Published February 4, 2011
This is the scene at many a school bus parking lot lately:
Boston Public (Guy With The Camera/Flickr)
Kudos to Guy With The Camera — check out his other work — for sharing this image in WBUR’s Flickr group.
Published February 4, 2011
It’s the story that keeps on thanksgiving. The wild turkey that isn’t Ethel Kennedy’s remains at large on Cape Cod.
Using a moving postal truck as bait, state wildlife officials unsuccessfully tried to net a tom turkey today that had attacked a mail truck last week in a Centerville neighborhood.
Three state wildlife officials arrived in the neighborhood this morning along with a large hand-held net.
The slow-moving mail truck, rolling down Waterside Drive late this morning, succeeded in flushing the turkey out into the open from the nearby woods. As the turkey approached and strutted around the outside of the truck, a wildlife official walked behind the rear of the truck and attempted to grab the bird with the net.
After several capture attempts failed, wildlife officials packed up their equipment and left the area late this morning.
And the video, also by the Cape Cod Times:
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Published February 4, 2011
Harvard undergrads, still hoping for a snow day in this extra-brutal winter: Don’t hold your breath.
The Crimson reports Harvard College has cancelled classes for snow only once, for three days, during the Blizzard of ’78.
Administrators decided to officially shut down Harvard on Feb. 7, only after then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis declared a state of emergency, closed schools for two days and called in 8,500 members of the National Guard to help clear the roads.
[…]
By Wednesday, two days after the snow started, 29 inches had accumulated in Boston.
The snow was so deep that it buried any cars left abandoned on the road. Because Dukakis banned all means of transportation except for emergency vehicles, many students used skis to get around campus.
“We were cross-country skiing and literally going across the tops of cars,” said Patricia M. Nolan ’80.
Harvard’s graduate schools have closed for snow this winter, Harvard spokesman Kevin Galvin tells me. But it took the greatest snowstorm of all time to close Harvard College.
Published February 4, 2011
WBUR’s Curt Nickisch reports:
New figures show jobs added in Massachusetts last year went to men at a greater rate than women.
Men typically have a higher unemployment rate than women during recessions. That’s because women are more likely to leave the job market for family reasons. But this last recession was especially hard on males.
Men put the men in unemployment rate. When the job market is really hot, Curt tells me, the unemployment rate for men versus women is typically even. But when the job market slips, men get hit first.
At the end of 2010, the Mass. unemployment rate for men was 10 percent; for women, it was 8 percent.
But the last quarter of 2010 showed gains in construction, manufacturing and technology — sectors dominated by men.
Also, don’t call it that.
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Published February 4, 2011
Good morning! All this snow is getting pretty heavy — literally. State officials are urging people to clear off their roofs after more than 70 buckled this week. Amazingly, no injuries have been reported. A dozen schools are closed today over concerns about roofs.
Speaking of schools, some have had seven or eight snow days already this season. WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov reports on what districts are doing to make up for last time. State law requires 180 school days a year. (Sorry, kids: Saturday school.)
WBUR’s David Boeri reports on three guys who love the white stuff. Roofers in Acton are having a banner year doing treacherous work.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 9 percent last month, but the economy didn’t add many jobs. Alan Clayton-Matthews, a respected economist at Northeastern University, said the Massachusetts economy slowed down “significantly” in the last quarter of 2010 but is expected to continue growing.
In light of the news he’ll run again, Democratic Rep. Barney Frank talked with WBUR about his future plans.
Oh, and they (finally) found that snake. In other missing pet news, “experts” now say that loose turkey on the Cape probably doesn’t belong to Ethel Kennedy, after all. (How do they know? Because the bird has a beard.)