Let’s Laugh Today is FREE Every Wednesday at 7:30 PM on ZOOM!

Let’s Laugh Today is free on ZOOM! 

There is nothing like a good belly laugh to help release stress and anxiety. These laughter exercises and gentle deep breathing help to bring more fresh oxygen into the body and brain helping you feel more energetic and healthy. It's a great way to connect with other people through eye contact while remaining socially distant and it is thoroughly up-lifting and immunity-boosting! 

See www.letslaughtoday.com for link to the free 45 minute ZOOM Meeting EVERY Wednesday at 7:30pm. 

All ages are welcome. You can sit or stand the entire time. It’s a good time to try something new and take care of your mental health! 

Led by local Certified Laughter Yoga Master Trainers and Laughter Ambassadors, Bill and Linda Hamaker. They are the HA Makers! They are the only Master Trainer couple on this continent! 

Let’s Laugh Today is FREE Every Wednesday at 7:30 PM on ZOOM! 

CommonWealth Magazine: State revenue exceeds projection again; Committee on reimagining the post-COVID commonwealth begins work

 

"THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE collected more than $3 billion from Massachusetts residents, workers, and businesses last month, once again shattering the Baker administration’s expectations and putting the state’s coffers more than $1.5 billion ahead of where they were at the same time last year.

Revenue collections for March added up to a total of $3.061 billion — $402 million, or 15.1 percent, more than what was collected in March 2020 and $648 million or 26.8 percent more than what the Baker administration was expecting to collect last month.

Now nine months through fiscal year 2021, Massachusetts state government has collected $22.588 billion in taxes from people and businesses, which is $1.524 billion, or 7.2 percent, more than it did during the same nine mostly pre-pandemic months of fiscal year 2020. The last month Massachusetts saw a year-over-year decline in tax collections was September."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/state-revenues-keep-on-surpassing-projections/

 

"WHEN SEN. ADAM HINDS looks at the disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken on poor people and communities of color in Massachusetts, he said, “It’s hard not to experience it as a massive policy failure.”

Hinds, a Pittsfield Democrat who now chairs a special Senate Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency, said inequity will be a major focus of the committee as it has broad discussions on how to rebuild a stronger state in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency.

“It would be a dereliction of duty if we didn’t do everything in our power to correct the inequities that led to more death in certain communities,” Hinds said."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/senate-committee-to-probe-post-covid-society/

RMV may resume inspections Wednesday, Apr 7

"Businesses that provide vehicle inspections in Massachusetts are “anxious” to resume offering the service, amid an ongoing problem with a Registry vendor that has shut down inspections for the past week in the Commonwealth and several other states, a trade group leader said Monday.

“Well, I think everybody is anxious to get it back online, so we’re all waiting,” said John Howell, co-executive director of the New England Service Station & Automotive Repair Association, in a phone interview.

He said service stations often see a spike in revenue toward the end of every month from drivers who need new inspection stickers. "

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/05/metro/were-all-waiting-businesses-affected-by-car-inspection-pause-hoping-system-gets-fixed-soon/

According to  Twitter, operations should resume 4/7/21 ... given the nature of the issue (per the vendor), we'll wait and see.   https://twitter.com/MassRMV/status/1379026141411999750

RMV may resume inspections Tuesday, Apr 6

Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW): Community Meeting for Franklin Residents - Apr 7

Building Resilience Across the Watershed

The Charles River Watershed Association has created a flood monitoring tool that shows flooding scenarios and the impacts of potential green infrastructure solutions along the Charles. This will equip watershed communities with the best information on community-specific impacts of climate change, helping to guide local investment, regulatory changes and predict the best ways to respond to flooding. 

We want to hear from you!

Our second Zoom discussion will focus on the tool's relevance to the upper parts of the Watershed, including Holliston, Milford, Franklin, Ashland, Hopkinton, Sherborn, Wrentham, Foxborough, Millis, Medway, Bellingham, Norfolk, and Hopedale.  Please join us and give input about your own climate-related stressors, your opinions about changing infrastructure, and your hopes for building climate resilience in your community! Share this email with your fellow residents, this is a conversation for everyone!

RSVP HERE!

 (https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqfuiqqj0pGN0plGlTaaIdHZiAImKBNFhs) 

• Wednesday, April 7th from 6:30-7:30 PM  

• Facebook Event Page

• Watch our first webinar again here to learn more about this project

• Fill this Feedback Survey if you belong to the Charles River Watershed

• Building Resilience across the Watershed Offical Webpage

• For further questions contact: anna@climatecrew.org

Community Meeting for Franklin Residents - Apr 7

Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) or CREW, is a 501c3 non-profit devoted to building up grassroots resilience in communities by engaging networks of local leaders through education, service, and planning. CREW has teamed up with the Charles River Watershed Association to spread the word about an upcoming project on the Charles. We hope to engage watershed community members around this project so we can incorporate their voices into this project.

Thank you for reading, and we hope to see you there!

"Mask Innovation Challenge: Building Tomorrow’s Mask"

 

"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a competition to develop “the next generation of masks” with the winning submission receiving a $500,000 cash prize.

The competition — “Mask Innovation Challenge: Building Tomorrow’s Mask” — is a partnership between HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

In the announcement, HHS notes that many health authorities around the world are encouraging people to wear masks to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases, but masks often present some challenges such as: “contact dermatitis with prolonged wear, physical discomfort, fogging of eyeglasses, and difficulty communicating.”

Continue reading the article online

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/546411-hhs-launches-mask-design-improvement-contest

 

More info on the "Mask Innovation Challenge" can be found

https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/mask-innovation-challenge/

"Mask Innovation Challenge: Building Tomorrow’s Mask"

Community Preservation Committee - Agenda - Apr 6, 2021 - 7:00 PM

Community Preservation Committee Meeting

Agenda & Meeting Packet

April 6, 2021 = 7:00 PM

Agenda:
1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Committee Meeting Schedule
3. FY22 Budget Approval
4. Open Space Presentation & Discussion

Recommended Committee Homework & Reading:
1. Open Space & Recreation Plan (https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/uploads/updated_osrp.pdf)

Agenda doc with connection info

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/agendas/cpc_agenda_4-6-2021_final.pdf

Community Preservation Committee - Agenda - Apr 6, 2021 - 7:00 PM

Franklin TV: WFH (Mostly) - COVID life & work, day-by-day

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 04/04/2021

The COVID lifestyle is not anyone’s first choice, but for those among us with past WFH experience (working from home), our disciplines return – like muscle memory. (It’s like riding a bike.)  In that sense, I’m fortunate.

It’s oh-dark-thirty. No alarm, but I wake (sorta). In those first moments I accept each day for what it is – a gift. It is mine to make; mine to quietly savor. Mr. Coffee is my friend. I shuffle from kitchen to office. I shuffle through  my  email.  After  some thinking, writing and hitting [Send] several times. Then there is what needs doing – today, tomorrow, and in the days ahead. By now the Sun has decided to show up.

The week is peppered  with  Zoom  meetings  here and  there.  The day is  peppered with typical office humdrum – pay bills, more email [Reply]. There is documenting of the technical changes that  COVID has wrought across our facilities.   These  changes have spawned a rolling rebuild over the past year. There is more planning  and research for technical changes yet to come. I click–out some online orders for equipment and supplies. Boxes arrive through the week. With our studio closed, I’m ‘Shipping & Receiving’.

Now and then I deliver the boxes to the studio; restart whatever stopped working; fix whatever broke. I pick up the mail. A COVID-based routine.

Through the week there are small reminders. The mask and hand sanitizer hanging on the car door tell me why things are the way they are. For now. Just for now. That new normal is a–comin’. Just as I have embraced this day, so too, I shall rise enthusiastically to tomorrow, and eventually to that new normal – at oh-dark-thirty.

And – as always –

Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm. 

And, thank you for watching.

P.S. While you wait impatiently for that new normal – know the days between now and then for what they are – gifts. Enjoy opening each and every one.

Get this week's program guide for Franklin TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) online  http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf  or for archive purposes  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1208kvZPyBHiJkuNpe6kCUllFV2Iavfhg/view?usp=sharing

The studio at 23 Hutchinson St, Franklin, MA