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Obvious
Member
51 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2007 : 08:41:44 AM
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| Not to proud to say I'm from Everett anymore. Marked with a yellow sticker on front windshield, can't hide it, just no longer proud of it. What a shame. |
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
 Posted - 05/20/2007 : 10:03:23 AM
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I hate going to work and having people ask me what the heck is going on in Everett! There's no way to adequately explain the lies and deception.
How long would it take to Impeach? |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2007 : 1:50:51 PM
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Great article. I think the aldermen got their point across. Hanlon and Vetrano were talking in circles once again. And NEWSFLASH--the new high school was already delayed before the aldermen voted against this transfer. The earliest the are saying now for the opening will be after Christmas break. Good try once again Hanlon camp with spinning the story.
Sally |
Edited by - EverettsPride on 05/21/2007 07:29:08 AM |
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Joey
Member
39 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 07:24:45 AM
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| I might be wrong but when they got rid of J.Garron they kept the purchasing office runnig for months without an officer! |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 08:54:44 AM
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| Joey - you're quite right. Then they brought in David Ravanesi's handpicked procurement officer, Mr. Pedulla. I doubt that Hanlon has actually laid this guy off, though. I mean, what kind of crap is that - that you lay off an entire department because you didn't get the funding for a low-level clerk? And that's not "playing politicss?" Do you think it's possible that Mayor Walking Eagle (a bird so full of sh** that it can't fly) "closed" the procurement office much the way he was having the DA's office investigate the city council for breaking the open meeting law? |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 10:50:12 AM
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From what I hear the Sheehan girl is not laid off. They moved her to another department.
Sally |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 11:25:48 AM
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| Wouldn't they have to come up with the funding for her pay, whatever department she is in? |
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FrenchFries
Member
23 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 5:01:26 PM
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| Most likely the purchasing agent is a salaried position which was funded for the entire year when the budget was passed. Which means he would get his paycheck not matter what. Unless that money was used for something else with approval of transfer. |
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 8:31:55 PM
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| Even if the purchasing agents salary was budgeted, all salaries are paid from one line item. Therefore, if they had funding for two employees, but were paying three, there's not enough money left to pay the two budgeted people through the end of the fiscal year. Although, the way I figure it, they should be coming up only about 12k short, not the full 24k. Didn't they say she's been there since November? That's 6 months, why are they asking for a full years salary? |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2007 : 10:31:47 PM
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| Probably because there's a shortfall somewhere else....and it will be a simple transfer? |
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2007 : 05:18:28 AM
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| But they're asking for 24k to the salaries. (and 3k for supplies) (paper?) That means they increase each line item by that amount. I think the real question may very well be who got a raise? When? And the biggie............ Why? |
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arthur
Senior Member
212 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2007 : 2:07:57 PM
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| hey did anyone see the article on the woman from hookset n.h. who were all fired for gossip. It could be coming to everett really soon |
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card
Senior Member
117 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2007 : 06:30:46 AM
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Barrios set to resign from state Senate
Says he will head health foundation
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | May 23, 2007
Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, one of the Legislature's most prominent voices for gay rights and immigrants, said yesterday that he is resigning to become the leader of a healthcare foundation.
The 38-year-old Cuban- American lawyer, long seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, said he will step down in July to take over as president and chief executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.
With his talent for firing up crowds at rallies and protests, Barrios has been a singular figure in state politics: the first Hispanic state senator, the only lawmaker married to a same-sex partner, and certainly the only one to sponsor salsa lessons for State House aides.
He will become the second senator to leave for the private sector since November's elections, following Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, who resigned to become a lobbyist in March.
Barrios's departure surprised many in the political establishment, who said the Cambridge Democrat seemed to feed off the energy of partisan politics. It also suggested a flip side to the Democratic Party's dominance in Massachusetts: With every seat in Washington held by Democrats and few vacancies likely, ambitious young politicians can feel stifled.
Governor Deval Patrick has indicated he will serve two terms and US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who holds the congressional seat in Barrios's district, has not indicated he plans to step down any time soon.
"Barrios has risen fast, but maybe as far as he can go without assuming a top position, and that's not likely to occur soon," said Paul Y. Watanabe, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts. "And for any opening that does occur, there are probably 20 incumbent Democratic officeholders willing to make a run, which makes it difficult for someone like Jarrett to find a place for himself."
Barrios launched a campaign to become Middlesex district attorney last year, but withdrew when it appeared unlikely he could win. Elected to the House in 1998 and to the Senate in 2002, Barrios championed mostly liberal causes, pushing through a tax credit for affordable housing and a bill to ensure that foreign- language interpreters are available in emergency rooms.
He also latched on to hot- button issues, small and large, filing legislation to prohibit those under 18 from using cellphones while driving and to limit servings of Marshmallow Fluff in school lunches.
Yesterday, Barrios described his new job, overseeing a $102 million endowment to expand access to health insurance, as a continuation of his old one.
"This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to continue the public service that I was blessed with the opportunity to engage in, in the Legislature, on behalf of the communities I have always sought to represent: working people, the poor, immigrants, people of color, vulnerable populations," he said.
At the foundation, Barrios will replace Nancy Turnbull, who announced several months ago that she was leaving to become a dean at the Harvard School of Public Health. The foundation's chairman, Philip W. Johnston, is the former chairman of the Democratic Party. Johnston said the board voted unanimously yesterday to give Barrios the job.
"We think he's an extraordinary talent with deep ties to the community, who can lead the foundation with energy and vision," Johnston said of Barrios.
Neither man would disclose Barrios's salary. But Barrios said he will earn slightly more than the six figures he earns as a senator and a lawyer at DLA Piper in Boston, a job that Barrios said he would also quit soon. Barrios, a father of two boys, ages 11 and 15, said salary was not a factor. He noted that his spouse, Douglas J. Hattaway, runs a successful political consulting firm.
Barrios said he wanted to stay in the Senate through next month, when the House and Senate are scheduled to take up a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Barrios has been one of the most passionate supporters of same-sex marriage since the landmark 2003 decision legalizing such unions in Massachusetts. During debate on the constitutional ban last year, he told his colleagues, "You don't have to like us. We are only asking you today to end the debate so that . . . we will at least have the right to enjoy the same rights the rest of you have enjoyed for time immemorial."
Former Senate president Thomas F. Birmingham, who held Barrios's seat, said he was surprised the announcement.
"He's an intensely political person, and I thought that ran into every fiber of his body," said Birmingham. "But sometimes, this is not the most family-friendly profession."
Few who know Barrios expected him to remain in the private sector forever. "If I were a betting man, I'd bet it's not the last time you've seen Jarrett Barrios's name on a ballot," said Cambridge city councilor Brian Murphy, who has campaigned with Barrios. He said the senator was looking for "a chance to influence the public policy debate in a new way."
Asked about whether he would run for office again, Barrios said, "Maybe. I don't know. That's sort of the furthest thing from my mind."
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
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arthur
Senior Member
212 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2007 : 06:20:56 AM
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An abrupt end for collectors who turned lottery ticket trash into cash
By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | May 26, 2007
Peter Aliberti feels he was double-crossed by the lottery. It's not that the Everett construction worker had a winning ticket the state wouldn't cash. He's upset that he has collected 90,000 discarded scratch tickets, and he thinks he's due 3,600 new ones.
"That's where the injustice is," Aliberti said.
He's angry that in late April, the Massachusetts State Lottery abandoned its recycling program aimed at cleaning up the litter of discarded lottery tickets by giving away a free $1 scratch ticket for anyone turning in 25 losing stubs. He thinks the lottery owes him and others one more chance to redeem their tickets.
Lottery officials said its Instant Replay program, started nearly three years ago, spiraled out of control, costing the agency nearly $1 million a year in prize money -- or 10 times what the Legislature had appropriated for the lottery's antilitter efforts -- because people were redeeming discarded tickets by the truck load.
"I looked at the numbers, and they scared me," said Mark J. Cavanagh , the lottery's executive director. "It was time to put an end to it."
Scrounging for scratch tickets became a business of sorts for many people once the state started offering the reward. Collectors would go store to store, picking up tickets inside and out, just as many people roam streets on trash-collection days looking for bottles and cans that can be redeemed for a nickel apiece under the bottle deposit law. Some recyclers had been gathering tickets for months, and in some cases as long as a year, amassing hundreds of thousands of tickets.
The lottery sells millions of scratch tickets each year in $1, $2, $5, and $10 denominations. They account for 70 percent of the lottery's $4.5 billion in sales. Under its recycling initiative, the lottery would hand over a new book of 300 $1 scratch tickets for every 7,500 discarded tickets brought in; the agency gave out 5.1 million scratch tickets in nearly three years.
Collectors say their winnings from a book of 300 scratch tickets would range from $150 to $225. The lottery says the prize payout on all its games averages 72 cents for every dollar gambled.
A recycling company hired by the lottery accepted discarded tickets for redemption only a handful of days a year at designated sites around the state. The last one was in October, and scavengers have been waiting for the lottery to disclose the next scheduled redemption.
On redemption days, Cavanagh said some people would show up driving dump trucks and pickups full of tickets. At one event at the Hatch Shell last year, Cavanagh said, the crunch of redemptions was so great that Storrow Drive had to be closed temporarily.
As lottery revenue cooled, declining just more than 2 percent through the first 11 months of this fiscal year, the agency has responded by launching several new games and squeezing costs where possible, including the recycling program.
"It worked for the people redeeming tickets, but it didn't work for us," Cavanagh said.
Scratch ticket collectors say the lottery, with its billions of dollars in revenue, can easily afford one last ticket redemption. The collectors say they followed the rules, did the dirty work of sorting tickets into groups of 25, and now are left holding the bag.
"It's a messy, messy job," said Mario Conti of Winthrop, a retiree who started collecting losing tickets before the antilitter program began, going through discarded stubs looking for winners that had been thrown away. He said he has found nearly $15,000 in winners in the trash over the years.
Conti said the lottery's antilitter incentives made his hobby even more attractive. He said he and his wife would use the extra money to take a vacation or make some special purchase, but now he has 12 boxes in his garage holding about 90,000 losing scratch tickets that are worth 3,600 new $1 scratch tickets.
"There's a lot of people with tickets piling up in their garages," he said.
An elderly collector from Winthrop, who asked that her name not be used because she didn't want her neighbors to know she collected discarded tickets, said she had planned to redeem her 120,000 tickets -- or the equivalent of 4,800 new $1 scratch tickets -- this month.
"I've got all these tickets, and I've wasted a year of my life," she said, fighting back tears.
Richard McDonald of Revere said he and his wife amassed nearly 67,000 tickets -- worth 2,680 new $1 scratch tickets -- over the past year. He said they picked up tickets on the street and from retailers who sell them. McDonald said he suspects the program was being abused by some retailers, who had easy access to a stream of used tickets.
Officials at the Norwood-based New England Convenience Store Association, nearly all of whose Massachusetts members are lottery agents, declined to comment on the program.
Robyn Chiminiello , owner of Hub Video in South Boston, a major lottery vendor, said she did not have time to redeem tickets and had to lock her trash bins because people were scavenging for losing tickets.
Lottery officials say their antilitter focus is now on litter in general instead of scratch tickets . Cavanagh said the agency gave $10,000 to Boston Shines, a municipal cleanup event last month that gathered 350 tons of litter. Similar initiatives are in the works.
"My heart goes out to these people, but as executive director I have to do what's best for the lottery," Cavanagh said. "This is more cost-effective."
i found this interesting |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2007 : 06:49:53 AM
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| It is interesting. And the fact that they discontinue the program without so much as a word to anyone - not the players, the press, retailers. They kept it nice and quiet...just how Timmy Cahill likes it. This is the guy who made it a habit to have employees sign confidentiality forms...for a public position. |
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today's globe
