The Boston Globe
Hurricane Noel may pass close to Cape Cod
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Hurricane Noel is churning up the East Coast today and is expected to pummel Cape Cod and the islands Saturday with hurricane-force wind gusts, up to 3 inches of rain, and 30-foot seas.
Forecasters expect the storm, which is currently 425 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., to pass 150 miles east of the Cape sometime in the late morning or early afternoon Saturday. Mariners are bracing for high seas and are scrambling to secure boats.
The fast-moving storm is expected to weaken as it moves over colder water, but will be re-energized as it collides with the jet stream near New England.
"It will be almost like a very large winter storm, like a nor'easter," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "It is then going to continue to intensify and grow as it moves north."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/hurricane_noel.html
Metal object found in trick-or-treater's candy in Leicester
(Leicester Police photo)
The candy bar and the metal piece found in it. Chief Jim Hurley said the metal piece was akin to a small piece of a paper clip or a necklace clasp.
By Globe Staff
Police in the central Massachusetts town of Leicester are investigating after a piece of metal was found in a candy bar collected by a fourth-grade girl during trick-or-treating.
The small piece of metal was found inside a 100 Grand bar received by a student at the town's Memorial School, said Police Chief Jim Hurley.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/metal_object_fo.html
Thursday, November 1, 2007
'Worthless' stock gift turns into $13.9M for Pittsfield Boys and Girls Club
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
Officials at the Boys and Girls Club of Pittsfield say that when they received a gift of worthless stock a couple of years ago they briefly considered refusing it.
It's a good thing they didn't: The stock's value skyrocketed, eventually yielding the club nearly $14 million.
The club received the stock from a donor about two years ago, said club president John Donna. He said the club planned to make itself "bigger and better" with the money.
"We're all happy. This is a problem in a sense, but it's a nice problem to have," he said.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/worthless_stock.html
Salem police: stabbings and shooting unrelated to Halloween festivities
By Globe Staff
Salem police say Halloween night in their community was marred by two stabbings and a shooting. But they say the incidents weren't connected to the spooky celebration the town hosts in its downtown area.
"It wasn't related at all to the Halloween festivities. ... It's just unfortunate that we have these incidents happening on the outskirts that kind of put a black eye on the event," said Lieutenant Conrad Prosniewski, Salem police spokesman.
Prosniewski said two people were stabbed after an altercation broke out over a loud party at a house about a half-mile from the downtown area. In a second incident, a teen-ager was shot in the stomach about a mile from the downtown area. Police are probing whether the shooting was gang-related.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/salem_police_st.html
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A bewitching night in Salem
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
Salvatore Callender walked with his wife, Esmay, down Derby Street in Salem today. He is in the Army and stationed in Hawaii.
By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff
Gypsies, monsters, pirates, princesses and, of course, witches streamed through Salem's streets tonight as more than 75,000 people visited the Halloween capital of the state, looking for spooky chills and thrills.
Trick-or-treating kids mixed with adult revelers and street corner evangelists preaching against wickedness.
Salem police, monitoring the situation on foot, bike, and horseback, expected the crowd to get a little rowdier later in the night when families go home.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/10/a_bewitching_ni.html
Auto insurers readying their deals
As competition nears, benefits take shape
By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff November 2, 2007
Some Massachusetts automobile insurers are starting to gear up for competition, offering new policy benefits at no extra cost, adopting more recognizable names, and promising their agents competitive pricing.
Liberty Mutual Group of Boston and MetLife Auto and Home of Warwick, R.I., have both won approval from the Division of Insurance for enhancements to their existing policy benefits, which they plan to add at no extra cost to the customer. Both companies said the state's decision to move to auto insurance competition next year precipitated their filings.
The moves show that insurers are starting to distinguish themselves from rivals as Massachusetts prepares to introduce auto insurance competition for the first time in 30 years. To be sure, the full impact of competition won't be known until Nov. 19, when insurers are scheduled to file their rate plans for next year for customers who start renewing their policies after April 1. Customers may see even more insurers jumping into the fray, slashing rates and offering beefed-up policies.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/02/auto_insurers_readying_their_deals/
Addicts to receive overdose antidote
Kit and training for heroin users
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff November 2, 2007
State health authorities will start supplying addicts next month with a kit containing two doses of a medication that can reverse a potentially lethal overdose within minutes, hoping to reverse a tide of heroin deaths sweeping Massachusetts.
The initiative by the Department of Public Health mirrors a similar project in Boston, where at least 66 overdoses have been reversed since the program began a year ago.
State Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach, who introduced the Narcan program while leading Boston's health agency, said the results are so impressive that he wants to expand it to four areas of the state grappling with heroin epidemics. That drug and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts in 2005, more than double the number felled by firearms.
"We are aware sadly that despite our efforts, there are people who will not be ready for treatment, and we want to prevent them from dying from a fatal overdose before we have an opportunity to convince them to get into treatment," said Auerbach, stressing that treatment remains the state's priority.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/02/addicts_to_receive_overdose_antidote/
Drug companies ordered to pay $13.6 million in Mass. pricing suit
November 2, 2007
BOSTON --A federal judge has ordered drug companies AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squib to pay a combined $13.6 million in a Massachusetts case that alleged they inflating the so-called "average wholesale price" of expensive, and sometimes life-saving, drugs.
U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris found that the companies "unfairly and deceptively caused to be published false" average wholesale prices of drugs.
As a result, Saris wrote in a judgment dated Thursday, the companies caused "real injuries to the insurers and the patients who were paying grossly inflated prices for critically important, often life-sustaining drugs."
Saris ordered AstraZeneca to pay $12.9 million and Bristol-Myers Squib to pay $695,594 in damages. Those affected by the ruling include insurers who reimbursed Medicare beneficiaries for their co-insurance, and insurers and consumers who made co-insurance payments based on the average wholesale price.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/02/drugs_companies_ordered_to_pay_136_million_for_inflating_prices/
Patrick administration revamps state's affordable housing law
November 2, 2007
BOSTON --The Patrick Administration is unveiling proposed changes to the state's anti-snob zoning law.
State undersecretary of housing Tina Brooks says the new regulations are designed to encourage the building of more affordable housing while easing some of the friction between communities and developers.
One change would help communities draft plans to more gradually increase the amount of affordable housing until they reach the state-mandated goal of 10 percent.
That could help cities and towns avoid battles with developers who can use the law to avoid local zoning codes if they promise to include a certain percentage of affordable housing in their developments.
"Ideally we would like to see every community have their own (affordable housing) plans," Brooks said. "The best solution for everyone is that municipalities get ahead of the curve."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/02/patrick_administration_revamps_states_affordable_housing_law/
Bush attorney general nominee gets boost
By The Associated Press November 2, 2007
INCREASING APPROVAL: Michael Mukasey drew closer to becoming attorney general Friday after two key Senate Democrats said they would vote for him despite his refusal to say whether waterboarding is torture.
DESPITE SEN. LEAHY: The decision by Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein to back President Bush's nominee came shortly after the chairman of the committee, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced he would vote against Mukasey.
ALMOST THERE: Schumer and Feinstein's support for Mukasey virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation when it votes on it next Tuesday.
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/02/bush_attorney_general_nominee_gets_boost_1194044043/
Unknown spray sickens Calif. students
November 2, 2007
LODI, Calif. --Two students sprayed a noxious gas in the main hallway of a high school, sickening 43 students and sending six to the hospital, police said.
Police arrested the two students, ages 16 and 17, who told authorities they found the unmarked aerosol can while trick-or-treating on Halloween. Investigators aren't sure what was in it.
Dozens of Lodi High School students complained of tightness in their chests and difficulty breathing after the can was sprayed in the hallway on Thursday. Six were sent briefly to the hospital.
Officials were also investigating a report that one student was sprayed while walking to school. He also complained of chest pains and labored breathing.
The incident forced the cancellation of a groundbreaking ceremony planned for a new gymnasium in the school about 35 miles south of Sacramento.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/unknown_spray_sickens_calif_students/
Man falsely links son-in-law to al-Qaida
November 2, 2007
STOCKHOLM, Sweden --A Swedish man accused of falsely telling U.S. authorities that his son-in-law had links to al-Qaida has been charged with defamation, a newspaper reported Friday.
The false warning spoiled a business trip to the U.S. for the man's son-in-law, who was stopped at a Florida airport and questioned for 11 hours before being sent back on a plane to Sweden, the Sydsvenska Dagbladet daily reported.
U.S. authorities apparently reacted to an e-mail sent to the FBI saying the man "likely has links to the Muslim terror organization al-Qaida's network in Sweden," the newspaper reported.
The 52-year-old father-in-law admitted to having sent the e-mail after it was traced to his home computer, the paper said. He reportedly told police he sent the e-mail in anger after a dispute with his son-in-law, who was divorcing his daughter.
The man said he did not expect such a "paranoid reaction" from U.S. authorities, Sydsvenska Dagbladet reported.
According to court documents, he was charged Thursday with grave defamation in the district court in Lund, southern Sweden, and could face up to two years in prison if convicted.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/man_falsely_links_son_in_law_to_al_qaida/
Report ties meat, body fat to cancer
By Emily Brown, Bloomberg News November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Excess body fat and red meat are linked to an increased risk of common cancers and should be avoided, the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research said.
About 40 percent of all cancers are linked to food, lack of exercise, and body weight, the organizations said in a 571-page report released yesterday. A panel of 21 researchers who compiled the report said it was the most comprehensive evaluation ever of evidence linking personal habits to cancer risk.
The findings are meant to guide future scientific research, cancer prevention education programs, and health policy around the world, panelists said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/01/report_ties_meat_body_fat_to_cancer/
Groundbreaking on ThyssenKrupp mill
By Garry Mitchell, Associated Press Writer November 2, 2007
CALVERT, Ala. --Bulldozers are clearing a 3,500-acre forest beside the Tombigbee River in southwest Alabama. It won't be a vast empty lot for long as construction begins next year on the $3.7 billion ThyssenKrupp steel mill.
Top executives from the Germany-based firm, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and more than 700 state and local officials attended Friday's groundbreaking for the massive project.
"We will be in Alabama for decades to come, providing good jobs for many generations," ThyssenKrupp AG Chairman Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz said before a high school band struck up "Sweet Home Alabama."
The company's new plant in Brazil, set to start production in 2009, will ship its steel slabs to the Alabama plant, which will produce 5.1 million metric tons of steel products.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/11/02/groundbreaking_on_thyssenkrupp_mill/
Venezuela Congress OKs ending Chavez term limits
November 2, 2007
CARACAS (Reuters) - Congress passed President Hugo Chavez's proposal to scrap presidential term limits on Friday in a package of constitutional changes that Venezuelans are likely to approve in a December referendum.
Polls show many Venezuelans reject the moves to centralize presidential power, but welcome sweeteners the socialist leader has included, such as reducing the work day to six hours and giving social security to unregistered taxi drivers.
The opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, university students and rights groups have denounced the scores of changes to the constitution as an authoritarian power grab and protests against the proposal have turned violent.
Wall St. worries the reforms will further chill investment, especially after Chavez decreed a raft of nationalizations earlier this year with the vow of making the major oil exporter a socialist state.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/11/02/venezuela_congress_oks_ending_chavez_term_limits/
Military reports 387 Afghan-area deaths
By The Associated Press November 2, 2007
As of Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, at least 387 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
Of those, the military reports 259 were killed by hostile action.
Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 62 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.
There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/11/02/military_reports_387_afghan_area_deaths/
Clinton, Dodd sign letter warning Bush on Iran
November 2, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton and 29 other senators wrote to President Bush yesterday to tell him he has no congressional authority for war with Iran, sparking debate among the Democratic presidential candidates.
The four Democratic senators running for the White House split over whether to sign the letter. Chris Dodd of Connecticut added his support, while Barack Obama of Illinois and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware declined.
Clinton's campaign accused Obama of playing politics by refusing to support the letter, which was circulated by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Instead, Obama introduced a measure yesterday to make the case in law, spokesman Bill Burton said.
"It will take more than a letter to prevent this administration from using the language contained within the Kyl-Lieberman resolution to justify military action in Iran," Burton said, referring to a nonbinding resolution that designates Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
The letter Clinton and Dodd signed accuses Bush of "provocative statements and actions stemming from your administration with respect to possible US military action in Iran."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/clinton_dodd_sign_letter_warning_bush_on_iran/
Obama says US must try talking to Iran
November 2, 2007
WASHINGTON --Sen. Barack Obama said Friday that as president he would personally negotiate with Iran, offering economic incentives and a chance for peaceful relations if Iranian leaders would forgo pursuit of nuclear weapons and support of terrorists.
Citing a long history of progress through diplomatic gestures toward China and the former Soviet Union, Obama laid out in stronger terms his call for diplomacy with Iran -- a policy with greater emphasis on negotiation than the Bush administration policy and a stance that has been ridiculed by his fellow Democratic presidential candidates.
"There is the potential at least for us finding ways of peacefully resolving some of our conflicts, and that effort has not been attempted," Obama said. "And if we don't make that attempt, then we're going to find ourselves continuing on the path that Bush and Cheney have set, and we're seeing the rhetoric rise every day."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/obama_says_us_must_try_talking_to_iran/
Fact check: Giuliani's cancer stats
THE FACT CHECK:
The American Cancer Society says that survival rates are actually higher and that it's misleading to compare the two countries.
The group cautions that screening for prostate cancer is much more widespread in this country -- meaning that in the U.S., higher survival rates include many whose lives probably weren't in danger and whose cancers might have gone unnoticed in the U.K.
Five-year survival rates were 95 percent in the U.S. and 60 percent in the United Kingdom, which includes Britain, in 1993-1995, the most recent time period with data to compare, the group said.
Today, rates are higher -- 99 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 74 percent in the U.K.
Doctors in the two countries have different approaches. That's because while aggressive prostate cancer can kill, it often grows so slowly, and is found when it's so small, that men die of something else before it ever threatens their lives or even causes symptoms.
So there is disagreement -- and studies conflict -- over whether the chances of survival for men with low-risk tumors really improve with aggressive treatment, or if they can be closely monitored and treated only if their tumors grow, thereby avoiding side effects such as impotence and incontinence.
The former New York mayor got his numbers from an article in the City Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank.
The article was written by David Gratzer, a Manhattan Institute fellow and adviser to Giuliani's campaign.
Mortality rates in the two countries are closer -- 15 of every 100,000 people die of prostate cancer in the U.K., compared with 12 of 100,000 in the U.S., the American Cancer Society said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/fact_check_giulianis_cancer_stats/
Bill Clinton says speed papers release
By Jessica Mintz, Associated Press Writer November 2, 2007
REDMOND, Wash. --Former President Clinton said Friday that a letter he wrote to the National Archives was to expedite release of his papers, not slow the process or hide anything as rivals are suggesting in criticism of his wife.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was quizzed during this week's Democratic presidential debate as to why correspondence between her and her husband from their White House years remained bottled up at the National Archives. Barack Obama said that was a problem for her as a candidate after "we have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history."
One issue is whether Bill Clinton had sent a letter to the Archives asking that the communications not be released until 2012, and whether Hillary Clinton would lift any ban, a question raised by debate moderator Tim Russert.
"She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down," the former president told reporters Friday. "And she didn't even, didn't know what he was talking about. And now that I've described to you what the letter said, you can readily understand why she didn't know what he was talking about."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/bill_clinton_says_speed_papers_release/
Romney returns to experience, Clinton-bashing in latest ad
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer
November 2, 2007
CONCORD, N.H. --Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Friday added to Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's rough week, airing a television ad that says she lacks sufficient experience to run the country.
Romney, a former venture capitalist and Republican Massachusetts governor, tells voters in the 30-second ad running in New Hampshire that Clinton, at best, has been an intern in the White House.
"Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city," Romney says in the ad. "She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president as an internship just doesn't make any sense."
Clinton, the former first lady who was elected a U.S. senator in 2000, spent the 1990s as a key player in her husband's administration. But by Romney calling the time an "internship," he invokes the scandals of Bill Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/romney_returns_to_experience_clinton_bashing_in_latest_ad/
Not an answer on immigration
November 2, 2007
TUESDAY'S DEBATE among the Democratic candidates for president thrust a touchy issue into the national debate: Should illegal immigrants be issued driver's licenses?
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer seemed to be taking a bold stand when he said his state would give licenses to undocumented immigrants. But then Spitzer talked with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. And now it looks as if New York will settle for an unwieldy system of tiered licenses.
Undocumented immigrants should be licensed, so that authorities know who they are and that they can drive safely. But New York's proposal is unlikely to provide that security. Faced with federal inaction on immigration reform and federal pressure from Chertoff, New York has Scotch-taped together a plan to issue three kinds of licenses.
One license, open to US citizens and permanent residents, would qualify drivers and serve as federally approved identification that could be used to board airplanes. It's meant to comply with the national REAL ID law, which requires states to develop highly secure IDs. But REAL ID is a troubled law that could cost billions to implement and doesn't adequately address privacy concerns. New York should have waited before complying, given bills in Congress to modify the REAL ID law.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/11/02/not_an_answer_on_immigration/
Clearing the air on Cape Wind
November 2, 2007
RE "THE 'not in my backyard' debate, front and center" (Letters, Oct. 20): Carl Johnson wrote that Cape Wind would save a "pittance" of greenhouse gas emissions, and Tom Kenny wrote that Cape Wind's electricity would not be used exclusively on Cape Cod.
In terms of emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, Ian Bowles, state secretary of environment and energy, concluded that Cape Wind's impact would be equivalent to removing 175,000 cars from the roads each year.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has stated that Cape Wind is the "largest single source of supply-side reductions in CO2 currently proposed in the United States."
On the question of where Cape Wind's electricity would go, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative convened fact-finding sessions on Cape Cod three years ago, and based on presentations by the electric grid manager and by NStar, the MTC report concluded, "The energy produced from the proposed wind farm would flow to and be consumed on Cape Cod." This finding was based on testimony that electricity "follows the path of least resistance" and is generally consumed closer to its source.
MARK RODGERS
Communications director
Cape Wind
North Falmouth
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2007/11/02/clearing_the_air_on_cape_wind/
The Clinton gospel
By Scot Lehigh
November 2, 2007
THOU SHALT not criticize Hillary Clinton.
That may as well be the mantra of the Clinton camp.
Why, the way Clinton's campaign acts, you could be forgiven for thinking she was an absolute monarch, and not merely the Democratic front-runner.
Consider: Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, currently Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, began his campaign on lofty themes of change and hope. But his effort has plateaued, and so Obama recently told The New York Times that he intends to confront Clinton more directly and draw more pointed distinctions.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/02/the_clinton_gospel/
Edward L. Glaeser
Violence, learning, and the gender divide
By Edward L. Glaeser November 2, 2007
RECENT STORIES about whether men and women think and learn differently because their brains are different have argued that any cognitive differences that may exist are small and that classrooms should not be divided by gender.
I agree with the view that teaching math in different ways to girls and boys is pernicious and silly. But schooling is about teaching socially productive citizenship as well as geometry, and the difference in male and female propensities toward self-destructive violence is no myth.
Men are more than eight times as likely as women to commit murder and more than 50 times as likely to engage in a gang-related killing. My gender commits 84 percent of all violent crimes. Young men are four times more likely than women to carry a gun and five times more likely to commit suicide.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/02/violence_learning_and_the_gender_divide/
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