Read the NYTimes account of the Giants’ win in game four of the World Series. Even with “41″ and “43″ in the house, the Rangers could not score a run as SF posted a 4-0 victory. If the Giants wrap up the Series in Texas tonight, it may be the best news Nancy Pelosi will get this week.
October 31st, 2010
“Happy Halloween” by Nancye Tuttle
Nancye Tuttle returns with a grandparent’s observations of Halloween. Be sure to check out her own blog, Nancye’s World:
Is there a more fun holiday for kids than Halloween?
I think not. After all, who doesn’t love dressing up in costumes, parading around the neighborhood, getting free candy and even getting a little scared?
Halloween is second only to Christmas now for partying and decorating. But it’s also gotten more expensive, especially wih the elaborate costumes kids tend to wear each year. Looking back, in the good old days when I was in my trick or treating prime, we made our costumes from what we had on hand, or draped a sheet over our heads, cut out eyes and went as a ghost.
But it’s still more fun than ever and I’m looking forward to watching Jack head out as a ghoul, Molly as a pink power ranger and Claire as Strawberry Shortcake tonight. I’ll be at the door, witch’s hat on and candy bowl in hand, to pass out the goodies to the neighborhood kids. But I’m keeping most of the Reese’s peanut butter cups to myself. After all, every good witch deserves a treat, don’t your think?
October 31st, 2010
“Lowell Moments” by Nancye Tuttle
Nancye Tuttle writes about some upcoming events in Lowell. Be sure to check out her own site, Nancye’s World:
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted, but that doesn’t mean I’m slacking off on my duties in observing the Lowell scene.
No excuses, but I have been busy with freelance chores (see today’s Sun and Boston Globe), plus teaching my ever-interesting students at Middlesex Community College and keeping up with three active grandkids
But I do want to point out a couple of events and activities I’ve been a part of over the past couple of weeks that are worth noting and getting involved in.
First, Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s production of Four Places, which runs through Sunday, Nov. 7 , is a well-directed, expertly acted one-act play that speaks to all of us, especially those dealing with aging parents or adult children. While it may hit too close to home for some, it offers great food for thought at coming to grips with the challenges many face. And the acting alone makes for a worthwhile evening of theater that speaks to the child in each of us.
Sculptor Mico Kaufman was honored two weeks ago with the first James McNeill Whistler Distinguished Artist Award from the Whistler House Museum of Art. A worthy recipient, Kaufman’s work is in such institutions as the Smithsonian and the British Museum. He’s made several presidential medallions and hundreds of other collectible medallions. read more »
October 31st, 2010
Why We Need to Get Bad Politics Out of Science Policy
So, hard facts. Nineteen nations have set new all-time temperature records this summer. Federal scientists have just announced that we’ve come through the warmest six months, twelve months, and decade on record. A powerful new study published in “Nature” shows that global warming has cut phytoplankton populations by half in the last sixty years. It’s not left, it’s not right. It’s hot.”
— Bill McKibben, scholar-in-residence, Middlebury College, author most recently of “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet,” and founder of www.350.org, writing in the magazine “Orion: Nature/Culture/Place,” www.orionmagazine.org
Culture, Current Events, Education, History, Lowell, Science | 
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October 31st, 2010
To 40B or not to 40B that is Question 2 by Marjorie Arons-Barron
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.
More than 30 years ago, housing activists in Newton, mindful that young adults who had grown up in town couldn’t afford to live there and that elderly homeowners couldn’t afford to find replacements for their homes, set about encouraging low and moderate-income housing. Today it’s called affordable housing, but the principle is the same.
The Newton Community Development Foundation (NCDF), founded in 1968, came up with the idea of building handfuls of mixed-income housing on around 10 sites scattered across the city. The theory was that, if you were building in all neighborhoods, no single neighborhood could complain it was being disproportionately burdened. The proposal backfired. People who had never had a thing to do with each other, from the rich to blue collar, from the south side of the city to the north, formed an alliance, beat back the housing proposal, and fielded aldermanic candidates in the next election who opposed the NCDF proposal. Opposition to affordable housing is a powerful force.
Not long thereafter, Newton did manage to institute a 10 percent rule, which held that a developer who set aside ten percent of the units in a project for affordable housing would be able to move more easily through the zoning approval process. Since then, hundreds of affordable units have been built. Even so, Newton’s percentage of affordable units has only hit eight percent.
In 2009, the median home price in Newton was $710,000, up more than 57 percent since 1999. Under the ten percent rule, 1,300 affordable homes have been built. Of these, 675 are restricted for households earning approximately $65,000 or less for a family of four. Since 1997, 86 percent of affordable housing built in Newton could not have been built without the affordable housing law, all of this according to Rep. Kay Khan, writing in The Newton Tab.
Which brings me to 40B, the state law that allows developers in communities that haven’t achieved ten percent affordable housing access to a comprehensive permitting process. That process makes it possible to build more units than zoning restrictions dictate if building only the allowable number of units is deemed to be “uneconomic” and if community needs for low-middle income housing make the larger size development desirable. Statewide, 80 percent of affordable housing units built outside the largest cities have been due to the ten percent rule. Some 130 communities are at or near ten percent affordable units.
Question 2 on the ballot would repeal 40B on the theory that local communities can’t handle the large number of units the law has permitted. Highly respected journalist and social critic Dan Kennedy has joined his voice to the opponents’ based on what he has observed in Danvers.
A 2008 change in the regulatory process may already have dealt with some of the earlier problems with 40B, requiring state regulators to weigh density and other factors that determine how a proposal fits in with local patterns.
Additionally, communities may be exempted from 40B if they are developing a comprehensive housing plan and acting on it, moving it forward. Ten municipalities are under this exemption. So there are ways to deal with 40B if a community is serious about meeting their housing goals.
My take: don’t jettison the law that has been the principal reason affordable housing has been built (some 58,000 units, according to those opposing repeal). Find ways to fix it. Better still, find ways to bring lagging communities up to the ten percent threshold for affordable housing. Vote no on Question Two.
October 31st, 2010
JFK Library Foundation on JFK’s Legacy
The Kennedy Library Foundation is anticipating the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s inauguration as the 35th president of the United States on January 20, 2011. In the recent newsletter from the Foundation, here’s how Foundation CEO David McKean summed up JFK’s legacy:
During the thousand days of his presidency, … he offered measures to strengthen the economy, to extend civil rights to all people, to provide reliable care for the aged, to give assistance to public schools and to higher education, and to promote and celebrate American culture and the arts. In the realm of foreign policy, President Kennedy showed the resolve of the United States in the face of crisis, yet he worked to end the Cold War and to negotiate a reduction on nuclear arms. He also carved out a new role for government in promoting human rights through institutions such as the Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress. And he used his presidency to establish the United States as a beacon of freedom for the whole world. … Perhaps the greatest of President Kennedy’s accomplishments is that he inspired in young Americans both an interest in and awareness of their government. …”
Also of note is that early next year the Kennedy Library will launch the first online digitized presidential archives, thanks to assistance from EMC, AT&T, Iron Mountain, and Raytheon, as well as support from private individuals and other corporations.
October 31st, 2010
Regional Strategic Plan Visioning Session
Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG), under contract with the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, will conduct the first of two Visioning Sessions to gather input for a new Strategic Plan, which will address land use, infrastructure, environmental resource protection, housing, and economic development policy. A light dinner (soup and sandwiches) will be served.
Thursday, Nov. 4, 6 pm to 8 pm, UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, 50 Warren St., Lowell
RSVP to Jay Donovan at 978-454-8021, ext. 16, or jdonovan@nmcog.org
October 31st, 2010
Chuck Turner and the perils of testifying in your own defense
Boston city councilor Chuck Turner was recently convicted of taking a bribe from a man who sought a liquor license. The man was an FBI informant and the transaction was secretly videotaped. At his trial, Turner testified in his own defense. As reported in the Globe, it didn’t go well.
I don’t know much about Turner and I didn’t follow this case very closely, but it seems to illustrate a lesson I learned years ago while working as a criminal defense attorney: Your chances of obtaining a Not Guilty verdict are higher if the defendant does not testify. That statement seems contrary to common sense. You would assume that in deliberations, individual jurors, if not the jury collectively, couldn’t help but speculate “if he has nothing to hide, why doesn’t he tell his side of the story?” While that is certainly true, the harm that typically results from the defendant testifying greatly outweighs any benefits. Even if the defendant truly is not guilty, there has to be some evidence that points towards him or at least something shady in this background. Add to that the normal nervousness anyone experiences when on the witness stand and a seasoned prosecutor can do a devastating cross-examination. When the jury adjourns to its deliberations, their focus is entirely on the defendant and his testimony. With the jury’s decision largely influenced by its feelings regarding the veracity of the defendant’s testimony, the chances of a conviction increase.
Compare that scenario to one where the defendant did not testify. While the jury might have some questions about that decision, the judge specifically instructs them not to consider that, to not even mention it. Without any testimony from the defendant to discuss, the scrutiny of the jury shifts to the prosecution’s evidence and the possible holes in it, holes that have been highlighted by the defense lawyer throughout the trial. Jurors take to heart the instruction that they may only convict a defendant after finding proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.” That’s a tough term to define, but the jury instruction in Massachusetts says it’s more than possibly and it’s more than even probably – you must be convinced “to a moral certainty.” That’s a pretty high standard. And as I used to say in my closing arguments, “the law says that if you have a reasonable doubt, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of that doubt and you must find him not guilty.”
The outcome of any jury trial is impossible to predict. There are far too many variables that go into the outcome of any trial. Still, I found that jurors in criminal cases were very diligent about scrutinizing the prosecution’s evidence and, when it was lacking, saying Not Guilty. When the defendant testifies, less scrutiny is given to the prosecution’s case and the chances of conviction increase substantially.
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