Surveillance cameras rejected from Cambridge by City Council despite officials trying to argue they will not be used to spy on residents.
Although one argument was that they will be used to monitor evacuation routes in an emergency it is not clear why the cameras should be on in non-emergency situations. Another problem is that it would be impossible to tell how the cameras are being used.
(Image: of Banksy's One Nation Under CCTV)
Brookline could get a set of a dozen cameras to watch roadways in the event of a crisis but residents are raising serious questions about their effectiveness and surveillance by police when no crisis exists.
Abram Chipman, a Washington Street resident who holds a weekly vigil in Coolidge Corner protesting the war in Iraq, said he would feel less comfortable knowing police could be watching his activities. Joan Lancourt, a resident of Beaconsfield Road, said she worried the cameras would have a “chilling effect” on political protest in Brookline.
“I was dismayed, because the potential for self-censorship is real,” she said.
Critics have also questioned the usefulness of the cameras, citing a variety of studies showing that the presence of police cameras has little effect on crime rates. Several residents noted that London’s crime rate has climbed, despite an enormous number of surveillance cameras.
[Police Chief] O’Leary has acknowledged that the camera’s usefulness in reducing
crime rates is still unproven. But supporters have stated repeatedly
that the primary purpose of the cameras is not to prevent crime, but to
help public safety officials coordinate an evacuation from Boston in
the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
Maybe they could just leave the cameras off until there is a crisis. (Image: Subcircle/Flickr)
An interesting discussion of anarchism with UMass professor Robert Paul Wolff, the author of In Defense of Anarchism, an important text on the subject.
The Boston City Council violated the Massachusetts open meeting law according to the state Appeals Court. Dan Kennedy has some interesting observations.
80-year-old expert on non-violent resistance Gene Sharp perseveres in his mission to analyze, document, and share information about resistance to dictatorships and authoritarian governments despite cuts in funding and a lack of institutional support. The headquarters for his Albert Einstein Institution is near Logan Airport.
His most influential book is From Dictatorship to Democracy which can be purchased for $6 in 23 languages or downloaded for free (pdf).
Daniel Ding is Massachusetts' man in China.
Massachusetts "has opened a new office in Beijing that will focus on attracting investments from China to Massachusetts, while fostering critical ties with government officials.
A heartbreaking story about Hiu Lui Ng whose cruel and nightmarish treatment by the US Government took him through detention facilities in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and finally to Rhode Island where he died of cancer that had been untreated for months.
"He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons.
But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.
In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
On Tuesday, with an autopsy by the Rhode Island medical examiner under way, his lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the Department of Homeland Security which runs the detention system."
Following a single-car (luckily) accident Rhode Island state police arrested a man with the highest blood alcohol level found in a living person in state.
"A breath test showed blood alcohol readings of 0.489 percent, followed by 0.491, [Maj. Steven] O'Donnell said, the highest readings state officials could remember for someone who didn't end up dead.
The legal limit in Rhode Island is 0.08. A level of 0.30 is classified as stupor, 0.4 is comatose and 0.5 is considered fatal, according to the health department."
The CharlieCard takes its name from the song "Charlie on the MTA" but do you know the forgotten history of the song and Walter O'Brien, the Progressive Party mayoral candidate in McCarthy-era Boston for whom the song was written?
"[F]ifty years ago, [Boston] was a much different place. It was a city
controlled economically by conservative Brahmin and Yankee Republican
businessmen and politically by conservative Irish-Catholic Democratic
politicians. It was a city where books were banned, unions were not
welcome, and protesters demonstrating for jobs, justice, or peace
feared not only hostile mobs but also the police who were supposed to
protect them.
Indeed, Boston and Massachusetts enlisted early in the war against
communists and “fellow travelers.” In 1948, the Boston public schools
began to require every teacher to sign a “loyalty oath” as a condition
of employment. In 1949, speaking at a campaign rally just days before
the mayoral election, President Harry Truman informed his Boston
audience, “I hate communism” and vowed that he would never surrender to
the “godless creed it teaches.” In 1951 Massachusetts became one of the
first states in the country to outlaw the Communist Party—three years
before Congress and President Eisenhower took such a step. Not long
after that, the Boston Bar Association sent out ballots to its members
containing various proposals to expel and disbar any members involved
with “Communist or subversive organizations.”
As cable problem sparks manhole explosions.
Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey held a meeting in Second Life where a congressional subcommittee discussed issues relating to virtual worlds:
"A self-admitted group of virtual-world newbies, the politicians, led by Rep. Ed Markey (D - Mass.), asked a wide-ranging group of questions. In an era where technologies can catch on and become mainstream quickly, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet wanted
to know some basics. Could Second Life be used as a place to launder
money? Are children safe in online worlds? Are there churches in there?
Are you making any money?"
(Image of Markey's Second Life avatar: Markey website)
Cambridge police have arrested suspects in a stabbing that took place in the Central Square bar the People's Republik when two men tried to escape a group of pursuers:
"Robert Blair, who owns and manages the bar, said the reason police were so quick to arrive on the scene is that they had been called before the stabbing. Blair said he wasn’t at the bar Saturday night, but had talked to his employees about what had happened. According to Blair, two men — including the victim — approached the door, where they were asked for identification. Blair said the men were out of breath when they reached the door.
“They didn’t really respond and just sort of walked into the bar,” Blair said. “That’s why one of my staff called the police, because we couldn’t get them to leave.”
Blair said moments after the first two arrived at the door, several more young men walked into the bar. When one of the staff told them to leave, one of the men pulled a knife." (Image: People's Republik MySpace)
Are the big red bugs we like (lobsters) being killed by the same chemicals we use to get rid of the little bugs we don't like (mosquitos)? Council members in Newport, Rhode Island think so.
"The Newport City Council voted to ban the toxic chemical methoprene from the city's mosquito abatement program at their April 9 meeting. The issue arose when Newport City Councilman Charles Y. Duncan called for a resolution that bans the use of any of the toxic poisons, such as methoprene, in the mosquito program. Methoprene is thought to be a contributing factor in the decline of the area lobster population."
The concern around methoprene is that it kills lobster larvae and opponents of the pesticide point to Maine's banning of the chemical.
"Altosid is made of methoprene, a larvicide, that when applied, reduces the number of adult mosquitoes and thus reduces human risk from mosquito borne diseases such as EEE and West Nile virus. Rhode Island lobstermen and many environmentalists oppose the use of methoprene because the chemical also kills lobster larvae.
The lobstermen argue that Maine is the only East Coast fishery where the lobster population is at acceptable, sustainable levels because, unlike other East Coast fisheries, Maine bans the use of methoprene and larvicides in its waters. Maine is also the only fishery where the lobster population does not suffer from shell disease. In all the other fisheries, Rhode Island included, lobster birth rates are noticeably below normal."
This video by Mayor Joe Curtatone uses the conceit of a jog around Somerville to frame his introduction to the virtues of the city.
"In the video, the mayor, an avid runner who plans to run his second Boston marathon Monday, takes viewers on a jogging tour of Somerville, explaining the city’s history, diverse population, vibrant arts and entertainment scene, and sustainable, smart-growth plans for the future."
Some of the production values like the transitions are a little hokey and distracting but give credit to the mayor for uploading the video to YouTube. That said they should allow embedding so that sharing of the video would be encouraged.
A fascinating story on a photograph by Stanley Forman that epitomized the bad old Boston in the days of busing.
"On April 5, 1976, at an anti-busing rally at City Hall Plaza, Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald-American, captured a teenager as he transformed the American flag into a weapon directed at the body of a black man. It is the ultimate act of desecration, performed in the year of the bicentennial and in the shadows of Boston's Old State House. Titled The Soiling of Old Glory, the photograph appeared in newspapers around the country and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977."
The article connects the photo to other iconic photographs. Another interesting aspect, this isn't even Forman's most disturbing picture.
The ACLU accuses Harvard of maintaining a political intelligence unit within their police department according to this interesting article by the Crimson:
"The nation’s preeminent civil liberties group is accusing the
University of maintaining a political intelligence unit within the
Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), an allegation that comes
after two protesters were arrested during a demonstration in the
Square.
The
protesters allege that undercover HUPD officers were photographing the
demonstration, according to John Reinstein, the legal director of the
Massachusetts division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“What
we found really quite surprising and disturbing is that the Harvard
police department has an undercover, plainclothes, political
intelligence unit which so far as I know has never been acknowledged by
them before,” Reinstein said.
HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano declined to comment, and a University spokesman did not comment as well.
The
protesters, Patrick Keaney and Lisa Nieves, were arrested March 3 in
front of the Holyoke Center according to the HUPD’s police log. The log
said that “officers were monitoring a demonstration” prior to the
arrest."
The arrest came when one of the demonstrators took her own picture of one of the "undercover" officers.
"Reinstein said that Nieves noticed a bystander in plainclothes taking photos of the protest and decided to go photograph him. When she did, the man informed her that he was an undercover police officer with HUPD and placed her under arrest for refusing to delete the photos."
Cambridge Common also notes some examples of apparent surveillance:
"I have heard stories from people who were involved in the 2001 Living Wage Campaign that corroborate such activity. During the time of the sit-in, campaigners had planned an action that was coordinated partially over email but not advertised publicly at all. When they showed up to the location of the action, HUPD was waiting for them. It seemed that the only way that HUPD could have known the action was taking place was if the authorities had been spying on the group, either electronically or by other means.
More shadiness of this kind took place during the Stand For Security Campaign last year. During the hunger strike and the daily actions that accompanied it, a plainclothes man with a nice camera was taking pictures of us almost every day. I went up to him one day to see what he was taking the pictures for and he told me that they were for the Harvard Gazette. I am sure the Harvard Gazette has photographers, but this guy was there almost every day and he was not taking pictures of things that you would really put into a magazine."
(via Cambridge Common)
"Boston's bike initiative now headed by former Olympic cyclist Nicole Freedman is receiving mixed reviews with some grateful for the renewed attention while others still bemoan the hazards of Boston biking.
"For some of the bikers who ride on the streets of Boston every morning,
a major concern is resistance from city drivers and scary street
conditions. Malcolm Purinton, a Northeastern graduate student, has
found his two-mile commute from Jamaica Plain to class to be dangerous
and even, at times, life-threatening.
"I feel every time I get on my bike here I am risking my life," he
said. "You have to be on. There are no bike lanes on any roads and the
drivers have no respect for bikers."
***
While the appointment of Freedman may be a push in the right direction,
there is still much to be done in order to improve the conditions for
cyclists across Boston, some bicyclists said.
Some bike lanes end randomly (one stops at the crowded intersection at
Massachusetts and Huntington avenues). Weather conditions and
concurrent construction projects also stand in the way. Dennison said
these are only minor obstacles, and that although Boston has fallen
behind in the past few years, the city still holds immense potential to
act for the betterment of bicycling conditions."
(Image: Cambridge-based bike advocacy group: Bikes Not Bombs)
Although the video game industry has been doing pretty well in Massachusetts, the legislature is focusing on them for some tough treatment with a new bill being proposed and discussed on March 18th:
"HB1423
attempts to restrict the sale of video games with violent content to
minors, making the sale of such titles illegal. No similar law is
currently in effect as pertains to video games, movies, music or
literature with violent content.
The bill, taking the “games-as-porn” approach, is titled such
because it uses the rational that sexually explicit material and
violent video games are equally harmful to minors. If this bill is
passed, it would officially change the legal definition of content that
is “harmful to minors” to include anything that “…depicts violence in a
manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult
community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in
violence of minors; is patently contrary to prevailing standards of
adults in the county where the offense was committed as to suitable
material for such minors; and lacks serious literary, artistic,
political or scientific value for minors.”"
"* This bill would violate the First Amendment rights of video game
developers and the public for whom we make video games. In particular,
on Monday a federal appeals court confirmed a ban on a similar law in
Minnesota. (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895920-7.html).
The bill is a waste of taxpayers' money.
* The video game industry has an effective rating system in place
to distinguish which games are no appropriate for minors. In particular,
it's more effective and provides far more information than the ratings
system in place for movies.
* ----. The
Massachusetts game industry is booming, employs thousands of people
and provides many hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the
Massachusetts economy. H. 1423 sends the wrong message, that
Massachusetts does not welcome the video game development industry."
Mayor Menino says he supports the bill but it looks likely to be overturned given its similarity to other laws that have been overturned around the country.
A 28-year old Harvard student was struck and killed by a Shaw's truck at 6:45 this morning. The man was hit at one of the major intersections in Central Square at Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street.
"No charges have been filed against the driver as of yet, police said.
Shaw's spokeswoman Judy Chong said the driver was making an early morning supermarket delivery.
"We're cooperating with the state and local authorities in the investigation," said Chong. "And our thoughts and prayers go out to all who were involved in this unfortunate incident."
Chong would not release any other information about the driver or the accident and referred all questions to the police department.
Police are not releasing the victim's name until his family has been notified."
Of all the buildings . . .
"At 11:55 last evening, the officers that were at roll call at the
Waltham Police Department heard a loud crash at the rear of the
station,' said Waltham Detective Sgt. Tim King."
"NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that Waltham police said they are
not sure why the man crashed his Ford Ranger pickup truck through the
station's door, but they said he was drunk."
At least no one was hurt.
The Boston Public Library will begin digitizing and making available online its collection of government records starting with documents relating to the House Committee on Un-American Activities:
"A digital library partnership, including two nonprofit organizations and the Boston Public Library, is preparing to begin making digital copies of the library's paper-based government documents collection, which will then be made available on the Internet.
The project, which will take two years and require the hand scanning of millions of pages of government hearings and related publications, will cost an estimated $6 million, according to the project's sponsors.
Boston Public Library librarians said they plan to begin by digitizing hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities from the 1950s, regularly sought by its patrons.
The project is being undertaken by Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit group seeking to open public access to government records, and the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based digital library."
It will be interesting to see how the demand for information spurred by projects like this will run up against the recent trend in the government toward increased secrecy. Ideally projects like this will provide some of the necessary pushback as people/citizens become accustomed to ownership of information.
Inside the Boston Barack Obama rally.
Thousands of people stood in long lines.
"[S]upporters stood in a line that extended nearly a mile, from the World Trade Center entrance to the Fort Point Channel."
And endured the delayed starts typical of candidate rallies.
"Although the doors opened at 8:00 p.m., the rally did not gear up until 10:20 p.m. Thousands of supporters who could not fit into the convention hall floor watched outside on closed circuit television. Many parents brought their children to witness this historic campaign event."
Massachusetts' new 211 number is intended to provide a source for callers to get information on government services without burdening 911 with non-emergency calls:
"2-1-1 is an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable number that makes a critical connection between individuals and families seeking services or volunteer opportunities and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies. 2-1-1 makes it possible for people to navigate the complex and ever-growing maze of human service agencies and programs. By making services easier to access, 2-1-1 encourages prevention and fosters self-sufficiency."
Yet Somerville is one of the only local cities to use the 311 service to guide callers to city services that has been so successful in New York.
(via Boston Traveler)
Central Square coffee and ice cream spot Toscanini's seized for back taxes.
"The state Department of Revenue seized the popular Cambridge ice cream and coffee shop for nonpayment of back taxes, taping an orange sign with “SEIZED” in large block letters on its door.
The Central Square business, which opened in 1981, owes $167,810 in taxes that have been accumulating since 2000, DOR spokesman Robert Bliss said. The amount includes $140,151 in unpaid meal taxes and $27,659 in unpaid withholding taxes.
The DOR resorts to seizing businesses when it’s unable to “get the attention of taxpayers to come to terms with the amount that’s owed,” according to Bliss."
That's too bad I guess but it seems weird to donate to a for-profit business that seems to have some serious managerial problems.
That said they've raised $18,000 so far but the whole effort has inspired a raging debate in the comments thread (now closed) of the fund-raising site.
Forget about New Year's Eve. The Big Dig is officially over today. But after 16 years and "a history marked by engineering triumphs, as well as tunnel leaks, epic traffic jams, last year's death of a motorist crushed by concrete ceiling panels and a price tag that soared from $2.6 billion to a staggering $14.8 billion, there's little appetite for celebration."
Respond to jury duty in Massachusetts online through new JuryDuty website
Respond to jury summons online through a new Massachusetts government website: JuryDuty.
Tony Lepore, the dancing cop of Providence: "Each Christmas the 60-year-old retired police officer puts on his old uniform and shows off his fancy footwork at busy intersections in Rhode Island."
Did Mayor Menino fire the Boston Public Library's president just because he didn't like him? And this despite significant achievements by BPL president Bernie Margolis: "During his 10 years on the job, Margolis
has led the BPL energetically and effectively into the 21st century:
children’s services at branch libraries have been strengthened, Boston
became the nation’s leader in urban digital access, and the
long-neglected treasures that make the central library world-famous
finally began to enjoy a modicum of the sort of curatorial care they
deserved."
Should Boy Scouts' donation boxes for soldiers be banned from Cambridge election polling stations?
A 1908 gun battle in Jamaica Plain is revived in this interesting collection of contemporary newspaper accounts including the description of a "dramatic shootout at bucolic Forest Hills Cemetery."
Will Massachusetts make online gambling and poker a felony? And why?
"Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick wants jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for those who play poker and other casino games for real money online" in his bill to allow casinos in the state. "'If you were cynical about it, you'd think that they're trying to set up a monopoly for the casinos,'" said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Whatever happened to Lowell's turnaround? Perhaps a failed strategy: "the emphasis on large construction projects that characterized the Lowell revival - big-ticket items such as the National Historical Park, minor league baseball stadium, and hockey arena - have fallen out of favor, replaced by a growing emphasis on more prosaic goals like retraining workers and streamlining city governments"
Cambridge takes halting steps toward public toilets including telling people about some of the ones that are already around. Apparently there are bathrooms at the Central Square, Porter Square and Alewife T stops that are available although under lock and key. And there is a bathroom in the Harvard station but it's closed since being "vandalized badly years ago." Unfortunately although these toilets are not much of a solution and despite the city manager's criticisms of the automated toilets in Boston, these options don't compare at all. The automated toilets offer a civilized experience for a quarter without having to ask permission from an MBTA employee. They are not that big and the idea that space could not be found for them seems dubious given the open space at the Harvard T stop for instance. In the meantime, people will continue to line up at Coop, head over to the Charles Hotel or make use of the toilets in the Holyoke Center Arcade. Mobile phone-based toilet finder Mizpee will find a thriving market in Cambridge.
Boston police, confronting rising crime and a "street culture where
gangs often punish people who 'snitch,'" try an 'anonymized" text messaging approach to see if that encourages more tips to the police.
A Brookline police officer is trying a different technological fix to the problem of stolen property. His website JustStolen.net allows the public to record identifying information about property like iPods, bikes, and laptops. When police recover stolen property they can then check the JustStolen.net database to find out who it belongs to. It's interesting to realize (the obvious point in retrospect) that the police may recover items but not know who they belong to. JustStolen is one of those businesses that probably wouldn't occur to you unless you were in the field. If you've had something stolen you can browse a database of recovered property (looks to be all in the custody of the Boston Police at this point).
Representatives of the Boston office of the FBI have been visiting local research universities like MIT and Worcester Polytechnic Institute to warn them about the possibilities of potential foreign operatives taking advantage of academic openness. Of especial concern: "those things that are not classified being developed" by the schools. University officials quoted seem polite but reserved possibly concerned about backlash from academics.
An internal marketing fax sent to some New England Bank of America branches with pictures of "a lighted match and a bomb with a fuse" to illustrate the idea that time was running out on the promotion caused a bomb scare when the fax didn't print completely leaving out any explanatory language. Coincidentally the Ashland branch also found the delivery of a package of documents suspicious so together the incidents prompted a call to police.
Like other isolated groups seeking to use the internet to leverage their recognition, Massachusetts Republicans are putting up websites to attract attention. Brad Jones' site was started by the House GOP leader (and the domain name bradjonesonline.com reflects that) while the Republican state senators' site is more collaborative in approach and name. The senators' site is informative with a nice homespun feel while Jones' site has a more polished design but has a daunting list of terms and conditions that suggest a lack of comfort with the internets.
In another in our continuing series of posts on unusual New England wildlife events, the growing Connecticut bear population has been moving south running into residents in non-rural locations like West Hartford and the New Haven suburb of Hamden. Nice video of the bear up a tree.
As Newport's summer tourisms season approaches, Newport residents are facing fears that six suspicious fires are the work of a serial arsonist.
OpenMass is a new non-profit, open-source, non-partisan project to provide transparency on the workings of the legislature and government in Massachusetts. The website provides information on legislators, bills, hearings and other facets of Beacon Hill life that might escape the average citizen. It's based on the OpenCongress and seems to track the layout of OpenCongress very closely.
Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens will no longer face charges related to the Mooninite promotion security scare that paralyzed the city of Boston. The pair apologized and performed community service in recompense but prosecutors acknowledged the difficulty in proving any intent to convince anyone that the lighted advertisements were dangerous. Berdovsky and Stevens were hired by a guerilla marketing firm to place lighted images of characters from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force show and movie around the city but police found them threatening leading to a high-profile fiasco.
Massachusetts government officials are coming out against REAL ID as part of a "major state-federal standoff" between the requirement for non-passport holders to get a state-issued federally approved ID card and state opposition to the bureaucratic and financial costs that could result in "residents of states that do not adopt the new high security licenses [being] barred from boarding airplanes or accessing government programs." State Senator Richard T. Moore, (Dem., Uxbridge) and MA Attorney General Martha Coakley are both opposing the implementation of REAL ID in Massachusetts. Moore's bill "would prevent any state spending to implement the Real ID Act in Massachusetts, except for whatever may be spent by the attorney general to mount a constitutional challenge to the new federal law." One of the problems for many state officials is that the REAL ID program is not funded by the federal government so the states will have to pay for it. (via /.)
Maine's legislature has already passed a law opposing participation in the program.
Security expert Bruce Schneier discusses why he thinks ID doesn't increase security and why REAL ID in particular is a bad idea.
The Phoenix reports on how a Boston College student's protest outside the Tremont Street Armed Forces Recruiting Center led to him being charged with "two felonies: 'false report of location of explosives' and a 'hoax device.'" He was standing dressed as the iconic hooded prisoner from Abu Graib (picture left) and the trailing wires that the protester used were enough to have him charged with these bomb threat felonies. The police contend that this is sufficient grounds for the charges: "'It can be implied, with fingers and wires — especially in a heightened
state of alert, as we are,' says Officer Michael McCarthy, Boston
Police Department spokesman. And McCarthy thinks this is common
knowledge, even if the wires are accessories to a costume." It seems more than a stretch to contend that this was the protester's intent though. The logic could extend to someone protesting who is carrying an iPod.
Democracy activist Yang Jianli of Brookline was released from prison in China having served five years on charges "of illegal entry into the country and spying for Taiwan." Unable to be admitted to China under his own passport because of his role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he "returned to China in April, 2002 on a friend's passport to view
labor unrest in the northeastern part of China. He was detained when trying
to board an internal flight."
The work of our legislators continues. From the press release:
"In an Official Citation, signed by the President of the Massachusetts Senate, Robert E. Travaglini, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has proclaimed August 5-11, 2007, as National Guild of Hypnotists Week. The National Guild of Hypnotists is receiving the honor in recognition of its important contributions in advancing the art, science and philosophy of hypnotism. The House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has likewise extended their congratulations to the National Guild of Hypnotists for 56 years of providing, "an open forum for a free exchange of ideas concerning hypnotism and currently leading the movement for legislative and public recognition of hypnotism/hypnotherapy as a separate an distinct profession in the healing arts."
In a similar effort, Mayor, Nancy E. Stevens, has signed into effect a City Proclamation, establishing August 11, 2007 as National Guild of Hypnotists Day in Marlborough, MA. NGH president, Dr. Dwight F. Damon, says, 'The National Guild of Hypnotists is delighted to be returning to Marlborough, MA for our convention. This is the twentieth year of the NGH Convention and our third year to be back in Marlborough.'"
Missing MIT student Daniel Barclay's body has been found on Scusset Beach in Bourne on the Cape. According to the MIT Tech, "The last sign of Barclay was his AOL Instant Messenger away message
that was set late Sunday evening, Barclay's mother Susan Kayton '78
said. According to Kayton, the message read, 'I have to meet with some
sketchy people I thought I'd never have to deal with ever again in east
Cambridge.'"
Meanwhile, another MIT student Ivan Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, was killed in a motorcycle accident "when he apparently lost control of a 1998 Kawasaki 600 motorcycle on the Fenway exit ramp from Storrow Drive East."
Interesting example of citizen journalism detailing possible toxic problems on Tufts Street in Somerville.
