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Mass News Briefs
This
new section offers snips from various area newspapers
printed in the month of January. Most full stories can be accessed through
our Internet archives.
February
2001
Colin Powell is criticized by ‘watchdog groups’
for accepting money from Tufts University only five days before the
election. He was paid $200,000 for a half-hour speech. –Yahoo! News
Former Umass-Amherst student successfully sued for
$2500 to cover ‘emotional distress’ caused by a racial slur from a 73-year-old
cafeteria worker. –Union News and Sunday Republican
Former Northeastern Physics Professor Cathy M.
Lerner filed a harassment suit against
former colleague Arun Bansil.
She claims he tried to ‘ruin her reputation’ after she rebuffed his
romantic advances, and that he and other faculty resented the fact that
she taught in a typically male-dominated field. –Union News and Sunday
Republican
U.S. Supreme Court allowed construction of Mormon
temple to continue. Opponents say town’s zoning law violates
Constitution by giving ‘carte blanche’ for religious buildings. The
law reads, “Religious institutions ... are compatible with every other
type of land use and thus will not detract from the quality of life
in any neighborhood.” –Union News & Sunday Republican
Education
Expert Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld called public schools a ‘colossal failure.’
He examines the following quote from Humanist magazine: “The battle
for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom
by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of
a new faith … They must embody the same selfless dedication as the most
rabid fundamentalist preachers, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit
to convey humanist values." –World Net Daily
Tobacco
companies argue in Supreme Court that Massachusetts’ advertising limits
violate their free speech. The limits, say the companies, ‘permit
a virtual ban on advertising of any product that is lawful for adults
but not for children.’ –Union News & Sunday Republican
Inner-city school pupils out-did wealthier, suburban
counterparts on MCAS exams, according to latest DOE report, which
rated ranked schools by what degree students improved scores. –Union
News & Sunday Republican
Worcester students excel in science portions of
MCAS, according to DOE report. Although these pupils fare far
better than the rest of the state in this area, overall, most central
Mass. middle- and high- schools are not meeting ‘academic performance
expectations.’ –Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Montana officials are questioning why they were not told
Nathaniel Bar-Jonah was ‘sexually dangerous,’ and why Massachusetts
officials never notified them of the alleged child murderer/cannibal’s
history of assaults on young boys. –Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Boston City Council President Charles Yancey began
the legislative session by calling on the federal government to reinvestigate
the murder of Martin Luther King. “What does this have to do
with the business of the city of Boston?” asked Councilor Daniel Conley,
the only councilor to vote against the measure. –Boston Globe
Massachusetts state records reveal leniency towards
child molesters. Among
many other jarring statistics, a Boston Herald poll found that 100 percent
of all those convicted of assault with intent to rape a child were never
sent to jail. Alleged child killer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah is a gruesome
byproduct of easy sentences. –Boston Herald
State GOP party elects Brian Cresta as its new
chairman amidst party turmoil. The biggest problem within the
Republican party is “getting out the message of what we truly stand
for to our voters,” says Cresta. –Union News and Sunday Republican
Mass. Department of Education made a glaring math
mistake when tabulating MCAS results for their latest report,
which ranked schools according to how much they’ve improved since last
year. The DOE neglected to consider that different numbers of pupils
took the test each year, thus throwing off all their calculations. –Union
News and Sunday Republican
Bishop Margaret Gatter Payne of Worcester says she sympathizes
with Yassar Arafat after being part of a delegation that conducted
a recent fact-finding mission in Israel and the West Bank. Israelis
maintain they attack only terrorists, but she says she saw homes being
bulldozed and whole olive groves that were uprooted. Sadly, she said
American newspapers available in the Middle East appeared more concerned
about the presidential vote recount in Florida than what was happening
there. –Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Brendan Coleman abused at least 9 young boys
while working at the Charlestown Community Center as a youth hockey
coach, baseball umpire, and lifeguard, prosecutors say. He was arrested
after officials learned of an incident in July when he allegedly touched
a young boy that he was driving to a baseball field. –Yahoo! News
New
cigarette tax proposed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee would
give Massachusetts the highest per-pack tax in the nation. The
50-cent hike, according to Senator Mark C. Montigny, D-New Bedford,
‘represents the state’s best chance to expand health coverage for residents
who lack insurance.’ If the measure passes, the total tax will become
$1.26 per pack this fall.
Gov. Cellucci’s ‘State of the State’ confidently
addresses the possibility of an economic slowdown: “My fellow
citizens, the state of our state is excellent,’’ he said. “We will not
be forced to make devastating cuts. We are well positioned for the future,
with reserves in the bank, a tax cut that will return $1.2 billion each
year to our citizens, and a resolve to constrain the growth of state
spending.’’
Appeals Court nominee William I. Cowin easily
won confirmation after nearly two weeks of debate about his role
in a 1970s corruption scandal. –Boston Globe
Boston
City Councilor Chuck Turner says revelations about Jesse Jackson are
part of “a conservative plot.” Jackson recently admitted to fathering
an out-of-wedlock child with a former aide. Turner and others believe
the revelations about his personal life were leaked in an effort to
silence his criticism of the fledgling Bush presidency and the Republicans.
“They are engaging in political manipulation to confuse and hide the
real issues,’’ said Turner. “This is part of a conservative plot to
blunt political power right at the time we stand up and challenge the
voting illegalities in Florida.” –Boston Herald
Bomb threat interrupted Harvard students taking
exams, forcing 900 students to evacuate the building. Police
arrested the homeless man who had instigated the scare by dashing to
the front of the class, hurling a brick and yelling, “There’s a bomb
in the classroom.” –Boston Globe
Seventeen-year-old Jason Piland pleaded guilty
to assaulting a 10-year-old Lancaster girl and leaving her in
a large trash container. Piland will remain in juvenile custody until
he’s 21 and then go to prison for five to seven years, meaning he will
walk free in possibly only eight years. –Union News & Sunday Republican
Voluntary labeling of genetically altered foods won’t protect consumers,
says Karyn Polito, R-Shrewsbury. She filed legislation to mandate labeling
of ‘Frankenfoods’ that the FDA now only recommends. –Patriot Ledger
Boston area schools reconsider the idea of ‘report
cards.’ Schools in Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Brookline and Lexington
may soon hand out number grades instead of the traditional letter grades
— which would be called ‘codes’ not ‘grades’ — or replace the term ‘report
card’ with ‘comment.’ Right now, “Parents can’t get a straight answer
to the question, ‘How’s my kid doing?’’’ says Grant Wiggins, the director
of Relearning By Design, a New Jersey education consulting firm. Educators
aim to standardize the grading system with these changes. –Boston Globe
Delinquent teen-agers were sentenced by a Boston
judge to perform Shakespeare in exchange for shorter probation.
The students will be required to attend regular rehearsals and perform
in the final production. “Some kids turn to violence because they have
no other way of expressing themselves,” said the judge. “This is a way.”
–Union News & Sunday Republican
A Newton school gave high school students ‘Baby
Think it Over’ dolls to give them a small sampling of parenthood
and hopefully discourage teen pregnancy. The dolls are embedded with
programmable computer chips and sensors that record how carefully –
or roughly – their parents handle them. The doll cries in the middle
of the night and wets itself. The biggest challenge, though, officials
say, will be “raising” the dolls with partners. –Boston Globe
Three men from Charlestown have accused a former
priest of molesting them at their neighborhood church when they
were children. In their lawsuit, they accuse the Rev. Robert M. Burns
of sexually assaulting them during the mid-to-late-1980s while he was
assigned as a vicar and altar boy instructor at St. Mary’s Church. –Boston
Herald
The Internet has brought ‘swinging’ into suburban
Massachusetts neighborhoods. Lists of swingers’ parties – where
couples can engage in group sex or change partners – advertise such
households in Salem, Nashua and Haverhill, and in several New Hampshire
communities as well. One Salem resident complained of his neighbors
“sex parties”: “There were (naked) guests on the trampoline. I’m surprised
they chose a neighborhood setting (to do this).” –Eagle Tribune
Police are powerless to shut down ‘swinging’ or
group sex parties occurring in local suburban communities because
no criminal laws apply. Police in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida
– the only state to try to prosecute these clubs, according to prosecutors
– say they can only regulate health and safety matters or call up so-called
nuisance laws, such as noise, traffic or running a home business without
a license. –Eagle Tribune
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