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Holyoke Schools Superintendent David Dupont criticizes confusing timelines, but state warns poor performance could force takeover

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The state said the chronically poor academic results at Dean Technical High School require private takeover.

2010 dean technical high school buildingDean Technical High School in Holyoke.

HOLYOKE
Superintendent of Schools David L. Dupont said state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester needs to be fair to the city school system and stop issuing demoralizing threats after Chester said lack of significant improvement could force state takeover of the system.

“What I worry most about these insensitive comments from the commissioner is how they could affect our personnel, especially those who are working hard every day in our classrooms with so many students who experience a variety of challenges in their everyday lives,” Dupont said in a press release Thursday.

In the Boston Globe on Wednesday, Chester said the Holyoke and Fall River school systems had shown lack of urgency in making improvements in areas from academics to high school graduation rates and the poor progress means the state could be forced to step in.

Chester’s comments followed a meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in Malden on Tuesday.

Officials here say Holyoke has issues the state is failing to heed amid the criticism. The high school graduation rate is 52.5 percent, compared to the statewide rate of 82.1 percent.

Also, most students struggle simply to learn because English is not the first language for 51 percent of the enrollment of 5,900, they said. Nearly 90 percent of students here are Hispanic.

At Dean Technical High School, a main target of the state, the percentage of students for whom English is not the first language is 72 percent. Statewide, the rate is 15.6 percent.

State officials next month will present a 55-page report about Holyoke, on which Chester based his comments, to the School Committee here, said Jonathan W. Considine, spokesman for the state education department.

The report says Holyoke is failing in virtually all aspects of a system-wide turnround plan ordered when state intervention began in 2003:

• lack of system-wide student data management, which limits the ability to assess students and support teachers.

• the system has only partially established alignment of curriculums for all schools, and lack of a core of standards limits student access to high-quality learning.

• staff aren’t help accountable for delivery of instruction.

• the system fails to do consistent assessment and monitoring of student performance.

• absence of a comprehensive professional development program for teachers and other staff.

• the system lacks a program to stabilize its highly mobile student enrollment, which deprives students of high-quality education. The system has a mobility rate of 28 percent, meaning that percentage of students transfers in or out of the system during a school year, nearly three times higher than the statewide mobility rate of 10 percent.

The report and Chester’s comments left school officials here angry and confused about conflicting state deadlines. The state a year ago designated 35 schools statewide as Level 4, or chronically underperforming. They included Dean and Morgan School here.

Holyoke Public Schools Level 4 District Review

The state gave the city three years to turn around Dean and Morgan – to show significant academic improvement – or face state take over. Officials and staff here developed turn-around plans for Dean and Morgan.

But while the state in the fall approved the plan for Morgan, Dean’s was rejected as failing to go far enough.

Instead, the state ordered that the city hire a private company to manage Dean.

Chester’s warning this week comes as the city on March 14 issued a request for proposals from private companies to bid to manage Dean.

Now, Dupont and others are asking why state officials gave the city three years to turn around two schools in the spring of 2010, and the city is following state orders to hire a private firm to run Dean, but now, Chester warns of a systemwide take over.

“Commissioner Chester has a duty to be fair to our students and staff without waving a big stick at a school system that might struggle in making the rate of progress that the state expects, but cares about its students and works very hard in serving them,” Dupont said.

Considine said Friday the state doesn’t want to take over any school system but must be certain that improvements are ongoing and long-lasting.

As for Holyoke officials’ assertions about unclear state timelines, Considine said he would need to research that.

Meanwhile, the private company the city will hire to run Dean will have full authority to hire, supervise and fire the principal, teachers and other staff regardless of seniority.

The company also will have full control over the Dean budget.

The company must be in place to begin running Dean for the 2011-2012 school year. The cost was unclear.

The state has ordered the management takeover at Dean because student test scores, attendance and truancy were so persistently bad, officials have said.

Dean’s high school graduation rate was only 37 percent.

The company hired to run Dean will have its own pressures. It must meet goals with timelines related to the graduation rate, student performance on MCAS tests, attendance, suspensions, drop outs and disciplinary referrals.

Kathryn Dunn, president of 650-member Holyoke Teachers Association, said Dean teachers and staff worry about their jobs and futures at the school.

“It’s just very unsettling for everybody,” Dunn said.

The city has a $2.9 milllion federal grant for the work at Dean.

Dean, at 1045 Main St., has more than 650 students and 160 teachers and other staff. Students can take 11 shop classes, including auto body repair, welding, cosmetology and culinary arts.

On the 2010 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems (MCAS) test, only 28 percent of Dean students were at the proficient or advanced levels in English language arts and 31 percent in math.

In the 2009-2010 school year, Dean attendance was 79.6 percent, meaning students missed an average of seven weeks of school a year.

Dean’s high school graduation rate was only 37 percent.

William R. Collamore, School Committee vice chairman, said it was sad that a private company must run Dean. But he said Dupont and other officials will be working with the company.

“I think cooperation is going to be the best thing, working with our superintendent on the hiring and firing, and I hope that this company that is going to be approved will understand that,” Collamore said.

Holyoke Request for Proposals to Manage Dean Technical High School


Ware officials put the cost of intersection improvements at about $17,000

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Town Manager Mary Tzambazakis is looking for funds in various accounts to cover the $17,000 cost of improvements at East Main and South streets and is also considering seeking donations from businesses.

ware map fix 0327.JPGView full size

WARE – To improve traffic safety at the intersection of East Main and South streets, town officials are working on plans to widen South Street by removing a Nemaneseck Square tree and moving the sidewalk.

Public Works Director Thomas J. Martens told the Board of Selectmen earlier this week that he believes the work can be done for about $17,000.

Town Manager Mary T. Tzambazakis said she is looking at accounts in the budget to see if she can find funding for the work.

Tzambazakis also said she will follow up on a recommendation offered by Park Commissioner John Carroll, a candidate for selectman, who suggested seeing if nearby businesses that rely on deliveries from tractor trailer trucks would contribute toward the project.

Engineers working for the town and traffic experts from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission have reported that the major problem at this intersection is that trailer trucks making a right turn onto South Street do not have enough of a turning radius without going up on a sidewalk.

Selectman William R. Braman said it is possible that if the town gets outside financial support from businesses it may be used to replace trees that would come down to widen the street.

Martens said there would need to be a public hearing on the issue of removing a tree.

Martens said that members of the Ware Historical Society are unhappy about removing a tree from Nemaneseck Square but realize that some change has to happen at the intersection to improve safety.

Some of the work for this project could be done by employees of the Department of Public Works, but laying out new sidewalks and replacing granite curbs would have to be done by a private contractor.

Martens said workers for the town Department of Public works are enthused about taking on this project.

Improvements at this intersection have been under consideration for several years.

Town officials are now saying that if the funding can be obtained the plan is to have the work done before Memorial Day ceremonies, including the May 30 parade.

Qteros CEO John McCarthy offers space in new Chicopee plant for biofuel start-ups

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McCarthy said that instead of giving biofuels companies monetary incentives to stay in Massachusetts, the state could offer companies space in the Chicopee facility.

qteros A small pilot facility at the Qteros lab in Marlborough where plant matter is transformed into ethanol using a microbe discovered by University of Massachusetts researchers in the soil around Quabbin Reservoir.

By KYLE ALSPACH
Boston Business Journal

With the major costs associated with proving out new biofuels technologies, John McCarthy says he’s seen a number of Massachusetts startups in the space enticed to do larger-scale work in other states.

McCarthy, CEO of Marlborough-based cellulosic ethanol firm Qteros Inc., wants to help remediate that with his company’s new fermentation facility in Chicopee, expected to open during the second quarter. The company plans to use just about a third of the 15,000-square-foot facility for itself, and believes the rest should be developed for use by other Bay State biofuels firms - ideally with state government backing

“I think the challenge for Massachusetts is that we’ve got to figure out a way to not only incubate these businesses in the renewables space, but figure out a way to employ the continuing buildout of these organizations,” McCarthy said.

Massachusetts, he said, must “not allow contiguous states to outbid us.”

john mccarthy.JPGQteros CEO John McCarthy

On his mind are examples such as cellulosic ethanol firm Mascoma Inc., which moved its headquarters from Boston to New Hampshire in 2009 and has done its larger-scale fermentation in New York state, and Cambridge-based Verenium Corp., which pursued cellulosic ethanol at a facility in Louisiana before selling the business unit to partner BP last year.

McCarthy said he’s been in talks with six or seven Massachusetts-based biofuels companies about the idea, and he’s seeking support to help get state officials involved. He said he is not yet seeking commitments from companies to move into the facility. One company familiar with the plans is Medford-based Agrivida Inc., which is re-engineering crops such as corn and switchgrass with the goal of producing lower-cost biofuels.

“This is something we would potentially use in the future as we do larger grow-outs,” said Agrivida President Michael Raab, of the Qteros facility. “We’re interested in using it when we’re ready.”

McCarthy said that instead of giving biofuels companies monetary incentives to stay in-state and add jobs here, the state could offer companies space in the Chicopee facility.

qteros chicopee.JPGThe Qteros Inc. bio fuels ethanol plant at 150 Padgette St. in Chicopee.

A spokeswoman for state economic development Secretary Greg Bialecki said officials from the department have met with Qteros representatives in recent months, and said the meetings will continue. An upcoming meeting will include Richard Sullivan, the state’s new secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said the spokeswoman, Kimberly Haberlin.

McCarthy said the Chicopee facility will have the capacity for producing about 1,000 gallons of biofuels, roughly 10 times the size of what the company can do in Marlborough. The facility will help the company to gather more data in its effort toward commercialization, he said.

Qteros itself has recently announced plans to go outside the state for proving out its technologies. In January, the company said it had inked a partnership deal with a major Indian ethanol firm, Praj Industries Ltd., which will be retrofitting a plant in India to serve as a demonstration facility for the Qteros technology.

Qteros officials have said the deal and the company’s recent $22 million Series C round give the company a clear path to commercialization within two years. Qteros has developed a microbe, dubbed Q Microbe, that produces ethanol from non-food feedstocks.
Qteros and Praj are working to develop “Process Design Packages” that will be licensed to companies that want to produce cellulosic ethanol. Qteros expects that the first customers could be existing ethanol plant customers of Praj, McCarthy said.

Redistricting hearing draws support for Neal, Olver

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The committee is charged with redrawing the congressional districts, as Massachusetts will lose one of its 10 positions in the U.S. House of Representatives.

hearing.jpgL-R, Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, Rep. Michael Moran and Sen. Stanley Rosenberg hear testimony at the Joint Committee on Redistricting's public hearing in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD – Officials, legislators and the public spoke on Saturday of the need to keep two congressional seats in Western Massachusetts, praising the two U.S. representatives, John W. Olver and Richard E. Neal, for their work on behalf of the region.

The Joint Committee on Redistricting met at Van Sickle Middle School for the first of 13 hearings on the controversial redistricting issue. The committee, chaired by state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, will draw new boundaries for state and federal legislative seats, as the state will lose one of its 10 positions in the U.S. House of Representatives.

That is the reason why people are concerned. The change will be in effect for the 2012 elections. Massachusetts is losing a position because it has not grown as quickly as other states.

“I ask you that you fight like hell to make sure that Western Massachusetts has two congressional districts,” State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said.

Brewer spoke of Neal and Olver’s commitment to Western Massachusetts, to education and to projects such as Baysate Heath’s nearly $300 million “Hospital of the Future,” featuring a new 70,000-square-foot emergency room, among other improvements.

Brewer also spoke about how they have fought for such things as fuel assistance, and said Massachusetts has derived “hundreds of millions” because it has more than one legislator fighting for it.

Neal, D-Springfield, said his district, which features 41 communities, grew more than 4 percent since 2000. Neal said members of the Western Massachusetts delegation “regularly out-punched colleagues and contemporaries in terms of clout based upon committee assignments.” He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for taxes, and has jurisdiction over Medicare, social security, trade and tariffs. Neal has served the district for 23 years; Olver 20.

Neal spoke of continuity, and how he started as a “soldier” in his predecessor Edward P. Boland’s “army.”

Both Neal and Olver, D-Amherst, have said they plan to run for reelection.

Olver’s district includes 107 communities, an area that is close to 40 percent geographically of the state, but has only grown 1.65 percent since 2000, the slowest population growth of any of the state’s 10 congressional districts, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Olver did not attend the hearing.

Neal said based on “geography, history and arithmetic,” the two positions in Western Massachusetts should be kept.

Agawam City Clerk Richard M. Theroux said the region will be at a loss without Neal and Olver.

“These two individuals bring more to the table than anyone I can recall . . . Can we really afford to silence their voices?” Theroux asked. “The needs of the area have been well-represented for as long as I can recall. Keep our two congressmen working for us.”

Theroux added, “Western Massachusetts does not end at Worcester.”

Former Pittsfield state senator Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., who plans to run in the Democratic primary for Olver’s 1st Congressional District seat, urged the committee to keep two Western Massachusetts congressmen, and to keep Berkshire County intact.

Democratic State Committee vice-chairman Raymond Jordan said Olver and Neal are the “two most powerful guys in the Western Mass delegation” who are at risk because of redistricting. Jordan said they have clout, and “we can’t afford to lose that in these tough economic times.”

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said “continuity and not diluting representation is key.”

“When you start cutting into these districts, you lose that continuity,” Sarno said.

“I do not envy the task that you have,” Sarno told the committee.

Rosenberg has said a final congressional map should be ready by Thanksgiving, possibly earlier. Information about the redistricting process can be found at www.malegislature.com/redistricting; the website has a section where citizens can add comments about the redistricting process.

Libyan rebels retake key city in east; Airstrikes send Gadhafi's forces into retreat

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The city's recapture gives President Barack Obama a tangible victory just as he faces criticism for bringing the United States into yet another war.

032611_ajdabiya_retaken.JPGLibyan rebels are seen with destroyed vehicles in the city of Ajdabiya, south of Benghazi, eastern Libya, Saturday. Libyan rebels regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya on Saturday after international airstrikes crippled Moammar Gadhafi's forces, in the first major turnaround for an uprising that a week ago appeared on the verge of defeat.

AJDABIYA, Libya – Libyan rebels clinched their hold on the east and seized back a key city on Saturday after decisive international airstrikes sent Moammar Gadhafi’s forces into retreat, shedding their uniforms and ammunition as they fled.

Ajdabiya’s initial loss to Gadhafi may have ultimately been what saved the rebels from imminent defeat, propelling the U.S. and its allies to swiftly pull together the air campaign now crippling Gadhafi’s military. Its recapture gives President Barack Obama a tangible victory just as he faces criticism for bringing the United States into yet another war.

In Ajdabiya, drivers honked in celebration and flew the tricolor rebel flag. Others in the city fired guns into the air and danced on burned-out tanks that littered the road.

Their hold on the east secure again, the rebels promised to resume their march westward that had been reversed by Gadhafi’s overwhelming firepower. Rebel fighters already had pushed forward to the outskirts of the oil port of Brega and were hoping to retake the city on Sunday, opposition spokeswoman Iman Bughaigis said, citing rebel military commanders.

“Without the planes we couldn’t have done this. Gadhafi’s weapons are at a different level than ours,” said Ahmed Faraj, 38, a rebel fighter from Ajdabiya. “With the help of the planes we are going to push onward to Tripoli, God willing.”

The Gadhafi regime acknowledged the airstrikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.

“This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,” Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in Tripoli. “They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.”

Ajdabiya’s sudden capture by Gadhafi’s troops on March 15 – and their move toward the rebel capital of Benghazi – gave impetus to the U.N. resolution authorizing international action in Libya, and its return to rebel hands on Saturday came after a week of airstrikes and missiles against the Libyan leader’s military.

Airstrikes Friday on the city’s eastern and western gates forced Gadhafi’s troops into hasty retreat. Inside a building that had served as their makeshift barracks and storage, hastily discarded uniforms were piled in the bathroom and books on Islamic and Greek history and fake pink flowers were scattered on the floor.

Saif Sadawi, a 20-year-old rebel fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in his hands, said the city’s eastern gate fell late Friday and the western gate fell at dawn Saturday after airstrikes on both locations.

“All of Ajdabiya is free,” he said.

Rebels swept into the city and hauled away a captured rocket launcher and a dozen boxes of anti-aircraft ammunition, adding to their limited firepower. Later in the day, other rebels drove around and around a traffic circle, jubilantly firing an assortment of weapons in the air – anti-aircraft weapons, AK-47s, RPGs.

Outside the city, Muftah el-Zewi was driving away, his back seat loaded with plastic bags filled with blankets and clothes that he picked up after going to his home in Ajdabiya for the first time in days.

“We went and checked it out, drove around the neighborhood and it looked OK. Hopefully we’ll come back to stay tomorrow,” he said.

The turnaround is a boost for Obama, who has faced complaints from lawmakers from both parties that he has not sought their input about the U.S. role in the conflict or explained with enough clarity about the American goals and exit strategy. Obama was expected to give a speech to the nation Monday.

“We’re succeeding in our mission,” Obama said in a radio and Internet address. “So make no mistake, because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians – innocent men, women and children – have been saved.”

The U.N. Security Council authorized the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gadhafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power. The airstrikes have crippled Gadhafi’s forces, but rebel advances have also foundered, and the two sides have been at stalemate in key cities.

Ajdabiya, the gateway to the opposition’s eastern stronghold, and the western city of Misrata have suffered under sieges of more than a week because the rebels lack the heavy weapons to push out Gadhafi’s troops. Residents lack electricity, phone lines and water.

A doctor in Misrata said airstrikes there on Saturday put an end to two days of shelling and sniper fire from Gadhafi’s forces. The city was quiet Saturday afternoon, said the doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety if the city should fall. For now, he said, rebels control the city center, just as they have throughout in Ajdabiya.

A resident of Zwara, a former rebel stronghold in the west, said the regime has the town firmly in its grip again. He said pro-Gadhafi forces are dragging away people there and in the town of Zawiya who participated in protests that began Feb. 15.

“They have lists of demonstrators and videos and so on and they are seeking them out. We are all staying home and waiting for this to be over,” said the resident, who did not want to be named because he feared for his safety if discovered. He said a friend who helped coordinate checkpoints when the opposition held the city was taken away Friday.

“They came with four or five cars with four people in each one, all of them armed to the teeth with Kalashnikovs. They surrounded the house and took him out,” he said, adding that the whole thing was seen by a common friend.

He said neighbors now fear each other.

“During the demonstrations, many people contributed to the community, doing anything they could. This shows that the regime has collaborators to give them names. It’s a Big Brother type of show, so they can come in and take whomever they want.”

The government’s grip has even tightened in Tripoli, its seat of power, where almost nightly airstrikes have hammered military bases, missile storage and even Gadhafi’s residential compound.

Rahma, a Libyan-American in the capital, said only about one in 20 stores was open and food supplies were dwindling by the day.

“My own family, we’ve just been staying inside, but we had a friend who went to Friday prayers and they could see people ready to shoot them hiding behind the bushes,” she said. She did not want her surname used, for fear of retaliation. “This is at every mosque, so if they start to protest, they’ll get shot right away.”



Possible breach at Japanese nuclear plant suggests radioactive contamination may be worse than thought

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Japanese leaders defended their decision not to evacuate people from a wider area around the plant, insisting they are safe if they stay indoors.

032611_tokyo_electric.JPGIn this photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News, lighting becomes available on Saturday in the control room of Unit 2 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

TOKYO – A possible breach at Japan’s troubled nuclear plant has escalated the crisis anew, two full weeks after an earthquake and tsunami first compromised the facility. The development suggested radioactive contamination may be worse than first thought, with tainted groundwater the most likely consequence.

Japanese leaders defended their decision not to evacuate people from a wider area around the plant, insisting they are safe if they stay indoors. But officials said residents may want to voluntarily move to areas with better facilities, since supplies in the tsunami-devastated region are running short.

The escalation in the nuclear plant crisis came as the death toll from the quake and tsunami passed 10,000. Across the battered northeast coast, hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed still have no power, no hot meals and, in many cases, no showers for two weeks.

The uncertain nuclear situation delayed efforts to stop the overheated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant from leaking dangerous radiation.

Work was under way Saturday to inject fresh water into one unit, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA, amid concerns about dumping large amounts of potentially corrosive seawater onto the reactors.

Low levels of radiation have been seeping out since the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out the plant’s cooling system, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants. The most likely consequence would be contamination of the groundwater.

“The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant,” a somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday night. “We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care.”

The possible breach in the plant’s Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that’s lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than what would further melt the core.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers suffered skin burns after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than levels normally found in water in or around a reactor, NISA said.

Water with equally high radiation levels was found in the Unit 1 reactor building, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said. Water was also discovered in Units 2 and 4, and the company said it suspects that, too, is radioactive. Officials acknowledged the water would delay work inside the plant.

Radioactivity in seawater just outside one unit tested some 1,250 times higher than normal, probably from both airborne radiation released from the reactors and contaminated water leaked into the sea, Nishiyama said Saturday.

But he said the amount posed no immediate health risk.

Plant officials and government regulators say they don’t know the source of the radioactive water discovered at units 1 and 3 of the six-unit complex. It could have come from a leaking reactor core, associated pipes or a spent fuel pool. Or it may be the result of overfilling the pools with emergency cooling water.

The possible breach in the plant’s Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that’s lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than what would further melt the core.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers suffered skin burns after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than levels normally found in water in or around a reactor, NISA said.

The prime minister apologized to farmers and business owners for the toll the radiation has had on their livelihoods: Several countries have halted some food imports from areas near the plant after elevated levels of radiation were found in raw milk, sea water and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips.

Elevated levels of radiation have turned up elsewhere, including the tap water in several areas of Japan. In Tokyo, tap water showed radiation levels two times higher than the government standard for infants, who are particularly vulnerable to cancer-causing radioactive iodine, officials said.

The scare caused a run on bottled water in the capital, and Tokyo municipal officials are distributing it to families with babies.

The nuclear crisis has compounded the challenges faced by a nation already saddled with a humanitarian disaster. Much of the frigid northeast remains a scene of despair and devastation, with Japan struggling to feed and house hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors, clear away debris and bury the dead.

“It’s still like I’m in a dream,” said Tomohiko Abe, a 45-year-old machinist who was in the devastated coastal town of Onagawa trying to salvage any belongings he could from his ruined car. “People say it’s like a movie, but it’s been worse than any movie I’ve ever seen.”

The official death toll stood at 10,151 Saturday, with more than 17,000 listed as missing, police said. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.

Officials have evacuated residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant and advised those up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) away to stay indoors to minimize exposure. The U.S. has recommended that people stay 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the plant.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano insisted that people living 12 to 20 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) from the plant should still be safe from radiation as long as they stay indoors. But since supplies are not being delivered to the area fast enough, he said it may be better for residents to voluntarily evacuate to places with better facilities.

“If the current situation is protracted and worsens, then we will not deny the possibility of (mandatory) evacuation,” he said.

One Fukushima government official said some commercial trucks were refusing to enter the area because of radiation fears, resulting in a shortage of goods.

“We are not ordering people to leave. But we have told residents that we will help you leave voluntarily,” Takeshi Ishimoto said.

First female VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro dies at 75 in Boston hospital

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She once discussed blood cancer research before a Senate panel and said she hoped to live long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."

e423f533da98a106e80e6a7067004d30.jpgFILE - This 1984 file picture shows Geraldine Ferraro. The first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75. A family friend said Ferraro, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1998, died Saturday, March 26, 2011 at Massachusetts General Hospital.


BOSTON (AP) — Geraldine Ferraro was a relatively obscure congresswoman from the New York City borough of Queens in 1984 when she was tapped by Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket.

Her vice presidential bid, the first for a woman on a major party ticket, emboldened women across the country to seek public office and helped lay the groundwork for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential candidacy in 2008 and John McCain's choice of his running mate, Sarah Palin, that year.

Ferraro died Saturday in Boston, where the 75-year-old was being treated for complications of blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m., said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.

Mondale's campaign had struggled to gain traction and his selection of Ferraro, at least momentarily, revived his momentum and energized millions of women who were thrilled to see one of their own on a national ticket.

The blunt, feisty Ferraro charmed audiences initially, and for a time polls showed the Democratic ticket gaining ground on President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. But her candidacy ultimately proved rocky as she fought ethics charges and traded barbs with Bush over accusations of sexism and class warfare.

Ferraro later told an interviewer, "I don't think I'd run again for vice president," then added "Next time I'd run for president."

Reagan won 49 of 50 states in 1984, the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first re-election over Alf Landon in 1936. But Ferraro had forever sealed her place as trailblazer for women in politics.

"At the time it happened it was such a phenomenal breakthrough," said Ruth Mandel of the Center on the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University. "She stepped on the path to higher office before anyone else, and her footprint is still on that path."

Palin, who was Alaska's governor when she ran for vice president, often spoke of Ferraro on the campaign trail.

"She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more," Palin wrote on her Facebook page Saturday. "May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women."

For his part, Mondale remembered his former running mate as "a remarkable woman and a dear human being."

"She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it's a better country for what she did," Mondale told The Associated Press.

Ferraro died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she had gone Monday for a procedure to relieve back pain caused by a fracture. Such fractures are common in people with her type of blood cancer because of the thinning of their bones, said Dr. Noopur Raje, the Mass General doctor who treated her.

Ferraro, however, developed pneumonia, which made impossible to perform the procedure, and it soon became clear she didn't have long to live, Raje said. Since she was too ill to return to New York, her family went to Boston.

Raje said it seemed Ferraro held out until her husband and three children arrived. They were all at her bedside when she passed, she said.

"Gerry actually waited for all of them to come, which I think was incredible," said Raje, director of the myloma program at the hospital's cancer center. "They were all able to say their goodbyes to Mom."

Ferraro stepped into the national spotlight at the Democratic convention in 1984, giving the world its first look at a co-ed presidential ticket. It seemed, at times, an awkward arrangement — she and Mondale stood together and waved at the crowd but did not hug and barely touched.

Delegates erupted in cheers at the first line of her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination.

"My name is Geraldine Ferraro," she declared. "I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us."

Her acceptance speech launched eight minutes of cheers, foot-stamping and tears.

Ferraro, a mother of three who campaigned wearing pastel-hued dresses and pumps, sometimes overshadowed Mondale on the campaign trail, often drawing larger crowds and more media attention than the presidential candidate.

But controversy accompanied her acclaim.

A Roman Catholic, she encountered frequent, vociferous protests of her favorable view of abortion rights.

She famously tangled with Bush, her vice presidential rival who struggled at times over how aggressively to attack Ferraro.

In their only nationally televised debate, in October 1984, Bush raised eyebrows when he said, "Let me help you with the difference, Ms. Ferraro, between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon." Ferraro shot back, saying she resented Bush's "patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy."

Ferraro would later suggest on the campaign trail that Bush and his family were wealthy and therefore didn't understand the problems faced by ordinary voters. That comment irked Bush's wife, Barbara, who said Ferraro had more money than the Bush family. "I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich," Barbara Bush told reporters when asked to describe Ferraro. She later apologized.

In a statement, Bush praised Ferraro for "the dignified and principled manner she blazed new trails for women in politics." He said that after the 1984 race, "Gerry and I became friends in time — a friendship marked by respect and affection."

Ferraro's run also was beset by ethical questions, first about her campaign finances and tax returns, then about the business dealings of her husband, real estate developer John Zaccaro. Ferraro attributed much of the controversy to bias against Italian-Americans.

Zaccaro pleaded guilty in 1985 to a misdemeanor charge of scheming to defraud in connection with obtaining financing for the purchase of five apartment buildings. Two years later, he was acquitted of trying to extort a bribe from a cable television company.

Ferraro's son, John Zaccaro Jr., was convicted in 1988 of selling cocaine to an undercover Vermont state trooper and served three months under house arrest.

Some observers said the legal troubles were a drag on Ferraro's later political ambitions, which included her unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in New York in 1992 and 1998.

Ferraro, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, was back in the news in March 2008 when she stirred up a controversy by appearing to suggest that Sen. Barack Obama achieved his status in the presidential race only because he is black.

She later stepped down from an honorary post in the Clinton campaign, but insisted she meant no slight against Obama.

In a statement, Obama praised Ferraro as a trailblazer who had made the world better for his daughters.

"Sasha and Malia will grow up in a more equal America because of the life Geraldine Ferraro chose to live," Obama said.

Ferraro received a law degree from Fordham University in 1960, the same year she married and became a full-time homemaker and mother. She said she kept her maiden name to honor her mother, a widow who had worked long hours as a seamstress.

After years in a private law practice, she took a job as an assistant Queens district attorney in 1974. She headed the office's special victims' bureau, which prosecuted sex crimes and the abuse of children and the elderly. In 1978, she won the first of three terms in Congress representing a blue-collar district of Queens.

After losing in 1984, she became a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University until an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1992.

She returned to the law after her 1992 Senate run, acting as an advocate for women raped during ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Her advocacy work and support of President Bill Clinton won her the position of ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, where she served in 1994 and 1995.

She co-hosted CNN's "Crossfire," in 1996 and 1997 but left to take on Chuck Schumer, then a little-known Brooklyn congressman, in the 1998 Democratic Senate primary. She placed a distant second, declaring her political career finished after she took 26 percent of the vote to Schumer's 51 percent.

In June 1999, she announced that she was joining a Washington, D.C., area public relations firm to head a group advising clients on women's issues.

Ferraro revealed two years later that she had been diagnosed with blood cancer.

She once discussed blood cancer research before a Senate panel and said she hoped to live long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."

___

Obituaries today: Albert Beaulieu was Coca Cola account executive

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Obituaries from The Republican.

032611_albert_beaulieu.jpegAlbert W. Beaulieu

Albert W. "Al" Beaulieu, 80, of Chicopee, died on Tuesday. Born in Holyoke, he graduated from the former Precious Blood Grammar School, Holyoke High School, and Bentley College. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany during the Korean War. He worked for the Coca Cola Company, first in Springfield, then at the Coca Cola headquarters in New York City. He then moved to Puerto Rico, where he became chief financial officer for Coca Cola's Caribbean Refresco Company, where he was responsible for the financial control of Coca Cola plants in the Caribbean and South America. Beaulieu's career with Coca Cola as an accounting executive spanned over 25 years. After retirement from Coca Cola, he went on to work as a mason for his own company, with his son, until the age of 76. Beaulieu was a devoted member of Fairview Knights of Columbus Council 4044 and oversaw the weekly bingo for many years.

Obituaries from The Republican:


Home owners ask questions about fixing roofs, repairing basements at the Western Massachusetts Home and Garden Show

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A difficult winter has prompted many questions about roof repairs at the Western Massachusetts home and Garden Show

home showWEST SPRINGFIELD - Sandra L. Rudnick of Palmer, left, and Beryl J. Chapman of West Springfield listen to Rick Pallotti of Kloter Farms of Ellington, Ct. in one of their gazebos at the Western Massachusetts Home and Garden Show this weekend.

WEST SPRINGFIELD – When asked what people attending the Western Massachusetts Home and Garden Show are looking for, Ed Wagner paused for a second and answered: “Help.”

A higher-than-average snowfall followed by several rain storms has meant people have had problems with roofs leaking and basements flooding resulting in mold, drywall damage and other issues.

Wagner, of Easthampton, works for Sherwood Inspections Services which is based in East Windsor. His company provides inspection services for new home buyers but will also will come in and evaluate a problem in a home and figure out why the basement is flooding or ice dams are building on the roof and help find a solution.

“We tell them what we see, what we don’t see and what you can do about it,” Wagner said.

For the home show, which will end Sunday, the company set up a white board and Wagner and other co-workers were helping homeowners draw their problems so they could help them.

During this year’s four-day show at the Eastern States Exposition, many of the about 10,000 people who attended Saturday wanted information on how to make repairs to their homes, said Bradford L. Campbell, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Western Massachusetts, which sponsored the show.

“Roofing seems to be a hot item after the rough winter,” he said. “A lot of people had significant damages and are looking for help.”

But it wasn’t just roofing companies filling several buildings at the exposition. The about 350 exhibitors included companies selling spas, showing custom kitchen cabinets, promoting new lighting or flooring and landscapers ready to clean up lawns.

Daniel McCarey, a carpenter with Lukasik Construction of Chicopee, said residents are now getting checks from insurance claims and are looking for contractors.

“Mainly everyone I’ve been talking to has roof damage and drywall damage,” he said.

Edward Losacano, owner of All Star Insulation and Siding Co., Inc. of Easthampton, said his company already went out to measure for a job after talking to a homeowner on the first day of the show.

“I would say it is more about what the weather produced this year,” he said.

Many people are looking for information about replacing roofs and gutters. Because ice dams are mostly caused by a lack of insulation in the attic, that was a big topic of inquiries as well, Losacano said.

Alain Beaulieu, an employee of Phil Beaulieu Home Improvements of Chicopee, agreed the majority of people were asking about making repairs caused by leaks or preventing future ice dams.

“There is more roofing questions this year. There are fewer window replacements because the tax credits are gone,” he said.

State Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera mum on clerk magistrate job

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Sources have said Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, is among the top contenders for the $110,000-a-year post that has been vacant for five years.

091710 cheryl coakley-rivera.jpgCheryl Coakley-Rivera

SPRINGFIELD – State Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera declined comment when asked Saturday about the clerk magistrate job at Springfield District Court.

Sources have said Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, is among the top contenders for the $110,000-a-year post that has been vacant for five years.

Coakley-Rivera was at the special Joint Committee on Redistricting hearing at Van Sickle Middle School; she is the house vice chair of the committee.

Other candidates are Barbara Y. Burton, the acting clerk magistrate at Springfield District Court, and Daphne G. Moore, assistant clerk magistrate at Hampden Superior Court, sources familiar with the process have said.

Granby man to talk about his experiences guarding Nazi soldiers

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William H. Glenny guarded notorius prisoners such as Hermann Goering and Ernst Karltenbrunner.

glenny.jpgWilliam H. Glenny was a prison guard at Nuremberg when he was 19. He is shown here in his Granby living room with photos of the trial, pictures of him at the Arena where Hitler gave speeches, and autographs of all the Nuremberg defendants.

GRANBY – After World War II ended, the first international military trials in history were conducted in Nuremberg, Germany.

The defendants – all among Adolph Hitler’s conspirators in his Nazi regime – had not just ordered the deaths of men in combat, but had also engineered the systematic, state-sponsored murder of approximately 6 million Jews in what is now called the Holocaust.

The world wondered: What kind of person would do that?

William H. Glenny was 18, a graduate of Precious Blood School and the vocational high school in Holyoke, when he saw the answer first-hand.

Glenny entered the Army in 1946. He could have been assigned to play in the military band at Westover Field, now Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. But, he was young and wanted to go overseas, where the action was.

He wound up guarding the prison cells of some of the most notorious men in history, Nazi officers whose images he had seen in newspapers.

Standing next to Hermann Goering, Hitler’s second-in-command, and feeling his glare was “something you never forget, believe me,” recalled Glenny recently.

He is 83 now and has lived in Granby for about 50 years. Memories of that terrible time in world history still flow, and remain vivid, Glenny says.

On April 2 at 10 a.m., Glenny will speak about his experiences as a prison guard at Nuremberg, when Social Connection Over 50 meets at Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Hadley. Cost is $5 and includes lunch. Reservations must be made by March 30.

When Glenny first saw Goering in his cell, sitting on a cot, reading and smoking a Meersham pipe, he commented to another guard that he didn’t look like such a big man.

What Glenny didn’t know was that Goering spoke perfect English. From then on, he glared at the young American every opportunity he got, Glenny said.

“Once, he was taken out of his cell and had to go by me, and as he came by, he slowed down and gave me a dirty look. He starts with my shoes and comes up slow. I could swear the hair on my head was coming up,” said Glenny.

Each cell had only a bolted cot, a chair and a table that was collapsible. No shoes, no belts, no conversation. Prisoners had to face the door at all times, said Glenny.

A bright light was aimed through a small square in the cell door at night. In spite of all that, Goering still managed to commit suicide before the death sentence imposed by the military tribunal at Nuremberg could be carried out. Hitler had also escaped execution by killing himself as the Allies had closed in on his bunker in Berlin as the war drew to a close in 1945.

The Nuremberg trial defendants put on a good show in the courtroom, but it was different in the cells, said Glenny.

Ernst Karltenbrunner, for instance, who was 6 feet 7 inches tall and the highest ranking SS officer to face trial, used to weep copiously in his cell. He was later hanged after his conviction on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

When Glenny arrived in Germany, it had been bombed beyond recognition. “There were no lights,” he recalls, “just little floodlights. No electricity, no water, no food. No money. No jobs. People would live in their cellars.

“No men except kids and old men. The young men were all dead or prisoners of war,” Glenny said. “You were told not to go out alone, because soldiers were being murdered. There was no law, nothing going on. You thought: How the heck did these people live?”

Amazingly, a year later the wounds of war had started to heal. “By the time I left, all the combat troops were gone, and there were just greenhorns like myself,” said Glenny. “I had no bitterness.”

Even the war criminals turned out to be human beings, in Glenny’s mind, and were not monsters with horns on their heads.

In 1947, Glenny came home. He married wife Claire, had three kids, worked as a toolmaker.

But Nuremberg never left him.

One prisoner, Nazi field marshal Wilhelm Keitel, had been writing a book in his cell, and Glenny wanted to read it, to come to some conclusion. He read other books about the war. He waited for five years, 10 years. Finally, Keitel’s book came out after 20 years.

After reading it, Glenny was convinced that the Nuremberg trials had been fair and just.

“There’s a limit,” he said, “to how far a soldier can go in carrying out orders.”

Southwick officials weigh the pros and cons of participating in green grant program

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The program could be too costly because it could require the town may have to replace a number of vehicles.

SOUTHWICK – Town officials are weighing the benefits of participating in the state green communities grant program against the cost associated with replacing town vehicles with more fuel efficient ones.

In a presentation to selectmen last week, the ad hoc Green Energy Committee reported that one of the required criteria for participation in the program includes the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles for municipal use.

“The purpose behind this criterion is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by municipal vehicles, which has a positive impact on the environment and saves the municipality money,” stated one of the guidelines for compliance by the state Department of Energy Resources.

As it stands now, Ford Crown Victorias used as cruisers by the police department are passed down to the pool of vehicles available for official town use once they are taken out of service. To replace these vehicles, said Board of Selectmen Chairman Arthur G. Pinell, would be costly and possibly outweigh the benefits of being eligible for state grant funds.

“I’m not sure if we should spend the time pursuing the rest of the program if we can’t use retired police cruisers for Town Hall,” he said. “The environmental benefits are noteworthy and worthwhile, but we have to look at the financial component. That’s the sticking point,” he said.

Fellow Selectman David A. St. Pierre agreed, saying, “Financially, it doesn’t make sense to go out and purchase fuel efficient vehicles. We usually hold on to (the retired police cruisers) for lots of years, and they don’t get high mileage use.”

Under the program, emergency vehicles over 8,500 pounds such as fire engines, ambulances and some public works trucks are exempt from the fuel efficiency requirement. Also exempt are police cruisers used by police.

“However, municipalities must commit to purchasing fuel efficient cruisers, passenger vans and cargo vans when they become commercially available,” the guidelines state. “Police and fire department administrative vehicles must meet fuel efficient requirements.”

Police Chief Mark J. Krynicki said 2011 is the last model year for Crown Victorias and will be replaced as needed by the more fuel efficient Ford Taurus, the car he now uses as an administrative vehicle, after 2012.

Green Energy Committee member Marcus Phelps said the town may be able to use $130,000 in program grant funds for the purchase of more environmentally-friendly and fuel efficient vehicles, an option that would be acceptable to officials.

“It makes sense if we can use the grant money to replace vehicles,” said St. Pierre.

Springfield police investigating a possible abduction in Pine Point

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The car is described as a silver full-sized SUV with tinted windows and chrome rims on the wheels.

SPRINGFIELD - Police are investigating the possible abduction of a teenage girl after a witness reported she saw two men dragging her into a car.

The incident happened at about 8:25 p.m., Saturday on Cloran Street. The witness saw a black teenager walking down the street and a SUV driving by. The car then circled around and came back, said Police Lt. John Bobianski.

Two black men got out of the vehicle and dragged the teenager into it, while she screamed and fought them, he said.

Police are searching for a silver or gray full-sized SUV with tinted windows and chrome rims on the wheels. Residents should call the department immediately if they spot the car, he said.

2010 Census: Springfield population growth small ... but compared to Detroit, the news is good

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While Springfield gained 989 residents, Detroit lost 25% of its population over the last decade, falling to its lowest point since 1910.

2010-census-logo.jpg

SPRINGFIELD - The city of Springfield gained 989 residents from 2000 to 2010, according to U.S. census figures released last week.

It was enough to keep the city’s population over the 150,000-person threshold for federal aid to cities and it fit in with a general pattern of slow growth, but growth just the same, in Hampden and Hampshire counties.

The four western counties of Massachusetts grew by 1.1 percent since 2000. That’s compared with a 3.1 percent rate of growth for the state as a whole.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a census every 10 years for the purpose of apportioning members of the U.S. House of Representatives. But the federal government also uses census data to divvy up more than $300 billion in spending each year on things like roads, bridges, water and sewer projects, education, health and health care.

The state also uses census statistics, to draw up state legislative districts.

Private industry uses the numbers to make decisions about locating customer bases and available work forces.

The city’s gain in population, which works out to just 0.64 percent growth over 10 years to a new population of 153,060, is not a cause to get too excited, said Robert A. Nakosteen, a professor of economics and statistics at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “As a statistician, I would call that within the margin of error,” he said. “But remember the alternative is to be Detroit.”

The Motor City has become the poster child for emptying neighborhoods. The same once-every-ten-year census that showed most of Massachusetts gaining population showed that Detroit lost 25 percent of its population over the last decade, falling to 713,777, or its lowest point since 1910.

Other midwestern cities like Cleveland are also losing population, Nakosteen said. By comparison, Springfield is doing well.

“Depending on who the new people are, it gives Springfield a bigger tax base, it gives them a bigger labor force,” Nakosteen said. “This does not paper over the fact that Springfield has real challenges. It’s lost employment base. It’s lost business.”

New city-by-city unemployment rates will not be out until next week. But in January, Springfield as a city had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent. As a region, Springfield and its surrounding communities had an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent, unadjusted for seasonal changes. This is compared with a statewide average of 9 percent unemployment when not adjusted for seasonal changes. When adjusted, it’s 8.2 percent.

The national unemployment rate was 8.9 percent in February and 9 percent in January; both numbers are adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in the economy.

Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said census numbers also predict the labor market of the future. The census told of growing minority populations, especially of Hispanics and Latinos, but also of blacks and Asians, in city centers. Brennan said he knows from other demographic studies that those minority populations tend to be younger and have larger families as well. “The implication is that we have to make sure those young people get a superior K through 12 education then either a college degree or technical training,” he said. “Because that is our future work force. That is who we need to have ready to take jobs when baby boomers retire. But if they are casualties, it is not good for them and it is not good for the region.”

On the whole, a diverse population is an asset because it’s more likely to be young and energetic.

“It makes us look more like the world,” Brennan said. “I wouldn’t want to be the last place that gets diverse.”

He said population patterns lay out other tasks for the region’s business leaders.

“How do we get jobs out of the High Performance computing center in Holyoke,” Brennan asked. “What does it mean if we can get high-speed Internet out into the hill towns?”

City living might be getting more popular as baby boomers look to downsize to smaller living quarters and everyone becomes wary of spending money on their commutes.

“Once gas hits $3.50 a gallon, a lot of people start changing their decision-making,” Brennan said.

He is troubled that Hampden and Hampshire counties seemed to be in the center of an arc of dipping populations. Both Franklin and Berkshire counties lost population.

Michael E. Tucker, president Greenfield Co-operative Bank, said Franklin County was on the verge of growing into a bedroom community for pricey Hampshire County, but then the recession hit and knocked down housing prices.

“You would always like to see some growth,” Tucker said. “But we’ve lost jobs. It’s nice to see places like Yankee Candle doing well. But how many people can work in tourism?”

The Boston Celtics, Springfield Republican to be honored by Champions of Mentoring

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The mentoring partnership is a network that includes schools, churches, non-profits and businesses.

mentor.jpgMentors and their students enjoyed a baseball game last May in Boston

SPRINGFIELD – The Republican and the Boston Celtics will be recognized by the Massachusetts Mentoring Partnership as the organization’s annual Champions of Mentoring.

The recognition at the partnership’s annual fund-raising event at Fenway Park on May 17 will honor both organizations for efforts to promote mentoring relationships between young people and adults.

The Champions of Mentoring breakfast event raised more than $220,000 last year, and this year’s goal is $250,000.

This year’s event will include an appearance by Celtics legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell as the team’s Shamrock Foundation is honored. Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona will also be making a special appearance as mentoring agency representatives from across the state will be honored later in the day during a Sox game.

The mentoring partnership is a statewide network that includes schools, religious organizations, community non-profits, and workplace mentoring programs for young people between the ages of 5 and 18.

The Champions of Mentoring award recognizes “individuals and organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to youth and have championed the strategic growth of high-quality mentoring throughout Massachusetts,” said David Shapiro, chief executive officer of Mass. Mentoring.

Shapiro said The Republican was selected for the honor for its work over the past three years which “has done a tremendous amount to spread the word throughout the region about the need for and power of mentors to make a difference in the lives of youth.”

“To be mentioned in the same breath as the Boston Celtics when it comes to supporting mentoring is quite an honor,” said Cynthia G. Simison, managing editor of The Republican. “The Republican has for decades worked to promote mentoring programs on its pages and to encourage our readers to understand the value of helping young people through volunteer programs like Big Brothers-Big Sisters. It is not something we do for recognition, but is indeed part of our mission to be good community partner. All of us benefit when these programs succeed.”

The Republican’s most recent efforts include a regular monthly feature on mentoring which appears in the Sunday Republican, along with a series of stories and columns published during National Mentoring Month each January and over the course of the rest of the year, according to Simison.

The mentoring partnership is nonprofit umbrella organization for mentoring groups such as Girls Inc. and Big Brothers Big Sisters. First-person columns by mentors and young people involved in mentoring program were among the highlights of this year’s effort by The Republican.

“You can think of (us) like a matchmaker,” said Katie L. Stebbins, Western Massachusetts director for the mentoring partnership, which also works with the region’s businesses, like Big Y Foods and MassMutual, to develop workplace mentoring programs. “We are available behind the scenes to help,” Stebbins said.

Mentoring projects cost about $1,000 a year to run per child, Stebbins said. That’s with volunteers doing the actual mentoring, meeting with students to talk about mutual interests and emphasize school attendance and education. “There is a lot of screening,” Stebbins said. “We do a lot of training.”

And the need is growing. In 2008, the partnership worked with 14 programs in Western Massachusetts. Last year, it had 27 programs totaling 1,613 youth between the ages of 6 and 24, in formal mentoring relationships, according to the partnership.

Joel Morse, director of partnership development at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County, said 90 percent of the students in his agency’s programs come from single-parent homes. “The need is always out there,” he said.

For more information go to www.massmentors.org and click on “News & Events” or phone Katie Stebbins (413) 796-2330 at the Western Massachusetts office.


Massachusetts mental health care funding cutbacks worry counselors

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Nearly $85 million has been stripped from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health budget since 2009.

050207 providence behavioral health exterior.JPGThe privately run Providence Behavioral Health Center in Holyoke, with only 24 beds available for children in need of hospitalization, is the only in-patient facility for youngsters in Massachusetts outside the Route 128 belt.

Editor's Note: The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) is a nonprofit newsroom based at Boston University.


By BEVERLY FORD
New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Twelve days after Jared Lee Loughner shot his way into the American psyche outside a Tuscon, Ariz., grocery store on Jan. 8, a 25-year-old mental health counselor in Revere was kidnapped from a group home and savagely killed, allegedly by one of her clients. Nine days later, it happened again when a homeless 19-year-old with a history of mental problems reportedly stabbed a shelter worker to death in Lowell, just 30 miles away.

No one can say for sure whether either murder had anything to do with funding cutbacks that have decimated the state's mental health budget, but on the front lines in the war on mental illness, counselors are concerned.

“If you have one woman (counselor) and five men with mental health problems, it screams to me of mental health cuts," Barry Sanders, a social worker for more than 20 years, says of the group home north of Boston where Stephanie Moulton was working when she was kidnapped and killed on January 20. “Having these kinds of staffing levels is like playing the odds, rolling the dice with someone's life.”

Across Massachusetts, mental health agencies are feeling the strain of cutbacks that have ripped nearly $85 million from the state's Department of Mental Health budget since 2009.

“It's been devastation. Complete and utter destruction and devastation. The entire mental health system is shredded,says Laurie Martinelli, executive director with the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a mental health advocacy and research group.

Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Commissioner Barbara Leadholm takes a more diplomatic stance.

020509 barbara leadholm.JPGBarbara Leadholm, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

“We've had to make difficult budget decisions,” Leadholm says of the fiscal crisis that sent her department's budget into a rapid downward spiral, “but responsible fiscal management has kept our state on a path toward recovery and economic growth.”

In three years of cutbacks, Westboro State Hospital and Quincy Mental Health Center were closed, social clubs and day rehabilitation programs were slashed and employment services to help mentally ill workers find jobs were cut along with programs designed to teach them computer skills. Diversion programs for mentally ill teenagers, which kept them out of locked facilities while providing treatment, were also lost. Social workers saw their caseload increase substantially and sympathetic clinical workers treated patients for free rather than deny them much needed services. Meanwhile, the demand for mental health programs created a backlog for providers, often leaving patients on waiting lists for up to six months.

“It's a very fragile situation,says Timothy O'Leary, deputy director of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, an agency that works with individuals and families to help them access services. “There's a waiting list for virtually every service the department or its vendors offer. There's people waiting for housing, treatment, clubhouse services. When people with serious mental illnesses are not being treated, it's not a good thing for anyone.”

Yet, things could soon get worse.

A proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick would shave an additional $21.4 million from DMH's budget in fiscal 2012, leaving that department to operate on $606.9 million - its smallest budget in the last six years and more than $39 million less than its peak funding period in 2008.

If approved by the legislature, $2 million will be cut from child and adolescent mental health services, a reduction that is expected to affect 165 Bay State families. Some $3 million more will be slashed from adult mental health services, impacting 2,000 adults The biggest cut, however, is reserved for DMH's inpatient account where a $16.4 million reduction will wipe out 160 beds for those in need of hospitalization.

032711_bu_mental_health_story_graphic.jpgView full size

“The overall situation is pretty grim,” says State Representative Elizabeth A. Malia, head of the legislature's Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. “If we lose more beds, the prisons get more crowded, the courts become busier, the emergency rooms get overwhelmed and families suffer. We're not moving in the right direction at all.”

Vic DiGravio has been through it all before. As president and CEO of the Association for Behavioral Health Care, which represents nearly 100 community care providers, he unsuccessfully lobbied against the 2008 budget cuts that eliminated day habilitation, social clubs and employment and education programs for the mentally ill. One year later, he fought budget reductions that led to the discharge of 200 patients from mental health facilities to community-based programs. In 2010, he unsuccessfully fought a $5 million cut in DMH funding which resulted in the closing of a 16-bed psychiatric facility in Quincy, MA. The shuttering of that facility left just 474 beds available at DMH-run hospitals, down from 938 beds just six years earlier in 2004. Today, with a loss of 160 in-patient beds looming on the horizon, DiGravio wonders if the budgetary bloodletting will ever end.

“The entire mental health system in Massachusetts is strained and fraying,” he says. “If we're not in a crisis now, we're pretty close to it.”

The loss of patient beds has been extremely troubling to providers and advocates who believed that as Massachusetts moved away from de-institutionalization, the state would provide support for community-based patient services. That hasn't happened. Instead, both groups say, funding for community programs has slowly evaporated, forcing many programs to vanish as well.

“There's no question there has been a disproportionate cut to adult services,says Marylou Sudders, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and former commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health. 'The adult system is decimated. The safety net is shredded.”

The Edinburgh Center, which offers outpatient services to people struggling with severe mental illness, is a striking example of just how shredded that safety net is, advocates say.

In 2000, the center closed its outpatient facility in Woburn, MA. Two years later, it scaled down outpatient operations in nearby Arlington. By December, 2010, faced with cutbacks in health care reimbursements and a tottering economy, the center cut 11 clinician jobs in Waltham, MA leaving 350 patients searching for new care providers even as the demand for services was increasing.

The loss of outpatient services at the Edinburgh Center and at other mental health facilities has sparked a ripple effect throughout the Bay State, advocates say.

“People with mental health issues are really getting whacked,says Martinelli. We're seeing emergency rooms back up. People can't get services so they end up in prisons, on the street or in homeless shelters. Employment services with the Department of Mental Health have been eliminated as were social clubs where people with mental problems go to socialize and day rehabilitation programs where they could go for skill building.”

Malia says the cutback in mental health facilities such as crisis counseling centers has put a strain on hospital emergency rooms, where some mental health patients wait for days in emergency rooms because there are no beds for them. The state's prison budget is also growing exponentially due to an increase in the number of mentally ill inmates, she notes.

Those lucky enough to secure a hospital bed often must stay in facilities longer than expected because few vacancies exist at group homes or in community housing.

“People are stuck in hospitals, in continuing care facilities, People are waiting to get into programs. There's a waiting list for virtually every service the department or its vendors offer. There are people waiting for housing, treatment, clubhouse services. The whole system is clogged up,” says O'Leary.

In Western Massachusetts, the situation appears even more grim.

2002 northampton state hospital overhead.jpgThe former Northampton State Hospital property, as it looked in 2002.

Public in-patient acute care treatment facilities don't even exist in western Massachusetts anymore. The last public hospital with an acute care mental health unit closed in 1990 in Northampton, says David Matteodo, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems. Now, patients needing immediate mental health care must rely on private hospitals in western Massachusetts, he says.

Rising costs and declining reimbursement rates paid to outpatient facilities have also forced the dismantling of many mental health clinics in the state's westernmost region, adds Dr. Steven Winn, a psychologist and vice president at Behavioral Health Network. That dwindling number of clinics along with a shortage of medical staff, often means patients must wait up to six months before they can seek treatment, he adds.

“The whole state is in a crisis,” Winn says.

Maneuvering the complex maze of mental health care issues can be confounding for even the most stable individual but for those with mental issues, the trail often is rift with pitfalls, dead ends, and often frustration, advocates say.

Yet if there is a bright spot in all of this, it can be found in the children. Nine children, to be exact, all plaintiffs in a landmark court case known as Rosie D. vs. Romney. Filed in 2001, the class action lawsuit sought to compel Massachusetts to provide certain Medicaid-eligible children with therapeutic services in their home or community rather than in psychiatric hospitals or residential treatment programs. Six years after the lawsuit was filed, a federal judge ruled in the plaintiffs' favor.

The outcome of that lawsuit helped reform the children's mental health system in Massachusetts by offering a blueprint, of sorts, for developing a comprehensive plan to treat children with serious mental disorders.

As part of that settlement, the Commonwealth established the Children's Behavioral Health Initiative to help provide services, funded for the first time in 2009 through a $65 million budget appropriation. In fiscal 2010, funding for that program grew to $85 million with a proposed budget of $217 million planned for fiscal 2012.

“Because of the Rosie D. lawsuit there's been some level of protection for children's mental health,” says Sudders.

Yet all is not quite as rosy as it may seem.

While the law mandated funding of certain mental health programs for children, it did little to curtail funding cutbacks in other kids programs run by another agency, the Department of Children, Youth and Families. That department, which provides after school, diversion and other programs for Bay State youths including those with behavioral and mental issues, lost more than $33 million to budget cuts between 2010 and 2011 alone.

Compounding the problem is a shortage in the number of providers available to treat children with mental and behavioral problems. According to Midge Williams, executive director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, a survey of providers published in 2009 not only confirmed that shortage, but found that 50 percent of the state's current providers don't expect to be in the field by the end of five years.

“There's such a dearth of providers and more and more work is expected of them,” notes Williams, adding that with long work hours, limited compensation, and a complex array of insurance paperwork to fill out, its no surprise that many are thinking of changing careers.

In Western Massachusetts, that dearth of providers is nothing new.

Today, more than 10 years after Baystate Healthcare closed its children's unit, only one in-patient facility for youngsters can be found outside the Route 128 belt. The privately run Providence Behavioral Health Center in Holyoke has only 24 beds available for children in need of hospitalization. If those beds are filled, says Matteodo, it can mean a 100 mile drive to one of 13 other children's facilities in the Boston area.

Yet the changes that accompanied the settlement of the Rosie D lawsuit brought more community-based aid for children than ever before. Under the Children's Based Health Initiative, a result of that lawsuit, an array of new services for kids brought treatment programs into their homes and communities.

“In many ways, the system is much improved,” says Winn, rattling off a list of new programs, like the family support training, therapeutic mentoring, in home behavioral support or mobile crisis intervention programs created by the initiative.

Yet, those who work within the system wonder what will happen if even more is shaved from an already lean mental health budget, leaving programs underfunded and services understaffed. That lack of foresight has a price, they say. Sometimes the cost is homelessness, rising healthcare costs, jammed emergency rooms, higher crime and crowded prison. Other times, like for a bloody three week stretch this past January when two in Massachusetts died and six others were killed outside a shopping center in Tucson, AZ, the cost can be much higher.

Ware selectmen refuse to reopen Town Meeting warrant for police job applicant

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Ware Selectman Richard Norton said reopening the warrant for the Town Meeting for an individual could establish a precedent.

WARE – The Board of Selectmen gave some consideration to a request to reopen the warrant for the May 9 Town Meeting to include a call for special legislation to allow someone to join the Police Department without meeting the maximum age limit, but ultimately rejected the request.

The board voted March 22 not to bring this call for special legislation to the voters at the Town Meeting.

Selectman John Desmond was the only member of the board to vote for the request. Chairman William R. Braman and Selectmen Melissa G. Weise and Richard Norton voted against it.

Town Manager Mary T. Tzambazakis introduced the issue to the board, informing members that a citizen wants a warrant article to request the age waiver, something that would require a positive vote at the Town Meeting and a home rule bill passed by the Legislature.

Tzambazakis said the person interested in applying for a police officer position has experience but is 34 years old; the town has an age cutoff of 32 for new officers.

Tzambazakis did not name the potential applicant but said he was interested before he reached the maximum hiring age, but there were no positions open until now.

“Would you consider a warrant article after closing?” Tzambazakis asked.

Norton responded that doing so would set a bad precedent.

“Writing legislation for one individual, that’s not right,” Norton said. “I would have to say strongly that I don’t want to get on the slippery slope.”

Weise said it would be difficult for the board to vote in support of a warrant article which the members have not even seen.

Tzambazakis said the individual seeking this legislation would draft language for the warrant article.

After Tzambazakis talked about the complications of hiring a police officer in Ware, including dealing with Civil Service regulations and having to give preference to town residents, Desmond spoke in support and introduced a motion to allow the warrant article to move forward toward the Town Meeting.

Norton objected.

“The warrant has been closed. Officially,” Norton said.

While conceding that it might be legal for the Board of Selectmen to introduce a new warrant article after going past the deadline the board set for its own articles and those from others, Norton said doing so would be going against the rules.

Springfield city councilors consider revoking permit for proposed East Springfield biomass plant

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Palmer Renewable Energy has warned Springfield that any revocation would trigger legal and financial repercussions for the city.

SPRINGFIELD – City councilors said Friday they are considering their options, including the possibility of a permit revocation for a proposed $150 million wood-burning plant in East Springfield.

The councilors’ comments followed a three-hour meeting at City Hall on Thursday when councilors discussed the biomass energy project with the city solicitor, city consultants and project opponents.

Councilor Melvin Edwards said he has asked the Law Department to prepare the proper notices to the project developer, Palmer Renewable Energy, to appear before the council for a revocation vote on its 2008 special permit.

Edwards also has asked the department to consider drafting an ordinance that would restrict the importation into the city for incineration of any wood foreign to New England, citing concerns about insect infestation.

Councilor John A. Lysak has asked the department to draft an amendment to the zoning ordinances to prohibit biomass facilities that use construction and demolition debris. The current project would only burn green wood, but Lysak said he wants to ensure construction debris is never added should it be built.

Lysak also has asked for a requirement that any facility using just green wood require a special permit from the council and site assignment from the Public Health Council.

“I think a few of us are looking at options to bring PRE back in front of us,” said Councilor Timothy Allen.

Palmer Renewable Energy, through its lawyer, Frank P. Fitzgerald, has warned the city that any revocation would trigger legal and financial repercussions for the city.

Project officials have repeatedly defended the safety of the plant, saying it poses no harm to the public or to public health.

The former state secretary of environmental affairs did not require an environmental impact report for the project. The state has issued a “proposed conditional approval to construct.”

Opponents have raised concerns about increased pollution, hazards to health, and traffic issues.

City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula said Friday he “will continue to work with the council to explore various options.”

Approximately 60 people attended the meeting at City Hall on Thursday, and the developer was represented by a stenographer.

Those speaking included representatives of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., hired by the city for a limited review of the project.

Some of those speaking at Thursday’s meeting raised concerns about the limits of that review, as did councilors.

The project remains under review by the state Department of Environmental Protection. A public review process ends April 9.

In addition, the state has a hearing scheduled April 5, at 6 p.m., at the John J. Duggan Middle School, 1015 Wilbraham Road, for public comment.

Stray animals continue to dog West Springfield officials; Agawam agrees to send strays to Westfield

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Agawam's approval of an intermunicipal compact between it, Westfield and West Springfield to send stray dogs to Westfield's dog pound has seemingly moved foward efforts to stem problems in West Springfield.

WEST SPRINGFIELD – A possible solution to the city’s stray dog woes has moved forward another step with the approval by Agawam of a municipal compact between it, West Springfield and Westfield.

The Agawam City Council earlier this week approved the pact, which calls for Agawam and West Springfield to send their stray dogs to Westfield’s dog pound. Neither Agawam nor West Springfield have a dog pound.

Mayor Edward J. Gibson has been under fire in recent months over the fact that since July 1 West Springfield has had no place to send its stray canines. The Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center of Springfield ended its contract with West Springfield as of July 1.

Although Agawam and West Springfield have shared an animal control officer since July 1, some people in town have complained publicly about the situation at West Springfield Town Council meetings.

Gibson said Thursday that Agawam’s decision to send its stray dogs to Westfield is a good decision for that community.

However, Gibson said he has not yet decided whether he wants West Springfield to sign onto the proposed intermunicipal compact or begin a new agreement with the O’Connor facility.

Last year, West Springfield paid the O’Connor center $73,000 for taking in stray dogs and it has agreed to take them in again at its old rate of $2.50 per city resident.

Gibson said he expects to reach a decision Monday and that the issue will then be sent on to the Town Council for consideration at its April 4 meeting.

However, that is not enough to assuage animal-lover Lucy Lukiwsky of Garden Street.

“I’m extremely disappointed. It has been almost 10 months without no animal control. I don’t think he has really made an effort,” she said of Gibson.



Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA for another year

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For most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

e3598bc1ee0db306e80e6a70670044f3.jpgFILE - This Feb. 2005 file photo shows trays of printed social security checks waiting to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury. The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.

The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year.

About 45 million people — one in seven in the country — receive both Medicare and Social Security. By law, beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, deducted from their Social Security payments each month.

When Medicare premiums rise more than Social Security payments, millions of people living on fixed incomes don't get raises. On the other hand, most don't get pay cuts, either, because a hold-harmless provision prevents higher Part B premiums from reducing Social Security payments for most people.

David Certner of AARP estimates that as many as three-fourths of beneficiaries will have their entire Social Security increase swallowed by rising Medicare premiums next year.

It's a tough development for retirees who lost much of their savings when the stock market collapsed, who lost value in their homes when the housing market crashed and who can't find work because the job market is weak or they are in poor health.

"You just don't have the words to say how much this impacts a person," said Joyce Trebilcock, a retired legal secretary from Belle, Mo., a small town about 100 miles west of St. Louis.

Like most U.S. retirees, Trebilcock, 65, said Social Security is her primary source of income. She said a back injury about 15 years ago left her unable to work, so she applied for disability benefits. Now, she lives on a $1,262 Social Security payment each month, with more than $500 going to pay the mortgage.

"I've cut back on about everything I can, and I take the rest out of my savings," Trebilcock said. "Thank God I've got that. That's going to run out before long, at the rate I'm going. ... I have no idea what I'm going to do then."

Medicare premiums are absorbing a growing share of Social Security benefits, leaving retired and disabled people with less money for other expenses, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

Social Security recipients spend, on average, 9 percent of their benefits on Medicare Part B premiums, plus 3 percent on premiums for the Medicare prescription drug program. By the time someone retires in 2078, he or she will spend nearly one-third of their benefits on premiums for both Medicare programs, the report said. Also, when premiums for the prescription drug program increase, as they do almost every year, they can result in a pay cut for Social Security recipients.

"We could very well be entering a period where we're all stuck with flat benefits because of the growth in health care costs," said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.

By law, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are determined each year by a government measure of inflation. When consumer prices go up, payments go up. When consumer prices fall, payments stay flat until prices rebound.

There had been a COLA every year from 1975 through 2009, when a spike in energy prices resulted in a 5.8 percent increase, the largest in 27 years. Since then, the recession has depressed consumer prices, resulting in no COLA in 2010 or 2011.

Older people might feel they are falling behind because they haven't had a raise since 2009, but many are benefiting, said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration who is now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Consumer prices dropped, but Social Security benefits didn't drop, Biggs said. At the same time, health care costs went up, but Part B premiums stayed the same for most beneficiaries.

"They are better off because of that," Biggs said. "Somebody else is paying for a greater share of their health care. This will get me hate mail, obviously. But it is what it is."

Next year, the trustees who oversee the Social Security project a 1.2 percent COLA. President Barack Obama, in his spending proposal for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, projects a COLA of 0.9 percent. The average monthly payment is $1,077, so either way, the typical increase is projected to be between $10 and $13.

The current spike in energy prices could boost next year's COLA, if it lasts through September, when the increase for 2012 will be calculated. The COLA will be announced in mid-October.

Medicare Part B premiums must be set each year to cover 25 percent of program costs. By law, they have been frozen at 2009 levels for about 75 percent of beneficiaries because there has been no increase in Social Security. That means the entire premium hike has been borne by the remaining 25 percent, which includes new enrollees, high-income families and low-income beneficiaries who have their premiums paid by Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.

The 2009 premium levels, which are still paid by about three-fourths of beneficiaries, are $96.40 a month. Most of those who enrolled in the program in 2010 pay $110.50 a month and most of those who enrolled in 2011 pay $115.40.

The Medicare trustees project a Part B premium of $113.80 a month for next year. Obama's budget projects a monthly premium of $108.20, said Donald McLeod, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. McLeod cautioned that the projections could change significantly by September, when 2012 premiums are calculated.

Under either projection, a small share of beneficiaries would get lower premiums. The vast majority would get higher premiums that could swallow their Social Security COLA.

"That little raise helps us," said Estelle Jones, 66, of St. Paul, Minn. "Food, heating bills, water bill, all that stuff has gone up. ... All my medicines are very expensive, and every month I have to figure out how I am going to pay for them."

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