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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 08/24/2009 : 07:19:55 AM
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EVERETT
Child hurt in hit-and-run; car hunted
Police were looking for a black Honda or Hyundai last night after it struck a child at the intersection of Tileston and Cross streets. The motor vehicle fled the scene about 6:30 p.m. after striking the child, whose age and identity were not released by police. The victim was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in serious condition. Police believe the vehicle will have damage to its front end and possibly a broken windshield.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
Boy struck by driver in Everett
By Herald wire services
Monday, August 24, 2009
An 11-year-old boy was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Everett last night, and was listed in serious condition at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The boy was run down at Tileston and Cross streets about 6 p.m., Lt. John Balfe said. Balfe could not say if the boy, whom he declined to identify, was in a crosswalk.
The extent of the boy’s injuries was not available.
Police believe the driver was in a black Honda or Hyundai that sustained front-end or windshield damage. |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
 Posted - 09/15/2009 : 10:10:52 AM
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Is this true for all cities and towns?
State orders City Hall computers secured in e-mail dispute
By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff
Secretary of State William F. Galvin's office has ordered the city of Boston to immediately secure City Hall computers and hire an independent computer forensics expert to retrieve emails that were improperly deleted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino's top policy aide.
The head of the public records division of Galvin's office, Alan N. Cote, wrote in a letter to Menino's chief lawyer that the demand was based on the "credible belief" that the aide, Michael J. Kineavy, violated the state public records law by routinely deleting emails in such a way that copies would not be preserved by city servers. Cote said his office received copies of 300 emails today listing Kineavy as a sender or recipient and sent via city computers "which now appear to have been improperly deleted."
The public records law requires municipal employees to save electronic correspondence for at least two years, even if the contents are of "no informational or evidential value." Penalties include fines of up to $500 or prison sentences of up to one year.
Cote ordered the city to hire "a qualified independent and competent technology expert to employ all reasonable means of recovering and restoring the missing records." He said a full inventory of the missing records must be delivered to him within the next 10 days.
Menino administration officials, prompted by a public records request from the Globe, have acknowledged that Kineavy was deleting his emails on a daily basis and copies were not saved on city servers. Kineavy is one of Menino's most powerful and trusted advisers, intimately involved in nearly everything at City Hall, but a search of city computers found just 18 e-mails he had sent or received between Oct. 1, 2008, and March 31 of this year.
Menino's chief lawyer, William Sinnott, said today that he had not received the letter from Galvin's office and so could not comment.
Kineavy was cited in a federal corruption indictment against former state senator Dianne Wilkerson as the mayoral "aide" whom Wilkerson spoke with to get help securing a liquor license for a prospective bar owner, according to two public officials briefed on the case. The bar owner was actually working undercover for the FBI and paying Wilkerson thousands of dollars to help win the license.
Federal prosecutors have said the Menino administration was not the target of an investigation. But as part of its investigation, the FBI subpoeaned e-mails from City Hall, and Kineavy's were within the scope of that subpoena, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the federal investigation.
Sinnott said today that Kineavy has deleted e-mails on a daily basis for the past five years in a way that they were not backed up on city servers and therefore copies of all e-mails were not turned over to the FBI in response to the subpoena. He said the Menino administration didn't realize at the time that any of Kineavy's e-mails may have been missing from what was turned over, and the FBI "never asked for more."
The e-mails have emerged as a hotly contested issue in the mayoral race as next Tuesday's preliminary election nears. Menino's challengers -- City Councilors Michael F. Flaherty Jr. and Sam Yoon, and South End businessman Kevin McCrea -- hammered away at the incumbent today over the issue at a joint press conference at City Hall Plaza.
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2009 : 12:52:12 PM
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5 local cities get state aid for parks
October 4, 2009
Five local cities recently received a combined $740,000 in state grant money to improve parks.
The funding is part of $8.9 million distributed to 12 Massachusetts communities through the state’s Gateway City Parks initiative, said Kate Plourd, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, which administers the program.
The grants target communities with more than 35,000 people and household incomes, per capita incomes, and educational attainment levels below the state average.
Haverhill received $400,000 to acquire land for a trail network along the Merrimack River. Lowell received $250,000 to produce design and construction documents for the third phase of the Concord River Greenway and a preliminary design for renovation of South Common. Everett, Methuen, and Revere received $30,000 each to draft open space and recreation plans.
Grants are administered on a rolling basis. The next round of funding will be distributed once a sufficient number of projects have been approved, Plourd said. Other north of Boston cities eligible for future Gateway City Parks grants include Chelsea, Lawrence, Lynn, Malden, and Salem.
Brian Benson
"Deb" |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2009 : 08:59:13 AM
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Three face charges for allegedly stealing hundreds of Verizon Blackberrys
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
Three people are now facing criminal charges after they allegedly stole hundreds of Verizon Blackberrys and sold them over the Internet, earning themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits, Middlesex prosecutors alleged today.
Wayne Deleveaux, 22, of Everett is the alleged ringleader who relied on the assistance of Shartieya Lambert, 23, also of Everett, to obtain the Blackberrys by using fictitious names and, in some cases, invoking the names of legitimate companies.
The three then allegedly sold the telecommunication devices to a third person, Nihat Ozdemir, who is accused of re-selling them on e-Bay, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a statement today.
“This was an extensive scheme,’’ Leone said in the statement announcing the indictments. “We thank Verizon for first discovering this scheme and then contacting authorities immediately…’’
According to prosecutors, Deleveaux was indicted on five counts of larceny over $250 for being a “common and notorious thief.’’ Lambert is charged with two counts of larceny over $250 and Ozdemir, 44, of Watertown, faces charges of receiving stolen property valued at more than $250.
An arraignment date for the three in Middlesex Superior Court has not yet been set. All three have previously been charged in Cambridge District Court where they pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.
Deleveaux is being held at the Middlesex Jail was while Lambert and Ozdemir were both released on personal recognizance, prosecutors said.
According to Leone’s office, the three people have been under investigation for the past several months by police in Cambridge, Somerville, and State Police with information provided by the Verizon Wireless Corporate Security investigators.
In July, police searched a storage facility allegedly rented by Deleveauz and Lambert and recovered “large amounts of cash,’’ Verizon Blackberry phones, bank documents and other Verizon equipment. Police also allegedly recovered stolen Blackberrys from Ozdemir.
Leone estimated the alleged scam had a value in excess of $600,000.
"Deb" |
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charm
Senior Member
264 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2009 : 07:14:56 AM
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Ethics law brings wave of confusion
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | October 15, 2009
City and town clerks are concerned that the paperwork imposed by the state’s new ethics law is posing a burden on their offices.
The legislation, which took effect Sept. 29, requires that clerks annually provide all municipal employees with a summary of the state’s conflict of interest law and collect receipts from those employees. Dec. 28 is the deadline for employees to receive the summary.
The law also requires municipal employees to take an online training program on the ethics law every two years and that clerks collect forms certifying they have done so. The state Ethics Commission recently extended the training deadline from Dec. 28 to April 2. Similar training is required of state and county workers.
Some local clerks say that while they welcome the intent of promoting greater awareness of the conflict of interest rules, the work they are being asked to do will be time-consuming and potentially costly.
“It’s adding to our already very large responsibilities that we have as city clerks. It’s just another one of those reg ulations that make it very difficult for local governments,’’ said Lowell City Clerk Richard Johnson.
A key issue for clerks concerns the definition the state has given for the municipal employees covered by the law.
Woburn City Clerk William Campbell noted that the definition, encompassing any paid or unpaid person performing services for or holding an office in a municipality, is broad enough to include board members, snow plow operators, traffic consultants, election poll workers, and even school volunteers.
While lists of regular employees are readily available, “How do I capture all of these other people who do things large and small for the city?’’ asked Campbell, a former president of the Massachusetts City Clerks Association.
Moving the training deadline to April 1 helped, Campbell said, but he maintains “the whole issue should be delayed until they can define what an employee is in a more realistic manner.’’
Beverly City Clerk Frances A. Macdonald, also a past president of the state clerks association, said she has heard a lot of concern and unhappiness from fellow clerks about implementing the new law.
She said the issue will be discussed at the organization’s meeting next Thursday.
Macdonald agreed that the definition of municipal employee is “very vague,’’ and is concerned that it includes poll workers.
“It’s hard getting them now,’’ she said of recruiting those election workers, many of whom are seniors. “If they realize they have to come in to take [the training], it may turn some of them off.’’
David Giannotti, a spokesman for the State Ethics Commission, said his agency has been getting “a lot of feedback’’ from clerks on the new law “and we are trying to be sensitive to the concerns that are being raised.’’
He said to try to help clerks comply with the rules, the office has advised them they can use e-mail to distribute the summaries, and that group training sessions can be offered for poll workers, for whom individual online training might not be practical.
“Conflict of interest law can be complex,’’ Giannotti said. “Making this kind of training mandatory will hopefully educate our public employees so that they will have better information to do their jobs and comply with the law.’’
Pam Wilmot, executive director of the public watchdog group Common Cause Massachusetts, noted that many of the people fined for violating the conflict of interest law are low-level municipal employees who “don’t understand what is expected of them. That is why having education about the requirements of the law is so critical.’’
She said the delay in implementing the training requirement “will give the commission time to clarify who needs to take the training and perhaps craft it more narrowly’’ so that the training provided on the local level is focused on municipal issues.
Needham Town Clerk Tedi Eaton, president of the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association, said there are many concerns being voiced about implementing the new law.
But she believes the issues will be resolved.
“This is going to take some time . . . to work out the kinks in it,’’ she said.
Peabody City Clerk Timothy Spanos said he is working with the city’s Human Resources Department to comply with the new requirements.
Spanos said the added work comes at a time when his and many other clerk’s offices are busy preparing for municipal elections and the special election for US Senate.
“It’s a mandate,’’ he said. “I’m not happy about it, but we have to do it. I think there should have been a little more thought put into the law before it was implemented.’’
Topsfield Town Clerk Beverly Ann Guarino agreed that the new law is time-consuming for clerks and believes it is being put into effect too hastily. But Guarino sees the public benefits outweighing any inconveniences.
“There are a lot of people who have looked the other way as far as ethics,’’ she said.
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2009 : 08:06:53 AM
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Even though the assistant city solicitor got named the Ethics Commission liaison, it looks like the City Clerk's office gets a lot of the work.
Gotta love the last line of the article; I guess we're not the only ones that think that way. |
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card
Senior Member
117 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2009 : 08:07:57 AM
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Job gains difficult to quantify
Projects get $412m in stimulus funds
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | November 15, 2009
The federal economic-stimulus program has meant an infusion of dollars for public and private projects across the region, though getting a clear idea of its effect on jobs is not a simple task.
The US government released figures recently that showed nearly $4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act had been awarded to Massachusetts governmental entities, businesses, and nonprofit groups as of the end of last month, and put the number of jobs created or saved through the spending at 12,374.
But a Globe review of the figures last week found the jobs number was exaggerated. Its report cited instances in which recipients were given credit for more jobs than they had created, some through inaccurate counts or reflecting projects not yet started.
The $787 billion stimulus law has generated $411.9 million in funding for area communities, according to the US website tracking program, You must be logged in to see this link.
Leading the way among local recipients are Andover, with $66.1 million; Lowell, with $62.4 million; Lynn, with $34.7 million, and Lawrence, with $33.6 million. The least money flowed to Nahant, which has seen only $85,200. The website lists stimulus awards for all public and private projects within a community, not just those undertaken by the municipality. In some cases, state and federal projects represent a major share. Of the $66.1 million going to Andover, for instance, $57.1 million is for a project to modernize the Internal Revenue Service processing center on Route 133, the website reports.
Businesses receiving a boost from the program include Bethany Homes Inc., which manages subsidized senior housing in Haverhill. The company was awarded two rental-assistance grants totaling $586,120 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that, according to the federal website, created or saved a combined 17 clerical and maintenance jobs.
Pam Perron, finance clerk with Bethany Homes, said she questioned whether the stimulus money could be credited with those jobs, noting that it helped to fund contracts the company likely would have received anyway, as it has in past years.
“These are contracts we normally get. They are just paying for it with stimulus money,’’ she said. “I wouldn’t really call it stimulus money at all. They just labeled it that way.’’
But other recipients say the money is providing an employment boost.
Physical Sciences Inc., a research and development operation in Andover, was awarded $116,751 by the National Institutes of Health to help develop a monitoring instrument for cancer treatments that use low-intensity lasers.
Steven Davis, executive vice president of its applied sciences division, said the money will pay for a new researcher to work full time on the project, and help retain two other jobs.
“It clearly is being used to create employment and also to try to speed up the research,’’ he said of the grant.
Physical Sciences received a separate National Institutes of Health grant for $56,313 to help with its development of an instrument to examine retinas for early signs of age-related macular degeneration, a key cause of blindness in older adults.
While the funding was not credited with any new or retained jobs, Davis said it has the strong potential for indirectly boosting employment, since the development of the optical instrument would create jobs in manufacturing and medical research centers.
Pathways for Children, a Gloucester early education agency, received a $91,435 stimulus award for its Head Start program from the federal Administration for Children and Families.
The money is helping to pay the salary of a teacher who would otherwise have been laid off, according to Sue Todd, Pathway’s president and chief executive officer, as well as provide expanded staff training, pay for several teachers to add certification, and cover a one-year, 1.17 percent cost-of-living raise for teachers.
Todd acknowledged that the figure for the number of jobs created or saved by the grant - 3.59 - may seem inflated, based on how the money is being used, but said that her agency simply followed a formula provided by the federal government.
“Quite frankly, we struggled with the way to report this. The feds have acknowledged it was confusing,’’ Todd said, adding that reports due in January are expected to “reflect a much more realistic assessment of jobs created or saved.’’
But she said there was no doubt in her mind that the stimulus money is helping: “Any time there can be an investment made in training and in enhancing even to a modest degree professional teaching salaries, it benefits the children.’’
Endicott College in Beverly received $34,929 from the US Department of Education, a grant that the federal website lists as having created or saved the full-time equivalent of four student work-study jobs.
Donna Couture, the college’s treasurer, said the stimulus money is part of an overall $200,000 federal allocation Endicott received for its work-study program, which provides employment on campus to students with financial need.
She acknowledged that Endicott received nearly as much - $190,000 - in US aid for the work-study program last year, before the stimulus program was launched. But Couture said she believes the stimulus money was valuable this year as well.
“If not for this $35,000, maybe our allocation would have been less and we would not have had those funds available for our students with financial need.’’
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card
Senior Member
117 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 08:06:34 AM
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Police, fire get $5.5m in stimulus funds
A stimulus round brings $5.5m here
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | December 10, 2009
An infusion of $5.5 million in federal stimulus money is providing a boost to area cities and towns struggling to meet their public safety staffing needs.
The funding recently awarded by the state will pay for hiring, rehiring, and retaining local police officers and firefighters, and to help departments meet overtime and per diem costs associated with maintaining shift levels.
“We’re very grateful to have received the money,’’ said Salem Police Chief Paul F. Tucker, whose department plans to hire a new officer with the $69,478 it was awarded.
“We are 18 positions short right now from where we were five years ago,’’ he said, calling the addition of a new officer “a small step in the right direction.’’
Statewide, 35 police departments were awarded $6.2 million and 85 fire departments $11.6 million. In this region, 10 police departments will get a combined $1.1 million, while 22 fire departments will receive $4.4 million.
The police award is through the US Justice Department’s Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program. It follows $15.8 million in stimulus funds the federal agency awarded through that program to 147 Massachusetts municipalities earlier this year, and $28.9 million in stimulus money the state awarded in August to 13 communities through the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services program.
Departments receiving money in this region are Chelsea, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Revere, Salem, and West Newbury.
The fire money is coming from discretionary funds Governor Deval Patrick set aside for the purpose. Local recipients are Andover, Beverly, Billerica, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Danvers, Dracut, Everett, Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Methuen, Peabody, Revere, Saugus, Tewksbury, and Winthrop.
In a previous first round of the fire funding, the state in October awarded a combined $8.3 million to 15 fire departments, including Lawrence and Methuen.
Lowell Fire Chief Edward Pitta said his department’s recent $518,567 award “will be very helpful to us.’’
The department had applied for about $703,000 to replace nine firefighters who retired last fiscal year and whose positions were not filled due to budget constraints this fiscal year. While the actual award was less, Pitta said it is enough to fill six or seven of the jobs, providing sufficient staffing to keep an additional truck on line for most shifts. Currently, the department on a rotating basis removes up to three trucks per shift depending on staffing that day.
“The more trucks that are in service, the safer for everyone,’’ said Pitta, who hopes to have new hires start within the next month. (Those new hires who have not attended the state’s firefighting academy would need to enroll in the next available class).
The Chelsea Police Department plans to hire an additional officer with its $89,833 stimulus award. The funding follows the department’s receipt of $755,892 in stimulus money in October through the federal COPS program, which allowed the city to save the jobs of two officers targeted for layoffs and to fill one officer vacancy.
“We’re extremely pleased,’’ Police Chief Brian Kyes said of the latest award, calling it “an important step toward our goal of a 100-person department.’’ Chelsea, which now has 96 officers, has set that goal based on its population and crime trends.
Revere Fire Chief Eugene Doherty said he expects the department to hire three additional firefighters and to shore up its overtime with the $297,240 it was awarded.
The city had applied for $395,000, enough to fill five vacant firefighter jobs and a vacant administrative position, and to supplement the overtime budget. Doherty said while the actual award would only likely cover the three firefighter hirings and the added overtime, he welcomes it.
“It really bails us out,’’ he said, noting it will allow the city to reduce its need to rotate trucks off line due to staffing constraints.
Doherty is hopeful the city can secure additional federal funds to retain the three new jobs after the award expires, and possibly to add others. But if not, he expects pending retirements would allow room in his budget to avoid laying off anyone hired now.
The Lawrence Fire Department received $198,272 after being awarded $537,033 in the first round of fire funding.
The city used the initial award to retain eight firefighters then in the process of being laid off. Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said the latest award would shore up the department’s overtime budget, which could enable it to open one of its two currently closed neighborhood stations.
And he said if $271,000 in city supplemental funds earlier designated for the fire department is released, some of the stimulus could all be used to rehire two laid-off workers - a fire alarm dispatcher and a fire alarm electrician.
“This absolutely is a big help for us,’’ Takvorian said of the two stimulus awards, which he said would “help fill some of those gaps created’’ by cuts in the city’s state aid.
Lynn plans to use its $778,305 stimulus award to supplement its overtime budget, said Acting Fire Chief James Carritte. He hopes that should enable the city to return its Ladder 4 truck, based in Wyoma Square, to full service. The truck has been mostly out of service due to staffing constraints in recent months, leaving the city with two available ladder trucks per shift.
“We are very happy,’’ said Carritte. “I very much believe we should have three ladders available in the city whenever possible.’’
John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2010 : 09:50:08 AM
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I hope Mayor DeMaria and the entire City Council speaks out adamantly against this....
Mayor seeks to block tankers
Wants Yemen gas delivery offshore
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | January 1, 2010
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday he will ask Boston’s lawyers to see whether the city can block Yemeni tankers from delivering liquefied natural gas into Boston Harbor, calling such deliveries “wrong.’’
“We’re in extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of our city,’’ the mayor said in an interview. “They cannot be coming into a harbor like Boston, where there is less than 50 feet between the tankers and residential areas.’’
Menino and several other public officials said they would press for the tankers’ cargo - destined for an LNG terminal in Everett as soon as next month - to instead be unloaded away from the city, in light of the failed Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man, who trained in Yemen, to blow up a US airliner over Detroit.
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, who had called the plan to bring in the tankers “a matter of grave concern,’’ said yesterday he would contact the state’s top public safety official - Kevin M. Burke, the secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety - to look for ways to halt the deliveries.
The Globe reported yesterday that shipments of liquefied natural gas from Yemen are scheduled to arrive for the first time in Boston as early as February. Coast Guard officials are reviewing the plan and said yesterday they have not yet decided whether the shipments will be allowed to enter the harbor and dock at the LNG terminal in Everett.
“Their paramount concern is the safety and security of the Port of Boston,’’ Coast Guard spokesman Jeff Hall said of the security team reviewing the plans.
Concerns among Menino and other local officials have intensified since the failed plot last week, which renewed fears that Yemen has become a haven and training ground for extremists.
“They need to seriously look at offloading those ships in the outer harbor,’’ said John Leo McKinnon, an Everett city councilor and chairman of the city’s public safety committee. “If we’re going to be taking in ships from Yemen, a known terror site, we have to make sure people feel comfortable.’’
In addition to the Christmas Day episode, McKinnon cited the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed in that attack.
“These two incidents should make people more edgy,’’ he said.
And state Representative Eugene L. O’Flaherty, Democrat of Chelsea, reiterated his past calls for an offshore facility. But he said he recognizes the importance of the Everett plant, which “is necessary for the economy.’’
“Where it’s located is a potential disaster for the city of Boston and surrounding communities,’’ he said. “It’s something that should be brought to everybody’s attention.’’
The local officials suggested that the gas be unloaded in the outer harbor, either on a facility built in the water or on one of the harbor islands. Both possibilities have been discussed in the past, when the potential threat of LNG tankers was first raised several years ago, but were eventually dropped.
Past studies have concluded that a liquefied natural gas leak in Boston Harbor could catch fire and even explode, threatening people more than three-quarters of a mile away.
Officials for DistriGas, the company responsible for the shipments, have taken issue with some of those assertions about risk. A 2004 study commissioned by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was based on dangerously flawed assumptions, and its recommendations were “scientifically unsupported and premature,’’ Francis J. Katulak, DistriGas’s senior vice president for operations, told the federal agency at the time. Thus, he said, it was impossible to know the real hazards of a potential liquefied natural gas release from a tanker.
In the most recent debate about safety, attention has focused on the use of an offshore facility to unload the tankers, far away from Boston neighborhoods. There is an offshore natural gas facility in Gloucester and another is scheduled to begin operating soon, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
But those plants operate differently from the Everett facility run by Distrigas of Massachusetts, said Carol Churchill, a company spokeswoman. While the offshore facilities vaporize the gas and inject it directly into pipelines, the Everett plant unloads the gas in liquid form and stores it in tanks. It then distributes the gas as needed, supplying 20 percent of the natural gas used in New England - or more on a cold day, Churchill said.
If the gas now delivered in liquid form was instead vaporized, the pipelines could not hold it all, she said.
“We appreciate the suggestion that this might be possible,’’ Churchill said. “New England needs this natural gas. The constraints of the pipeline system that exists are what make the Everett facility so critical.’’
She said the company is doing everything possible to make sure the shipments from Yemen pose no risk to the residents of Boston and the surrounding communities.
“The only thing that has changed is the country of origin,’’ she said. “The ships are the same we’ve used in the past. The crews and officers are going to be similar to the ones we’ve used in the past. And there will be additional safety checks between the time the ships leave Yemen and arrive in Everett. We have an excellent safety record and we intend to maintain that excellent safety record in years to come.’’
Shipments currently come from Trinidad and Egypt. In the past, they have originated in Abu Dhabi, Australia, and Algeria. She said the company contracted with YLNG, a Yemeni company, which built a state-of-the-art facility in Balhaf, Yemen.
But Yemen is facing renewed scrutiny from US counter-terrorism officials. Some say LNG tankers from the country are especially worrying because of a 2004 memoir by former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who wrote that officials had “learned that Al Qaeda operatives had been infiltrating Boston by coming in on liquid natural gas tankers from Algeria.’’
Burke, the state’s public safety secretary, said yesterday that next week he will arrange for DeLeo to receive “a full security briefing’’ from the Coast Guard.
“The main monitor will continue to be the Coast Guard,’’ said Burke, who has said he has expressed his concerns about the dangerous cargo to the Coast Guard’s captain of the port. “He has been very clear about how important safety is to him. He is not going to take any risk.’’
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2010 : 6:42:09 PM
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I'm not sure what the mayor, or anyone else, can say that would make anyone feel comfortable with a ship from Yemen delivering natural gas. I know I'm not too happy about the idea and I don't think I'm alone.
I have no issues with the facility but I have serious concerns relative to new deliveries originating from a location we know is a training ground for people who want to destroy this country. How much damage can blowing that ship up in Boston Harbor cause? |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2010 : 7:42:47 PM
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The Mayor, along with every city council member should write to the coastguard vehemently opposed to this. I understand that Distrigas signed the contract before the Christmas day “almost” tragedy (thanks to passengers on the plane, not security or the airline) but, what about the shoe bomber??
Distrigas signed the contract after the shoe bomber incident and he was from Yemen.
When is this country going to wake up? These countries are housing terrorist that are planning attacks on us, and we are going to allow one of their gas tankers right into Everett?
Yemen admitted just a few days ago that “hundreds” of terrorist are in their country planning attacks on Americans.
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Because of the recent events….Mayor Menino is right, at this time, it should be docked off-shore or look elsewhere.
I think the threat is real and no one should sugar coat it. This article says an explosion on an LNG tanker has the potential to be approximately equal to "a small nuclear explosion".
These terrorist are not dumb, they know exactly what they are doing, and I’m disturbed by the “bad people everywhere” comment from the mayor. The mayor may not be able to stop it, but that sounded to me like he did not care.
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2010 : 08:09:05 AM
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| We're on the same page Tails, I misunderstood your statement. When you said the mayor & city council should speak against this, I took it to mean against Mayor Menino trying to stop the tankers. I should have known that wasn't what you meant.............. Sorry! |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2010 : 4:13:11 PM
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No worries...these are trying times and I hope our "leaders" that we elected into office will not just sit idly by allow this to happen, from a known terrorist country. This should be stopped at no matter what the cost.
Don't we have these resources in our own country? |
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Linda M
Member
43 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2010 : 08:54:31 AM
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SOMERVILLE
Crackdown on parking raises fears
Businesses, residents worry about access
By Travis Andersen, Globe Correspondent | January 10, 2010
Somerville parking officers began ticketing cars without residential permits on most city streets last week, prompting long lines for stickers, a sharp rise in the number of citations issued, and frustration among local residents and business owners.
Prior to last Monday, drivers needed a $15 residential permit to park on about two-thirds of all city streets. Every street now requires a permit, except for 20 main thoroughfares that are open to nonresidents for two-hour stretches.
The city began issuing warnings on the newly affected streets on Dec. 21 and spent months publicizing the expansion, which was scheduled to take effect in August but was delayed so a parking task force of residents, city officials, and business leaders could tweak the rules.
Many drivers appear either to have missed the memo or waited too long to get a permit. Last Monday and Tuesday, parking officers wrote 606 tickets, according to city records, compared with 189 on Dec. 21 and 22. Violators are fined $50 for each offense.
Lines at the Traffic and Parking Office spilled out the door last week onto Holland Street, with residents scrambling to get permits. The office extended its hours until 7 p.m. last Monday and Tuesday - and opened on two Saturdays before Christmas - to accommodate the rush.
But some residents still walked away empty-handed, including Justin Ashton, a hybrid vehicle entrepreneur who lives near Union Square. He said he first tried to get a permit in late December, then came back at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday and left when he saw that he’d never make it through the line before closing.
He stood outside the office on Wednesday afternoon, after striking out again. This time, he said, he had to get back to work and couldn’t wait in line, adding that he hasn’t received a ticket yet. “It’s getting down to the wire,’’ he said.
Elizabeth Graham, a social worker who lives in Winter Hill, recently moved from a street that required a residential permit before the expansion, so she has had her sticker for a while. But she came to the office on Wednesday to buy two visitor permits, which cost $5 each. Nonresident visitors can use one pass in the same vehicle for two days each week.
Graham didn’t think she’d need the visitor passes when she moved, but her street now falls in the residential expansion zone.
“I think it’s the city’s best way to make revenue,’’ she said. “I’m not terribly happy about it.’’
George Ross, owner of Ross Real Estate on Broadway, is livid. He said many of his brokers live outside the city, and now they can’t park on streets near the office. In addition, he said, they’ll have to worry about getting tickets when they’re on the road showing properties.
“We should get a new mayor,’’ he said.
The city offers 12-month realtor permits for $50, which allow brokers to park their cars anywhere in the city while showing properties. General business permits are available for $150, and the city offers stickers for other groups including nonresident artists, landlords, and those attending places of worship.
But some business owners located in residential zones fear their suppliers will be ticketed when they drop off inventory, according to Stephen Mackey, president and CEO of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce.
He said the chamber has six members on the parking task force pushing hard for loading zones for affected businesses, among other changes to the program.
“We’ve been on top of this from the get-go,’’ Mackey said.
City spokesman Tom Champion said in an e-mail that businesses already can apply for loading zone permits through the city Traffic Commission. “Loading zones are granted on the basis of need, and clearly, needs change over time,’’ Champion said.
The need for all manner of permits has risen dramatically in the months leading up to the expansion. Champion recently told the Globe that the city issued more than 3,200 residential permits in the final three months of 2009, compared with about 1,300 during the same period in 2008.
Last Monday and Tuesday, the city issued 2,506 residential, visitor, and special permits, according to Champion. “That’s a lot of permits.’’
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
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BOSTON GLOBE 2009
