EXTRA...

Where the money is; Gorey birthday; Island boom

TODAY's quote: "The business model behind printed news might be dying. But the business model behind information is just transitioning." - Ezra Klein in The Washington Post.

Where the ad dollars will be
Web over print 16 to 1
Think about this in terms of the ratio of ad dollars to time spent. Print is 1:6. The web is 16:22. Mobile is 1:23.
      That’s not sustainable. Via The Next Web, above is a telling chart from mobile analytics company Flurry comparing where advertisers spend their dollars to where consumers spend their time.
      The business model behind printed news might be dying, but the business model behind information is transitioning.
      Read the Washington Post report here.Edward Gorey birthday party today

World-renowned Yarmouth author and artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was born on February 22, 1925. In celebration of the anniversary of his birth there will be a special evening of Gorey-themed entertainment.

Cakes and refreshments will be provided, and visitors will enjoy mysterious interpretations from the Fantod Deck; joyous readings from Gorey’s unique books.

We probably won't attend since it's at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore in San Francisco, CA.

But we may drive by his home on Route 6A in Yarmouth Port and smile, or visit.

See the CBR News story here.

The real estate boom returns on Nantucket

I never read a newspaper, so I never see the ads

I don't read a newspaper any longer, at least the printed kind. I switched my New York Times subscription to my Kindle reader (for a third the price) over three years ago, so I never see the ads in the Times.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday I forgot to bring my Kindle with me on my morning bike ride, soI bought a copy at a news store.

Pages B2-3 in yesterday's New York Times.Ugh!

How awkward it was to have to hold those huge pages as the corners curled up (they're using cheaper and thinner newsprint these days), and then having to find a trash basket to dispose of it after.

But at least I saw THE AD.

On page 3 of the Business Section appeared a full-page ad for a 10,000 square foot home on Nantucket called Harbor Haven.

A full page in the NY Times costs up to $100,000 a pop, so I guess the recession really IS over, at least for the rich.

Any real estate broker wishing good results for a tad less should try here instead. - WB

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Avant le deluge; Mashpee Tribes' budget; Sandwich considers closing Henry T. Wing School

TODAY's quote: "Nuns in America are a dying breed, and the church’s antediluvian male hierarchy gets more worked up about allowing Catholic women contraceptives than investigating sexual abuse of children by priests. " - Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

Sandwich Henry T. Wing School may close, students move to H.S.

A study last year showed it would cost $30 million just to bring the school up to code and $50 million to accommodate today’s teaching needs.
      Sandwich residents are simply having fewer kids, and the plan now calls for moving the 7th and 8th graders into the present Sandwich High School.
      Critics question the wisdom of having middle school age children mixing with 17- and 18-year-old students.
      Read the Enterprise story here.Tribe to spend $30 million this year

Almost 40% of budget to promote casino

The first budget presented to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe members offers a glimpse into their government's priorities.

The Falmouth Enterprise reports that a budget released by the Wampanoag Tribal Council calls for more than $30 million in spending for 2012, the most detailed look yet at the tribe’s finances.

The overall budget includes:

• $16 million of revenue from investors
• $9.7 million loan from the US Department of Agriculture
• $4.6 million in revenue from federal grants

The weekly says the tribe projects spending more than $6 million on “gaming per-development,” or 39 percent of the total 2012 loan spending from Arkana Limited, an affiliate of Genting Group and the Malaysian firm funding the tribe’s pursuit of a casino and other operations.

That represents half of what the entire gaming industry spent in the state in the last five year which was $11.4 million, according to a review of state lobbying records by The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, back in the courts...

A challenge to the Massachusetts gaming bill that authorized three casinos, while designating that one be offered to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, has been rejected by a federal judge. Lawyers for KG Urban Enterprises were told by Judge Nathaniel Gorton the law is legal.

Read the Enterprise story here.

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Sharks may attack Dolphins; Joe III tells a tale; That Olde Cape Cod campgrounds feel in Harwichport

Today's quote: "Joe Kennedy is already proving that he is nothing like Attorney General Martha Coakley, who they said lost a race to U.S. Sen. Scott Brown because she failed to engage in retail politics."
- Peter Schoonmaker.

       Joe III has a tale to tell
        "Please keep our son in jail"

The Sun-Chronicle has a story today about Joe Kennedy's experience on Cape Cod. The candidate for the Mass. 4th Congressional District told a story about when he was an assistant district attorney here the parents of an Iraq War veteran approached him before their son's bail hearing.
      The couple pleaded with Kennedy to keep their son in jail over the weekend so he could not do any harm before they could get him into drug rehabilitation that coming Monday. Since returning from the war with an addiction he had taken to stealing jewelry to pay for drugs, they told him.
      "There are people out there who need to be put away. There are also people who need a helping hand. You can't tell me we can't do better," Kennedy said. The Sharks come to Monomoy

Can school choice use the name too?

The Cape Cod Chronicle reports that the Monomoy Regional School District has chosen a mascot: the Shark.

The weekly says you can almost hear the Monomoy Regional High School marching band playing the theme from Jaws at halftime. 

On Friday, school officials announced that the district will now be represented by the Monomoy Sharks.

Students and members of the public cast votes last week, and the Sharks beat out the other finalist, the  Breakers, by a 61 to 39 percent margin. 

And the Sharks will eat...?

Given the falling numbers of available K-12 students on Cape Cod these days, does the mascot's name suggest that the new region's Superintendent Carolyn Cragin plans to feast on D-Y's Dolphins or perhaps take a few chunks out of the Nauset Warriors?

Campground revival in Harwichport?

The way we were.The Chronicle also suggest that the Harwich Historic District and Historical Commission is reviving the concept of creating a historic district in the "Campground" section of Harwichport and is seeking to form a "Friends of Ocean Grove Campgrounds" group to assist with this initiative. Harwichport and Harwich Center have always been able to maintain the image and "feel" of Olde Cape Cod, and this effort could add to that impression.

The committee has approved a letter to be sent to residents of the original camp and horse grove areas between Pine Street and Ocean Avenue informing them of the effort, and is scheduling a meeting for next month. Get the full story in this Thursday's edition of The Chronicle. See the Harwich Historical Society here.

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Orleans bandshell goes; COA director misused funds

TODAY's quote: “In essence there were two sets of books being maintained at the COA. There was another set of books the town never saw.” - John Kelly, Orleans Town Administrator.

Charlie Moore's Orleans ballpark bandshell plays swansong

   Back in the 1960s a local son named Charles F. Moore retired from the Ford Motor Co. and moved back to his family home in the Tonset area of East Orleans. What was unusual about that was the Charlie was so affable, he quickly became a selectman, and before retiring gave his hometown the music shell above at the Eldredge Park baseball field where the Orleans Firebirds play in the Cape Cod Baseball League. The shell is over forty-years-old now and in bad shape, so Charlie's successors on the board just voted  to replace it with a clubhouse for the Firebirds and name the new building after Charlie. See the report in The Cape Codder here. Photo courtesy of the Orleans Firebirds.

Charlie Moore's Viking coin

I was working at The Cape Codder when Charlie Moore cam back to town. As a Ford VP and personal publicist for the Henry Ford II, he drove a new Lincoln Continental with a Dartmouth Indian hood ornament and was a great practical joker.
   Charlie became buddy-buddy with The Cape Codder crew, and some of us played poker in his Tonset "Hill House" above his home.
   The day he left for a week-long voyage on the QE II to England, he stopped in our office and handed publisher Mal Hobbs a dirty, old Viking coin he said he'd dug up in his yard.
  Since he was at sea and unavailable oit was not until after we ran the story we found out it was a fake, another Charlie practical joke, but hell, he was a superb human being whose grandson is Barack Obama's Sectretary of the Treasurer Timothy Geithner. - Walter Brooks.

Audit details show misuse of funds
by Orleans COA director

The Cape Codder reports that the problems that were revealed in a November audit  were prompted by a whistleblower and the audit was conducted by Town Finance Director David Withrow, shortly after Orleans COA Director Elizabeth Smith was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 15 for medical reasons. After nearly twenty years at the agency Smith had just been named Director of the Year by Massachusetts Councils of Aging.

According to the weekly, Smith allegedly hid expenses and circumvented the town’s approval process and used taxpayer funds to loan herself money, buy gifts for town staff and circumvent employee compensation laws for several years.

In an earlier report, The Cape Codder said Smith had been lauded for launching new programs and garnering grant funding.

She was named the Council of Aging Director of the Year by the Massachusetts Councils on Aging in October.

Her retirement was effective Dec. 27.

Read the Cape Codder story here.

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Group formed to reduce bureaucracy suggests more instead

TODAY's quote: “Going with big pipes and big facilities is a more costly idea than working on a smaller scale. It is just one of those words, regionalization, that sounds good, but I haven’t seen any rationale or explanation of what it really means here." - F. Thomas Fudala, chairman of the Mashpee Sewer Commission.

Barnstable County government asks its 'inventors' to judge them

How Barnstable County Government would re-invent the pencil sharpener:
Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat Bill Doherty's red flannel long-johns (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, Sheila Lyon's shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in Elliot Carr's pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy to sharpen the pencil in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

Small towns to be asked to pay for big towns' mistakes
Group suggests new bureaucracy to be added to present county government

By Walter Brooks

The Falmouth Enterprise reports that a special commission formed by the Cape Cod Commission to consider the future of county government on Cape Cod recommended yesterday the creation of a large additional county bureaucracy.

“It is a regional issue whether we like it or not.”-  Dan Wolf.The 27-member group formed to make recommendations to Barnstable County’s three commissioners about a possible restructuring of county government recommended the creation of an extra commission instead - a new regional wastewater agency.

Two former State Senators Robert A. O’Leary (D) and Henri S. Rauschenbach (R), are the co-chairmen of the commission. O'Leary's most recent political effort was to unseat his fellow Democrat Bill Keating as the Congressman from this district, and Rauschenbach is best remembered for barely surviving an ethics investigation before leaving office, an office O'Leary inherited.

The players:
Henri Rauschenbach (R)
State senator 1988-2001, resident of Brewster. Ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
State Rep from 1984 to 1988.
Acquitted in 1995 of ethics charges related to taking $2,500-per-month payments from an Osterville investment broker.
His initiatives while in office:
Cape Cod Commission Act in 1987.
Economic Development Council in 1992. Cape Cod and islands license plate.
Lower Cape Cod CDC.
Career Opportunities Center in Hyannis.
He was succeeded by:
Rob O'Leary (D)
MMA professor 1975-present.
County Commissioner 1987-2001.
State Senator 2001 to 2011, resident of Barnstable.
Initiatives: Helped establish CC Commission.
Cape Cod Land Bank.
Ocean management legislation.
Chair of Higher Education Committee.This reporter fails to see how this kind of tarnished leadership can expect support from "the powers that be", although our current State Senator, Dan Wolf, seems to agree that "more is better" when it comes to county government.

Mr. Wolf has lived in the same house in the most rural section of North Harwich, an area with zero pollution problems, which would be asked to pay for the pollution caused by waterfront homes built without adequate septic systems to prevent pollution of our aquafer.

Wolf is a highly successful businessman who surely knows that a bureaucracy's only function is to enrich itself, and nothing in either of the co-chairs' past would indicate a respect for the taxpayer or the air they breath. Both are opponents to the renewable energy wind farm which will be built now despite, their efforts to stop it.

In the 1980s every county in the state had a similar commission, or county government, which had become obsolete as the state and the nation moved beyond the rural societies of the past.

All counties in Massachusetts saw the legislature eliminate their county governments, but it was thought that  Barnstable, and to a lesser degree, Plymouth, still needed one.

The Cape Cod Commission was formed by a ballot question in November 1988 when 76 percent of Cape voters endorsed its creation, and then-Governor Michael S. Dukakis signed the Cape Cod Commission Act in January 1990.

Many Cape Codder, and almost all local businesses, now believe the County Commission has outlived its purpose, and the state has laws and agencies which perform the same functions at no additional cost to the county.

The argument against a "regional approach"

A year ago the 27-member panel was formed to look into the commission's status in 21st century Massachusetts, and apparently that panel has decided Cape Cod needs more bureaucracy, not less.

"They did not want a big, powerful regional agency telling every town how to go about the project."
                - Thomas Fudala.The recommended new agency to regulate wastewater for the county would also create jobs for unemployed politicians and their friends.

The Enterprise reports that F. Thomas Fudala, chairman of the Mashpee Sewer Commission, said in an interview with the Enterprise last week, "A similar discussion about the benefits of a regional approach took place prior to the creation of the Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative.

"The towns made clear they wanted help with advocating for money and assistance in coordinating with other municipalities, but they did not want a big, powerful regional agency telling every town how to go about the project."

The problem to be addressed by the proposed new bureaucracy is the nitrogen and other pollution caused by some towns which allowed large homes to be built on waterways like the Mashpee River, while smaller and less densely populated towns on the Lower Cape have no such problem, but would be forced to pay to remedy problems caused by their neighbors.

Jefferson said that a nation deserves the leaders it chooses. It seems our commissioner have chosen a couple losers to mislead them.

See the Enterprise story here.

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As the crow flies--Cape Cod to the Vineyard (and back)

TODAY's quote: “It is probably part of their evolutionary process . . . tied to ‘safety in numbers.’ It is fascinating watching the birds stream in, fly across the water, rise over East Chop, fly over the Portuguese-American Club right to Farm Neck." - Ben David.

1,500 crows commute daily over Nantucket Sound to dine on Cape Cod

   This  "murder of crows" is on an old tree outside my office window. A group of crows is called a flock or a murder because the group will sometimes kill a dying cow. I checked, and they said they were from Oak Bluffs. Walter Brooks photo.

Those crows taking all your birdseed away from the chickadees are "carpetbagger" from Martha's Vineyard who commute to Cape Cod every day to dine.

It's only a five mile flight from West Chop to Woods Hole, and crows from Nantucket only have twice that trip from Great Point to the end of Monomoy.

The Vineyard Gazette is one of, if not THE, best weekly in America. It was raised to glory in the mid 20th Century by Henry and Elizabeth Hough (yes, cuz to the Falmouth Enterprise Houghs), carried higher starting in 1975 by Dick and Jody Reston until Jane Seagrave took over as publisher last year, it continues to delight with stories written with the style and aplomb of a New Yorker or Vanity Fair.

As an example, this week the Gazette writes,

"There is a group of about 1,500 winter commuters a day between the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, and not one of them takes the ferry. They all fly."

"The commuters are crows. They leave for the Cape early in the morning and return to the Vineyard around 4 p.m. to spend the night here.

"The phenomenon, known among some birders for years, is now the subject of a scientific study that promises to shed light on the reasons for, and effects of, this curious behavior."

"He [Robert A. Culbert] and others posit that after a day of foraging on the Cape, the birds retreat to the Vineyard for rest, relaxation and refuge from their predators, primarily owls, which are more prevalent on the Cape than on the Island."

'Bob Prescott, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary we have lots of crows on the Cape, adding that 'the number is off the charts.'"

Read the Gazette story here.

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Joe Kennedy announces run for Barney Frank's old seat

The Kennedy era in Washington may begin again

Move over guys, here comes the kid from The Clan. Joe Kennedy III (right) will seek the Congressional seat now held by Barney Frank (center) and join Bill Keating (left) in Washington.

Former Cape & Islands Assistant District Attorney is Bobby Kennedy's grandson

Joe Kennedy III officially announced his candidacy for Congressman Barney Frank’s 4th Congressional District seat in a YouTube video a month after announcing that he was exploring the option.

The son of "Joe for Oil" Kennedy, and grandson of the martyred Bobby Kennedy, said in the video yesterday, "Congressman Frank has done so much for Massachusetts and America during his service in Congress and he leaves very big shoes to fill."

"I believe this country was founded on a simple idea — that every person deserves to be treated fairly — by each other, and by their government. But that’s not happening in America anymore," Kennedy said.

In the last election Barney Frank beat off Marine vet Sean Bielat, but not by much.

The 4th District borders has since been redrawn moving them further west into more Republican area s while losing the Democratic strongholds of New Bedford and Wareham.

But local pundits believe the Kennedy charm is so powerful, Bielat will have a tougher time this go around.

Joe served under Republican Cape & Islands D.A. Michael O'Keefe until last Fall when he was bitten by the poli-bug as all his relatives have been since JFK ran for the seat in Congress over a half century ago.

The National Press will move to Mass. to cover the Kennedy charisma

"Have Joe III and his sweetie been living together and now have decided to 'make it legal' for political reasons ?"Poor Sean Bielat. The Other Cain said that in 2010, "few GOP Congressional candidates battled longer odds or inspired more admiration than Sean Bielat, the Marine veteran who challenged Barney Frank in the 4th District of Massachusetts.

"A month ago, Bielat told me he was nearing a decision on mounting another challenge for the same seat, which has been redistricted to include slightly more Republican-friendly precincts."

"Now, the Kennedy family has put up its own candidate as heir apparent to Frank's seat, and Bielat previewed his 2012 campaign in a fundraising letter to conservatives."

The letter states, "Wasn’t 30 years of Barney Frank enough? Wasn’t 64 consecutive years of Kennedys in Congress enough? Now Democratic Party insiders think that they can replace Barney with yet another Kennedy, a young man who has never lived in the district, but has a famous last name, to secure a seat for another several decades."

A Democrat pundit wrote me, "Well, this is really going to put the national spotlight on Massachusetts. The press corps might as well move to the state. Have Joe and his sweetie (Lauren Anne Birchfield on right)been living together and for political purposes decided to 'make it legal'”?

Why Joe moved to Middlesex from Barnstable

When Joe III told his relatives of his wish to run, he was told quite specifically to "get out of O'Keefe's office" before the feds charged "The Michael" for tipping off Adam Hart and his Dennis Sports Book about an impending FBI raid on the Ocean House restaurant where gamblers operated.

He took their advise and got the Assistant D.A. job in the Middlesex D.A.'s office.

See the previous Joe III stories below.

• Joe III to wed, be opposed by Bielat; Staake's Political Circus
• No longer speculation, Joseph P. Kennedy III throws his hat into the political ring
• Joe Kennedy leaves door open to run for Congress here
• Joe, You Can't Get There From Here

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$21 million Massachusetts Military Reservation settlement

Settlement reached in $21 million Cape Cod Superfund Deal

Law 360 reports that a W.R. Grace & Co.  affiliate and other companies have reached a $21 million settlement with the U.S. government over contamination at a Cape Cod military installation that's now a Superfund site in a filing in its Chapter 11 case.

The case was a Superfund issue

The U.S. alleges that a pipeline running from a terminal on the Cape Cod Canal to Otis Air Force Base on the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) spilled fuel in the 1960s or 1970s, contaminating local groundwater with benzene and other toxins.  Source.

Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.

Superfund created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and it provides broad federal authority to clean up releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment.

The law authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify parties responsible for contamination of sites and compel the parties to clean up the sites. Where responsible parties cannot be found, the Agency is authorized to clean up sites itself, using a special trust fund.

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Dunkin' doesn't do donuts?

TODAY's quote: “I saw them and I said, ‘Oh my God, can I have two of those?’ ’’ - Tracy Hernandez.

French crullers disappear from South Shore

Beloved pasty gone but not forgotten

The Boston Globe reports that Eric Geoffroy calls it “the delicate princess of doughnuts.’’

French Cruller: Indescribably delicious.

Skye Gaudette even sketched a picture of it on a napkin in her quest to describe it.

Wendy Cobrda wrote to Dunkin' Donuts for an explanation when it vanished from her local coffee shop.

They are devotees of the French cruller, and pursuing their obsession has not been an easy path.

What IS it?

A French cruller is a fluted, ring-shaped doughnut made from choux pastry with a light airy texture. The name comes from early 19th century Dutch kruller, from krullen "to curl", and if you have never eaten one, they are not at all like a regular doughnut but cakey and airy and moist inside.

About Donuts:

Ring doughnuts are formed by joining the ends of a long, skinny piece of dough into a ring or by using a doughnut cutter, which simultaneously cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a doughnut-shaped piece of dough and a doughnut hole from dough removed from the center.
      A disk-shaped doughnut can also be stretched and pinched into a torus until the center breaks to form a hole. Alternatively, a doughnut depositor can be used to place a circle of liquid dough (batter) directly into the fryer. Doughnuts can be made from a yeast-based dough for raised doughnuts or a special type of cake batter. Yeast-raised doughnuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake doughnuts' oil content is around 20%, but they have extra fat included in the batter before frying. Cake doughnuts are fried for about 90 seconds at approximately 190 °C to 198 °C, turning once.
      Yeast-raised doughnuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at 182 °C to 190 °C.The French cruller, with its distinctive twisted ridges, disappeared three years ago from a broad corridor along Route 3 from Quincy all the way to the Cape Cod Canal, and the doughnut’s South Shore followers were left bereft, craving something they had loved and, without warning, lost.

But not "lost" to everyone, only lost to Plymouthians and their neighbors.

Hyannis has what Plymouth wants?

In 2003, the Dunkin' Donuts chain of doughnut shops stopped carrying traditional crullers, claiming that the hand-shaped treats were too labor-intensive, and couldn't be simulated with new machines for mixing doughnut batter.

The company allowed local franchisees the option of making them or not.

Tim Hortons, Honey Dew Donuts, and Krispy Kreme still sell the French cruller, while Dunkin' Donuts now sells several variations of a substitute product it calls a "cake stick" which is a simplified, machine-made version of the more elaborately twisted hand-made variety.

So if you live on the South Shore, you will have to drive to Hyannis for your "French cruller fix".

About Dunkin'

Dunkin' Donuts is an international doughnut and coffee retailer founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, now headquartered in Canton.

While the company originally focused on doughnuts and other baked goods, over half of its business today is in coffee sales, making it more of a competitor to Starbucks than to more traditional competitors such as Krispy Kreme and Tim Hortons.

Read The Globe story here.

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Tribe, Delahunt, talking to Taunton about their casino

TODAY's quote: “You can imagine I’m not happy with that happening. I’d be out of a job."
- Sharon Butts, a 28-year employee at the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park.

Mashpee Tribe casino/homeland headed for Route 24?

   One Lakeshore Center, a 77,000 square foot, three story office building, is located on the shores of Lake Nippenicket. The property is at the intersection of Rt. I-495 and 24 and near Route 28.

Add Taunton to the list of possible sites for a Massachusetts casino

Taunton Mayor Tom Hoye Jr. says he has had preliminary talks with the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council and the tribe's lobbyist, former U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, about building a Taunton casino.

Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has a $130,000 yearly contract with the Delahunt Group.Hoye tells the Taunton Daily Gazette (http://bit.ly/zPf8Ds) that parcels at Liberty and Union Industrial Park, owned by the nonprofit Taunton Development Corp., have been considered as a resort casino site. The parcel is near the Silver City Galleria mall.

Casino would create 4,000 new jobs for the area

Hoye says a casino in Taunton could create as many as 4,000 jobs. He added that talks with the tribe have not reached formal stages and the amount of money the Mashpee would pay Taunton to host a casino has not yet been discussed.  The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has a $130,000 contract with the Delahunt Group to lobby on its behalf.

 Another local potential site that has been mentioned is a 171-acre parcel of land on the southern shore of Lake Nippenicket in Bridgewater.

But Raynham Selectmen Chairman Joseph Pacheco said he’s concerned a casino in Bridgewater would reduce the chances of slots at the dog track, and that's a large concern for Raynham-Taunton Park owner George Carney who hopes to revitalize his business with slots or casino games. This could not happen if a casino were allowed in either Taunton or Bridgewater.

Delahunt: An egregious example to the D.C. "Revolving Door"

Delahunt speaks with forked tongue.As a longtime member of the Congressional committees overseeing the Bureau of Indian Affairs, former Congressman William Delahunt used his connections the minute he left office to set up his own public relations firm and represent the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in their efforts to get a casino, and got a annual pay-off of $170,000 from the tribe.

As the the Political website AllGov reported:

William Delahunt (D-Massachusetts) served in the House of Representatives for 14 years. Less than two months after leaving office in January 2011, he founded a lobbying company called the Delahunt Group. He had no problem finding clients, starting with the casino-seeking Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which had previously been represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While in office, Delahunt had arranged earmarks worth $400,000 for the tribe.

Delahunt also secured a contract with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman’s Association, for whom, in 2010, he had helped arrange a federal loan.

Privately, Democratic activists locally are relieved that Delahunt retired when he did two years ago.

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