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Middleboro Review 2

NEW CONTENT MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW 2

Toyota

Since the Dilly, Dally, Delay & Stall Law Firms are adding their billable hours, the Toyota U.S.A. and Route 44 Toyota posts have been separated here:

Route 44 Toyota Sold Me A Lemon



Tuesday, March 29, 2016

MASSterList: DCF's unending burden | Howie and Trump Kool Aid | 'Dear General Electric'






Flip Flop Tea Bagger Guv Charlie Baker joined with the Dirty Energy Koch Brothers to oppose clean energy Cape Wind....anyone remember? 



With the closure of Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear, light has dawned on Good Ol' Charlie! 




The best Charlie can do is HYDRO POWER? 

Since Kinder Morgan Bought & Paid for Charlie, don't expect a reasonable opposition there either. 

Hindsight's always 20/20 Charlie!



 
Tuesday, March 29, 2016


By Jay Fitzgerald and Keith Regan

Today: Fighting cancer, AGs meet on climate change, flexing solar power





Gov. Charlie Baker will get a crew cut again (we think) in support of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Energy and Environmental Secretary Matt Beaton, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch and others will lose their hair too, Granite Telecommunications, LLC, 150 Newport Ave Ext., Quincy, 10 a.m.
Attorney General Maura Healey attends a climate change press conference with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and former Vice President Al Gore, Office of New York Attorney General, 120 Broadway, 25th floor, New York, 11:30.
Tim Murray, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce president and former lieutenant governor, joins with lawmakers and others to push for vocational school funding included in the governor's jobs bill, Room 428, 1 p.m.
Solar industry officials and supporters will host a press briefing before walking to the State House to meet with lawmakers and deliver petitions calling for expansion of solar projects, Parker House, 60 School Street, 9:30 a.m.
With a crowded field of Democrats seeking to succeed former Sen. Anthony Petruccelli in an April 12 special primary, candidates will gather for a West End Forum on Innovation, 239 Causeway St., 5:30 p.m.
DCF's seemingly intractable problems
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday unveiled a new set of policies for the state's embattled Department of Children and Families, despite low morale among agency workers and problems implementing changes rolled out last fall, the Globe's David Scharfenberg and Joshua Miller report. http://bit.ly/1RoQO3X

The striking thing about yesterday's announcement was how honest and open people were about the difficulties implementing reforms at DCF. "We still have an enormous amount of work to do, and the job of improving how the state cares for its most vulnerable children is probably never done," Baker is quoted as saying in a story by MassLive's Shira Schoenberg. http://bit.ly/1XZTllE
One qualifier to Baker's remarks: The reforms and work will indeed never be done, no "probably" necessary. Come to think of it, the word "seemingly" isn't needed in the headline above. Why? Because DCF is dealing with the most heart-wrenching and difficult thing state government can do in any field: Separating children from their parents. It's beyond emotional and yet, at times, necessary. Much of the criticism recently aimed at DCF has been warranted and reforms were and are needed. Yet the DCF's mission, by its very nature, is still a thankless lose-lose situation for everyone involved. The governor is right to warn there's really no end point to all this, just constant commitment.
NU professor: Howie Carr has downed the Trump Kool-Aid
To the Herald's credit, Northeastern University professor Michael G. Mayer is allowed to take swipes at the paper's own star columnist Howie Carr, as well as take shots at other radio talk-show hosts such as Laura Ingraham and Michal Savage, for their unbridled support for Donald Trump. "I happened to hear Carr's (WRKO) show the day Trump announced his candidacy, and I remember Carr's sounding rather skeptical about the whole enterprise," Mayer writes in the Herald. "Over the next several weeks, however, Carr drank deeply of the Trump Kool-Aid - and ever since then his show has been pretty much a nonstop Trumpathon." http://bit.ly/21QUvkh
The radio hosts' re-definition of what constitutes a RINO (Republican in name only) has been particularly interesting. Basically, a RINO is now anyone who opposes or criticizes Trump, according to the radio pundits.
The Lowell Sun's Peter Lucas is not a talk-radio host - and he's also not a crazy uncle. "Hey, Seth Moulton, I'm the crazy uncle you're talking about. And I'm not alone. There are 311,313 of us who voted for Donald Trump in the Massachusetts Republican presidential primary, a contest he won going away with 49.3 percent of the vote."http://bit.ly/1Uzeo0H





Face it, Massachusetts: We're slobs
Every year, the state picks up an average of 360 tons of trash along major state holidays. "Let's be frank," writes Neil Rhein, executive director of Keep Massachusetts Beautiful, at Commonwealth Magazine. "The amount of litter along Massachusetts' highways, city sidewalks, suburban streets, and secluded country roads is a public disgrace." He's calling on residents and leaders to participate in the Great Massachusetts Cleanup later this spring. http://bit.ly/1Sto6h9
Zakim calls for travel ban to North Carolina over transgender bill
Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim is proposing a ban on all city-sponsored travel to North Carolina due to that state's passage of legislation prohibiting transgender people from using public restrooms that do not match their so-called "birth gender," reports Boston Magazine's Kyle Scott Clauss. http://bit.ly/1RwWJjS
'Dear General Electric ...'
General Electric may be getting rent-free digs at its future home in the Fort Point Channel area, notes the Globe's Joan Vennochi, adding that Boston's welcome to GE "seems more than warm enough" without such perks.http://bit.ly/1REaG1U
But even more startling is that GE seems absolutely clueless about the Fort Point site's historic significance. "When you set up your new world headquarters on Necco Street in the Seaport District, be mindful that you will be building on what many music fans consider hallowed ground," writes the Boston Business Journal's Greg Walsh, in a open letter to the firm. "Yes, the site is but a parking lot once replete with overgrown weeds and broken glass. But there also lies the foundation of one of Boston's most famous, if not infamous, nightclubs in its long and storied rock-and-roll history: The Channel." ... The Channel. Now there's a blast from the past. Has it really been 25 years since it closed? Good recall by Greg. http://bit.ly/1RN5bRq
Walsh and Chang: Can't we all get along?
As some critics lob complaints about the lucrativeness of the GE deal, Mayor Marty Walsh and school superintendent Tommy Chang in a Globe op-ed appeal for unity amid tough budget times for the city's schools: "This year's budget conversation has been fragmented, pitting various needs against one another. The reality is, our challenges are deeply interwoven, so action in one area affects many others. That means long-term solutions must be comprehensive, and the route to finding them must be collaborative. We need unity now more than ever." http://bit.ly/1Stonk7
letmassshine.com




Boston needs to clear the way for innovators, not throw up barriers
Harvard professor Edward Glaeser says Boston and other cities need to be more open to new ideas, such as Uber, if they're going to thrive moving forward. "When cities block these innovations, they are stopping urban innovators from creating employment opportunities and from making cities more livable," Glaeser writes at NewBotonPost.com. "Boston should be a laboratory of opportunity, and that means fewer rules that limit new buildings and new businesses. Freedom and city life are old friends. They must continue to travel together." http://bit.ly/1MPpt5i
 
 
T moves to end cash payments
The MBTA is fast-tracking a plan to move away from cash payments on it is trolleys and buses, a shift that should make boarding more efficient, Bruce Mohl reports at CommonWealth Magazine. The T will seek proposals for a new payment system this spring and it could be in place within two years. Although some MBTA Control Board members want to speed up the changes, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said the project is already moving faster than any comparable project in the agency's history. http://bit.ly/1My0sks
 
 
Texting and walking: 'You can't legislate common sense'
Even Rep. Bruce Ayers, who led the fight against texting and driving in Massachusetts, says officials are going too far in New Jersey by pushing for a ban on texting and walking at the same time, the Herald's Bob McGovern reports.
"This really sounds like it's a little extreme," Ayers says. "You can't legislate common sense." Ayers said. He added that he likes to think people would be more cognizant of the danger posed by walking and texting while crossing a street. But ... never mind. http://bit.ly/1VRj40R
 
 
City worker incentive plan floated for Worcester's triple deckers
Worcester City Councilor George Russell wants the city to create incentives to increase the rate of owner-occupied triple-decker homes, Michael D. Kane of MassLive reports. Russell-who is also a realtor and got the green light from the city's legal department to bring the proposal forward-wants Worcester to study the correlation between absentee ownership and quality of life and is also proposing the city find ways to encourage employees, especially those in the public safety agencies, to purchase and live in the city's iconic three-deckers. http://bit.ly/22HXEZu
 
 
Lawmakers lagging public on marijuana, businesses opposed
Based on election ballot results and recent polling, the bid to legalize recreational marijuana likely enjoys widespread public support, putting a host of elected officials on the minority side of the issue, MassINC's Steve Koczela suggests in a piece at WBUR. "[By] every metric available, public opinion appears to favor legalization, and by wider margins with each passing year." http://wbur.fm/1Ro6VP4
 
 

Meanwhile, about 62 percent of businesses operating in the state oppose the legalization initiative in a survey sponsored by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Donna Goodison of the Herald reports. http://bit.ly/1PCSpNR

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