces in search of cheaper rents or a better location. Or perhaps a business owner is retiring and moving to Florida or grew tired of the grind of running a small business. But the large number of "For Rent" signs up around the commercial properties on Commercial Street, many in key locations, has some people saying that the red-hot real estate market is choking economic development in Provincetown.

Longtime Provincetown businesses such as the glass and homeware store Cerutti’s, the high-end men’s clothing stores Body Body, Dirty White Boy and Market and the music shop Strangeways have all left their Commercial Street stores. What’s worrisome is that no one is moving in. In the downtown area alone, there are about seven empty stores, peppered among the "See You in the Spring" or "Thanks for a Great Season" signs hanging in businesses closed until April... Read the rest here.

See all of The Cape Codder stories this week here, and comment below.

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Romney holds first Coastal Hazard meeting with O'Leary, others

By David Kibbe, Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror

Gov. Mitt Romney on Wednesday convened the first meeting of the state’s Coastal Hazards Management Commission, which will study what can be done to lessen the risk of hurricane and storm damage to coastline.

The commission, which held an introductory meeting in Boston, will develop a 20-year Coastal Infrastructure and Protection Plan for the Cape and Islands, South Shore, Boston Harbor and the North Shore. The panel is chaired by Susan Snow-Cotter, the director of the state’s Office of Coastal Zone Management.

Romney asked the commission to issue initial recommendations on new laws and regulations by November 2006. The commission will complete its work a year later. It will look at issues like beach erosion, the condition of seawalls, the home insurance crisis on the Cape and islands, and possible restrictions on waterfront development.

Cape Cod lawmakers are 1/3 of state panel 

One of the impetuses for the group's formation was an announcement last year by the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund that it plans to spend $15 million dollars on a beach replenishment project that would take sand from shoals several miles off Nantucket and use it to fortify beaches on the island's east end.

Local lawmakers were named to the 15-member panel, including Sens. Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, and Robert O’Leary, D-Barnstable, and Reps. Eric Turkington, D-Falmouth, and Susan Williams Gifford, R-Wareham...

Read the rest of this Inquirer & Mirror story here, and comment below.

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Die? I'd rather laugh - Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is worried about the future of civilisation but he can still manage to chuckle about it.

"Im 83 years old, for Chrissake," says Kurt Vonnegut, and gives a burst of wheezy laughter.

"I never expected to be here this long." With his big, moist eyes, his mop of grey curls, his droopy moustache and his unusually long ear-lobes, Vonnegut looks peculiarly like a spaniel in human form.

But there's nothing cuddly or benign about his latest foray into print. Far from slipping quietly into the shadows, it is as if he's fastened his hands around the throat of America and given it one last infuriated shake.

His new book, A Man Without a Country, includes a series of broadsides against America's ruling elite, who, he believes, have made the country "as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were . . We have dehumanised millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We kill 'em and torture 'em and imprison 'em all we want."

As for George Bush and his cohorts, Vonnegut reckons they're psychopaths as well as idiots - "congenitally defective human beings with no consciences". And just in case this wasn't incendiary enough, there are his recently voiced thoughts about suicide bombers - "very brave people who are dying for their own self-respect".

You might assume that these tirades would make Vonnegut a marked man, with scores of people itching to nail him to the wall for being an unpatriotic crackpot. But not a bit of it. A Man Without a Country has been a huge success in America and, rather to his bemusement, Vonnegut now finds his literary star sitting higher than it's done in years.

"I have always been a person totally without rank in this country," he tells me. "I've never won a prize or anything like that. Never held any position of authority. I am what I was in the Second World War, which is a private, First Class."

"I can't think of any other writer who has won a Purple Heart for bravery," I point out. He gives an awkward shrug. "Yeah, well, maybe it would be embarrassing to go into that."

We are sitting in Vonnegut's favourite Italian restaurant in Manhattan, situated on a bleak stretch of Second Avenue. The restaurant is an almost defiantly dreary place, with walls covered in splodgy paintings of khaki-coloured mountainsides.

Vonnegut, however, plainly relishes its air of sedate drabness. Apart from anything else, he says, the last thing he's looking for is unpredictability - he's already had enough of that to last anyone a lifetime.

Just as his literary universe abounds in absurdity and catastrophe, so too has Vonnegut's real world. At 19, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden - an experience that gave rise to his most famous book, Slaughterhouse-Five. Soon after he came back from the war, his mother committed suicide.

In the 1960s, his only son, Mark, went through a psychotic breakdown, and 20 years later Vonnegut himself tried to commit suicide. In the mid-1970s, Vonnegut's sister died of cancer, just 24 hours after losing her husband in a car crash. (Vonnegut and his then-wife, with whom he'd had three children, promptly adopted three of their orphaned nephews.) Then, in 2000, he nearly died of smoke inhalation when fire destroyed most of his house.

According to Vonnegut, there's not much you can do when faced with such horrors, except try to laugh at them. For him, humour is the only appropriate lens through which to view the follies of the world. But beneath the exuberance of novels such as Breakfast of Champions and Mother Night, with their wild digressions into whimsy, science fiction and personal memoir, there's always a quiet moan of anguish going on - a sense of disbelief at the messes people make of their lives, as well as the even bigger mess that human beings have made of the planet.

"What I have always tried to do is look for the things that make life worth living," he says.

"In fact, you could say that my whole life has been made up of lots of minor epiphanies. Quite by chance, I was thinking of one the other day involving the British.

"During the war, my whole division was destroyed and the Germans took those of us who had survived to this prisoner-of-war camp called Stalag 4B. The camp was full of British officers, who were incredibly kind and welcoming. We were hungry and cold and filthy and they fed us and put on this play to cheer us up. The play was Cinderella, with a male Cinderella, of course. I still remember a line from it - it was one of the best things I've ever heard in my life. When the clock struck 12, Cinderella turned to the audience and said, 'Goodness me, the clock has struck! Alack a day and f--- my luck!' "

Vonnegut bursts into an even louder guffaw of wheezy laughter than before - he sounds like a starter motor churning over and over.

"Although I can't explain why exactly, that made me feel that life was worth living again. Suddenly, despite everything, human beings really seemed rather wonderful."

He has, he says, always been a joker. As a child, he scarcely stopped cracking jokes - partly in order to get attention and partly to try to alleviate the pall of gloom that invariably hovered over the Vonnegut household.

"I was brought up in the Depression and things were pretty bad. My mother had come from a rich Indianapolis family but they lost all their money in the Wall Street crash, while my father was an architect who couldn't get any work. I remember I used to spend a lot of time listening to comedians on the radio. I guess that's what first gave me the idea that if you can still laugh, then all hope isn't lost.

"Sometimes people ask me about my literary influences, but I don't think I had any. However, I have always felt indebted to Laurel and Hardy. I loved them as a child but I also recognised how innocent, how vulnerable, they were. In making the world a happier place, they were also calling attention to its dangers."

By the time Vonnegut was 18, he was fighting in France. When he came back, he worked in public relations for General Electric. Then, in the late 1940s, he began to write short stories.

"I had no ambition at all as a writer," he insists. "No sense of destiny or anything like that. All I wanted to do was to be able to support my family. I sent my stories off to these two magazines. They paid quite well and I found I never had any shortage of ideas. I wrote a lot of science fiction, but I also used to mix in other stuff as well."

What's remarkable about his early work is how confident it is. From the moment he started typing away - seldom with any idea of where he was heading - he had his own distinctive, unselfconsciously eccentric voice.

"Well, I was a genius, for Chrissake," he says, spluttering away. "But you know, all I was really trying to do was make myself laugh. The trouble was that technology came along and knocked the piss out of everything. Television arrived on the scene, the magazines all went bust and I had to scramble about for another way to earn a living.

"I started writing more novels. But I worked out that if I wrote a hardback novel, I'd have to wait a year to get paid. Whereas if I wrote for a scruffy soft-backed publisher, then I'd get paid straightaway. When it came to money or reputation, there was no contest, I went for money every time."

During some particularly lean years, Vonnegut sold cars for a living - he ran a Saab dealership in Cape Cod. All the while, though, something was nagging away at him. "Occasionally I would say to myself, 'shit, you actually experienced the fire-bombing of Dresden, the biggest massacre in European history, in which 135,000 people were killed in one night - why don't you write about that?'

"For a while I thought of writing a movie script about it - I figured I could probably earn more money that way. I tried to think of parts for Frank Sinatra and John Wayne and all those American tough guys, but somehow I just couldn't make it work.

"Then I happened to visit an old war buddy of mine in Philadelphia. We were sitting round swapping stories when all of a sudden my buddy's wife blew her stack. She said, 'Why are you pretending to be tough guys? You were just babies'. And she was right - that's what we were: children in terrible trouble. So I decided to write about that instead."

For 24 hours in February 1945, Vonnegut and 100 other POWs had been locked in the cellar of a Dresden abattoir while the city was razed.

"How big was the cellar?' I wondered.

'Well . . ," Vonnegut looks around. "About the size of this restaurant, I guess. Luckily, there wasn't much to burn around us - there were just these pens that they'd kept animals in. I can remember coming out of the cellar when the bombing was over and there was nothing left standing. We couldn't believe it. Our guards were these kids and old men who had been invalided back from the Russian front. They were far more traumatised than we were because Dresden was their home. They just kept saying, 'How is this possible?' "

Slaughterhouse-Five was about as far from a conventional war novel as you can get. Its hero, Billy Pilgrim, travels back and forth in time and also makes several trips to the planet Tralfamadore, whose inhabitants - the Tralfamadorians - are two feet high and have green skin. Throughout the narrative, usually at the grimmest moments, the action is punctuated by bursts of authorial flippancy from Vonnegut - most memorably in the oft-repeated phrase "So it goes".

"Basically, I wrote it that way because that was how it came out," he says.

"I wasn't trying to be particularly experimental. But I do think the Vietnam War freed me and other writers, because it made our leadership and our motives seem so scruffy and essentially stupid. We could finally talk about something bad that we did to the worst people imaginable, the Nazis. And what I saw, what I had to report, made war look so ugly."

Slaughterhouse-Five was a huge success, becoming mandatory reading for a generation of college students. But while the publishing world was astounded by how well it did, Vonnegut took the whole business in his stride.

"I can't honestly say I was that surprised, no. I mean, it was nice to have some more money, but it wasn't as if I had been penniless. Essentially, life carried on much as before."

In A Man Without a Country, Vonnegut writes that for him, becoming an artist was not an act of rebellion. Because so many of his family were artists of one kind or another, "it was like taking over the family Esso station". But just as creativity ran in the family, so did depression.

"It was an unmentionable subject when I was growing up. After I came back from the war, I married my childhood sweetheart, but my mother was very against it because she said there was insanity in the family. And then my mother went and committed suicide. I mean, what can you say to that? Sometimes life can be a joke - that's all there is to it.

"My mother's death didn't come as that much of a shock because she had been so unhappy. But it was kept an absolute secret. Oh god, yes. Even the coroner hushed it up because if the news got out, it would have made members of the family less marriageable."

When Vonnegut says that he has never held an official title, this isn't strictly true: he is the honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having taken over from friend and fellow novelist Isaac Asimov.

"Being a humanist means that you try to behave as decently, as honourably, as you can without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. When we had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, I spoke at it and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in heaven now'. It was the funniest thing I could think of to say to an audience of humanists. Believe me, it worked - I rolled them in the aisles. If I should ever die, god forbid, I hope people will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now'. That's my favourite joke."

His own future may be uncertain, but Vonnegut is even less sanguine about the future of the planet. It is the one subject he finds it impossible to joke about.

"The world is going to end," he says glumly but confidently. "No doubt about it."

"How long do you think we have got?"

"Really, not long. And it's all our fault - that's the tragedy. Civilisation will come to an end when we run out of fossil fuels. I would guess that would be in the next five years. Human beings are pretty hardy so they will probably go on for a bit. But within a hundred years, the last one will be gone. It's terrible, but I absolutely believe it's going to happen."

Somehow, it's hard to think of anything to say after this. We both sit in silence until Vonnegut, apropos of nothing at all, but with at least a partial return to his former good humour, exclaims suddenly, "Goodness me, the clock has struck! Alack a day and f--- my luck!"
Man Without a Country is published by Seven Stories Press at $35.

Originally published in The Age here. Comment below. 

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Mirant blamed for deaths in Maryland, Tax problems in New York

Maryland's air pollution a killer, study says

By Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, February 16, 2006; Page B04

Pollution from Maryland's six largest coal-burning power plants contribute to 700 deaths each year, including 100 deaths in Maryland, according to a Harvard University study released yesterday.

The study was sponsored by the Maryland Nurses Association, which supports a bill in the legislature that would require such plants to sharply reduce pollution over the next decade.

Jonathan Levy of the Harvard School of Public Health, the report's author, linked several studies with a model imitating the flow of pollution to show how the power plants contribute to deaths and illnesses.

Most of the deaths occurred in Maryland and the more populous states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Maryland power plant emissions, he found, are implicated in more than 30,000 asthma attacks in this wider area each year, about 4,000 of them in Maryland. Additionally, the report says the plants contributed to 800,000 days of restricted activity, with about 100,000 of those in Maryland. The report did not place a dollar value on the losses but estimated them to be in the "hundreds of millions of dollars in Maryland, and billions of dollars" across the mid-Atlantic states.

The six plants in the study are Chalk Point and Morgantown (photo above) in Southern Maryland, and Dickerson in Montgomery County, all owned by Mirant Corp.; Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner in Anne Arundel, and C.P. Crane in Baltimore County, all owned by Constellation Energy... Read the rest of this Washington Post story here, and comment below

Mirant critics fault Romney's plan
No one spoke in favor of the governor's plan
By GEORGE BRENNAN, STAFF WRITER
SANDWICH - More than 60 people, many of them wearing ''stop global warming now'' stickers, raised their hands last night to tell the governor not to ease proposed emission regulations against what one man called the ''Mirant monstrosity.''

Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection heard testimony on proposed changes to regulations on carbon dioxide emissions. The public hearing was held in the town offices at 16 Jan Sebastian Drive and attracted a crowd dominated by Cape Clean Air and Clean Power Now (Barnstable Patriot photo on right of CPN's Matt Palmer at Mirant earlier)...

During last night's hearing, more than a dozen speakers, taking direct aim at Mirant, said the tougher sanctions against release of carbon dioxide - considered the leading cause of global warming - would be weakened by Romney's proposed policy changes.

No one spoke in favor of the governor's planAccording to the 2001 regulations, plant owners still must freeze carbon dioxide emissions through 2015, and then cut those levels 10 percent by 2021.

The governor's plan would allow companies like Mirant to buy credit for carbon dioxide improvements elsewhere in the world when local costs exceed $6.50 per ton of emissions. And if it tops $10 per ton, the owners can put money into a state greenhouse gas trust... Read the rest of the Times story here, and comment below.

Rockland County to borrow $175 million as Mirant tax dispute drags on
First time ever county had to borrow money

By LAURA INCALCATERRA, lincalca@lohud.com, THE JOURNAL NEWS

The county will have to borrow $175 million to cover Mirant Corp.'s unpaid taxes because it appears unlikely the energy giant's assessment challenge will be settled before the money is due.

County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has said the $8.5 million in interest and fees on the loan equaled an increase of about 20 percent, or $104, for all property taxpayers in the county.

The parties involved — Mirant, Stony Point, Haverstraw town and village, the North Rockland school district and West Haverstraw — went before the Rockland County Industrial Development Agency on Monday and mutually agreed to complete a settlement by May 16, said the agency's executive director, Holly Freedman.

If they could reach an agreement and reimburse the $119 million to the county, they would have to do so by March 21. Otherwise, the county must borrow the money to meet an April 1 deadline to reimburse the missed Mirant payments, including the additional $56 million. But there appear to be too many hurdles for that deadline to be met.

Vanderhoef's spokeswoman, C.J. Miller, said yesterday that the sooner the dispute was settled, the better it would be for all.

"The impact would lessen for taxpayers the quicker we can pay it back," Miller said.

Mirant disputes the assessed value of its Lovett Generating Station in Stony Point and its Bowline Point power plants in Haverstraw town.

The case has been in state Supreme Court in White Plains since Mirant filed tax challenges in July 2003. The company wants Haverstraw town and Stony Point to reduce the plants' assessments and wants refunds of more than $100 million for what it calls overpayments.

Mirant hasn't paid its taxes to Stony Point, Haverstraw town and village, North Rockland school district, West Haverstraw and the county since the 2003-04 school year. The county is required under state law to cover the tax payments and has already borrowed $119 million to do that. Now $56 million more in taxes is due, and Mirant still is not paying.

As a result, the county must move to borrow the most in its history — $175 million. That will cover the $119 million already borrowed and the new $56 million bond it will have to take on... Read the rest of this Journal News story here, and comment below.

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Church opposes gay adoption, Mitt opposes wine

Bishops to oppose adoption by gays
Exemption bid seen from antibias laws

By Patricia Wen and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 16, 2006

The four Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts plan to seek permission from the state to exclude gay couples as adoptive parents, according to two board members of the church's largest social service agency who were briefed on the plan.

The decision follows a three-month study of the theological and practical impact of having Catholic Charities of Boston, the Boston Archdiocese's social service arm, place children with gay couples, given the Vatican's teaching that describes such adoptions are ''gravely immoral."

This decision to seek an exemption from state anti-discrimination rules pits the bishops against the 42-member board of Catholic Charities of Boston, which is made up of some of Boston's most prominent lay Catholics. The board voted unanimously in December in support of continuing to allow gay couples to adopt children.

In the past two decades, agency officials placed 13 children with same-sex couples, a tiny fraction of 720 adoptions completed by them during that time.

The outgoing chairman of the board, whose term expired earlier this month, expressed strong opposition to the bishops' plan, saying it would undercut the agency's longstanding mission to provide stable homes for as many needy children as possible.

''This is an unnecessary, unmitigated disaster for children, Catholic Charities, and the Archdiocese of Boston," said Peter Meade, who remains a board member.

If the bishops obtain an exemption, they could continue to handle adoptions while excluding gay or lesbian applicants from consideration. However, if they do not win an exemption, they either have to allow gay adoptions to continue or risk having their adoption license pulled and being barred from adoption work in the state altogether... Read the rest of this Globe story here, and comment below.

EDITOR's NOTE: Even the Liberal Blue Mass Group applauded the Pols on this one:
Hurray for Romney and O'Flaherty!
by: David, February 17, 2006 at 09:46:00 EST
Yes, you read that right. Yesterday, Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty crapped all over the Catholic bishops' utterly misguided effort to exempt Catholic Charities' adoption program from state law barring discrimination against gay couples who want to adopt. As well they should have. State law is clear that discrimination against gay couples in adoption is illegal; Romney correctly said that he had no authority to create an exemption without legislative action; and O'Flaherty said that "there would not be an appetite to entertain" the possibility of a legislative exemption.

Make no mistake - this effort stems from the bishops themselves, and appears to be contrary to what Catholic Charities wants to do (recently the Catholic Charities board unanimously approved continuing to facilitate adoption by gay couples). Several board members of Catholic Charities are quoted (some by name, some anonymously) in the Globe story as being appalled at what the bishops are doing, and there are rumors that some board members will resign in protest if the plan goes forward. Especially appalling is that the bishops are forcing Catholic Charities to use its own money to hire the very expensive Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray to devise a legal strategy around the state anti-discrimination law. Surely that money could be better used for, oh, I don't know ... helping people? See the site here.

Lawmakers override Romney veto of wine sale bill

BOSTON --A bill making it easier for small vineyards to sell their wines directly to consumers, bypassing local retailers, is now state law, after the House and Senate voted Wednesday to override Gov. Mitt Romney's veto.

Wine aficionados pushed for the new law, saying it would open up a new world of possibilities by letting them purchase small wines over the Internet that they might not be able to find locally.

The reaction among wine shop owners has been mixed. Some said they were worried it could cut into their sales while others said purchasing wine is a personal experience that can't be replaced by the Internet.

The new law also includes a section that allows restaurants to re-cork bottles of wine so diners can bring them home without violating the state's open container law... Read this Globe story here, and comment below.

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Cape Air adds Maryland to its routes

Jacob Cook, Staff Writer, Maryland Coast Dispatch

OCEAN CITY, MD – A major regional air carrier this week confirmed a local partnership, but the town’s airport was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, the day scheduled service was supposedly going to restart between Ocean City and Baltimore after a four month hiatus.

After several trips to the resort’s municipal airport and lengthy negotiation talks, Cape Air, one of the country’s largest independent regional airliners based in Hyannis, Mass., has finalized a deal with Simmons Air, according to Cape officials. Rumors about the partnership have been heating up over the last several months, but it appears the joint venture was not official until the first week in February.

Cape Air spokeswoman Michelle Haynes said this week the resort has been on the company’s radar for some time because it mimics other areas where its service is already successful, but each discussion was fruitless until this year. Now, she says, the opportunity has knocked again and Cape Air will open the door to a new market.

“While I was away in Mexico, I believe it all happened. We’re very happy with it,” said Haynes. “Anytime you can introduce the Cape Air wings into a new market it’s a good thing.”

After 16 years in the business, Cape Air operates a fleet of over 50 aircrafts to destinations such as Florida, Boston, the Caribbean and South Pacific. (photo on right is "Daffy" decorated for Nantucket's Daffodil Weekend".) The company offers nearly 850 flights per day during the high season, carrying around 560,000 passengers nationally and internationally in a given year.

Second attempt to enter Ocean City Maryland market 

The Simmons Air partnership marks the second attempt for Cape Air to break into the resort market. Airline officials met with the town in late 1999 and planned to add Ocean City to a new route it had opened between the Carolinas and Virginia. In 2000 though, the airline scrapped the unprofitable leg and with it the proposed Ocean City plan.

Haynes said the current agreement with Simmons Air calls for one airplane, two pilots and a maintenance employee. She said everything else is up to Simmons, including flight frequency, price, and advertising.

“We’re excited about it,” said Haynes. “This is the first time we’ve done a deal like this. As far as Cape Air’s part of it, we’re done.”

The agreement could not have come at a better time for Simmons Air, a local airliner originally offering flights between Ocean City Municipal Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) at the low cost of $45 each way.

After three years in the making, President/CEO Wayne Simmons was ready to introduce an alternative to dreaded beach traffic and long commutes between Maryland’s popular resort and largest city. The start-up business plan anticipated six aircrafts holding eight passengers each, running four round-trips a day beginning last May 1. However, after numerous delays Simmons Air missed the summer season and launched four months later in September. Then, a contractual disagreement with Hinson Corporate Flight Services grounded the business in November.

Nearly four months since the service stopped flying, Simmons Air has gained new life with the Cape Air pairing. In a recent press release, Simmons said an overhaul of the company is warranted to offer a premium service for customers. A one-way ticket between Ocean City and Baltimore will increase from $45 to $99. He attributes the 50 percent jump to soaring fuel costs since Hurricane Katrina and marketing surveys.

The Simmons Air-Cape Air partnership was slated to begin this week with operations up and running on Feb. 14, according to the Simmons press release. However, Tuesday was routinely quiet at the Ocean City Municipal Airport and the company was not offering flights.

George Goodrow, the town’s airport manager, said he has not seen a lot of activity from Simmons Air recently and was not aware when the business would continue service.

“I haven’t heard anything in particular,” he said.

Running a business with one airplane and two pilots, the extent of Cape Airs commitment, would be hard to do at three round-trips a day, Goodrow said.

“That’s going to be kind of tough with two pilots trying three runs a day,” said Goodrow.

Haynes said Cape Air is willing to increase planes and pilots depending on the initial success. She also said the company is slated to begin flying on March 1, despite a February prediction.

Simmons Air representatives were contacted for this article, but chose not to comment.

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"Green Bullets" causing metal in water at Camp Edwards

Gov. Mitt Romney announced Thursday that the use of so-called environmentally safe bullets in military training exercises at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod has been suspended after traces of metal were found in the groundwater.

Seven years ago, military officials began using the new, "safe bullets" because they thought they wouldn't contaminate an aquifer beneath the base that supplies upper Cape Cod with drinking water. The bullets were made of nylon and tungsten, a metal that supposedly didn't dissolve into the ground like lead.

But Romney said Thursday that preliminary data from field tests at the base indicate tungsten has leeched into the soil there. He said there is no particular reason for concern and emphasized that there was no evidence tungsten is in the public drinking water.

"I have no problem going to the Cape tomorrow and having a tall glass of water," Romney said at a Statehouse news conference.

Romney said he's ordered tests to make sure the tungsten hasn't reached the public drinking water, and said the National Guard, federal and state regulators and local community leaders would work together to further monitor and study tungsten.

Tungsten-nylon bullets replaced by plastic ones

Brig. Gen. Oliver J. Mason, adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, said the tungsten-nylon bullets would be temporarily replaced with plastic ones where appropriate.

Camp Edwards is part of the Massachusetts Military Reservation, which covers 30 square miles and includes four towns on upper Cape Cod: Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth and Mashpee. It's been a major training center for troops for decades, up to the current war in Iraq.

In 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called a cease fire at Camp Edwards and ordered a clean up of lead buried in and around the berms at base shooting ranges. Lead was later found 19 feet underground moving toward the aquifer, though it never reached it.

The tungsten bullets were supposed to remove the pollution threat. Tungsten has the highest melting point of any metal, and was listed in the 2002-2003 Handbook of Chemistry and Physics as incapable of being dissolved in water. The thought was the bullet would stay put.

In 1999, Camp Edwards received its first rounds of the tungsten-nylon bullets for its small arms shooting ranges, and has been firing about 200,000 rounds per year. But the conventional wisdom about tungsten was challenged in 2002 by lab tests at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., which found that tungsten was not insoluble and could travel through soil under certain conditions.

The Army began conducting the first-ever field tests on how tungsten moves through the ground at Camp Edwards in July. That study is due to be completed in September.

This story appeared on Channel 3 here, and make your comments below.

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Nordstrom replaces Filene's at South Shore Mall

Nordstrom coming to South Shore
Cape Codders get a 2nd. Macys instead

By DON CONKEY and ELENI HIMARAS, The Patriot Ledger

BRAINTREE - Nordstrom, the high-end department store chain, will take over the Filene’s store that is closing in the South Shore Plaza.

The Seattle-based chain said today it has also signed letters of intent to open two new stores in the space occupied by Filene’s in the Burlington Mall and Northshore Mall in Peabody.

The company said last year it intended to spend about $875 million in the next three years on capital projects, of which 40 percent would go to building new stores...

Nordstrom is one of the nation’s leading fashion specialty retailers, with 155 stores in 27 states. Most shoppers interviewed today were pleased to hear that Nordstrom is coming, but some are still sorry to be losing Filene’s.

‘‘It’s a fine idea,’’ said Brenda Gaff, 40, of Milton, who was walking the mall with her baby daughter Delia. ‘‘I’m from the northern Virgina-D.C. area and there’s a lot of Nordstroms down there.’’

Two 18-year-olds from Norwell who were window shopping today said they welcome the new store.

‘‘The closest one before was Providence (on right), so this will make it easier,’’ said Jonathan Andrew. ‘‘They carry a lot of top-of-the-line clothes..."

Nordstrom had revenues of $7.1 billion for the year ended Jan. 29, up 11 percent. Its earnings were $393 million, an increase of 62 percent.

The chain has 151 stores in 27 states, but just two in New England, at Providence Place mall in Providence and the West Farms Mall in Farmington, Conn. Nordstrom will open a store at the Natick Mall next year...

Read the rest of this Ledger story here, and comment below.

According to the February 7 Cape Cod Times:
After Filene's sales, Macy's II to open 

...When the merchandise is gone, the Filene's furniture and home good stores in Capetown Plaza along Route 132 will be sold, Federated spokeswoman Elina Kazan said.

The main Filene's store at the Cape Cod Mall will be renovated and opened as a second Macy's store in a ''dual-box strategy,'' Kazan said. The nature of each store's merchandise has not been decided yet, she said... Read the Cape Cod Times story here, and comment below.

See the Nordstrom site here. 

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Cop coffee straight, Hyannis traffic & Yarmouth override

A light touch on a serious matter
"Nothing but cream/sugar in our coffee" at Bagels & Beyond
By Craig Salters/ csalters@cnc.com, The Register

In some circles it’s known as "whistling past the graveyard," but a Yarmouth bagel shop is getting a few laughs for its take on the recent coffee-tampering incident at a Hyannis coffee shop.

"Nothing but cream/sugar in our coffee," reads the outdoor sign at Bagels and Beyond, an eatery along Route 28 owned by Jason Carvalho. The sign is an obvious reference to the recent arrests of two employees of the Dunkin’ Donuts at 149 North St. in Hyannis. The pair allegedly spit and urinated in the coffee they sold to customers and reportedly targeted police officers for their crimes.

With few exceptions, said Carvalho, the sign has generated smiles and laughs from paying customers, including several police officers whom Carvalho is proud to call regulars.

"The police, everybody, they tell me they love the sign," said Carvalho. "It’s funny, but it’s really not a funny subject."

According to Carvalho, one police officer came into his shop Saturday morning and didn’t understand the sign. That changed when the officer got to work and heard fellow officers discussing news reports of the Hyannis incident.

"He came back and howled," said Carvalho. "A lot of the officers say it’s just a fact of life for them, something they have to deal with every day..."

 See these Register stories here, and comment below.

Yarmouth selectmen support override
By Craig Salters/ csalters@cnc.com, The Register

Yarmouth selectmen Tuesday night voted to recommend a Proposition 2 1/2 override and set a "ceiling" amount of $850,000.

That means there's still time for that dollar amount to be lowered as the town moves toward annual Town Meeting April 11.

An $850,000 override would add about 13 cents to the tax rate.

Selectmen Chairman Jerry Sullivan voted to recommend the $850,000 figure as did Suzanne McAuliffe and Dan Horgan.

"We're voting a commitment to the override and putting a tentative warrant together," said Sullivan, who added that the override requests reflected years of level funding and a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" philosophy of past budgets.

Selectman Jim Saben voted no but later expressed support for the override in general terms.

"I agree that we need an override," said Saben. "I just don't necessarily agree with the amount or the process by which we arrived at that figure."

Selectman Bud Groskopf, who earlier in the meeting said he would "withhold judgment" until he saw how an override would fit into the overall budget, abstained.

In making its decision, the board heeded the initial recommendations of its finance committee. That committee, which will meet with selectmen Feb. 28 and possibly again March 7, considered $1.3 million in override requests from nine departments and voted to recommend $853,794 worth of those requests...

 See these Register stories here, and comment below. 

Exit Strategy: State will take another look at Hyannis traffic 
Exit 6-1/2 examined anew, Route 132 interchange a problem
By Joe Burns/ jburns@cnc.com, The Register

The answer may come through a state-funded study that would determine, among other things, the feasibility of creating another exit into Hyannis from Route 6.

"This is an opportunity to do it right. I want to look at the whole picture," said state Sen. Robert O'Leary, D-Barnstable. Earlier this month O'Leary brought together members of the Executive Office of Transportation and local officials to discuss the need for a comprehensive study of Barnstable's transportation issues.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and members of the Exit 6 1/2 Committee will be at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis Friday to announce the release of Regional Competitiveness Council funds for that study.

The so-called Exit 6 1/2 has long been a topic for discussion, and seen by some as a way of alleviating traffic congestion in Hyannis. But O'Leary said it has never been looked at as part of a bigger picture.

"It's about the whole area. It needs to be integrated," O'Leary said...

"That includes looking at Route 132 (photo above) and looking at the benefits of the planned additional lanes. It includes looking at the Willow Street/Yarmouth Road area and the improvements that are being done there."

From Route 6 to Phinney's Lane the state will be adding two lanes to Route 132. There also will be rerouting of the Shoot Flying Hill Road access to Route 132. And work is now under way to widen the lanes on Willow Street in Yarmouth. There also are plans to reroute traffic heading to the airport from Yarmouth Road to connect with Route 28 farther west. Mumford believes it would be best to see how effective these changes will be before committing to an additional Route 6 exit...

See this Register story here, and comment below.

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O'Leary helps thwart higher ed amendment

SouthCoast senators thwart higher ed amendment
O'Leary is "baffled by this amendment" which would end hopes of a law school at UMass-Dartmouth

BOSTON — SouthCoast senators squashed a surprise amendment yesterday aimed at defeating any future attempt to open a public law school at the Southern New England School of Law.

The Senate was debating legislation to overhaul financing of the state's public higher education system when the amendment was offered by two South Shore senators. It would have made a public law school subject to legislative approval.

The amendment was defeated overwhelmingly by a voice vote, with no roll call taken...

"It was a frivolous amendment orchestrated by the same special interests, mainly lobbyists and those that represent third-tier private law schools that are afraid of the good competition that a UMass law school would present," Sen. Montigny, D-New Bedford, said after the vote.

The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees proposed merging UMass Dartmouth and SNESL, but the state Board of Higher Education defeated the idea last March by an 8-3 vote. Gov. Mitt Romney personally lobbied undecided board members to vote against the proposal.

The proposal for a UMass law school was fought by lobbyists for several private law schools, including Suffolk University Law School and New England School of Law. Supporters of a public law school believe it would face even more political opposition in the Legislature.
Sens. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, and Robert Creedon, D-Brockton, said they filed the amendment to guarantee that the state's higher education system is fiscally responsible...

O'Leary "baffled by this amendment"

Sen. Robert O'Leary (on right), D-Barnstable, the Senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Higher Education, said he was "baffled by the offering of this amendment. I'm baffled that we are dealing with it now in the context of this legislation."

O'Leary said the Board of Higher Education already had the power to accept or deny an application for a public law school. Read the rest of this Standard-Times story here, and comment below.

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Cape home sales drop 14.5%

Cape Cod home sales fall in '05
Buyers waiting for lower prices spur 14.5% drop

By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff, February 16, 2006

Cape Cod's housing market was hit harder by declining home sales last year than any other Massachusetts region, as buyers held back in hopes that prices for vacation homes would drop.

Sales of single-family homes on the Cape fell 14.5 percent, to 3,986 in 2005 from 4,633 in 2004, according to final, year-end figures released yesterday by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which include the first regional sales breakdowns.

That compared with a 3.2 percent drop in sales across Massachusetts; that is a revision of the association's preliminary report showing a 3.5 percent drop statewide.

The Cape was more sensitive to rising interest rates and economic disruptions, such as higher oil prices, because purchases of retirement and vacation homes -- the biggest segment of that market -- are entirely discretionary. While a growing family may have no choice but to move into a larger home or baby boomer couples may be anxious to downsize, buyers of second homes have nothing but time...

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Flu Pandemic study finds Cape region 1,000 hospital beds short

Hospital bed shortage seen if a flu pandemic hits
Officials map plan in southeast Mass. which is 1,000 beds short

If a flu pandemic strikes the state, Southeastern Massachusetts will be roughly a thousand hospital beds short of the projected need, according to data presented at a statewide flu summit by Governor Mitt Romney , who asked the Legislature to set aside $36.5 million to beef up medical resources.

State and local public health officials are planning for when, not if, a catastrophic influenza will hit the state, as the avian flu virus has continued to spread across Asia and Eastern Europe, and was confirmed for the first time in Africa last week. The emergency planning is spurred by the possibility that the deadly strain will mutate, spreading from person to person and sparking a worldwide epidemic.

According to the state's projection, a pandemic would likely infect 2 million, send 80,000 to the hospital, and kill 20,000 people in Massachusetts over a six-to-eight-week period.

On a regional level, those numbers mean that by one measure -- the number of available hospital beds -- the communities south and west of Boston, inside the Interstate 495 belt will be overwhelmed by the surge of patients. The rest of the state, on the other hand, is fairly well supplied, with a cushion of surplus of beds in northeastern Massachusetts and Boston...

Overall, the state will have 23,705 available beds -- about 145 more than needed in the model flu scenario, according to Romney's presentation. But in the southeastern region of the state -- an area that stretches south from Randolph to the tip of Cape Cod -- Romney's study found only 3,283 beds, including emergency overflow beds, while there is a need for a thousand more. In a belt of suburbs that stretches south and west of Boston, extending as far west as Interstate 495, there are 4,534 beds, but about 500 more are needed.... read the read of thge Globe story here, and comment below.

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Residents escape Hyannis blaze, Fiery Dennis crash cuts power

RESIDENTS ESCAPE HYANNIS BLAZE
HYANNIS – Residents of a large duplex at 20 Nautical Way in Hyannis escaped safely after a smoky fire broke out about 2:30 PM this afternoon. The blaze appeared to have started in an upstairs bedroom and then extended into the attic. It was quickly knocked down by Hyannis firefighters. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

FALMOUTH POLICE INVESTIGATE ARMED HOME INVASION
FALMOUTH – Falmouth Police are looking for the suspect who allegedly broke into a Central Avenue home brandishing a gun shortly before 9:30 PM Wednesday. The couple in the home was not hurt. According to the Times they told police the suspect rummaged through the house before fleeing. A police K-9 tracked the suspect a short distance before losing the scene possibly where he had a car waiting. 

CRASH CUTS POWER; CAUSES FIRE IN DENNIS
DENNIS – A serious crashed another major power outage in Dennis and parts of Harwich. The crash happened late this afternoon on Upper County Road near Clancy’s Restaurant. Two vehicles collided and one of them struck a utility pole with a three bank of transformers on it which fell across the vehicle sparking a fire. Firefighters could not extinguish the fire until the power was cut leading to this dramatic scene. Officials also had to work fast to keep oil from the transformers at the scene from getting into catch basins. Incredibly both drivers walked away from the crash...

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GUILTY VERDICT ON SANDWICH MURDER
 SANDWICH – On its second day of deliberations a jury quickly found 46-year old Daniel Prunty guilty of the August 7th 2004 murder of 23-year old Jason Wells (pictured) in Sandwich. The shooting death was allegedly the result of a dispute over stolen cash and jewelry. Prunty now faces an automatic life sentence. There is an automatic appeal in the case. Wells had moved to the cape from Baltimore to escape the violence there...

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STOLEN CAR SUSPECT CAUGHT AFTER FOOT CHASE
YARMOUTH – A red Ford Taurus was reported stolen in Dennis Tuesday afternoon. Minutes later Yarmouth Patrol Officer Paul Mellet spotted the vehicle coming over the Bass River Bridge on Route 28. He stopped the vehicle at the Citizen’s Bank but the driver fled on foot leaving the vehicle rolling about 60 feet before coming to a stop without striking anything. Ofc. Mellet quickly caught up to the suspect in the South Yarmouth Plaza near the Registry of Motor Vehicles. 32-year old Noah Pond of Brewster was arrested for larceny of a motor vehicle (subsequent offense) operating suspended (subsequent offense), operating negligently to endanger, possession of an open container of alcohol and 7 outstanding warrants for breaking and entering, larceny of a motor vehicle, and assault & battery...

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Ptown may merge with Nauset, Eastham may get Orleans' water

Bergman charged with attempting ‘hostile takeover’
Town manager’s plan to send PHS students to Nauset takes many by surprise

By Pru Sowers, Banner Correspondent

PROVINCETOWN — Provincetown school authorities were shocked on Feb. 8 when they received a five-page memo from Town Manager Keith Bergman (on right), complete with footnotes, maps and charts, answering several questions posed by the Finance Committee about merging the local high school into the Nauset Regional High School in Eastham.

And they were shaken to their core when they found out on Tuesday that Bergman had placed a draft article on the proposed warrant for April’s Town Meeting that would take the proposed school merger to the next level.

Article no. 5 was submitted to the Provincetown Board of Selectmen Monday night when the Town Meeting warrant was opened. The draft article, which has not been discussed or approved by the selectmen, calls for the School Committee and the selectmen to ask the Nauset school system to hold a formal conference to discuss accepting Provincetown’s high school students.

“It’s a hostile takeover,” said Terese Nelson, School Committee chair, about draft warrant article no. 5. “The only way we’ve been able to have information is that I was told by the chair of the Nauset School Committee that this was a done deal.”

Nauset School Committee chair Rick Wood had written a letter to the School Committee, sent on Feb. 10, that outlined transition plans to accept Provincetown students grades 9-12 into Nauset Regional High School in the fall of 2007. When he saw the confusion his letter caused, Wood asked Nelson if her School Committee had discussed the transition issue and was told that the discussion of closing the high school had begun only a few days before... Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

Orleans offers Eastham water supply for $2.7M
Amount is half of what its own town wide system would cost
By Emily Sussman, Banner Staff

EASTHAM — Though a $4.8 million limited municipal water supply system may still come before voters at Town Meeting in May, the joint water boards here are now considering a very different — and perhaps cheaper — source of public water: Orleans.

Orleans Board of Water Commissioners member Ken McKusik had made the tempting offer at last month’s joint Waste Water Management and Water Resources Advisory Boards meeting here.

As a town that pumps an average of one million gallons per day for its residents, McKusik said that Orleans could feasibly provide Eastham with 500,000 gallons of water daily from its $7 million water treatment facility, which was built last year.

Eastham residents currently get their water from private wells, which, according to the results of a three-year, town-wide testing program, are increasingly testing at threshold-level nitrate contamination, and are often tainted with high, though not dangerous, levels of iron.

As proposed by Orleans, the inter-town water would be run from a 12-inch water main spanning from the Orleans rotary five miles north to Cable Road. Installing that infrastructure, Orleans Water Supt. Lou Briganti estimated at last month’s meeting, would set Eastham back about $2.7 million.

And though $2.7 million is no small chunk of change for any town on the Cape, it’s just over half of a whopping $4.8 million that the town would have to shell out for installing a limited municipal water supply of its own. (Eastham is currently the only town on Cape Cod without either a limited or full public water supply system)...Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

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Chatham: Rabid raccoon, Stage Harbor sewer expansion

CHATHAM — Town officials learned last week that a raccoon captured near Oyster Pond Furlong tested positive for rabies, marking the town’s first documented case of terrestrial rabies.

Raccoon rabies reached Cape Cod in 2004, nine months after state officials cut funding for a vaccination program which had kept the disease from spreading over the Cape Cod Canal. Another form of rabies, carried chiefly by bats, has been present on the Cape for years.

Around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, Chatham Animal Control Officer Meg McDonough was called to a home off Oyster Pond Furlong. There, alert residents noticed a raccoon inside their fenced-in dog yard, “before they let the dog out, thankfully,” McDonough said. The animal was showing classic signs of rabies, she said.

“It was drooling and having seizures, it acted blind, and it was head-pressing,” she said, noting that the animal was pushing up against a concrete foundation. Earlier, the raccoon had been chewing the end of a metal drainpipe, “and when I got there, it was stuffing leaves in its mouth.”

McDonough euthanized the animal and brought it to Pleasant Bay Animal Hospital, where the staff prepared a sample to be sent to the state’s public health laboratory in Jamaica Plain. On Wednesday evening, the lab results had confirmed the presence of the rabies virus... Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.

Board OKs Sewer Expansion In Stage Harbor Watershed
By Alan Pollock, Chronicle

CHATHAM — Taking one of the first steps toward the town’s long-term wastewater management goals, selectmen voted this week to expand the sewer system in the Stage Harbor watershed. Selectmen also voted to instruct town officials to examine a real estate transfer tax to help pay for that expansion.

On Tuesday, selectmen heard the first of four presentations by Nate Weeks of Stearns and Wheler, the town’s consultant on the comprehensive wastewater management plan. Weeks said the town has been divided into four “sewersheds,” or wastewater management areas linked to underlying watersheds, each of which is likely to use different wastewater management tools.

State officials have determined that the Stage Harbor complex, in order to return to healthy water quality levels, will have to have a nearly 100 percent nitrogen reduction. In future meetings, the board will discuss other sewersheds, including the Cockle Cove area, but Weeks said he wanted selectmen to consider this sewershed first, because the solution is most straightforward: sewering.

Weeks said that of the four main wastewater management techniques, Title V septic systems, nitrogen-removing systems, community or cluster systems, and an expanded sewer system, only the latter would remove an adequate amount of nitrogen. With improvements being sought by the town, the Chatham wastewater plant would be able to remove around 93 percent of the nitrogen, and since the plant is in a different sewershed, there would be a 100 percent reduction in nitrogen from the Stage Harbor area, Weeks said. For that reason, sewering the Stage Harbor complex is the only real choice, he said...
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Harwich school staff outraged, Town wants $7M police station

HARWICH --- Approximately 40 school employees could lose their health benefits during the summer months, requiring them to make 100 percent of the July and August payments, if changes in their contract are not approved. The school committee is scheduled to begin impact bargaining this week.

Many of those employees have expressed outrage at the change in posture by the town and the absence of communication from officials, having learned about this status in newspaper stories.

Lisa Stroker, a library assistant at the elementary school, stood before the school committee last Wednesday to protest decisions by the town and the way town officials have handled notification.

“It’s been poorly handled by the town, illegally handled by the town,” Stroker said, “Could you have treated anybody any worse?”

Several other employees in jeopardy of losing benefits expressed outrage over the handling of this situation and said they were not there as much for the pay as for the benefits and personal satisfaction they get from working with the students. They emphasized the entire staff is necessary for the schools to run properly... Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.

Selectmen Urged To Get Moving On $7M Police Station Project

By William F. Galvin, Chronicle

HARWICH --- Faced with the potential for three major capital projects over the next seven years, the capital outlay committee is urging selectmen to take the bull by the horns and get moving on a new police station construction project.

“Really what we’re facing now is major projects coming up all at once,” capital outlay committee member Dana DeCosta told selectmen Monday night. “In the seven-year plan there are three major projects with a significant amount of borrowing.”

The capital outlay committee met with selectmen as called for in the town charter to discuss the latest version of the capital plan, which has been presented to the board for inclusion in the annual town meeting. The document contains several changes to the plan approved last May and adds a seventh year, FY2013.

The seventh year identified $15 million for new high school construction. DeCosta made it clear that project could cost as much as $35 million, but the town expects state school building assistance to absorb half the cost.

“Since the elementary school renovation was done a lot has been done to pare down the debt,” DeCosta said. “We’ve had a couple of years off. If we start picking up projects, things are going to go south quickly.”

The plan calls for a $7 million police station, and a high school construction project. DeCosta said that could cost between $20 million and $35 million, with school building assistance reducing the impact to $15 million... Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.

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Pedophile priest using computer in Vineyard prison

Pedophile priest using computer in Vineyard prison
No Sex Offender Treatment available on island

The Rev. Stephen A Fernandes, a Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last year to downloading hundreds of pieces of child pornography, has not received any sex offender treatment in jail but has been taking computer classes, documents show.

The priest, who was pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in New Bedford's far North End, amassed about 650 pictures and 114 videos before his arrest on Nov. 5, 2004.

Prosecutors said the Rev. Fernandes also posed as a young woman and convinced a 16-year-old boy he met in a chat room to masturbate in front of a video camera and e-mail him the video file.

His sex offender release notification, sent from the Dukes County House of Correction where the Rev. Fernandes is being held, to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office lists the programs he participates in as "Institutional Assignment: Laundry" and "Education: Computer." "It should be noted that there is not any Sex Offender Treatment Program at this facility," the letter says...

D. A. baffled why pedophile was sent to a "country club prison" with no Sex Offender Treatment Program

Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said yesterday that he is baffled as to why Judge Robert Kane sent the Rev. Fernandes to the jail on Martha's Vineyard.
"I have no idea why it happened," he said.

At the Rev. Fernandes' Nov. 28 sentencing hearing, prosecutors lobbied for a three-year term in a state prison. Judge Kane opted for eight months at Dukes County and a $20,000 fine. The terms of his four-year probation include 300 hours of community service, abstention from drugs and alcohol, sex offender treatment, and a ban on living with or having unsupervised contact with minors.

"The court hands down these conditions, then sends him to a place with no sex offender treatment," Mr. Walsh said. "That's very bizarre..."

Mr. Walsh said he does not know what sort of computer education the Dukes County House of Corrections offers, although he believes that the Rev. Fernandes should be kept away from any program involving computers...

The district attorney called Dukes County "the country club of houses of correction." A converted clapboard house built in the 1800s, the prison holds just over two dozen inmates and features amenities such as cable televisions in cells.

"I don't think Stephen Fernandes should be treated any worse than anyone else who has committed those crimes," Mr. Walsh said. "But I certainly don't want him to be treated any better..."

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Investors, Lynn Are Tilting Toward Windmills

Investors Are Tilting Toward Windmills

It's hard to be in a business where you literally — as well as figuratively — are tilting at windmills. But that business may have just gotten its biggest tail wind yet.

When President Bush called last month for more effort in alternative energies, a business that last year attracted only about $7 billion in investment nationwide, the 300 engineers and financiers at GE Energy Financial Services were already in the game. But that does not mean they were not happy that the White House acknowledged the sector.

"The president's speech changed zero for us; it was simply a recognition of what we already knew," said David L. Calhoun, vice chairman of GE Infrastructure, the group that includes both turbine manufacture and energy financing.

For now, wind energy is the only profit star in G.E.'s alternative energy galaxy, and both the finance and equipment sides of the company know they are gambling when it comes to solar and other fledgling technologies. Still, analysts applaud their decision to move on them.

"When you get the president talking about renewable energy, it has to be turning up the dial at G.E.," said Deane M. Dray, an analyst at Goldman Sachs who has an outperform rating on General Electric shares.

Certainly, it is getting attention from Energy Financial Services. The unit recently bought a wind farm in Germany and is installing new turbines there at a rapid pace. It has invested in solar energy farms in California and is in the end stage of negotiations for a large solar project in Europe. Indeed, renewable energy projects already account for $1 billion of the unit's $11 billion portfolio and are its fastest-growing niche. "The renewables space has really heated up, and I hope it will account for 20 or 30 percent of our investments in five years," J. Alex Urquhart, the unit's president, said...

G.E. bought ENRON's Wind Turbine Unit, Goldman Sachs committed to investing $1 billion in renewable energy

Four years ago, G.E. bought Enron's wind-turbine unit, and it is now a $2 billion business, heading rapidly toward $4 billion. In five years, G.E. expects that alternative energy products will account for more than a quarter of energy equipment revenue...

The financial team members say that working side by side with the technical equipment gurus is helping them pick and choose among potential investments. They get early alerts, they say, on which blade designs and composites make for the most efficient wind turbines, on whether solar energy is gaining momentum, or whether the technologies will have any resale or reuse value if a project does not work out or a borrower defaults...

G.E. is not alone in backing renewables, of course. In November, Goldman Sachs committed to investing $1 billion in renewable energy, and it is already "well on its way" to achieving that, according to Lucas van Praag, a Goldman spokesman.

J. P. Morgan Chase, too, has said it will invest more than $250 million in wind-energy projects. And venture capitalists have for some time been investing in smaller renewable energy projects and technologies.

Over all, says Michael T. Eckhart, president of the nonprofit American Council on Renewable Energy, the $7 billion invested in renewable energy projects last year should increase by 25 percent a year over the next few years.

He and many others say they believe that, if the president's imprimatur results in new regulations or tax incentives, even more Wall Street money will be attracted to such projects.

Wind power has been the leading alternative energy source in recent years. The costs of turbines have come down even as their reliability and efficiency have increased; G.E., Goldman, J. P. Morgan Chase and others are snapping up wind farms across the world...

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Plan to build state's first wind turbine moves forward
By Thor Jourgensen, Wednesday, February 15, 2006

LYNN - Water and Sewer Commissioners are pushing forward a plan to build a waterfront windmill to reduce electricity costs.

Commissioners William Trahant, Wayne Lozzi, Walter Proodian and newly named commissioner Scott McPherson voted to continue studying the $3 million to $4 million project. Commissioner Frank Zipper was not present at Monday's meeting.

They want to make Lynn the first Massachusetts city to erect a wind turbine. Several towns, including Hull and some on Cape Cod, are building the modern versions of windmills and saving money on electricity costs. Ipswich plans to start building a wind turbine in September.

Sewer plant operations director Robert Tina worked with City Councilor at large Loretta Cuffe O'Donnell to develop the windmill plan and organize a feasibility study of the project.

"Two years ago I came up to Water and Sewer with just the beginning of this and received nothing but support from Bob and the commission," Cuffe O'Donnell said.

Tina hopes the commission can claim a share of $550 million in federal interest-free energy loans to help pay for the wind turbine. Initial estimates indicate the windmill could save Water and Sewer over $300,000 annually in electrical costs but Tina thinks that estimate is conservative...

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Gains slip out the door with Shirley

By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | February 15, 2006

Two new women will be sworn in tomorrow as Massachusetts lawmakers, but the atmosphere is less than festive at the Caucus of Women Legislators. At least twice that many experienced female House members will be walking away from the job when their terms expire in November.

More than 50 years of collective history leave the State House when Representatives Shirley Gomes of Cape Cod (on right), Shirley Owens-Hicks of Boston, Anne M. Paulsen of Belmont, and Kathleen M. Teahan of Whitman take their leave of Beacon Hill. Others of their remaining female colleagues are weighing whether to join them.

''We have had a lot of turnover in recent years among men and women," said Representative Lida E. Harkins, a Democrat from Needham and the assistant House majority leader. ''But there are fewer women up here, so their departures have a big impact."

Since 1999, the percentage of women in the Legislature has hovered around 25 percent, even though women make up more than half of the state's population. The arrival tomorrow of newly elected Representatives Denise Provost of Somerville and Virginia Coppola of Foxborough reflects some progress -- Provost fills the House seat vacated by Pat Jehlen, who moves over to the Senate -- but the ''overall numbers have been stagnant," said Erica Mattison, executive director of the Caucus of Women Legislators...

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Kerry moving windward, Pilgrim Nuke, LNG ports still needed

Kerry: LNG plan worth a look -
Senator tells Patriot Ledger that U.S. needs to explore more sources of alternative energy

‘‘Would I mind a windmill on Nantucket or off Nantucket? The answer is no,’’ Kerry said.  ‘‘I drove by plenty of windmills in Iowa and Minnesota and other places and I thought they were rather beautiful, rather majestic and interesting.’’

By TOM BENNER, Patriot Ledger State House Bureau

QUINCY - Sen. John Kerry is offering conditional support for a proposal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on Outer Brewster Island off the tip of Hull.

Kerry said the LNG proposal for Outer Brewster should not be dismissed out of hand.

‘‘I do think the LNG proposal in Boston Harbor is worth looking at. It holds some promise and potential, and it’s worthy of being thoroughly explored,’’ the Democrat said in his most specific remarks to date about the controversial proposal. ‘‘I’m not opposed to it.’’

Kerry told the Patriot Ledger’s editorial board yesterday his primary concern is whether the LNG terminal would harm the Boston Harbor Islands national park system. Outer Brewster is one of the 34 islands in the system.

‘‘Providing that the project can be done in a way that maintains the integrity of the overall island park effort, it’s worthy of exploring,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘Can you hold the integrity? ...If you can, let it go forward..."

Pilgrim Nuclear, coal still necessary

Kerry also said he counts nuclear power plants, such as the Pilgrim plant in Plymouth, as important sources for the nation’s energy grid.

‘‘(Nuclear power) is a very important part of our mix today,’’ he said. ‘‘We cannot afford to be without it at this point.’’

Kerry said long-term safety concerns at Pilgrim will be addressed as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers the plant’s application to renew its license.

‘‘The record across the country is not one of recklessness,’’ he said. ‘‘The relicensing has been pretty responsible up until now.’’

Kerry said he supports alternative energy sources including wind farms, but defended his decision not to take a stand so far on the Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound.

‘‘I’m doing due diligence,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m listening to the players who are the experts. I will take a position at the appropriate time. In principle, I’m in favor of some wind power projects.’’

Kerry said the proposed location for the wind farm may cause problems for boaters. But he doesn’t see a negative aesthetic impact, despite the fact that he and his wife, Teresa Heinz, own a home on Nantucket.

‘‘Would I mind a windmill on Nantucket or off Nantucket? The answer is no,’’ Kerry said.

‘‘I drove by plenty of windmills in Iowa and Minnesota and other places and I thought they were rather beautiful, rather majestic and interesting.’’

Kennedy, whose family home is in Hyannis, is publicly opposed to the wind farm. So are Gov. Mitt Romney and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt of Quincy...‘‘We have huge coal reserves in America; it’s a great asset,’’ he said.

See the rest of this Patriot Ledger article here, and comment below. 

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U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies

Biggest giveaways in American history: $7 billion over 5 years
No royalties on $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period.

Administration officials say that the benefits are dictated by laws and regulations that date back to 1996, when energy prices were relatively low and Congress wanted to encourage more exploration and drilling in the high-cost, high-risk deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"We need to remember the primary reason that incentives are given," said Johnnie M. Burton, director of the federal Minerals Management Service. "It's not to make more money, necessarily. It's to make more oil, more gas, because production of fuel for our nation is essential to our economy and essential to our people."

But what seemed like modest incentives 10 years ago have ballooned to levels that have alarmed even ardent supporters of the oil and gas industry, partly because of added sweeteners approved during the Clinton administration but also because of ambiguities in the law that energy companies have successfully exploited in court.

Short of imposing new taxes on the industry, there may be little Congress can do to reverse its earlier giveaways. The new projections come at a moment when President Bush and Republican leaders are on the defensive about record-high energy prices, soaring profits at major oil companies and big cuts in domestic spending...

Read the rest of the NY Times story here, and comment below.

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Kennedy, Kerry used private corporate jets

Kennedy, Kerry used private cororate jets
Often a backdoor way for special interests with issues before Congress

Kennedy was whisked to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic aboard a Fisher Scientific International Inc. corporate jet last winter. 

Sen. John F. Kerry and two political aides flew from Salt Lake City to a retreat for campaign donors and staff at his family's Ketchum, Idaho, vacation home last fall on a plane supplied by Boston Capital, a nationally prominent real estate financing and investment firm.

Such flights are a cherished perquisite for many members of Congress, who can avoid the hassles of long airport security lines and crowded commercial planes.

Private air charters can cost thousands of dollars per hour. But under Senate rules, lawmakers are only required to pay the equivalent of first-class commercial airfare for flights aboard private jets owned by companies or individuals.

As Congress embraces sweeping lobbying reforms amid the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal, some lawmakers are calling for a crackdown on such travel practices. The sweeping lobbying reform plan proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., includes a provision to make lawmakers pay the full charter cost of flights aboard corporate jets.

Campaign watchdog groups say the discounted flights, while legal, are often a backdoor way for corporations and other special interests with important issues before Congress to curry favor with lawmakers.

"It's a very big perk for members (of Congress) and a very big lobbying tool for companies," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.

Kennedy, D-Mass., reimbursed Fisher $2,097 for his trip, which included visits with a nephew, Peace Corps volunteers and the Puerto Rican governor's inaugural. New Hampshire-based Fisher is a Fortune 500 firm providing products and services to the scientific community. Fisher spokeswoman Gia Oei said the company on "rare occasions" makes its corporate aircraft available to lawmakers...

Private jets for the price of a first class ticket? 

Last February, Kennedy flew on a jet provided by U.S. Strategies Corp., a national government relations and strategic planning firm, as part of a Florida fundraising trip. He paid $495. The firm's CEO was aboard.

The senior senator also flew Fisher's jet from Philadelphia to Hyannis last April for a fundraising event. His payment was $663...

Read the rest of the Standard-Times story here , and comment below.

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Cape Cod student injured mountain climbing in Montana

Injured climber rescued in Missions
Andrew Endris, 23, of Dennis,

ST. IGNATIUS - An ice climber fell and broke his leg in remote and rugged terrain near Mission Falls east of St. Ignatius on Sunday and was rescued by helicopter Monday morning after spending a long night, cold and alone, at the base of an ice cliff.

After spending the night on a narrow ledge, a University of Montana student with a broken leg was plucked from the Mission Mountains by an Air Force helicopter Monday morning. 

Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron identified the injured climber as Andrew Endris, 23, of Dennis, a graduate of D-Y High School. He was climbing with a friend, John Smiley of Missoula.

It was not yet known if the climbers were roped together, as is customary in high-altitude ice climbing, Barron said. But Endris fell first, 60 feet down the ice embankment, and Smiley fell on top of him. Endris suffered a broken leg either from the fall or from the impact of Smiley, Barron said.

Smiley, shaken up but not injured, was able to scramble out to cell phone range and call for help. The call came into Lake County Dispatch at 6:08 p.m., Barron said. The location was only about one mile by air from the trailhead, but several thousand feet above it, and virtually inaccessible, especially at night.

St. Ignatius ambulance volunteers initially responded to the trailhead, and quickly determined they could do nothing. They called Lake County Search and Rescue for assistance. A tribal officer with experience in ice rescue evaluated the situation and recommended an experienced ice-rescue team from Flathead County be called in.

In darkness Sunday night, rescuers got to a ravine within shouting distance of the injured climber, but it was too dangerous to proceed during the dark. But by shouting back and forth across the ravine, the rescuers determined that Endris was not in danger of dying from exposure during the night. He was equipped for cold weather, Barron said, and managed to boost himself up on his backpack to keep off the ice.

An Air Force rescue helicopter from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls arrived about 9 a.m. Monday, and managed to pluck Endris from the 7,000-foot-high ravine by 9:30. Because the rescue helicopter was low on fuel, it landed at Missoula International Airport, instead of going directly to the hospital. Endris went from the airport to St. Patrick Hospital by ground ambulance.

Barron said the man is in remarkably good condition, considering the harsh environment and other circumstances of the accident.

See original story here, and comment below. 

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Sandwich: A Tale Of Drugs and Deception, Falmouth wants cop complaint dismissed

By MARY STANLEY, Sandwich Enterprise

The final question posed to Rebecca S. Pape by Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Welsh III yesterday afternoon might prove to be the most damaging for Daniel J. Prunty. "Who shot Jason Wells?" he asked. "Daniel Prunty," Ms. Pape responded.

The murder trial for Mr. Prunty, the man accused of shooting 23-year-old Jason Wells in the head on Saturday, August 7, 2004, got underway Tuesday morning in Barnstable Superior Court. Mr. Prunty is charged with first degree murder, extortion, and assault and battery.

Yesterday, for more than three hours, Ms. Pape, 24, who was at Mr. Prunty’s Palomino Way home on the day of the shooting, testified about events leading up to the fatal shot and what occurred in the minutes and days following. She described her relationship with Mr. Prunty—as well as the atmosphere in his home—as one rooted in drug use, including heroin and cocaine...

Read the rest of this Sandwich Enterprise story here, and comment below.

Falmouth- Town Counsel Asks That Police Officers’ Complaints Be Dismissed
Four police officers say a Falmouth police sergeant has harassed them

By LAURA M. RECKFORD, Falmouth Enterprise

The Town of Falmouth has responded to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination about the complaints of three Falmouth police officers who say a police sergeant has harassed them.

The complaints were filed in December by Falmouth Police Officers Michael C. Rogers, his brother, James B. Rogers, and John F. (Sean) Doyle, who are all on the executive board of the Falmouth Patrolmen’s Federation.

The three officers, as well as a fourth officer, Ben C. Guthrie, who filed his complaint later in December, claimed that Falmouth Police Sergeant A. Roger Gonsalves had called them racists, saying they should be “wearing white sheets.”

Falmouth Town Counsel Frank K. Duffy Jr. filed the town’s response yesterday, with a request to dismiss each complaint. Mr. Duffy gives three reasons for the town’s position...

Read the rest of this Falmouth Enterprise story here, and comment below.

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Cape man dies after being run over twice on Rt. 6

Hyannis Man Dies After Rollover Crash In Sandwich

(CBS4) BOSTON A Hyannis man died shortly after midnight Sunday after being involved in a one-car rollover crash in Sandwich, state police said.

Wesley M. Famigliette (on right with other victim), 24, died after being transported by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital.

State police said it appeared as though Famigliette was run over by two separate vehicles as he lay in the roadway following the crash.

Famigliette had been traveling on Route 6 East, east of exit 2, with Kristal L. Manning, 23, of East Sandwich, in a 2000 Chrysler Cirrus (example shown on left). The operator lost control of the vehicle, causing it to rollover and crash.

Famigliette and Manning, who were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, were ejected during the rollover. Both were transported by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital, where Manning is being treated for serious injuries.

State police in Bourne ask for witnesses (508) 759-4488

State police say it is unclear who was operating the vehicle at the time of the crash, but the couple was returning from an off-cape wedding

State police are investigating.

Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to call the state police in Bourne at (508) 759-4488...

Read the rest of this CBS4 story here, and comment below.

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Public Meeting Thursday on Sandwich Power Plant pollution

Romney’s Loopholes and the Environment
Public Hearing on Carbon Dioxide Pollution from the Sandwich Power Plant
By Chuck & Kathy Kleekamp, Cape Clean Air

In 2001, then acting governor, Jane Swift, signed into law new pollution emission regulations affecting the Commonwealth’s oldest and most polluting power plants, such as the Canal plant in Sandwich.  These regulations were stringent and took into account improved public health and the environment.

 Governor Romney has issued a draft proposal with changes regarding carbon dioxide (CO2) regulations that significantly weaken the original standards for CO2. The Massachusetts DEP will hold a public hearing on Thursday,  February 16th at 6:00 PM in the Sandwich Office Building at 16 Jan Sebastian Way to accept public comment on Romney’s draft changes to the existing law.

Canal Plant in Sandwich is one of the “Filthy-Five”

Residents of the Cape have a special concern since the Canal Plant in Sandwich (on right) is one of the “Filthy-Five” plants that would need to comply with the proposed changes in regulations. Under the current regulations, the Canal Plant and others must limit their output of carbon dioxide to a rate of 1,800 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity produced, with a “cap” (maximum yearly output) of 5,331,820 tons.  They can either reduce pollution at the smokestack or buy “offsets” which are alternative, off-site projects that reduce pollution.  Offset projects are bought and sold on the market.

Romney’s proposed changes allow industry loopholes.

1. The original “offset” definition contained just the word “permanent.” The new wording is “permanent to the maximum extent feasible.” This new open-ended wording will allow industry to get credit for offset projects that don’t make real pollution reductions.  The change should not be allowed. 
   
2. The original offset definition used just the word “enforceable.” Romney’s wording is “enforceable as a practical matter.” Without clarification, the change could lead “wiggle-room” by industry and weaken the ability of the Massachusetts DEP to enforce the law.
3. Romney has added wording to the effect that once the domestic offset price reaches $6.50/ton, lower cost offsets may be purchased from around the world instead of just from projects in Massachusetts. This may lead to a lack of enforceability beyond Massachusetts and a loss of economic benefits from the construction and operation of such projects within the state.
4. Should offset credit prices reach $10.00/ton, Romney’s draft amended regulations will  allow cut-rate payments into a state trust fund in lieu of purchasing offsets at the correct market price. This would allow, for example, the Canal Plant owners to buy their way out of real emission reductions on site for the price of a pizza per ton of CO2 emissions.  In the European Union, CO2 offset credits are currently priced at about $30 per ton.
   

Currently, DEP is excluding nuclear power as an offset.  This is important and must be preserved.  

Your voice is important at the upcoming public hearing. The emission regulations adopted in 2001 were first-in-the-nation regulations.  They must not be weakened by adding new loopholes, vague language and offset rules favorable to the most polluting power plants.  The impact of these regulations will certainly affect the future of our climate and our local well being. A strong regulation will set a precedent for other states to follow.

See previous columns by Chuck Kleekamp here. 

^{_{Charles Kleekamp is a recently retired professional engineer with degrees in mathematics and in electrical and instrumentation engineering. Early in his career he was involved with the design and manufacture of computers and automatic industrial control systems. Later he developed advanced communication systems for the U.S. Air Force. After moving to Cape Cod in 1997, he founded the Shawme Pond Watershed Association. He is also a founding member and Vice-President of Cape Clean Air, an advocacy organization for better health through clean air. He has worked toward the enactment of stringent emission regulations in the State Legislature and the enforcement of those regulations at regional power plants. In addition, through Cape Clean Air, he has supported the implementation of non-polluting renewable energy sources. He is a resident of Sandwich.}} 

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School bomber arraigned, Spiked coffee in Hannis

Teen accused of making pipe bomb in classroom
Allegedly made threats at school

By Michael A. Busack, Globe Correspondent | February 12, 2006

HARWICH - An 18-year-old Cape Cod Regional Technical High School student was arraigned Friday after he allegedly created what appeared to be a pipe bomb in his heating, air conditioning, and ventilation class.

^{_{(Photo on right show Harwich police carrying devise to a hillside where it was detonated)}} 

Thomas Brooks, 18, of Marstons Mills, a senior at CCRT, has a history of disciplinary actions, said the principal, William Fisher. On Wednesday, Brooks's teacher Pat Merrick overheard the student saying he would ''come back and blow up the school," according to Fisher and the police. The next day, Merrick found exploding caps with a hammer in his classroom.

Harwich police Lieutenant Barry Mitchell said that on Friday, the teacher noticed that Brooks had constructed what appeared to be a copper pipe approximately the size of a 20-ounce soda bottle, filled with razor blade-size pieces of flattened copper and crimped at both ends. Merrick asked Brooks to throw the object away, but later caught him trying to leave the classroom with it.

''If it had been detonated, and people were nearby, it would have been deadly," Mitchell said.

Fisher said it is likely that the device was constructed with items from the shop class.

''There were objects in the shop that . . . could be used to do damage," Fisher said. ''Any tech school has these things."

Officer Jonathan Mitchell, the school's resource officer, questioned and arrested Brooks before police were rushed to the school. Faculty and students were then asked to leave the building's east wing.

''The building is made completely of brick and concrete," Lieutenant Barry Mitchell said. ''We felt that any blast would be contained."

The State Police bomb squad detonated the device near one of the school's athletic fields at about 3:30 p.m. Friday. An investigation is being conducted to determine whether the object contained explosives.

Brooks was arraigned Friday in Orleans District Court on charges of making a bomb, possession of an infernal machine, and possession of a hoax device. He was released on personal recognizance with a pretrial conference scheduled for March 11.

Brooks has been suspended indefinitely. Read Sunday's the Globe story here.

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A Suffolk University student looks at Cape Wind

Oil is expensive these days. In fact, it’s so expensive that I have yet to even turn my heat on. While in the short run, I suppose that I’m quietly praising global warming for this mild Boston winter, logic still tends to win out for me, and I cannot help but be more simpathetic to proposals to produce cheaper power to save my wallet and cleaner power to save my planet. Because of these combined self-interests, the Cape Wind project, which proposes to put 130 wind turbine windfarm in Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound seemed entirely logical to me.

After years of opposition from supposedly liberal politicians such as John Kerry and the Kennedy clan, coupled with attacks from the right-wing Beacon Hill Institute and Mitt Romney, I started to question my own logic. Perhaps such a bipartisan effort to stop this project signified a genuine problem with it. Maybe Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a renouned environmentalist, was qualified to tell me how bad this would be for the Cape Cod economy and environment. I mean sure, the opponents of the Cape Wind Project have spent over $4 million dollars to get their point across, but they had to have a reason to spend all of that money.

Today I decided it was time to hear the other side of the story. Cape Wind President Jim Gordon came to Suffolk University, home of the opposing Beacon Hill Institute, and argued his companies case to a packed room of students, professors, and me. I sat and listened as he showed video footage of similar offshore wind farms in Europe, which he coupled with statistics showing continued stability and even increase in tourism in European costal areas such as the Danish Horns Rev. Also included were images showing visibility on a 100% clear day from various upscale Cape and Islands locations, which clarified the virtual lack of visibility of such a wind farm on Nantucket Sound.

Although I am not a man that likes to side with corporations, Mr. Gordon made a compelling argument; one that deserved a bit more consideration at least.

The Nantucket Sound wind farm has been proposed in a location that is visible to some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country. Among them are the clean energy proponent Kennedys and John Kerry, who strangely, as mentioned above, oppose the project. However, the claims being made against the project in the interest of the people of Cape Cod are simply untrue. One argument, that the wind farm will disrupt and even endanger ferries and other commonly used routes is unfounded, as a diagram of the project found on the Cape Wind website shows very clearly. In fact, Horseshoe Shoal is an area of Nantucket Sound that many ships tend to avoid completely because of its shallowness, which happens to also be a virtual requirement for construction of an offshore wind farm.

Other concerns arisen by our supposedly liberal friends include injury to the fishing industry, which fishermen have argued is not an issue in past letters to the editor in such Cape papers as the Cape Codder, and safety to birds. Now although studies of other wind farms, according to Mr. Gordon, have suggested that birds actively avoid the turbines, and would have less of an effect on bird populations than “a glass building,” RFK, Jr. seems to think that these giant wind harnesses will kill “thousands.” Although reluctant to take an advocating company president’s word for an issue, it is hard to refute studies done of bird behavior around offshore wind farms, such as one done by the Danish Wind Industry Association, which showed that even with decoys attracting very social birds, they tend to be reluctant to go within 100 meters of the wind turbines.

Cost has also become an issue. Although Beacon Hill Institue released a study about the alleged costs of the Cape Wind project being far higher than proposed by advocates, it should be acknowledged that the study was funded by opponents of the Cape Wind project. Further, While RFK, Jr. was up in arms about $241 million in state and federal subsidies for the project in his New York Times OpEd article last year, Uncle Ted Kennedy seems to have no problem with the $128 million in federal funding for Boston University’s new “biosafety” lab, which will be conveniently located in one of Boston’s poorest areas. And unlike BUs commitment to only $50 million in funding for their lab project, Mr. Gordon pointed out that his company is spending over $1 billion on this project.

Speaking of cost, Mr. Gordon unveiled a fun fact about the cost of wind power vs. power produced by natural gas. In addition to adding absolutely no polution to the environment by producing wind power, as opposed to the mildly environmentally friendly use of natural gas and the downright dirty production of electricity via oil, the wind power will be cheaper. Gordon testified today that while electricity tends to cost around 14-17 cents/kilowatt when made with natural gas, the wind-produced power will cost 11 cents/kilowatt. Further, Gordon has said that his company will lock that price in for 20 years. That’s a pretty serious commitment.

That leaves the opposition with virtually nothing but aesthetic opposition. Although there is no evidence that these 1/4-1/2 inch sticks on the horizon will injure property value, there is evidence that it may help. In Europe, where offshore wind farms are beginning to become almost common, not only has tourism steadily increased, but there are actually tourist centers which specialize in teaching people about the wind farms and even bringing them out to sea to get a closer look.

The windfarm will account for about 75% of all needed electricity on the Cape and Islands, will decrease pollution, and will help realize what may be the only good proposal President Bush made in his 2006 State of the Union address; decreasing dependence of foreign oil.

This is a project that is for the greater good of the State of Massachusetts, and can also serve as a model for the rest of the country. If slightly injurious to the people of Cape Cod’s waterfront (which I do not believe it is), it is advantageous to the greater population of the Cape, and to the state at large. Any threats to the environment are being assessed by both the state and federal governments, and provided those studies come back positive, I see no reason to oppose such a program that can be so beneficial to the environment, even if arguably making it a bit less attractive.

But you don’t have to listen to me. Listen to your electric bill.

See the rest of  Matt Wilding's columns here.

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Vineyard Police search for Miami criminal

Police search for Miami criminal

Edgartown police are searching for a Florida man they say broke into an unoccupied Katama residence over the weekend and fired bullets into the walls of that house and at nearby unoccupied dwellings.

Jorge Manuel Alvarez (on right), 17, is also wanted in connection with a home invasion and armed robbery in Miami, Florida. Until they were contacted in connection with the Edgartown break-in, Miami police had been unable to identify Mr. Alvarez as a suspect in those crimes.

Edgartown police said Mr. Alvarez is believed to be armed and traveling in a stolen white, 2004 Honda Civic with another man, a woman and a small dog. Police said the vehicle could have one of two stolen Florida license plates - T55MQC or X13APQ.

Edgartown police have issued a national alert for police to be on the lookout for the threesome and the car they are driving. Police believe they have since fled the Vineyard, although they have not confirmed this.

Sgt. Tony Bettencourt of the Edgartown police department said anyone with information on the case should contact the Edgartown police at 508-627-4343. He said that Mr. Alvarez should be considered armed, and he urged anyone who spots him or the vehicle to contact local police immediately.

Sergeant Bettencourt said that his department received a report of gunshots in the area of Thaxter Lane at about 5:20 pm Sunday. Officers who responded to the scene found a car in the driveway at 16 Thaxter Lane, but did not see anyone in or around the house. The police recorded the vehicle's license number and other information and returned to the station.

On Tuesday, police received a call from a caretaker for the Thaxter Lane house who reported signs of a break-in. The house had been ransacked, according to police. "It was a mess," said Sergeant Bettencourt...

Read the rest of this Vineyard Times story here, and comment below.

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New Tourism, Racism, Graveyard Shift and the Birds

 Candidates line up for Gomes' seat
Two Republicans, Three Democrats in race
By Donna Tunney/ dtunney@cnc.com
The field of candidates for the 4th Barnstable District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives already is getting crowded, even though the deadline for filing n nomination papers is a ways off - May 2.

The seat is wide open, since incumbent and veteran state Rep. Shirley Gomes isn't planning to seek re-election. Gomes, a Republican from Harwich, said last year she would retire from public service when this term - her sixth - is up in January 2007...

So far, two candidates are looking to win the GOP primary: Harwich Selectman Don Howell (on right with Mitt), a moderate, and the little-known Aaron Maloy, a 23-year-old Eastham resident who says he's a conservative.... [more]

 Upgrade improves WUMB signal
By Bill Fonda/ bfonda@cnc.com
ORLEANS - Joan Orr has Cape Cod bona fides, living in Brewster and owning the Art House Gallery there since the 1990s. Yet in spite of being a local,... [more]

 Fabbri firing causes angst among DJs
By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com
PROVINCETOWN - There’s trouble in the Schoolhouse. The recent firing of longtime WOMR operations manager Diana Fabbri has resulted in hurt... [more]

 The graveyard shift
By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com

New tourism ideas aim to 'bridge gaps'
By Steve Desroches/ sdesroch@cnc.com
Tourism is a fickle industry, dependent upon many factors, some of which are out of anyone's control. A rainy summer can ruin a season, while word-of-mouth... [more]

Forum faces up to racism
By Joe Burns/ jburns@cnc.com
"It is important to me that when racism comes at me to hold on to my dignity," said Verlyna Furbler, of Brewster, a woman of color, speaking... [more]

Blame it on the birds
By Matthew Belson/ mbelson@cnc.com
CHATHAM - It's not everyday when nature is the culprit, but the results of a recent scientific study of Cockle Cove Creek in Chatham show that wildlife, not humans, is the cause of high levels of bacteria.

Robert Duncanson, director of Chatham's Department of Health and Environment, said that for several years the waters of Cockle Cove Creek are regularly tested for enterocci bacteria.

"The bacteria counts were above safe swimming standards," said Duncanson, at public forum held at town hall Wednesday.

While not an official swimming area, the shallow waters in the creek system are popular with swimmers who frequent the adjacent Cockle Cove Beach and Ridgevale Beach.

"In 2001 we found enough high bacteria counts to close for swimming," said Duncanson... [more]

Read the rest of the stories in The Cape Codder above, and comment below. 

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County orders outside review of Cape Cod Commission

Task force to look at Cape Cod Commission
Outside review would last six months

By David Curran, dcurran@barnstablepatriot.com

The Board of County Commissioners has decided it’s time for a group of outsiders to take a look at the Cape Cod Commission.

The county commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to create a “Cape Cod Commission 21st Century Task Force” to assess the regional planning and land use agency’s effectiveness and recommend ways to improve it.

“I think it’s a good idea and I welcome it,” Margo Fenn, executive director of the agency, said, adding that an external review will provide a good opportunity for the commission to hear from both supporters and critics, and to see “how we might want to refocus things to become more productive.”

The commissioners named their chairman, Bill Doherty of Harwich (on right); Assembly of Delegates Speaker Tom Bernardo of Chatham; state Sen. Rob O’Leary, who helped draft the law that created the agency 16 years ago; and Elliott Carr, a member of the Cape Cod Business Roundtable who chaired a similar 1994-95 review committee, to serve as a selection committee. They’re charged with assembling a list of 20 potential task force members, of which the commissioners will select 15 to serve on the task force.

The task force will have six months to complete its work – to make recommendations on how the commission can effectively address its planning, regulatory and technical assistance charges, and how the commission and towns can better implement Local Comprehensive Plans and reconcile differences between regional and local interests. The commission will then have six months to report back to the county commissioners on progress on the recommendations.

Doherty said the selection committee would have to meet before he could say how quickly it would come up with its list of nominees, but said he was thinking in terms of “a couple of weeks.” He said he was encouraged that seven or eight people already had expressed interest in serving on the task force.

“It looks like this is something that has caught some of the public’s imagination,” Doherty said said. “It might have legs...”

Read the rest of this Patriot story here, and comment below.

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Wind Power supporters speak against O'Leary bill

Wind power supporters speak against O'Leary's legislation
Would curtail docks, piers, residential, commercial development

BOSTON — Cape Wind, environmental groups and labor unions lined up yesterday to oppose legislation from Sen. Robert O'Leary, D-Barnstable, that would require state Coastal Zone Management officials to consider the "broad aesthetic, visual and economic impacts" of offshore projects before issuing permits.

Opponents said the legislation, while general in nature, was aimed at stopping Cape Wind and other renewable energy proposals off the Massachusetts coast. Cape Wind's request to place 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound is under federal review.

Another O'Leary bill would declare a moratorium on offshore development until a comprehensive ocean zoning plan is approved.

"These bills put roadblocks to the development of offshore renewable resources," Matthew Palmer (on right at a Danish wind farm), the executive director of Clean Power Now, told the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. He called it "a tremendous disservice to the citizens of this commonwealth and the citizens of this nation."

No one spoke in favor of O'Leary's bill

The committee held a hearing on the bill yesterday, as required under legislative rules, but O'Leary did not attend, and no one showed up to speak in favor of the bill. The Environment Committee will vote on the legislation later this session.

O'Leary said he had a conflict that prevented him from attending the hearing. However, he is focusing on broader legislation he filed for an ocean management plan. The committee approved the ocean management bill in December, and it is expected to come up for a vote in the full Legislature this summer.

"Our focus is on the oceans bill, and the establishment of a planning process with respect to ocean development," O'Leary said in an interview, noting that besides wind turbines, it also affected issues like the siting of liquefied natural gas terminals. "We don't have any comprehensive way of dealing with them, and we shouldn't be issuing permits before we have a plan in place."

Dennis Duffy, a vice president for Cape Wind Associates, told the panel that state Coastal Zone Management officials already have the power to consider visual and economic factors. Duffy said the federal government must approve such an amendment to the state's Coastal Zone Management plan, and the state Legislature cannot do it alone.

"My position is it would be invalid," he said later.

Conservation Law Foundation objects 

Duffy said the legislation was so broad that it would affect virtually all construction on the coastline, including docks, piers and residential and commercial development... Seth Kaplan, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, also told the committee that the two bills ran counter to the recommendations of the Ocean Management Task Force...

Read the rest of the Standard-Times story here, and comment below.

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Hyannis Assault,Guest House fire, Child Abducted,

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 9th, 2006
MAN ARRESTED AFTER VIOLENT ASSAULT IN HYANNIS
^{_{Story & photos by F. Paparo/NEVN.}}
HYANNIS – Barnstable Police have arrested a man after a violent assault inside a house at 156 Chase Street late Thursday afternoon. Police and a Hyannis ambulance responded to the scene where blood stains were found leading to an injured woman who was taken to Cape Cod Hospital. The incident is believed to be domestic in nature however it is unclear if any restraining orders may have been in effect. The woman’s condition was also unknown at press time. Police officers were on scene for some time looking for evidence. At right Det. Paul Everson makes notes of clues at the scene.

MORE POWER PROBLEMS IN DENNIS/YARMOUTH
DENNIS – Some people may be late to work this morning after power went out for the second time tonight in parts of Dennis and Yarmouth. NStar equipment on a pole on High Bank Road caught fire about 1:30 AM. The cause is not immediately clear. It’s the third outage in the region in as many days. Further details were not immediately available (see related stories below).

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 8th, 2006
FIRE DAMAGES HARWICH GUEST HOUSE
^{_{Photos courtesy of J. O’Callahan/NEVN.}}
HARWICH – Firefighters were called to battle a fire in a 2 story building at 28 Shore Road in West Harwich shortly before 8 PM. The fire apparently started in the basement of the Cape Winds By-The-Sea guest house. No one was in the building when the fire started but one firefighter was taken to Cape Cod Hospital after suffering an ankle injury. Damage is extensive but an aggressive attack by firefighters saved the building from being gutted. Mutual aid from surrounding towns was called to help out at the scene and cover Harwich fire stations. The state fire marshal’s office is investigating the cause of the fire.

 SMOKE FORCES EVACUATION OF YMCA
WEST BARNSTABLE – The YMCA building on Route 132 across from Cape Cod Community College was evacuated for a short time after smoke began filling a hallway just before 6:30 PM. Fire officials believe a faulty light fixture caused the problem. No one was injured.

POWER FAILS IN PARTS OF DENNIS AGAIN
DENNIS – A large section of Dennis was without power again for about an hour this evening. It’s believed that NStar equipment apparently failed as no traffic crashes were reported. Crews were able to restore power by about 6 PM. The outage comes two days after a truck smashed a pole on Main Street blacking out South Dennis for 5 hours.

 CHILD SAFE AFTER ALLEGED PARENTAL ABDUCTION
TRURO – A 10-year old Truro boy is safe and back with his mother while his father faces serious charges. 45-year old Roland Kaplan JR. took his 10-year old son Roland III skiing over the weekend but failed to return him on Sunday as he was supposed to. Police caught up with Kaplan as he was checking into a motel in Chicopee, MA on Wednesday. Young Roland was not harmed. Kaplan will face charges of kidnapping of a minor by a family relative.

 Read the rest of this Cape Wide News reort here, and comment below.

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D-Y seeks alternate gas route, Yarmouth considers override

Towns seek alternate route for gas pipeline
Oppose KeySpan's installation under busiest roads

The towns of Dennis and Yarmouth are joining forces to oppose KeySpan's installation of gas pipeline under some of the towns' busiest roads.

Instead, the towns are advocating for an alternate route which would put the pipeline under an abandoned railroad right-of-way which runs between the two communities.

"Our concern is the location," said Yarmouth Town Administrator Bob Lawton, who added that the town does not question KeySpan's need for such a pipeline. KeySpan Energy Delivery New England seeks approval from the state's Energy Facility Siting Board to construct 13.1 miles of natural gas pipeline in Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich and Chatham. If approved as proposed, the pipeline would run under Whites Path, Great Western Road and Highbank Road in Yarmouth and then under Great Western Road in Dennis.

At a recent hearing before the siting board, Kenneth Kimmell, an attorney representing both Dennis and Yarmouth, placed the towns' objections on record and noted their support of an alternate route contained in KeySpan's filing. That alternate route would make use of the abandoned railroad right-of-way running roughly parallel to Whites Path.

Lawton said the primary reason for supporting the alternate route is that it would allow for construction of the pipeline with no disruptions to town roads. A secondary benefit, said Lawton, would be that the town could move forward with plans to extend the Cape Cod Rail Trail in the abandoned railroad area without having to clear the land itself.

"That's a nice spin-off, but it's really to avoid disruptions to Whites Path and Great Western Road, which are major thoroughfares," said Lawton.

Dennis Town Administrator Bob Canevazzi said his town shares many of the same concerns as its neighbor and does not want to see negative construction impacts to the South Dennis Historic District.

"That corridor is both well-traveled and very historical," Canevazzi said...

Read the rest of this Register story here, and comment below.

Selectmen weigh pros, cons of override requests
Approving all requests would raise taxes 21¢
By Craig Salters/ csalters@cnc.com, Thursday, February 9, 2006

Yarmouth Selectmen Tuesday night devoted their entire workshop meeting to the consideration of $1.34 million in Proposition 2 1/2 override requests. They heard nine presentations, each one a cogent argument for additional funds.

Perhaps it would be easier for selectmen if one or two of the presentations had been for a gold-plated back scratcher because now the board must decide which requests, if any, to support in a time of tight budgets.

"I want to thank each one of you," Selectmen Chairman Jerry Sullivan told presenters after they had made their individual cases in strictly enforced 10-minute time periods. The board will consider the requests and discuss the matter further at next week's meeting, he said.

Override requests being considered are:

Capital budget request for $500,000 at a tax impact of 7.9 cents. Funds would be used to increase the town's Article 6 appropriation to $1.5 million. Those funds are used for smaller capital items, such as police and highway vehicles, which are not bonded.

• Department of Community Development request for $100,000 at a tax impact of 1.6 cents...
• Yarmouth Public Library request for $83,537 at a tax impact of 1.3 cents...
• Division of Senior Services request for $25,294 at a tax impact of 0.4 cents...
• Engineering request for $12,531 at a tax impact of 0.2 cents...
• Department of Natural Resources request for $120,977 at a tax impact of 1.9 cents...
• Information Technology request for $62,071 at a tax impact of 1 cent...
• Yarmouth Fire Department request for $67,629 at a tax impact of 1.1 cents...
• Yarmouth Police Department request for $368,629 at a tax impact of 5.8 cents...

Read the rest of this Register story here, and comment below.

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SE Sandwich has "Unusual Cancer Pattern"

'Unusual pattern' prompts wider study of cancer
Area bounded by Rt 6, Meetinghouse Rd and Mashpee

By Silene Gordon/ sgordon@cnc.com, Thursday, February 9, 2006

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How much is your Cape Cod Home worth

^{_{As a non-invasive example  we choose and address on the Mid Cape where there is no house, 100 Main Street, Dennis, MA 02660}}

The web has the answer: Zillow.com is creepy but nice

Type in your street address at http://zillow.com in your browser  and watch your home appear with its present real estate value.

Click the drop-down box and get a description and comparison prices in your neighborhood. 

100 Main St., Dennis is around $500,000. 

As a non-invasive example  we choose and address on the Mid Cape where there is no house, 100 Main Street, Dennis, MA 02660.

We got the map above with a drop-box telling us there was no house value for that address, but it showed us the half-million dollar homes adjacent.

Try it with your friend's address. 

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PAVE PAWS: large phased array radar system still a concern

PAVE PAWS: Still a concern

Until recently, I was not aware that there was a large phased array radar system in the old Soviet Union that was comparable to the Cape Cod PAVE PAWS.

The Skrunda Radio Location Station in Skrunda, Latvia, shut down around 1998, was a large phased array radar, similar in many respects to the Cape Cod PAVE PAWS, see it here.

Scientists in the Latvian National Academy of Sciences, University of Latvia, and the Institute of Biology published six research articles describing health aspects of the Skrunda radar in 1996 reporting the radar as a radio location station with no reference to radar category (phased array versus mechanically steered).

The existence of another large phased array radar, with substantial health studies suggesting adverse effects, is important to considerations of PAVE PAWS and its radiation exposure of Cape Cod citizens.

The radiation of the phased array radar in Latvia was measured several times during 1990-1994, and specific sites around the radar were monitored every day (about five times daily) for an entire year. A single site was found to vary by a factor of more than 100 during a single year of monitoring!

This daily single site monitoring has not been performed around PAVE PAWS.

In a second study, pine tree growth was observed diminished as radiation exposure increased, and the growth change was timed with the beginning of radiation.

This impressive study of pine tree growth change was complemented by a another study which microscopically examined pine needles and cones from irradiated and control forests in the Skrunda area, and found changes attributed to radiation stress.

The Latvia scientists also performed a highly controlled experiment using a standardized plant, and growth abnormality was strongly associated with radiation exposure.

The United States National Academy of Sciences (USNAS) has advised that plant studies be performed around PAVE PAWS...

Read the rest of this Opinion Piece in the Upper Cape Codder here, and comment below.

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Myspace.com scares cape family, Whydah sues Ptown

PROVINCETOWN — An incident at an ice skating rink in Orleans last fall, in which a male stranger approached a young woman he first learned about on the Internet website myspace.com, has shaken a local family who knows the young woman.

In response to that incident and others, local police are planning a public workshop in early March with noted Internet privacy expert, Parry Aftab of New York.

Resident Michelle Jarusiewicz, who is Provincetown’s acting assistant Town Manager, said this week that her husband and her 15-year old son were present at the Charles Moore ice skating arena when the stranger approached the young woman, who was a former girlfriend of Jarusiewicz’s son.

Orleans detective Kevin Higgins said this week that the mother of the young woman called police to the skating arena where the man was then questioned and released. No charges were filed, Higgins said, because no crime was committed. “Apparently he had attempted to speak with the young lady there, and the mother overheard it,” Higgins said. “No crime had occurred. It made us aware that there is the potential for a lot of information being garnered from these websites…The kids don’t understand the ramifications. They think they’re speaking with their friends but they make it easy for the predators to find them and converse with them...”

 Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

New tax on Whydah wharf draws lawsuit against town
Accusations against DPW Director David Guertin lodged, and refuted
By Mary Ann Bragg, Banner Staff

PROVINCETOWN — Bad blood between some occupants of 16 MacMillan Wharf, home of the Whydah Pirate Museum and the Boston Harbor Cruises dock (on right), and Director of Public Works David Guertin has surfaced with the wharf’s recent filing of a lawsuit against the town.

Two individuals associated with the wharf, including one co-owner, claim that in 2002 Guertin failed to pay for docking his sailboat and also offered his influence in reducing the wharf’s water bill. A second claim is that during an outburst in 2002 at a meeting at a regional Dept. of Environmental Protection office, Guertin threatened wharf co-owner Barry Clifford with cutting off town services.

Guertin refuted both charges this week.

The two allegations emerged following a $660,000 betterment assessment the town made against 16 MacMillan Wharf last July, and which the wharf owners are now fighting in Barnstable Superior Court. The suit was filed in mid-November.

In state law, extra taxes, called “betterments,” may be levied on property owners who benefit from a public improvement project such as a pier reconstruction or a sewer. In town documents, the betterment assessment to 16 MacMillan Wharf is described as recouping part of the $16.7 million reconstruction cost of the town pier, which the wharf abuts.

 Read the rest of this Banner story here, and comment below.

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Otis Jets force intruder private plane to land

Four planes violate air space during Bush visit
F-15 from Otis forces intruder to land

(CBS4) FITCHBURG An F-15 fighter jet escorted a small plane to Fitchburg Airport Wednesday morning after the pilot violated the air restrictions for President Bush's speech in New Hampshire.

The small plane on the right forced to land is on the right. Only one of the four planes was forced to land. A Beechcraft Skipper was intercepted by F-15 fighter jets and escorted to Fitchburg Municipal Airport. The fighter jets are based out of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod.

The pilot and a passenger were interviewed by the Secret Service, but later released and allowed to fly out of the airport.

The two men were not identified, but F-A-A records show the plane is registered to Scott Morton of Upton.

NORAD says the incident happened around 11:30 a.m.

We do not know if the pilot of the single engine piper cherokee plane violated the restriction intentionally or accidentally.

The F-15 which escorted the small plane was based out of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod.

The President arrived in Manchester, N.H. Wednesday morning to give a speech on his proposed budget.

Read the CBS4 story here, and comment below.

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Harwich: Melville may leave, dangerous intersection, better beach management

Melville A Finalist For Manchester Town Administrator Position
New position at smaller town may pay a little more
By William F. Galvin, Chronicle

HARWICH ---Town Administrator Wayne Melville (on right) confirmed this week he is a finalist for a similar position in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a North Shore community of 5,000, and was scheduled on Tuesday night to conduct a final interview along with two other candidates.

Melville, an 18-year veteran administrator in Harwich, made the decision to apply for the position based on the changing face of the community. Melville said the job in Manchester would provide him with the opportunity to make “a bit more money.” It would also allow him to return to the area where he grew up. Melville is from West Newbury on the North Shore .

“This town has changed dramatically in a very short period of time,” Melville said of Harwich. “This is an opportunity to be proactive rather than constantly having one more thing that should have to be changed. It will allow me to be proactive rather than playing catch up...”

The Manchester position offers a pay range between $85,000 and $100,000. Melville now earns $92,000. The search for a new town administrator in Manchester is being conducted by Bennett Yarger Associates of Scituate...

Read the rest of this Chronicle story here, and comment below.

Harwich Officials: Intersection of Route 39 &
Pleasant Bay Road may warrant further safety studies
By Alan Pollock, Chronicle

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Newspaper endorses Falmouth-New Bedford ferry

Ferry proposal shows cooperation across the bay

With the New England Fast Ferry running a successful route to Martha's Vineyard, it makes good sense for the city's Harbor Development Council to look for new ferry routes.

Falmouth businesspeople and selectmen have shown interest in developing a ferry route between New Bedford and Falmouth. The route could carry workers and tourists back and forth between the two communities and could help commuters and travelers avoid the ugly traffic that clogs the Cape highways for much of the summer.

The state Department of Transportation should provide the Harbor Development Council with a requested $100,000 grant to do a thorough feasibility study and market research to see if such a ferry will be profitable for a company such as New England Fast Ferry or any other firm.

New Bedford is well positioned to be a transportation hub for southern coastal New England.
The major piece that has yet to be laid is the commuter rail from Boston. But there is no point in waiting for this piece to be put in place before expanding other transportation spokes from the hub.

In addition to examining the economics, the feasibility study must also look at vessel traffic in Buzzards Bay and whether or not a new ferry would have an adverse effect on the environment of Buzzards Bay.
The best part of this proposal is that New Bedford and Falmouth are cooperating on an idea that could ease transportation, increase tourism on both sides of Buzzards Bay and boost other forms of commerce for our region.

 Read the Editorial here. Make your comments below. 

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Harwich: Empower Town Administrator, Middle School break-in, chase

In a move that would give the town administrator more power over the police and fire departments, and the town accountant, Selectman Robin Wilkins put forward an action plan to revamp the town's organizational chart.

The goal, he said, is to achieve a more efficient and accountable management system. The board, Wilkins said, should adopt a previous proposal, drafted by Town Administrator Wayne Melville (on right), to consolidate town hall departments.

Wilkins called on selectmen to meet privately with the town administrator, town accountant and public safety chiefs to see if they would agree to a revised reporting structure, under which the accountant and the two chiefs would report to Melville rather than to selectmen. At those meetings, the board would also consider any contract implications.

While such steps can be taken without changes to the charter, Wilkins explained to the Oracle that he wants the board to prepare a Town Meeting warrant article to specify a charge for an elected charter commission...

Read the rest of this Oracle story here, and comment below.

Police trail two after break-in, South Street chase
By Douglas Karlson/ dkarlson@cnc.com, Wednesday, February 8, 2006

A late-night break-in at the Harwich Middle School (on right) Friday led to a car crash on South Street after two suspects fled the scene at a high rate of speed and slammed into a light post.

According to police Lt. Tom Gagnon, police responded to an alarm at the Sisson Road school at 9:45 p.m. Officers checked the building, which appeared secure, and issued an "all-clear." Fifteen minutes later, a custodian working inside the school placed a 911 call after discovering a broken window. Police again responded.

Officers arriving on the scene requested assistance from the Barnstable County Sheriff K-9 unit and the Harwich detective unit. Due to minimum shift coverage, they also requested assistance from neighboring towns.

While checking the grounds, Harwich Officer Terrence Dinnan observed a silver sport utility vehicle parked behind the nearby elementary school. The light was on in the vehicle, allowing Dinnan to observe two individuals inside, said Gagnon. As Dinnan drove toward the vehicle, it accelerated toward him, veering away at the last moment to avoid collision, said Gagnon.

The fleeing SUV proceeded at a high rate of speed west on Parallel Street. The driver apparently lost control of the vehicle as it turned onto South Street, where it hit the post. The vehicle's two occupants then fled on foot.

Meanwhile, police dogs arrived at the crash scene and followed the suspects' scent through back yards, across Sisson Road to Harold Street, Gagnon said.

Read the rest of this Oracle story here, and comment below.

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Kitty-napped cat found after hot purr-suit

Kitty-napped cat found after hot purr-suit

Ohio the feline is home free.

The beloved tabby snatched just before Christmas by two women from New Jersey is back on the prowl in Provincetown — a purr-fect ending to this catnapping.

“He’s a little confused and tired,” said owner Ben Thornberry (on right wearing his Ohio T-shirt and Ohio). “But he slept in bed with me last night, curled up in my arm, and now he is a little more calm.”

Thornberry received a call from the Provincetown police over the weekend saying Ohio was found in West Orange, N.J.

While no charges are being filed and the Provincetown police would not confirm the identities of the catnappers, Thornberry said that the “persons of interest” summer in this enclave on the tip of Cape Cod.

The catnappers, through their attorney, offered Thornberry $1,000 for Ohio and to “keep quiet” about the case...

Read the rest of this Herald story (Via The Cape Codder) here, and comment below.

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Police Chief saves officer from burning car

Police rescue officer from burning SUV
Crash in Bourne left her trapped

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | February 8, 2006

A frantic rescue effort by several police officers probably saved the life of a Bourne police officer, who was plucked out of the flaming wreck of her sport utility vehicle in Bourne just moments before the vehicle became engulfed yesterday morning, officials said.

Officer Wendy Noyes was driving to work shortly before 8 a.m. when she lost control of her 1995 Ford Explorer and crashed into the wooded median while driving north on Route 28, about 5 miles south of the Bourne Bridge, police said.

At the time, Carver Police Chief Arthur A. Parker Jr. was commuting from Cape Cod to Carver when he saw smoke and was waved down by a civilian standing in the divided highway.

''The fellow ran up . . . and said the car is on fire," Parker said in a phone interview. Parker, who was driving an unmarked cruiser and wearing plainclothes, popped his trunk and told the man to grab a fire extinguisher.

Parker said he ran to the SUV and found a Bourne police detective working to help Noyes, who was trapped. Parker, who is trained as an emergency medical technician, said he got into the back seat of the SUV and held onto Noyes's head to stabilize it in case of a spinal injury.

Inside the SUV, Parker said, he talked with Noyes, whom he knew through mutual friends in the Wellfleet police force where Parker once worked. Parker also knows Noyes's father, Oxford Police Chief Charles K. Noyes...

Read the brest of this Globe story here, and comment below.

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McCarthy & Kennedy, 1968

Mister Available: Eugene McCarthy (1916–2005)

If you strike at the king, you have to kill him. And, amazingly, Eugene McCarthy did. On March 12, 1968, the not exactly barnstorming senator got 42.4 percent of Democratic votes in the New Hampshire primary and denied the sitting president even a majority of his own party’s supporters: Lyndon Johnson secured just 49.5 percent. Within three weeks, he was gone: the president announced he would not seek re-election and effectively ended his political career. The king was dead, long live … well, not Senator McCarthy: the man who plunged the dagger in did not take the crown. But his few short weeks of stumping the Granite State changed his party, with consequences it lives with to this day. The LBJ diehards who dismissed him as a mere “footnote in history” failed to understand how much damage one footnote can do when he doesn’t mind whose toes he steps on and all the bigfeet turn out to have feet of clay. Thus, the paradox of Gene McCarthy: the revered liberal icon who destroyed the last successful liberal presidency. His act of insouciant regicide was the defining moment in the Democrats’ modern history.

Enter Robert Kennedy 

A few months earlier, a group of antiwar activists had formed something called the Alternative Candidate Task Force. It would have been easy to find some purer-than-thou leftist to run a doomed third-party campaign in the ’68 election, but ACT calculated that it should surely be possible to talk a heavyweight establishment Democrat into opposing Johnson’s re-nomination. They called on a score of senators and representatives, including their preferred choice, Robert Kennedy. But, presidency-wise, RFK was in the middle of his long Hyannis Hamlet routine, and ACT wound up settling instead for a fellow from a Minnesota hamlet. Senator McCarthy was nobody’s idea of a dream candidate, least of all his: most of what passed for creative energy in his campaigning was devoted to the self-deprecating gags. But, with the big fish declining to nibble, ACT decided to go with Mister Available rather than Mister Right. He was a poet “mired in complexity,” as one of his verses put it, and an unlikely man of action. Four days after the New Hampshire primary shocker, Bobby Kennedy entered the race himself, and nobody really needed McCarthy after that. But he acted when nobody else would, and so LBJ’s ’64 landslide was overturned by 28,791 New Hampshire voters, some student campaign workers, and a non-barnstorming, prematurely sidelined senator.

See The Atlantic here, and comment below. 

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Woods Hole seawall breached, Sandwich candidates emerge

Woods Hole residents will ask Town Meeting members for funds to repair a damaged sea wall that runs along private property on Buzzards Bay.

The petitioners’ article was submitted last month for the Spring Annual Town Meeting warrant.

The seawall, which lines the beach in front of two houses on the west side of Gardiner Road near the intersection with Gosnold Road, was damaged in the December 9 surprise storm. Sam Farrell of Sharon, along with his brothers, owns both homes through a holding company. Mr. Farrell’s mother, Margaret Farrell of Cambridge, England, owns a home across the street.

A storm surge turned most of the wall into rubble, and rushing waters caused flood damage to at least three homes, Mr. Farrell said, including one of his...
Read the rest of this Falmouth Enterprise story here, and comment below.

Sandwich-Pannorfi Pulls Papers For Selectman’s Race
Election Activity Begins To Pick Up
By JOHN R. PARADISE, Sandwich Enterprise

When  first learned that Selectman William Diedering III would not be seeking a third term on the board, he was shocked and saddened.

"I urged him to reconsider. I said he was the best selectman we’ve got," Mr. Pannorfi said during an interview Monday afternoon. "There was so much still to accomplish—there was so much unfinished business."

Mr. Pannorfi had worked alongside Mr. Diedering for three years on the board. He was unseated last May in an upset victory by political newcomer Adam G. Chaprales...

While Mr. Pannorfi was the first person Monday to pull papers for the seat, he was not the only one. George M. Hammond of Holly Ridge Drive also pulled selectman’s papers Monday. A newcomer to town, Mr. Hammond registered to vote in town that same day.

In other election news this week, Richard E. Longueil of Cardinal Road pulled papers for the one-year unexpired term on the school committee and Daniel DiGiandomenico of Buxus Shores has pulled papers for the seat on the Sandwich Housing Authority...

Read the rest of this Sandwich Enterprise story here, and comment below.

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What Is Mitt Afraid Of?

It’s been almost two years since the MSJC ruled in favor of same sex marriages. Contrary to the religious right’s apocalyptic fears the sun still rises, the tides still flow, and there have been no reports of locust infestation. In February of 2004, our governor warned that, “… the acceptance of same sex marriages threatens all marriages.”

I can’t speak for Mitt, but my marriage is doing just fine. I suppose it could be different in the Romney household. Perhaps the governor caught his wife TiVo-ing
“The L Word,” or maybe he has blown the kids’ trust funds on Diesel Jeans and midnight showings of “But I’m A Cheerleader.”

Quantum physics has proven that particles from a common origin are linked indefinitely. Change a parameter of one particle and its “sibling” is similarly affected. They appear to communicate instantly, across infinite distances with no known understandable method of data transference.

This must also be Mitt Romney’s definition of marriage. How else to explain his contention that a lesbian couple in Amherst or a gay union in Truro can so drastically affect his life?

Could it be that Mitt is just another middle-aged conservative homophobe, or is it bigger than that? Remember if he does decide to run for a national office the red states seem to prefer angry white men. Slyly, Romney claims no prejudice towards the gay life style; instead he affirms the historical sanctity of marriage between one woman and one man.

Of course he’s not alone, local conservatives like Howie Carr and Barbara Anderson also have their knickers in a twist. However since they have both been divorced and remarried their sudden dedication to piety seems somewhat self serving.

The fact is, half of all marriages end prematurely, and 60% of married people walk down the aisle more than once. If Conservative’s really wanted to save marriage, they should propose an amendment that outlaws divorce, promiscuity and drinking.

Mitt’s life is so threatened by same-sex marriages; that he is spearheading an effort to add an anti-gay amendment to the state constitution. This would be the only amendment ever added to our constitution that restricts individual rights and discriminates against an entire class of people.

He first tried to jam a bill through the legislature, but our elected officials proved too savvy. Three times the anti-gay bill came to the floor and three times it was defeated.

Dismissing first the Supreme Court Justices, and then our elected representatives, Romney has now requested the issue be put on the ballot for a vote in 2006. Much like Caligula seated at the Roman Coliseum, he hopes to excite the crowd with a taste of blood and then let them be responsible for a life or death decision.

Replacing facts with fiction, and playing to conservative paranoia, it is the governor’s hope he can incite an emotional response to a legal decision. Conservatives have already been charged with fraudulently handling the signature gathering process and many worry more Nixonian tricks will tip the scales towards disaster.

If this amendment succeeds what is to become of the previously wed same-sex couples and their children? Are the families going to be legally dissolved? Will their parental rights be limited or non-existent? How will the children feel when they are told that their parents’ love cannot constitute a legal marriage or family?

Small wonder many oppose this vote and fear its outcome. I, however, believe this vote will provide Massachusetts with its finest hour since Bunker Hill. When 60, 70, 80%, of the voting public recognize and reject this amendment for the bile it represents, our state will again prove to be this country’s democratic leader.

Mitt Romney may chuckle when other conservatives refer to us as the home of the KKK. He may gain favor with the national Republican Party by lobbying to rip apart families and deny individual rights, but in Massachusetts his wickedness will not win out.

I finally understand why Mitt believes this issue threatens his marriage. When his wife gets beyond his smile, his hair, and his wardrobe to see him for the monster he truly is, she’s bound to leave.

Ray Clements is a proud Massachusetts Liberal and can be reached at www.rayclements.blogspot.com.
Make your comments about his blog below. 

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Liberals' energy policy amuses Mr. Johnson

Liberals' energy policy:
Obstruct supply, marvel at price

Mac Johnson, Cambridge, Mass 

There is no law of economics that can explain it, no hypothetical relationship between supply and demand that could predict price. Bill O'Reilly must be right: High prices must be the result of a secret plot by big oil, or perhaps the Freemasons.

Well, that's one explanation. Or we could consider a radical alternative: Energy prices are high because Americans object to every possible source of energy known to mankind.

Energy, it seems, is icky. Not so icky that we want to use less of it, mind you. But icky enough that we don't want to make it ourselves. Instead, we fantasize about utopian energy sources of "the future," and pay through the nose today for limited supplies of foreign energy that originates in the most backward, unstable, and faraway places imaginable.

For example, there is oil off the coast of California, but we will not drill for it, for fear of disrupting Barbra Streisand's Feng Shui. We pretend that it is concern for the environment that stops the drilling, but does anyone really believe that it is more dangerous to transport oil for a few miles from an offshore rig than to transport it from 10,000 miles away?

There is oil off Florida, too, but we will not drill for it, for fear that the occasional tar ball might wash up in the front yard of some environmentalist's million-dollar fantasy home, built atop the eroding sands of a once-grassy shore. Also, there is a small chance that, on a clear day, a vacationing snowbird might see the distant outline of the rig, thus preventing him from communing with nature while basking cheek by jowl with 500,000 other sunburned barking tourists waddling around the artificial beach like a colony of strange pink walruses.

There is oil in the farthest frozen north of Alaska, but we will not drill for it, for fear of offending caribou or Kennedys. Having seen abundant deer graze a few feet from oil wells in Texas, I can't believe that the caribou would be the ones that cared.

But that's okay, because America has enough coal to last for centuries. Except we can't mine it, lest we make a hole. And we can't burn it, because it really is unpleasant to be around. Well, that's not entirely true; we can burn some coal, but not other coal. For example, I once saw a power plant in Indiana that cannot burn the coal mined in Indiana because it is too dirty for the Environmental Protection Agency. So instead, the plant ships in trainloads of "clean" coal from Colorado, which makes less pollution -- especially if you don't count all the diesel fuel burned by the train hauling it across half the continent.

Natural gas is a good alternative. It burns cleanly. But nobody wants it transported through his neighborhood.

New England still relies on noxious home-heating oil, in part because none of the states whining about pollution and price want terminals to be built for liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) tankers. They're scary. Not as scary as Iran's building a nuclear bomb with oil money, but scary. So LNG is obstructed at every turn. In one case, Massachusetts Congressmen Barney Frank and James McGovern took a break from bloviating about heating-oil costs to propose that a decrepit condemned bridge in Fall River be preserved as a bicycle path, solely because the bridge is too low for LNG tankers to pass under on their way to an approved new terminal site -- thus killing the terminal.

Think of it as Massachusetts's bridge to the 19th Century. Home-heating oil forever! (Or at least as long as Hugo Chavez says it's okay.)

But we can live without domestic fossil fuels because we are willing to produce practical alternative fuels, right?

Hydropower is emission-free and practical, but it stops up rivers and impedes travel by fish -- so no more of that.

Wind power is a great idea: practical in select sites, renewable, and pollution-free. But the windmills are ugly. In one of the greatest examples of elitist hypocrisy known to all history, a proposed wind-power site off Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket is being opposed by the wealthy environmentalists who can afford to live there -- such as Walter Cronkite, before he reconsidered -- because it might interrupt a tiny part of their view of the distant horizon. Sure, it might make the world a better, cleaner, safer place -- but what about the beautiful people's ocean views? Also, they say, errant birds can crash into windmills. So that's out.

Solar? Expensive and impractical in most places -- so it's currently a favorite. It would be perfect for providing electricity to isolated areas, a market that could fuel the development and practicality of the technology for use elsewhere. But this market is being subsidized on the general electric grid by the federal Rural Electrification Act. So instead, we'll just have to subsidize the grid to half-heartedly experiment with solar and feel good about that.

I know: Ethanol! Energy from maize ("You call it corn") grown in the heartland. Clean-burning and good for the family farm. Willie Nelson could finally stop those idiotic Farm Aid concerts. Except that modern farming is so dependent on fossil fuel for tilling, fertilizing, harvesting, and transportation that, according to a recent study, it takes more than a gallon's worth of oil to make a gallon of ethanol -- a lot more. Ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuel is thus a perpetual-motion machine -- although one with a good lobby in Washington. Being totally unworkable, it is a very popular alternative for "the future."

But even ethanol isn't as impractical for the foreseeable future as hydrogen power, which is President Bush's favorite idea for "the future." Hydrogen makes only water when burned. Unfortunately, hydrogen can be made only from fossil fuels (see "perpetual-motion machine," above) or the electrolysis of water, which requires an abundant supply of cheap non-polluting electricity -- and if we had that, why would we need the hydrogen?

Also, if all cars emitted water vapor, I'm sure water would be reclassified as a pollutant by the "I hate mankind" wing of the environmental movement -- complete with dire predictions about "global misting."

There is, though, one source of alternative energy that is practical, economical, well established, and emission-free: nuclear. So of course, that is the one that everybody hates most.

Nuclear energy could even fuel a fabled "hydrogen economy" with non-polluting and cheap electricity. But it is scary. The mainstream media have seen to that. It will make you glow in the dark and it could somehow explode for no reason at all, creating three-eyed fish and imparting strange super-powers to anyone bitten by the radioactive spiders that would inevitably result.

A coal-fueled power plant emits more radiation than a nuclear-power plant (because of uranium ore in the coal), but such facts do not matter in a society that draws its knowledge of nuclear physics from The China Syndrome and The Incredible Hulk.

Nuclear-power plants, if built in large numbers, would also make America safer in a little-heralded way: They burn the same fuel as nuclear bombs. Were America to switch from a fossil-fuel economy to a nuclear economy for electricity needs, we would consume enough uranium to affect the world supply. Why would the greedy sell uranium to rogue states if America were legally paying top dollar for every kilogram it could find? Such a move could also wreck the economies of the Mideast and make nuclear power too expensive for most Third World nations to play with, and I could live with that.

But America will not pursue nuclear energy, any more than it will drill for its own oil. Energy is bad. Instead, we will continue to live in a fantasy world in which we do not develop our own oil, coal, gas, hydropower, wind power, or nuclear power, and instead dream about hydrogen and ethanol and solar -- because we know they are too far in the future to force us to make real decisions anytime soon.

We will continue to restrict supply, and then complain about price. We will prohibit domestic energy sources, and whine about importing energy from abroad. And we will continue to stifle our economy, instead fueling the economies of our enemies.

Many critics contend that America does not have an energy policy. But that is wrong. Our policy is clear, and has been unchanged for 30 years or more: Produce little, use lots, and wonder why things never get better.

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Effort to save our fishing fleet, new regs will cost New Bedford $40M

Regulations could cost city fishing $40 million
Cuts as high as 54% on South Shore & Cape Cod
By BECKY W. EVANS, Standard-Times staff writer

BOSTON — New Bedford's economy stands to take a $30 million to $40 million hit as a result of groundfishing restrictions that aim to protect depleted groundfish stocks in New England waters.

Strict groundfish regulations will be adopted at the end of the summer unless regional fishery managers accept more flexible measures proposed by the fishing industry. Local fishermen fear the regulations would cripple New Bedford's $1 billion fishing industry, which has earned the city the reputation of the most valuable port in the country for the past five years.

"The main point is that there will be tremendous economic hardship on New Bedford," fisheries scientist Dr. Brian Rothschild said yesterday at a press conference at the Statehouse in Boston...

Groundfish regulations approved last week by the New England Fishery Management Council would reduce catch limits and cut the number of fishing days in an attempt to reduce overfishing on several depleted stocks of groundfish, including Gulf of Maine cod, southern New England yellowtail flounder, Cape Cod yellowtail flounder and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder.

Citing the city's 7 percent unemployment rate and the recent collapse of several pension plans, Dr.Rothschild said New Bedford could not survive the expected socioeconomic impacts of the new regulations.

"It would be a $30- to $40 million hit on an economy that has to depend on fishing," he said.
Under the regulations, New Bedford's offshore fleet would face an 8 percent cut in fishing days while inshore fishing vessels from Gloucester and other North Shore and South Shore ports would see cuts as high as 54 percent...

 Read the rest of the Standard-Times story here, and comment below.

Fishermen push for compromise to save fleet
11th-hour industry pitch would set total yearly catch limits rather than regulating days on the ocean
By Becky W. Evans, Standard-Times staff writer

New Bedford fishermen and their advocates are pushing federal regulators to compromise on their latest dramatic cuts to days at sea to save an industry barely staying afloat.

Groundfishermen — who harvest flounder, yellowtail, haddock and cod — face a 50 percent cut to the number of voyages out into the Atlantic, under regulations passed last week by the New England Fishery Management Council.

But an 11th-hour industry pitch would set total yearly catch limits rather than regulating days on the ocean. Advocates argue the new proposal would save fish stocks and the economic lives of the New England groundfish fleet.

Jacqueline Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, called the day-cut measure passed by the New England "a total disaster" that would have "tremendous impacts on certain fishing communities..."

Read the rest of the Standard-Times story here, and comment below.

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Locals Reps on Hurricane Preparedness Committee

“It is only a matter of time before the Cape and the Islands are hit with another hurricane or violent northeaster” - Eric Turkington

^{_{(The photo below is a storm surge hitting the labs at Wood's Hole during the 1938 hurricane.)}}

Nantucket’s representatives on Beacon Hill, Rep. Eric Turkington (on right) and Sen. Robert O’Leary, have been appointed to the newly-created Coastal Hazards Management Commission (CHMC).

The purpose of the commission, formed by the State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, is to assess the state's coastal infrastructure, to evaluate factors that contribute to storm damage and beach erosion, and review and make recommendations regarding the policies and statutes that guide the commonwealth's coastal hazard management practices.

The formation of the commission was heavily influenced by the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund’s announcement last March that it planned to spend $15 million to renourish three miles of beaches along the eastern edge of Nantucket with sand dredged from shoals several miles offshore.

As Environmental Affairs Secretary Stephen Pritchard said in forming the commission, "Massachusetts is vulnerable to the impacts of northeasters and hurricanes, and experiences regular storm damage from even minor storms. In view of recent natural disasters in coastal areas around the world, this commission is timely..."

Read the rest of this Inquirer & Mirror story here, and comment below.
See the PBS report on the 1938 Hurricane here.

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Gay Cape vacationers inspire men's cloths designs

President George W. Bush doesn't like to think about global warming. He wishes all those pesky scientists with their thermostats would go away. Fashion designers - no matter how liberal - must feel the same way. What to do with all those parkas, overcoats and heavy boots if every day is going to seem like July?

During the weekend, menswear designers kicked off Fashion Week in Bryant Park, offering up collections for next fall/winter that were classic, yet more flexible than ever. Lots of light layers to peel off as the day heats up, with vests serving as sweaters, cardigans as blazers, blazers as outerwear. Call it Fashion for the New February.

Retailers couldn't be happier. Sure, they still want to sell parkas - and they will. (We need to wear something for the occasional nor'easter ... or ski weekend in Sugarloaf.) But for warmer winter days, "there's a return to classics like the cardigan, vest and peacoat," said Michael Macko, men's fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Ahh ... Clothes guys get...

"The brand is relevant for men age 25 to 65," said Crocco. "Just because you turn 50 doesn't mean you turn traditional and start wearing pleated pants."

John Bartlett (on right) no doubt agrees, judging by the models he sent down the runway. They actually looked old enough to buy beer legally. Bartlett called his "rugged luxe" an homage to the gay vacationers who ramble through Cape Cod - not that you couldn't wear it to a NASCAR rally. A peacoat's a peacoat no matter who you date. Bartlett's were cashmere, worn with merino henleys and long johns. There were also dapper Norfolk jackets, sweaters (nubby front, striped back), and a black velvet blazer with dark green patches on the shoulder and under the collar...

Read the rest of this Newday story here, and comment below.