Phil Galewitz: Vt., N.H. and Maine are pushing to import Canadian drugs
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border in Derby Line, Vt., and Stanstead, Quebec. The dark line shows the exact border.
Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, all bordering on Canada, as well as Florida and Colorado, are moving ahead with efforts to import prescription drugs from Canada, a politically popular strategy greenlighted last year by then-President Trump.
But it’s unclear whether the Biden administration will proceed with Trump’s plan for states and the federal government to help Americans obtain lower-priced medications from Canada.
During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden expressed support for the concept, strongly opposed by the American pharmaceutical industry. Drugmakers argue it would undercut efforts to keep their medicines safe.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group, filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., to stop the drug-purchasing initiatives in November. That followed the Trump administration’s final rule, issued in September, that cleared the way for states to seek federal approval for their importation programs.
Friday was the deadline for the government to respond to the suit, which could give the Biden administration a first opportunity to show where it stands on the issue. But the administration could also seek an extension from the court.
Meanwhile, Florida and Colorado are moving to outsource their drug importation plans to private companies.
Florida hired LifeScience Logistics, which stores prescription drugs in warehouses in Maryland, Texas and Indiana. The state is paying the Dallas company as much as $39 million over 2½ years, according to the contract. That does not include the price of the drugs Florida is buying.
LifeScience officials declined to comment.
Florida’s agreement with LifeScience came last fall, just weeks after the state received no bids on a $30 million contract for the job.
Florida’s importation plan calls initially for the purchase of drugs for state agencies, including the Medicaid program and the corrections and health departments. Officials say the plan could save the state in its first year between $80 million and $150 million. Florida’s Medicaid budget exceeds $28 billion, with the federal government picking up about 62% of the cost.
On Monday, the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing issued a request for companies to bid on its plan to import drugs from Canada. Unlike Florida’s plan, Colorado’s would help individuals buy the medicines at their local pharmacy. Colorado also would give health insurance plans the option to include imported drugs in their benefit designs.
Kim Bimestefer, executive director of Colorado’s Health Care Policy and Financing agency, said she is hopeful the Biden administration will allow importation plans to proceed. “We are optimistic,” she said.
Her agency’s analysis shows Colorado consumers can save an average of 61% off the price of many medications imported from Canada, she added.
Prices are cheaper north of the border because Canada limits how much drugmakers can charge for medicines. The United States lets the free market determine drug prices.
The Canadian government has said it would not allow the exportation of prescription drugs that would create or exacerbate a drug shortage. Bimestefer said that her agency has spoken to officials at the Canadian consulate in Denver and that officials there are mainly concerned about shortages of generic drugs rather than brand-name drugs, which is what her state is most interested in importing since they are among the most costly medicines in the U.S.
Colorado plans to choose a private company in Canada to export medications as well as a U.S. importer. It hopes to have a program in operation by mid-2022.
But skeptics say getting the programs off the ground is a long shot. They note that Congress in 2003 passed a law to allow certain drugs to be imported from Canada — but only if the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services agreed it could be done safely. HHS secretaries under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama refused to do that. But HHS Secretary Alex Azar gave the approval in September.
Biden’s HHS nominee, Xavier Becerra, voted for the 2003 Canadian drug-importation law when he was a member of Congress.
HHS referred questions on the issue to the White House, which did not return calls for comment.
Trish Riley, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, said that states have worked hard to set up procedures to ensure drugs coming from Canada are as safe as those typically sold at local pharmacies. She noted that many drugs sold in the United States are already made overseas.
She said the Biden administration could choose not to defend the importation rule in the PhRMA court case or ask for an extension to reply to the lawsuit. “Right now, it’s murky,” she said of figuring out what the Biden team will do.
Ian Spatz, a senior adviser with consulting firm Manatt Health, questions how significant the savings could be under the plan, largely because of the hefty cost of setting up a program and running it over the objections of the pharmaceutical industry.
Another obstacle is that some of the highest-priced drugs, such as insulin and other injectables, are excluded from drug importation. Spatz also doubts whether ongoing safety issues can be resolved to satisfy the new administration.
“The Trump administration plan was merely to consider applications from states and that it was open for business,” he said. “Whether [HHS] will approve any applications in the current environment is highly uncertain.”
Phil Galewitz is a Kaiser Health News journalist.
Phil Galewitz: pgalewitz@kff.org, @philgalewitz
'Loved most a blizzard'
“He loved winter more than the other seasons, loved a tender snowfall, loved the savage north wind and the blinding light off a frozen lake, loved most a blizzard, which he faced head-on like a bison. He would not admit these things, however, because in his superstition he believed that by revealing desires among sacred subjects, such as weather and seasons, you would likely receive the opposite of what you wanted.’’
-- Ernest Hebert (born 1941), in The Dogs of March (1979) . He is best known for the Darby Chronicles Series, a series of seven novels written between 1979 and 2014 about modern life in a fictional New Hampshire town as it changed from relative rural poverty to becoming more upscale, almost suburban. He was born in, and spent many years in and around, Keene, N.H. It’s a very pleasant small city in southwest New Hampshire.
Central Square, in Keene
Enough with metro metaphors
Cobblestoned Acorn Street, in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood
“Down the cobbled streets….
When I was still, I heard
city birds, maybe pigeons
or mourning doves cooing….
my reaction was to leave
the metaphor city, after all….’’
“Metaphor City,’’ by Julie A. Dickson, a New Hampshire-based poet
Fidelity seeks to hire 500 new employees in N.H.
From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
“Fidelity Investments has announced plans to hire 500 new employees for its Merrimack campus. The hiring is part of a company-wide initiative to add 4,000 new employees across the country.
“Fidelity has experienced a 24 percent increase in planning engagement activity as new investors open accounts, driving the need for more personnel at the company. Fidelity also plans to accept 1,000 college and university students into its 2021 internship program, as well as 500 graduates to participate in post-grad job training opportunities. Fidelity currently employs 5,300 in New Hampshire.
“‘We’re looking for financial advisers, licensed representatives, software engineers and customer service representatives to fill thousands of roles across the country over the next six months,’ said Kathleen Murphy, president of personal investing at Fidelity.’’
Read more from the New Hampshire Union Leader.
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English colonists starting settling in Merrimack, named for a Native-American term for sturgeon, a once-plentiful fish in the area’s rivers, in the late 17th Century. For decades, the land was in dispute between the Province of New Hampshire and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Of course, both had seized the land from the Indians.)
The town had many farms into the 20th Century but has since become a place, with office parks, including for big corporations, and a bedroom community for commuters to Greater Boston and cities in southeastern New Hampshire.
The Souhegan River in Merrimack, also the name of the region’s biggest river.
The First Church of Christ in Merrimack.
The virtue to be free
“The time is not at hand when we shall see whether America has virtue enough to be free or not.’’
— Josiah Bartlett (1729-1795), fourth governor of New Hampshire as well as , among other things, a physician. He was delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire.
xxx
A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but your feet are always in the water.’’
— Fisher Ames (1758-1808), Massachusetts congressman (1789-1797) and a Federalist leader
Janine Weisman: States can grow their economies AND cut emissions
How New England’s six states have done in reducing climate emissions and growing the economy, according to data from a recent World Resources Institute report.
— Janine Weisman/ecoRI News
From ecoRI News (ecori.org)
All the New England states have cut their energy-related carbon emissions while growing their economies in the past two decades, according to a new analysis that offers proof that climate action can actually be a good return on investment.
For years, the narrative about low-carbon technologies such as wind and solar power was that their high costs and subsidies couldn’t compete with fossil fuels. But renewable-energy storage technologies have improved and dropped precipitously in price while jobs in this sector have been growing at a faster pace than overall employment. That has made low-carbon technologies competitive with conventional fossil fuels, which are heavily subsidized, and also good for the economy, according to the 66-page white paper released in July by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
“There’s a lot of myths that are out there about climate change and we wanted to debunk some of those myths,” said the paper’s co-author Joel Jaeger, a research associate in WRI’s Climate Program.
The rapid deployment of wind and solar power, a shift from coal to natural gas in the power sector, and progress in vehicle-emissions standards helped drive a 12 percent drop in U.S. carbon emissions from 2005 to 2018, during which the nation’s Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 25 percent, according to the organization’s research.
“This is not just a year here or there — this is sustained transformation of the world’s largest economy,” according to the report.
The Washington, D.C.-based global research nonprofit ranked 41 states and the District of Columbia that have decoupled their emissions from economic growth during the 12 years studied. The list covers states both large and small in all major geographical regions. Nine other states, however, saw their emissions grow over that period of time, though much slower than state GDP in most cases.
Rhode Island cut carbon emissions by 10 percent between 2005 and 2017 at the same time its GDP increased 1 percent, according to the report’s data.
Rhode Island ranked 37th, trailing the other five New England states. New Hampshire, which cut carbon emissions by 37 percent while growing its GDP 15 percent, led the region and ranked second in the nation after Maryland, according to the report.
Massachusetts ranked 12th nationwide with a 25 percent emissions decrease and a 26 percent increase in GDP. Connecticut in 16th place saw a 24 percent emissions decrease and a 0.5 percent increase in GDP.
“Rhode Island is in many ways one of the leaders on climate action, even though it doesn’t appear that way on this decoupling metric,” Jaeger said. He noted that the smallest state has the lowest per capita energy consumption.
“Decoupling is measuring progress,” he said. “Rhode Island, it’s actually harder for it to make progress because it was already on the leading edge of having lower emissions.”
Rhode Island is among the 25 states that joined the U.S. Climate Alliance to uphold the Paris Agreement goals of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Participating states have grown their GDP per capita twice as fast and have reduced their emissions per capita faster than the rest of the country, according to the alliance’s 2019 annual report. Every New England state except New Hampshire is an alliance member.
If the WRI analysis had studied the decade from 2004 to 2014, Rhode Island would have been in the top 10, said Kenneth Payne, an energy and regional planning policy expert who served as head of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources from 2010 to 2011.
In 2004, the General Assembly enacted a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) initially set to achieve 16 percent renewable energy by 2019 and later updated in 2016 with a statewide target of 38.5 percent renewable energy by 2035. Then, in 2014, the Resilient Rhode Island Act set an aspirational goal of reducing the state’s climate emissions by 45 percent by 2035.
But the political mood has changed along with federal support, according to Payne.
“Maybe I would describe it as, ’Well we’ve done enough for now. Let’s see how it works,’” he said. “And that’s putting it generously.”
With its less carbon-intensive service economy and low manufacturing output, Rhode Island already has low emissions per capita, making it challenging to continue achieving significant reductions, according to University of Rhode Island assistant professor in environmental and natural resource economics Simona Trandafir. Other states with energy-intensive heavy industry have higher baseline emissions and significantly more decarbonization opportunities, she noted.
“Those states have begun to take the lowest hanging fruit and they’re making huge emissions reductions because they switched from coal to natural gas, which we’ve been free of coal for several years,” Trandafir said. “For us it’s really hard right now, because we’re already the best.”
There are, however, two significant areas where Rhode Island could improve when it comes to reducing climate emissions. The transportation sector accounts for about 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Heating homes and businesses generates about 30 percent of Rhode Island's carbon emissions. Getting individual motorists out of their vehicles by improving public transit and switching from high-polluting oil- and natural gas-fired furnaces and hot-water systems to heat pumps and carbon-neutral replacement fuels would go a long way to further curbing the state’s climate-changing emissions.
WRI cited Rhode Island and Massachusetts along with Illinois and Washington, D.C., for providing incentives for low- and moderate-income households to access community solar programs.
Janine Weisman is an EcoRI News contributor.
New Hampshire's lucrative fireworks exports menace neighbors
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
As it turns out, many perhaps most, of those fireworks that have ruined life recently for many people in Providence, Boston and other New England cities came from New Hampshire, that old “Live Free or Die” parasite/paradise (where I lived for four years). There, out-of-state noisemakers stock up and take the explosives back to Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, where they ignite them all over the place, with the worst impact in cities. While the fireworks are illegal in densely populated southern New England, they’re legal in the Granite State.
New Hampshire has long made money off out-of-staters coming to buy cheap (because of the state’s very tax-averse policies) booze and cigarettes. The state also has loose gun laws. Fireworks are in this tradition.
That’s its right. But it could be a tad more humane toward people in adjacent states by making it clear to buyers at New Hampshire fireworks stores that the explosives they’re buying there are illegal in southern New England.
Because of our federal system, states that may want to control the use of dangerous products can be hard-pressed to do so because residents may find it easy to drive to a nearby state and get the stuff. Still, in compact and generally collaborative New England, it would be nice if New Hampshire, much of which is exurban and rural, would consider the challenges of heavily urbanized Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut as they seek to limit the use of fireworks, especially in cities. Granite Staters might remember that much of the state’s affluence stems from its proximity to that great wealth creator Greater Boston and show a little gratitude. (This reminds me of how Red States are heavily subsidized by Blue States, whose taxes fund much of the federal programs in the former.)
Ah, the federal system, one of whose flaws is painfully visible in the COVID-19 pandemic. Look at how the Red States, at the urging of the Oval Office Mobster, too quickly opened up, leading to an explosion of cases, which in turn hurts the states that had been much tougher and more responsible about imposing early controls. But yes, the federal system’s benign side includes that states can experiment with new programs and ways of governance, some of which may become national models, acting as Justice Louis Brandeis called “laboratories of democracy’’.
To read more about New Hampshire’s quirks, please hit this link.
New England's only NASCAR site to reopen
At the New Hampshire Motor Speedway
From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
“With most major sports leagues having had their seasons curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NASCAR circuit will be returning to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., {in Lakes Region} this summer. Governor Chris Sununu recently gave the “green light” to allow race fans at New England’s only NASCAR site with proper precautions to ensure fans maintain social distancing requirements among other health considerations. The racing world’s attention will turn to New Hampshire for the race on Aug. 2. Read more at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.’’
Explosive evenings
M-80
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
Residents of Providence are being increasingly disturbed by fireworks and firecrackers being set off for hours every night, especially in poorer neighborhoods. Lots of these are being illegally used, since in Rhode Island only ground fireworks and sparklers can be legally ignited – in other words, quiet displays -- with firecrackers, rockets and mortars or other devices that launch projectiles banned, except, I assume, for professionally run public fireworks displays that we used to enjoy on special occasions, especially The Fourth and New Year’s Eve.
The racket, injuries and fire threat from illegally used fireworks is one of those quality-of-life issues, like graffiti, that can drive people away from a city. The police must crack down hard. And the explosives are hurting the sleep we need, especially in these tenser-than-usual times. If some folks see the fireworks as an expression of personal or political liberation many more see them as reminders of entrapment in an urban dystopia.
Knock it off.
Ah, if only people were as interested in reading the Declaration of Independence as in making a lot of noise.
The fireworks frenzy is happening in other cities, too. Please hit this link.
The year-round fireworks dilutes the excitement that we used to feel as we approached the public celebrations of the Glorious Fourth of July, which I suppose won’t happen this year in most places. When I was a kid we lived on the coast and so most of the fireworks spectacles we enjoyed were on beaches. But we also, probably illegally, had our private shows, mostly involving devices such as M-80s, cherry bombs and Roman candles, in backyards – with the nearby thick woods muffling the noise a bit. But that was only on the Fourth, when the local cops, who seemed to know everyone in town, would look the other way.
My father would stock up several years worth of fireworks in Southern states, where laws were lax. (Now the laws are very lax in New Hampshire — Live Free and Blow Off Your Hand.
Then there was the little cannon he set off every year on the Fourth. We had a loud old time for several hours.
A few boys would light and throw M-80s and cherry bombs at each other (but only on The Fourth!), displaying the same sort of idiocy as in the BB-gun wars they had through the year, in which it was possible to lose an eye or two. Cheap thrills indeed!
Wetland wonder
Connecticut salt marsh
“….Below,
the tall grasses strain in wind,
all thrill and glitter,
their white tips
lapping over. A towel
shudders and beats on the line….’’
— From “Sea-Meadow,’’ by Cynthia Huntington, a New Hampshire-based poet
The light is always changing
The common of Lyme, N.H.
— Photo by Magicpiano
“Downtown’’ Dublin, N.H., the highest town in New England and the headquarters of Yankee Inc., which owns Yankee Magazine.
“I have lived in New Hampshire nearly forty years, and I am still discovering places and moments of beauty that surprise me. Sometimes it may be seeing the same setting — a country road, a hillside, a meadow — in a different light or in a different season.’’
— Mel Allen, editor of Yankee Magazine
Opening up
“Connor Pond, Early Spring” (oil on canvas), by Yvonne Lamothe, via Galatea Fine Art online gallery. Connor Pond is in Ossipee, N.H. Ms. Lamothe lives in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
See:
https://www.galateafineart.com/
and Ms. Lamothe’s site:
Why waste hours indoors?
— Photo by Schwabin
Too green the springing April grass,
Too blue the silver-speckled sky,
For me to linger here, alas,
While happy winds go laughing by,
Wasting the golden hours indoors,
Washing windows and scrubbing floors.
Too wonderful the April night,
Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,
The stars too gloriously bright,
For me to spend the evening hours,
When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,
Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.
“Spring in New Hampshire, by Claude McKay (1889-1948)
A Nutting case
New Hampshire’s Presidential Range
On the short New Hampshire coast at North Hampton
“From sea beach to mountain top all beautiful! Who does not know her fame for wealth, rest and joy! Her head is in the snows and her feet on the ocean marge. She reaches her hands to the weary children of men. With her is the delight that does not stale.’’
Wallace Nutting, in New Hampshire Beautiful (1923)
Flee to the countryside?
Remnant of an old mill in Clayville, R.I.
Vineyard in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, where my maternal grandfather grew up on a farm.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
Some of the last few days have seemed abnormally cold, and they certainly have been mostly gloomy. But in fact temperatures have generally been at, or even a little above normal, the past few weeks. We’d been spoiled by the extraordinarily warm winter, and thus find the normally hesitant New England spring more depressing than usual. Well, yes, there’s the other thing, too…
The current emergency may be making far more people aware of Nature in the spring because far more are walking around outside to battle claustrophobia and to get exercise, partly because most gyms have been closed. But it’s not a very social experience, as, for example, people tend to keep on the other side of the street from fellow walkers. Still, at least they’re looking at the flowers and trees more than they might have in a “normal spring.’’
I’ve been thinking that this would be a good time to head up to New Hampshire and Vermont, get a room at a Motel 6, if I can find one open, and check out the last of this year’s maple-syrup-making operations for a few days. Yeah, COVID-19 will be circulating up there too but the scenery is therapeutic.
An old friend of ours who lives in Florida part of the year has several dozen acres of field and woods in the Clayville section of Scituate, R.I. She only half-jokingly suggested that she’d move full time back to Clayville and “live off the land,’’ as people there (mostly) did 250 years ago. It wasn’t that long ago, historically speaking, that many of our ancestors lived on farms. My maternal grandfather’s family had a couple of farms in Upstate New York, and even some of my New England ancestors in the great-grandparent generation had working farms in Massachusetts. Those who didn’t might have had at least a couple of cows and some chickens.
New England Council update on region's COVID-19 response
New England has no official flag, but there have been many historical and modern banners used to represent the New England Colonies and then the six states of New England. There are some variations, but common designs include a colored field (usually red) with a pine tree. The eastern white pine is the most common symbol of New England and harkens back to the tree's former importance in shipbuilding in particular and and New England's maritime culture in general.
Update from The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com). Kudos to the Council for performing this service.
BOSTON
As our region and our nation continue to grapple with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, The New England Council is using our blog as a platform to highlight some of the incredible work our members have undertaken to respond to the outbreak. Each day, we’ll post a round-up of updates on some of the initiatives underway among Council members throughout the region. We are also sharing these updates via our social media, and encourage our members to share with us any information on their efforts so that we can be sure to include them in these daily round-ups.
You can also check our COVID-19 Virtual Events Calendar for information on upcoming COVID-19 related programming – including Congressional town halls and webinars presented by NEC members.
Here is the April 1 roundup:
Medical Response
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Hampshire Enters Partnership to Increase Testing – To supplement the efforts to expand testing in New Hampshire, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Hampshire (BCBS) is partnering with ConvenientMD to open a COVID-19 testing site in Portsmouth, NH. The support provided by BCBS will expand testing in the state and aid efforts to identify positive cases. SeacostOnline has more.
UMass Holds Commencement Early to Send Doctors to Front Lines of Pandemic – On Tuesday, the University of Massachusetts held a virtual commencement for its medical school for its 135 students. As they spread out across the country for their residencies, the newly-minted doctors head to the center of the pandemic, as they pledged, over video, to “turn to our calling.” The Boston Globe
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Launches Clinical Trial for Potential Treatment – Operating at incredible speed, Dartmouth-Hitchcock has begun two therapeutic trials of the now-famous drug remdesivir in just six days. Now one of the nearly 100 clinical sites around the world testing the drug’s efficacy on COVID-19 symptoms, Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s trials focus on both moderate and severe symptoms and remdesivir’s ability to prevent progression of the virus. Read more in the Manchester Ink Link.
Economic/Business Continuity Response
Rockland Trust Offers Flexibility, Support for Customers Community – Joining other institutions in a joint client-community response, Rockland Trust is providing both flexibility and support for both personal and business customers. For personal banking customers, the bank is increasing ATM withdrawal limits, waiving late charges on payments, and issuing a 90-day foreclosure moratorium on residential loans. Rockland Trust is also offering assistance with access to government-sponsored support and loan payment relief for its business users. The bank has also committed $500,000 to support relief efforts. Read more in Yahoo Finance.
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to Oversee Manufacturing Emergency Response Team – Governor Charlie Baker (R-MA) of Massachusetts has chosen the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to lead the new Manufacturing Emergency Response Team (MERT), an effort by the state to utilize its manufacturing industry to produce more necessary equipment to combat the pandemic. The agency will oversee MERT and coordinate the need for supplies with the almost 200 manufacturers who have been in contact with agency. The Boston Business Journal has more. Those interested in donating to or collaborating with the Manufacturing Emergency Response Team can do so here.
Community Response
Boston College High School Praised for Virtual Learning Transition – Featured in a Boston Globe article for moving “seamlessly in delivering daily, high-quality academic online lessons,” Boston College High School is continuing to provide an excellent education (that still begins at 8 AM daily) and ample resources for its students as they adjust to remote instruction. Read the article here.
Travelers Makes $5 Million Donation – Insurance company Travelers has donated $5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts. The largest-ever charitable donation by the company to a crisis, the money will be distributed in three parts among North America, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to aid families and communities. The Hartford Business Journal has more.
United Way Support Fund Distributes $378,000 to Relief Organizations –Less than two weeks since launching a fundraising effort to support those affected by the pandemic, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley announced over $378,000 in donations. Distributed to 36 community-based nonprofits across the region, the money will help those in need meet basic needs as they navigate an evolving pandemic and economic uncertainty. Read more.
Edesia Provides Support Worldwide to Those Most Affected by Virus – Continuing a tradition of global leadership in promoting food security, Edesia has committed to providing thousands of care packages, snack boxes, and meals to organizations and families across all ages and around the world. Aiming to assist both local and global communities, the organization has also pledged 115,000 boxes of its world-renowned, lifesaving products to children from Venezuela to Yemen to Nigeria.
Cooperative Credit Union Association Donates $25,000 to Support MA Coalition for the Homeless – On behalf of all Massachusetts credit unions, the Cooperative Credit Union Association has committed $25,000 to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. People experiencing housing, income, or food insecurity are the most vulnerable to the pandemic, as they often lack resources to adequately self-quarantine or socially distance. The donation will be used to support not only the homeless population, but also families and unaccompanied youth. Read the release here.
Stay tuned for more updates each day, and follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates on how Council members are contributing to the response to this global health crisis.
Ready for mill work
The Pawtucket Canal in Lowell, Mass., lined with old mill buildings
— Photo by John Phelan
“The New Hampshire girls who came to Lowell {to work in its new textile mills in the early and mid 19th Century} were descendants of the sturdy backwoodsmen who settled that state….Their grandmothers had suffered the hardships of frontier life…when the beautiful valleys of the Connecticut and the Merrimack were threaded with Indian trails from Canada to the white settlements. Those young women…were earnest and capable, and ready to undertake anything that was worth doing.’’
From A New England Girlhood (1889)
Chris Powell: Past time to reject the transgendering racket
A man who decided he wanted to be a woman
Few people care if men want to dress up as women or women as men. For most such people it's not a lark but a deep psychological issue likely to cause them some trouble throughout their lives. They are entitled to be comfortable in their own skin.
But everybody else is entitled to care when this imposture infringes on gender privacy in bathrooms and competition in sports, areas where individual lives inevitably affect other lives.
If the imposture of transgendering is skilled enough, it won't be noticed in a bathroom. But it can't help be noticed in sports, for physical gender is simply biology and men tend to be larger and stronger than women. Calling a man a woman doesn't make him one physically. Gender division in sports was instituted because biology cannot be denied, even though politically correct pretense lately has been trying to deny it in Connecticut and throughout the country and to intimidate doubters out of asserting the obvious.
But here and there some people are not being intimidated. A few state legislators around the country have even introduced bills to reject the transgendering racket and keep boys and girls in their proper divisions in public school sports.
At a hearing on such legislation in New Hampshire's House of Representatives this month, a girls cross-country and track and field coach from West Hartford, Meredith Gordon Remigino, bravely decried the unfairness increasingly inflicted on young female athletes by the transgendering racket. Remigino noted that some males who are only ordinary athletes in male events now impersonate females and vanquish all competition there. Indeed, for several years now this has been happening in Connecticut foot races.
"We know firsthand that fairness and equality require sports to be categorized and differentiated based on sex, not based on gender identity," Remigino told the hearing.
Three Connecticut young women athletes have complained to the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights about the state policy that is letting transgender boys dominate girls track and field events in the state. Maybe federal action will induce the state to drop its political correctness, face reality, and change the policy, if only until political correctness returns to federal administration.
But most people in Connecticut probably will remain too intimidated to complain about this unfairness until some young man who can't quite make it on the University of Connecticut men's basketball team decides that he's really a woman and joins the women's team, or until the women's basketball teams at Notre Dame, Tennessee, or Baylor come to UConn fielding players with male chromosomes.
That might be Connecticut's long-overdue moment from "The Emperor's New Clothes."
After all, if even in athletics gender is merely a state of mind, not biology, what about age too?
Surely there are some old men who were never more than mediocre athletes but who feel young at heart and would love to play Little League baseball again against 12-year-olds and swing for the shorter fences. These old men would be no more out of place than the biological males who are expropriating female prizes.
The author of 1984, George Orwell, saw such nonsense coming 80 years ago. He wrote: "We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." As Coach Remigino showed, women too.
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn.
Pass through after plowing and primary
An apple orchard in Hollis, N.H.
"You don't want someone to think you're from New Hampshire, because who cares about New Hampshire? You're basically just a pass-through.''
-- Timothy Simons, actor and comedian. He’s from Maine.
Historical marker in Concord