Published September 20, 2010
Whew! We finished our live broadcast from Framingham, telling the stories of people and issues along Route 9. You can catch up on Monday morning’s stories on the Route 9: Framingham page. (And don’t miss the video trailer starring host Bob Oakes.)
I’ll be updating this Flickr gallery all day with photos and videos from the scene at Padaria Brasil Bakery in Framingham.
Next stop: Worcester.
Published September 20, 2010
What’s news on a cool Monday morning in Framingham — the retail Mecca of Massachusetts, where WBUR is broadcasting live today as part of our special week-long series, “Finding A Way Along Route 9.”
After enjoying a 40-foot breakfast buffet, voters at Temple Beth Am got a heaping helping of politics Sunday morning. Gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill, state auditor candidate Mary Connaughton and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray showed up to speak to the crowd, as did a slew of candidates for other local and statewide seats. (MetroWest Daily News)
Across the state, immigrants showed their enduring devotion to their loved ones last year by sending $1.8 billion home to more than 200 countries, according to the first full accounting of the cash that flows out of Massachusetts. The findings are based on a Globe review of annual reports that money-transfer companies such as MoneyGram and Western Union are required to file each year with the state. (The Boston Globe)
While national unemployment levels hover around 10%, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of jobs available in Framingham. (Framingham.com)
In the 1960s, the glory days, this stretch of Route 9 was the Golden Mile. And Tim Hanna, the owner of Ken’s Steak House in Framingham, has seen it all. Now his business is an island in a sea of chain stores. (WBUR)
The Framingham football team entered yesterday’s Bay State Conference Carey division matchup with visiting Weymouth looking for a win that would redefine the start to its season. That goal never materialized. (MetroWest Daily News)
Help me out, Framingham. What’s news?
Published September 17, 2010
Thirty stories. Twelve journalists. Five communities across Massachusetts.
Since the Great Recession, Massachusetts’ cities and towns have been reeling from dwindling tax receipts and cuts to state aid. With sluggish job growth, unrelenting foreclosures and a Congress unwilling to extend more federal stimulus money, the problems are only going to get worse.
WBUR’s Morning Edition is going on the road next week, broadcasting live from cities and towns on Route 9. Hubbub is going along, too. I put together this video trailer for our special series, “Finding A Way Along Route 9.”
For the technically curious, the video was shot handheld on a Canon 7D SLR. Music by k.Rockshire (licensed Creative Commons).
Published September 17, 2010
Happy and safe birthday, Boston. (Stéfan Le Dû/Flickr)
Hi, Hubbubers, sorry about how quiet things are here. I’m up to my eyeballs in work to prepare for a very special project next week — which I’ll tell you more about later today.
Meantime, I want to wish our fair city a happy birthday. @NotifyBoston tweets:
Happy Birthday Boston! Governor John Winthrop founded the City of Boston on this day, Sept. 17, 1630.
Next time you complain about the roads, the public transit or the weather, ask yourself how you would feel at that age.
What’s your birthday wish for Boston?
Published September 16, 2010
WBUR employs some street-smart Jumbos, but none of them can believe this: The Daily Beast reports Tufts University is America’s most dangerous college campus. A Tufts official calls the conclusion “gross inaccuracy.”
Mighty Jumbo (graysky/Flickr)
In its second annual ranking, the Daily Beast compiled federally mandated crime stats for campuses across the country.
The numbers for Tufts, which cover reports (not convictions) over the most recent three calendar years, are grim: one murder, 36 forcible rapes, 100 robberies, 119 aggravated assaults, 174 burglaries.
After the mean streets of Medford, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, comes in at No. 2. Harvard University comes in at No. 3; MIT is No. 14.
Tufts brass was quick to respond, noting its crime data covers all three campuses, including in Chinatown. In an internal memo provided to me by a source, Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell calls the Daily Beast’s methodology “flawed” (emphasis mine):
First, unlike some Boston area universities, Tufts has reported to the U.S. Department of Education not only incidents that take place on our three campuses but also incidents on adjacent public property that are reported to us by municipal police. This is done so that our community is aware of such incidents and can take proper precautions, but it may create the misperception that our campuses are less safe than they really are. Most of those off-campus incidents do not involve Tufts students, faculty or staff. Second, safety data reported for our health sciences campus in downtown Boston has historically included off-campus areas that are several blocks away from campus–much farther than would normally be reported. This has also inflated the number of incidents reported for Tufts.
The Daily Beast explains its methodology this way:
We pored over the three most recent calendar years of campus security and crime data (2006-2008) compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, as well as the FBI and the Secret Service, in conjunction with the Clery Act, the federal mandate requiring all schools that receive federal funding to disclose crime information annually. The data reflect incidents reported to campus or local police, not convictions.
If you don’t go to school in Camberville, the report does offer uplifting news: Nationwide, incidents of major crimes on college campuses are down, compared to last year’s report (which, by the way, named Emerson College most dangerous).
Are you a student who feels unsafe? Or do you think the rankings are bogus?
Published September 16, 2010
WBUR's Robin Young (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Two WBUR greats are honored today: Here & Now host Robin Young and Con Salsa host José Massó will be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
“They’ve invested more than their time and energy. They have brought us great gifts, from music and insight to information and companionship,” said Arthur Singer, the Hall of Fame president.
“They’ve been our eyes and ears at our sporting events, at the State House, our city halls and our schools. As Massachusetts listeners and viewers we are fortunate to have had them in our lives.”
For many in Massachusetts, Robin’s face may be more familiar than her voice. She is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has been a national host and reporter on ABC, NBC and CBS and locally on WBZ-TV. She hosted a cooking game show. She directed Red Sox games. Once she appeared on the cover of TV Week with Bobby Orr. If you missed it, the Globe printed a Q&A with Robin this weekend about the changing media landscape.
WBUR's Jose Masso (AP)
José’s career spans decades, long before we were Boston’s NPR News Station. Con Salsa — which he describes as “part music show, part party, part community center” — celebrated 35 years on WBUR this summer. Radio Boston recently interviewed the Puerto Rican salsa king.
As one observer wrote in Hispanic Issues in Higher Education:
José’s resume reads like the cast of a Hollywood movie. The political liaison on the presidential campaign trail. The investigative TV journalist. The innovative high school teacher who makes learning fun. The late-night disc jockey. The high-powered sports agent.
Other broadcasters honored today:
Along with many of our deceased colleagues:
What’s your connection to these men and women?
Published September 16, 2010
This just in:
Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today that preliminary August job estimates show 3,201,900 jobs in Massachusetts, an increase of 2,100 jobs. The August job growth follows a revised 15,200 jobs gain in July, previously reported as a 13,200 job gain. This marks the seventh straight month for job gains in the Commonwealth, adding 64,300 jobs since December 2009. Massachusetts is currently third in rate of job growth in the nation year-to-date based on the July preliminary estimates for all states.
The total unemployment rate dropped from 9.0 percent in July to 8.8 percent in August and remains below the 9.6 percent national rate which was up over-the-month from 9.5 percent.
The largest job gains were in leisure and hospitality; professional, scientific and business services; and construction. Government lost 1,900 jobs, most of them temporary census jobs.
The Massachusetts economy continues to grow ahead of rest of the nation’s. But let’s not forget how many Bay Staters are still looking for work — some 304,000, which is more than the population of most New England cities — and how many of them aren’t included in that 8.8 percent figure because they have given up looking.
Published September 15, 2010
American Muslims, also known as Americans, prayed for religious unity on Friday, Sept. 10, 2010, in Bridgeview, Ill. (M. Spencer Green/AP)
It’s like the “Ground Zero mosque” controversy in newspaper form. And it’s right here in New England.
To mark the end of Ramadan, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald printed a front-page photo of American Muslims praying. It ran on Sept. 11.
Readers complained “en masse,” according to the the publisher, for “insensitivity” to the Americans who died on that day nine years ago. There’s even a Facebook page to boycott the paper. (“The muslim criminals killed almost 3000 inocent (sic) Americans,” writes one commenter.)
The Press Herald publisher, Richard Connor, has since apologized:
Many saw Saturday’s front-page story and photo regarding the local observance of the end of Ramadan as offensive, particularly on the day, September 11, when our nation and the world were paying tribute to those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks nine years ago.
We have acknowledged that we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.
It’s not apparent what kind of “balance” the editors could have offered here. The Press Herald suffers from an unfortunate limitation of its medium: The news in its pages happens the day before it’s printed. The Muslim gathering featured on the front page happened on 9/10. The paper’s extensive 9/11 coverage ran on 9/12. (Remember, that famous NYT cover is dated Sept. 12, 2001.)
Dan Kennedy calls the Press Herald apology “repulsive.” TIME blogger Nate Jones calls it hysteria:
If you are a Muslim in America, be warned: apparently now even the very fact that you exist is offensive to people on September 11th.
The recurring insinuation is that Muslims in America aren’t American. Recall the WGBH-TV debate in which Rep. Stephen Lynch (who won Tuesday night’s Democratic primary in the 9th Congressional District) called them “they,” as excerpted here by Universal Hub:
“Respect and tolerance lives on a two-way street. I know a lot of those families who lost loved ones that day, I know a lot of firefighters who, their families, who perished that day and I just think it would be a huge win for the Imam to move that mosque and I would hope they would do that as a symbol for us and our fallen.“
“They,” of course, are us.
What do you think? Should the Portland Press Herald have stood by its coverage — or was it insensitive? Leave your opinion — respectfully — in the comments.
Related Stories:
Published September 15, 2010
What’s news on a cool Wednesday morning in Boston, the morning after a tepid primary election:
Democrat William Keating and Republican Jeffrey Perry will vie for the South Shore/Cape Cod seat, while 9th District incumbent Stephen Lynch won easily. (Globe)
State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz has defeated her primary opponent Hassan Williams in the Second Suffolk district, according to unofficial results gathered by the Reporter, which has correspondents with both campaigns tonight. Chang-Diaz faces a clear path to re-election in November. (Dorchester Reporter)
The gubernatorial candidates were spared nomination battles on Tuesday, allowing them to engage in an unusual Primary Day debate and absorb the latest spate of negative ads. (WBZ)
Hundreds of commercial and private U.S. pilots have been diagnosed and treated for a broad array of serious psychiatric and medical conditions, including schizophrenia, attempted suicide, sexual deviance, alcoholism and drug abuse, a Herald review has found. (Herald)
“I’m not sure how Boston feels about me,’’ he says. “I do know that Boston is a place that — and I was the same way, living there — that likes to see itself reflected, likes its own, likes to see a reflection of its values.’’ (Globe)
What are you reading?
Published September 14, 2010
The WBUR newsroom gets this helpful e-mail from Heidi Guarino, chief of staff at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education:
Several of you have asked for a one-stop place to find all local MCAS results. Everything is posted here: http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/mcas.aspx, and can be sorted either by districts or schools.
Last week, Gov. Deval Patrick declared the achievement gap was narrowing between white children and African-American and Hispanic students.
Overall, tenth graders scoring proficient or higher in English fell from 79 to 78 percent and stayed at 75 percent for math.
The MCAS was first implemented in 1998, and the math and English sections became a high school graduation requirement for the class of 2003. The science and technology section first became a graduation requirement in 2010.
