EXTRA...

Barack and Brad are cousins - So are Hillary and Angelina

TODAY's quote: "Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins,
a series of grotesque caricatures of himself." - H. L. Mencken, newspaperman.

Bush and Obama are cousins connected by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod

"Hi cuz." Well, ninth cousins anyway.According to a great yarn in today' Daily Mail, Barack Obama is a distant cousin of both President Bushes.

Hey, 10th cousins, once removed is better than nothing, right?

They are linked forever by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

President Obama has a prolific presidential lineage says the newspaper, and he can claim kinship with six U.S Presidents in total including President George W. Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and James Madison.

If politics bores you, be it also known that Barack Obama and Brad Pitt are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769, and Hillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.

Read the Daily Mail UK story here.

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Connecticut guv disses Cape Cod

TODAY's quote: "My guess is the governor won’t be crossing the Bourne Bridge, anytime soon,
or driving an SUV at Race Point in Provincetown.
By the way, can you drive a four-wheel drive on a Connecticut beach?" - Dan Lovallo.

Connecticut's Governor Daniel Malloy disses Cape Cod

After half the state relocates here, he's jealous of our success

By Walter Brooks

“If I see another Cape Cod ad,
 I’m going to get sick.” - Conn. Gov. Malloy.I used to live on Route 39 in East Harwich where I noticed that some of the side streets near my home were named for Connecticut, even one named Connecticut Avenue.

It turned out many people from the Nutmeg State like myself had relocated here because we liked it more than our old Connecticut hometowns.

Now a Connecticut columnist says that the state's Democratic Governor Daniel P. Malloy is going to "see Connecticut" by dissing Cape Cod.

The writer says that is a big risk for Malloy particularly since the Cape was made famous by one of the Democrats' patron saints, John F. Kennedy.  Although the Cape had been a vacation spot, it was Kennedy’s election to the presidency that put the Cape on the map.  The Kennedys and Hyannis became synonymous.

The governor said watching TV ads of other states, trying to lure Connecticut residents, is getting tiresome.

To accentuate his point about TV ads, Malloy said at a tourism conference, "If I see another Cape Cod ad, I’m going to get sick."   The governor also mentioned how he once worked at an ad agency on the campaign that developed the very popular "I Love New York" slogan.

In the column Malloy predicted the Connecticut could double its $11.5 billion tourist industry. He added the $27 million dollar ad campaign he pushed for is just the beginning.

It's useful to remember that Connecticut got the nickname "Nutmeg State" because its early inhabitants tricked consumers by selling them wooden nutmegs in place of real ones.

Read the story in CT Talking here.

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RFK Jr. rejects blame for estranged wife's death at funeral

TODAY's quote: "He was a terrible husband, but he's a very good father." - A family friend about RFK, Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not invited to Mary's Manhattan memorial

He rejects blame for her death at funeral, family fight continues

By Walter Brooks

   Cape cartoonist Joe Quigley had this inspiration that Mary Jo Kopechne meets Mary Richardson Kennedy at that Chappaquiddick bridge on Martha's Vineyard.Relatives of Mary Richardson Kennedy snubbed her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), by not inviting him to a private memorial they organized in New York on Monday, a source said according to several New York newspapers.

Instead, he was set to take their four children to Florida, according to another source.

Most of the Kennedys are and were charmers, with a pacesetter's prescience of what and where to lead their followers, and in one case, the whole nation.

RFK Jr. is not one of those kind of Kennedys. He has a well-earned reputation for bombast coupled with hypocrisy enmeshed in his own self-interest. Many compare him with the family's patriarch bootlegger Joseph P. Kennedy who had a similar bad rep.

“I know I did everything I
  could to help her." - RFK Jr.
"He's an imbecile."
       - John Stossel, ABC Nerws.
"He was a terrible husband."
                - A family friend.ABC newsman John Stossel said about him, "The level of [Robert Kennedy's] hypocrisy is endless. He flies in private jets while preaching this stuff. He says we have to go to alternate sources of energy. But when they propose a wind farm in Cape Cod miles out to sea where the windmills would be an inch in your eyesight, but it's near the Kennedy compound, so he opposes it. I mean, he's an imbecile."

A consistent sort of hypocrite

Kennedy on Saturday delivered a self-serving eulogy at his estranged wife's funeral, disclaiming any blame for her suicide. Except for one sibling, none of Richardson Kennedy's relatives attended the funeral. Immediately after her death he was quoted by a Catholic priest saying he was "disappointed" by her suicide.

"I know I did everything I could to help her," Kennedy said in his eulogy at St. Patrick's Church in Bedford, NY.

The alternate memorial was being held at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan. It was planned by Mary's siblings after a bitter falling out with Kennedy over where she should be buried. Her relatives didn't want here remains spending eternity next to any Kennedy earthly remains.

Her children are likely to stay at their grandmother Ethel Kennedy's oceanfront home in Palm Beach, a family friend said.

Another friend added, "He was a terrible husband, but he's a very good father."

Read the Times Herald-Record story here.

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Big pipes vs. small pipes: regulators haven't caught on yet

TODAY's quote:  “We are capable of dealing with these issues as daunting as they seem." - Tracy Mehan.

Big pipes vs. small pipes at sewer forum

The regulators haven't caught on yet

“I think even the EPA will say ‘no’ one size fits all." - Mehan.The Cape Codder reports that the sponsors of an upcoming forum on wastewater share the belief that the current paradigm of large sewage treatment plants is not only too expensive, but may be unnecessary.

Those who sponsored the forum say advances in technology have made smaller, cheaper solutions as effective as tried and true sewers, but the regulatory agencies haven’t caught on yet.

The newspaper adds that the problem is further complicated, said Tracy Mehan, by the fact the Clean Water Act wasn’t written to address "diffuse" non-point pollution sources, such as septic systems, which are polluting water bodies with nitrogen.

Read The Cape Codder story here.

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Sandwich discovers School Choice economics; Orleans advertises

TODAY's quote: “We already have a teacher in place, so there’s no additional cost."
- Sandwich School Superintendent Richard Canfield.

Sandwich schools realize public education is a competitive business

Orleans advertises for School Choice business.This ad soliciting parents to consider using School Choice to send their children to the Orleans Elementary School appeared on page A5 of yesterday's Cape Cod Times.Superintendent urges using
School Choice funds for ads

By Walter Brooks

Sandwich School Superintendent Richard Canfield told the town school committee that if a child switches districts the state aid dollars follow that child to the new district, and it is some of that money that the other superintendents are using to promote their schools.

Apparently Dr. Canfield noticed that in the last fiscal year 154 kids used School Choice to leave his district while only 24 used School Choice to come to Sandwich from elsewhere.

The loss of 154 pupils creates a financial loss for the district, and this only adds to the problem that since 2001 Sandwich has lost 15.61% of their students to declining population, school choice and charter schools.

After months of PR disasters, Sandwich Public Schools is just now pondering why parents of 154 kids have lost confidence in their district, and apparently its answer is to advertise according to this week's Sandwich Enterprise.

The school committee could begin the budget process as much as $250,000 in the hole.The newspaper reports that Dr. Canfield said the goal is to address the situation the board is faced with, having to dip into Fiscal Year 2013 School Choice funds that are typically held in reserve for FY2014, in order to balance the budget.

He explained that with School Choice funds being tapped to balance this year’s budget, the school committee could begin the budget process as much as $250,000 in the hole.

Read the Enterprise story here.

Read the latest in our School Choice series:

• Data in on the Cape Cod Class of 2011--lower graduation rates for minorities
• Nauset vs. Sturgis as school get competitive
• Cape's charter schools can teach the "big boys" about thrift
• Wampanoags, Mashpee Schools, at an educational crossroads
• Wampanoags, Mashpee Schools, at an educational crossroads
• Orleans vs. Brewster Elementary School cost vs. results
• Nauset Regional Middle School makes changes in 6th grade teaching
• School Choice Marketing Failure
• School Choice Update: Some schools win, some soon lose
• Sandwich Schools search for an excuse or a scapegoat
• Observor's 6-Part series on School Choice and Economics.

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Another Staake winner; RFK Jr. "disappointed" by wife's suicide

TODAY's quote: RFK, Jr. is “disappointed” by his wife Mary's suicide. - Monsignor George Thompson.
"Yeah, those Kennedys sure are ladykillers." - George Carlin, Melody Tent, 1987.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife almost missed her own funeral today in Hyannisport

Bob Staake knocks another out of the park
The current cover of the New Yorker magazine is by Bob Staake of Chatham who is the creator of the best-ever selling cover art from America's premier literary weekly. This week it's the White House where the Ionic columns have turned into the gay pride colors by President Obama's recent statement about the fairness of same-sex marriage. See the New Yorker here.Rancor flares as funeral for Mary Richardson Kennedy approaches

By Walter Brooks

Catholic priests have no reason to lie about something as tragic as a tormented 52-year-old mother of four's death by her own hand, but it was still shocking to read today's New York Daily News quote by Monsignor George Thompson, who will officiate at the funeral service for Mary Richardson Kennedy, say the her husband said he was "disappointed" by her suicide.

The Westchester County, NY medical examiner said Mary Kennedy died of asphyxiation due to hanging. She was found dead Wednesday in her Bedford, NY home.

The News and all the rest of the New York media report that Mary Richardson Kennedy nearly missed her own wake last night after a legal battle broke out over her body as her siblings fought with her husband over her remains.

Mary's family just didn't want her buried with the Kennedys.

The Kennedy PR machine

Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was disappointed by his estranged wife's death, it was not unexpected to see the usual Kennedy public relations machine go to work describing a neurotic, distraught, possibly alcoholic woman rather than the successful architect and environmentalist Mary Richardson Kennedy was in life. Her family has strongly criticized media accounts of her death for what they called "inaccuracies and misrepresentations" of her life.

Her family's statement read in part, Mary Richardson Kennedy in a 2005 photo provided to the media by Peter Michaelis.
Yesterday's New York Daily News cover."While we would naturally prefer to remain private at this very upsetting time, we feel compelled to make this statement because the description of Mary carried by certain news organizations since her passing yesterday is wholly inconsistent with the sister we knew and the life she, in fact, lived."

Robert Kennedy Jr. reportedly ordered Mary Kennedy's sisters from the Bedford, NY home when they arrived there following their sister's suicide. Mary's sisters were forced to use a police escort in order to return to collect some of Mary Kennedy's personal papers, the Daily News reported.

The AP reported that one of Mary's brothers, Thomas Richardson, filed legal papers in White Plains NY on Thursday listing Robert F. Kennedy as the defendant. The document wasn't made public and was then subsequently sealed, along with all other papers related to the case, by Judge Joan Lefkowitz.

As political pundit and NewsBuster's columnist Jack Coleman reminded us this morning, George Carlin quipped at the Melody Tent in Hyannis around 1987, "Yeah, those Kennedys sure are ladykillers."

Burial in Hyannisport

Mary's funeral is planned for this morning at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Bedford, and a private memorial service is planned in Manhattan a Kennedy's family member said in a statement.

Mary will be buried in Hyannisport, Massachusetts near the Kennedy compound, and this was what her brothers fought to prevent.

They simply felt their sister had had her fill of Kennedys already.

The Kennedy Curse

The media loves to imagine a "Kennedy Curse" like its equally imagined "Curse of the Bambino" which prevented the Boston Red Sox from winning a World Series for fifty years.

That "curse" was solved when the team brought in Tony Francona and some better ballplayers, and the Kennedy version is just as silly.

People tend to die sooner if they lead dangerous lives, and the Kennedys did that in spades. If the latest generation stays away from planes and drugs, it will probably live a lot longer lives. Here's the "curse" list.

• August 12, 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
• May 13 1948 - Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish.
• November 22, 1963 - President John F Kennedy.
• June 6, 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy.
• July 18, 1969 -  Mary Jo Kopechne.
• April 25, 1984 - David Kennedy.
• December 31, 1997 - Michael Kennedy.
• July 16, 1999 - John F Kennedy Jr.
• May 16, 2012 - Mary Richardson Kennedy.

Read the Telegraph list here. 

Read the NY Daily News story here.

Read today's CNN reports here.

Read the LA Times on Mary's family feelings here.

Read the Ap story in YahooNews here.

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"Slots" of money for Taunton in Mashpee casino agreement

TODAY's quote: “I think it’s a win-win. The city gets an economic boost from this. We can put people to work... It’s a huge opportunity. With that, I realize it’s not a panacea, but I think once people see, read and understand the agreement, I think the majority of the people of Taunton will be supportive of it.”
- Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr.

Mashpee Tribe, Taunton agree on casino deal, city to get 2 percent of slots

Tribe guarantees Taunton $33 million up front, $13 million a year

By Walter Brooks

In a statement yesterday announcing an agreement with the the city of Taunton,  Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said, "I think we have a very good working relationship with the City Council and the mayor. The stars are lining up."

The proposed casino, if accepted by the state gaming commission, would be at the Liberty and Union Industrial Park at Routes 24 and 140. The tribe previously said that as many as 1,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs would be created in the first phase of construction.

Stars may be aligning but votes are still uncertain

While Cromwell cited a figure of $120 million annually as the probable benefit to the economy of the area near the proposed casino site, Taunton's registered voters must approve the plan in a nonbinding referendum on June 9,and Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. has been quoted as saying, "If it (the referendum) fails, that’s the end of the deal."

The agreement also calls for Taunton to receive 2.05 percent of net slot machine revenue each year, with a floor of $8 million per year. Under the agreement, the tribe would also pay $370,000 annually to the Taunton School Department as well as provide yearly funds for the city to hire additional police and fire personnel.

Read the Taunton Gazette story here.

Read the Boston Globe  story here.

Read the NECN report on the proposed casino plans here.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ex-wife Mary hangs herself

TODAY's quote: “She always seems lost these days, whenever she came into the village...
Lost and alone and sort of out of it.” - Mary Kennedy neighbor.

Suicide of Mary Kennedy comes almost exactly two years after split from RFK Jr.

"Don't blame the Kennedy curse because curses don't kill." 

Mary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, with actress Cheryl Hines at Waterkeeper Alliance in December 2010.
The palatial home in Bedford, NY.

The New York Times reported today that sources said Mary Richardson Kennedy's body was found hanging in a barn behind her palatial home in Bedford, NY and that she had left a note.

The divorce filing last year by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to split from his wife of 18 years and mother of his four children, was followed by Mary Kennedy's arrest for drunk driving three days later.

Her friends now say that started her on a downward spiral that ended with her suicide by hanging yesterday.

She was 52.

Some television reports today claim she was arrested a second time without a license recently, and she was depressed over the mounting debts to operate her very large home.

The NY Daily News says, "Don't blame the Kennedy curse because curses don't kill." 

Read the NY Times story here.

Read the Boston Globe story here.

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"Mother's Day morass" hurts Route 6A business; Fulcher out, Tuttle in, McAuliffe out, Holcomb, Tolley in

TODAY's quote: “Whoever conceived of this (Sagamore Bridge repair) plan should be fired.
If I were a tourist and I was caught up in that thing on Sunday, I would never go to the Cape again.’’
- Anne Kilguss,  Orleans second home owner.

"Mother's Day morass" at Sagamore Bridge angers visitors, hurts tourism here

Orleans: Fulcher out, Hodgson in

When the Orleans votes were tallied last night, longtime Orleans Selectman Margie Fulcher walked over to John Hodgson and gave him a hug and wished him good luck.
     The 41-year-old banker had knocked on 1,300 doors over the course of the campaign and racked up an almost 2-1 victory in his third run for the office.
   For what he'll do different, see his replies to our questions here.

Tuttle wins in Dennis

After his reelection last night in Dennis, Selectman Alan Tuttle said, “Wastewater is the biggest issue we face. The towns and county are now realizing that there are new ways that are more cost effective to deal with this.”

McAuliffe out, Holcomb, Tolley in

She's been an elected official in Yarmouth for a quarter century but like Margie Fulcher in Orleans, Suzanne McAuliffe may have stayed too long at the party and came in third in the town's two-man Selectman race last night losing to incumbent Erik R. Tolley and challenger Norman C. Holcomb.Route 6A businesses down 50 percent, 
Sandwich in gridlock all of Sunday

By Walter Brooks

The Boston Globe reports that with irate motorists trickling past idle equipment in the closed lanes on the Sagamore Bridge a few weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers which controls the bridges over the canal had its contractor double the number of shifts halfway through the project to meet the late-May deadline for reopening all lanes by May 24.

"Those who do not learn from history..."

The complete George Santayana quote is “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” but it's clear neither the US Army Corps or the Department of Highways have learned from theirs.

The Army Corps faced a backlash in 2009 after a resurfacing project on the Sagamore deck caused severe backups, prompting the convening of a federal, state, and local task force to work with business and civic groups and coordinate project timing and traffic management.

Former State Rep. Thomas Cahir and Cape Cod Transportation Authority chief said one part remedy would be to relocate Exit 1 which is literally at the foot of the Sagamore Bridge, to enter Route 6 some distance to the east.

Cahir says drivers who have tried to skirt Route 6 until the last possible moment, clogging Route 6A, have worsened delays while trying to merge onto Route 6 just as that highway shrinks to one lane outbound.  “I really think that’s the reason for the most frustration,’’ said Cahir.

Many drivers now leave Route 6 and try taking the alternative Route 6A which has resulted in a massive gridlock through the entire town of Sandwich bringing local travel and business to a standstill.

The Globe reported that Kerry Barrett of Twin Acres Ice Cream Shoppe said business has fallen by more than 50 percent on Sundays, normally the busiest day, and Mother's Day was by far the worst.

Read the Globe story here.

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Cape daily newspaper owner's top UK editor charged

TODAY's quote: "I have concluded ... there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction, All these matters relate to the ongoing police investigation into allegations of phone hacking and corruption of public officials in relation to the News of the World and The Sun newspapers."
- Alison Levitt QC, Principal Legal Adviser to Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions.

Rupert Murdoch's top British newspaper executive charged with conspiracy

News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks charged with perverting the course of justice.

By Walter Brooks

Rebekah Brooks headed the Murdoch newspapers in Great Britain including the tabloid News of the World which was closed after 168 years. That's Murdoch in the inset.The New York Times along with literally hundreds of other newspapers around the world report that Rebekah Brooks, the one-time  head of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire and a close friend of British Prime Minister David Cameron, was charged on Tuesday that she, her husband and four others conspired to pervert the course of justice in the hacking scandal that has burrowed into public life here.

The Times said the decision to prosecute Ms. Brooks and her husband was seen as a blow to Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Cameron, who has been depicted as maintaining a cozy friendship with her both when he was in the opposition and, since 2010, as prime minister. 

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the owner of the daily Cape Cod Times newspaper, the Barnstable Patriot and Nantucket Inquirer-Mirror weeklies, and the Standard-Times in New Bedford.

Today's charges are among the most dramatic developments of a controversy that has sent shockwaves through the British political establishment and rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire to its core.

Ms. Brooks, no relation to the owners of Cape Cod Today, faces one charge of conspiring with her personal assistant Cheryl Carter to "remove seven boxes of material from the archives of News International". The maximum sentence for perverting the course of justice is life imprisonment.

In a separate charge she is accused of conspiring with her husband, her chauffeur and a security consultant to conceal "documents and computers" from the investigating detectives. All the offenses are alleged to have taken place in July of 2011.

The other suspects were identified as Cheryl Carter, Ms. Brooks’s personal assistant; Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of the Murdoch family’s News Corporation; a chauffeur, Paul Edwards; and two security consultants, Daryl Jorsling and a second suspect who was not named.

Read the Times story here.

See the hundreds of other stories about this scandal here.

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