Still waiting for my "real ID" as I write these words. I had all the information and documentation in the hands of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles more than a month ago -- and aced an eye test to boot, and was told I would get the new supercharged form of a drivers license, the real ID form, the get-me onto-airplanes version, in two weeks Hasn't happened. Have to call to complain now. Just venting....
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Suppose you happen to be in Springfield, Mass., driving west on Sumner in a pouring rain. You want to get to route 291 heading east. Why? Well, let us never mind that. You see Forest Park Ave. on your right. Should you turn there? Probably not. Drive a little further on Sumner. But if you do turn right on Forest Part Ave., not all is lost. Follow it. It will lead you to Fort Pleasant Ave. Take a slight right there (the only alternative will be a hard left -- to be avoided.) Fort Pleasant will lead you shortly to the corner of Pine and Belmont. Take a slight left onto Belmont. In time you'll come to State Street on your right. You are now deep downtown. Take that right. You'll pass Federal Street. (DO NOT take Federal Street.) Soon after Federal, you will see a sign for St. James Street. Take THAT one. That will lead you to route 291. Well ... so will lots of other routes. Let's examine one utterly at random. Suppose you took Federal Street. Tha...
Joseph Kennedy III, the grandson of Sen. Robert Kennedy and the grandnephew of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, announced recently that he is a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for the seat in the US Senate now held by another member of that party, Sen. Edward Markey. The nomination will likely be decided by a primary on September 15, 2020. Ed Markey is 73 years old and has been either in the House of Representatives or the Senate continuously since 1977. This makes him the second longest-serving member of Congress from New England. Joseph Kennedy turned 39 on October 4. There is certainly a generational aspect to this challenge, just as in other parts of the country younger Democrats are challenging party elders for other seats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in October of 1989, notoriously won her seat in the House, representing New York's 14th district, by knocking off a party elder, Joe Crowley, at the conclusion of Crowley's tenth term in...
Last year at about this time I wrote about the prospect of disruptive repairs to a stretch of the highway I-91 as it passes through Springfield, MA, just a short ways north of the border of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is a vital piece of infrastructure in my neck of the woods, so I'd like to keep readers of this blog up to date on it. On June 25th, the Mass. Department of Transportation hosted a hearing on the project updating the community of those who drive there regularly, warning said community that preliminary construction work will begin any day now. J.F. White Contracting Co., of Framingham, won the bid and will serve as general contractor for the expected three year duration of the work. The MassDOT is funding 20% of this work, the Federal Highway Administration will pick up the rest of the tab. Finally, the project has become enmeshed over the last year with another timetable: that of casino construction. In the fullness of time, it has been d...
In August 2012, the state house in Massachusetts passed its Health Care Cost Control and Payment Reform, something of a patchwork fix-up of the problems that had arisen under Romney's system. The bill, at heart, created a measure for health care cost containment, Between 2013 and 2017, it was to be the policy of Massachusetts that the health care industry should not grow any more quickly than the state's economy, as measured by the increase in the GSP over the same period. Between 2018 and 2022, the official goal was to be that the health care industry's expansion should be below that of the gross state product. How was this to be achieved? In large part by paperwork. The bill provided that every health care provider group that operated in the state must register and regularly report on financial performance, market share, cost trends, and quality measure. The legislation also established a special commission to track price variations. I wrote a brief story on all...
If you're wondering how working journalists ... work. Personally, I'm not good on the phone. I become self-conscious about such things as what my voice sounds like and I end up stammering. To avoid or reduce troubles, when I have to make a phone call, I often prepare a script for myself. This lets my most favorite thing, writing, do some of the work of my least favorite thing, talking off the cuff. Example: "Hello ma'am/sir. I'm a reporter for Marijuana Investment News. We're a website that focuses on news of interest to investors in the new field of legal marijuana as many states change [relax?] their view on the subject. "I understand that about a year ago South Hadley, at a town meeting, voted in favor of a zoning bylaw that would govern medical marijuana dispensaries. is that right? "Also, in January of this year, your planning board discussed a site review plan for Gaylord Street that was to involve the growing of marijuana. I...
Sometimes the debris or throwaway of one year is precisely the material that needs to be preserved or conserved in another. Trash becomes a nesting place, or the familiar terrain of wildlife. That was an insight neighbors of a vacant lot brought to the table at a public hearing of a certain Massachusetts' town's Conservation Commission on a recent Thursday. When the Commission came to the matter of a notice of intent on a certain property I'll call Fordham Place, it heard from an environmental consultant for the landowner, who made a speaking of the landowner’s intent to put a single-family home on what is now a vacant lot within a buffer zone just outside a designated wetland. Consultant also said, as if to allay concerns, that this intent comes with a “detailed plan for restoring and re-vegetating the area.” Commission members agreed that the notice of intent didn’t apply to the actual wetland, rather, to a discretionary buffer zone outlying...
Just my stream of consciousness today. Back in May of this year I wrote a piece for the Agawam paper with the headline "Planned repairs of I-91 Viaduct Move Forward." I must confess that, yes, the Agawam paper does allow the reporters to propose their own headlines and, no, I couldn't come up with a better one than that. Plans move forward? Wow. They found space for it on the front page, though on the bottom right hand corner of the front page. As spacing goes, I actually prefer the top of page 3 to the bottom right of page one. In a tabloid-style paper, people often scan the top of page one quickly and then open that page -- the next thing they see, thus, is the top of page 3. Anyway, I-91 (the red line on the map you see before you) is a vital transportation corridor for my neck of the woods. Part of Ike's old system, it moves diagonally across the State of Connecticut in its southernmost stretch, from New Haven into the Connecticut River Valley. It g...
I saw a tea shop named LimeRed whilst walking about in downtown Northampton, MA recently. At first glance, I thought the sign said Limerick. When I realized my mistake, I began to wonder how long it would take me to compose a LimeRed. The answer? -- not long at all. There was a small shop name of LimeRed, I went there 'fore I went to bed. I dreamt of a Lime Then I knew 'twas time To get LimeRed out of my head.
I check with some regularity with the event calender of BusinessWest, sometimes with an eye to a story that will work for the Agawam weekly paper. In that way I became aware of a Western Mass Business Expo to be held October 11 (the second Thursday of that month) at The MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. I probably won't be able to pitch that as a story unless there is a more specific Agawam/Feeding Hills connection. But there will be "hundreds of exhibitors," so chances are I can work the micro-local angle Jenn likes. Here's to you, Jenn! I'm always thinking.