In the News: sexting law, veterans unemployment, PMC water stop

In the years since, the number of adolescents who say they have sent a naked or sexually provocative picture has only increased. Indeed, about 20 to 30 percent of teens have sexted, according to the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University. 

A definitive answer may be coming now that the state Legislature has taken up the debate. State Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin, recently filed a bill that would amend the state’s child pornography laws to make sexting between minors a noncriminal offense or misdemeanor. 

Currently, teenagers in Massachusetts arrested for sexting can be charged with a felony for child pornography. And if convicted, they would be required to register as a sex offender.

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Alhough declining, the veteran unemployment rate is still higher than local veterans agents would like it to be due to a handful of factors. 

Dale Kurtz, Franklin's veterans agent, said many employers look down on physical or emotional issues veterans brought back from the battlefields.“A lot of companies try to (look past those issues) but don’t,” said Kurtz. 

Something as simple as reliable transportation can be a challenge to getting veterans back to work.

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As it has for many years before, Franklin served as a way station for Saturday's Pan-Mass Challenge, the cross-state bike ride to raise funds to fight cancer. 

Throngs of riders stopped at the Remington Middle School to rest, hydrate and prepare for the remainder of the ride to Provincetown. All were raising money for research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

Franklin resident Jim McCusker, one of the volunteer organizers at the site, was in the midst of things, using his cowbell to direct riders to the appropriate location.

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