Franklin resident to make cake on Food Network show
Tracie Turinese will be appearing in a cake competition.
Proposed federal change would reduce fluoride in drinking water
Franklin, MA
Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
This report is the culmination of a yearlong effort to study the efficiency of the nation’s public education system and includes the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country. In the business world, the notion of productivity describes the benefit received in exchange for effort or money expended. Our project measures the academic achievement a school district produces relative to its educational spending, while controlling for factors outside a district’s control, such as cost of living and students in poverty.You can read the introduction and summary here (PDF file).
The Legislature and the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday set the consensus revenue figure for FY12 at $20.525 billion. This revenue figure will now be the starting point for budget proposals that will come from the Governor, House and Senate.
The Governor's proposal, to be released later this month, will deal with a structural deficit of approximately $1.5 billion created largely by the absence of federal stimulus funds, limited state reserves, case load pressures and inflationary growth, particularly in health care related programs. As he indicated in his inaugural address, Gov. Patrick's proposed budget is expected to highlight investments in education, health care and in job creation, as well as to propose government reforms.Read the full post on the DOR website here
Nearly all future state and municipal employees would work five years longer, contribute more to their pensions, and have their benefits slashed if they retire early under a bill Governor Deval Patrick and legislative leaders unveiled yesterday.
Eighteen months after state leaders eliminated loopholes in the pension system, the new proposal would go beyond merely curbing abuses. It would, Patrick said, fundamentally change retirement benefits for thousands of future teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers, in an attempt to save $5 billion over the next 30 years.Read the full post here on the Budget Blues website
Before getting into the particulars of today's announcement, it's worth noting two things. First, no one at the White House can be unaware of ongoing controversy over Walmart's labor practices. And the very public support for Walmart will not mean that the White House nutrition team, led by Sam Kass, will stop the work it is already deep into with other corporations and food manufacturers, and with many federal and state agencies, to improve access to fresher food and opportunities to exercise. But Walmart has a power across the entire supply chain, from farm to transportation to store, that no other marketer or grocer has. If and when it can choose to be a force for good—and if that impulse is largely the result of market demand and market share it doesn't want competitors to claim—the First Lady's team (and anyone else who cares about the country's health) would be foolish not to try to guide the company in the directions it wants to see the whole food industry head.What is the big news?
Of the "key elements" Walmart announced, several are ones I reported on last March: shorten travel distances between farm and distribution centers, support smaller farmers than it had previously bought from, bring back staple crops to areas where they had vanished because of competition from California and Florida, and bring fresh food into "food deserts" both in cities and, importantly, rural areas without supermarkets.Read the full article about Walmart's announcement here