New England Public Radio

Clean-up Begins After Unheard-Of February Tornado Rips Through Conway, Mass.

Click the audio player above to hear a radio report from New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy.

Residents and public safety officials are cleaning up and assessing damage after an EF1 tornado ripped through part of Conway, Massachusetts over the weekend. Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said his agency will be in the Franklin County town as long as necessary.

“We’ll stay and continue to support the town, coordinate mutual aid from state agencies and other communities,” Schwartz said. “When the town says they’re all set, then we’re all set.”

No serious injuries were reported. Six properties were significantly damaged, and downed trees brought down power lines and closed thirty roads just after the storm. All but three roads were reopened as of Monday morning.

The National Weather Service says it’s the first time a tornado has ever been reported in Massachusetts in February. Records date to 1950.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Study: Emails To Legislators Often Don’t Work

The arrival of the Trump Administration in Washington brought with it a huge volume of phone calls and emails. Congressional offices have said they’ve never seen so much correspondence from constituents — many who’re opposed to President Trump’s cabinet nominees and early policy announcements.

But new research finds this might not be the best way to influence your representatives — at least in state legislatures.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy interview with UMass Lowell political scientist John Cluverius.

Ware, Mass. Soldier Dies In Iraq In ‘Non-Combat’ Incident

A 21-year-old soldier from Ware, Massachusetts has died in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Brian Odiorne died in what the Defense Department calls a “non-combat related incident” in Al Anbar Province on Monday. Odiorne was a 2014 graduate of Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School in Palmer, where he was a machine shop student and played on the football team.

“He was just an overall wonderful student, an excellent machine shop student, and was an asset to Pathfinder,” said Principal Mary Jane Rickson.

In the Army, Odiorne was a private first class, assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. The Department of Defense said his death is under investigation.

The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill: Slow Start To New Session, No Marijuana Committee (Yet)

Beacon Hill lawmakers are five weeks into a new two-year session, and things are off to a pretty slow start. Leaders in the Massachusetts legislature haven’t yet assigned members to committees, including a new panel that will examine the state’s new recreational marijuana law. Top Democrats in the legislature, as well as Governor Charlie Baker, have said they’d like to change parts of the voter-passed law in the next few months.

For more, we spoke to Matt Murphy of the State House News Service in Boston. He said the slow start to the marijuana committee could complicate efforts to change the new law.

Click the audio player above to hear Henry Epp’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill.

 

New To The Massachusetts Governor’s Council, Mary Hurley Calls For Rules

A meeting of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council got heated this week. The council is an eight-member panel, elected by voters, which primarily approves judicial nominees from the governor.

The council is a fairly obscure branch of government, and on Wednesday, it devolved into a shouting match, complete with fist-pounding. The argument stemmed from a vote on a nominee for a Superior Court seat. Some councilors said the decision to hold a vote was rushed.

Democrat Mary Hurley is the newly elected governor’s councilor representing the four western counties of the state. She’s a former judge and mayor of Springfield. She says there’s one key problem on the council that she intends to fix: a lack of rules.

Click the audio player above to hear Henry Epp’s interview with Governor’s Councilor Mary Hurley.

 

Massachusetts Has To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2020. How’s It Going?

Last year, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in favor of environmental groups who argued the state hasn’t been doing enough to reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Those goals were put into law in 2008.

The law calls for the state to reduce emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020. The Supreme Judicial Court ordered the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to come up with new regulations to ensure the state meets that mark. Those new rules are getting public hearings this week.

For more on the new regulations and who would be affected by them, we spoke to David Abel, a reporter for the Boston Globe.

Click the audio player above to hear Henry Epp’s interview with Globe reporter David Abel.