If you haven't read Bill McKibben's recent article, it's worth the time, as well as the follow-up by Nicholas Arguimbau below.
Our carbon/greenhouse gas production is unsustainable to our continued existence on this planet.
Subsidies to wildly profitable Dirty Energy Companies have not made sense for more than a decade.
Our failures to embrace alternative energy have been tepid, at best, while the rest of the world moves forward.
The US, with 5% of the world's population, consumes 25% of the world's resources, not because we're the most productive, but rather because we're energy gluttons.
There will be a 'tipping point' that Al Gore described, a point beyond which we cannot return.
Global Warming's Terrifying New Math
Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear
who the real enemy is
If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven't convinced
you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about
climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the
United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern
Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire
globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple
chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars
in the universe.
Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for
our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented
the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record." The
same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a
temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet's
history.
#1 in incarceration, #1 in military spending, high on the list of poorly educated.....the old truths we believed are no longer true...worth watching....close to the top in mindlessly following blind politicians who support Predatory Gambling ....
Time to turn this around and rid ourselves of Corporate influence and extremists.
SANDWICH — GenOn Energy, which owns the power plant on the Cape Cod Canal, recently announced plans to merge with a New Jersey energy company.
GenOn and and NRG Energy signed a "definitive agreement" to merge, they announced, with the name remaining NRE Energy.
GenOn formed in 2010 when Houston-based RRI Energy and Mirant Corp. merged. It remains based in Texas.
Its Massachusetts properties include the canal plant, which has a capacity of 1,126 megawatts; back-up diesel generating facilities in West Tisbury and Oak Bluffs; and Kendall Cogeneration Station in Cambridge, which has a 256-megawatt capacity.
Selectman Frank Pannorfi said the board was briefed on the merger by a GenOn official Thursday night.
"My initial reaction was, 'Gee you have big-time organization, major players nationally in the energy generation business and unless you're buying for tax write-off purposes, you may be thinking about a green energy development — gas or hydroelectric, who knows?" Pannorfi said. "I can't wait until (the merger) develops a little more."
The merger is expected to close within the first three months of next year, according to the companies.
It will have to be approved by several groups, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and shareholders of both companies.
GenOn spokesman Chip Little said the Sandwich facility will continue as a power plant. An NRG spokesperson did not return a call seeking comment.
The canal plant, under an agreement with the town, agreed in 2005 to pay $2.4 million annually in taxes until 2013.
Doug Lapp, assistant town manager for Sandwich, said he doesn't foresee any problems getting a new contract signed between the plant and the town.
"That is not an issue," he said.
NRE Energy will keep both existing headquarters — in Princeton, N.J., and Houston, Texas, according to the companies.
Staff writer George Brennan contributed to this report.
Supporters of expanding the Bottle Bill have made it clear they’re tired of waiting for lawmakers to make a move they claim will cut waste, help keep our streets cleaner and ease the pressure on overburdened landfills.
But, one State Rep. believes bottle law expansion is a job killer.
“It’ll be devastating. We just lost 2,600 jobs last month. A jobs bill This is not the right place for this,” said Rep. Rich Bastein of Gardner. “It just gives another incentive for people to continue to drive over the border and drive more business out of the state.”
Another state official disagrees.
“It doesn’t raise the cost of the bottled water or whatever the other juice might be, so there’s no empirical evidence that it raised any costs,” said Rick Sullivan, the Energy & Environmental Affairs Secretary.
For every claim one side makes, there’s a critic terming it irredeemably false.
“They want… to put another $22 million into the state coffers. This is nothing more than an indirect tax on consumers,” said Chris Flynn of the Massachusetts Food Association.
Key House leaders say the bill is going nowhere.
You can see why the bottle law has been a bitter political battleground in this state for more than 30 years, as the two sides can’t seem to agree on anything.
On Beacon Hill, there’s one bottom line: do you have the votes? And right now, it appears proponents of expanding the bottle law do not.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
There must be something in the bottled water on Beacon Hill this month.
After years of committee ducking and dodging, the Legislature last week pulled Melissa’s Bill out of endless committee, voted and sent it to the governor for signing.
Now, in a stealth maneuver that took both advocates and opponents by surprise, the Senate has made another bold move and unanimously passed a measure that would extend the state’s bottle bill to include containers that hold water, iced tea and other non-carbonated beverages.
With no debate last week, that body unanimously approved the proposal, which had been bouncing around various committees for 14 years, as an amendment to a jobs and economic development bill.
The measure would extend the 5-cent deposit on carbonated beverages and beer by adding water, juice and sports drinks to the 30-year-old law.
Just last month the bill appeared dead on Beacon Hill. The legislative committee reviewing the bill opted to send it to a study committee. Few bills sent to study committees ever emerge.
The bill’s critics have argued for years that expanding the existing law would amount to a new tax on consumers and hurt small businesses that would be required to handle increased bottle returns.
Proponents point to the success of the state’s current recycling programs and to statistics that show many of the beverage bottles included in this expansion legislation are already being voluntarily recycled by consumers. As of April of this year, some 208 cities and towns in the commonwealth, including Bridgewater, Abington, Raynham and Randolph among others in southeastern Massachusetts, have passed resolutions in favor of the bill.
But, as we know well in Massachusetts, nothing in politics is over until it’s over.
The proposal must still get onto the floor of the House for a vote before July 31 and then to Gov. Deval Patrick for signing before becoming law.
We say 14 years is probably enough time for thoughtful deliberation, full study and polling of constituent sentiment on the issue.
It’s time to vote.
If you agree, contact your state representative and urge action. Now.
Earlier today, a gunman walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where people were watching the midnight showing of the new Batman movie. He fired gas canisters into the crowd, and then opened fire. At least 12 people are dead and 59 people are injured. My heart and prayers go out to all of them.
On the day Gabby Giffords was shot, I was picking up my son Henry from a lesson when I got the text message saying there had been a shooting. I’d campaigned with Gabby in 2006. Henry didn’t understand why I’d stopped getting into the car and started crying.
Walking back from a haircut the other day, I passed Café Racer, where on May 30th a gunman walked in and killed four people.
It's time we had an adult conversation in this country about guns.
On January 17, 1989, a gunman in Stockton, California walked onto a playground and opened fire, killing 5 children and injuring 30 more.
On July 1, 1993, a gunman in San Francisco walked into a law office and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 6.
On April 20, 1999, two gunmen in Columbine, Colorado walked into their high school and opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 21 others.
On January 16, 2002, a gunman in Virginia walked into a law school and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On July 8, 2003, a gunman in Mississippi walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 8.
On March 21, 2005, a gunman in Minnesota walked into a high school and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 5.
On November 20, 2005, a gunman in Tacoma walked into the mall and opened fire, injuring 6.
On March 25, 2006, a gunman in Seattle walked into a party and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2007, a gunman in Utah walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 4.
On April 16, 2007, a gunman in Virginia walked onto the Virginia Tech campus and opened fire, killing 32 people and wounding 17 others.
On December 5, 2007, a gunman in Nebraska walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 4.
On December 9, 2007, a gunman in Colorado Springs walked onto a church parking lot and opened fire, killing 2 and wounding 3.
On February 7, 2008, a gunman in Missouri walked into a city council meeting and opened fire, killing 5 and wounding 2.
On February 14, 2008, a gunman in Illinois walked onto a college campus and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 17.
On June 25, 2008, a gunman in Kentucky walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 1.
On January 24, 2009, a gunman in Portland walked up to a nightclub and opened fire, killing 2 and injuring 7.
On March 29, 2009, a gunman in North Carolina walked into a retirement home and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 4, 2009, a gunman in a suburb of Pittsburgh walked into a fitness club and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 9.
On November 5, 2009, a gunman at Fort Hood in Texas walked into a medical center and opened fire, killing 13 and injuring 29.
On November 29, 2009, a gunman in Lakewood, Washington walked into a coffee shop and killed 4 police officers.
On January 7, 2010, a gunman in St Louis walked into a power plant and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 6.
On January 12, 2010, a gunman in Georgia walked into a truck rental place and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2010, a gunwoman in Alabama stood up in a college faculty meeting and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On August 3, 2010, a gunman in Connecticut walked into a warehouse and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 7, 2011, a gunman in Ohio broke into his girlfriend’s house and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 1.
On September 6, 2011, a gunman in Nevada walked into a pancake restaurant and opened fire, killing 4 and injuring 7.
On October 5, 2011, a gunman in Cupertino, California walked into a quarry where people were working and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 7.
Sadly, I could go on.
But the numbers don’t tell the stories. These were people. Rachel Scott was a 17-year-old aspiring writer and actress who wanted to change the world through small acts of kindness. Dave Sanders was a 47-year-old teacher and girls basketball coach who was shot and killed while trying to evacuate students. Cassie Bernall was hiding under a table praying. Jack Berman was a lawyer who founded a program to help homeless people find housing. John Scully died while shielding his newlywed wife with his own body. Drew Keriakedes and Joe Albanese were musicians with wicked senses of humor. Every one of the hundreds of people shot in the incidents I list above had dreams and aspirations, laughed and cried, had friends and neighbors and parents.
As a country, though, we have not had a real conversation about guns in many, many years. The National Rifle Association (NRA) threatens the career of any politician who so much as opens the conversation. As a consequence, our country has not discussed assault weapons – which have no use except killing large numbers of people in massacres like the ones I’ve listed. We have not discussed the fact that anyone can buy a gun at a gun show without any background check, even if they have a history of criminal violence. We have not discussed the expiration of the ban on large clips, which allow shooters to kill more people in a shorter time because they don’t have to reload. We have not discussed what a sensible, rational approach to regulating guns in our country might be.
Enough.
It’s time we took steps to stop the mass killings.
It’s time we had an adult conversation about guns in this country. The NRA can go to hell.
FILE - This April 19, 2012, file photo shows Eric Thompson’s Green Bay, Wis., based company, TGSCOM Inc., which sold guns or accessories to the killers in the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University mass shootings as well as a man who opened fire at a Pennsylvania health club.
Police say the Wisconsin online weapons dealer quietly shut down the business in May, 2012, amid scores of complaints from customers in nearly every state accusing the company of billing without delivering their orders. (AP Photo/John Touscany, File)
You might think Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of and spokesman for the mighty American gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, has an almost cosmic sense of timing. In 2007, at the NRA’s annual convention in St. Louis, he warned the crowd that, “Today, there is not one firearm owner whose freedom is secure.” Two days later, a young man opened fire on the campus of Virginia Tech, killing 32 students, staff and teachers.
Just last week LaPierre showed up at the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty here in New York and spoke out against what he called “anti-freedom policies that disregard American citizens’ right to self-defense.” Now at least 12 are dead in Aurora, Colorado, gunned down at a showing of the new film, “The Dark Knight Rises,” a Batman movie filled with make-believe violence. One of the guns the shooter reportedly used was an AK-47 type assault weapon that was banned in 1994. The NRA pressured Congress to let the ban run out in 2004.
Obviously, LaPierre’s timing isn’t cosmic, just coincidental and unfortunate; as Shakespeare famously wrote, the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves. In other words, people — people with guns. There are some 300 million guns in the United States, one in four adult Americans owns at least one and most of them are men. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, over the last 30 years, “the number of states with a law that automatically approves licences to carry concealed weapons provided an applicant clears a criminal background check has risen from eight to 38.”
Every year there are 30,000 gun deaths and perhaps as many as 300,000 gun-related assaults in the U.S. Firearm violence costs our country as much as $100 billion a year. Toys are regulated with greater care and safety concerns than guns.
So why do we always act so surprised? Violence is our alter ego, wired into our Stone Age brains, so intrinsic its toxic eruptions no longer shock, except momentarily when we hear of a mass shooting like this latest in Colorado. But this, too, will pass as the nation of the short attention span quickly finds the next thing to divert us from the hard realities of America in 2012.
We are a country which began with the forced subjugation into slavery of millions of Africans and the reliance on arms against Native Americans for its westward expansion. In truth, more settlers traveling the Oregon Trail died from accidental, self-inflicted gunshots wounds than Indian attacks – we were not only bloodthirsty but also inept.
Nonetheless, we have become so gun loving, so gun crazy, so blasé about home-grown violence that far more Americans have been casualties of domestic gunfire than have died in all our wars combined. In Arizona last year, just days after the Gabby Giffords shooting, sales of the weapon used in the slaughter – a 9 millimeter Glock semi-automatic pistol – doubled.
We are fooling ourselves. Fooling ourselves that the law could allow even an inflamed lunatic to easily acquire murderous weapons and not expect murderous consequences. Fooling ourselves that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of a “well-regulated militia” be construed as a God-given right to purchase and own just about any weapon of destruction you like, a license for murder and mayhem. A great fraud has entered our history.
Maybe you remember a video you can still see on YouTube. In it, Adam Gadahn, an American born member of al Qaeda, the first US citizen charged with treason since 1952, urges terrorists to carry out attacks on the United States. Right before your eyes he says, “America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check, and most likely, without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”
The gunman in Colorado waited only for his opportunity. So there you have it – the arsenal of democracy has been transformed into the arsenal of death. And the NRA? The NRA is the enabler of death — paranoid, delusional and as venomous as a scorpion. With the weak-kneed acquiescence of our politicians, the National Rifle Association has turned the Second Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel and deadly hoax.
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Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior
Just over a month ago the Federal Reserve quietly released a proposal to implement Basel III, an international agreement signed by twenty-seven nations aimed at ensuring the global economy’s resilience against financial disintegration.
This is the simplest explanation of what banks did --
"Late last month, Barclay's Bank, a multinational bank and financial institution based in the United Kingdom, admitted to regulators that it tried to manipulate something called "Libor" before and during the financial crisis in 2008. "Libor" is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. It is a rate used as a benchmark for the cost of lending throughout the financial system, and it is also used as a reference rate for a wide range of financial products like car loans, adjustable-rate mortgages, student loans and credit cards.
"The Libor is not based on an objective measure of the interest for bank-to-bank loans. It is the average of a daily poll of the Association's member banks, who give an estimate of the interest rate they think they would pay if they sought to borrow from another bank.
"It is supposed to be the way the financial system assesses the overall health of the financial system, because if the banks being polled feel confident about the state of things, they report a low number, because they assume that if they had to borrow from another bank, their cost of borrowing would be low. If member banks feel a low degree of confidence in the financial system, they report a higher interest rate. And from that the Libor is calculated, affecting the interest rate on financial products around the globe.
"What has emerged from the Barclay's Bank inquiry is evidence that banks may have in fact been deliberately manipulating Libor rates for years. The evidence so far is that one arm of a bank responding to the Libor poll would change their number based on what another arm of the same bank wanted—and that other arm could consist of the bank's traders who make their money on whether the rate goes up or down. This means that millions of consumers, investors and businesses have been paying the wrong interest rate. Or rather, they haven't been paying an interest rate that is set according to some legitimate benchmark. Instead they are paying a rate based on a gentlemen's agreement at financial institutions, a method that practically incentivizes those banks to game the system to maximize their profits.
"And remember, the British Bankers Association, the group that is responsible for setting the rate, is not a government agency. It is just a trade group of big banks-- Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank and others--whose decisions on such a crucial number are not based on honest accounting or rules or regulatory oversight, but on a gentlemen's agreement of honesty.
"We don't know just how deep this scandal goes. But the fact is that if a fundamental component of our financial system has been or is being manipulated, we have the right to know about it. Banks are not above the law and they should not be allowed to operate in secrecy, especially when they have a history of taxpayer bailout and when we are forced to rely on them to provide capital for economic growth."
This is all too weird. But if you oppose casino gambling, you can’t help but love it.
Adam Bond, chairman of the Middleborough Board of Selectmen and the guy who did more than anyone to try to bring the world’s largest casino to his adopted hometown, has quit the board. It seems that Bond wanted his fellow selectmen to try to grab more money from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which would own the casino, and which is now beset by legal problems, starting with the crimes of its former leader, Glenn Marshall.
(As an aside, it’s a shame that Sal DiMasi’s replacement as Massachusetts House speaker, Robert DeLeo, is a fan of casinos. Casino gambling is bad news, and we shouldn’t want it anywhere. More than anything, though, we need to keep it out of Middleborough.)
Cape Cod Times reporters George Brennan and Stephanie Vosk have a thorough account of the Bond shenanigans, and Alice Elwell of the Brockton Enterprise offers a good overview as well. In the Boston Globe, Christine Legere reports that Bond plans to keep his weekly radio show, which is broadcast here on Thursdays at 11 a.m. I shouldn’t, but it’s hard not to look when you happen upon a car crash.
As Elwell reported in a previous story, Bond had already alienated the board with his blog, which, I have to confess, is too tedious for me to wade through — though I do enjoy his claim that one of the selectmen, Mimi Duphily, “wanted to ‘rip my face off.’”
So I’ll give the great Gladys Kravitz the last word:
[A]s the person who has been putting Bond under a microscope since 2007 — believe it, this is a good day. This is a great day. It’s a pick up your American flag, go outside and stand on your porch or the hood of your car and let out a big WhooHoo type of day.
The king of all drama queens had a meltdown and provided you with an extra seat on the Middleboro Board of Selectmen. Now pick up a broom and sweep away the damage. Then pull back the curtain on the light of a better day.
One down, four to go. More: The Enterprise editorializes on Bond’s “unconventional and inappropriate” behavior.
Middleborough Board of Selectmen chairman Adam Bond, a prime mover behind plans to build a casino mega-complex in his adopted town, is complaining that Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leaders failed to call their old pal before asking state officials to negotiate with them.
Matthew Burke reports in the Cape Cod Times today that the tribe has formally approached Gov. Deval Patrick in order to work out a compact that would allow the Mashpee to build a $1 billion casino in Middleborough.
Bond, writing on his blog, can’t believe it. “The spirit and the letter of the agreement make it absolutely clear that we should be present, or our rights have been irreparably harmed,” says Bond, a lawyer, who criticizes the tribe for approaching the state “with no mention of Middleborough being at the table for the talks.”
Please. Does Bond think for one moment that the big-money folks behind the casino plans care about Middleborough? As I and others have been arguing for more than a year now, Bond says he sought the casino in order to save the town; but he’s going to end up destroying it. No doubt the town will get a seat at the table, as the agreement appears to require it. But that’s hardly “mutual respect for the partnership,” the lack of which surprises no one other than Bond.
As Burke’s story notes, the tribe can’t operate a full casino unless the state Legislature legalizes Class III gambling, which the House declined to do earlier this year. Speaker Sal DiMasi is presumably as opposed now as he was then, but you can be sure casino proponents — including Patrick — are going to make another run at it.
As for the latest development, perhaps yesterday will stand as a landmark moment in the education of Adam Bond. And here’s a thought: The agreement forbids town officials from opposing the Mashpee’s plans. But if the Mashpee abrogate the agreement, Bond and his fellow selectmen would presumably be free to do the right thing the second time around. Indeed, Bond even hints at it toward the end of his post.
Matt Viser of the Boston Globe has more. Wednesday afternoon update: Alice Elwell of the Brockton Enterprise reports that tribal leaders are now claiming the document that Bond complained about was just a draft, and that they never meant to exclude Middleborough officials.
This is surreal. Casino supporter Hal Brown, who has compared opponents to the Ku Klux Klan, and Middleborough selectman Adam Bond, who has compared them to Nazis, are going to talk about “the sociopathology of internet abusers and why they feel compelled to do it” at 11 a.m. today on Bond’s radio show, “Coffee Shop Talk,” on WXBR Radio (AM 1460).
It seems that Bond and Brown are very excited over this story in the Taunton Gazette about Michael Quish, a limousine-company owner and casino supporter, who whines that he’s been harassed online. Hey, it’s a tough world out there. I’m not condoning the kind of behavior he describes, but it’s endemic to the medium, and the Gazette could have cited just as many examples on the other side. Quish, by the way, will be joining Bond and Brown.
Should be an interesting hour. You can listen live, and I’m going to try to do just that. Update: Well, there’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.
Adam Bond has removed his post in which he says he just can’t help but be reminded of the Nazis whenever he thinks about opponents of the proposed Middleborough casino. Now I wish I’d quoted an excerpt when I alluded to it yesterday.
Oh, wait — Bellicose Bumpkin has it here. It’s nice to know that Bond’s brilliance lives on.
Adam Bond, the Middleborough selectman who led the effort to bring casino gambling to town, wants you to know that he would never, ever be so gross as to compare casino opponents to Nazis. Just like the pro-casino folks at Casino-friend.com would never, ever stoop so low as to compare us to the Ku Klux Klan.
The mess in Middleborough keeps spreading, and, as always, you just can’t make this stuff up. We begin this morning at Cape Cod Today, which flogs a story in the New York Times (CCT links to a Times sister paper, the International Herald Tribune), and observes that the land purchased by the Mashpee Wampanoags on which they plan to build a casino is near a contaminated toxic-waste site. The story is preceded by a CCT “Editor’s Note” that says:
This grim discovery of two Super Fund sites in Middleborough which is the town chosen for the Mashpee Wampanoag casino by their South African investors and former tribal leader Glenn Marshall, immediately raises the specter of past injuries to the tribe by others. Lord Jeffrey Amherst is remembered as the European who wiped out tribes by encouraging his soldiers to distribute blankets contaminated with Smallpox to Native Americans in 1763.
The toxic-waste sites, linked to an improbably high rate of Lou Gehrig’s disease (see this New Bedford Standard-Times story by Phil Devitt), are near Everett Square, a densely settled neighborhood in the downtown. The proposed casino site is out in the sticks, several miles away. Though the New York Times story, by Michele Morgan Bolton, juxtaposes the tale of the Superfund sites with the casino in ways that are at times confusing, she does not allege a direct link between the two. Still, as CCT points out, this is pretty interesting.*
Elsewhere at Cape Cod Today, the indefatigable Peter Kenney tells the exceedingly weird story of Desiré Hendricks Moreno, secretary of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council and sister of Shawn Hendricks, who took over as chairman of the council following the resignation of disgraced tribal leader Glenn Marshall. According to Kenney:
Reliable sources say that Desire Hendricks Moreno provided sanctuary for her cousin, Sharon Fitzpatrick, after Fitzpatrick’s husband was stabbed to death in Boston. Fitzpatrick has been charged with the murder and is free on $250,000 cash bail. According to one source in Mashpee, “Everyone in town knew she was at her cousin’s house over the weekend. And she was bragging about it afterwards.”
Kenney appears to be out there on the edge here, but his previous reporting on this story has not been successfully challenged. As Kenney also notes, the tribal council’s financial affairs are already being investigated by various government agencies, although it appears that Marshall, rather than Hendricks and Moreno, is the target of those investigations.
Meanwhile, the man who has most publicly associated himself with the mess that Middleborough stumbled into, Selectman Adam Bond, is trying to get himself hired as the $130,000-a-year town manager, even though he doesn’t meet even the minimal requirements that have been posted for the position.
The Boston Globe’s Christine Wallgren reports that Bond, who lacks a master’s degree in public administration, one of the prerequisites, thinks his law degree ought to suffice. How badly does Bond want the job? He tells Wallgren: “Why don’t they just offer me less money for the job, and tell me I have to go back to school to get a master’s in public administration?” I guess practicing law isn’t as lucrative as it used to be. Maybe that explains why he’s never bothered to do anything with his Web site.
By the way, one of Bond’s main backers, Tony Lawrence, is associated with Casino-friend.com, whose editor and publisher, Hal Brown, has compared casino opponents to the Ku Klux Klan.
In the Brockton Enterprise, Alice Elwell writes that Middleborough officials were silenced at a recent meeting of representatives from nearby communities. The reason given was the lack of consideration Middleborough reportedly showed those communities in approving a casino deal with the tribe last summer.
And, finally, the Cape Cod Times fronts a long report by Stephanie Vosk and George Brennan on Sol Kerzner and Len Wolman, the South African investors behind the Mashpee Wampanoags.
Vosk and Brennan write: “Most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe can only wonder how much of their sovereignty has been signed away to help Kerzner and Wolman continue their dominance of New England’s gambling industry.” *Update: I have revised this item to reflect changes in Cape Cod Today’s presentation of the New York Times story. Disclosure #1: Cape Cod Today has begun serializing my book, “Little People,” today. I am not getting paid. Disclosure #2: Just click here.
