By Joanne Mendes

Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.” Sometimes you need to step away from a place before you can truly appreciate all that it has to offer. This certainly is true about my relationship with New Bedford.

In 1975 I graduated from Bishop Stang High School, went off to college and never looked back. I couldn’t wait to leave Southeastern MA, convinced that there was something bigger and better waiting for me. In my eyes, New Bedford was a depressing place, certainly not a place that held a future for the young professional I strove to be. All I could see was a city that used to be. Used to be a nice place to live, before “urban renewal” tore into its heart; used to be the leader in fishing, textiles and history. New Bedford was a city in decline, a city lost unto itself, a city divided.

For the next 30 years I bounced around the United States. Although I lived primarily in New England, my job afforded me the opportunity to travel extensively. Of course, I did come back, mostly for weekends, holidays and vacations. After all, being brought up an only child in an Italian/Portuguese household, home is always where your family is. And while I loved being with my family, and enjoyed our times together, I had no desire to stay.

And then the unthinkable happened. My parents got older, and I was downsized from my job. As my Dad’s health declined, there was only one thing to do, move closer so I could be there for them. I’d like to say I came back with a great attitude and loving thoughts, but I’d be lying. I did not return like a lamb, more like a lion roaring, kicking, screaming and lamenting. I was convinced I would have no friends, no culture, and no entertainment – in short, no life.

But once I settled in, my emotions settled down. As I spent time and reminisced with my parents, I began to record their stories. Ancestry research is like weaving. To quote Grandma Regis, “The most beautiful tapestry starts with but one thin piece of thread.”

This city was built by hard working immigrants, my ancestors included, who came to this country looking for a better life. As I sifted through local records and historical documents, I soon found that my family threads were intricately woven into New Bedford’s. For example, my paternal grandfather, who also worked the ferry to Oak Bluffs, laid most of the sidewalks in this city. Several local schools, including the Hathaway were constructed by my maternal grandfather, who also moonlighted as a carpenter, renovating some of the finer homes from Salters Point to Sagamore.

Looking at the city through this lens gave a whole new meaning to the word home. Suddenly, I’m not just riding down Purchase Street with my Dad, instead I am transported to the “Holy Acre” where my great grandparents and their families lived and worked.

At Purchase and Austin Street, Horatio Welding fades and becomes Giusti’s Baking Company circa 1943. This where MY personal history began, when a baker home on leave from the Navy met a bookkeeper looking for a ride home so she can save streetcar fare back to Dartmouth.

On State Street I am at Great Aunt Jo’s, where a houseful of boisterous Italians celebrate yet another birthday with a delicious strawberry filled cream cake from New Bedford Baking Company. Two doors in from the corner of Chestnut and North, I don’t see an empty lot; instead I see the faded image of my paternal grandparent’s last home. I am standing on the sidewalk with my avo, crying because the ice cream bar he bought for me melted onto the sidewalk. At Christmas, when I walked Clasky (Common) Park, I am five again and holding hands with my parents as we ooh and ahh over the lights and decorations. Every path I walked, every road I drove became a wonderful journey down memory lane.

The City New Bedford was once the crown jewel of the manufacturing world. Names like: Wamsutta, Revere Copper, Cornell Dubilier and Acushnet were known worldwide for their quality products. I am proud to say, my immigrant ancestors were part of what made New Bedford great. From Atlas Tack to Morse Twist Drill; Paulding to GroTogs; Gilt Edge Silk to “The Process”, my ancestors, like yours, were a proud, humble group that became this fine city’s heart and soul.

It’s now 2014, and the landscape has changed. Downtown, once a desolate place when Saltmarshes, Star Store and Cherry and Webb left, is revitalized with a new hotel, great restaurants, art galleries and boutiques nestled between two stalwarts – the Whaling Museum and the Zeiterion Theater. You want culture; I’d stack the New Bedford Symphony against any other. Entertainment: go downtown on the first Thursday of the month and say AHA!

Same is true for the festivals from First Night to July 4 to the Working Waterfront. You will experience a comfortable family atmosphere while listening to good music and savoring the local cuisine. If you want more, check out the Z. In the six years I’ve resided here I’ve watched some memorable performances from Bill Cosby to Midtown Men to Do Wop. And by the way, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard the Vienna Boys Choir perform in St. Anthony’s Church.

It only took 38 years for me to recognize New Bedford as the rare gem she is. It also took me that long to realize that she and I both have a lot in common. We are rich in heritage, but still suffer from an inferiority complex. Our well-worn facades proudly display scars from our storied past. Still, what we’ve lost in youth and beauty, we more than make up for in maturity and wisdom. It took me a long time, but I’ve finally reconciled myself with my past, and am ready to face a brighter future. It’s high time for New Bedford to do the same.

Now that I’ve seen where I’ve been it’s time for me to figure out what my next role is in this play called life. That cute little bookkeeper (I called her Mom) passed away last year, and is now with my Dad (her sailor). My reasons for moving back no longer exist so it’s time for me to be moving on. Unlike the last time I left “for good”, this time, I will happily carry with me the spirit and pride of my ancestors and the many contributions they made to New Bedford and this region. When someone asks me where I am from, I’ll proudly say I come from a city that once lit the world, and one that I know will light it again. The City that proudly bears the name – New Bedford.

Thomas Wolf was wrong – you can go home again. You just have to have the right attitude when you do.

Have an opinion you want to share? E-mail mike@newbedfordguide.com.

By Laura Pedulli

There was a great Washington Post slogan from about 15 years ago: “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.”

We need another slogan—but scaled nationally. Since that came out, subscriptions are falling, newspapers are shuttering, and too many of us take for granted the information and data we get from newspapers, and how this informs our everyday lives.

This is my call to the American Newspaper Association: Hire the best damn marketing gurus in the country and launch a campaign for people to actually invest in newspapers.

Tree-hugger? Get it digitally. More interested in international news and national trends? Invest in a Sunday subscription of the New York Times. Love investigative journalism? Put your money into institutions that support it.

I’m sick and tired of hearing that the Internet killed journalism. The internet is a vehicle — still someone needs to go out and report and write the news. Haven’t you noticed that news wires just basically repeat the same stories over and over again? There may be more of it out there, but less original news content.

And yes, there is the chorus of everyday people writing blogs, and a proliferation of hyper local online communities. These are great and serve as a wonderful platform for community engagement. But will these online hubs bring about the Watergate scandal, whistleblower Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency revelations, or otherwise bring to light hidden truths in an unbiased manner? No, in my humble opinion.

More and more rooms of our fourth estate are getting rented out by corporate interests. I’m fine with advertising, but at the end of the day, it should be owned by the public. I won’t digress into a debate on the merits of public funding of media (But I do believe this is why NPR, PBS and BBC produce some fine journalism), but support journalism and then the news is truly for the people.

Journalism schools are withering away. A few years ago the University of Colorado, in my hometown of Boulder, shuttered its formal journalism program. But it’s no surprise why.

Journalists can’t find work so they end up migrating away to marketing and public relations. And even if you can find a job, expect to get paid in the low $30,000s, or $35,000 with a Masters degree. Some weekly newspapers pay their reporters a pathetic $26,000, so they are probably eligible for food stamps. Imagine all the talent we are losing, all the stories we aren’t reading, and all the insights lost just because of the inevitable brain drain. Newspapers need a budget, and that is where you come in. It costs $10 per month for an online subscription for many papers, is that really so much to ask for?

Information is power. So do the American thing and support a newspaper—digital, local, national, whatever. Democracy needs you to support the fourth estate. And like the Washington Post said in the 1990s, “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.” And in the end, we all get what we pay for.

by Jordis Brown

In our short-sighted way of existing, we as a society have lost the realization that our actions – even those in private – do affect the world around us. We all carry burdens and many of us possess unseen scars from our day to day life. This has impacted us as a whole, to positively affect the community. Your conscience, awareness and empathetic nature has fallen asleep. This is my plea to everyone who reads this…..

Wake Up.

Many years ago there was a young teenage girl who lived with her adult boyfriend. She was naive in every sense of the word. He exploited that to its fullest. There was abuse masqueraded as normal pitfalls in a relationship. There was no guidance or healthy relationship for her to witness so that she could know what was happening was wrong. One night she ran and he followed. Yelling every insult, spewing every threat you could think of at her.

She cried and cried and clutched her pillow and kept walking quickly trying to avoid main streets, feeling afraid and embarrassed. She was simply trying to make it to her parents. She approached the avenue and a stranger stopped her and asked if she was okay. He wasn’t afraid of her boyfriend like she was. He kept repeating himself until she nodded and made an excuse, still embarrassed and still afraid. She made the wrong decision and went back to the house with the boyfriend that night.

Nearly two decades later that short interaction still brought that girl, now a woman, comfort. Faith. It woke her up days later to realize that someone else, a stranger, could see there was something wrong. Why couldn’t she? Her own life and its hardships put her to sleep. Even though they could never be erased, she would no longer allow them to dictate her future.

All thanks to a stranger who he himself was awake enough to see someone needed help.

I want you, the stranger reading this to be happy. We most likely have never met, but I say this sincerely and honestly. Be happy. We affect the world we live in and I want to live in a happier place. I want to see more random smiles from strangers than glares. This community has hardships and not a single person I have ever met – neither very rich nor very poor – has been able to avoid something awful in their life from happening.

Stop punishing yourself, by continuing the cycle of self-pity, doubt, hate…you punish us all. Wake up! Are you with someone that is unchanging? Do they make you a better person or are you miserable? Wake up! Do you turn to drugs or alcohol to fill a void put there by someone in the past, a person who should have loved you, but didn’t. By a memory or by habit? Wake up! If you die tomorrow will it have been a life worth living? Did you notice neglect, abuse, a crime? Does your self-righteous opinion prevent you from doing anything? Do you live as a silent witness who shakes their head and does nothing? You take on what you’ve seen as a personal burden now because you are now as culpable.

The attachments you have in your life might be what has put you asleep to the world around you. Family, friends…..people who are truly happy, often say they feel alive. Awake for the first time. It is very difficult to cut the ties that bind us down, but when we do we fly up to the surface like a bungee cord freed from an anchor. Be a participant, not only in the community, but in your own life. Stop letting your burden dictate your fate.

Please for the love of yourself, for the family you have or the family you want: Wake up.

By Joyce Rowley

Isn’t it nice to go out to dinner with friends to a place that has something for everyone? And with spring officially here, some of us are a little more conscious about sticking to a healthy diet to shed a few.

Eateries with the Healthy Dining New Bedford (HDNB) heart logo on their doors offer menus with healthier choices, says Kim Ferreira who runs the HDNB program for New Bedford Mass in Motion.

“Our goal at Mass in Motion is to create programs and policies to effect environmental changes that reduce obesity and chronic disease,” says Ferreira.

It is a matter of options, says Ferreira. Restaurants may offer substitutions of a salad or other vegetables instead of fried veggies and half portions or children’s portions for adults. Menu offerings may include sides of fruit or veggies and no salt/sugar or reduced salt/sugar foods.

For kids, the restaurants will have one percent or skim milk or water as a default beverage for children’s meals. And the menu could include at least three baked or grilled entrees too.

Ferreira is actively recruiting more restaurants to participate in the three-year-old program.

“There are a lot of restaurants who are already doing most of what we ask them to commit to,” she said. “Pa Raffa’s just added another vegetable to its menu and it works with a local farmer to have fresh vegetables.”

To participate, a restaurant chooses seven healthy practices from a list of 22 options like taking the salt shakers off the table or offering one whole grain item on the menu. They then complete the application to Ferreira with a commitment to maintain the healthy practices they’ve chosen.

Kristen Raffa, owner of Pa Raffa’s on Acushnet Boulevard in the North End, said their experience with the program has been positive.

“We love being part of the program,” said Raffa, whose restaurant signed up last year. “It really works for us.”

Raffa said that it didn’t take away from what they were serving, but gave customers better options. And Farmer Steve comes by with fresh produce in the summer. He also takes their food compost—trimmings from prep work that would otherwise go to waste.

“It’s so good when tomatoes come in fresh for the salads,” Raffa said.

Owner Mike Melo of M&C Café on Belleville Ave in the North End said it wasn’t difficult making changes last year when they signed up. Melo said it was more about giving people choices. Patrons can now split a plate between two people to cut the serving size and also cut calories in half.

“Instead of fries or chips, they can have a vegetable or upgrade to a salad,” said Melo. Or customers can substitute baked fish for fried fish, or grilled chicken for fried chicken.

Destination Soups on Union Street, was the first restaurant to sign up when the program began.

“We were already meeting the criteria,” said owner Devin Byrnes. “For us, it’s easy. We always offered vegan and gluten-free options and we make fresh fruit available. People always eat healthy here.”

“I think the Healthy Dining New Bedford initiative reflects the fact that people want to eat a more healthy diet. There is a natural progression for the country towards healthy eating,” Byrnes said. “People are more aware of what they’re putting in their bodies.”

Waterfront Grille on Homer’s Wharf is already there, too. Manager Bridget Phelan says that the menu hasn’t changed much since they joined the program two years ago.

“So there’s always been healthy choices. For example, vegetarian dishes can be prepared vegan,” Phelan said. “For me personally, I’m very passionate about nutrition. It’s great when you can go out and still eat healthy.”

For more information on the ten restaurants that are in the program, or to join the program, visit Mass in Motion’s website at massinmotionnewbedford.org/healthy-dining-restaurants/.

Youth Court is a program where troubled teens and pre-teens are sent for bad behavior. We receive cases about habitual school offenses, larceny, assault and battery and even small drug cases.

Every Tuesday a group of specially trained attorneys, like myself, meet at the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School around 4:30 p.m. to start preparing for our cases. Each night we have 3-5 cases to work. Usually we have two members on the defense team, they represent the respondent, and two on the prosecution team who represent Youth Court.

Youth Court is as real as it gets. It has everything an actual court would have, from the judges, to the jury (made up of our peers), attorneys, witnesses, SRO Officers, sanctions, and even bailiffs! One thing that is different about our program is that you have to admit to being guilty before your case. As a defense attorney for Youth Court your job would be to help lower the sanctions that your respondent will get and to help them realize what they have done is wrong. As a prosecution attorney your job would be to get the respondent a reasonable amount of sanctions and also help them to realize what they have done is wrong.

What are sanctions?

Sanctions are the punishments the respondent or “client” receives for his or her actions. Sanctions range anywhere from community service – which every respondent receives at least 8 hours of – serving on the youth court jury (which every respondent over the age of 12 receives), essays, apology letters, boot camp, counselling, mandatory programs, curfews, house checks and even some extreme ones like drug tests and no-contact orders.

Youth Court has touched the lives of many adolescents making them realize that if they keep doing wrong there’s a good chance they won’t amount to anything in life. We’re very lucky to have this program in New Bedford because it helps kids realize there still is a chance for them to have a bright future. Usually when kids are sent to family court, they are sent off with a warning and they are more likely to re-offend sometime soon. In Youth Court you stay in our program for at least the next 6 months.

I’ve been a part of this program for what feels like a lifetime and being able to help kids my age is truly an incredible experience for me. Youth Court has helped me in more ways than one by bettering my public speaking skills, time management and most of all my confidence. The best thing about this program is being able to watch some of the kids you’ve helped mature and grow over time.

Website: http://nb-fryouthcourts.org/

By Keith Lovett, Director of Buttonwood Park Zoo

The Buttonwood Park Zoo’s Asian elephant program has made a lot of headlines recently. In an incident this January two keepers failed to properly padlock a door, resulting in Ruth, our 55 year-old elephant, being exposed during a winter storm. Ruth’s exposure resulted in hypothermia and frostbite. The good news is Ruth is recovering well and will hopefully suffer no long-term effects.

The incident initiated a community exchange about the future of the elephant program. Unfortunately that exchange has not always been informed by the facts.

First, it is important to appreciate how our two elephants came to reside in New Bedford. Emily arrived as a youngster in 1968 and was kept as a singly-housed elephant for many years. Ruth arrived in 1986 after enduring years of abuse at the hand of a private owner.

Their treatment here throughout their long lives has been marked by a level of care and compassion that is a real credit to the Zoo and New Bedford as a community.

The fact that both are in reasonably good health at extremely advanced ages, is a testament to the love and attention they have received over the years. That said, the challenges of caring for two geriatric animals are many, so it is all the more important for decisions about their care to be made with care and expertise.

Second, it’s important to avoid snap judgments about the zoo keepers whose failure resulted in harm to our beloved Ruth. As someone who works daily with an extremely dedicated staff, I can assure you that those involved were personally devastated by their error. Both keepers have each worked with our elephants for over a decade and have devoted their professional careers to providing loving care to these animals. Both keepers would do anything to rectify their failure. They will live forever with the fact that they failed an animal they loved as much as their own children and they have both received appropriate sanctions for their mistake.

It is unfortunate that the incident has been exploited by animal activists who are demanding the elephants be sent to a sanctuary. These well-organized activists seek to portray Emily and Ruth as objects of neglect and abuse that is simply preposterous.

Meanwhile these groups sweep under the rug disturbing problems with their proposed solution, an elephant sanctuary. It becomes quite obvious that this sanctuary solution is actually no solution at all once one considers the sanctuary’s well documented track record: Significant issues with tuberculosis in their elephants, a host of citations by the USDA regarding their veterinary care, and a fluctuating leadership that does not inspire confidence.

The ironies abound. The activists disparage the Zoo for historically housing our elephants in a concrete-floored barn, but fail to acknowledge that the City replaced the floor over a year ago while the sanctuary still has concrete floors in their barns.

When I took the helm at the Zoo a year ago, the elephant program was foremost in my mind. I set about assessing their overall health, their care, their existing and proposed new facilities, the feasibility of various alternative homes, the impact of physical and emotional stress from relocation, and the dangers their introduction to a new herd might present.

As I worked through these issues, the path forward became much clearer. An upgrade of their housing and a modest expansion of their outdoor space within the Zoo’s current perimeter, would not only give Emily and Ruth a home suited to their needs in their remaining years, but would also represent a much safer option than any alternative.

Ultimately, the histories of the two elephants were the decisive factor in our analysis. It is easy for the activists groups to advocate ideal solutions in the abstract, but real solutions have to take account of the personalities and particular social needs of individual animals.

The pairing of our elephants has never been a match made in heaven. It took a major effort to successfully introduce these elephants. Even today they act more like roommates than companions. As result of their upbringings, our elephants are far more interested in the zoo keepers they love than other elephants. It is certainly not what critics want to hear, but the reality is that introduction to a herd, at their advanced ages and with their social preferences now cemented over a lifetime, would not allow them to flourish in a new herd. The inescapable reality is that wild elephants are born into their herds and normally do not enter them after fifty plus years of life.

Likewise critics have made much of elephants’ supposed desire for roaming. In this they miss an obvious factor: Wild elephants roam in search for food, water, and mates. This factor does not apply to our well fed and watered post-reproductive elephants. In fact, for years the Zoo staff has been taking Emily and Ruth on walks around the Park and Zoo only to find Emily and Ruth most interested in being with keepers and returning to their exhibit where they can better enjoy their company.

And while relocations have been performed occasionally with other geriatric elephants, there are open questions about a trip’s impact on our elephants’ ailing joints and whether they might survive the trip. A long-distance relocation is a gamble, and no one can predict the outcome.

Finally, contrary to critics’ contentions, the notion that the Zoo’s decision-making is driven by fear of financial losses from an elephant departure could not be further from the truth. The Zoo has a see-through perimeter fence that permits anyone to view most exhibits without paying admission. Anyone who has spent time in Buttonwood Park knows more people enjoy watching from outside in the Park than from inside the Zoo. Moreover, the annual cost of caring for Emily and Ruth far exceeds the revenue from their visitors.

As the person entrusted with responsibility for the Zoo’s two most beloved occupants, I have many wishes: I wish I could turn back time and rewrite the formative years of Emily and Ruth so they would develop into better socialized elephants. I wish there was greater public awareness of the genuine love their keepers have for them, and the deep affinity they have for their keepers. Above all I wish Emily and Ruth continue to thrive as conservation ambassadors in their enhanced home at the Zoo.

All I can do is weigh every option about their care and make decisions that best take account of their needs. That is what I have tried to do since day one, and that is what I will continue to do. I recently requested experts from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums visit to evaluate our current and future planned elephant management programs. Efforts like this represent the only approach that truly honors the animals whose lives are entrusted to us: Get the best advice and information we can, remain steadfast in acting in their best interests, and remain wary of quick fixes and easy solutions.

Emily and Ruth will be the last elephants to reside in New Bedford. One of the best ways to honor these magnificent girls is to visit the Zoo and learn more about what you can do to help endangered Asian elephants in the wild so that our children and grandchildren will not live in a world without elephants.

On March 13th, Councilors Rebeiro and Carney posted a motion to the city council to repeal the 44% pay raise that the City Council voted for two years earlier. It caused some major friction in the City Council chambers as the other nine city councilors verbally beat up the two newly elected councilors.

To put the pay raise in perspective it was a bump to from $14,600 to $21,000 or a $6,400 annual increase. That translates into $533.33 per month or $133 a week. It’s politically advantageous to say 44% compared to a $6,400 annual increase.

Apparently, only the city council can give themselves a pay raise and probably the reason they haven’t had a pay raise since 1995. Can voting yourself a pay raise every be popular in politics? That’s 17 years without a pay raise.  I’m not a mathematician or an accountant, but let’s examine the pay raise numbers using a compounded annual growth calculator. The growth from $14,600 to $21,000 over 17 years comes out to a compounded annual growth of 2.58%. You can see my work here.

Is it unreasonable to give a city councilor a 2.58% annual pay raise? I did a quick Google search and grabbed the first article that looked valid. According to the article: “From 2000 to 2008, the average pay increase was between 3.8 percent and 4.4 percent. Fast forward to the years from 2009 to 2011, and the median pay increase dropped to hover around 3 percent.” The article goes on to say 1.9% – 3.5% is the most recent going rate.

Take away the political rhetoric of the 44% number and look at the pay raise without emotion and the raise seems more than fair. You can argue that the pay raise was bad timing, but you can’t argue that the raise was high when looking at it on an annual basis compared to the private sector.

My name is Jane Doe, I am 27 years old and a mother of three children: Kelly, Danny, and Marcus.

Kelly and Danny’s father and I, were together for several years. In the final year of being together, I found out that he had an addiction to opiates. I found out because he traded my birthday present for percocet and stole our daughter’s piggy bank that I had been putting money in since being pregnant with her.

When Danny was born, he took our rent money and our TV, and got drugs with both of those, thus causing us to lose our apartment. After a year of trying to get him help, only to have him take several thousand dollars of our tax money and use it all in two weeks time.

Finally, I got the strength to kick him out of our home. He continued to “use” while at his mother’s house, while she enabled his behaviors and he had little to no interaction with our children throughout the year thereafter. During which time, I met somebody else and Marcus came along.

In January 2013 I found out through the newspaper that Dave had been arrested for breaking and entering and receiving stolen property to support his addiction. He went to jail. He got out on bail and shortly after I had Marcus, he was at my home visiting with the kids and I for a while. He found out Marcus’s dad had dropped off some clothes for him, which made Dave angry and jealous, and he nearly strangled me to death.

The day after, he filed for emergency custody of Kelly and Danny, insinuating I was the assaulter and the ‘crazy’ one, denying his addiction and the court granted custody, only to return it to me two weeks later, luckily.

However, he declared he did not want Marcus’s father to be around the children. Marcus’s father proceeded to try and have a relationship with Marcus despite that court order, and Dave pursued custody again in September with the support of the Department of Children and Families, having them remove my children, placing Kelly and Danny with him and saying they had no concerns with him or his addiction any longer, but only with me and my ‘choice in men around my children’ (Dave included, ironically.)

Marcus went to a foster home for two weeks, and a care and protection case was filed, but a lawyer appointed to me by the court, helped me reach an agreement with DCF to get Marcus home. However they said the case with my other two children had ‘nothing to do with them’ being that it is a ‘probate matter.’

Dave has been, that I know of, arrested and jailed for violating his probation at least twice since having custody. Living at his parents in a two level home, where the children sleep in the basement with him and his parents sleep upstairs, not even knowing when Dave leaves — my children are often left unattended and virtually uncared for while Dave goes out on dates, drug binges, to bars, and getting arrested.

The courts continuously let him go on stricter probation terms, but never actually locking him back up because he claims there is ‘nobody else’ to care for the children. I have had numerous people confirm to me that he is not only using drugs, but selling them, and he got put on stricter probation for stealing someone’s cell phone and trading it for drugs and somebody told his probation officer.

He is in community service four times a week and using the welfare money to buy alcohol and other things unnecessary, while his mother provides diapers. He has no license, because he lost it due to crashing a work vehicle while under the influence in 2011.

He has brought my children on drug deals, which has been confirmed by people who’ve seen so. He’s abusive not only verbally and physically towards me, but emotionally towards my children — telling Kelly that “Mommy is a whore and a slut, and does not care about her family, and this is her fault.” He broke pictures of Kelly as a baby in front of her face and told her “mommy doesn’t care about you,” while she cried and cried. He said I broke the pictures, and told police and DCF so. And they believe him, always, and never me.

My children want to come home and he won’t even let them see me despite my court order saying I can. He won’t have me at their birthday parties or any of my friends or family, and I have not seen them in a month because he is trying to tell people I am crazy and unfit. I took care of my children by myself while he was getting high for three+ years, and one day he decides to play daddy and takes them from me.

Above all else, most baffling to me is that he claims to have been clean and drug free since January 2013 when he was locked up — yet only got on the opiate blocker, “SUBOXONE”, in November 2013. Why would somebody who has been clean for that amount of time need suboxone almost a year into sobriety? It does not make sense and it just proves he has been using while having custody of them.

DCF is all over the news for being crooked and unjust, placing many children that have ended up beaten and/or dead by way of them placing them with the wrong parents. I need help getting my children out of the hands of their father who is only using them as a power trip in trying to hurt me since I won’t take him back. I have tried everything and don’t know where to turn…

by Joyce Rowley

Ever want to know what the development down the street will do to the neighborhood? How much traffic it will bring or whether the lights will keep you up all night? But you don’t want to ask at a public hearing because you might be seen as opposing it when all you want is information.

Or maybe you have questions about that new $43 million capital improvement plan that the City Council passed last December? Where was that money going to go exactly? Since you can’t talk at City Council meetings even if you went, there was no opportunity to ask questions unless you are on the agenda.

The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the one tool that lets people see exactly what the federal government is doing: whether spending public tax dollars, giving jobs to cronies, or planning new development. Documents that the government keeps are public records.

Each state has its own version of FOIA that applies to and is enforced by the state.

In Massachusetts, the law is called the Public Records Access law. Massachusetts General Law Chapter 4 Section 7 defines public records as everything in every form: paper, electronic files including email, photographs, tapes, and videos. And it includes documents received by anyone in any governmental or political division of the commonwealth—whether city, county, or state officers or employees.

There are 21 exemptions to the rule. Most are intended to protect personal information such as the phone numbers and home addresses of law enforcement officials and judicial personnel or employee medical information. Others protect information on children as determined by a child advocate. But some, such as broad categories on “trade secrets,” may be overused and can be challenged.

Basically, the law states that you are entitled to ask for records, to receive assistance in determining what records are available, and that the records must be produced within ten (10) days. If the cost of production or copying is more than $10.00, you are entitled to a written estimate of the costs.

But here are some pointers on how to navigate the system:

1. Just ask
Any member of the public can ask to see documents. The request does not have to be in writing. It helps, though, to put it in writing so you can verify that the agency complied fully with your request. Nor do you have to tell them why you want to see the documents or provide your identification. Remember, in reality, those are your documents—the public’s documents. Everything that government does is on our behalf.

2. Know where to go
Want to see those development plans? The planning department keeps those records, and you are entitled to see the entire file, not just a set of plans. Often there are other documents that describe environmental, traffic, or other important studies not included on the plans. And the $43 million capital improvement plan? That’s at the office of the chief financial officer.

Generally, records requests aren’t adversarial. You ask to see records, the clerk of the department can either supply them immediately, or may need time to get the entire file. They may ask you to wait or come back. But even a verbal request must be met within ten days, so jot down the date you requested the document.

3. What to ask for
How do you know what to ask for? The trickiest thing in a public records request can be the wording. And if you don’t use the correct term, you may not get what you want. If possible, meet with the record keeper and ask what is available. They are required by law to assist you.

Usually they will explain what is in a file or how the records are kept. It may make it easier to ask for what you need. But if the topic is controversial, or the agency is afraid of being sued, they may not be as helpful. If that’s the case, be prepared to make more than one request.

4. Inspection versus Copies
Copies cost—a lot. The charges can be as high as $.50 per page plus the cost of the person’s time to copy it. Unreasonable since Staples and Office Max cost less than $.10 per page? Yes. But the law allows it. You can choose to inspect the documents and ask for just the copies you need. Or bring a digital camera and take photos of documents.

Also, if the documents are in electronic format, ask to have them sent to you by email and save copying costs. Otherwise you may have to pay for them to be printed out plus the cost of the employee’s time.

5. Stonewalls
Occasionally, you’ll hit a stone wall. The record keeper is paranoid, is afraid for their job, or is simply hiding something. Don’t let it upset you. Put in your request and scrutinize everything you get. Look for what’s there, but also what isn’t there. As an example, a zoning agency did a FOIA request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a local mink farm’s license to determine whether it complied with a “right to farm law” (RTFL). The RTFL stated that a federally licensed farm in existence at a location without complaint for three years could not be cited by zoning.

The mink farm had just started up four years before. Many downwind neighbors of the mink farm had complained repeatedly (and bitterly) about the horrendous odors coming from it.

When the copy of the license was received, the zoning agency noticed that the corner had been blanked out by a fold. It could have happened on copying. However, that area of the document listed the location of the mink farm. So the zoning agency asked again to have a full and complete copy of the license.

When it came back, the license area hidden by the “fold” showed that the mink farm was licensed in a different town—and so was not protected by the RTFL.

6. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
At each step of the way, follow-up. If they tell you to come back at a certain time, be there. It may be innocuous or it may be they don’t want to produce records. If the records are incomplete, follow-up, but identify the record as having been previously requested and the date it was requested. Then you don’t have to wait an additional ten days.

If you know a record exists, but the record keeper does not provide it, ask for a letter of denial explaining the exemption and the section of law that allows the exemption.

7. Appeals
The Public Records Access process is regulated by Commonwealth of Massachusetts Regulations Title 950 Section 32 (950 CMR 32). If the agency does not comply with your request, you can complain to the Secretary of State’s office, but only if the request was in writing. In the complaint, identify the section of 950 CMR 32 that was non-compliant.

The complaint process will take time—usually a couple weeks—but may be worth it if it appears that you’re not going to get complete records.

Send your letter appealing a denial of documents within ten days, and an appeal for non-compliance of other parts of the regulation within 90 days by mail to:

Supervisor of Public Records Office of the State Secretary
One Ashburton Place, Room 1719
Boston, Massachusetts 02108

Information in this article was not intended to provide legal advice. The author strongly recommends individuals read the statutes and regulations regarding the federal Freedom of Information Act or Massachusetts Public Records Access.

by David Eaton

It’s been the winter to test even the saltiest of New Englanders. We’re supposed to be used to the cold weather, the snow and the icy roads. We’re not supposed to complain about the cold because, well, it gets cold here every year! I think this winter is one that we should be allowed to complain about. You know it’s been a rough winter when the first day in March over 32 degrees people have their sunroofs open and are breaking out the shorts. Spring is a time to put the snow shovels away and break out the rakes. It’s a time when we can finally get out of our homes without having to wear four layers just to survive!

With safety and security in mind, spring presents a different set of challenges. With the increase in temperatures comes an increase of crime. Violent crime rates are higher during warmer weather months than in colder weather months. There are several schools of thought as to why this occurs.

Some scholars believe that the increase in crime is attributed to the increase in opportunity. During the winter months we tend to stay home more and interact in public less, thus creating fewer opportunities for crimes to occur. Some scholars believe that the increase in crime during the warmer months is attributed to juveniles not being in school.

Since most crimes are committed by high school and college age individuals, being off during the summer gives them more opportunities to commit crimes. Although the counter argument to this is that most individuals that take their studies seriously would be less likely to be committing crimes anyway. It may just come down to the basic fact that even criminals stay inside when it’s cold, thus less crime in the winter.

With the change in temperatures comes a different set of safety concerns. Here are a few tips to think about when the mercury rises:

1. Securing our home during the warmer weather months. With spring upon us there are two things that are guaranteed. One is that the weather (hopefully) is getting warmer. The second is Spring cleaning! I have broken tree limbs strewn about my yard; my bushes need to be trimmed; and the lawn is ready for its first feeding of the year.

I don’t even want to think about the list I have to clean the interior of my house! Spring is the only time that I actually enjoy yard work because it means the end of winter. With the warmer weather comes the increased vulnerability of our homes. We leave our windows open to allow the fresh air in and our doors unlocked while we are in the back doing yard work. We can be so caught up in knocking off items on our “honey do” list that we let our guard down when it comes to personal safety. 

It was just last summer that a New Bedford woman was arrested for walking into a North End home and taking a laptop computer while its owners were in the backyard. Always remember to lock your doors, even if you’re only in the backyard. Keep a set of keys on you, or an extra pair hidden in your yard, in case you forget to bring a set with you.

2. Outdoor activities. The weather has started to get warmer and we tend to want to spend more time outside. There is nothing better than a relaxing walk in one of the city’s many parks after work. Maybe you’ve decided to add walking, jogging, running, hiking, etc., to your fitness regimen. Any kind of physical activity is a good idea, as long as you keep yourself safe. If you’re walking, jogging, or running, try to head out with a partner and bring your cell phone.



If you are out by yourself, don’t run/jog/walk in dimly lit areas. If you have a dog, bring him/her with you. You have protection and you’re providing exercise to your pet during some quality bonding time. Plus, there’s no better ice breaker with that cute girl/ guy than a dog!

3. Campus visits. It’s that time of year when college bound students are visiting potential college destinations. There’s nothing more exciting than visiting the school you’ve been dreaming about attending. Many campus visits entail staying overnight at the school with a current student.

When I attended Westfield State University, I played on the football team and I remember interested players staying overnight with players on the team. The goal was to show them a good time and convince them that Westfield State was the school they should attend. It can be an amazing experience, but unfortunately campuses are not 100% safe. Younger students can be naïve and willing to put themselves in compromising situations just to impress the older students.For many, this is their first time away from home and their first real taste of freedom.

Unfortunately, this may also be the first time they don’t have family and friends to look out for their best intentions and assist them in making the right decisions. Alcohol is a major contributor to physical and sexual assaults, as well as a contributor to making overall bad choices. If you have a friend and/or family member visiting campuses, remind them to make the right decisions and not be afraid to avoid uncomfortable situations. Let them know that they can call you regardless of the time if they need to talk.

4. Increased social interactions. We’ve just spent the past few months in hibernation due to the arctic conditions and we can’t wait to finally get out and socialize. Whether it’s going to the local park to play basketball or hang out, going to the car wash, or getting out to parties, increased interaction means greater risk of a violent encounter. The golden rule is just to be aware of your surroundings. Get out; have fun; but be aware of the people around you.

Krav Maga South Coast has recently expanded their curriculum to include additional regular as well as kid’s classes. In addition, they have added a Women’s Only class.

Krav Maga New Bedford
675 Orchard Street Second Floor
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Email: kravmaga.deaton@gmail.com
Phone: (508) 259-1592