For those of you who have followed the attempts by the Legislature to re-write Ballot Question 4 after 1.8 million voters approved it, you should know, some of us are not caving into the unwarranted attempts to change Q4.
What makes this country work is our democracy. Our Vote is key to that premise. Ignoring the will of the voter, can not and will not be ignored. After decades of asking the voters what they think about marijuana, some deep bockets got the question on the State wide ballot.
We won.. and now they want to change it. It is all of our right's to show our displeasure with any one who stands in the way of democracy. I will not stop expressing my unalienable right to free speech.
Nam Vets who missed the pinning ceremony in December
From the MWDN:
A retired major general will visit Framingham Sunday to help recognize local veterans who served during the Vietnam War era.
The
MetroWest Regional Transit Authority will host its second Vietnam
Veteran Commemorative Lapel Pinning Ceremony at 2 p.m. on July 2. All
veterans who served from 1955-1975 are encouraged to attend and be
recognized.
The ceremony will take place beside the MetroWest
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is located in front of the MWRTA’s
headquarters at 15 Blandin Ave.
The memorial, dedicated in
November 2016, features a 9-foot statue of an American soldier and the
names of fallen soldiers from the area.
Major General Peter M.
Aylward, former special assistant to the chief of the National Guard
Bureau, will be on hand to distribute commemorative pins. Aylward has
spearheaded the Guard’s nationwide initiative to recognize Vietnam vets.
MWRTA
Administrator Ed Carr said the organization’s first pinning ceremony
last year drew 78 participants. For many, it was an opportunity to be
recognized in a way they weren’t when they returned from the war, Carr
said.
“It really opened the door for a lot of guys that served
their country,” he said, adding, “A lot of guys were embracing this
recognition.”
Carr said he was encouraged by the National Guard to
host a second pinning event and decided the weekend before the Fourth
of July was fitting.
“What I hope it does for the community is
allow them to recognize that back in the ’60s, when we were going
through a cultural revolution, that there were certain people who served
their country that were not totally appreciated for that service,” Carr
said.
Aylward, who held a range of high-level posts during his career, will
be joined by Assistant Adjutant General Frank Magurn, from the
Massachusetts Army National Guard. Magurn also spoke at the unveiling of
the MWRTA memorial last year.
Veterans who wish to participate in
Sunday’s ceremony are asked to bring a copy of their DD Form 214
discharge papers. For more information, contact Ed Carr at 508-935-2222.
As we (Framingham) move to the City form of governance one thing stands out, many players will want to build housing here. As the article points out, there's not enough sellers and not enough housing stock. According to to the MERC (Metro West Economic Research Center), Framingham had the highest percentage of single family homes sold, 605 homes. The study covered 13 surrounding towns.
While we know that hundreds of apartments are going to be built down town, the Globe article would indicate that we need more building of condominiums and single family homes.
Massachusetts home prices reached record highs last month. So why aren’t more people selling?
The
supply of single-family homes and condominiums in the state —
particularly in the Boston area — continues to be stubbornly low, mostly
because potential sellers appear stuck in a frustrating cycle — selling
might be easy, but buying a new place to live in a market with
overcrowded open houses and bidding wars is discouraging. That’s keeping
would-be sellers on the sidelines.
“If I sound perplexed about this, I am,” said Paul Yorkis, president
of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, who also operates Patriot
Real Estate in Medway. “High sale prices are stimulating individuals to a
certain extent to put their homes on the market, but not enough;
nowhere near enough.”
In May, median prices for single-family
homes reached a new peak of $385,000, a jump of 9.2 percent compared
with May 2016, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
In Greater Boston, last month’s numbers were even more dramatic —
single-family homes hit a record median sale price of $600,000, 13.1
percent more than in May 2016, according to the Greater Boston
Association of Realtors.
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But sales volume was off 2.3 percent statewide compared with last
year, and down 2.2 percent in 64 cities and towns in Greater Boston.
There were similar price and sales trends in the condominium market.
The latest sales numbers extend a trend that began years ago. In May —
traditionally one of the busiest months of the year for real estate
activity — there were just 3,876 houses on the market in Massachusetts,
according to MAR data. Compare that with May 2006 — the last time prices
were this high — when there were more than 18,000 homes available.
Because
of the sparse inventory, most homes that come on the market get snapped
up quickly, with some buyers paying 10 percent to 20 percent over
asking price. While bidding competitions may seem like a motivator for
would-be sellers, the bidding frenzy has created another problem —
sellers with unrealistic expectations about their home’s worth, Yorkis
said.
“They know that inventory is low and they are participating in
conversations [about homes that] went on the market [and] in five days
they got multiple offers and got more than asking price,” he said. “What
is happening is realtors will give an honest assessment of value based
on current market conditions, past sales, and homes currently under
agreement, and the seller will say, ‘Let’s try for this higher number.’
And if it’s too high, it’s not going to sell.”
David McCarthy of
Keller Williams Realty in Boston calls the state’s superheated real
estate environment “a perfect storm.” Jobs are driving population
growth, particularly in the Boston area, he said, and that’s driving up
housing prices and affecting inventory.
In the meantime, suburban
empty-nesters are discouraged by a market in which small homes closer to
the city cost as much — or more —than the property they’re considering
selling. That financial reality prompts many to stay put, McCarthy said.
To
help ease the gridlock, McCarthy said, some real estate agents have
begun suggesting to sellers that they consider temporarily renting
instead of trying to immediately find a new home.
“Sell your home,
give yourself short-term options, and be on the hunt for a buy,” he
said. It’s advice that usually goes over better with a certain
demographic, McCarthy said. “A younger person is more flexible to it,”
he said. “They’re trying to get their goals and dreams. Another person
would say ‘that’s an awful lot of work.’ ”
Both McCarthy and Yorkis said there is no relief in sight.
They believe high prices and low inventory will define the region’s real
estate market for the foreseeable future.
“The only way that the
shortage of housing in both condominiums and single-family homes is
really going to be addressed is through more housing production,” Yorkis
said. “That’s one reason we’re concerned about the spiraling high
prices. I don’t know when it’s going to top out. I really don’t.”
State
legislators and local officials, especially in the suburbs, Yorkis
said, should prioritize pushing for zoning changes that would make it
easier to build multifamily dwellings and other types of creative
housing. A report released this week by the National Multifamily Housing
Council and National Apartment Association ranked Boston as the
second-toughest metro area in the country in which to build apartments
and condos.
“What’s happening now is people who used to be looking
for single-family homes as first-time buyers cannot find that
single-family home,” Yorkis said. “What they’re doing is looking at
condominiums as their first home, which is not a bad thing, but there
aren’t that many multifamily housing [units] being built.”
I'm sure by now, those of you who travel the Pike in the morning, getting on at exit 13 is a nightmare, in both directions on Rte 30. The toll booths are down and there's little construction going on. One might have thought since it's summer now and the kids are out of school, it would be easier to get on. I've written to the Mass DOT for their comments. There must be a explanation for this as our population has not increased that much to cause such delays.
For decades the prohibitionists have claimed chronic use of cannabis negatively effects the brain, learning and memory. This study seems to suggest that as we get older, cannabis actually helps us connect to brain cells that have been lost in the aging process.
Take from it what you will, but the studies of rat brains seem to prove out the theory, cannabis could help us retain our memory.
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — A sharply divided legislative committee has voted to
advance a bill that makes major changes to the voter-approved
recreational marijuana bill, including higher taxes and more control for
local officials over pot shops in their communities.
None of the seven senators on the Legislature’s Marijuana Policy
Committee voted in favor of the bill on Wednesday, and some House
members also expressed reservations.
Democratic Sen. Patricia Jehlen, the panel’s co-chair, said the bill
drafted by the House “assaults the will of the voters.”
The proposal would more than double the current 12 percent tax on
recreational marijuana, making a total tax of 28 percent. It was
revealed on Thursday that due to a possible drafting error, the
compounded tax rate could go as high as 55 percent, higher than any
other U.S. state where recreational marijuana is legal
President Trump will award Nam Vet James McCloughan, a former Army medic, this countries highest award. This award stems from his actions during days long battle of Nui Yon Hill in 1969. McCloghan voluntarily risked his life on 9 separate occasions to rescue wounded soldiers.
Please take a moment to read about his experiences... they are what true heroes are all about... even after all these years.
If you have lived in the time when Bob wrote and sang some of music's most influential songs have a listen to the man himself read his mandatory lecture for the Swedish Academy. He explains how his early childhood reading provided him with the basis and how the early artists like Buddy Holly and others influenced his beginnings of the worlds most influential artists. Strange as it sounds to award Bob with a Nobel prize in literature... but if you have ever read his large body of work... you would agree, he is a master of the written word.
