Cape & Islands News

Revere welcomes a Wampanoag Casino

Revere official moves to change bylaws to allow Class III Casino
A welcome mat in Revere for  Cape Cod's Indian tribe

A story in today's Gambling Magazine describes a Revere City Councilor's move in that north of Boston town to grease the skids for Mashpee's Wampanoags to have a future casino in that North Shore oceanfront city,

In anticipation of the Mashpee Wampanoags gaining full federal recognition, (City Councilor George) Rotondo presented a request at Monday's City Council meeting to amend Revere's land-use ordinance to allow construction of a Class III casino gaming and entertainment complex in the city. He hopes this could facilitate the development of a casino at one of the local racetracks, Suffolk Downs (top) or Wonderland (bottom).

The story also mentions what is currently allowed in the state;

Under current state law, the tribe would be allowed to seek land to establish a bingo-style casino, because bingo is legal in Massachusetts. Special state approval would be needed to build a full-scale Class III casino, like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. 

The story goes on to remind readers that although the tribe won preliminary Federal recognition last month, it must now wait another year to allow comments before final approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC;

If the federal recognition stands, the tribe would gain sovereignty and the state would be required to negotiate a compact with the tribe involving gambling rights.  Under current state law, the tribe would be allowed to seek land to establish a bingo-style casino, because bingo is legal in Massachusetts. Special state approval would be needed to build a full-scale Class III casino, like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. 

Read the story in Gambling Magazine here, or  the Globe story here, and comment below.
Read the recent stories about the Wampanoags, the casino and gambling here.

More insurers depart both US coasts

We are still (and will always) pay for Katrina
"There is a potential market failure here"

The Washington Post reports today that more insurers are giving up offering property  insurance coverage on both US coasts one month before the start of the next hurricane season:

Alarmed at the sharply rising cost of hurricanes and other disasters, home insurers are pulling back from some U.S. coastal markets, warning of gathering financial storm clouds over how the United States pays for the damage of catastrophe.

The development is yet another legacy of Hurricane Katrina, whose mounting toll of destruction along the Gulf Coast has crystallized a growing industry debate about the combined effect of climate trends and population growth in coastal areas. Some believe the two are creating a risk of losses so large that insurers could be pushed to the breaking point, leaving the government and taxpayers holding the tab for the next disaster.

Since Aug. 29 -- when the hurricane made landfall along the Gulf Coast -- Allstate Corp., the industry's second-largest company, has ceased writing homeowners policies in Louisiana, Florida and coastal parts of Texas and New York state. The firm has stopped underwriting earthquake coverage in California and elsewhere. Other firms have pulled back from the Gulf Coast to Cape Cod, notifying Florida of plans to cancel 500,000 policies.

The complete story here goes on to quotes Robert E. Litan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is working with state regulators in California, Florida, Illinois and New York on a plan to reshape catastrophe insurance saying,  "There is a potential market failure here, if not already an actual market failure at work.  If we have another hurricane season this year like we had last, I wouldn't be surprised if you see a stampede of insurers trying to get out." 

How Kennedy stopped the wind

A nod and a wink at a Senator's wife's funeral killed Cape Wind
April Fool's Day suggestion by a conservative old lion

The Boston Globe today reveals the specific whisper on the way to a graveyard which lead to a deal between the Senate's #1 Artic Oil promoter and Massachusett's #1 environmentalist.

The story states that it all happened at a funeral on April Fool's Day,

As Kennedy filed out of Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., another colleague of nearly four decades, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, approached him and offered a favor.

Stevens, an irascible conservative Republican, told Kennedy, the stalwart liberal Massachusetts Democrat, that he'd figured out a way to block the wind farm proposed for the waters off Cape Cod: Stevens would insert a provision in a sure-to-pass bill funding the Coast Guard that would give the state's governor the ability to veto the project.

''That sounds fine," Kennedy recalled replying, in what he said was a five-second conversation.

 The Globe goes on to state that Kennedy reminded Stevens of the plan a few days later.

But this was not the first time the Massachusetts Senator had used his mastery of US Senate rules and favor-tradiung to try to protect the view from his Hyannisport  Compound;

The bill Kennedy teamed up with Stevens on was the culmination of an extensive -- though mostly behind-the-scenes -- campaign by Kennedy to block the 130-turbine project that would tower over the water just a few miles from his home in Hyannis Port. At least twice previously in recent years, he has worked quietly with Republican senators to delay or halt the project through other avenues.

Environmentalists across the country, as well as many other leading Senators on both sides of the aisle, strongly criticize the so-called Steven Amendment which was tacked onto the completed $12 billion dollare Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill after it had been accepted by both houses of congress.

"Dark side of his bipartisan organizing power"

Seth Kaplan, a senior attorney at the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, told The Globe, ''It's the dark side of his bipartisan organizing power. We have to be building wind power turbines. It is tragic for a master of the Senate like Ted Kennedy to be standing in the way of this most important of movements."

cribing other US Senators opposed to this stealth amendment, John McCain, Peter Demenici, etc., the story reminds readers of the other times Senator Kennedy has used his decades of power in Washington to stop the same project;

In 2003, he worked with Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, to try to amend an energy bill with a provision that would have given any governor veto power over offshore wind farms... In 2004, Kennedy supported an effort by John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that would have indefinitely delayed the Cape Wind project by suspending all applications for offshore wind farms until Congress produced a set of guidelines for such projects.

The complete story in today's Globe is here. 

Truro Community Center axed (again), Ptown's Bergman bows out, Art for Africa

Outer Cape news of the week
April 27, 2006

Cape artists give to help Cape children, in South Africa
PROVINCETOWN - When Karin Anderson White visited KwaMpisi, a tiny poverty-stricken village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, last September, she saw things that most Americans could never imagine... John Clayton’s oil on board “Sunny Lane" (on right), will be up for grabs at a benefit auction that will help fund a preschool in KwaMpisi...

Community center voted down again
TRURO — One year after voting down a proposed community center that came in higher than the original cost estimate, voters again rejected the plan at Tuesday’s Town Meeting.  The vote capped off one night of emotional speeches and one year of planning, wrangling and budgeting ...

Bergman takes a bow
PROVINCETOWN — The chances of the Proposition 2 1/2 override passing at Tuesday’s election may have improved this week. Town Manager Keith Bergman, whose popularity with residents has waned noticeably in the last several months, announced on Monday that he does not intend to request an extension of his employment contract next May...

Ice show features Cape tip talent
TRURO — Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Milewski is among eight Cape figure skaters who will be performing solo  at Charles Moore Arena in Orleans this weekend as a prelude to the main event — a performance by Olympic Bronze Medalist Jozef Sabovcik ... 

Advocate Archives
April 28, 1932
NEW STANDPIPE TO BE CAMOUFLAGED
Work has been started on the painting of the new standpipe situated behind Town Hall...

April 28, 1962
OPPOSITION RAISED TO POSSIBILITY OF CAROUSEL ON COMMERCIAL STREET
More than 50 opponents, reinforced with a petition signed by more than 65 voters, registered their opposition Monday night to work under way on the premises at 234 Commercial Street, adjacent to the Universalist Church, which the petitioners said “appears to be a carousel”...

Read the rest of these Banner stories here, and comment below. 

Brush fires, Horse hit in Eastham, Hyannis OUI

SUNDAY APRIL 30th, 2006
DRY CONDITIONS SPARK BRUSH FIRES
YARMOUTH – Dry conditions kept Cape firefighters busy with numerous brush fires. This one was in the area of Long Pond Drive and Mercury Lane and was pretty close to some homes. No one was injured in any of the blazes. Firefighters may get some relief as an ocean storm backs into the region and spreads some cold showers our way.

ONE INJURED IN MASHPEE CRASH
MASHPEE – One person was taken to a hospital following the latest crash on Route 130. Another victim was treated at the scene of the crash at the intersection of Lovell Road around 8 AM. The crash is under investigation by Mashpee Police.

HORSES STRUCK BY CAR IN EASTHAM
EASTHAM – Two loose horses were struck by a vehicle on Route 6 near McKoy Road about 1 AM Sunday. The driver escaped injury but at least one of the horses reportedly suffered serious injuries. It’s not clear how the horses became loose apparently from a nearby stable.

SATURDAY APRIL 29th, 2006
NO INJURIES IN HYANNIS ROLLOVER. OUI CHARGED
HYANNIS – No injuries were reported in a two vehicle crash in Hyannis shortly after 6 PM on Route 132 at Bearses Way. A Dodge Durango collided with a Pontiac Trans Am. The impact caused the Durango to rollover. The driver had to be cut free from her seat belts which likely prevented serious injury.

Route 132 traffic was impacted for about 2 hours while the crash was investigated and the mess cleaned up. Police say Mario Widener, 31, was driving drunk when he collided with an SUV on Route 132 in Hyannis Saturday night.

FRIDAY APRIL 28th, 2006
TRUCK FIRE STALLS YARMOUTH TRAFFIC
YARMOUTH – It was just after 4 PM when several Cape fire towers reported thick black smoke rising from Yarmouth.

The fire was a dump truck towing a landscaping trailer at the intersection of Higgins Crowell Road and Buck Island Road. The driver was able to escape but the truck was totaled.

Two Yarmouth engines poured water on the scene and checked for any hazardous materials that might have been involved. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Traffic had to be stopped and rerouted until the fire was knocked down.

TEEN CHARGED WITH MV HOMICIDE IN BREWSTER CRASH
 BREWSTER – A Marstons Mills teen will face motor vehicle charges in connection with a deadly crash in Brewster on March 3rd. According to the Times 17-year old Daniel Stapleton will also be charged with operating to endanger, speeding, and marked lanes violation when he is arraigned on June 9th.

Stapleton was allegedly behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry on Route 124 when it collided with a pickup truck. 16-year old Melissa Gifford a passenger in the Camry was airlifted to a Boston hospital and died later that day.

Another passenger 17-year old Clinton Perry of Marstons Mills was seriously injured and also flown to Boston. The two Medflight helicopters landed on a snowy field next to Brewster Town Hall. Stapleton escaped serious injury.

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

Orleans Red Tide, Brewster in Bloom + a Town Meeting

Lower Cape news of the week
April 28, 2006

Read the rest of these stories from The Cape Codder here, and comment below. 

Rocky Moutain News on Ted Kennedy

Major drilling for oil and natural gas on the outer continental shelf is banned along all but a small stretch of America's coast - an absurd policy given the vast amount of fuel that could be extracted, according to the Interior Department.

Now Congress is facing a test over whether the same self-destructive, not-in-my- backyard policy will apply to wind power as well, thanks to Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Kennedy has long opposed a plan for what The Boston Globe describes as a "130-turbine, 24-square-mile cluster of windmills . . . about 8 miles from Kennedy's home in Hyannis Port." So Kennedy convinced a cabal of Senate colleagues to insert a provision in a Coast Guard bill that would, again according to the Globe, "give Gov. Mitt Romney, another wind farm opponent, the power to veto it, even if the project clears all other hurdles."

Finally, however, this brazen act of hypocrisy (Kennedy is a noisy supporter of renewable energy) has provoked stiffening resistance, with the House even delaying a vote on the measure in order to give opponents more time to marshal forces.

In response, Kennedy wasted no time in resorting to his stock in trade - demagoguery - denouncing a "wealthy developer" for trying to "ride roughshod" over his state (what would an "impoverished developer" look like, one wonders).

But with talk of renewables all the rage, a majority in Congress may be driven by sheer embarrassment to reject an attempt to block what would be the largest use of offshore wind power on Earth.

The wonder is that Congress isn't equally embarrassed by the moratorium on drilling on the outer continental shelf, where estimated reserves of oil and gas are many times the annual national usage of each fuel. Drilling rigs miles off the coast are not even visible, whereas the Cape Wind project will amount to a tiny bump on the horizon for Hyannis Port millionaires; sensible policy would exploit both energy sources.

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point several times a week in The Rocky Mountain News. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

Hyannis "Art Attack", Cops need more overtime money

Barnstable news of the week
April 28, 2006

‘Art attack’ seen as key to downtown revitalization
By Edward F. Maroney. A temporary harborside stage nestled at the back of Aselton Park for
"Shakespeare by the Shore" performances by Barnstable High School students and weekly concerts sponsored by The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. Painted buoys on slender poles waving as high as 21 feet above the park to signal the new activity there. Wider sidewalks leading down to the boats. A farewell to the Bismore Park parking meters...

School start compromise sought
By Edward F. Maroney. Parents of elementary school children don’t want their first graders jumping off the bus into the darkness of a January evening, but they say they understand that high school students need more sleep in the morning to function better in classes ...

$50K sought to cover police overtime
By David Still II. The department is looking far an additional $50,000 to cover overtime costs for the rest of the year. But looking ahead to next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the department is seeking another $450,000, which would restore cuts to overtime made over the past four budgets ...

HannaH’s, upstairs condo dweller asked to work out noise ...
By Heather Wysocki. Conflicting testimony led the licensing authority to postpone deciding whether entertainment at HannaH’s Fusion ...

Labor market information captures Cape
By David Augustinho. From time to time, I have presented you with some of the Labor Market Information (LMI) that helps the Workforce ...

Immigration and Integration?
By Hid Welch. This series is written by a private citizen with an abiding interest in US history and particularly its founding documents ...

Barnstable FD election Sat., meets Mon.
By David Still II. Voters in the Barnstable Fire District will meet Monday night at the Barnstable-West Barnstable Elementary School ...

All but one request approved in WBFD
By David Still II. Voters gave all green lights at Wednesday’s West Barnstable Fire District...

Read the rest of these Patriot stories here, and comment below. 

John McCain vows to fight anti-Cape Wind amendment

"I think it is clearly a violation of the way we do business around here, and I would oppose it as strongly as I can"

As reported by Ben Geman at E&E News -

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leading advocate of legislative transparency, today criticized language attached to U.S. Coast Guard programs legislation aimed at killing a proposed offshore wind farm in Massachusetts.

"The conference report for the Coast Guard authorization bill includes language that would give the Massachusetts governor power to block the Cape Wind project, a 130 turbine wind farm slated for Nantucket Sound that would be the nation's first such facility. The language was added during a House-Senate conference committee earlier this month.

" 'I think it is clearly a violation of the way we do business around here, and I would oppose it as strongly as I can,' " McCain told reporters in the Capitol today. He said he would join efforts to strike the language. 'I think we may challenge, get a point of order to start with,' he said.

"McCain's pledge follows similar comments this week by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, about challenging the language on the Senate floor.

"Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) negotiated on the language. Stevens' aides have said he was approached on the issue by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), who opposes the project, but the precise origins of the provision remain murky."

Source. 

D-Y sides closer in funding, Dennis buys Brewster water rights

Mid Cape news of the week
April 27, 2006

 
Read the rest of these Register stories here, and comment below.