Archive for September 18th, 2010

September 18th, 2010

Mayor Bloomberg Steps Up: This Is Interesting

by PaulM

The NYTimes today reports that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg may become an important factor in the mid-term election coming in November. He is backing candidates from both major parties whom he believes are sensible persons capable of compromise in the interest of solving problems and moving the nation forward. Read about Bloomberg here, and get the NYT if you appreciate the reporting.

And here’s a Philadelphia Inquirer article from Aug. 18 about Bloomberg endorsing the candidacy of US Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat and former vice admiral in the Navy, for the US Senate from Pennsylvania.

CategoryCulture, Current Events, Election 2010, History, Politics | Comment1 Comment »

September 18th, 2010

AG Continues To Take Comments on Caritas Christi – Cerberus Sale

by Marie

Even after completing six public hearings – including one in Methuen in the the Merrimack Valley – AG Martha Coakley will continue to accept comments from the public.

Jill Butterworth, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said that she could not comment on the letter sent by the Healthcare Access Coalition (see my post yesterday) , but that all “all public comments are welcome and are being considered as the office considers this important review.”

Buterworth said the attorney general is continuing to take public comment. Comment can be e-mailed to the attorney general’s office at caritas@state.ma.usand sent in the mail  to Attorney General’s Office, Non-Profit Organizations/Public Charities Division, Attn: Sara Rau, Caritas Transaction Review, One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA, 02108. Once the attorney general’s office completes the review process it’s findings will be prepared and issued.

Read more about this proposed sale that would turn a non-profit health care system in to a for-profit system here at WickedLocal.com: http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/business/x1685469876/Hospitals-want-Attorney-General-to-set-up-rules-for-sale-of-Caritas-to-Cerebus

CategoryCulture, Current Events, Greater Lowell, History, Politics, Science | CommentNo Comments »

September 18th, 2010

Gubernatorial debate: time to focus debate where it counts by Marjorie Arons-Barron

by Tony

The following entry is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

It may not be politically correct to support the exclusion of Jill Stein from the WTTK gubernatorial debate, as in, who are the media to determine that a candidate doesn’t cross the threshold of credibility. Remembering how soft candidate support often is and Scott Brow’s decisive late surge, it may be slightly illogical to say that she, polling at five percent or lower should be excluded. But she should be. There’s a much stronger case for leaving her out than Tim Cahill, now polling at 18 percent. Thursday’s debate with Cahill, Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker was significantly more focused than the WBZ debate that included Stein.

Margery Eagan and Jim Braude zeroed in on the most important topics, starting with cutting costs on municipal workers’ health insurance, reforming state worker pensions, cutting taxes, eliminating jobs, consolidating agencies. There was nothing new in the candidate responses. The pattern was largely Deval Patrick outlining the significant accomplishments of his administration, acknowledging that more remains to be done, with Charlie Baker scoffing at the accomplishments and promising to go much further. It had a little of the schoolyard feel of “Did so” versus “no you didn’t.” Cahill skated the surface between the two, sometimes agreeing with one, sometimes the other. read more »

CategoryElection 2010 | Comment2 Comments »

September 18th, 2010

Bob Herbert Keeps Trying to Get Back to the Main Story

by PaulM

Bob Herbert of the NYTimes has been consistent in his effort to call attention to the economic devastation at the ground level of our society. People at the low end of the income ladder have taken and continue to take a beating in this unsettled economy. Read his column today, and consider getting the Times if you value the content.

CategoryCulture, Education, Election 2010, History, Lowell, Politics | CommentNo Comments »

September 18th, 2010

UMass band director George Parks, RIP

by DickH

George Parks, the dynamic 57-year old leader of the UMass Minutemen marching band for the past 33 years, died suddenly Thursday night while en route to Michigan with the band for today’s UMass at Michigan football game. The 400 member band had just performed at a high school in Ohio – they would travel by bus and trade a performance for the use of the high school gym as sleeping space – when Parks was stricken by a fatal heart attack. The band voted to continue on to Michigan and perform at today’s game in honor of their fallen leader. Both the Springfield Republican and the Boston Globe carry tributes to Parks in today’s editions.

I had the good fortune of seeing Parks in action several times. As a member of the Lowell High band, my son Andrew attended two summer Drum Major Academies at UMass run by Parks. These week-long training sessions ended with an exhibition for parents. Parks would speak at these events and share some of his philosophy: that the band was for everyone, the band didn’t make cuts and didn’t leave anyone on the bench – the more that participated, the stronger the group. During the week he would also teach the students important lessons about leadership and responsibility that transcended band and high school. Parks also hosted an annual high school “band day” in which forty or more high school bands from across the region would descend on Amherst early on a fall Saturday morning, rehearse together in the morning, and take the field at halftime of a UMass home football game to perform. Being in the stands while thousands of young musicians play in unison on a football field was an amazing experience. I suspect many of the kids left UMass that day intent on returning as college students and members of the UMass Marching Band.

George Parks touched the lives of many. Quite a few recent Lowell High graduates are now members of the UMass band. Several years ago, Chelmsford High School received an award for having more graduates participating in the UMass Band than any other high school in America. The below video, from a local Detroit TV station, does a nice job of remembering Parks and the ways in which he touched so many people.

CategoryCurrent Events | Comment2 Comments »

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September 18th, 2010

15 in 15

by PaulM

Our comrade (he won’t like me calling him that, heh heh) in blogging Kad Barma over there on Choosing a Soundtrack mentioned something called 15 for 15 going around on Facebook. The idea being for people to take 15 minutes and list the 15 “record albums,” no matter what technology I guess (LP/33s, 8-track, cassette, CD, comparable download), “that will always stick with them.” It’s a little bit different than asking someone what he or she would take to a desert island. (I had to look up “desert island” because, well, I never thought about that term even though I’ve heard it many times. There are no islands in the desert, right? Means “uninhabited” island.)So, these may or may not be my 15 all-time favorites, but they are weighted with importance for various reasons. Here’s my list without a lot of commentary and not in order of importance. I don’t know if picking ”greatest hits collections” is cheating, but I did, and I combined The Beatles’ film music from their first two movies because they go together in time for me. I decided not to pick anything less than 20 years old. Following are a few newer choices that have the potential to “stick.”

1. A Hard Day’s Night & Help!, The Beatles (I counted the movie music as a double album)

2. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan

3. Abraxas, Santana

4. Tapestry, Carole King

5. Band on the Run, Paul McCartney & Wings

6. Abbey Road, The Beatles

7. Hegira, Joni Mitchell

8. The Best of Leonard Cohen

9. The Best of Van Morrison

10. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

11. Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers

12. The Beatles (The White Album)

13. Graceland, Paul Simon

14. Real Live John Sebastian

15. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young

Newer recordings that have possibilities for long-term stickiness:

1. Innocence & Despair, The Langley Schools Music Project (low-tech recordings of school kids in Canada playing and singing classic rock)

2. Mermaid Avenue, Billy Bragg & Wilco (memorable new music inspired by unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics)

3. Trouble, Ray Lamontagne (the Great White French Canadian-American Hope from Maine)

4. Live from the Royal Albert Hall, The Killers (the DVD is even better on HD)

5. Concert for George, Various Artists (a tribute to George Harrison by music giants, also in Royal Albert Hall coincidentally—as in… how many holes it takes to fill…)

6. The River Turns the Wheel, Bob Martin (this work is a high point in Lowell’s music history)

7. One Fast Move or I’m Gone : Music from Kerouac’s Big Sur, Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard (I had to pick this one because I’m in this movie, and the songs are outstanding)

CategoryCulture, Education, History, Lowell | Comment3 Comments »

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September 18th, 2010

Jackie Kennedy On Twitter – 50 Years Later

by Marie

 Throwing the bouquet at Hammersmith Farm in Rhode Island after the September 12, 1953 Kennedy nuptials.

Twitter has become an opportunity to pull history – whether at the daily event level or with weighty moments – into the 21st Century. In 1960 when the Senator John F. Kennedy was running for President, his wife Jackie was barred by her doctors from joining him on the campaign trail. She was pregnant and her pregnacies were difficult. To ward-off any negative views of her absence, Jackie Kennedy wrote a a newspaper column – “Campaign Wife” – in which she shared her ideas on campaign issues as well as child-rearing and shopping all wrapped in the personal stories people wanted to read.

A half-century later, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is using Twitter to re-create Jackie’s weekly glimpses into the life of a presidential candidate’s spouse.

The Twitter feed, @JBK1960, is a companion to the JFK Library’s ongoing Twitter feed @Kennedy1960, which reconstructs day-to-day developments in the 1960 campaign and had more than 3,600 followers by Friday.

Read more here from the NECN website: http://www.necn.com/09/17/10/Jackie-joins-Twitter-50-years-after-JFK-/landing_scitech.html?blockID=313090&feedID=4213

CategoryUncategorized | CommentNo Comments »