Granby 01033

Live Blogging 5: VP Debate

2008-10-03T15:58:00.001+14:00

Live Blogging 4: VP Debate

2008-10-03T15:40:00.003+14:00

Iraq. Palin: Gen. Petraeus is wonderful. The surge was wonderful. Obama opposed it. Obama voted against funding the troops.

Biden: With all respect, I didn't hear a plan. McCain voted against funding the troops too.

Palin: Your plan is a white flag of surrender.

Palin has stopped her own slide. She comes across well. If she lacks a political future, she has possibilities on conservative television. I'm not being snarky. I mean it. I don't think her performance is going to save the ticket. But she could learn to do it. And she looks like one of the women on cable news.

Campaign Benefit: This debate is about John McCain, not Obama. The fact checkers will prove key assertions of Biden, that McCain voted against funding the troops, for example.

Biden is killing them with what he knows and how competent he is. Palin is fine, but he's damaging their ticket.

Biden just gaffed on Israel. He said we and France kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. He meant Syria. His statement was correct, he just screwed up the words.

Mark

Live Blogging 3: VP Debate

2008-10-03T15:27:00.002+14:00

The first 25 minutes focused on John McCain. Biden attacked McCain. Palin sang to know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him.

Palin just had a funky sentence. It's 9:28. She criticizes East Coast politicians. She's touting oil as the key to energy independence.

Climate change. Palin doesn't want to argue about causes. Stresses non-human causes. Biden should be ready for this after her Couric interview.

Biden: If you don't know the cause, it's hard to come up with the solution.

Tired Tactic: Both candidates have given a number of votes that the other ticket supported. So and so has voted x number of times against blah-blah-blah.

Palin just called him "Senator O'Biden." It's 9:34.

This is one wonky debate. Less BS and actual issues.

Palin's talking tolerance on gay relationships, but doesn't support marriage as anything as between men and women. This was the issue that helped The Worst President Ever get elected in 2004. Wow, times have changed.

--Mb

Live Blogging 2: VP Debate

2008-10-03T15:15:00.002+14:00

Second 15 Minutes: Focus on Tax Cuts

Biden on Obama's plan to raise taxes on rich: "We don't call it redistribution. It's called fairness."

Biden is good. He sounds Presidential. Like he could be President. Palin is well-spoken. She hasn't had to respond to something she isn't prepared for. She's stuck with general statements of Republican ideology. Government can't do anything right.

Palin talks about McCain insurance tax credit. The plan is said to be unworkable and will end up taxing those of us who get benefits from our employers. He'll give you $5000 for insurance. Biden is right. My plan does costs about $12,000 a year. That's not counting copays for prescriptions and office visits.

Thought for the Day: McCain's campaign sucks, but it's also 8 years out of date. In 2000, the general ideas, appeals to patriotism, and hockey moms would have been okay. But I think the electorate knows that America is really in deep. When everyone is rich, fat, and feeling groovy, they don't have a problem with a campaign of BS. Now they are afraid and they have had 8 years of incompetence. They are ready for a change.

--Mb

Live Blogging: VP Debate

2008-10-03T15:02:00.002+14:00

A polite, cordial greeting from the candidates.

Palin: Hey, can I call you Joe?

Bail Out Question: Biden thanks Gwen and says it's nice to meet Palin. He talks about Obama's principles for the bailout/rescue. Very details.

Palin talks about fear of everyday people at a soccer game. Speaks of need for reform. McCain for reform? He's been strong on de-regulation for years. Brings up suspending his campaign. A good idea?

Biden talks about his record for reaching across the aisle. He brings up McCain saying the fundamentals of economy are strong. McCain is out of touch.

Palin was talking to and about the American work force. Compliments to the American work force. They are what makes America strong. Tries to connect Biden and Obama to business as usual.

Ifill calls them on not answering the question of what they'd do as VP.

Financial crisis. Palin: greed and corruption. Joe 6 Pack and hockey moms need to band together to say "Never again will we be taken advantage of."

Biden: Obama warned about the crisis two years ago. McCain, I'm always in favor of cutting regulations. The idea of self-regulation. McCain wants to de-regulate health insurance.

So far, so polite. Palin is on her game, but she still doesn't know much. She stacks up numbers on Obama not cutting taxes. Biden started it with numbers on de-regulation.

Lie Alert: Palin says Obama wanted to raise taxes on people making $40,000. Biden shoots it down. He calls her on not answering the deregulation question.

Favorite word so far: "Darn."

Mark

Visit Granby01033 at Our New Site: www.granbymass.net

2008-07-26T15:18:00.001+14:00

www.granbymass.net

GOP NJ Website Compares Obama to O.J.

2008-07-10T07:08:00.004+14:00

It's hard to remember a moderate Republican Party if you're my age. There was once such a thing. There were even liberal Republicans once. Think of Teddy Roosevelt. Think Republican turned Independent John Anderson who ran for President in 1980. Think of Connecticut's Lowell Weicker.

What happened? It's a long story. For a lot of reasons, the GOP was hijacked by the Far Right. It's always been an uneasy coalition of libertarians, pro-business types, and the religious right. But it's held together for 30 years.

Now it's falling apart. I know a lot of Republicans who don't fit the ultra-conservative model represented by the hate-mongers that have driven the party starboard in the last couple of decades. It's hard to imagine the Republicans of the 1950's running a campaign like Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey's "Inmates for Deval." It was pure nastiness.

The Republican Party in one New Jersey county has thinking along the same lines. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A banner slogan on the Pemberton Republican Club's Web site that said, "Obama loves America like O.J. loved Nicole," disappeared yesterday after local Democrats alleged racist campaign tactics.
The Web master, Ed Kuck, a recently elected Republican County committeeman, said he had seen the slogan on an Internet site and copied it onto the club's Web page about a month ago as "a joke."
He removed it yesterday from the site, http://homewebs.net/pem, after a community person told him it would offend people, he said.
"I found out it was inappropriate, and I took it down," Kuck said, adding: "I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended, because that wasn't our intention at all."
Pemberton Councilwoman Diane Stinney said a Republican friend had called to tell her about the ad, saying: "I just want you to know I'm very disappointed with our Republican page."
Stinney then reported it to fellow Democrats.
She said the slogan had offended her, adding that Pemberton is a very diverse community.
"We've come a very long way, and we people of different colors still have a lot of growing up to do, but there are other issues that the two [presidential] candidates have to and should be addressing," she said.

Mr. Kuck must be a funny guy.

--Mb

Sunderland Farmer Experiments With Grass

2008-07-10T06:39:00.002+14:00

Switch grass.
Native to the American prairies, it was slowly replaced by European grasses. Cows can eat it. It works as a ground cover and prevents erosion. It can grow in all sorts of conditions without a lot of cultivation. It's also a crop that many are looking to for alternative energy.

Germany and China use it in places to replace natural gas. It can also be pressed into pellets and used in pellet stoves. Scientists, with the help of government grants, are working to develop cost-effective ways of turning switch grass into ethanol.

And it's a hell of a lot more efficient than corn-based ethanol, according to the Scientific American, "switchgrass ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies." And it doesn't have the negative effect of raising food prices when farmers dedicate land to fuel rather than food production.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports:

SUNDERLAND - They may be sprouts now, but Robert Williams of Mount Toby Farm in Sunderland hopes to heat his dairy farm and home for one year with the biofuel he will reap from an acre of switchgrass.
Williams is one of the few farmers in Massachusetts growing plants for "second generation" or "advanced" biofuels - biological energy sources that do not deplete corn, sugar or other food crops.
Through a partnership with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Extension Program and several state agencies, 10 farmers in western Massachusetts are growing switchgrass and crambe, an oil-seed plant.
"We're going to need something besides oil and propane," said Williams, a seventh-generation farmer. "We're doing a small amount now, see how it pans out."
Over the last few years, as oil prices climbed to $145 a barrel and concern about the environmental effects of carbon emissions has grown, the state has pumped up biofuels.
Bay State farmers are just now beginning to invest their land in the process.
In Massachusetts, as elsewhere in the world, biofuels face an uphill battle against black, bubbling crude. Biofuels must straddle a line in sharing land with and not depleting food crops.
And the infrastructure needed to convert biomass into fuel and distribute it does not yet exist.
All the while, oil and food prices soar. The price of cereal, for example, increased by more than 60 percent from 2005 to 2006, due in part to biofuel production, according to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

This is history in the making.

--Mb

Fabricius Named Leader of the Pack

2008-07-10T04:18:00.003+14:00

Granby has a good thing going with the Cub Scouts. My nephew Luc Chauvin and his father Rob (GHS '83) are very active and they have a blast. They participate in all kinds of events ranging from hikes and camp outs to lighting the Christmas tree in front of Granby's town hall.

Cub Scouts Pack 34 was run well by Tammy Tucker Bibeau (GHS '81), but her son is moving up to Boy Scouts, and she is moving on. So the Pack has a new master Jay Fabricius (GHS '84).

The Republican reports:

One of his first duties as cub master was to be "pied" by those cub scouts who sold the most popcorn during a fundraiser to help pay for summer camp.
One of the pie throwers was Fabricius' son, Logan, 8, who sold $500 worth of products and got to throw two cream pies. The other two pie throwers were also from Den 6. They were Nathan Varney, 7, who sold $750 worth of popcorn items and got to throw four pies, and Andrew LeBlanc, 7, who sold $280 worth of popcorn products, and got to throw one pie.
Activities planned for the summer include: rain gutter regatta, kick ball every Tuesday night, sleepover with the Pawtucket Red Sox, monthly Pack hikes, Cub Scout summer camp, and camp out at Camp Fabricius, the Fabricius property

--Mb

Please Vist New Blog Site

2008-07-09T12:12:00.005+14:00

It may take a while for you and me to get used to my new blog site. I'll feel better when I can change the picture on the blog to something from Granby, rather than Manhattan. Nonetheless, I'm starting my posting there.

I'm still working on fixing it so you can receive Granby01033 in your email.

Please visit Granby01033 at www.granbymass.net.

Mark

Premier Alumni Day Picnic, August 9

2008-07-09T04:22:00.001+14:00

AUGUST 20, 2008

PRESS RELEASE
FROM ALUMNI ’08 COMMITTEE

CONTACT: PAUL ROBITAILLE: 413-427-9613

Premier Alumni Day Picnic Scheduled for August 9

On Saturday, June 14, members of the reunion committee for the Class of 68, held a bake sale and 50/50 drive to jumpstart the coffers for their 40th reunion as well as the first-ever Alumni Day Picnic to be held in August this year.

On Friday evening, August 8, the Classes of 67, 68, 69 and 70 will gather for their respective class reunions at Adelfia’s banquet facilities on Route 202, South Hadley. The evening will begin with a social hour featuring an international cheese board and cash bar followed by a buffet dinner.

However one evening together is just not enough. So on Saturday, August 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. the four classes will host the first-ever ALUMNI DAY PICNIC at Dufresne Recreation Area, Rte. 202, in Granby, where ALL GRANBY HIGH alumni, from the year 1964 through current graduates, are invited. There is no cost for admission or parking. Guests can bring their own eats and drinks in coolers, or they may purchase food at the concession provided by an independent vendor.

Softball and volleyball games will bring old friends together again, along with favorite oldies from back in the day. So bring yearbooks and brag books and enjoy a day with old friends.

Anyone wishing more information about their respective reunions or the Alumni Day festivities, may call Donna McKay, Class of 67: 413-533-4262: Paul Robitaille, Class of 68: 413-427-9613; Russ Boudreau, Class of 69: 413-538-9342.

BE SURE TO LOOK FOR UPDATED PRESS RELEASES IN UPCOMING WEEKS.

Now Accepting Event Listings

2008-07-08T09:53:00.003+14:00

In the next couple of days, I'll be posting full-time at the Granby01033's new address: www.granbymass.net.

I've been able to add a calendar function, so I can run a list of events. I'd like to keep it mostly Granby stuff, but I could make exceptions.

If your organization has an event planned or if you're just having a tag sale, let me know and post it at www.granbymass.net.

Mark

Bush Didn't Break the Economy (Even If He Broke Everything Else)

2008-07-08T08:41:00.003+14:00

"I think when people take a look back at this moment in our economic history, they’ll recognize tax cuts work.”

--The Worst President Ever

He's the most clueless president we've had in a century.

The idea that tax cuts are the key to a healthy economy is in the process of playing itself out. Except for disinvesting in the nation's infrastructure and increasing the divide between the rich and poor, tax cuts haven't done anything for the economy.

Still, the fault with today's economy lies not so much with The Worst President Ever or his tax cuts as the short-term thinking of Republicans and neo-liberal Democrats.

He Who Must Be Read says that the current economic mess isn't the fault of The Worst President Ever. Mind, you, he didn't do anything to help, but the actual causes of the current crisis date back farther to the short-sighted energy and health policies of 1990's:

At the top of my list of causes for the lousy economy are three factors: the housing bubble and its aftermath, rising health care costs and soaring raw materials prices. I’ve written a lot about housing, so today let’s talk about the others.
One of the underemphasized keys to the Clinton boom, I’d argue, was the way the cost disease of health care went into remission between 1993 and 2000. For a while, the spread of managed care put a lid on premiums, encouraging companies to expand their work forces.
But premiums surged again after 2000, imposing huge new burdens on business. It’s a good bet that this played an important role in weak job creation.
What about raw materials prices? During the Clinton years basic commodities stayed cheap by historical standards. Since then, however, food and energy prices have exploded, directly lopping about 5 percent off the typical American family’s real income, and raising business costs throughout the economy.
Much of this pain could have been avoided.
If Bill Clinton’s attempt to reform health care had succeeded, the U.S. economy would be in much better shape today. But the attempt failed — and let’s remember why. Yes, the Clinton administration botched the politics. But it was Republicans in Congress who blocked reform, as Newt Gingrich pursued a strategy of “coagulation” designed to “clot everyone away” from Mr. Clinton.
As for high food and fuel prices, they’re mainly the result of growing demand from China and other emerging economies. But oil prices wouldn’t be as high as they are, and the United States would have been much less vulnerable to the current price spike, if we had taken steps in the past to limit our oil consumption.
Mr. Bush certainly deserves some blame here, and not just for his destructive embrace of ethanol as the answer to our energy problems. After 9/11 he could easily have called for higher gas taxes and fuel efficiency standards as a national security measure, but the thought never seems to have crossed his mind.
Still, in energy as in health care the biggest missed opportunities came 15 or more years ago, when Mr. Gingrich and other conservative Republicans in Congress, aided by Democrats with ties to energy-intensive industries, blocked conservation measures.
So here’s the bottom line: Mr. Bush deserves some blame for the poor performance of the economy on his watch, but much of the blame lies with other, earlier political figures, who squandered chances for reform. As it happens, however, most though not all of the politicians responsible for our current economic difficulties were Republicans.
--Mb

McCain Flops Back to Balanced Budget Promise

2008-07-08T06:52:00.002+14:00

Thanks to the Worst Presidency Ever, it will take years, perhaps a generation or more, before America is looking at a balanced budget (if that is even a good thing). President Bill Clinton gave us a balanced budget, but he couldn't have done it without the hi-tech boom of the 1990's.

With the Iraq War costing us billions a month, we'd have to be cutting the federal budget by billions a month to come out somewhere near even. That's without an economic recession, which means fewer taxes collected, and an exponential leap in the cost of fuel, which is increasing the cost of everything.

Sen. John McCain, however, is promising to balance the budget by the end of his first term as President.

PHOENIX – Senator John McCain is pledging once again to balance the budget by the end of his first term in 2013, his advisers said Monday, reverting to an earlier pledge he had abandoned in April when he proposed a series of costly tax cuts for corporations and high earners and said it might take two terms to balance the budget.
It is unclear how Mr. McCain plans to balance the budget, given that fiscal analysts who have examined his economic plans say that his calls to extend the Bush tax cuts while cutting corporate and other taxes would likely increase the deficit.
Mr. McCain plans to talk about the economy – which has eclipsed Iraq and terrorism in polls of voter concerns – all week.

I may be wrong, but balanced budgets are for times when people aren't worrying about money. It takes a lot of contentment to care whether the government is paying all of its bills on time when you can't pay your own.

Glad to see the switch in McCain's campaign management is making a difference.

--Mb

This Is How They Do It: U.S. DOE Credit Card Use

2008-07-08T06:41:00.002+14:00

There's always some waste, always some abuse. Good government means preventing it, minimizing it, and punishing it.

But when the Administration in power doesn't really believe government can do anything right, what else do you expect? From the Washington Post:

U.S. Department of Education employees inappropriately used government credit cards to purchase $49,500 worth of goods and services, including meals, items at clothing stores and rental cars, for personal use, according to a review by the department's inspector general.
Auditors examining a sample of business travel expenses for fiscal 2006 found $18,256 in inappropriate charges made by 34 employees. The charges included payments to clothing retailers and restaurants near their homes or office.
Twenty-nine people used bank cards to withdraw about $17,600 more than allowed under the department's travel allowance for meals and incidentals. Four department workers made $13,570 in bank card withdrawals when they weren't on business travel. One logged 44 withdrawals totaling $8,560.
It could not be determined yesterday whether employees paid for the personal expenses they charged. The cards are issued to individual employees who are responsible for paying the bills but then seek reimbursement.

--Mb

This Is How They Do It: Harball Lobbying & Political Sleaze on Beacon Hill

2008-07-08T05:52:00.004+14:00

As more details come out, Cognos, the IBM subsidiary that managed a over-priced contract with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts looks as bad as some of our state officials.

True, it doesn't necessarily take much to make our ethically-challenged House Speaker Sal DiMasi look bad or to make the first year or so of the Patrick Administration to look less than competent. What stands out, however, in the deal, is at least one government official who turned down the hard charging, possibly illegal lobbying by a hired representative of Cognos. And now, she's talking.

According to the Globe,

A former state Department of Education administrator has told investigators that she was offered a private sector job by a sales representative for Cognos ULC, around the same time that the software company was attempting to win a lucrative education contract in 2006, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Maureen Chew was the education department's chief information officer when, she told state officials, she was approached by Joseph Lally, a Cognos representative trying to broker a multimillion-dollar contract between Cognos and the state.
Lally was a former Cognos vice president who was selling the company's software through a new sales firm he had founded. Chew told officials he had offered her a job at his company, Montvale Solutions, during a lunch meeting, and that she declined it.
Chew refused to meet with Lally after the offer was made, but Lally went over her head to her superiors in a successful effort to land a multimillion-dollar software contract, according to the officials. He had unusual access to the Department of Education's headquarters in Malden, she told officials, appearing there multiple times, though she didn't know whom he was visiting.
If he made a job offer, Lally could have violated the state's conflict of interest law, which bars private individuals from offering anything to a public official with the intent to influence an official act.
The report of the job offer marks yet another instance of Cognos appearing in the thick of questionable activity in pursuit of state business. After Cognos won a $13 million contract to sell management performance software to the state in 2007, the state inspector general sharply criticized the deal, saying the bidding process was so rushed and faulty that the deal should be rescinded.
Neither Lally nor Chew, who now works for the information technology division of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, returned phone calls from the Globe seeking comment. Last week Chew was interviewed by investigators from the inspector general's office.

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence tools are a type of application software designed to report, analyze and present data. The tools generally read data that have been previously stored often, though, not necessarily, in a data warehouse or data mart. [Wikipedia]

Many people are familiar with spreadsheets and databases, software applications used to process and report data. The Massachusetts Department of Education was looking into Cognos software in order to manage aspects of educational accountability in the Commonwealth. Cognos offers business intelligence software for big systems. Its website describes the functions management software and services as follows:

Calculate curriculum costs, identify good fundraising programs
Monitor student headcount and performance, program outcomes, school reputation, national agendas, and other KPIs
Share secure Web-based information with all stakeholders
Manage endowments and recruitment through driver-based planning
Spot high- and low-performance schools or programs
Map enrollment to attendance and attendance to performance
Speed compliance reporting

--Mb

America Losing Jobs

2008-07-07T09:53:00.002+14:00

Unemployment is up.

The United States is now losing jobs.

As Robert Reich writes, "Total job losses since the first of the year are now 438,000. That's a loss of 73,000 a month. The economy needs to CREATE 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. In other words, this hole is getting deeper."

The Kansas City Star:

The national job situation continued to sour in June with a net loss of 62,000 payroll jobs, the government said Thursday.
Private economists warned not to expect a turnaround until 2009.
The grim outlook reflected six straight months of job cuts — a sustained slide that hadn’t occurred since 2001-02 — and an unchanged 5.5 percent unemployment rate, the highest level in four years.
“This statistic was greatly affected by the number of discouraged adults who have left the labor force,” said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland who follows the labor market. “Factoring in the decline in the number of adults participating in the labor force, the unemployment rate is closer to 7.2 percent.”
Voter surveys indicate the economy is the top concern, and economists said they expect the June jobs report to cause presidential contenders to focus more on the topic.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday also revised upward the job loss numbers initially reported for April and May. U.S. employers cut 52,000 more jobs in those months than first tallied.
Since December, payroll employment has fallen by 438,000 jobs.
Another indicator, also reported Thursday, suggested further upward revisions in jobless numbers can be expected. Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 404,000 last week, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a separate report.
That brought the national four-week moving average of new jobless claims to its highest level since October 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

--Mb

McCain's Wholesale Politics Problem

2008-07-06T11:05:00.003+14:00

“I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lex-eeg-ton Project...The Lex-igg-ton Project... Project Lexington... The Lexington Project... Remember that name.”

--Sen. John McCain

In a town meeting in Cincinnati the next day, Mr. McCain would again slip up on the name of the Massachusetts town, where, he noted, “Americans asserted their independence once before.” He called it “the Lexiggdon Project” and twice tried to fix his error before flipping the name (“Project Lexington”) in subsequent references.

Retail politics is informal. small crowds. Kissing babies, shaking hands, speaking off the cuff. Sen. John McCain is a gifted-retail politician. He's used his Straight Talk Express to great effect. Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson wrote about the McCain's retail effect

In his book Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, Tucker Carlson explains the source of many journalists' attraction to the Arizona senator: "McCain ran an entire presidential campaign aimed primarily at journalists.... To a greater degree than any candidate in thirty years, McCain offered reporters the three things they want most: total access all the time, an endless stream of amusing quotes, and vast quantities of free booze."

Aside from a campaign that has been terribly run, McCain seems to be a particularly poor whole sale politician. He flubs his soundbites and can't read from a teleprompter. National campaigns depend on wholesale politics. The NYT reports:

A politician who has thrived in the give-and-take settings of campaign buses, late-night TV couches and town meetings, he now is trying to meet the more formal speaking demands of a general election campaign.
By his own admission, Mr. McCain is not a great orator. He is ill-suited to lecterns, which often dwarf his small stature, and he tends to sound as if he is reading his lines, not speaking them. His shortcomings have been accentuated in a two-man race, particularly because the other man — Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee — can often dazzle on stage.
Mr. McCain and his advisers know that Mr. Obama’s ability to excite huge crowds will make for an inevitable podium mismatch for the older, softer-spoken Republican. “We’re going up against a guy who is off the charts,” said Mark Salter, Mr. McCain’s longtime Senate chief of staff and campaign adviser.
To better compete, Mr. McCain is undergoing a subtle but marked transition as a political performer, said aides and people who have watched him. As part of a staff shakeup that was announced Tuesday, he brought in a new adviser — Greg Jenkins, a former White House official and Fox News producer — who will oversee the producing and staging of Mr. McCain’s events. Mr. Jenkins is considered an expert at political stagecraft, oversaw many of President Bush’s appearances and served as executive director of the 2004 inaugural committee.
Mr. McCain is working closely with aides like Brett O’Donnell, a former debate consultant for Mr. Bush, to improve his speech and performance. He is working to limit his verbal tangents and nonverbal tics. He is speaking less out of the sides of his mouth, which can produce a wiseguy twang reminiscent of the Penguin from the Batman stories, and he is relying less on his favorite semantic crutch — the phrase “my friends” — which he used repeatedly in his campaign appearances. He also appears to be trying to exercise restraint, advisers and campaign observers say, when speaking off the cuff, wisecracking in town meetings and criticizing his opponent. In recent weeks, for example, Mr. McCain seems to have reined in the sarcasm he has directed at Mr. Obama. (In May, for example, he said of his opponent, “With his very, very great lack of experience and knowledge of the issues, he’s been very successful.”)
Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, said, “There’s a danger of sarcasm becoming nastiness, and McCain seems to be conscious of that line.”

--Mb

DEATH NOTICE: Harry E. Pitsiladis, Owned Village Pizzeria

2008-07-06T05:20:00.003+14:00

My first job was working as a dishwasher at Village Pizzeria. Harry was the owner. His brother George also worked there. His lovely and kind ex-wife Sharon was always very good to us. Although I've heard stories that Harry's life went downhill after he sold Village, I will always remember the good times I had working there. Aside from me, they employed my sister Jessica Bail, my wife Sharon Bail, my friend Gary Mallalieu, my friend Bob Mastorakis, and a host of South Hadley kids.

I made a lot of friends at Village Pizzeria, the most long-lasting is Paula Borkowski Archambault (SHHS '82) who I took to the South Hadley High School Prom. I introduced Paula to my friend Rob Archambault (GHS '82). Soon they were dating. Eventually they married. Their youngest daughter Melanie and our oldest daughter Hannah are almost exactly the same age and are also good friends. In fact, Melanie slept over our house last night, and Hannah is hanging out at their house this afternoon.

EAST LONGMEADOW - Harry E. Pitsiladis, 62, (1946-2008) died at home on Wednesday July 2, 2008 after battling lung cancer. Harry was born in Greece and moved to this country in 1956. He was the son of the late Emmanuel and Mary Pitsiladis of Longmeadow. Harry was a member of St. Luke's Greek Orthodox Church of East Longmeadow.
Harry leaves two sons, Emmanuel and Nicholas Pitsiladis; a daughter, Maria Pitsiladis, all of South Hadley; a brother, George Pitsiladis of North Dakota; and a sister, Pauline Bellerose Spallino of Enfield, CT.

--Mb

Biofuel Causing Dramatic Increase in Food Prices

2008-07-05T08:08:00.002+14:00

Hat Tip: Emre Evren

Using food sources for fuel is a bad idea. Petroleum gets used indirectly in many aspects of food production, and that usage leads directly to greenhouse gases the clean fuel is supposed to eliminate. Another problem is rising food prices.

The Worst Presidency Ever's preference for lying, it seems, has been hiding the truth once again. Bio-fuels are driving up food prices as much as 75%, according to The Guardian:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.
It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.

--Mb

The Tide Turned: Real Issues Overtake Fake Ones

2008-07-05T05:22:00.004+14:00

I've already written about the corporate media's silliness over Gen. Wesley Clark's contention that being shot down from a fighter jet didn't qualify someone for being President. It seems in most respects, the controversy has blown over.

I don't think He Who Must Be Read has been reading me, but we're certainly on the same page. In today's column, Krugman considers whether or no the tactics of Turd Blossom (aka Boy Genius (Karl Rove) will work this year. For a long time, it's been my contention that the media is slowly catching on to its own sluttishness. Krugman agrees:

Will Rovian tactics work this year?
In 2002 and 2004, Republicans were so successful at playing the patriotism card thanks to a combination of compliant media and cowering Democrats. At first, the Clark affair suggested that nothing has changed. News organizations reported as fact the false assertion that General Clark criticized Mr. McCain’s military service, and the Obama campaign rushed to “reject” his remarks.
“Two days into the Wesley Clark fallout,” wrote the Columbia Journalism Review on Tuesday morning, “the press, the G.O.P., and the Obama campaign all seem to have agreed that Clark’s recent remarks on John McCain’s service record were at best impolitic and at worst despicable.”
Since then, however, both the press and the Obama campaign seem to have recovered some of their balance. Opinion pieces have started to appear pointing out that General Clark didn’t say what he’s accused of saying. Mr. Obama has also declared that General Clark doesn’t owe Mr. McCain an apology for his “inartful” remarks and denies that his own condemnation, in a speech given on Monday, of those who “devalue” military service was aimed at the general.
In the end, the Clark affair may have strengthened the Obama campaign. Last week, with his cave-in on wiretapping, Mr. Obama was showing disturbing signs of falling into the usual Democratic cringe on national security. This may have been the week he rediscovered the virtues of standing tall.
Furthermore, my sense, though it’s hard to prove, is that the press is feeling a bit ashamed about the way it piled on General Clark. If so, news organizations may think twice before buying into the next fake scandal.
If so, the campaign has just taken a major turn in Mr. Obama’s favor. After all, if this campaign isn’t dominated by faux outrage over fake scandals, it will have to be about things that really did happen, like a failed economic policy and a disastrous war — both of which Mr. McCain promises will continue if he wins.

--Mb

Pet Projects or Legitimate Spending?

2008-07-05T04:17:00.006+14:00

From a distance, it's easy to criticize someone else's earmark. $50,000 for a dance festival? $25,000 for a town's anniversary? Are these wastes of money? The Globe seems to think so. (What else to make of the headline "Lawmakers feeding pet projects: Bacon comes home to every corner of the Commonwealth"?). For every bridge to nowhere, money flows to deserving projects and disadvantaged communities. Pork is often in the eye of the beholder.

One item calls for $200,000 to be disbursed to the Boston Symphony Orchestra so the renowned group can renovate and repair Tanglewood. There is $25,000 in state taxpayer money to pay for the town of Halifax to have its 275th anniversary next July Fourth. There's enough to cover a merry-go-round in Holyoke, a ballfield in Fitchburg, and new seats at a theater in Medford.
In the $28.2 billion budget approved yesterday by the House and Senate, there are scores of earmarks to fund pet projects in legislators' districts in nearly every corner of Massachusetts.
Other set-asides approved yesterday included $50,000 for the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Beckett. The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, and the Bing Theatre in Springfield are all beneficiaries. The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, which charges $16.99 for admission, is getting $300,000 of taxpayer money, which a legislative aide said would go toward securing a Division II college basketball tournament.

Are these earmarks a waste of money? I can't speak for all the earmarks on Globe's list, but much of the spending seems to support tourism, one of the Commonwealth's major industries.

None of the municipalities have money to invest themselves. Tanglewood is essential to the tourist economy of the Berkshires. Along with the Holyoke Children's Museum and the Volleyball Hall of Fame, the merry-go-round in Holyoke are attractions for city that has a hard time attracting people. The City of Springfield certainly doesn't have much money to spend on itself.

There may be a bridge to nowhere in this year's budget, but I have to say, the Globe hasn't convinced me.

--Mb

Massachusetts Leads U.S. in Energy Policy

2008-07-04T04:47:00.002+14:00

"I am here today to sign into law the best clean energy bill in America. Climate change is the challenge of our times, and we in Massachusetts are rising to that challenge."

--Gov. Deval Patrick

Gov. Deval Patrick reminds a little of Daisuke Matsusaka. The Governor may lack Dice-K's record, but he has gotten the job done on more than one occasion. There's almost always a mess in there somewhere. Dice-K rarely starts a game without walking too many runners, giving up a homerun, or a few runs. He's constantly pitching himself out of trouble.

On the other hand, for every victory for marriage equality there's a casino gambling mess. (In all fairness, Dice-K would never leave his team to sign a book deal in another state). For the Readiness Project, which has all the scope and appeal of the Huke Lau's all-day buffet, there's a clean energy bill worth taking notice of. The Globe reports:

Among the law's major provisions:
A requirement for utilities to invest in energy efficiency when it is cheaper to do so than it is to buy power. Historically, companies would simply buy more power when demand went up, which over time would lead to construction of very costly and polluting power plants. Now, utilities will have to invest in energy efficiency if to do so is equal to or cheaper than buying power. The law will also use at least 80 percent of the revenue from the regional effort to cap power plant emissions for efficiency programs, such as home energy audits to identify how to save on energy bills.
"The cleanest power plant is the one that never gets built," said Sam Krasnow, attorney for Environment Northeast, a research and advocacy group. "Energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest energy resource available."
Several efforts to promote renewable power. Utilities would have to enter into 10- or 15-year contracts with renewable energy developers, an effort to help those developers get financing from banks. The Patrick administration is particularly proud of a provision that lifts a prohibition on utilities owning solar electric panels and allows them to rent the panels to customers. The law is designed to allow utilities to recoup the cost of panels over time from rental fees while the customers reap energy savings.
Utilities will have to purchase a greater amount of their electricity from renewable power sources than under current law. By 2030, utilities would buy 25 percent of their power from renewables.
It is unclear whether that goal, one of the most ambitious in the nation, can be met, however. The current requirement of 3.5 percent has not been met, partly because of the difficulty in siting renewable projects. The utilities instead pay a fee to the state.
The creation of "Green Communities." The state will commit $10 million annually to help communities figure out ways to become more energy efficient or invest in renewables, including giving them no-interest loans. New buildings in the state will have to meet updated building codes with energy-savings provisions.
The energy bill encountered some controversy during the two years it took to become law. Early versions guaranteed a market for coal gasification, a technology that is cleaner than conventional coal-burning power plants but still emits large amounts of carbon dioxide.
The final language would give financial incentives to gasification technologies only in limited cirumstances and only to those that capture and store the carbon dioxide underground.
Environmentalists had nothing but praise for the law yesterday, saying it was a paradigm shift in the way energy will be created, bought and sold.
"This is a tremendous advancement that comes not a moment too soon, given rising energy prices and the climate crisis," said Sue Reid, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation.
--Mb

Can't Be Good, Can't be Bad: McCain Campaign Shake Up

2008-07-04T04:37:00.003+14:00

A campaign reflects on a candidate, whether anyone likes it or not. Whether that reflection is a mirror to his soul, however, is an question (at least to me). Sen. John McCain certainly lacked the right people in right places for much of the primary. The beginning of the general election campaign has not been much different.

As one of McCain's advisors points out, voters don't really care about campaign shake-up's. It's not good that the campaign has been terrible for this long. It's probably good for his candidacy that his campaign might improve.

The NYT reports:

Greg Jenkins, another veteran of Mr. Rove’s operation who is a former Fox News producer and director of presidential advance in the Bush White House, was hired by Mr. Schmidt last week after a series of what Mr. McCain’s advisers acknowledged were poorly executed campaign events.
Mr. Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s senior political adviser until he left the White House last year, was said by Mr. McCain’s advisers to have offered advice in recent days to Mr. Schmidt and others on how to get Mr. McCain’s campaign on track, but has stayed mostly on the periphery. Mr. Rove is aware, his associates said, that his own legacy could be helped should Mr. McCain win the presidency.
Mr. McCain’s advisers said that Mr. Davis would continue to hold the position of campaign manager, but that Mr. Schmidt had taken over every major operation where Mr. McCain has shown signs of struggling: communications, scheduling and basic political strategy. Mr. McCain’s aides said that Mr. Davis would now focus more on longer-term campaign efforts, including helping with the selection of a running mate and planning for the Republican National Convention, which is now just two months away.
Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Davis declined a request for comment. The McCain campaign played down the significance of this latest personnel shift.
“Voters don’t care about the organizational chart of our campaign,” said Jill Hazelbaker, the campaign spokesman, adding: “Today’s move is simply an expression of our understanding of the need to scale up for a general election campaign against Barack Obama.”
Republican circles have been awash with rumors for weeks now that Mr. McCain would seek to bring Mike Murphy, a longtime friend and adviser who helped direct his 2000 campaign for the White House, back into the fold. Mr. McCain’s advisers, noting the deep tensions between Mr. Murphy and many of the people in Mr. McCain’s inner circle — including Mr. Davis and Mr. Schmidt — said such a development was highly unlikely.

--Mb

Watch Out for Rabies

2008-07-04T04:23:00.002+14:00

Rabies has a 100% kill rate.

Without treatment, anyone bitten or exposed to the saliva of a rabid animal will die. The disease is going around. A few weeks ago, Amherst residents were bitten by a rabid baby fox. This week two South Hadley residents were attacked by a rabid cat.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports:

SOUTH HADLEY - A man and a 9-year-old girl are being treated for rabies after a cat that bit them last week tested positive for the disease Monday.
It is the second cat with rabies found in town in less than three weeks. The attack occurred June 26 near Newton Street and Roosevelt Avenue, said Robert Dufault, the town's animal control officer.
"It came out of a woodpile and bit a little girl first, and then a man tried to push it away and he got bit," Dufault said.
The cat was described as small and dark gray. It was captured in a trap and tested at the state Department of Public Health laboratory in Jamaica Plain.
Both the man and the girl began treatment for rabies even before the test results were known, Dufault said. Rabies is a fatal disease if not treated. Anyone who believes they came into contact with the cat should call the Board of Health at 538-5013.
Over the weekend of June 14 and 15, three dogs and four people were bitten or scratched by another cat in the area of Hillside Avenue, Granby Road and Wellington Avenue.

ZBA Allows Dean Hatch to Build New House

2008-07-04T04:20:00.001+14:00

Dean Hatch's representative bdbirmingham announced on Masslive's Granby Forum:

Last night the zoning board agreed that the Town cannot stop Dean from replacing his home as State Law states that even after a zoning change a person in the Commonwealth has the right to continue using the property as it was being used before the zoning change as long as the repairs/replacement doesn't adversely affect the Town and as he is replacing his home with one half the size the Town cannot restrict him from replacing his home even if now it would not comply with the new zoning. Dean and Mary were advised that the Board was advising Mr. Demers, the building inspector, to issue a permit. Mr. Demers has wanted to help since day one and now Dean can build a home that he can use more than 2 rooms. The house is going to be a stick built ranch style home and he really could use help with the framing and roofing. He has a contractor who is donating his time with framers working for cost but many hands will make the job go faster.

--Mb

Dean Hatch Fights to Build New HOme

2008-07-03T11:56:00.003+14:00

A year and a half ago, Dean Hatch almost lost his life. Unloading pipes from a truck, he was crushed when the 1,000 pound wall that doubles as a ramp for the loading bed fell on him. It was touch and go. Finally, it was a go. He lived, made it through surgery, and now lives at home.

For 150 years, Dean Hatch and his family have lived in the old farm house across from Dressels. Now he's looking for a variance in the zoning laws so he can tear down the old house and build a smaller, more accessible one. The problem: the area has been rezoned for business.

The Sentinel reports:

Now that Hatch is confined to a wheelchair, he needs a new place to live.
“This house is too old... it cannot be made 100 percent acceptable to me… I own three acres here. I want to build a new home. We've already gotten it surveyed, staked out, and we have plans for the new house…we are being held up because of zoning law issues at present,” said Hatch.
The location of Hatch’s home on Route 202 in Granby was rezoned by the town to business use, preventing him from building a more suitable home for him and his wife, Mary. Originally part of a much larger parcel, the farmhouse where Hatch currently resides, has been in his family for five generations.
“At one time it was 150 acres,” said Hatch.
Hatch said he is not ready give up the final three acres of the Hatch Farm.
“We are fighting with the town to try to get a variance…we’ve had two meetings with the town and my case has been continued,” said Hatch.
Hatch said he hopes that The Americans with Disabilities Act will provide him with the ammunition to win the battle to keep his property.
A letter sent to the Town of Granby’s attorney from the Stavros Center for Independent Living cites the American with Disabilities Act as a guarantee of Hatch’s right to build on his land: “…no qualified individual with a disability shall be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any public entity.”

--Mb

Hang on to Your Jobs: We're in for a Bumpy Ride

2008-07-03T08:58:00.003+14:00

Regular people knew we were in trouble long before the people in the Beltway. A month ago, George Will was trying to say that the economy wasn't in bad shape, that people were just overreacting.

We in deep and it's going to last another year, at least. The International Herald-Tribune reports:

Plummeting home prices have in recent months eliminated jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, from bankers and real estate agents to construction workers and furniture manufacturers. Tighter lending standards imposed by banks in the wake of huge mortgage losses have made it hard for many Americans to secure credit — the lifeblood of expansion in recent years — crimping the appetite of consumers, whose spending amounts to 70 percent of the economy.
Joblessness has accelerated, and employers have slashed working hours even for those on their payrolls, shrinking the size of paychecks just as workers need them the most.
Now, add to that unsavory mix the word from automakers that sales plunged in June — by 28 percent for Ford, 21 percent for Toyota and 18 percent for General Motors — a sharp sign that consumers are pulling back, making manufacturers more likely to cut production and impose more layoffs. Until recently, the weak labor market has been marked more by the reluctance of employers to create new jobs than by mass layoffs.
Among economists, the sense is broadening that the troubles dogging the economy will be stubborn, leaving in place an uncomfortable combination of tight credit and scant job opportunities perhaps well into next year.
"It's a slow-motion recession," said Ethan Harris, chief United States economist for Lehman Brothers. "In a normal recession, things kind of collapse and get so weak that you have nowhere to go but up. But we're not getting the classic two or three negative quarters. Instead, we're expecting two years of sub-par growth. Growth that's not enough to generate jobs. It's kind of a chronic rather than an acute pain."

--Mb

Big Media Shot Down By Clark Comments

2008-07-03T08:24:00.004+14:00

“It doesn’t take a lot of talent to get shot down.”

--Sen. John McCain

The media lost the lastest skirmish between themselves and the people they try to make squirm. It's something that could happen more often if the people on whom the likes of Bob Schiffer and Andrea Mitchell prey, would stick to their guns and continue to speak the truth. Gen. Wesley Clark knows how to stick to his guns.

The problem was not what he said about Sen. John McCain, which, in fact, was true. Being shot down in a plane doesn't qualify you for President. Schiffer, who was interviewing Clark, however, thought it did. His was the first gasket blown. Others followed suit. They wanted Clark to take it back. They had already decided that McCain's military experience qualified him for the Presidency. Clark challenged two of their narratives: 1) that character, rather than experience, is the most important qualification for President 2) that when the media decides you've made a faux pas, you're supposed to suck it up, squirm, and apologize.

McCain is doing his best to make political hay out of Clark's comments (as he should, that's politics), but make no mistake about it: Clark's comments were the mainstream media's issue. McCain has, in fact, said much the same about his own experience.

Clark was a pleasure to watch on television, refusing to back down to Schiffer, then Andrea Mitchell, and some guy on a MSNBC show called The Verdict. The guy was unflappable.

Check him out here. He knows how to stay on message.

--Mb

WFCR to Expand Programming & Presence in Springfield

2008-07-03T07:44:00.003+14:00

Station manager Martin Miller took a lot of flack for cancelling WFCR's Saturday night folkie programs. Although the shows attracted only about 4,000 listeners, the area's folk music community was up in arms.

A protest group called WFCR Democracy Task Force eventually coalesced. Its mission to "to contribute to making WFCR a lively and interesting radio station, dedicated to carrying out its stated mission by involving and encouraging the active participation of the WFCR listening community." There were Amherst town meeting resolutions and a petition, but judging by the group's website, which hasn't had anything new for over a year, the forces of democracy have dispersed.

WFCR may not have been the most interesting of public radio stations, but it has certainly been serviceable, providing the best of National Public Radio programming and plenty of music. The station now offers three program streams on the internet. In the last couple of years, the station added an AM channel, WNNZ 640, which broadcasts various news and call-in shows; WFCR HD 2 (available on the internet) offers classical music and some programming with WNNZ news; and WFCR broadcasts classical music, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, MarketPlace, and Fresh Air. That's a lot of good programming. (The station also offers an all folk music station in Amherst).

The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that WFCR now plans to expand its presence in Springfield building out space in the building that houses WGBY (Channel 57).

The new Springfield studio will enable the station to cover Hampden County better, and may spark more collaboration between the region's two public broadcasting outlets, said Martin Miller, WFCR's general manager.
"Having those facilities will allow us to do more programming, and listeners will notice the difference," he said. "And that's the point of this, not just to have a new place but to have production facilities to do programming."
An estimated 45 percent of WFCR's listeners live in Hampden County or Connecticut.
The original plan was for a new WFCR building near UMass, but the money didn't materialize, Miller said. The new plan is to renovate the longtime WFCR space in Hampshire House on the campus and to build the new Springfield studio.
"We need more space to do our production work and fulfill our mission to the community," Miller said.
WFCR will lease 1,145 square feet on the second floor of the WGBY building, starting around October. There will be a fully equipped control room, a studio large enough for interviews, and space for two staff members and two interns, Miller said.
"Our goal for next year is to have at least one reporter in Springfield every day," he said.
The station plans to hire a Spanish-speaking reporter for the Springfield bureau, Miller said. WFCR is also planning a pilot for a daily or weekly news-culture-public affairs show this fall, he said.
The two public broadcasting stations have already collaborated in a training project for Latino youth from Springfield and Holyoke and on the "My Source" branding and outreach campaign. A WFCR news reporter hosts a talk show that appears on Channel 57.

--Mb

DEATH NOTICE: Graydon Destromp, 1935-2008

2008-07-03T07:16:00.002+14:00

I got to know Mr. and Mrs. Destromp working Bingo at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. They were always very nice.

GRANBY - Graydon A. Destromp, 72, of Pine Brook Cir., died Friday, June 27, 2008 at his home in Granby.
He was born in North Hatley Quebec, Canada. He was the son of the late Frederick and Violet (Baron) Destromp. Graydon worked as the Transportation Director for the Chicopee Council on Aging and also worked at Rexam Graphics. He graduated from Holyoke High School and Holyoke Community College.
He was a member of the Chicopee Moose and was a former Selectman for the Town of Granby.
He is survived by his wife Lorraine (Kiernan) Destromp, his sons, Lyndon Destromp of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Destromp and his wife Sue of Shutesbury, and Graydon L. Destromp of Granby, also his brother, John Destromp and his wife Anne of Holyoke, his sisters Freda Burke of Canada and Virgina D'Ordine, of Belchertown and his two grandchildren, Lynden and Haley Destromp and several nieces and nephews.
There will be a funeral mass held for Graydon on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 10 am in St. Patricks Church in South Hadley. There are no calling hours. Ryder Funeral Home of South Hadley is handling arrangements.
Memorial contributions can be made to St. Patricks Church, 30 Main St., South Hadley, MA 01075.
RYDER FUNERAL HOME 533-1735

Patrick Administration Caught in DiMasi's Ethics Mess?

2008-07-02T07:32:00.003+14:00

It's not that I'm not critical of the Patrick Administration. It's just that I suspect it was incompetence, rather than intentional wrongdoing, that led our state's executive branch to sign off on another sleazy deal of our ethically-challenged House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

It was the Patrick Administration that asked the state's inspector general to look into the hinky deal to buy some costly software for the state. Why ask for an investigation that would implicate the administration's secretary of administration and finance, Leslie A. Kirwan? My guess there was an arse-from-their-elbow, not purposeful wrongdoing.

Regardless, the Administration is in hot water over not following rules meant to preserve its own reputation. The inspector general found that the Patrick Administration had cut corners in rushing to approve a $13 million contract with Cognos, a subsidiary of IBM which creates software that helps analyze the operations of state governments. From the Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick's administration overspent by millions of dollars when it rushed to sign a $13 million computer software contract that has since been canceled and is now the subject of a state ethics investigation, according to technology analysts.
In making the purchase last year from Cognos Inc., the Patrick administration agreed to distribute the sophisticated management software to 20,000 state government users, many of whom, according to analysts, would lack either the skills or the need to use it. But by distributing the software to that many employees, it dramatically inflated the price.
"It is certainly not a tool for everyone in the organization," said Theodore Grossman, professor of technology operations and information management at Babson College. "It requires a level of sophistication to use it and understand the results."
While the Patrick administration paid $13 million to Cognos, Ohio put similar Cognos software in the hands of 6,000 employees. The Ohio price tag: just $2.9 million.

Keep reading this article to find out about DiMasi's role in landing this over-priced contract. Click on my link above to read what I posted earlier in the year.

--Mb

Advertorial Appeals Uses High Gas Prices to Sell Cars

2008-07-02T07:09:00.005+14:00

For the life of me, I can't remember who told me about the Hadley automobile dealer who has promised car buyers 99 cent gasoline for a year. The story appears in a sort of print infomercial called an advertorial. The advertisement is distributed to look like a news story, but it's actually an advertisement. it makes persuasive reading. Called an advertorial by The Premier Group, which creates and manages advertising campaigns for dealers, this particular ad appeals to the high cost of fuel.

Here's a pull out quote reads as follows:

Vehicles to sell for $29 Down and $99 Per Month with Gas for Just 99 cents a gallon for the next year.

It looks like car dealers can use all the help they can get. The NYT reports:

The Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday that its sales fell 28 percent in June, the worst month yet in a miserable year for the automobile industry.
Through the first half of 2008, Ford’s sales were off 14 percent.
Sales of pickup and sport utility vehicles, have been hit particularly hard as consumers seek out more fuel-efficient alternatives. Ford said light truck sales were down 36 percent in June and 18 percent so far this year.
“Consumer fundamentals and consumer confidence deteriorated as the first half unfolded,” James D. Farley, Ford’s marketing chief, said in a statement. “The economy enters the second half of the year with a notable absence of momentum and a high degree of uncertainty.”
Shares of Ford were down more than 7 percent in trading. General Motors shares were off nearly 6 percent. G.M. and the other automakers are scheduled to report their June sales Tuesday afternoon.
Record-high gasoline prices, a housing slump and weak consumer confidence have led to a dramatic decline in sales of many vehicles, particularly the largest and most profitable ones for domestic automakers. The Ford F-series pickup truck, which has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for 26 years, was outsold by four fuel-efficient Japanese sedans in May.

Mark

Sewer Proposal Defeated Again

2008-07-02T05:23:00.003+14:00

Chances are that the New Ludlow Sewer Proposal would never cost the Town of Granby a cent. There would be no override. No debt exclusion. No tax increase whatsoever. No one would be forced to hook up to the sewer. No one would be forced to hook up to the sewer. And no one would be forced to pay for it.

Using a low-interest loan and existing revenue, the Town of Granby would have subsidized the project until 25 homes were hooked up to the sewer line, at which time, the project would begin paying for itself. As more houses tied in to the sewer, the project would begin repaying the town.

There were questions that could have been answered about whether sewers would affect the development of farm land along the street. Selectman Bryan Hauschild stated that the property could be developed with or without sewers. I don't know if the town by-laws would allow more development with sewers or not, but I'm not sure that any specifics would have mattered.

The DHG reports:

GRANBY - Sewers will not becoming to the New Ludlow Road area, after a $5.6 million project again failed to receive the needed two-thirds majority of voters at a special Town Meeting Monday.

The first question, to borrow $522,500 to complete project engineering, was defeated by a vote of 99 in favor and 67 against, rendering the remaining three questions moot. A total of 169 voters attended the meeting at the Granby Junior-Senior High School. Borrowing requires the approval of two-thirds of voters.

Voters had already rejected the project, which would bring sewers to about 140 properties on New Ludlow Road, Morgan Street and South Street, at an April Town Meeting. The Board of Selectmen returned with the same plan but a different method for repaying the loans that would have been used to finance the project.

"The board has changed its thinking with regard to the construction of sewers in town," said Selectman Bryan Hauschild. Previously the plan was for residents along the sewer line to be charged a betterment fee of $19,835 to pay off the loans. The current plan, Hauschild said, would have the general taxation of the town be responsible for loan repayments and only those property owners who connect to the system be charged the fee, gradually repaying the town.

The project was brought back to the voters, he said, because some residents of New Ludlow Road petitioned selectmen.

The new Ludlow Road area was identified as benefiting from sewers, which would protect drinking water wells, the health of residents and increase property values, said Mary Monahan-Burgess, program director for EarthTech, the engineering company hired by the town. A move by the state Department of Environmental Protection to approve a project loan signals the agency believes sewers are needed, she said.

--Mb

BOH Throws Proposal Under a Bus

2008-07-02T05:06:00.002+14:00

One of the more curious contributions last night was a long speech by Richard Bombardier, who seemed to be speaking from his position on the Board of Health, which, he said, had unanimously voted against the New Ludlow Road Sewer project.

In a speech that lasted between 10 and 15 minutes, Bombardier proceeded to provide reasons that had little to do with public health. The Board of Health, he said, had decided that the costs of the project didn't outweight the benefits. However, he offered no alternative to the proposal.

I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that the Board of Health is supposed to be concerned with the public health, not the costs and benefits of a project. If the Bombardier had offered some sort of solution to the failing septic system difficulties, his BOH expertise might have come into play. As it was, the Board of Health had about as much to offer concerning the project as the Council on Aging.

Mark

What A Good Town Meeting Looks Like

2008-07-02T04:07:00.004+14:00

With the lights off, the doors open, and fans blowing, Town Moderator Albert H. Bail began last night's town meeting with an anecdote.

My dad had run into George Fortier at Center Pharmacy, and after exchanging some pleasantries, my father told Mr. Fortier, now 92 years-old, how much he used to appreciate the older man's questions at town meeting.
"You know," he said, "sometimes I knew the answers to those questions."
"I had a feeling," my dad said. "We could have used you at the last town meeting."

At the previous special town meeting over the New Ludlow Road Sewer Proposal, voting was over and the measure defeated without any questions, discussion, or increase in the knowledge of town meeting.

Last night's town meeting made up for the quality of the previous town meeting. The sewer proposal was defeated, but not without out plenty of discussion and many good questions. Town meeting may or may not have made the wisest decision last night, but due to participation, it certainly had the information it needed.

Spending usually requires a two-thirds majority at town meeting and the simple majority of town meeting members who supported the proposal last night was not enough to pass the measure. Of the one-hundred and sixty-nine voters that attended the meeting, ninety-nine voted in favor, 67 voted against it.

As more than one town meeting member pointed out, the financing of the project was not easy for the average citizen to understand. Confusion was almost guaranteed by the misperception that the project would raise the tax rate or require an override or debt exclusion. In fact, the project would be financed by a low-interest loan and paid for out of town revenues.

As I understand it, and bear in mind I'm not great with numbers, every time a homeowner hooked up to the sewer, the contribution from the town would decrease. After 25 houses had hooked up to the sewer, the project would begin paying for itself. Eventually, the town would be reimbursed for the money used to subsidize sewer hookups.

One piece of missing information: how many people planned or needed to hook up to the sewer. This proposal was begun in response to the need of homeowners in the New Ludlow Road area. Yet, as far as I know, none of them spoke up.

Mark

Tomorrow: Special Town Meeting Report

2008-07-01T12:27:00.001+14:00

You should really go to town meeting tonight, but if you don't, I'll get around to posting on it at some point.

Mark

Closing Time: Downloads Killing CD & Record Stores

2008-07-01T12:16:00.002+14:00

The internet is one of the greatest things to come along since, I don't know, refrigeration. I hang out online. I have friends I've never met online. I'm even a writer online. But Web 2.0 is killing a way of life I onced loved: going to record stores.

Now it's true that I couldn't afford to buy CD's more than a couple of times a year, but I spent a couple of decades going to For the Record. I'm glad that downloading is hurting huge corporations like Sony that have sucked a lot of creativity and money out of recording artists. But I'm sorry for the small stores that have gone the way of the icebox.

My buddy John Palmer feels even worse about it. He loves the idea of the album, the carefully selected compiling of songs into a coherent whole. Albums can, I supposed, be downloaded, but I can't figure out how to play one on my Walkman.

A big day out for John and me used to feature Chinese food at Panda East, a stop at For the Record, and a stop at Valley Books. Sometimes we'd include The Book Mill. As more business is done over the internet, however, bookstores are the next on the endangered retail list.

Here's a story about the trend that appeared in Newsweek:

I stopped going to Starbucks in 2003. It's not that I don't like the coffee. I stopped going because Erika was no longer behind the counter. It took some months of regularity, but it finally happened: Erika knew me. This corporate java behemoth actually employed someone who found the time to learn and remember my name and my order. Erika (not her real name) was a rock star to me. She knocked seconds, eventually minutes, off my waiting time. I'd walk in and, boom, a latte was in my hand. A minor thrill, but a thrill nonetheless. Once Erika disappeared from Starbucks, so did I. I just didn't have the patience to endure another hazing for an indeterminate outcome.
I learned a bit about Erika. She was a photographer, loved Italian food, listened to more punk rock than most people I knew, had a mutt named after the bass player from her favorite punk band and desperately wanted to move to New Orleans because "as much as I love New York City," she confessed, "I can barely afford The New York Times." I shared some information as well. I told her I had been married for more than 10 years, that I listened to music, including punk rock, six to eight hours a day and that moving to New Orleans was also something my wife and I desperately wanted to do.
Erika and I were friends. But she's gone now. No forwarding address. No e-mail contact. This bothered me. I wasn't really missing Erika. I didn't have a crush on her, but we did share something other than a love for New Orleans. For 13 years I owned a CD, DVD and record store, right around the corner from Erika's Starbucks. And for 13 years I was a rock star to many people.

--Mb

Is Washington Lying About Iraq (Again)?

2008-07-01T08:30:00.002+14:00

Everything is better in Iraq since the surge, right? Well, the only serious coverage of Iraq at this point is being done by National Public Radio, which has at least a story a day. The rest of the big media, tired of costly, hard, and dangerous coverage, has mostly given up. According to The Columbia Journalism Review,

During the first 10 weeks of 2007, Iraq accounted for 23 percent of the newshole fornetwork TV news. In 2008, it plummeted to 3 percent during that period. On cable networks it fell from 24 percent to 1 percent, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Maybe that's why it's been so easy for The Worst Presidency Ever to lie about the surge. And for the unfortunate Sen. John McCain to repeat their talking points. Spencer Ackerman has the story:

Whenever Bush administration or Sen. John McCain campaign officials open their mouths about Iraq, they portray the country as on a continuous path of Surge-based stabilization. "As security has improved, the environment has changed for the better," Amb. Ryan C. Crocker told Wolf Blitzer on Sunday. "I, of course, am encouraged... The progress has been significant but the progress is also fragile," said a more-intellectually-honest-but-not-by-much Sen. John McCain. And the latest Pentagon Iraq security report (PDF) to Congress reported that improvements in the security environment have been substantial over the past nine months but significant challenges remain."But rather than security improvements being "substantial over the past nine months," an assessment today from a leading private security and intelligence contractor in Iraq shows that the security picture hasn't changed significantly since October 1, 2007.

--Mb

Clark Questions McCain's Executive Credentials

2008-07-01T05:25:00.002+14:00

"Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

--Gen. Wesley Clark

The corporate media is all in a tizzy. A credible military man has questioned, not Sen. John McCain's war record, but the fact that it doesn't qualify him for President.

CNN had the stupidest headline yesterday asking if the Democrats were "swiftboating" Sen. John McCain. In a recent round table, CBS News' Bob Schiffer, however, wasn't going to let McCain go down without a fight

"I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down."

The corporate media has always accorded McCain a free ride because he was what they were not: a hero. But heroes don't necessarily make good Presidents. Would anyone seriously suggest Generals George Patton or Douglas MacArthur would have been good Presidents? How about Audie Murphy?

Gen. Wesley Clark has military experience too. As a general, he's acutally managed a large military organizations. He understands foreign policy. His heroism may not equal that of McCain, but where it counts, he certainly has a lot more leadership experience. And he's only bringing up the point the media has neglected to consider: what McCain's war experience has to do with running the United States. Here's what Clark said:

Gen. CLARK: Because in the matters of national security policy making, it's a matter of understanding risk, it's a matter of gauging your opponents and it's a matter of being held accountable. John McCain's never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, `I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?'
SCHIEFFER: Well...
Gen. CLARK: He hasn't made those calls, Bob. So...
SCHIEFFER: Well, General, maybe--could I just interrupt you?
Gen. CLARK: Sure.
SCHIEFFER: I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean...
Gen. CLARK: Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.
SCHIEFFER: Really?
Gen. CLARK: But Barack is not--he is not running on the fact that he has made these national security pronouncements, he's running on his other strengths. He's running on the strengths of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment, and those are qualities that we seek in our national leadership.
--Mb

I'm Not Gonna Tell: Patrick Silent on Project Costs

2008-07-01T05:05:00.002+14:00

I don't know what the world looks like from Gov. Deval Patrick's point of view. My Beacon Hill sources tell me he's hired his own drummer to follow him around. I'm as curious about the beat of that drummer as I am skeptical of ignormous projects, particularly those that concern education. I have my suspicions that the beat has a John Phillip Sousa feel to it.

In politics, the bottom-line is less the bottom-line than whether or not a project, comes to fruition. There are so many parts to the Readiness Project, some of them are bound to bear fruit. The question is, will everyone forget the pomp and circumstance of the initial project and be happy with the few apples are inevitably picked from this tree of knowledge? Don't bet the farm--or garden--on it. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but they aren't all fools on Beacon Hill.

The State House News Service:

BOSTON, JUNE 27, 2008…..The last time the Patrick administration publicly lent such sustained singularity of purpose to any effort was January 2007, when the incoming ruling class boogied through multiple days of inauguration celebrations.
And so the three-day blitz around Gov. Deval Patrick's far-reaching and expensive education reform overwhelmed much of the initial reaction to the plan, which will mature over the next several months as the administration digs the trenches for the battle over details, during which they'll be shelled from just about all sides. The fight is worth it to Patrick, who prizes improved education as his office's highest goal, for both practical and personal reasons.
The one facet of the plan no one disputed is that its cost, and method of payment, has yet to be figured. Patrick's explanation for this - that a house should be designed before a construction budget calculated - invoked some derision and disbelief, and prompted at least one wiseacre to note that such a strategy could result in a 77-acre ranch in Richmond. Pressed Wednesday for price tags, Patrick told reporters he had "a couple ideas about different elements."
Would you care to share, with us the taxpayers/captive market? "I can, but I won't."

--Mb

This Is How They Do It: Bosley's Business Give Away

2008-07-01T04:47:00.002+14:00

It's not hard to see whose pocket Representative Daniel Bosley of North Adams is in.

The Patrick Administration and the legislature negotiated a tax decrease to compensate for a tax loophole that allowed corporations with subsidiaries to shift their income to states with lower corporate tax rates.

Bosley, however, slipped a poison pill into the legislation. Here's my April 24 post. The toxic amendment may not be lethal, but it certainly tastes funny. The Globe Editors get this one right:

As much as corporate leaders say they want transparency and predictability in the tax system, Bosley's provision could well have the opposite effect, judging from the legal wrangles it has caused elsewhere.
Lowering the corporate tax rate is a sensible way to encourage all companies, large and small, to locate and expand in Massachusetts. Closing the loopholes carved out by big corporations' tax attorneys can offset the revenue loss from a lower rate and generate additional funds to cover the rising cost of healthcare, education, and infrastructure maintenance. Plus it is the fair thing to do. It makes no sense at all to negate the benefit of closing some loopholes by creating an entirely new and potentially very costly one. If the conference committee approves the overseas operations provision, Patrick should veto it.

Why would someone like Bosley do something legislative like this? Most politicians who suck up to powerful lobbies do so for the money. Not so much in the present, and not illegally, but in the future, by way of employment. If Bosley doesn't end up lobbying for someone, he'll end up working for someone he has a cozy relationship with.

--Mb

A Radio Operators Field Day

2008-07-01T04:28:00.003+14:00

I was wondering what the HCRA Field Day was. If you drove by the signs on Route 202, you may have wondered as well. It turns out that HCRA stands for Hampden County Radio Assocation. I didn't know anyone was still doing ham radio. But today's Republican article proves me wrong, though no one mentions cured pork.

Held the last weekend in June, the annual Field Day event organizes amateur radio communications operators across North America, according to James Harrington of Montgomery, who serves as president of the local radio association.
Amateur radio operators might seem like relics from the past. But during emergencies, such people often are the only ones who can communicate with each other. And during large events like the Boston Marathon, at which the local club assists, radio operators are crucial to keeping in contact with emergency personnel along the race route, Harrington said.
Officially, the aim of this weekend's event was for radio operators to communicate with each other as a training exercise in the event of an emergency, Harrington said. But unofficially, many people at the event were there for less dramatic reasons.
"It's really fun," radio operator Michael S. Lavery of Springfield "I'm enjoying it."
A recently licensed radio operator, Lavery attended this weekend's Field Day event with his wife, Virginia, a fellow radio operator. Using his radio, Lavery talked with fellow operators yesterday in Hawaii and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

--Mb

A Belchertown Afternoon

2008-06-30T13:12:00.005+14:00

I took my daughter Diana with me one day when I had to run an errand at Frank's Lawnmower in Belchertown. Since I was halfway there already, I took her to the trout hatchery on Route 9. It's just past Quabbin and Sky Meadow Studio. Twenty-five cents worth of fish food and a half an hour were enough for a day's worth of fun.

There's nothing better than holding two small hands and seeing things through the eyes of children. This weekend I doubled the fun, without the stop for an e-clip, and added on a stop at Quabbin and brought Diana's twin Aislinn this time.

The trip to McLaughlin's Trout Hatchery seems to take longer than it does, but that's okay. The drive is beautiful. Though my kids didn't spend much time looking out the window or listening to the radio. (I like to sing along). When I was ten, I don't even think I cared about the radio. Diana and Aislinn cared about it. They wanted me to turn it off. They were training the dogs on their hand-held Nintendos, and my oldies station was interfering with their voice commands.

Diana is an animal lover and she planned ahead. Instead of being limited to a single quarter from my pocket (she knows me well), she scoured the house before our departure and came up with two dollars' worth of quarters (probably from pocket I wasn't wearing) and an empty paperbag. At the hatchery, she loaded up on fish food. We spent about 25 minutes walking up and down the alleys between the tanks feeding the fish. Diana and Aislinn screamed and giggled and talked. Every time I mentioned my grandfather taking me there when I was a boy, Diana would say, "Moment of silence!"

Quabbin was a little hard for them to comprehend. When we got out of the car, Diana gave a little yelp when she got out of the car. Aislinn grabbed my hand. They have seen the ocean, but somehow the reservoir appeared more immense to them. I think it's the effect of the ocean having a clear horizon. From the visitor's center, you can't see the end of the reservoir.

After the wow factor wore off, the girls wanted to go down to the shore, which isn't allowed. They fought over the binoculars for a bit, but finally settled in. We walked onto Winsor Dam, which is either the largest or second largest earthen dam in the United States. The day was hazy, but we could still see for miles.

We stopped into the Visitor's Center, which used to be the State Police barracks. There are a lot of photographs about Quabbin's building, not a huge appeal for two nine year-old girls, but interesting to history local history buffs like their dad. Diana was a little outraged by the stuffed bald eagle. She's a pacifist when it comes to animals.

After a half hour or so, they were ready to go, cranky from the humidity and the inability to master the binoculars. Next time,we'll spend a little more time, maybe bring our bikes and stop for ice cream on the way back.

Mark

The Readiness Project in Policy Perspective

2008-06-30T07:03:00.005+14:00

Aside from my animus against the charterization of public schools called Readiness Schools, I'm not entirely sure what to make of the whole project. The most obvious drawback to the whole thing is the cost. I learned a lot about policy debate, however, when I coached and judged debate a few years back, and I'm not satisfied with shooting programs down over cost alone. Price tag is an obvious issue, but so is offering a coherent plan which identifies the problems and offers a plan to solve those problems.

Coherence. The Readiness Project fails, I think, when it comes to coherence. It's huge, unwieldy, and incomplete, leaving costing to further development. It's also unlikely that much of the proposals will be able to implemented. The plan speaks of empowering school administrators, but offers the Readiness Schools, which threaten that empowerment by allowing the threat of a takeover from commercial enterprises and even faculty.

Need. I've always been suspicious about the claim that we need more education to compete with other countries on the global market. The fear of America's decline has been the motivation for educating our children at least since the 1950's. The first popular motivator was Sputnik. America freaked out and spent a lot of federal money on improving education.

I'm all for improving education. And I think it's important to educate every student to the best our ability. We owe it to them as individuals to provide the best opportunity to support themselves and participate in democracy. But from an economic standpoint, I'm not sure that have the most educated populace will garauntee American economic success. It's more likely that we need enough educated workers. China, and possibly India, will have more people of equal education. And if it's cheaper to employee them, it's not going to help America.

Actual Proposals. There are several parts of the proposal that make sense, not just politically or ideologically, but empirically. The benefits of universal pre-school are well-established in research; spending money in this area doesn't just make political sense or follow through on some touchy-feely liberal belief. It's been researched. It's clearly worth the money. It may not solve the achievement gap, but it can improve the academic prospects of those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

Community college. I'm a strong believer in a community college education. Like my father, I spent two years at Holyoke Community College; my sister Jennifer Chauvin spent a year there before transferring to Fitchburg State College; my sister Jessica Bail received her surgical technician's degree from Springfield Technical Community College. My friends Wayne Gagnon and Candace Ribeiro-Gagnon went to HCC with me. As the working person's prep school, community college served us all well.

I found a bill from my HCC days recently; it was $350 for a semester. Keeping community college affordable is important, particularly for those who are less advantaged. Making it free for everyone makes less sense. My family could my afford my tuition. Other families could even tore easily afford it. From what I've read, it's daycare and a full-time job that interfere with community college attendance. Making a community college free seems not only overly ambitious and costly, but it seems like a gimmick. Particularly in an economic downturn when the state already has billions to spend on infrastructure and current commitments.

When it comes down to it, I'm not going to get excited about the demise of the American education or the Readiness Project. Enormous plans like this have more to do with resolving fears than addressing real crises. We should be making constant improvements. It's one of his proposal's strengths that poor and working class people are receiving a lot of attention. It would probably do more if it focused on that.

Mark

Obama Leads in Predicted Electoral Votes

2008-06-29T12:46:00.004+14:00

Whenever you see a poll, it's important to know what it's counting. This estimate by VoteMaster looks at state leaning red or blue or tied. There's a lot of time between now and November and there are, I'm sure, more than enough surprises left before November.

But as it stands at the moment, the electoral advantage tilts in Sen. Barack Obama's direction. Strategically, having states lean Democrat makes Sen. John McCain's job more difficult. With fewer states in the bag, he has to cover more ground. Meanwhile, Obama with his gi-normous war chest can work at the Republican leaning states and force McCain to spend more time defending those states, drawing resources and time away from other leaning states.

--Mb

Granby01033 Turns 150,000!

2008-06-29T07:24:00.002+14:00

Not much to say, but another milestone reached. When I started, 50 hits was a good day.

Mark

Del Padre Digital

2008-06-29T07:04:00.002+14:00

I've written a lot about Brendan Ciecko and Ten Minute Media, but there are other local electronic media businesses tearing things up. My formed student Joe Maki (ELHS '07) works for one of them.

Del Padre Digital has a different clientele, one that includes Lego and NASA. Their work tends toward video. The stuff is pretty cool. You have to visit to see it.

Mark

DOE Offers Teacher Retirees to Double Salary

2008-06-29T04:33:00.002+14:00

The legislature voted for it. The Romney Administration executed it, and the Patrick Administration has continued it. It allows retired educators to collect their pensions and then be hired at full-salary if the position they take is considered difficult to fill.

I've known of retired administrators being hired to fill-in for a position until a suitable candidate has been found. This happened, I think, in Belchertown. If I'm not mistaken, South Hadley's Superintendent Gus Sayer retired as the superintendent of the Amherst Regional Public Schools. I don't know of any teachers in the area doing the same thing.

There aren't a lot of superintendent candidates out there. There are even fewer good ones. Would retirees do the job for less? I don't know. One critic of the practice says that taxpayers are losing out; I may be wrong, but the I think the Massachusetts Teacher Retirement is self-sufficient. Teachers pay into the system, which like other pensions, is invested.

Here's the Globe (which hates teachers):

Nearly 100 retired educators in the Commonwealth were allowed to earn their full salaries while collecting full pensions in the past school year, a growing practice critics call state-sanctioned "double dipping."
The retirees collectively made more than $5 million on the job while taking home $5.5 million in pension payments, according to information obtained by the Globe.
The Globe review found that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education routinely approved these special arrangements and frequently ignored its own guidelines that require school districts to provide proof that they advertised for the position and were unable to find other qualified candidates.
Critics say the practice, which was designed to make it easier for districts to fill hard-to-staff positions, leaves the door open for abuse, enticing a pool of well-connected retirees to move from one job to the next or stay indefinitely in a position that should have been filled by a nonretiree. In some cases, school districts have been allowed to continue rehiring the same retiree rather than readvertising for the position each year and providing fresh proof that they could find no one else to fill the spot, another state requirement.
The use of the exemption has tripled over the past eight years, growing to the point that it has prompted the governor's new education secretary and legislators to call for closer scrutiny of the practice. Some lawmakers suggested that the state should place a cap on how much these retirees can earn and how long they can serve.
"You don't want to be paying them twice what they otherwise would be entitled to," said state Senator Robert Antonioni, cochairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Education. "That's not good public policy."
Education officials said the use of retirees in these positions is necessary, but acknowledged that the application process could be more rigorous.
"We don't just rubber stamp these applications," said Heidi Guarino, Education Department spokeswoman. "We work with the district to make sure they have done their due diligence. . . . Could the process be tightened? Probably."

--Mb

DEATH NOTICE: Daniel Symancyk

2008-06-29T04:20:00.002+14:00

GRANBY, MA - Daniel W. Symancyk, 88, of Granby, Massachusetts, died of cancer on June 25 in his home of fifty-eight years after a year-long illness. Mr. Symancyk was born in Mt. Tom, Massachusetts, to the late William E. and Julia Symancyk of Mt. Tom, Massachusetts.

He graduated from Easthampton High School in 1937 and served in the Army in Europe during World War II. After the war, he was employed by the National Blank Book Company, where he worked for more than twenty-five years.

In the 1970's he started working for the town of Granby. He developed an early interest in music which persisted throughout his life, as did his love of painting, reading, and writing. In recent years, his poetry and prose included his recollections of post-liberation Dachau.

Mr. Symancyk was the first Hampshire County Deputy Sheriff from Granby, as well as the first Democrat elected to the Granby School Committee. He was a member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Granby.

His wife of fifty-three years, Dorothy (O'Hare) Symancyk, preceded him in death, as did his brothers, William and Robert. He is survived by his sister, Elizabeth C. Brooks of Northampton; his seven children, Daniel F. Symancyk and his wife, Janie, of Arnold, MD, Anne Bresnahan and her husband, Larry, of Cordova, TN, Jerome D. Symancyk and his wife, Mona, of Harker Heights, TX, Thomas D. Symancyk and his wife, Kathy, of Boxborough, William D. Symancyk and his wife, Cheryl, of Belchertown, Christine O'Hare Symancyk of Holbrook, AZ, and Carol Benson and her husband, Thomas, of Granby; 15 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.

Family and friends may visit from 4:00-8:00 p.m. on Friday June 27 at Beers & Story S.Hadley Funeral Home, 646 Newton St. (Rte 116). A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday June 28th at St. Patrick's Church due to renovations at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. Friends and family may gather at the funeral home at 10:30 a.m. prior to the mass. Burial will follow in West Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Hospice Life Care, 113 Hampden Street, Holyoke, MA 01040.

The Readiness Project & What I've Been Doing?

2008-06-28T14:17:00.002+14:00

Sometimes I spend a lot of time posting on Blue Mass Group. There are a couple of threads going right now concerning the Readiness Project. Here is one started by my admittedly angry post. Here is another one by another teacher.

Blue Mass Group is a different kind of blog. Anyone can post and anyone can comment. Conversation threads, then, can be pretty lively, and comments are often as edifying or more edifying than the original posts.

Mark

It's the Market, Stupid: The High Price of Oil

2008-06-28T09:21:00.003+14:00

My daughters were bugging me to go to Yankee Candle. I wouldn't have taken them regardless of the cost, but when I figured out the cost, I was shocked. The trip is between 20 and 25 miles one way. That's at least 2 gallons of gas in our van. 8 bucks. Just to drive there.

I've never been accustomed to pricing our car travel, but it's becoming a habit. It will probably cost about $100 dollars to drive to and from Cape Cod this summer. Heating our homes will cost twice as much as it did last year.

What I can't control, I can at least try to understand. So I'm interested in understanding the high cost of oil these days. He Who Must Be Read has some answers:

Why are politicians so eager to pin the blame for oil prices on speculators? Because it lets them believe that we don’t have to adapt to a world of expensive gas.
Is speculation playing a role in high oil prices? It’s not out of the question. Economists were right to scoff at Mr. Masters — buying a futures contract doesn’t directly reduce the supply of oil to consumers — but under some circumstances, speculation in the oil futures market can indirectly raise prices, encouraging producers and other players to hoard oil rather than making it available for use.
Whether that’s happening now is a subject of highly technical dispute. (Readers who want to wonk themselves out can go to my blog, krugman.blogs.nytimes.com, and follow the links.) Suffice it to say that some economists, myself included, make much of the fact that the usual telltale signs of a speculative price boom are missing. But other economists argue, in effect, that absence of evidence isn’t solid evidence of absence.
What about those who argue that speculative excess is the only way to explain the speed with which oil prices have risen? Well, I have two words for them: iron ore.
You see, iron ore isn’t traded on a global exchange; its price is set in direct deals between producers and consumers. So there’s no easy way to speculate on ore prices. Yet the price of iron ore, like that of oil, has surged over the past year. In particular, the price Chinese steel makers pay to Australian mines has just jumped 96 percent. This suggests that growing demand from emerging economies, not speculation, is the real story behind rising prices of raw materials, oil included.

--Mb

Television's Better Moments

2008-06-28T08:51:00.003+14:00

I watched a little of The Daily Show last night at 11 p.m. It was pretty funny. Sharon was asleep, and I had already set the television to time out (in case I happened to fall asleep). Jon Stewart had a fake "resident expert" who did a bit on people being addicted oil. He had worked in a lot of recovery concepts. The guy was funny.

Watching The Daily Show reminds me that in some key ways, television coverage of politics has made some improvements. I always hear people bemoaning the fact that people no longer get their news from the papers and regular television. But it's not hard to find information these days.

The thing I like is the fact that there's a lot more challenging going on these days. I remember Chris Matthews taking on a talk radio twit who was accusing Sen. Barack Obama of "appeasement." When Matthews figured out that the twit had no idea of what appeasement referred to, he made the guy squirm.

Right now, Keith Olbermann is feuding with progessive scholar and blogger Glenn Greenwald, though KO has no idea with whom he's tangling. On the other hand, KO brought my hero Paul Krugman aka He Who Must Be Read to refute the shallowness of Sen. John McCain's and Obama's energy plan. Here's The Raw Story:

Krugman began by dismissing McCain's grandly-named "Lexington Project" for energy independence as "sort of a collection of mice" and noted that offshore drilling "does nothing for the crisis we're in. ... It's trivial compared with things like energy conservation, alternative sources of energy. This was just to be able to say he was doing something -- which he hasn't, actually."
"I think McCain has bought into the notion that there's a kind of a panic," Krugman went on. "That speculators are buying up energy resources and that's what's driving up the price. ... The problem is that it's not right. ... He's got this idea that if we can just do something, even if it's basically irrelevant, it's somehow going to make a big difference in the current situation -- and this is not good policy."
Krugman said that for him "the stuff about McCain believing that speculators -- evil speculators -- are the problem is the most amazing thing about all this. It's not what you expect from a Republican -- except a Republican who's looking for something, anything to say."
"He wants to be saying something different, but he ends up sounding basically like Bush over again," Krugman concluded. "'If only you'd let me drill some more stuff ... forget about the environment.' ... Even politically, I think it's a bad idea. He's making himself sound more like the guy that most Americans would really like to see the end of."
Krugman also noted that even though neither candidate has a real answer to the energy crisis, there are definite differences between them. Obama is proposing to spend actual money -- $150 billion over ten years -- and McCain is not. On the other hand, "McCain is right to give Obama a hard time on ethanol. That's not Obama's finest moment. He was being a politician. ... Ethanol's a really bad idea."

--Mb

Tea Room Veteran & DC Madam John Defend Marriage

2008-06-28T08:33:00.003+14:00

What can I say? This is why I love politics:

Two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity have named themselves as co-sponsors of S. J. RES. 43, dubbed the Marriage Protection Amendment. If ratified, the bill would amend the United States Constitution to state that marriage "shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman."
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), who was arrested June 11, 2007 on charges of lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport terminal, is co-sponsoring the amendment along with Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).
Craig, who entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, was detained and charged for attempting to engage in sexual activity with a male undercover police officer. His arrest and plea became public two months later. At that time, Craig attempted to withdraw his plea and enter a new plea of not guilty. To date, his efforts have been denied by the courts.

--Mb

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-06-27T08:43:00.002+14:00

I'm too busy for this to be vacation!

I've been doing a lot of graduate work and attempting to fiddle with my new blog at http://www.granbymass.net/. I have also had a succession of places to be. Add to that Mr. Mom duties, and I'd almost rather be back at work.

As you can see, I've been busy with reading the Readiness Project. Some of the proposals are okay, but I still contend the entire project, in its conception and organization, are misconceived. Legislators are saying as little as possible about it.

I haven't had a chance to dig into the Supreme Court's decision relating to gun control. I'm for sane, i.e. not radical righwing NRA gun rights. I'll have something on that soon.

Off to another appointment,

Mark

DEATH NOTICE: Sharon Bray Tetreault 1965 - 2008

2008-06-27T08:32:00.002+14:00

Aside from a rainy, underfunded camping trip in Wellfleet, I never spent much time with Sharon Bray. She was always pleasant.

SOUTHWICK - Sharon J. (Bray) Tetreault, 43, of Granville Rd, has gone to be with the Lord on June 23, 2008. She was born in Holyoke. Sharon is survived by and was the loving and devoted wife and mother to her husband, Kurt A. Tetreault, her children, Andrew William Tetreault, Stephen Michael Tetreault and Rebekah Elizabeth Tetreault all of Southwick.
Sharon was a 1983 graduate of the Granby Jr. Sr. High School.
She enjoyed camping and gardening, baking and canning. She was active in the Boys and Girls Scouts with her children. She worked for Biy Y in Southwick and also was the former owner of Sharon's Errands.
Sharon is survived by her parents, Robert L. Bray., Jr. of Chicopee and Shirley (Jarvis) Bray of Granby, her brothers and sisters, Robert L. Bray, III, of Granby, Karen Ruth Quinlan and Judy A. Mercier both of Granby, Marilyn J. Tremble of Chicopee; Keith W. Preston of Granby, Gary A. Bray of Minnesota, James M. Bray of Granby, Christine A. Egan of Norwell, Gretchen Bray of Springfield, Benjamin Bray of Lyden, Ethan Bray of New York, Kiersten Wine and Gregory Bray both of Chicopee, also forty nieces and nephews.
The funeral for Sharon will be held on Saturday at 10 am at the Ryder Funeral Home, 33 Lamb St. (Rt.116) South Hadley, Mass, followed with her burial in West Cemetery in Granby, Mass. Calling hours for Sharon will be held Friday from 4-8 pm at the funeral home.

Gov. Patrick Knows Best

2008-06-27T08:24:00.004+14:00

From the Globe,

In a speech yesterday at the John F. Kennedy Library, Patrick said potential opponents need to keep in mind what's in the best interest of children.

Believe it or not, Gov. Patrick, most teachers, including those like me who oppose the crazier parts of your proposal, do have the best interests of the their students in mind. That doesn't mean your plan has the answers.

Your rhetoric is reminiscent of the Right Wing's call to Support the Troops, which really meant support the policy of The Worst Presidency Ever.

--Mb

Readiness Schools: Patrick's Poison Pill

2008-06-27T03:00:00.004+14:00

The more things change, the more things stay the same. The Readiness Project contains some potentially useful ideas, though few are particularly original. I don't have a list of the people who worked on the Education Reform Act of 1993, the legislation that led to an increased role for the state in school funding, but their finger prints are all over the Readiness Project.

The Project begins making its case by conjuring fears of America falling behind. Without reservation, it uses the same tired, international comparisons to claim that other countries are pulling ahead of America. There are reasons not to accept these comparisons at face value, but the Project has no knowledge or no interest in them. Characteristic of the report's intellectual sloppiness, the authors compare the United States to other countries, not other countries to Massachusetts (which, of course, is best in the nation in achievement).

As the Globe reported last week, among the most controversial proposals is Readiness Schools, a frontal attack on public schools by the charter school movement. Although urban charter schools may outperform most or all urban schools, they don't tend to outperform other schools. There are certainly reasonable arguments for charter schools, but there is little or no empirical evidence to suggest that charterizing every public school is a good idea.

There is no question that Readiness Schools are intended to make more public schools run like charter schools. "Launched or managed by a team authorized by and accountable to the local school committee" which would "award contracts under procedures set by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and be governed by "performance contracts that hold [teams] accountable for improving student learning."

The contract idea is ideological, not empirical. There is no evidence to suggest contracts will improve education, just a deep-seated belief that a business model is the best way to go.

What is particularly frightening is the awarding of contracts to whoever makes a successful pitch.

School committees could convert existing schools to Readiness status or develop new schools. Readiness Schools could be proposed by a team of teachers, a principal, a superintendent, unions, qualified educational management organizations, a group of parents, community-based organizations or qualified charter school operators.

Of all these potential "teams," which are best suited toward making a pitch for a Readiness School? Unions may be permitted do it, but they are in the labor-organization business, not the school management business. "A group of teachers could, in effect, create their own 'educational private practice,' assuming management and operational responsibility for their own school under terms authorized by the local school committee."

An important question is, why can't schools, under the existing structure, have the same responsibilities and flexibilities? The Readiness Project is ready to offer increased flexibility and responsibility, but only under a charter school model. Since the inception of education reform, regular public schools, if anything, have been denied flexibility.

Teachers, principals, and superintendents are in the education business, but how difficult would it be for them to receive approval to be able to make the pitch? Only the educational management organizations and charter school operators have the infrastructure ready to go.

The potential for Readiness Schools also puts the honus on school committees to screen "offers" to takeover their schools. The role of school committees oversee educational and set policy, most lack the educational knowledge and expertise to judge such offers. Most school committees consist of 5 members. Could three school committee members (a majority vote) decide who manages their schools?

Readiness Schools could also turn out to used as a threat against teachers unions in negotiations. School committees could wave the possibility of a school takeover to gain concessions from at the bargaining table.

The project seems to allow room for "union members who bargain collectively only for wages, benefits and due process dismissal procedures." The word that concerns me is only. What's being left out? Could Readiness schools increase the school day by an hour without a corresponding increase in pay? How about increasing class sizes? Could the leadership teams of such schools work to drive out unions?

Readiness Schools would have increased autonomy in five areas: staffing, budget, curriculum and assessment, governance and policies, and school schedule and calendar.... The leadership of each Readiness School would establish the operating standards in each of these five areas, with significant input from faculty and staff.

The devil, as they say is in the details, and like the typical Patrick proposal, the important details are in the mail. When I think about it, the Patrick Administration is starting to remind me of Microsoft: offering programs that replace things that work with features you don't need, all at a price you can't afford.

Mark

Your Input Wanted as Master Planning Continues

2008-06-26T05:00:00.003+14:00

With Sharon filling in for Jennifer at the library, and me running the kids around, I haven't had time to stop into the Charette aka the Master Planning Thingy, which is going on at the high school. I hope to make it there tomorrow. Sandra Constantine has an article:

GRANBY - Officials want to know what residents think about the town's first master plan in 42 years.
Graphic presentations dealing with plan are on display in the high school cafeteria at Granby Junior-Senior High School from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. today, tomorrow and Friday.
Residents can also meet with staff from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, which is helping to draft the plan.
"Forty-two years is a long time for a town not to have renewed its vision for its own future," Emry E. Evren, chairman of the Master Plan Committee, said yesterday.
"We are very eager to have public input. That is the most important component of this project," he said.
The draft plan will be sent to the printers Friday at 2 p.m.
On Saturday, there will be apancake breakfast at the school from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. where residents can pick up copies of the plan.

--Mb

My Work in Progress

2008-06-26T04:51:00.003+14:00

I'm still monkeying around with Granby01033's new home. It's nowhere near complete. I may still change the theme to include another column. I also need to change the header to something that doesn't look like Manhattan. Then there's all sorts of tweaking necessary.

But you can check it out at http://www.granbymass.net.

Mark

Slow Going on Blog Update

2008-06-25T10:11:00.003+14:00

When I'm done, Granby01033 will be better than ever. Easier to read, easier to post comments, and more organized. It's slow going, however. WordPress is much more difficult to use than Blogger.

But I've made some progress. I've finally put the theme in place. It needs a lot of changing though. If you want to check it out, go to http://www.granbymass.net.

Mark

Abolish Dog Racing in Massachusetts

2008-06-25T09:33:00.003+14:00

Dog racing is cruel and should be phased out of existence. In a nutshell, that's the argument of The Committee to Protect Dogs, the organization responsible for getting the Greyhound Protection Act on the November 2008 ballot.

According to the organization, dogs are warehoused for 20 hours a day in small crates, fed raw meat not fit for consumption, and suffered debilitating injuries. At the end of their racing careers, they are often euthanized.

Track owners claim they employ a lot of people, that shutting down dog racing will harm the economy. Blogger Ryan Adams, who has the goods on gambling, casino and otherwise, disagrees. Here's an excerpt from his post:

As the casino debate in Massachusetts shifts to Racinos this summer, it's important for everyone, including Beacon Hill, to note that the Racino Lobby is as gifted with their math as the Casino Lobby - 25,000 construction jobs being only the most laughable example. Need a refresher? Let's take a look at what George Carney, owner of the Raynham tracks, has said in the past:
Falsehood #1"I'm sticking with 650 [jobs]."
George Carney continuously claims to employ 650 people at the Raynham Racetrack. Of course, according to the Census, the actual number is less than 250 - including part timers. Specifically, between 100 and 249. Oops.
How gross is that lie? Well, if you combine all the race tracks in this state - dog, horse, car, whatever - there's 707 employees, according to the Massachusetts Department of Labor. So, George Carney claims to employ almost as many racing-related jobs as the entire industry of Massachusetts. George, we know you're big, but not that big!

Ryan contends that the land used as race tracks for greyhounds has better potential if it were developed. He's got a point. Wonderland Race Track is near Revere Beach which is seeing renewal in the past few years.

--Mb

McCain's Incompetent Campaigners

2008-06-25T05:12:00.004+14:00

It ain't over 'til it's over.

In fact, the Presidential campaign really hasn't even begun in earnest, and a lot of things could happen to change the numbers of the moment.

But what a lousy campaign the McCain camp is running:

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) distanced himself from chief strategist Charlie Black’s comments that a terrorist attack would be a “big advantage” to the McCain campaign. “If he said that, and I do not know the context, I strenuously disagree,” McCain told reporters.
Later in the day on MSNBC, former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke told Keith Olbermann that if McCain was serious in his outrage, he should fire Black immediately. He also criticized Black for basically encouraging terrorists such as Osama bin Laden to manipulate American politics...

--Mb

Neighbors Want Roadside Memorial Removed

2008-06-25T04:58:00.003+14:00

This I don't get. Jean Lukens of 180 North Leverett Road and Gordon Fretwell of 175 North Leverett Road want a roadside memorial removed from the road near their homes. I'm half-believing that if the memorial were a statue of Buddha, rather than a cross made out of what looks like 1 x 2's, they wouldn't complain. From the DHG:

The cross was made by Mark Snow of Shutesbury, the boy's father. It features carved letters spelling out "Sean Snow."
A photograph of Sean and the words "In loving memory" and "I'm missing you" are on the cross. It is 11 feet from the road, in front of a utility pole, and is partially obscured by weeds.
Mark Snow and his wife and son are going through mediation about the future of the cross with the two neighbors who want it removed. They are Jean Lukens of 180 North Leverett Road and Gordon Fretwell of 175 North Leverett Road. The cross, which is at the base of Lukens' steep driveway, is not visible from the door of either house.
The Snow family and Lukens and Fretwell have met with John Hallock of Quabbin Mediation, and a second and final session is scheduled for June 26, Snow said. The mediator asked everyone involved not to speak publicly about the issue, he said.
Fretwell, in a telephone interview, also declined to talk about the cross. "There's a process going on, and we hope that something comes of that," he said.
But the minutes of the May 13 meeting of the Leverett Board of Selectmen show the depth of feeling on both sides. Lukens and Fretwell had asked the board to address the issue of the cross, which is in the right of way of the road.
The memorial serves as a constant reminder to the neighbors of the night they went to the aid of the accident victims, according to the minutes and confirmed by Fretwell. They described the horror of the accident and said the Snows might be helped, six years afterward, by removing the cross.

--Mb

The Oldest Trick in the Book: "Our Future Is At Stake"

2008-06-25T04:38:00.005+14:00

When trying to change education, hold the future and America's children hostage. Rhetorically, that is. It's the oldest trick in the book. Agree with whoever is making the educational proposal or jeopardize the future.

1958: "Only the massive upgrading of the scholoastic standards of our schools will guarantee the future prosperity and freedom of the Republic."

--Admiral Hyman Rickover

1983: Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world... the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur--others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments.

--A Nation At Risk

2008: "Everything is on the table," Patrick said, responding to a question about whether his proposals could mean new taxes. "Our future is at stake."

--Gov. Deval Patrick

The more things change...

--Mb

Teachers to Become State Employees?

2008-06-24T07:45:00.003+14:00

It's certainly too early to tell, but this idea seems nutty to me. One way to evaluate a policy change is to weigh the outcome of that change with amount of work necessary to implement it. Whatever the benefits of this policy change, the work underlying it don't seem worth the effort. From the Globe:

Likely to be one of the most controversial aspects of the plan is a proposal to implement a statewide teachers contract, as opposed to the current system where each school district engages in collective bargaining with its local teachers union. An administration official with knowledge of the plan said such a contract could save school districts significant amounts of time, provide the state with more flexibility in assigning teachers to schools, and give teachers the option of investing in a state pension system or getting paid more up front.

I see only one advantage of having teachers become state employees: the state could move teachers from good school systems to bad school systems. Urban school systems like Springfield tend to experience brain drain as teachers get fed up and move to the suburbs. This might benefit urban school systems, if indeed the root problems of urban schools can be addressed by shifting personnel.

But are affluent communities with good school systems going to want to lose their teachers? Would Wayland want to see their teachers suddenly transferred to Dorchester?

Whatever time is spent negotiating teacher contracts, at least in smaller school systems, doesn't affect instruction. Local unions form negotiating teams which meet after school. Superintendents and other administrators are salaried so their extra time cost anything. School committee members are elected, and at least in small towns, work for free. What's the big deal?

Does the state really want a more unified teacher union? Right now, local unions belong to either the Massachusetts Teacher Assocation, which belongs to the National Educator Assocation. Other unions belong to the American Federation of Teachers. Contracts are made between local unions and individual school systems, not the state. Would it be easier to negotiate with teachers statewide? Wouldn't such a system increase the power of teacher unions? Maybe not.

--Mb

This Time Around Ed Reform Has a Different Perspective

2008-06-24T07:14:00.003+14:00

I don't have a lot of respect for the Education Reform Act of 1993. The idea was that teachers and students weren't trying hard enough. Using test scores as a whipping post would provide the necessary incentive improvement. Test scores have increased (though I'm not sure learning has improved), but the achievement gap has persisted.

Fifteen years later (better late than never), Paul Reville, Massachusetts' first Secretary of Education realizes that the vision of education reformers was incomplete.

Paul Reville, one of authors of the Education Reform Act of 1993, says he and his colleagues underestimated the effects of poverty on student performance. Relentless emphasis on basic math and English skills alone couldn't make up for the intellectual deficits in the homes of many poor children. The problem, says Reville, is made worse by a "batch processing" approach that gives the same educational attention to students with vastly different needs.

Last year, Ed Moscovitch, another author of the Commonwealth's education reform, acknowledged this fundamental failure of perspective.

The proposals on which the education reform law were based, which I helped put together, never addressed the question of exactly how schools would make the desired gains. Our assumption was that with substantially more funding, along with the carrot and stick of the MCAS exams, educators would have the tools to achieve those gains. It’s now apparent that there was a critical piece missing: a systematic way to help principals and teachers make the necessary changes. In effect, the reform law was based on the premise that teachers and principals knew what to do but for some reason weren’t doing it; embarrassing them through low MCAS scores, while decreasing their enrollments through school choice, would somehow get them in gear. This fundamental premise was mistaken.

If the Globe Editors are interpreting Reville's comments correctly, he is now admitting errors in judgement that are now 15 years old. At least he's admitting his mistakes. Teachers and researchers recognized and pointed out the flaws of education reform back then, but no one was listening.

--Mb

High-Priced Oil Slows Globalization?

2008-06-23T10:44:00.005+14:00

I can't pretend to understand the numbers here, but He Who Must Be Read reports "that high oil prices, by making shipping much more expensive, may reverse a significant amount of globalization."

Goods made in China don't just materialize American; they have to be transported here. Something tells me that large ships don't get the mileage of small cars or American trucks for that matter. That could mean a lot of things, like higher prices for the things we buy, but it may also mean more things made in America.

A few days ago, Krugman wrote:

We know that the volume of trade between any two countries falls a lot with distance; this indicates that trade is quite sensitive to transport costs....Business travel will also be affected. Via Felix Salmon, airlines are starting to cut long-distance nonstops. Why? Because a nonstop from, say, NY to Singapore is kind of like a rocket ship: a lot of the fuel it carries is being burned to carry additional fuel, which makes overall fuel efficiency lower than a journey with refueling stops along the way. Of course, those non-nonstop trips take longer, so the world in effect gets bigger.

--Mb

Lifetime Network Killed My Student

2008-06-23T10:27:00.003+14:00

Last summer I watched Army Wives on the Lifetime Network. Although I confess I find Roxy pretty attractive, I watched the show to watch my former ELHS student Kim Allen. I missed the season's first episode and perhaps even the last episodes of last season, but they killed her character off with an explosion set by a jealous husband.

Mark

Super Bounce: Obama Leads By 15 Points!?

2008-06-22T05:17:00.004+14:00

Experts attribute Sen. Barack Obama's lead in the Presidential election to his victory in the Democratic Primary. Here's Newsweek:

Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator wrested the nomination from Hillary Clinton. With numbers consistently showing rock-bottom approval ratings for President Bush and a large majority of Americans unhappy with the country's direction, the opposing-party candidate should, in the normal course, have attracted more disaffected voters. Now it looks as if Obama is doing just that. A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.

--Mb

MASTER PLANNING CHARETTE THIS WEEK

2008-06-22T04:58:00.003+14:00

From Monday, June 23rd to Friday, June 27th

I'm not a big fan of words I've never heard before, but like the term or not, the master plan charette will commence and finish this week. The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission has more information here, but here's a description:

a charrette is an intense, collaborative effort to solve a specific design or planning problem. The term "charrette," which means "cart," originated in the late nineteenth century at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where to be "en charrette" was to describe students who, when finishing competition drawings, would jump on the collection cart as it rolled away. In a modern charrette, interested citizens work along side design professionals to draw out their own vision for their community.

The Granby Master Planning Committee has the following:

The Big Event! A week of structured activities designed to involve all segments of the Granby community in writing the Town’s new Master Plan. All activities during this week will be at the high school and open to the public but you will be specifically invited to participate in one or two of the activities on topics of interest and concern to you.

--Mb

New Sewer Proposal Offers Significant Change

2008-06-22T04:49:00.002+14:00

Instead of landing on the backs of a small number of homeowners in the New Ludlow Road area, a new proposal from the Select Board would spread the cost among all of Granby's taxpayers.

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:

The meeting will be held June 30, beginning at 7 p.m., in the Granby Junior-Senior High School.
The $5.6 million overall cost for the project remains the same, said Town Administrator Christopher Martin, but instead of placing betterment liens on the approximately 140 properties to be served by the sewer line, the debt service will be paid through taxation and the town will be reimbursed as users connect to the system.

--Mb

McCain Opted Out of Public Financing Before Obama

2008-06-22T03:58:00.003+14:00

I don't blame Sen. John McCain for making political hay out of his opponent's choice to opt out of public financing. That's what politics is all about. I don't even mind his hypocrisy. Integrity is often the first casualty of politics.

But you'd think that someone in the media would remember that McCain was the first to opt out of the public financing system.

The corporate media, however, is a different story. They aren't in love with Sen. Barack Obama this week. On Weekend Edition, Daniel Schor bemoaned the symbolism of Barack's financing choice. (Host Scott Simon accused Obama of playing the race card against McCain (he didn't), but that's a different story). Yesterday On Point's, Jack Beatty was part of the scrum, though he belatedly recalled McCain's primary choice to use public funding. We know the attention span of the average American is short, but does that mean the media should follow suit?

Here's the deal:

John McCain said he would take public financing for the Republican primaries. Then he used the promise of that public financing to help secure a loan for his campaign. Then, after he wrapped up the Republican nomination, he abruptly decided he did not want to be bound by the limits on campaign fundraising and spending that accompany public financing, so he announced that he had changed his mind.
But Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason sent McCain a letter saying that he cannot unilaterally opt out of the public financing system without FEC approval -- a letter the McCain campaign ignored. If McCain cannot opt out of the system unilaterally, he has broken the law by raising and spending funds in excess of legal limits, and continues to do so each day. Even if McCain isn't breaking the law, he has already broken his word and "reversed himself" on the question of whether he would take public funding for the primaries.
That fact has gone all but ignored in news reports about Obama's decision, even those news reports that quote McCain's criticism of Obama. And McCain's own history is doubly significant: Not only does it suggest that McCain's criticism of Obama is hypocritical, it also indicates that it is impossible to trust McCain to follow through on his commitment not to raise money for the general election. Finally, if David Mason is right and McCain is found to have violated the law, as The Washington Post noted, "Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison."
I have seen no indication that a single reporter has asked McCain to reconcile his criticism of Obama with his own on-again, off-again relationship with the public financing system. And precious few news reports made any mention of the matter. (To their credit, the evening news broadcasts on both ABC and NBC mentioned McCain's public financing shift -- though both mentions were in passing, and both portrayed the matter as an Obama campaign assertion rather than clear fact. And neither contrasted McCain's actions with his words.) As Media Matters has often noted, media have consistently ignored or downplayed McCain's controversial decision to forgo public funding.

McCain may or may not have broken the law. He certainly broke his promise and gamed the system. He did so to stay in the ball game that he eventually won. If it weren't for the short-term memories of the mainstream media and their ongoing love affair with McCain, we might actually hear about it.

--Mb

Night Owl Records Closes

2008-06-21T14:16:00.003+14:00

I never went actually shopped at Night Owl Records, but Jennifer Campbell Schwaber, who co-owns the store with husband Mark Schwaber, was one of my ELHS students back in the mid-1990's. And yes, we shared a common interest in music. I was more knowledgeable, and had better tastes than most of my students back then.

Here's a blog about it on Masslive:

It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of our storefront on August 1st 2008. More importantly, we walk with great excitement into the next phase of our lives together as husband and wife. In no way will we be removing ourselves from the vibrant, loving community of Easthampton. We own a house here and plan to stay heavily involved in the artistic and cultural growth of our little haven.
It is very important for us to tell you that we feel great pride in what we've been a part of on Cottage St. Watching this city change so quickly in so many great ways has been one of many rewarding elements surrounding this 5 year venture. There's been amazing shows that we've hosted in our store, incredibly supportive customers who we will long remain friends with and the surrounding Valley has really helped make us feel at home within the confines of such a demanding yet wonderful arts scene. 5 years goes quickly when you love what you're doing. And these 5 have been no exception to that rule. There is not a day where we woke up and thought "Wow, I really don't want to go to the store today." It's always been a pleasure to spend the days with our doors open to the public. It's lead to wonderful conversations and memories that will never be erased. We're still asked about Night Owl on a regular basis and we always reply "It's great! So much better than having a real job." with a wink and a smile.

I wish the Schwabers good luck.

--Mb

Love Is A Many Splendid Thing, But Not in the Media

2008-06-21T13:28:00.003+14:00

If I were a queen

And he asked me to leave my throne

I'll do anything that he asked

Anything to make him my own

(Do-lang-do-lang-do-lang)

--The Chiffons

If you're not into media criticism, real media criticism, not Howard Kurtz, you may not care about my hero Eric Alterman's article in The Nation taking on the crush the corporate media has on Sen. John McCain. Me, I'm into media criticism. Our social and political realities are formed by what we get from the media. If the media loves someone, we're apt to follow suit. After all, how can we know differently?

For a while now, the Left has been pointing out the love fest the mainstream media has with McCain. We have also wondered how he seduced them. David Brock and Paul Waldman cracked the case with their book Free Ride: John McCain and the Media (it's not exactly a page turner, but the evidence is there). Alterman and his pal George Zornick have an article entitled Loving John McCain, which includes a gem from the bow-tied, uber-dweeb Tucker Carlson:

In his book Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, Tucker Carlson explains the source of many journalists' attraction to the Arizona senator: "McCain ran an entire presidential campaign aimed primarily at journalists.... To a greater degree than any candidate in thirty years, McCain offered reporters the three things they want most: total access all the time, an endless stream of amusing quotes, and vast quantities of free booze."
Ryan Lizza, reporting for The New Yorker from the current Straight Talk, notes the dichotomy of McCain's press-friendly campaign style and that of his opponents: "The Democratic candidates rarely speak to the traveling press. McCain not only packs his bus with reporters (whom he often greets with an affectionate 'Hello, jerks!') but talks until the room is filled with the awkward silence of journalists with no more questions." Lizza also notes that the "chumminess" between the campaign and the reporters has almost no boundaries. Questions of strategy--even media manipulation--are discussed openly with reporters present, and "McCain's senior advisers dine almost nightly with the people covering the candidate."

In other words, McCain gets the media drunk, sweet talks them, and gives them boundless access. Credit the Senator with terrific retail political skill.

Omnia McCainia est tres partes divisa. (I read that in a book). The first part is the war hero, the true story of a man who was tortured and chose to stay with his men for five years in a Viet Cong prison. The second part is he's a straightshooting, maverick, unafraid to buck the GOP leadership. The third part is he's a centrist.

The first part is true. McCain was a war hero. That heroism, however, doesn't necessarily translate into political character or effective leadership.

The second part and the third part are part of the same misconception. McCain, in fact, is quite conservative.

the Pew Research Center, which found that most voters described McCain as "a centrist whose views are fairly close to their own." These voters might as well be visiting Casablanca for the waters. McCain calls himself a thoroughgoing conservative, and he's got the statistics to prove it. He has voted with his party almost 90 percent of the time this term, which puts him ahead of twenty-nine other Republicans, including his Arizona colleague Jon Kyl, who ranks second in his party's leadership. According to VoteView, McCain's voting record in 2005-06 would place him second in the contest for America's most conservative senator in the 109th Congress and eighth in the 110th Senate. McCain supported Bush in 95 percent of his votes in 2007 and has managed to achieve a perfect 100 percent score so far in 2008. But voter ignorance in the case of the "real McCain" is hardly the fault of the voters. They are simply consuming news reports from media that refuse to take McCain's politics seriously.
--Mb

Patrick's Popularity Ennui

2008-06-21T10:04:00.004+14:00

I guess I'm not alone in my disappointment with Gov. Deval Patrick. On the campaign trail, he portrayed himself as a Progressive platform. Since then, he's looked a lot like an old-fashioned liberal with a reformist streak, immodestly proposing a lot of spending and (next week) a lot of educational programs. Add a Cadillac and it's curtains for Patrick when it comes to the the angry middle.

It was his ill-considered casino proposal that irritated Progressives to no end. I'm not terribly opposed to gambling, but the reading I've done suggests that it's a short term fix that creates long-term problems. I expect his Readiness Project to contain enough to anger the Right and Left (and no, that doesn't mean he's doing something right.

Anyway, the State House News Service has a little to say about Patrick's approval ratings:

If Patrick WERE Schwarzenegger, the latest round of public opinion surveys would be his "Kindergarten Cop." Voters are split over whether Patrick deserves a second term, and don't believe him, by a margin of well over 2 to 1, when he says he'll run for one rather than join a prospective Obama administration.
The governor is in the middle of gutting out a spate of policy triumphs, but much of his agenda is still swamped in a legislature that is not in danger of setting land-speed records this session. And the polling indicators depict not only general indifference about seeing him stick around, but a trust deficit that's got to disappoint a man who won the office in the first place because of his ability to connect.
Some of the dissatisfaction stems from the climate: foreclosures continue apace, the state jobless rate just spiked upwards, and a depressing list of recent crimes - including the appalling story of a six-month-old shot in her father's arms - tinge the trumpets of optimism in press releases and bill-signings.
Personal care attendants said they were fed up with a governor they felt has ignored their hopes for higher pay. (Don't feel bad, PCAs. State leaders, the Globe reported this week, are ignoring their own hopes for higher pay, too!) From the other end, the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation issued a blistering indictment of the state budget as an unbalanced smokescreen, along with the stinging broadside: "There is no widespread recognition in the State House of the perils facing state finances." Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei ripped the $1 billion life sciences enterprise as corporate welfare, and other industries took the opportunity to ask: Where's ours?

--Mb

Far Too Little, Way to Late: Bush, McCain, ANWR & Offshore Drilling

2008-06-21T06:25:00.008+14:00

"For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country is disingenuous and a flawed argument. Oil drilling could take 10 years before any oil is pulled out of the ground, and there are a large number of leases held by oil companies that are not being exploited now. We can't say we need more until we've exploited those.''

--Marc Rubio

Republican

Florida House Speaker

With gas and oil prices soaring, everyone in Washington is scrambling for a quick, painless fix. Everything I've read suggests such a fix isn't coming. Last month, Sen. John McCain, joined by Sen. Hillary Clinton, proposed a cut in the gas tax. The proposal was a gimmick. There was nothing to force gas companies to actually lower prices or for the market to increase prices to make up the difference. Sen. Barack Obama learned this the hard way when he supported such a tax cut when serving in the Illinois legislature.

Drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife refuge or off the shore of Florida or the Gulf Coast is not a solution to the current crisis either. We wouldn't see the effects for at least a decade, and they would not be long-lasting. Off-shore drilling is similarly useless in confronting the current crisis. McCain once followed a relatively positive energy policy. Now he's resorting to another gimmick. He Who Must Be Read:

As many reports have noted, the McCain/Bush policy on offshore drilling doesn’t make sense as a response to $4-a-gallon gas: the White House’s own Energy Information Administration says that exploiting the outer shelf wouldn’t yield noticeable amounts of oil until the 2020s, and even at peak production its impact on oil prices would be “insignificant.”
But what I haven’t seen emphasized is the broader picture: Mr. McCain has now aligned himself with an administration that, even aside from its blame-the-environmental-movement tendencies, has established an extensive track record as the gang that couldn’t think straight about energy policy.
Remember, they didn’t just insist that the Iraqis would welcome us as liberators; on the eve of the Iraq war, administration officials were also adamant that regime change in Iraq would add millions of barrels a day to the world oil supply, driving oil prices way down. (In fact, Iraq’s oil output took five years just to recover to preinvasion levels.)
So why would Mr. McCain associate himself with these characters? The answer, presumably, is that it’s a cynical political calculation.
I’m reasonably sure that Mr. McCain’s advisers realize that offshore drilling would do nothing for current gas prices. But they may believe that the public can be conned. A Rasmussen poll taken before Mr. McCain’s announcement suggests that the public favors expanded offshore drilling, and believes (wrongly) that this would lower gasoline prices.
And Mr. McCain may also hope to shore up his still fragile relations with the Republican base. As anyone who has read what’s in his inbox after publishing an article on oil prices can testify, there are many people on the right who believe that all our energy problems have been caused by sanctimonious tree-huggers. Mr. McCain has just thrown that constituency some red meat.

--Mb

Select Board Offers New Proposal for Sewer Project

2008-06-21T03:18:00.003+14:00

I'm still a little confused about the specifics of the new proposal for the New Ludlow Road sewer project, but the terms of the project have changed for the better. The previous proposal would have forced area resident to hook up to the sewer at a significant cost. As I understand the current proposal, if more than 13 households hook up to the sewer, there would be no increase in property taxes. If no households were to hook up, homeowners would be assessed 39 cents per thousand dollars of their property's value. In other words, taxes for a $100,000 house (if there is such a thing) would increase by $39 dollars . The taxbill for a $200,000 house would increased by $78.

According to the Republican,

If none of the affected property owners opt to connect to the sewer line, the project will increase the town's property tax rate by only 39 cents per $1,000 of valuation, Martin said. That is the amount calculated to cover the approximately $243,000 a year cost of a bond for the project. Selectman Wayne Tack said that amount could be raised if only 13 property owners take part in the project. The town has secured a $2.9 million low-interest loan from the state for the project.
Officials said the more affected residents who opt to take part, the less the project will cost the rest of the taxpayers. Ideally, the entire project could be funded by property owners who choose take part, they said.
Tack acknowledged that in addition to the $19,840, residents will have to pay a fee to run a pipeline from their homes to the sewer line, a cost he estimated at about $10 a foot.
Residents expressed concern about how much they would have to pay to Chicopee in sewer-use fees, figures officials said they could not project.

--Mb

The Readiness Project: Something Old, Something New, Biting Off More than It Can Chew?

2008-06-20T12:29:00.005+14:00

If the leaks are any indication, the Readiness Project will be a grab bag of school reforms dating back to the 1950s. A week or so ago, the Globe revealed through anonymous sources the idea that Patrick's proposal to weaken collective bargaining and give every public school the opportunity to operate like a charter school. (Charter schools weren't a 1950s idea, but the disrespect for educational professionals was). The leak du jour according to the Associated Press,

BOSTON--The school overhaul plan being unveiled next week by Gov. Deval Patrick includes a proposal to allow high school students as young as 16 to take an international evaluation test that would allow them to graduate.

I like the idea of a flexible entry between high school and college. The American school system is predicated on the idea that everyone should learn and progress at the same rate, and based on my experience, kids are not all ready to learn at the same pace. If one student were to finish high school in 11 years while another were to take 13 years, it would be okay with me.

This is, more or less, how education operates in England. Students pass certain tests (O-Levels (OWLS for Harry Potter fans)) to complete high school and then must pass subject matter tests (A-levels) for acceptance to university. England, however, has a nationalized education system. American has 50 state education systems and innumerable local school systems.

Conservative education critics have been calling for a national, standardized curriculum like that of England or (believe it or not) the Soviet Union since the 1950s. Many of the Readiness ideas floating in the press these days hearken back to this time. The following idea is right out of the work of Arthur Bestor and Hyman Rickover:

"We’re moving to a mastery-based system, where you move not by banking seat-time, but by virtue of your mastery of the skills and knowledge needed for the next phase of your education," the official said.

In theory, requiring students to master the skills and knowledge of certain subjects makes more sense than giving them credit for doing the minimum in a classroom without mastery. In theory. The problem comes with testing. There are no tests that measure mastery of subject matter. MCAS tests' lack of depth exclude them from accurate measures of subject mastery tests. The Readiness Project seems to be suggesting the use of International Baccalaureate tests.

IB courses, similar to Advanced Placement courses, though with significant differences. AP courses were originally intended to provide able students with advanced placement in college. IB courses originally developed for students, such as the children of ambassadors or the military stationed overseas, to provide their high school transcripts with some currency. In foreign or overseas American schools, curricular and educational quality might be inconsistent. An IB diploma guaranteed an education of a certain standard.

Using IB tests to judge subject mastery in high school makes no sense without following the IB curriculum, a curriculum which could possibly conflict with the state's curriculum frameworks as well as the requirements of individual schools. Personally, I'm very interested in the IB curriculum, but I'm not sure it's for everyone or that every school would want it.

Newspaper articles are particularly poor at conveying the big picture on specific policies. And I can't help but think that the last two articles based on leaks from the Project were intentional. Reading between the lines, I grow increasingly suspicious of the Readiness Project. Last week's leak concerned weakening teacher unions; this week's leak is all about concern for our abler students (the impetus for the Advanced Placement Program 55 years ago).

"Some children are ready to move on to a higher level, deeper challenges earlier than others. We should have a vehicle for them," the official said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plan before the governor’s formal announcement next week.

Underlying this statement is a concern for those students who are often referred to as gifted and talented. They deserve as much concern as any other student, but many, if not most, public high schools have already dealt with these students by offering honors, AP, and IB courses. Many high schools already allow dual-enrollment in high school and college. Many lack coherent programs for it though.

We'll know more about the Readiness Project next week. I still contend it was, from beginning too large, too diffuse, and too far-reaching. If these leaks are anything to go by, we're in for an unwieldy, incoherent mess.

--Mb

Obama Leads in Polls!?

2008-06-20T09:27:00.002+14:00

It's way to early to call it a trend. Precious little campaigning has been done, and aside from exchanging soundbites through the media, there has been no clash.

The Freeper Fringe has a few tricks up its sleeve. Some wacko named Larry Sinclair is going to tell the world about taking drugs and having sex with Sen. Barack Obama. The lies can't be (un)substantiated, though Sinclair allegedly took a polygraph about it and failed.

I may be wrong (my crystal ball isn't particularly good), but I think the choice between Obama and Sen. John McCain will become clear when the debates start. McCain has given every indication of not knowing much and not speaking well.

But today, at least, Obama is in the lead. Rasmussen reports:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Barack Obama attracting 45% of the vote while John McCain earns 42%. When "leaners" are included, Obama holds a three-point advantage, 48% to 45%... Voters are evenly divided as to which candidate they trust most on economic issues but favor McCain by a wide margin on national security topics.
Obama’s modest bounce since capturing the Democratic Presidential Nomination is now being reflected in a number of state polls. As a result, the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator shows five states shifting in the Democrat’s direction today. Most notable are Colorado and New Hampshire which move from Toss-Up to Leans Democratic. New Jersey moves from Leans Democratic to Likely Democratic, Maine from Likely Democratic to Safely Democratic, and Tennessee from Safely Republican to Likely Republican. Polling released late yesterday shows that Ohio is still too close to call.
When all the changes are made, Obama now leads in states with 200 Electoral College votes while McCain leads in states with 174 votes. When leaners are included, it’s Obama 273, McCain 240.

--Mb

A New Name for Granby01033

2008-06-20T09:15:00.003+14:00

When I started Granby01033 two and a half years ago, the Blogspot adress using just plain, old Granby was taken. So I opted for my present name. It kind of has a Mayberry RFD ring to it that seemed appropriate to our small town.

With a new web address and a new look in the works, it seems like a good time to consider a new name. I've been doing some thinking myself, but I thought I'd open up the naming game to all my readers or anyone with the desire and imagination necessary to cook something up. Forty something years ago, Romeo Grenier's book store received its name from a friend and customer named Julie Leonard. Maybe the same process will work for me.

So if you have any ideas, pass them along in the comments or by email.

Mark

Granby01033 Due for Major Renovations

2008-06-20T09:05:00.003+14:00

Well, I've finally done it! I purchased my own domain and I'm working on a new version of Granby01033. I'll be using WordPress, a more professional, more flexible blogging platform.

When I've got that up and running, I'll begin posting community announcements and public meetings and hearings and press releases and putting them into a calendar for easy access.

WordPress also allows improved commenting. What Granby01033 now has really doesn't work very well.

Until my new site is up and running, I'll continue posting at the same old address.

Mark

Vacation At Last

2008-06-20T08:57:00.004+14:00

Blogging gets harder in the summer. There's less news, which makes posting harder. I'm also on vacation, which tends to make me lazier. This is my second day off, and though, I haven't slept the day away, I've managed not to do much.

Today I went to Rao's for coffee with my friend Barbara Madeloni. We've known each other since we took a graduate English class at UMass in 1996. She turned up in the School of Education about the same time I started my doctoral program. She's now a lecturer and Director of Student Teaching, and we've worked on some classes together.

Other than that, I've been riding my new mountain bike, reading, and trying to stay productive and ungrumpy. I've managed to watch an hour or two of The Waltons reruns.

Mark

Barry Receives Unsung Heroine Award

2008-06-19T06:03:00.009+14:00

By her own standards, Dianne Barry's accomplishments are small, though certainly important. Helping a senior citizen acquire health insurance, pick a prescription drug plan, or navigate a complicated phone system are all in a day's work for her at the Council on Aging, but in the life of a frustrated senior citizen, her work, she knows, means a lot.

"Everyone's problem is everything to them," Barry says. "I help fill out forms and applications, and answer lots of questions. I make calls to offices and get to do a lot of arguing on others behalf!"

"Every day, I arrange transportation to medical appointments. This is not as simple as it seems. My folks often have the wrong date, time, place etc. I must confirm, change and arrange these appointments. I even drive on occasion. The reward of the job comes from making a difference for folks in ways that really matter to them, but they could not achieve on their own."

"It's a job," says Council on Aging Director Patricia Sicard that "requires great compassion, understanding of the human service system, ability to make referrals, and gather information needed by Granby seniors, and simultaneously keep accurate records for Outreach reporting to WestMass ElderCare."

Knowing you make a difference in your work, however, and receiving recognition for your work are two different things.

"It never occurred to me that I had done anything out of the ordinary," said Barry who learned of the Fifth Annual Unsung Heroines of Massachusetts award when Deb Strauss of The Sentinel sent me an e-mail of congratulations. Later that week, she received a letter in the mail.

"I was stunned and surprised," she says. "I didn't expect anything like this, or even know of its existence.

But that all fits in with the purpose of the Unsung Heroine Award. The award recognizes "women who quietly, without fanfare or recognition, make their communities and the Commonwealth better places."

The Unsung Heroine Celebration

Sponsored by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (MCSW), the Unsung Heroine Award was given out to 287 women across the Commowealth at the Fifth Annual Unsung Heroine Celebration at the Massachusetts State House.

The award ceremony took place in Gardner Auditorium. Award recipients each received a yellow rose, a bag with 4 personalized certificates, cosmetic products. Liz Brunner, of Channel 5 was the emcee.

Speakers included Senator Susan Fargo, Co-Chair of the Caucus of Women Legislators, Speaker of the House, Salvatore DiMasi, and Senate President Therese Murray. The keynote speaker was Attorney General Martha Coakley. Each and every nominee was recognized and applauded. A group photo was taken on the steps of the Great Hall. Finally, there was a "Just Desserts Reception" in the Great Hall.

Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst) had nominated Barry for the award. She also invited Barry and her guest, son Matthew (who just graduated from West Point), to a luncheon in Senator Sen. Stan Rosenberg's office. Story met them there, and then gave her nominees a tour of the State House. A highlight of the tour was a visit to the chamber where lawmakers conduct their sessions.

"The award ceremony was wonderful," says Barry. "All of the nominees were made to feel special."

Working and Volunteering

Barry works two part-time jobs at the Council on Aging. She is the Transportation Coordinator and an Outreach Worker. She's been doing the transportation job for 11 years and the outreach work for about 3 years. She is also the clerk for the department.

After college, she had trained and worked as a dental assistant for 20 years. I was still working as a dental assistant when I started at the Council on Aging. She also worked in all of the Granby Schools, filling in as needed for the school secretaries.

Aside from her paid work, Barry has done extensive volunteer work working at most of the DARE tournaments. I have been with the Granby Arts Project since its second year.

"I served on the Board," she said, "and helped with costumes, but now I am Props Mistress. (I like this job best) I am now serving as GAP's Treasurer.

She has also served in elected positions: the Cultural Council for 6 years (4 years as chair). She is also serving my second year of the three year term as a Library Trustee, currently as the Secretary.

A Military Mom

Since the war began, Barry has been active with a West Point group called Operation Support Our Troops. "With this group," says Barry, "I have adopted many soldiers, and supported them with letters, cards, and boxes of "boodle. Boodle is goodies! My longest adoption lasted for 16 months with a soldier who was serving in Afghanistan at a remote base on the border."

"Every month I sent him approximately 5 boxes to share with his squad. I met him when he was passing through the area, traveling from Fort Drum, N.Y. to his home in Florida after his deployment ended. He showed me his bullet wound and the video of the fire fight he got wounded in. It was intense stuff. He even invited me to his wedding!"

"I have not had a soldier to sponsor for about a year, because I thought Nick and his wife were going to deploy, but they did not, so I will pick up a soldier soon." Nick (GHS '02) is the oldest son of Barry and her husband Granby Police Chief Louis Barry. Nick's wife Jennifer MacGibbon Barry also graduated from West Point.

Both were scheduled to deploy, but their orders were changed.

Mark

Amherst Ignores Civil Liberties of Parade Organizers

2008-06-19T04:34:00.003+14:00

You heard it here first. In April, I wrote about the unconstitutionality of the Town of Amherst demanding that Fourth of July parade organizers admit war protesters. Parade organizers already allowed anyone to march and hold a sign naming their organization, but they didn't want signs protesting the war. Here's what I said two months ago:

Holding a parade on July 4th may be not just an issue of freedom to assemble, but freedom of speech. A July 4th parade held on August 3rd, for example, would not carry the significance of July 4th and its connotations of Independence. Usurping July 4th for the Town of Amherst is, in effect, usurping the speech value of the July 4th date.

Now the ACLU is involved. The DHG reports:

AMHERST - Preventing a private group from organizing and running its own Independence Day parade on July 4, 2009, could be a violation of the rights of freedom of assembly and expression, according to an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ironically, Northampton lawyer William Newman is defending the assembly rights of a group that wants to restrict who can march and what messages they can display.

Newman, director of the western regional office of the Massachusetts ACLU, recently sent a letter to Town Manager Larry Shaffer asking him to ensure that the July 4th Parade Committee has an opportunity to put on its parade next year, even as the town plans to run its own parade.

"A private group has a constitutional right to conduct a parade, a protest or a celebration of its choice, and the government cannot and should not dictate to a private group the content of its march, assembly or protest," Newman said.

--Mb

Big Stink at the Council on Aging

2008-06-18T14:12:00.002+14:00

Aldrich Hall has a broken pipe leading to its septic system, and according to people using the Council on Aging, the place stinks. According to one Council on Aging member, the COA has moved larger activities to Phin's Hill because of the smell.

In spite of requests to fix the problem immediately, the town administrator and selectmen refused.

As of this post, Town Administrator Chris Martin had not responded to an email I sent yesterday inquiring about the issue.

Mark

Notes on School Superintendents

2008-06-18T14:06:00.004+14:00

On Masslive, people keep posting about our school superintendent Patricia Stevens. Unfortunately, some of their "facts" are either false or out of context. For the record, I think Pat Stevens does a great job and in a not very well funded school system.

Anyway, here are a few facts about school superintendents:

School superintendents tend to work anywhere from 8 to 4 or 9 to 5. They do work summers. Generally, administrators have 4 or 5 weeks vacation; it depends on the school system and the level of administrator. Unlike teachers, they have some discretion as to when they take vacations.

Aside from work in their office, superintendents typically have meetings, sometimes in schools within the system. Area superintendents, I know, regularly meet and discuss issues of shared interest.

Aside from these meetings, superintendents, particularly ours, I've noticed, attend extracurricular events beyond regular school hours. Superintendents attend town meeting when it pertains to the schools. They may meet with the Finance Committee at night. They are usually part of the negotiation team when teacher contracts are up. Negotiations don't take place during school hours. Then there are special projects like the re-certification of the high school that also take up time.

I don't know our system's policy, but some of these night meetings may be offset with time spent in the office during regular school hours.

Although negotations are involved, the market sets salaries. We may not like paying a 6 figure salary, but that's what the market demands. The market is also responsible for what everyone else in this economy makes.

And though it might seem that smaller systems are easy to administer, and therefore leass expensive, larger systems often have more administrators such as assistant superintendents and curriculum directors that assume work that a small system administrator might otherwise have to do. In Granby, I know the Director of Special Education worked Saturdays and Sundays for quite a while preparing for a regular, state audit. I know he does more than a SPED director in a larger school system.

Mark

Springfield Man Bitten By Copperhead

2008-06-17T11:55:00.003+14:00

Before he died last year, my elderly great uncle told me about how he and his friends used to kill the rattlesnakes they came across while haying in the fields in Easthampton just below Mount Tom. That must have been in the 1920's or 1930's. Today, the snakes are scarce.

The Timber Rattlesnake are scarce; scientists estimate that there are only a few hundred left. The Copperhead is the only other venomous snake in Massachusetts and it is equally scarce.

Snakebites, however, occasionally occur. According to The Republican,

A venomous snake bit a New Jersey man in September 2004 while he was visiting family members in Westfield on Blue Sky Drive.... In May 2004, an Easthampton woman, Janet Jackewich, was bitten by a poisonous snake while weeding in her garden on Olive Street in May.

Westfield and Easthampton have the sort of habitat rattlesnakes and copperheads prefer, but the most recent case of snakebite occurred in Chicopee.

SPRINGFIELD - A 31-year-old Pinta Circle man who said he was bitten by a venomous snake Saturday night in woods not far from his home, was listed in good condition today at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

"I still have a lot of swelling, a lot of pain," Benjamin T. Moore of 82 Pinta Circle said during a telephone interview from his hospital room in Worcester.

Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger said American Medical Response confirmed that one of its ambulances had taken a snake bite victim to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center Saturday evening.

University of Massachusetts Medical Center personnel, citing privacy issues, declined to comment on Moore's case except to say he is in good condition.

A self-described snake enthusiast, Moore said he had been walking in a wooded area near his home about 6 p.m. when he picked up a large rock in hopes of showing some garter snakes to his daughter and a neighborhood child.

Moore said he saw a garter snake underneath and was reaching to grab it when he saw a "big, big snake" underneath.

"The second I saw it I felt something hit me like a hammer," Moore said. "It was serious pain."

--Mb

Sgt. Jason Smith Named Pride of the Pack

2008-06-17T09:58:00.003+14:00

Dennis and Gloria Smith have lived in Granby as long as I can remember (and quite possibly longer). Dennis was famous for keeping bees. Their son Nick is married and living on Easton Street. He works as a mechanic at Dressel's. He and his wife have an infant. Jason is stationed in Korea.

From the Kunsan Air Base website:

5/30/2008 - KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- Tech. Sgt Jason Smith from the 8th Maintenance Squadron was selected as the 8th Fighter Wing's Pride of the Pack for the week of May 26. Each week, the 8th Fighter Wing commander recognizes one member of the Wolf Pack by awarding them with a Pride of the Pack certificate for their stellar commitment to excellence and superior mission accomplishment. Here is a letter from Sergeant Smith's commander explaining his achievements.
I highly recommend Tech. Sgt. Jason Smith from Weapons Standardization for the Pride of the Pack Award. Sergeant Smith is responsible for training, certification, and proficiency of more than 190 weapons technicians within the 8th Fighter Wing. He performs evaluations and monitors flight line weapons loading and maintenance operations, guaranteeing safe and reliable procedures are enforced for loading 19 different types of munitions. He also manages the accountability of the wings training munitions valued at $4 million. During the past 10 months, his outstanding instruction enabled the wing's load crew to achieve a superb 98 percent pass rate on more than 10,000 minimum proficiency requirement loads. He also significantly improved his section's training program by streamlining procedures for certifying 60 new weapons personnel, fully qualifying them as load crew members well within allotted time. Sergeant Smith's dedication to duty and positive attitude is reflected in his willingness to always pitch in where needed and continually put the mission first.
--Mb

Open House: Council on Aging

2008-06-17T09:55:00.002+14:00

You are cordially invited to attend the Second Annual

“Celebrating Seniors” Open House.

A catered buffet will be served from 4pm to 7 pm on July 9, 2008
At the Granby Council on Aging Senior Center,
257 State Street, Granby, MA

Join us for a tour of the Center, and visits with staff, volunteers,
Community leaders, local service providers and Friends.
Receive information about the services, programs and
volunteer opportunities available to our seniors and their families.

Please RSVP to 413-467-3239 by July 1, 2008
so we may have an attendance figure for the caterer.

The event is again sponsored by Waste Management’s Granby
Landfill and Recycling Convenience Center

The Worst President Ever Starves the Beast

2008-06-17T02:09:00.004+14:00

Although some conservatives argue that The Worst President Ever is not a true conservative, I tend to disagree, between tax cuts and deficit spending, he has hobbled the future of the United States government. In the words of Grover Norquist, he has starved the beast, if not into submission, at least into dire straits.

Starving the beast is a conservative strategy:

"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy of some American conservatives [1] [2] [3] to use budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government. The term "beast" refers to government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, and Medicare.

He Who Must Be Read discusses our revenue-starved government. As usual, he's right on target.

A poison pill, in corporate jargon, is a financial arrangement designed to protect current management by crippling the company if someone else takes over.
As I read the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the presidential candidates’ tax proposals, I realized that the tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration are, in effect, a fiscal poison pill aimed at future administrations.
True, the tax cuts won’t prevent a change in management — the Constitution sees to that. But they will make it hard for the next president to change the country’s direction.
Exhibit A of the poison pill in action is the sad case of John McCain, part of whose lingering image as a maverick rests on his early opposition to the Bush tax cuts, which he declared excessive and too tilted toward the rich.
Since then the budget surpluses of the Clinton years have given way to persistent deficits, and income inequality has risen to new heights, vindicating his opposition.
But instead of pointing this out, Mr. McCain now promises to make those tax cuts permanent — and proposes further cuts that are, if anything, tilted even more toward the wealthy. And how is the loss of revenue to be made up? Mr. McCain hasn’t offered a realistic answer.
You can explain though not excuse Mr. McCain’s behavior by his need to shore up relations with the Republican base, which suspects him of being a closet moderate. But he’s not the only one seemingly trapped by the Bush fiscal legacy.
Barack Obama’s tax plan is more responsible than Mr. McCain’s: relative to current policy, the Tax Policy Center estimates, the Obama plan would raise revenue by $700 billion over the next decade, compared with a $600 billion loss for Mr. McCain.
The Obama plan is also far more progressive, sharply reducing after-tax incomes for the richest 1 percent of Americans while raising incomes for the bottom 80 percent.
But while $700 billion may sound like a lot of money, it’s probably not enough to pay for universal health care, which was supposed to be the overriding progressive priority in this election.
Why doesn’t Mr. Obama propose raising more money? Blame the Bush poison pill.

--Mb

If You Thought Kerry Healey Had Campaign Problems...

2008-06-16T04:48:00.002+14:00

Several years ago, I had a grudging respect for Sen. John McCain. My feelings are closer (but not that close) to pity. It ain't over until it's over, and McCain is far from out of the running, but he's turning out to be ignorant and not particularly competent. His platform (forget about his flip-flops) or his lobbyist advisors.

The latest revelation is the foreign lobbying done by his campaign manager's firm. The NYT reports:

a lobbying firm owned by Rick Davis, the McCain campaign manager, has worked in recent years for a Ukraine politician, Viktor Yanukovich. Both Mr. McCain and the Bush administration supported the opponent of Mr. Yanukovich, who had close ties to Vladimir V. Putin, then the president of Russia and now prime minister.
During this time, however, Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, never registered as a lobbyist for Mr. Yanukovich even though Paul Manafort, Mr. Davis’s business partner, had met with the United States ambassador in Kiev on Mr. Yanukovich’s behalf.
In a related development, Mr. McCain may have first become aware of Davis Manafort’s activities in Ukraine as far back as 2005. At that time, a staff member at the National Security Council called Mr. McCain’s Senate office to complain that Mr. Davis’s lobbying firm was undercutting American foreign policy in Ukraine, said a person with direct knowledge of the phone call who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A campaign spokesman, when asked whether such a call had occurred, referred a reporter to Mr. McCain’s office. The spokesman there, Robert Fischer, did not respond to repeated inquiries.
Such a call might mean that Mr. McCain has been long aware of Mr. Davis’s foreign clients. Mr. Davis took a leave from his firm at the end of 2006.

--Mb

DEATH NOTICE: George R. Turcotte 1947 - 2008

2008-06-16T04:29:00.002+14:00

I remember George Turcotte from when I umpired pony league and little league games. I wasn't the greatest sports official to ever come down the pike, but I guess I was good enough for Mr. Turcotte to notice. He complimented and encouraged me. I've been busy, which is why I think I missed this obituary.

GRANBY - George R. Turcotte, 60, died suddenly on Wednesday May 28, 2008 at Mercy Medical Center. He was born in Spring-field, son of the late Roger and Antionette (Gauthier) Turcotte and was a graduate of Ludlow High School and East Coast Aero Tech. George was a Vietnam veteran, youth baseball coach and past president of the Granby Athletic Assoc.
George's passion was his four beloved grandchildren, his Harley's and his new found talent, photography. He was an active lifetime member of the Harley Owner Group and was the Assistant Director and Photographer of the Springfield HOG Chapter, and a member of the Berkshire Chapter.
He is survived by his loving family, wife of 36 years, Denice K. Turcotte; his son Todd D. Turcotte of Lincoln RI; his daughter Traci L. Carlson and husband Bruce of Chicopee; four grandchildren, Jacques and Vianne Turcotte of Lincoln, RI. and Christopher and Colby Carlson of Chicopee; his brother Donald Turcotte of Cheshire, CT and sister Rita Aubin of Feeding Hills and many nieces, nephews and close family and friends.
A Funeral Service was held on Tuesday June 3, 2008 at 8:30 am from the Grise Funeral Home, 280 Springfield St, Chicopee followed by burial in the Massachusetts Veterans Cemetery in Agawam at 10:00 am. Visiting hours were held on Monday June 2, 2008 from 4:00-8:00 pm at the funeral home.
For those who prefer to make a memorial donation, they may be made in his memory to the, 1 Union St, #301 Robbinsville, NJ 08691-4183 or to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America Gift Processing Center, P. O. Box 29119, Phoenix, Arizona 85038-9119.

--Mb

Republican: COA Director Resignation

2008-06-16T04:25:00.002+14:00

Sandra Constantine reports:

"Less and less of what I make is going into my pocket and I have an efficient car," Senior Services Director Patricia B. Sicard said this week.
Sicard, who is paid $41,322 a year, said she currently spends about $100 a week on gasoline. In addition, Sicard said the commute from Chesterfield is 65 minutes each way as opposed to the 25 minutes it will take her to travel to Northampton, where she has accepted the job of volunteer coordinator with RSVP. RSVP is the Retired Senior Volunteer Program.
Sicard, 60, took over the running of the town's Senior Center about two years ago following the retirement of long-time director Elizabeth A. Innocent.
Since then she has started many new programs including the Mature Adult Safe Driving and Mobility Program at the town's Senior Center, which is housed in Aldrich Hall.

--Mb

Question of the Day

2008-06-15T07:14:00.001+14:00

On our go along to get along Democratic majority in Congress:

Can someone identify even one meaningful event from the past 18 months that would have been different had the GOP retained control of both houses of Congress? Just one.

--Glenn Greenwald

Confused With Facts, TWVPE Admits Lie About Oil Drilling

2008-06-15T04:32:00.003+14:00

The motivating emotion of the Republican Party's right wing is fear. Fear of attack, fear of losing dominance, fear of others. Evoking fight, not flight, fear is the basis for the hyper-partisanship and sheer nasty aggression that has increasinly characterized the party since Nixon.

My Capitol Hill sources, which are, admittedly, very, very few, say The Worst President Ever is a truly mean person. It's possible that The Worst Vice President Ever is even meaner. He may also be a bigger liar. From ThinkProgress:

On Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in which he claimed that China, in cooperation with the Cuban government, is drilling for oil “60 miles off the coast of Florida.” “Even the communists have figured out” that drilling for oil is the solution to the energy crisis, Cheney argued.
It’s a talking point favored by the right wing. Cheney was quoting conservative columnist Geroge Will, who wrote on June 6 that China is drilling “60 miles off Florida,” “closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.” The same day Cheney spoke, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) wrote that Castro was allowing drilling “45 miles from the Florida keys.” Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have also raised the specter of Chinese drilling just off U.S. shores.
The problem, of course, is that the claim is completely false. After his claim was thoroughly debunked in the press, Cheney acknowledged that he had, in fact, lied in his speech...

--Mb

DEATH NOTICE: Former Granby Library Patricia Kislo

2008-06-15T04:02:00.002+14:00

AMHERST - Patricia Brady Kislo, 58, of Chapel Road, passed away at her home on Wednes-day, June 4. She was born in Holyoke at the old Providence Hospital on January 29, 1950, the daughter of the late James F. Brady, Sr. and Amelia (Tavares) Brady. She was educated in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts graduating Cum Laude in 1973 with a BA in Sociology. Pattie was raised in Chicopee. Shortly after her marriage, the couple purchased a house in Belchertown where she resided for seven years until moving to her current address in Amherst in 1984.

As a certified professional librarian, she spent the majority of her adult life working to educate children and adults through the public library system. Starting as a library assistant at the University of Massachusetts in 1970, she moved on to assistant librarian at Springfield Technical Community College in 1973. She started her library career in Granby as the children's librarian, and was appointed to director of the library in 1990. She served as the director until her retirement in 2005.

While raising her son as a stay at home mother, Pattie volunteered extensively. She assisted in the creation of the Cold Spring School Library in Belchertown. She volunteered as a teacher's aide at Belchertown Main Street School, and she participated on the parent council at Fort River Elementary School in Amherst Pattie also tutored English as a second language for the Amherst Town Committee for International Students. Three of her students came from Argentina and one was from Korea. She found this to be an enriching experience and resulted in a lifelong friendship with an Argentinean family.

She was active in the National Organization for Women (NOW). She attended, along with her family, the 1989 - NOW's 2nd "March for Women's Lives" that brought a record-setting 500,000 to the National Mall to influence the Supreme Court considering a reversal of "Roe v. Wade". She was the local chapter delegate to the National Conference when it was held in Boston.

Pattie belonged to a number of groups including the Friends of the Granby Public Library, Friends of the Jones Library, the Massachusetts Library Association, the American Library Association, and the Western Mass Library Club.

Interests included cooking, reading and gardening. She amassed a collection of cookbooks that would rival any local library and she used them to create phenomenal meals for her family, and she had the ability to taste a recipe by reading it. Pattie enjoyed gardening and would love to plant unusual plants or plants used by different cultures.

Traveling was Pattie's revitalization aphrodisiac. Her favorite destinations to travel to were Washington D.C., York, Maine, Chicago and San Francisco. She loved her trip to Ireland. Visiting friends in Mendoza, Argentina was her most cherished trip of all.

In her youth, Pattie was a track star running the 100 meter sprint just .2 of a second less than the current world record at that time.

She was at Woodstock in 1969.

Pattie is survived by her husband, Joseph Kislo, Sr. of Amherst, her son, Joseph Kislo, Jr. of Boston, her brother, James Brady, Jr. and his wife Lola, of Shutesbury; and a nephew, James Brady, III of North Carolina. Also left behind are Helene Anninos, her lifelong friend, Consuelo Buchrucker and her husband, Cristian Sr. and son Cristian Jr. of Mendoza, Argentina. Calling hours at the Ryder's Funeral Home, 33 Lamb St., South Hadley will be between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm Saturday, June 14.

Pattie's family would like to thank all the people involved in her care over the past year at Umass Memorial, Amherst Medical, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Friends of the Granby Public Library, 1 Library Lane, Granby, MA 01033 or Umass Transplant, c/o Umass Memorial Foundation, Suite 100, 1 Biotech, 365 Plantation St., Worcester, MA 01605. RYDER FUNERAL HOME 533-1735 Published in The Republican on 6/12/2008.

Yearly Audit Offers Good News & Some Suggestions

2008-06-14T02:23:00.003+14:00

I've held off on posting about this new until I was able to talk to people about it. Like much of the news, it may be factually correct, but there's not much context. What does a good audit (which, by the way, Granby does yearly) look like? Personally, I don't know. The Republican reports:

GRANBY - An independent audit of the town's books for fiscal 2007 shows that the town's assets increased by almost $2.4 million from fiscal 2006.
The audit, by Thomas J. Scanlon & Associates of Deerfield, shows assets rose by $2,388,218 from $16,562,387 to $18,950,605, mostly due to fees from Waste Management, the company that operates the town landfill. The recently released study was the audit required yearly by municipalities accepting federal funds.

The audit outlines a handful of needs dealing with policy. Only one seems to refer to actual mistakes. Three of these items, I think, pertain mainly to the treasurer's office.

Develop and document an accounting policies and procedures manual.
Periodically perform a risk assessment to anticipate, identify, analyze and manage the risk of asset misappropriation. (treasurer)
Establish a formal procedure to periodically review investments to see if they are in compliance with the town's investment policy. (treasurer)
Credit receipts received by the School Department to the correct account. (treasurer)

The first of these needs represents a overall problem for much of Granby's general government. Aside from personnel policies developed by the Personnel Board, the Selectman's office has never operated with written down policies. A sub-committee, however, was named a couple of months ago and will begin soon.

There have been procedures in place to minimize the risk of misappropriation of funds (if that is what item #2 refers to). I reported on the initial steps taken in the wake of the Wilk embezzlement scandal.

The following suggestions seem good to me.

When funds are expended from trust funds or when Town Meeting votes a transfer such as from the stabilization fund, the actual cash should be moved from the trust fund bank accounts to a general cash account.
The town should research trust funds to determine their purpose and what portion of the funds are nonexpendable.
The town should hire an actuary.
The town should install a perpetual inventory system to ensure the accuracy of inventories

After reviewing these suggestions, nothing leaps out at me as a significant problem. Previous to the appointment of Town Administrator Chris Martin, Granby was in the governmental stone agers. These needs and suggestions reflect our evolution.

Mark

Correction: Charter Days Parking Issue

2008-06-13T11:13:00.007+14:00

Last night, I received a phone call from a member of the Charter Day Committee who was upset to learn that Dickinson's Farm was allowing parking in their parking lot. What I didn't make clear enough in my post was the fact that the LaFlamme's might not have known their decision to allow parking would affect Charter Days' bottom line.

I've been corrected on posts I've written before by a state lawmaker's aide (no kidding) and an irate land developer who threatened to sue me for libel. Unlike these two folks, James LaFlamme of Dickinson's Farm was both understanding and genuine. He explained that an employee that is going to college next year asked if she could sell space in the parking lot to make some money. They agreed not knowing that selling parking spaces might cut into Charter Days bottom line. Dickinson's Farm is not making any money out of the deal. They care about Granby.

Mr. LaFlamme accepted my apologies. I hope that I cleared up the issue here.

Mark

2008-06-13T11:13:00.001+14:00