Wading into Elective Office

            Election time is upon us in the Tri-Town area, and nomination papers are out. So far it appears there has been no great stampede to run for office. But there is still time.             My first foray into public office was on an appointed committee. I was recruited to join a local Bylaw Study […] Read more »

Bauer Facing Potential Challenge

            Kathleen Costello, 51 North Street, has pulled nomination papers indicating a potential run against Jodi Bauer for the latter’s Mattapoisett Select Board seat. Bauer had already returned her papers, confirming a bid for re-election.             The Mattapoisett School Committee terms of Jim Muse and Tiffini Reedy are up this year. Neither had pulled nomination […] Read more »

Contest Celebrates African Americans in Arts

            Owen Excellent’s favorite entry in the Grades 7-12 Creative Expression Contest held by Tri-Town Against Racism is a colorful poster of Martin Luther King Jr. by Dylan Dubois, a junior at Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School.             The composition features King’s image on the right looking ahead with the Washington Monument at the […] Read more »

The Heart-Risk Factor No One Knows About

            Most readers of these columns, I assume, are aware of the relation between elevated cholesterol and coronary heart disease, and of the benefit of reducing high cholesterol with diet and medication. The statins have saved many lives, and newer agents have come to market for those who cannot take statins.             I do hope […] Read more »

Trees, Trees, Trees and Less Trees

            How many times do I have to write about this, people? This is the third column I have devoted to the now infamous Mattapoisett “Big Dig” or, as one wag has called it, the deforestation of paradise.             I am of course referring to the proposed cutting down of multiple trees as part of […] Read more »

Parker May Have Opponent

            According to Marion Town records, Diane Lopes Flaherty, 1001 Point Road, has taken out nomination papers to run for the Select Board. Incumbent Randy Parker, 735 Mill Street, is up for reelection this year.             Parker has already returned his nomination papers, making his reelection bid official. Flaherty, according to Town Clerk Lissa Magauran’s […] Read more »

Roy’s Focus Impacts ORR Hockey Team

            “Boom!” the semisonic sound filled the Travis Roy Rink at Tabor Academy, not from the slapshot fired by the Bishop Stang player but when the sizzling puck was kicked away by goaltender Tucker Roy.             His snow-white goalie pads are only a few weeks old but already bear the black scuff marks of many […] Read more »

Private Equity in Health Care

Those of you in the metro Boston news market have been regaled with the saga of the failing Steward Health Care System, owner of nine hospitals in eastern Massachusetts. One eye-catching story described the $40,000,000 yacht purchased by Steward’s CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, while Steward hospitals were having equipment repossessed because of failure […] Read more »

Phone Booths, Pay Phones, and Bird Calls

Every day after school outside a Takoma Park, Maryland, elementary school, there is a line of kids lined up waiting to use the pay phone. Yes, a pay phone!             The phone plays bird calls and it’s free. It even has a canary yellow receiver. In 2016, the town announced a contest to create an […] Read more »

Local Signs of First Nations People

            Archaeologist Erin Flynn of Public Archaeology Laboratory based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the guest speaker at the Marion Natural History Museum on February 9. Flynn took her audience on a journey of many hundreds of years, a journey of our collective past but more specifically the long, ongoing journey of the First Nations […] Read more »