WFCR 88.5FM - Focus Western New England

August 5, 2010

Coming up on the next Focus Western New England, Thursday August 5th, join host Jill Kaufman for some unexpected summer fun.

Take a trip to The Titanic Museum, "Home of the World Famous Titanic Historical Society Collection". It's run from the back of a family owned jewelry store in Springfield's Indian Orchard.

Then, it's an art tour, via DownStreet Art in North Adams. Many of the city's empty store fronts have been reborn into serious contemporary galleries, in an attempt to revitalize the economy.

You'll also meet the artistic director of The Berkshire Fringe, a performance festival of original and new works taking place right now in Great Barrington.

And a quick stop in The Loo, a surprisingly busy bathroom-art gallery in Becket.

Send your favorite off the track gems to Focuswesternnewengland@wfcr.org and we'll post them here!

June 17, 2010 - Artists, Poets, and Playwrights talk about War

This month on Focus Western New England, host Jill Kaufman and her guests talk at the theme of war in art, literature, and poetry.

Images copyright Matt Mitchell.

Guests:

Matt Mitchell, artist, from Amherst, MA, who's working on the project 100 Faces of War Experience

Tyler Boudreau, Iraq War veteran and Northampton resident who wrote up his experience in the memoir "Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine"

Esam Pasha, artist, Iraqi citizen, by phone from his home in CT

David Rabe, award winning playwright and screenwriter, by phone from his home in CT. Rabe is best known for his trilogy of Broadway plays based on the Vietnam War (of which he's a veteran) -- The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Sticks and Bones, and Streamers. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film, Casualties of War.

Al Miller, poet, Vietnam War veteran, resident of Montague, Massachusetts.

Links:

2010 War, Literature, and the Arts Conference

May 13, 2010 - Life after High School

This month on Focus Western New England, a look at the many opportunities and challenges ahead for high school graduates.

Guests:

Student Pierre Joseph is in his senior year at Springfield's Central High School. He's the president of the student council and he's the student representative for the city's School Committee.

Christine Soverow is the guidance counselor in the town of Hatfield, Massachusetts' high school -- Smith Academy.

Principal Ricci Hall, University Park Campus School, Worcester, a neighborhood public school for 7th -12th grade students.

April 22, 2010 - The Region's Agricultural Economy

This month on Focus Western New England -- a look at the region's diverse agricultural economy.

Guests:

Richard Bonnano, Massachusetts Farm Bureau Board of Directors President. Bonnano farms on 100 acres in Methuen, MA
Pleasant Valley Gardens
Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation

Edward Maltby, Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producer Alliance (NODPA), consultant to farmers in the region, currently a member of state and federal dairy farm advisory task forces
Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance

Caroline Pam, owner with husband Tim Wilcox of the Kitchen Garden Farm, a 7 acre farm in Sunderland, MA
Kitchen Garden Farm

Scott Soares, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources

Links:

Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families
Listen to the five one-hour documentaries in the Five Farms series. These episodes follow five farm families, including one in western Massachusetts, through a year of their work and their lives. This series was distributed by PRI, Public Radio International, for broadcast nationwide by public radio stations.

Farmers' Markets in Massachusetts
MDAR Farmers' Markets
Mass Farmers' Markets

Farmers' Markets in Connecticut
CT Farm Fresh

Urban Agriculture
Nuestras Raices, Holyoke, MA

A Sampling of Non Profits, Research Organizations, and Good Reads that Connect Farms, Communities, the Environment, and the Marketplace to Your Kitchen Table

CISA -- Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture

CSA Farm Listing

Red Tomato

Berkshire Grown

Massachusetts Farm to School Project

Department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at UMASS Amherst

Integrated Pest Management, UMASS Amherst

Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center, Belchertown, MA

UCONN College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Edible Pioneer Valley

Fertile Ground

April 2010 - A Special Edition of FWNE on Bullying, in collaboration with WNPR Hartford

The suicide of 15 year old South Hadley, MA, high school student Phoebe Prince has raised numerous issues for students, school staff, her peers, and people around world. Prince took her own life after what prosecutors say was a relentless bullying campaign by her peers.

Listen to the conversation with host John Dankosky from WNPR and his guests, Karen Brown WFCR reporter; Joann Friedberg, CT Department of Education; Yale Law professor David Rosen; and Greg Saulman from MassLive/The Republican.

Additional links:

Springfield Republican Blog on South Hadley Bullying
Previous coverage from WFCR:
A Springfield Bullying Workshop Started by Kids
Bullying and the case for free speech
South Hadley Superintendent Reacts to District Attorney's Investigation

March 2010 - Casinos in Western Massachusetts?

This hour on Focus Western New England with host Jill Kaufman, we take your calls for a look at legislative proposals to expand gambling in the state, which would include resort casinos and additional slot machines. Governor Patrick and the state's top legilsative leaders are on board for the casinos; they all agree the industry could create thousands of jobs and bring much needed revenue to the state. But some lawmakers and many citizens are not in favor of creating jobs through gaming, concerned it will cause more problems than revenue. Guests: Paul Burns, president of the town council in Palmer, MA, and a member of the Western Massachusetts Casino Task Force (WMCATF) and Kathleen Connelly Norbut, head of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, and also a member of the WMCATF; Rick Green, columnist for the Hartford Courant; Massachusetts Senator Stan Rosenberg.

Additional links:

January 2010 - Terrorism

This month's Focus Western New England:
- A look at recent U.S. involvement in Yemen as President Obama and other world leaders try to stop Al Qaeda from taking hold there
- A former U.S. Ambassador now living in Springfield gives us his take
- A UMass Amherst psychologist looks at what motivates someone to become a terrorist.
- How last month's fires in Northampton changed that city.
- Additional links:
- October 2009 - Swine Flu
  
  Listen to a live call-in program about swine flu in western New England. Our guests for this hour are:
  
  Alan Calhoun, M.D., Medical Director for University Health Services at UMass Amherst. An internal medicine practitioner with special interests in infectious diseases, endocrinology, gastroenterology and preventative health, Alan has been with UHS since 1981. He's an active member of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital medical staff and was previously in private practice.
  
  Dr. Lauren A. Smith is the Medical Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where she works closely with the Commissioner to establish and implement departmental priorities. She is an Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. She serves as a pediatric hospitalist at Boston Medical Center where she was the Medical Director of the Pediatric Inpatient Unit for 4 years.
  
  For more information about H1N1:
  - Updates from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
  - And from Connecticut's.
  - The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a comprehensive website with information about the flu, and what average citizens should do.
  - NPR's Joanne Silberner answers some frequently-asked questions about H1N1 on NPR's Health blog.
  - Concerned about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine? The Washington Post has a report on clinical trials for the vaccine.
  - The CDC has a Q & A about vaccine safety.
  - The Palm Beach Post also reported on the issue.
  - And, one more! NPR's All Things Considered featured an interview with the author of a controversial article in Wired Magazine on vaccinations... You can find that interview here.
- September 2009 - Biomass Energy
  
  Who isn't in search of clean, cheap energy? Policy makers, residents and investors around the region are, and they are taking a close look at biomass energy, that is, burning low-grade wood or other plant materials for high-tech electricity generation.
  
  There are three large-scale biomass plants proposed for western Massachusetts, in Springfield, Greenfield, and Russell. Together they could provide electricity for as many as 135,000 homes, help the state meet goals for renewable energy, and create jobs. But they could also change the character of the region's woodlands, send numerous trucks through residential neighborhoods and emit toxins into the air. And there is little consensus on just how "renewable" the resource is. These are some of the questions about biomass we'll explore in this half hour of Focus Western New England.
  
  Small Scale Biomass on the Quabbin Reservoir
  
  We take a look at the biomass boiler at an administrative building for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, on the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown. This buidling's history reflects the changing economics of energy-use. Seventy years ago the structure was heated by a coal furnace that had to be staffed 24-hours a day. In the 1950s the state switched over to oil, and last year, switched again—to a woodchip biomass boiler. It's in the basement, and it will save the state an estimated 4 million dollars over thirty years.
  
  Proposed 50 Megawatt Biomass Plant in Russell Stirs Controversy
  
  Larger biomass plants burn vast amounts of woody materials to make steam which, in turn, powers a turbine to make electricity. These plants are often controversial. The handful of biomass power plants proposed in western Massachusetts are pitting developers against neighbors, and exposing divisions in the environmental community. That's certainly the case in Russell, where a proposal for a 50 megawatt biomass power plant has roiled this small town now for several years. We visit the site of the proposed plant on the banks of the Westfield River, and here from both sides of the debate. The web holds a plethora of information about Russell Biomass from both sides of the issue. See the developer's website, a group of residents organizing in support of the proposed plant, called Russell First, and Concerned Citizens of Russell, a group opposing the plant.
  
  Taking Stock of the Forests
  
  As more large scale proposals to burn wood and other plant material for energy are being developed, one question being raised is how the region's forests would be affected. Some say biomass energy is a smart use of New England's under-utilized forest-resources; others see it as a threat to the ecosystem. And some, like Professors David Damery and Matthew Kelty, say it all depends on how the resource is managed. They teach in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at UMass Amherst and they co-authored a paper that looks at the ecological, economic, and social issues raised by the prospect of a biomass industry in the northeast. You can read the paper online: "Developing a Sustainable Biomass Forest Industry: Case of the U.S. Northeast"
  
  Is Biomass Energy Renewable?
  
  The science is still developing on many important questions: can the forest regenerate fast enough to take up carbon dioxide emitted when wood is burned? Or, just left in the woods to decay, might downed trees emit more such greenhouse gases than if they're burned? The lack of certainty can add a note of contention – and confusion – to the debate. Some mainstream environmental organizations are wading in only cautiously. More on whether biomass qualifies as being renewable is available from: Massachusetts' state policy on biomass, the Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance (a group that opposes the biomass plants in Russell and elsewhere in western Massachusetts), the Union of Concerned Scientists, and a Pew Center on Global Climate Change report on Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards in various states.
- August 2009 - Back to School
  
  As the last few days of summer give way to the start of the academic year, in this Focus Western New England, we go back to school...
  
  School Regionalization
  
  As public schools in Massachusetts look for ways to end the annual saga of budget cuts, state officials are considering ways to encourage—perhaps even force—school districts to regionalize: share services, administrators, buildings and more with their neighbors. We hear from the state's Secretary of Education, Paul Reville, about a bill that's in the works. Meanwhile, regionalization is already happening in the state of Maine. A law passed in 2007 required smaller school districts to reorganize into larger regional units.Reducing costs was the prime objective.In July, the first 25 new regional school units began operating in Maine, but the transition has not been smooth. Despite the fact that regionalization in Maine was mandatory, more than a hundred school systems have rejected mergers, and Maine residents will vote in November whether to repeal the law... Maine and Massachusetts are very different states, but there is some overlap in what they're trying to achieve through regionalization. To hear more on this, we checked in with Nicholas Young, the superintendent of Hadley Public Schools. He recently served on a task force of Massachusetts superintendents looking at regionalization. We also spoke with Norm Higgins, a former school superintendent in Guilford, Maine, and a project manager for the state of Maine's reorganization of districts.
  
  Teaching Physics First
  
  For decades, teaching American high school science was approached in the following order—get students to learn biology first, then chemistry, and teach physics around 11th or 12 grade, maybe only to a select group of students who excel in science. Some education reformers don't agree with this approach, and have pushed to put physics first. That means physics for all, starting with students in 9th grade. It's a tall order—and not only for students. As Focus Western New England's Jill Kaufman reports, in order to become licensed to teach high school physics in Massachusetts, it takes quite a bit of studying.
  
  Hectic Preparations for the First Day
  
  Some might think that school teachers and administrators have a calm before the storm in these last weeks before school opens... Calm is not the word Paul Hyry would use. He's principal of the Peck School in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Before his students in grade K-8 return, Hyry and the school staff are incredibly busy getting everything ready for the new year. We follow him on one hectic morning.
- July 2009 - The Economy
  
  In this Focus: Western New England, we go beyond the daily blow-by-blow of economic news, for some conversations about the long-term impacts—and causes—of this recession.
  
  The State of the States: An Opportunity Amidst the Bad News?
  
  At a meeting of the National Governor's Association in Mississippi this month, governor after governor bemoaned their state's dire fiscal situation. According to the N.G.A., the downturn has translated into a 24 drop in states' revenues, which is compounded by the fact that all states—except Vermont—are required by law to have a balanced budget... But in all of that gloom, could there be opportunity? Could this recession provide lawmakers with a chance to take a long, hard look at how state and local governments handle chronic budget crunches? We talk to Massachusetts senator Stan Rosenberg, a 22 year veteran of the state legislature, and economist James Heintz, the Associate Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at UMass Amherst. Heitz is also the author of a recent report called "The Grim State of the States: The Fiscal Crisis Facing State and Local Governments."
  
  The Evolving "He-conomy"
  
  Not familiar with the term "he-conomy?" It's one that popped into UMass Economics Professor Nancy Folbre's mind recently, while she was reading about what others are calling the "he-cession." There are signs that men are bearing the brunt of job losses this year; according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men have experience 80 % of job losses since November. But, in a recent New York Times blog post, Nancy Folbre went beyond those job losses, to look at other gender issues related to the economy. Also see the Foreign Policy magazine article on "The Death of Macho" by Reihan Salam.
  
  Getting Divorced During a Downturn
  
  The recession has certainly changed the way many of us live our daily lives: second-guessing that impulse purchase at the mall, perhaps opting for the cheaper vacation near home rather than the exotic trip abroad. But it's also shifting the way some people handle major life events: couples are downsizing their weddings. People are choosing cheaper caskets and floral arrangements for memorial services. The economy also effects divorce... People often think of divorce in emotional terms—a couple falling out of love, someone has an affair, there are a whole host of reasons for a break-up... But getting divorced has giant financial implications. And they're being complicated by the recession for a number families in western New England... You can also hear Tina's earlier story about more people turning to mediation to negotiate their divorces in this recession. For more on mediation, visit mediate.com
  
  Thoughts, inspirations, story ideas? Email us at: focuswesternnewengland@wfcr.org
- June 2009 - Summertime
  
  This month on Focus Western New England: the joys—and troubles—of summertime...
  
  For some, summer isn't a time of relaxation... In parts of Western New England, it's the busy season for the law enforcement community. In Springfield, the warmer months usually bring a spike in youth and gang violence; there are more young people outside in the day and night, without enough to do. We speak with Springfield police Sergeant John Delaney and Desi Jackson, of the group AWAKE, which stands for Alive with Awareness, Knowledge and Empowerment. His group works in the streets to prevent gang violence.
  
  On a hot summer day, there's nothing like jumping into a cool body of water, be it a lake, stream, or even just a run through the sprinkler. We speak with Dave Hajdasz, one of the forces between swimmingholes.org, a website that provides maps and meticulous directions for finding great swimming holes... For more information, click here.
  
  One of the best things about summertime is the fresh produce: corn, tomatoes, fresh basil, sweet peppers... But there are some vegetables being grown in the rich soils of Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley whose names and flavors may not be so familiar... Ever heard of Maxixi, a small egg-shaped cucumber with a lemony flavor? How about Taioba, a tropical green, that Brazilians eat like spinach? Meet UMass Professor Frank Mangan and his students, who are growing and marketing ethnic vegetables in Deerfield. For more information about their work and those vegetables, click here.
- May 2009 - Health Care
  
  This month on Focus Western New England, we take stock of Massachusetts Health Reform Law, on it's third anniversary... Will it survive this recession? And who still doesn't have health insurance? A conversation with WFCR's Karen Brown, who's been reporting on health reform for the past year on a fellowship from the Kaiser Family Foundation... You can find Karen's series of stories on health reform here:
  - Part 1
  - Part 2
  - Part 3
  Also: how cultural differences can keep some immigrants and refugees from getting the healthcare they need... and what health providers can do about it. We talk with Cristina Huebner, Program Director of Research and Wellness at the Caring Health Center, a clinic that serves many new immigrant and refugee communities upon their resettlement in Springfield, Massachusetts. She's also assisting in a research project funded by the National Cancer Institute that looks at how cultural background impacts health literacy.
  
  And we go to the School for Tibetan Medicine in Conway, Massachusetts—the only one of its kind in the western world:
- April 2009 - Springfield
  
  This month Focus: Western New England is zooming in on Springfield... We take a close look at the end of the state-appointed Finance Control Board that's been governing the city's finances since it was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2004... We visit an Italian market in the city's South End, and meet it's owner who's on a mission to bring the game of bocce to the masses... And we hear from some Springfield poets who love their city, and want the world to know.
Share your thoughts, ideas, and visions with us... by emailing focuswesternnewengland@wfcr.org.