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| St. Mary's Women's Faith Formation Group |
"Massachusetts lawmakers have not been shy about criticizing Governor Charlie Baker’s balky vaccine rollout, especially amid the recent, escalating conflict between Baker and teachers unions over school reopenings.
State lawmakers could turn those rebukes into legislative action by passing a new bill to delay Baker’s timetable for school reopenings by several weeks and mandate that all school staff have “equitable access” to vaccines before they’re required to return.
But so far, few seem eager to do so."
"THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE passed climate change legislation on Monday by an overwhelming vote of 39-1, signaling the Legislature is unwilling to go along with several amendments sought by Gov. Charlie Baker.The bill approved by the Senate includes a number of tweaks sought by the governor, but on several key provisions – a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and mandatory interim goals for industry subsectors – the legislation did not budge. Baker has insisted the 50 percent target, as opposed to the 45 percent he favored, would end up costing Massachusetts residents $6 billion unnecessarily."
"Federal health officials have identified several controversial pandemic recommendations released during the Donald Trump administration that they say were “not primarily authored” by staff and don’t reflect the best scientific evidence, based on a review ordered by its new director.The review identified three documents that had already been removed from the agency’s website: One, released in July, delivered a strong argument for school reopenings and downplayed health risks. A second set of guidelines about the country’s reopening was released in April by the White House and was far less detailed than what had been drafted by the CDC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A third guidance issued in August discouraged the testing of people without covid-19 symptoms even when they had contact with infected individuals. That was replaced in September after experts inside and outside the agency raised alarms."
"Hundreds of people gathered for the first lecture at what had become the world’s most important conference on artificial intelligence — row after row of faces. Some were East Asian, a few were Indian, and a few were women. But the vast majority were white men. More than 5,500 people attended the meeting, five years ago in Barcelona, Spain.Timnit Gebru, then a graduate student at Stanford University, remembers counting only six Black people other than herself, all of whom she knew, all of whom were men.The homogeneous crowd crystallized for her a glaring issue. The big thinkers of tech say A.I. is the future. It will underpin everything from search engines and email to the software that drives our cars, directs the policing of our streets and helps create our vaccines."
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| Franklin Senior Center: Quarantini Time Tuesday at 5 PM |
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| Veterans COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling Phone Number |
Senate President holds Fourth Annual Social Emotional Learning Forum
Event to offer parents tools to support students' success during pandemic and beyond
On Friday, March 19, 2020, Massachusetts Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland) will hold a virtual event entitled, "Supporting our Students through COVID-19 and Beyond." The event is the Senate President's fourth annual Social Emotional Learning (SEL) forum part of her #MetroWestKids initiative and is aimed at offering resources to educators and parents. This important event is being presented in partnership with the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy and will feature local and statewide experts in social emotional learning.
"In this moment, ensuring our young people's future success means stepping up and stepping into their lives to understand the hardships they are facing due to COVID-19," stated Senate President Spilka. "The need to talk about our kids' mental health has never been so great. I hope all MetroWest parents and educators who are interested will join us on March 19."
While continuing to provide parents with tools to support the development of key skills, such as making self-aware, responsible decisions and maintaining healthy relationships, this year's event will also deal with the specific challenges faced by young people in light of the pandemic. In particular, the forum will highlight methods to reduce stress levels, build resilience, and promote overall wellness.
Those interested in the event, which will be held on Zoom, may register at https://karenspilka.com/sel. The event will be from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm on March 19, 2021. All are welcome to join, but event will be focused on MetroWest. Participants may submit questions to the featured experts when registering.
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| Fourth Annual Social Emotional Learning Forum - Mar 19 |
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Palm Sunday - March 28th, 10 AM
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| Holy Week and Easter Services at St John's Episcopal Church, Franklin |
Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell today reminded Norfolk County homeowners about the importance of filing for Homestead protection.
O’Donnell noted, “If you own a home, and it is your primary residence, one way to protect it is to file a Homestead. The Homestead law provides a homeowner with limited protection against the forced sale of their primary residence to satisfy unsecured debt up to $500,000. This is especially important when you consider that for most of us, a home is our most valuable asset. Consumers should take steps to protect that asset.”
Another feature of the Homestead law is the allowance for a filing of an Elderly Homestead application, which defines an elder as a person who is 62 years of age or older. This protection can be increased if the elderly couple are each 62 years of age or older and file jointly.
The Register further noted, “Back in March of 2011, the Homestead law was updated so that a valid Homestead cannot be terminated when refinancing a mortgage. Other changes that took place back in 2011 state that a Homestead can provide protections for a primary home even if it is kept in trust. The definition of a primary residence was also further expanded to include a manufactured or mobile home.”
While a Homestead provides important protections for homeowners, it is important to note there are certain debts that are exempted from protection under the Homestead Act. These include federal, state and local tax liens, as well as mortgages contracted for the purchase of a primary home and nursing home liens. Most other mortgages, debts, and encumbrances existing prior to the filing of the Declaration of Homestead, along with probate court executions for spousal and child support, are also not covered under the Homestead protection statute.
Homestead documents are recorded at the Registry of Deeds for a state imposed fee of $36.00. Additional information about the Homestead law, and free applications are available by going to the Registry’s website at www.norfolkdeeds.org.
Register O’Donnell concluded, “I want to reiterate that a Homestead provides limited protection against the forced sale of a homeowner’s primary residence to satisfy unsecured debt up to $500,000. While the debt is still owed, homeowners can have peace of mind knowing that with a Homestead recorded at the Registry of Deeds, their primary residence cannot be forcibly sold to satisfy most debts. If you have any questions about a Homestead, please contact our Customer Service Center at 781-461-6101, Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30AM-4:30PM. Our trained staff are more than willing to answer any questions you may have.”
To learn more about these and other Registry of Deeds events and initiatives, like us at Facebook.com/NorfolkDeeds or follow us on twitter.com/NorfolkDeeds and/or Instagram.com/NorfolkDeeds.
The Norfolk County Registry of Deeds is located at 649 High Street in Dedham. The Registry is a resource for homeowners, title examiners, mortgage lenders, municipalities and others with a need for secure, accurate, accessible land record information. All land record research information can be found on the Registry’s website www.norfolkdeeds.org. Residents in need of assistance can contact the Registry of Deeds Customer Service Center via telephone at (781) 461-6101, or email us at registerodonnell@norfolkdeeds.org.
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| Register O'Donnell Promotes Homestead Act |
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| "Go for the Green" Online Auction - ends Mar 17 |
"In the shadow of its exceptionalism, America fails to invest in the basics.
Stunning advances in medicine and technology have comealongside systemic breakdowns in infrastructure and health.
....
America can put a rover on Mars, but it can’t keep the lights on and water running in the city that birthed the modern space program. It can develop vaccines, in record time, to combat a world-altering illness, but suffers one of the developed world’s highest death rates due to lack of prevention and care. It spins out endless entertainment to keep millions preoccupied during lockdown — and keep tech shares riding high on Wall Street — but leaves kids disconnected from the access they need to do their schoolwork. "
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| MindShift: Mental Habits that support Lifelong Learning |
Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick W. McDermott - Norfolk County Sheriff Website
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| almost spring time, DPW is busy already tidying up the Town |
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| FSPA: "Broadway in Franklin" - Mar 21, 2021 |
by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 03/14/2021
While recording a recent session of our weekly radio program ‘More Perfect Union’ I noted a reaction from our roundtable panelists to my somewhat casual comment. We were discussing the nettlesome issues around the vaccine rollout. I was not criticizing either Charlie Baker or Joe Biden. I was addressing the unprecedented enormous challenges they are facing.
The key word to keep in mind: unprecedented.
The challenges of the pandemic are indeed unprecedented in scope.
When scrambling to address today’s emergency today, it’s almost impossible to fully anticipate the downstream emergent needs of tomorrow. “Warp Speed” was a simplistic response – throw some money at the private sector and hope. The science came through, but it wasn’t backed with a forward plan for the follow-on logistics.
Scope:
Administering the three vaccines will require ≈450MM (million) doses to ≈300MM willing Americans. (Yes, I’m more than willing.) At 5 minutes per, that’s ≈37.5MM person/hours or ≈4.7MM 8-hour days. That means between now and mid-June we need at least ≈52 thousand trained personnel working 7 days/week. No slack time.
A best-case working assumption – 15 workers per site. (Clearly not the case.) This means that vaccines must be distributed timely as needed to ≈4K sites. Logistics. Considering small sites with 1 or more workers – it’s more like ≈20 thousand sites? That’s how Biden’s team estimated a need for 20K pharmacies and health centers. The President’s team clearly understands logistics, science and math.
Joe also recently arranged to stockpile vaccine for all Americans who want it by the end-of May. Now the challenge is getting that vaccine into arms. They are ramping up and organizing that Herculean effort as quickly as possible. The challenge? Create a temporary national organization having 50 thousand trained staff. All hands on deck who can vaccinate – from dentists to optometrists; from EMT’s to midwives; from veterans to veterinarians.
SoW – The Scope-of-Work: The pandemic – It’s big. It’s complex. It’s also unstable. We’re asking the Biden administration to work a miracle. He promised 100 million doses in arms in 100 days. A reasonable goal, It got done by day 60. Recall that when Joe took office, he asked us all to mask up for 100 days. A reasonable request. Are we all doing our part?
During our radio session I quipped – Good, Fast. Cheap. Pick two.
You want Good & Fast? It won’t be Cheap.
You want Fast & Cheap? It won’t be Good.
You want Good & Cheap? It won’t be Fast.
A corollary observation about shaping the scope of any endeavor. When it’s all over you’ll get to explain one thing:
High Expense Why it costs so much.
Poor Quality Why it works so bad. (-and/or looks so ugly.)
Late Timing Why it’s not done yet.
The first is often the easiest to explain. We are attempting to accelerate the pace, to literally buy time. In this case, time is not only money; it’s also lives. We are in an urgent fight to save lots of lives. We’re scrambling to save our national economy and personal livelihoods. Time is not on our side, yet we have no other choice but to fight the good fight. Time is a terrible taskmaster. We the electorate also can be terrible taskmasters, seeking affordable, instant perfection from political leaders.
The total $6,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) government bailout cost will average $1,700.00 in annualized per capita cost for every single American over the next decade. That’s $7,000.00/year for a family of four. Scope.
Consider these numbers as well:
The Feds spent almost 2X their annual budget trying to save us. That’s – um, a lot? More specifically, it raises the total projected Fed budget to 19% GDP for a decade. Now, to be perfectly unclear, if all the economists were laid out end-to-end, they wouldn’t reach a conclusion. ( – unknown) Economics is known as the dismal science, and I’m pretty dismal at it. Thus, I can’t opine as to how our national economy will absorb the cost and continue to grow. However, that too, is actually possible.
Hopefully, it will grant us all brighter days ahead.
But, for now – the cost of salvation is dear, non-negotiable, but absolutely necessary.
And – as always –
Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm.
And, thank you for watching.
Listen to "Toward A More Perfect Union" on Monday’s at 11 AM, 2 PM and 8 PM at wfpr.fm or 102.9 on the local area dial.
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| Franklin TV: Scope - This is huge! |
"Diversity– “The practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc” is what comes up when searched on google. But what does this really mean?
To myself and many others, diversity is being inclusive to all and not just the ones we look like; it is standing up for someone even if you don’t know them. It is being a kind human- when you see people being judged based on the color of their skin and you stand up for them. We all deserve equal kindness and respect.
In order to deep dive into race relations at Franklin High School, I interviewed Mr. Hanna and have included his thoughts."
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| Pantherbook: "Race Relations at FHS" |
"After the cancellation of the entire 2020 spring season because of the coronavirus pandemic, high school sports teams and athletes across Massachusetts will have the opportunity to participate in MIAA-sponsored postseason tournaments this year.
During a virtual meeting Friday afternoon, the MIAA’s board of directors voted, 18-0, to approve sectional tournaments this spring. The board also left open the possibility that the postseason could be expanded to include traditional state semifinals and finals for sectional champions.
The board agreed to survey member schools over the next few days, gauging interest in expanding the postseason to include state tournaments and their willingness to participate. The board will meet again Wednesday afternoon to vote on that piece of the plan."
