The Parker for Mayor Campaign just announced 2009 revenue numbers for the Hopkinton Bill--$219 thousand in additional revenue was brought into the city this year, bringing the total revenue generated for Newton since the bill was adopted to $1.4 million.

In 2003, despite objections from the Cohen Administration, Parker led the effort to adopt the Hopkinton Bill in Newton, allowing the city to conduct mid-year tax assessments on new contruction.

While these dollar figures may not represent a huge portion of the city’s total budget in and of themselves, they exemplify how effectively Ken Parker works as an elected leader. He is focused on the details that matter when it comes to municipal management; he identifies practical solutions, and implements them effectively.

Looking at the sum of the parts, which include the Hopkinton Bill, Canadian drug importation, saving water rate-payers money, Pension Fund Investment, avoiding layoffs through a COLA freeze, General Fund investment and more, Ken Parker has identified over $20 million in savings and new revenue for the citizens he represents.

With Newton facing a difficult economy, addressing our financial challenges while keeping services running smoothly is a tough challenge. Don’t we want a mayor with a proven track record, and a mind and passion for the details to take Newton forward in the 21st century?

This should eliminate any doubt that pedestrian-friendly development is the future: Framingham is trying to fix the pedestrian un-friendliness of the Route 9 shopping mall sprawl.

The walking tour came as Framingham and Natick officials are trying to make the retail sprawl of Route 9 more pedestrian-friendly with better sidewalks, benches, and other amenities. More exercise, reduced exhaust pollution, enhanced street life, and less time-consuming traffic congestion would result if people walked, rather than got in their cars, every time they wanted to move between adjacent shopping areas, proponents said.

Join Newton-Wellesley Hospital dermatologists Pamela Weinfeld, MD and Rashel Goodkin, MD on Wednesday, May 27 from 4-7pm at The Mall at Chestnut Hill, 199 Boylston Street. They will provide free sun damage assessments, spot checks and educational mini-lectures.

The sun damage assessment will be performed using UV technology, which can reveal pigmentation spots that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Physicians will also check for suspicious spots for visitors seeking an opinion solely on a specific mole or lesion feared to be cancerous.

Drs. Weinfeld and Goodkin will also give some mini-lectures on the following topics:
Skin Cancer: Early Symptoms and Risk Factors, 4pm and 5:30pm
Sun Block and Vitamin D, 4:30pm and 6:00pm
Maintaining Your Youthful Glow: Skin Health & Beauty, 5:00pm and 6:30pm

For more information, please visit www.nwh.org/community or call CareFinder at 617-243-5900.

As the Newton Schools' SPED program serves many autistic children, I thought this post would interest a number of you. It is such a great story I thought I would link and share part of it here:

http://nothingbutsocnet.blogspot.com/2009/05/horse-boy-moment.html

Zena Weist, a good friend of mine who lives in Kansas City, recounts the story this week of her "high-functioning" autistic son, who insisted on going with her to a book-signing. The author? Rupert Patterson, and his book is "The Horse Boy," about his own autistic son and how he connects through horse-riding therapy.

Zena's son was convinced he needed to go "to help Rowan," and does so in such a sweet, heart-melting way. As someone who does not have autistic children, stories like these give me a better perspective on what it means to be such a parent.

Please give Zena's post a read and comment if you feel so moved.

By the way, Patterson had a video produced for the book. Zena put it in her post, but I also share it here:

Read the article and the rest of the list here.

Newton South's a cappella group earned some praise from a Chicago publication for the singing they did with Ben Folds:

Congratulations on a job well done! If anyone has a recording of this group that is legal to post, please put it here so we can all enjoy.

Last week, shortly after the 40th Earth Day, the candidates for Mayor of Newton gathered to discuss the future of transportation in our city at a forum hosted by Bike Newton. It was an interesting and informative debate moderated by NewTV's Jenn Adams. If you missed the event, you can watch the entire forum on-line by clicking here.

With Newton residents placing such a high value on our city's village character, preserving the safety of our streets and sidewalks for pedestrians and bikers, and reducing traffic and congestion through improved public transportation resources should be a high priority for Newton's next mayor.

During the forum, Candidate Ken Parker offered a realistic assessment of our current situation, and proposed innovative, substantive solutions to encourage safer, healthier and cleaner transportation in our city.

In a Blueprint for Newton's Future, Alderman Parker's detailed plan for the City developed in partnership with over 100 residents, there is a clear and positive vision for the future of transportation in Newton. Please click here to read his plan for improving pedestrian and bicycle access, reducing traffic and congestion and improving public transportation.

Your feedback is welcome; the Blueprint is a living document continually improved by Newton residents offering their ideas on so many topics, including improving our city for pedestrians, transit riders and bikers alike.

It was Ice Cream Works, then Citrio, and now Bread & Lily. Open for a few months, it serves sandwiches to order, specials, fresh coffee, pastries, salads, desserts, and of course ice cream.

The owner Ben, explained to me the coffee is Pierce Bros., air roasted, and he feels better than George Howell. My wife agreed. ( I don't drink coffee)
They also cater both corporate and social functions.

The food isn't cheap, but is fresh ingredients, well made and good value.
They have Wi-Fi, and a website: www.breadandlily.com
They are located in the Highlands next to public parking, so it is convenient as well.

Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

I’m not sure which bothers me more; the idea that people who can vote don’t or that people who do vote have no idea for whom or for what they’re voting.

In fact, no voter signs his/her ballot.

Ideas are expressed and the reader seeks out fact from fiction.

If the writer deceives, s/he is cast into the trash can of clutter.

But, if the facts point to truths, well that stirs debate and that is the quintessential of democracy.

In this city, we are a mix of wealth by inheritance, by work, by toil and by endurance.

In this city, we are at a crossroads.

We know the truth, we know who did what, when.

We simply need the courage to act, to apply the common sense we lost along the way to this chaos that is now your city.

To question the judgment and voting records and political ‘pals’ is not an act of defiance, it is the basis that the future be better served by those who did not seek favors from corrupt officials, who do not seek to further tax the working folks, who strive to survive the pain of depression, who pay their own gas from their own pocket…not yours. It’s those blimps that reveal the real nature of the candidate…not what they say, but what they do.

Why does one have to be a supporter of a candidate to point out change is necessary to return sane sound safe secure government to this city that is now the poster city for outrage in a world economy in depression.

I suppose the human spirit, at times, attacks all those that stand for ‘thinking’. Socrates found that out when sentence to death by the citizens of Athens.

Eagleye seeks no office, no position, no candidate….rather eagleye seeks to have each reader examine the facts and act according to their own good consul.

When you attack eagleye you attack the right to speak freely amongst the citizens who must weigh the facts and act accordingly.

If not so, free speech without being attacked, well we have doomed our dedication to democratic ideals.

You will have the most expensive high school in the Nation emptied of the great debates and thinkers and outstamding teachers and minds that are the real promise of Newton and…tomorrow.

Boston, Massachusetts – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a proposed finding that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants, which come mostly from burning fossil fuels, are a threat to public health and welfare.

“‘Duh’ may not be a scientific term, but it applies here. Today, common sense prevailed over pressure from Big Oil and other big polluters to deny the obvious in order to maintain the status quo on energy. EPA has embraced the basic facts on global warming that scientists around the world have acknowledged for years. We applaud President Obama and EPA Administrator Jackson for putting science back in its rightful place at the forefront of environmental policy,” said Environment Massachusetts Field Organizer Winston Vaughan.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to determine if global warming pollution threatens public health or welfare – a conclusion supported by a worldwide scientific consensus. Today’s action comes in response to that decision and sets the stage for the EPA to take long-overdue steps to reduce global warming pollution from cars, power plants, and other large pollution sources under the Clean Air Act.

“Reducing global warming pollution to the levels demanded by the science will drive the creation of a clean energy economy, put Americans back to work in clean energy jobs, and spare our children and grandchildren and the world they’ll inherit from the ravages of global warming,” said Vaughan.

The following is the timeline leading up to today’s decision:

• 1999: EPA was first petitioned to regulate global warming pollutants from new cars and light trucks under the Clean Air Act.
• 2003: The Bush EPA denied the petition.
• April 2007: The Supreme Court rejected the Bush EPA’s reasons for denying the petition.
• December 2007: The Bush EPA prepared a proposal finding that global warming pollutants endanger public welfare, but the White House did not allow the proposal to be released.

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Environment Massachusetts is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization.