LNG DEAD at WEAVERS COVE ...

Weaver's Cove Spokesman Jim Grasso can spin it any way he wants ... but the writing is on the wall ... the LNG facility at Weaver's Cove is going down in FLAMES.

From the Associated Press ... as first reported by WSAR:

Mass. agency halts review of LNG plant for Fall River
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer June 4, 2007

BOSTON --A proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in southeastern
Massachusetts hit another roadblock Monday when state environmental
regulators halted their review of the plan, The Associated Press has
learned.

The state Department of Environmental Protection says it will stop its
review of permit applications by Weaver's Cove Energy and Hess LNG,
citing concerns about the project raised recently by the Coast Guard.

"This situation warrants MassDEP's reassessment of its expenditure of
limited permitting resources on the pending permit applications," Arleen
O'Donnell, acting commissioner, wrote Monday in a letter to Weaver's
Cove Energy.

The proposal for a terminal on the banks of the Taunton River in Fall
River has won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

But the Coast Guard cited navigational safety, security and
environmental concerns in a May 9 "preliminary assessment."
O'Donnell said if the Coast Guard eventually determines that the
waterway is suitable, the state would resume its review. A final report
from the Coast Guard is expected later this summer.

"While preliminary in nature, the substance and outcome of the Coast
Guard's May 9, 2007, determination represents a significant change in
the overall status of the Weaver's Cove project and casts serious doubt
as to the feasibility of the project," O'Donnell said.

Jim Grasso, a spokesman for Weaver's Cove Energy, expressed confidence
that the state's decision won't stop them.

"This is not an unusual action for an agency to take for a project like
this," he said. "We intend to get approval from the Coast Guard. The
project is moving forward."

Capt. Roy A. Nash, commander of the Coast Guard's southeastern New
England sector, wrote last month that the developers have yet to show
that LNG tankers "can be safely navigated through this waterway on a
consistent, repeatable basis."

Reiterating a concern he raised in March 2006, Nash said 750-foot
tankers would need to perform an "extraordinary navigational maneuver"
to pass through the old and new Brightman Street bridges, which are
about 1,100 feet apart and off-set. The older, smaller bridge has an
98-foot navigational opening. The tankers are 85 feet wide.

Critics fear the LNG terminal could endanger residents in the densely
populated area. They say almost 64,000 people live along the tanker
route. A terrorist strike or accident could be devastating, they warn.
Weaver's Cove Energy, however, argues the Northeast needs the facility
to meet growing energy demands. Some energy analysts have predicted that by 2010 there won't be enough natural gas supply to keep up with the
region's energy needs.

"We are facing brownouts and blackouts in three to five years if these
projects are not built," Grasso said of this and other proposed LNG
facilities.

Yankees Suck

Police looking for suspects in firefighter attack

BOSTON (AP) _ Boston police are looking for four suspects who allegedly beat a firefighter in the city's Charlestown neighborhood Sunday night.
Lieutenant Chris Corwin was helping a truck driver who was backing up near the Sullivan Square fire station when another driver tried maneuvering around the truck.

Corwin asked the driver to wait -- but was told he'd be run over if he didn't move.

Police say that's when four men jumped from the car and began beating and kicking the firefighter. Another firefighter who was also helping the truck driver pulled the men off Corwin, who needed 14 stitches and suffered a broken eye socket.

Authorities describe the four suspects as being in their 20s and wearing New York Yankees hats.

Days After Democrats Debate Republican Talking Points in New Hampshire, Tonight, Republicans Debate Republican Talking Points -- Live on CNN

Ten Republicans who want to be president will take the stage Tuesday night for their first debate in New Hampshire, hoping to make an impression on the voters who will cast ballots in the nation's first primary early next year.

The debate, sponsored by CNN, the New Hampshire Union Leader and WMUR-TV, will begin at 7 p.m. ET in Sullivan Arena on the campus of Saint Anselm College. Democratic candidates mounted the same stage for their first Granite State debate on Sunday.

The Republican presidential prospect one rival calls "Mighty Mouse" won't be at Tuesday's debate, but is nonetheless causing a little tension.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson is already raising money and is said by advisers to be all but certain to formally join the race in early July.
"[It's] what we might call the 'Mighty Mouse' candidacy," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday while campaigning in Concord, New Hampshire's capital city. "You know: 'Here I come to save the day.' And in the end voters are not necessarily looking for Mighty Mouse to fly in -- they are looking for somebody who stands their ground and goes the distance."

State Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen says Thompson is certainly welcome to the race, but he plays down the idea that GOP voters are not happy with the existing field of candidates.

"I think it is insulting to the existing candidates," he said of such talk. "In other words I think it happens every cycle. ... I bet at this time in 1979, Republicans were gathering saying, 'You know this Ronald Reagan fella has been around the track before -- I think his time has passed.' "

A delicate balance

During Sunday's debate, the Democratic presidential candidates tried to outdo each other in heaping opprobrium on President Bush and the Iraq war.

Republican candidates will face a trickier task in trying to put some light between themselves and an increasingly unpopular president without alienating their base.

"I think the biggest problem this field is having -- everybody in the field -- is deciding how much latitude you have in describing your vision of where the country will be four years from now or eight years from now if you're president," said Tom Rath, an adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. "There is a Republican president who is still quite popular in the base here."

While critical of the management of the war in Iraq, most of the GOP candidates support the recent troop increase and say the United States cannot leave Iraq until there is a more stable political and security environment.

Clearer differences exist on taxes and spending, immigration and other issues.

The recently passed Senate immigration bill, which Sen. John McCain co-sponsored and Bush supports, has sharply divided Republicans -- a divide likely to emerge on the stage in Tuesday's debate, which includes Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, whose presidential campaign is rooted in his strong opposition to immigration reform.

University of New Hampshire survey director Andrew Smith says he believes the stakes are highest for the long-shot candidates who have to worry about paying the bills as much as winning votes.

"They have to be able to demonstrate to people who are willing to give them money that they are serious candidates and they will be credible candidates at the end of this campaign," Smith said Monday.

The debate field will be rounded out by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the front-runner in most polls; Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas; Reps. Ron Paul of Texas and Duncan Hunter of California; and former governors Jim Gilmore of Virginia, and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin.

Who Has The Right To Die?

More than two-thirds of Americans believe there are circumstances in which a patient should be allowed to die, but they are closely divided on whether it should be legal for a doctor to help terminally ill patients end their own lives by prescribing fatal drugs, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds.

The results were released yesterday, just days before Dr. Jack Kevorkian is freed from a Michigan prison after serving more than eight years for second-degree murder in the poisoning of a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian’s defiant assisted suicide campaign, which he waged for years before his conviction, fueled nationwide debate about patients’ right to die and the role that physicians should play.

Though demonized by his critics as a callous killer, Kevorkian — who is to be released Friday — maintains relatively strong public support. The AP-Ipsos poll found that 53 percent of those surveyed thought he should not have been jailed; 40 percent supported his imprisonment. The results were similar to an ABC News poll in 1999 that found 55 percent disagreeing with his conviction.

The new AP-Ipsos poll asked whether it should be legal for doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their own lives — a practice allowed in Oregon but in no other states. Forty-eight percent said it should be legal; 44 percent said it should be illegal. More broadly, 68 percent said there are circumstances when a patient should be allowed to die, while 30 percent said doctors and nurses, in all circumstances, should do everything possible to save the life of a patient.

A majority of respondents — 55 percent — said they would not consider ending their own lives if ill with a terminal disease. Thirty-five percent said they would consider that option. Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law took effect in 1997. Through last year, 292 people — mostly stricken with cancer — have died under its provisions, which allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults to administer life-ending medication prescribed by a physician.

In addition to Oregon, three European countries — Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands — authorize assistance by doctors in the deaths of patients. Oregon’s law has been reaffirmed by state voters and has survived intense legal challenges, but it has not been emulated in any other state.

Bills have been defeated by lawmakers in Vermont, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Washington; ballot measures to allow physician-assisted death have lost in Washington, California, Michigan and Maine. The current battleground is California, where a bill similar to Oregon’s law is moving through the legislature. Even if it were to win final passage, there is uncertainty whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would sign it; he recently suggested the issue should go directly to voters as a ballot initiative.

Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a co-author of the bill, said it gives a terminally ill patient “the power to chose the time, place and circumstances of their death.” She contended that most Californians support the measure, but that it faces tough opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, some conservative Protestant churches, and the California Medical Association.

Time To Lock Her Up: Sheila Martines Pina Faces 5th Drunk Driving Charge

When is enough, enough? From the New Bedford Standard Times:

Sheila Martines Pina faces her fifth drunken driving charge arraignment when she appears in District Court today.

The former president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Convention and Visitors Bureau was arrested Tuesday afternoon when police spotted her, allegedly drunk, behind the wheel of a car. Police were on duty at Davy's Locker on West Rodney French Boulevard moving swimming youths
out of the area and getting owners of illegally parked cars to move their vehicles about 5:30 p.m.

Officer David Roy said he spotted a woman behind the
wheel of a car in the boat ramp parking lot near the restaurant.
Police Department spokesman Capt. Richard M. Spirlet said Officer Roy approached Mrs. Martines Pina's car, noticed she appeared to be intoxicated and arrested her. She is scheduled to be arraigned today in New Bedford District Court.

Earlier this month, Mrs. Martines Pina, 50, a former television personality and wife of former Bristol County District Attorney Ronald A. Pina, was picked up by city police at St. Luke's Hospital where a disturbance occurred. Police took her into
protective custody.

We were shocked back in December when it was discovered that she had been arrested for OUI/Negligent Operation for the third and fourth times ... and now a fifth.

Sources say the Bristol County District Attorney's Office will be asking to revoke bail on the previous charges and order her held in the House of Corrections until trial. The mandatory minimum Martines-Pina faces is 2 years ... with a possibility of up to 5.

Alcoholism is a terrible disease. But it's time to start the tough love with Sheila ... and time to do some hard time.

Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter Solves Fall River Murder Case

During a 1pm press conference, Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter announced that his office has made an arrest in the April 2005 murder of 23-year-old Suzy Goulart.

Suzy was stabbed to death inside her Pleasant View apartment. Jermane Holley, 23, of Fall River is being charged with her murder. This is the second case DA Sutter inherited from Paul Walsh that has been solved in the first five months.

Details still developing ... stay tuned ...

Deadliest Month Ever

The U-S military is reporting the deaths of eight U-S soldiers in Iraq. The troops were all from Task Force Lightning and were killed on Memorial Day. Their deaths make this the deadliest month of the year for American forces in Iraq.

All the deaths occurred in restive Diyala province north of Baghdad.
Two of the soldiers were killed in a helicopter that went down. It's not immediately known if the helicopter was shot down or suffered mechanical difficulties.

Six soldiers were killed in explosions near their vehicles.
At least 110 U-S troops have been killed in May.

Romney pledges salary to charity if elected president ...

Wow ... How charitable ... from The Associated Press:

Mitt Romney says if elected president he would likely donate the 400-thousand dollar salary to charity.

Romney's personal assets of up to 250 (m) million dollars make him the wealthiest of all the presidential candidates.

During a question-and-answer session with Liberty Mutual employees in New Hampshire, the Republican conceded that he made more money in his business career than he ever expected. But he says he's now committed to public service, from head of the 2002 Winter Olympics to one-term governor of Massachusetts.

Romney declined his 135-thousand dollar salary as governor. Asked by a reporter if he might follow the same example if president, Romney said he hadn't thought that far ahead but then speculated that he would likely take the salary, then give an equivalent amount and more to a charity.

Yeah, well whoopidy doo. I don't trust people who refuse their salaries when in public office. I think it takes away a level of accountability -- and makes the politician above answering to the people writing the checks -- especially when it's Mitt Romney. After all -- you'll remember ... our pal Mitt refused his paycheck when he was the Governor of the Commonwealth -- and look at what a bang-up job he did screwing us over.

Obama Leads The Pack

Democrat Barack Obama is the top 2008 presidential contender in the United States, according to a poll by Zogby International. At least 46 per cent of respondents would support the Illinois senator in head-to-head contests against four prospective Republican nominees.

Obama holds a three-point edge over Arizona senator John McCain, a six-point lead over former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and a 17-point advantage over both former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson.

In other contests, both New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former North Carolina senator John Edwards lead Romney and Thompson, but trail Giuliani and McCain. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is virtually tied with Thompson, leads Romney by three points, and trails Giuliani and McCain.

On May 27, Obama pledged to provide proper assistance for active duty soldiers, declaring, "We’re falling far short in addressing the mental health care needs of these heroes, and that’s inexcusable. I believe strongly that there is a sacred trust between this country and those who serve it. That trust begins the moment a service member signs on and lasts the duration of his or her life."

Bill O'Reilly ... Useful Idiot or Dangerous Moron?

Like many thinking Americans, Bill O'Reilly annoys the crap out of me. Some days the reasons are easier to identify than others. However, it's my good fortune that BO has given me plenty of ammo over the years. Take his last column for example:

If you believe ‘Bush lied’ get some help, America hater (OR) Seek help if you believe ‘Bush lied’

"Jane Fonda, Rosie O’Donnell and the other irresponsible America haters should be ashamed of themselves. I mean, is there a rational person on earth who believes President Bush, Prime Minister Blair and Secretary of State Colin Powell purposely lied to the world in order to remove Saddam Hussein? If you believe that, you need to see somebody. "

See ... if you disagree with BO and his fellow conservatives, you're automatically an America Hater. In fact, your psychologically damaged and need to seek help immediately!

It's my contention that if you still believe this war is a good idea -- and you're still investing your full faith and trust in the Bush Administration -- you must be either suffering from a delusionary disorder -- or have disconnected with reality entirely. Luckily, I have the same psychological qualifications to make such an assessment as Dr. O'Reilly does.

The fact of the matter is, evidence points to the fact that the Bush Administration did selectively present information to Congress and the United Nations to prove their assertion that Saddam Hussein needed to be "taken care of". All born out of a grudge festering in a neo-con think-tank in the 90's. (See Project for the New American Century)

The other question that must be answered is why Bill O'Reilly's opinion is somehow more important or worthy than that of Rosie O'Donnell or Jane Fonda. During her run on the View -- and her own successful midday talk program -- Rosie O'Donnell reached more people on a daily basis than the O'Reilly Factor does in an entire week. Does than make her opinion more valid? Of course not. But according to Bill -- he's got the final say-so.

There's nothing more un-American than telling someone else their opinion is invalid -- simply because they choose to question and demand answers -- holding our government accountable for it's mistakes. And if there's anything that has proven to be a mistake -- it's this war.

Should American Contrators in Iraq Receive the Same Honors as Soldiers?

An Ohio Mom says yes:

Donna Zovko wants Americans to remember her son Jerko "Jerry" Zovko and other contractors along with the fallen members of the nation's military.

"How will Americans treat or remember my son as a contractor that was killed?" she asked. "It's their choice, but he was there to protect our freedom and to help the Iraqis. He was not there for the money."

Yeah ... right. From Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

One after another, military personnel, journalists, former Abu Ghraib prisoners and former employees of the companies in question present a litany of shocking accusations, from private interrogators working without supervision or accountability to outsourced food services that allow Halliburton to charge soldiers $45 for a six-pack of soda. The movie also addresses the effect of private-sector soldiers on military retention and morale: Why work for $3,000 a month when you can earn six figures with a corporation?

Should we honor people who work for companies bilking the American taxpayer for BILLIONS of DOLLARS -- all the while being protected by American soldiers who are dying by the thousands -- while protecting their convoys? Are they heroes?

Find out more about Blackwater USA here ...

Memorial Day ...

From the Boston Globe:

ON THIS Memorial Day, when Americans are dying one by one in Iraq, their personalities and their courage stand out with a sorrowful vividness. Six times this month, a Massachusetts man was buried, with hundreds of mourners in attendance, including Governor Deval Patrick, who represented the collective grief of the state.

Marine Sergeant William Callahan of Easton was remembered as the glue that held his family together. His son had been born just 28 days before. Shortly before Callahan died in Anbar Province, he heard his son's first cries over the phone. "He would have made a heck of a dad," said his aunt.

And 400 people mourned Army Captain Anthony Palermo in Brockton. He was to be reunited in Germany with his wife, also an Army captain, for the birth of their first child, but he died when a bomb blew up his Humvee. He had wanted to join the Army ever since his service in the junior ROTC program at Brockton High School.

About 4,000 people stood in silence on the streets of Rockland as the hearse carrying the body of Lance Corporal Walter O'Haire passed by. He was killed in a firefight in Anbar. Before he shipped out to Iraq, he made sure to come up from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to visit his family. "Just to see us all he would drive through the night," said his uncle.

Thirty-three cadets from the Junior ROTC program at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School were among the 600 at the funeral of a Westminster native, First Lieutenant Ryan Patrick Jones. An alumnus of the school, he had just written them about his experiences in Iraq. "He was one of those standout kids," his guidance counselor recalled. "That's how I started his college reference: 'Ryan Patrick Jones makes me smile.' " Jones, too, was killed by a roadside bomb.

The Standard Times lists the names of those who have died in Iraq ...

Commuter Rail Naysayers: A Lot of Talk ... Not Much Substance

According to an article in the Fall River Herald News, shockingly, there are some who don't think commuter rail will ever happen!

Not everyone is convinced.

Critics say that, coming off the nearly $14.8 billion Big Dig and faced with a crumbling transportation infrastructure, the last thing the state can afford is a pricey new commuter rail line.

And at the Statehouse, some lawmakers are pushing for a moratorium on all future MBTA rail expansions, including the New Bedford project.

"Rather than promising the people of New Bedford and Fall River that we are going to be spending a billion-four, the priority of the administration should be making sure the bridges and roads we have right now are drivable and useable," said Senate Republican Leader Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield.

So let me get this straight ... because one Republican State Senator (out of the five total) is against the proposed plan -- it's practically dead in the water?

Wait! There's more ...

Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, sits on the transportation panel that came up with the report. The panel is currently working on a second part of the report, which could include recommendations for coming up with the needed revenue, such as a hike in the gas tax.

Widmer said the notion that additional tax revenues from new developments along the commuter rail route could pay for the project is a stretch.

That's right folks ... The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation ... the group even fellow conservatives call "representers of Tax Profiteers -- businesses that feed at the public trough. Businesses who benefit from High Taxes, High Spending, and Big Government Programs. Special Interests."

Perhaps MTF is worried their benefactors won't get as much bang for their buck -- if state funds aren't directed their way? That aside ...

Do these two powerful entities -- the Republican State Senate Leader (can you really be a "leader" if you're only "leading" four other people?) and Mike Dukakis' former press secretary REALLY bring down the largest economic development plan in the history of the Commonwealth?

Nah ...