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HRASHID's Blog
 May 18 2013 - 11:59am
May 18, 2013
Tony Mack Corruption Case
Gov. Christie says Mack should resign
Trenton mayor back on job after indictment
Legislators, officials react to Mack indictment
Mack indicted on federal corruption charges
Documents show FBI wiretapped Mack for months
TRENTON — Despite drawing a $126,000 annual salary, Mayor Tony Mack is heading to trial on six federal corruption charges with a lawyer paid for by the government, court documents show.
Mark Davis, the Hamilton attorney at Mack’s side from the day he was arrested last September, was accepted May 2 as a court-appointed lawyer for the duration of the case, according to court records.
The standard $125 hourly rate that public defenders receive will be paid to Davis, footed by federal funds.
Despite the mayor’s high salary, appointments for cases such as his are not uncommon and may be necessary, said Jerome Ballarotto, who represents one of Mack’s co-defendants and has been working as a court-appointed advocate for 20 years.
“It’s extremely expensive to mount a defense in cases like this, and the court takes that into consideration,” Ballarotto said yesterday.
Davis had no comment last night. The order appointing Davis, which...
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 May 18 2013 - 11:22am
May 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — Human feces taints more than half of public swimming pools, a finding U.S. health officials are using to urge better personal hygiene as the summer months approach.
E. coli, which indicates the presence of fecal matter, was detected in 58 percent of samples taken from pool filters by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to data released Thursday by the Atlanta-based agency. Pools frequented mostly by children were more likely to test positive for E. coli, which can cause stomach and respiratory illness.
Municipal pools open to all were worse than public pools requiring membership, the CDC said. Acute gastrointestinal illness related to recreational water sports has substantially increased since 1978, with diarrheal incidents and other poor swimmer hygiene being a major contributor, the CDC said.
"Finding a high percentage of E. coli-positive filters indicates swimmers frequently contaminate pool water when they have a fecal incident in the water or when feces rinse off of their bodies because they do not shower thoroughly before getting into the water," the agency said in a statement.
The CDC tested pool water from filters around...
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 May 17 2013 - 4:42pm
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 May 16 2013 - 8:27pm
Hello All,
Don’t miss this year’s Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Film Festival Premiere Screening and After Party, THIS SATURDAY, May 18, 7 pm at the Microsoft NERD Center, One Memorial Drive. The screening will feature 15 amazing short films by young people around the country and the world which feature perspectives and topics that concern all of us. After the screening you will have the opportunity to hear from youth filmmakers who have traveled from Maryland, Illinois, Georgia and programs here in Massachusetts – just to talk to YOU about their work. And don’t miss the Premiere Party, which starts at 9 pm after the screening, featuring delicious food from Asgaard Restaurant, live interactive video, music with DJ Sisko, breakdancing by The Floorlords and performances by MC Joseph James and reggae artist Mighty Mystic.
But beyond having a great night at this event, by attending, you are supporting the hard work of ten young people from Cambridge, our Do It Your Damn Self!! Crew, who have been working tirelessly since September to make this event a reality – curating, doing graphic design, securing food donations and volunteer performers, corresponding with youth filmmakers...
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 May 16 2013 - 7:22pm
The owner of the TD Garden has teamed with a major local developer to help remake the home of the Bruins and Celtics starting early next year, and has filed paperwork with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to start the public review process.
If the project gains approval from the BRA, Delaware North Cos., the Garden's owner, and development partner Boston Properties would recreate the character of the sports stadium into a new retail destination. The Boston Globe has reported that Target and Stop & Shop are negotiating deals to locate stores in the renovated complex.
The project would include two 400-foot towers housing 500 residential units, 200
hotel rooms, 600,000 square feet of office space and 300,000 square feet of retail, according to a fact sheet sent to the BRA. The development team hopes to start construction early next year, according to the fact sheet.
There would also be a shiny new entrance to the Garden and North Station, located in the sports complex, which would feature a large screen projecting images of players, as shown in one of the project renderings.
The towers would be constructed on a 2.8-acre parcel on Causeway Street, now used for parking. The...
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 May 16 2013 - 6:04pm
NEW YORK-- Industrial-grade fluoride chemicals added to US public water supplies contain arsenic that the EPA classifies as a human carcinogen. Switching to low-arsenic pharmaceutical-grade fluoride will save society $1 billion to $14 billion annually, according to research published in Environmental Science & Policy, led by former EPA senior scientists who are experts in chemical risk assessment, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
Although never studied for safety or efficacy, hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFSA) is added to public water supplies as a purported cavity preventive. The industry-funded group that regulates water additives, NSF International, allows several toxins in HFSA, including arsenic.
The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to determine the level of certain contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. These health goals, based solely on possible health risks and exposure over a lifetime with an adequate margin of safety, are called maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG). The MCLG for arsenic is zero. The EPA also sets an enforceable maximum contaminant level (MCL), but concedes this level will not prevent...
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 May 16 2013 - 3:19pm
It only took them close to a century, but let’s give credit where credit is due: Columbia University doesn’t want to have a whites-only fellowship anymore. Last week the Ivy League school filed an affidavit in Manhattan Supreme Court, the New York Daily News reported, to support a change of terms in an extremely specific endowment left by a Lydia C. Chamberlain of Des Moines, Iowa. The affidavit was filed in support of a similar move made by JP Morgan Chase, which is the designated fund administrator now.
Chamberlain, who left her $500,000 estate to the university in 1920, required that the trust only be used to benefit white students who hailed from Iowa. In order to qualify for the graduate and traveling support, students had to also commit to moving back to their home state for at least two years, and were barred from studying law, medicine, dentistry, veterinary surgery or theology, the NYDN reported.
“Circumstances have so changed from the time when the Trust was established” that it’s “impossible” for Columbia to comply with the terms of the trust, the university’s filing says, according to the NYDN. “Columbia University is now prohibited by law and University policy from...
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 May 15 2013 - 5:29pm
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 May 14 2013 - 11:37am
Cambridge Residents Alliance's "Putting Neighborhoods First Forum."
Community Forum draws enthusiastic crowd: Speakers Tom Angotti, Renae Gray, Bill Cunningham, Richard Krushnic, Lee Farris, and Ceasar McDowell provide a resident's vision for Central Square.
In the face of developers’ proposals for a huge up-zoning of Central Square, more than 100 local residents came together at a forum on May 4 to seek ways in which neighborhood voices can be heard in the development of plans for the city’s future.
The forum, “Putting Neighborhoods First,” was sponsored by the Cambridge Residents Alliance and held at the Senior Center in Central Square. Residents learned that we are not alone in our fight to slow down gentrification and stop the displacement of families who can no longer afford to live in our city.
In New York City and other locales across the country, neighborhood groups are taking a stand against global real estate interests whose top-down mega-projects are pushing local people out and driving housing prices sky-high, according to Dr. Tom Angotti, a Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at the City University of New York.
Angotti and local community leaders spoke to the...
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 May 14 2013 - 10:57am
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