By Aviva Gat, Sun Correspondent
3/8/10

BOSTON — On the morning of Oct. 7, Jamie Eldridge received a crash course in the health-care system.

Eldridge, 36, suffered a one-minute seizure while sleeping in his Acton home. In that minute, the 6-foot-5-inch state senator fell out of bed and broke bones in his back, strained his spine and tore his shoulder from its socket.

“I don’t remember any of the above,” Eldridge wrote in his blog on Nov. 2.

Eldridge was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he had three surgeries in 10 days. He spent two weeks recuperating at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, where he had to learn to walk again.

He also learned some finer points about the health-care system.

While in the hospital, Eldridge met other patients who were being discharged before they had fully recovered because their insurance would not pay for further care.

“That was something really upsetting,” said Eldridge. “I just think it’s a really broken system that health-insurance companies are really doing their best to reduce their care at a time when people need it most, when people get sick.”

In April 2006, Massachusetts adopted a law that provides insurance or subsidized insurance for those unable to afford it on their own.

According to the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, more that 400,000 people have been insured by the state since the bill was passed.

Eldridge acknowledged that the reform has helped many people, but he said it “did not fix the system.”

As he goes through physical therapy for his shoulder, Eldridge is also working on legislation to introduce in the next session that “would move Massachusetts to a truly universal health-care system.”

His bill would eliminate for-profit health-insurance providers. Instead, everyone would be insured by the state. Individuals would be able to upgrade their insurance for a fee.

“About 31 percent of health-care costs are administrative,” said Eldridge. “This would eliminate all that waste.”

Eldridge’s plan also includes a transition process that would provide job training to people who lost their jobs working for health-insurance companies.

The October incident was not the first time Eldridge has had a seizure.

He experienced two previous episodes in 1999 and 2003. Although he will likely take anti-seizure medication for the rest of his life, diagnosis has been elusive. Doctors do not believe Eldridge has epilepsy. The only cause they could come up with is stress.

“I think, as much as I can in this kind of job, I have to reduce stress,” said Eldridge. “Although I don’t know if that will happen.”

Eldridge spent about a month recovering at his home, where he lives with his girlfriend of four years, Yanina Gonzales. He said he missed the Statehouse and was happy to return to work in December, with even more zeal for important issues like health-care reform.

Eldridge considers himself a progressive Democrat, valuing independence in the Legislature.

“I’m proud that I stand up for what I believe,” he said. “I think that sometimes there are legislators who say, ‘I could never be for that because some people in my district don’t support that.’ I really do believe you should make decisions that you believe is the right thing to do.”

Eldridge became interested in politics in high school. His basketball coach at Acton-Boxboro Regional High School was a legislative aide for the then-state Rep. Bob Durand, the year the representative ran for state Senate.

Eldridge became the Acton town coordinator for Durand, who won by fewer than 200 of the 60,000 votes cast in the election.

Eldridge said volunteering on Durand’s campaign showed him the impact one individual can make.

“I think that’s why I really fell into politics,” he said. “I knew right then I wanted to run one day myself.”

While at Boston College Law School, Eldridge managed a successful re-election campaign for then-state Rep. Pam Resor.

Resor said she was impressed with the law student’s work ethic.

“You could see he was determined,” said Resor, who took over Durand’s Senate seat in 1999. “It was evident he would be successful.”

Eldridge saw the 2001 redistricting, which created a new congressional district in Acton, as a rare opportunity to run for office. He left his job at Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to the poor and the elderly, to campaign full time. He spent three terms in the House, from 2003 to 2008.

When Resor retired in 2008, she endorsed Rep. Eldridge as her successor. Eldridge said he is doing his best to fill Resor’s shoes as the “environmental conscience of the Legislature.”

As an environmental advocate, Eldridge has worked to pass legislation to create a Water Infrastructure Finance Commission to oversee the repair of aging water infrastructure.

In this session he has filed an “E-waste” bill to promote the recycling of electronics and co-sponsored the Safer Alternatives bill, which would reduce exposure to toxic chemicals found in household products.

Eldridge is proud of what he has done for the commonwealth. He said the great thing about being a state legislator is having a small enough district to really get to know the people he represents.

But he has clearly set his sights higher. In 2007, Eldridge ran for Congress when then-U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan resigned to become chancellor of UMass Lowell. He came in third in the primary and endorsed winner Niki Tsongas.

“I think it’s no secret that I’m someone that’s looking for opportunities to help more people,” said Eldridge. “I definitely see myself in public service for the rest of my life.”

How can the government help more people now? By repairing the health-care system, he argues.

“I can think of few other instances of government assistance that would have as dramatic an impact on people’s lives as a right to health care, and that would make every community richer,” Eldridge wrote in his blog on Nov. 2.

Eldridge was hoping for national reform, but said due to Sen. Scott Brown’s recent victory, any national health-care reform will be “significantly watered down.”

“Now it’s up to each individual state,” he said. “We can do more. That’s what I’m fighting for.”

AS WAS recently noted in the Globe, the film tax credit has indeed been controversial (”Film projection,” Business, Feb. 11). This is due in large part to the lack of hard data on the number of jobs created as a result of these expensive tax credits. Because these data are not publicly available, we have no way of measuring how effective the credit has been in stimulating economic development.

Governor Patrick has called upon the Legislature to make this information public, a move that many of my colleagues and I strongly support. So I was pleased to see the authors of the recent UMass Boston film industry study agree that it would also be useful to increase public access to granular data on the film tax credit program because this “data would be a great benefit to future research on this complex industry.”

In this time of massive budget cuts, we need to examine where every public dollar is going, and what impact it is having. I hope that film industry leaders will join us in calling for public disclosure of the results of these tax credit programs. If they are truly creating jobs in a cost-effective way, the results will show that.

JAMIE ELDRIDGE
Acton
The writer is state senator for the Middlesex and Worcester district.

Voting rights at risk, critics say

By Sarah Thomas, Globe Correspondent  |  February 4, 2010

If three members of the Marlborough City Council have their way, the city will soon make a bold change in the way it conducts elections; a change that critics say would disenfranchise some voters.

Councilor at Large Stephen Levy, Ward 2 Councilor Paul Ferro, and Ward 3 Councilor Matt Elder have proposed requiring all prospective voters to show identification, including a photo, before being allowed to cast a ballot. The requirement, if approved by the City Council and state Legislature, would be a first for Massachusetts, where state law stipulates only that voters must provide identification if they are challenged by poll workers.

Seven states require photo IDs for voting, while another 18, including Connecticut, ask for some type of identification at the polls.

The three councilors say their proposal, which has been referred to the council’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee, is a bulwark against voter fraud. They say the impetus came from citizens who suggested the change after bringing their IDs to vote in the special US Senate election on Jan. 19.

“In this country, we have to show an ID to get a six-pack of Bud Light but not to elect a president? That doesn’t make sense,” Elder said after a recent City Council meeting.

But state Senator James Eldridge, a Marlborough Democrat who opposes the proposal, said the fear of voter fraud has been overblown.

“I had an aide call the Marlborough city clerk to see if there had been any voter fraud for this law to target, and she said that in 35 years she had not seen one incidence,” Eldridge said. “With all due respect, this is fear mongering.”

He said the measure would run counter to the spirit of legislation he has proposed, the Freedom to Vote Act, that would make it easier for Massachusetts citizens to take part in elections.

“There is proof that laws like this disenfranchise people,” Eldridge said of the City Council proposal. “Senior citizens and immigrants have been denied the right to vote. There is no proof, however, that measures that make it easier to vote, like same-day registration, contribute to voter fraud.”

Eldridge, who has served for six years on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Election Laws, said that bills to require a photo ID for voting are proposed on Beacon Hill every year, and never make it out of committee.

Brian McNiff, spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin, said that there were two suspected incidents of voter fraud reported statewide in last month’s US Senate election; both were due to clerical errors, and neither happened in Marlborough.

“In many cases, people claim fraud during elections but can’t bring proof,” McNiff said. “You can be challenged if there is reasonable suspicion.”

During the recent City Council meeting, Ferro said the law could be useful in tracing certain kinds of fraud.

“If the fraudsters are complete morons, and try to vote under their names twice, we can verify that” under the proposed bylaw, he said, adding that there had been incidents in Marlborough where this had been tried.

At least some of the incidents can be traced to Marlborough’s Democratic City Committee chairman, Thomas Hill, who says he regularly tries to vote twice, once by absentee ballot and once at the polls. He describes the exercise both as a prank and a demonstration of how well current voter-fraud prevention measures work. He said he has never been able to cast two ballots.

“Everyone takes it in a humorous spirit; it’s a total nonsense thing,” said Hill, who opposes the photo ID proposal. “These laws end up hurting women who leave their pocketbooks in the car. Women and the poor; that’s who these laws victimize, and they usually vote Democrat.”

The councilors in support of the measure said that there was nothing in state law to prevent IDs being required, and that the US Supreme Court had upheld a similar law as constitutional in Indiana in 2008. (However, in September, a new challenge to the law by the League of Women Voters caused the ruling to be overturned by an Indiana appellate court.)

Amy Loveless, director of the Marlborough Council on Aging, says that the law could work against some seniors, since many older residents surrender their driver’s licenses, by far the most common form of photo ID.

“The reality of seniors not having a photo ID in various stages of their older adult life is an accurate portrayal,” Loveless said. “I hope this law would have an accommodation for seniors, if passed. They represent the best of the best in terms of fulfilling their civic duties.”

Councilor Levy also expressed concern about seniors’ voting, and said that the final version of the measure was far from shaped, let alone passed.

“We’ll definitely hash out the pros and cons,” Levy said. “But you should at least have to verify you are who you say you are.”

February 7, 2010
By David Riley

Customers come to Mike Kelley hoping solar panels will put a dent in their power bills, but sometimes the initial price tag rains on the idea.

“It is a big upfront cost,” said Kelley, whose business, Mass Renewables in Medway, installs photovoltaic systems and other solar devices. “You’re looking at maybe 10 years to get your return on investment.”

Some renewable energy businesses are hoping state legislation will allow towns and cities to help homeowners finance costly energy efficiency projects, making cleaner technology more accessible to average residents.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, would let towns opt to create financing programs for home energy improvements.

Municipalities could bond and loan the costs of such projects to homeowners, who would pay off the debt over time in payments added to their property tax bills. Meanwhile, towns would hold a lien on their homes.

The mechanism is similar to the way municipalities and homeowners finance the cost for residents to hook up to municipal sewer systems, Eldridge said. It’s also modeled after programs in other states like California and New Mexico, and leaves it up to towns to decide whether to participate, he said.

“It’s not a cost to the town, but it’s a way to finance more solar panels upfront so families can start saving money now on their heating bills,” Eldridge said Thursday.

The bill is also sponsored by Sen. Bruce E. Tarr, R-Gloucester, and Rep. Matthew C. Patrick, D-Falmouth.

However, Eldridge said he hopes to see the legislation approved sooner than it might be as a stand-alone bill by including it in a municipal relief package the Senate is crafting. That legislation is now before the Municipalities and Regional Government Committee, of which Eldridge is chairman.

Some details of the energy proposal, such as a provision saying voters in a town would have to opt to establish a “clean energy assessment district” for such projects, may be simplified in the final version, Eldridge said.

“We’re looking for more flexible language to make it as easy as possible for the homeowner to access those funds,” he said.

Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said his group still needs to look at the legislation and get feedback from town and city officials before taking a position.

“It certainly sounds like a proposal, as long as it’s a local option, that may interest many communities,” he said.

State Rep. Carolyn Dykema, D-Holliston, said like sewer betterment projects that are funded similarly, there is a public interest in the energy projects this legislation would help fund.

“I think that the climate change issue is also a public health, public safety issue,” she said.

Local renewable energy companies warmed to the idea, saying that despite rebates and tax credits available for solar systems, the initial investment is sometimes too much for homeowners.

“I think it will really help foster the opportunity to get more solar systems on residences,” said Kevin Price, president of Framingham Winsupply in Holliston. “It can be a big outlay. It’s definitely not an impulse purchase.”

Price said the cost of photovoltaic panels fluctuates widely, but an average cost of $6 per watt could add up to $30,000 for a 5-kilowatt system.

At the same time, Price said, the governor has set a goal of generating 250 megawatts with solar power by 2017.

“While that can be achieved by utility-size photovoltaic arrays or even large commercial installations, I think it’s very important for the general public to be able to participate in that kind of clean technology,” Price said. “This is a way to fund that and achieve that.”

Price said the program could help generate clean energy jobs, too.

Evergreen Solar, which has headquarters in Marlborough and an office in Waltham, also applauded the bill.

“Following on Gov. Patrick’s Commonwealth Solar program, this makes solar power even more accessible to the residents of the commonwealth,” said Alan King, Evergreen’s director of sales for the Americas, in a written statement.

Kelley, who started his Medway business last year, went into solar work after years as a contractor. He hopes the proposal will make his technology more affordable for customers, most of whom live in nearby towns.

“I try to keep it local,” he said.

1/31/10
By Abby Jordan

Students do it with the click of a mouse or a few strokes on a cell phone key pad, by sending malicious e-mail or text messages, starting rumors online or posting taunts and insults on social networking sites.

Cyberbullying, as the practice is known, is getting more attention statewide following the Jan. 14 death of a South Hadley teen, Phoebe Prince, 15, who is believed to have committed suicide after being bullied online.

Massachusetts lawmakers last fall began working on an anti-bullying bill, now being drafted, and expect it to come out of committee in February and go before the House and Senate.

“The point is getting a strong anti-bullying bill passed so we can improve the climate in the schools, and to make sure a tragedy that happened in South Hadley a couple weeks ago doesn’t happen again,” said Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton.

For MetroWest middle and high school students, cyberbullying is a reality, studies show, and whether legislation would help stanch the practice remains to be seen.

Results from the 2008 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey found that 16 percent of students surveyed in grades 7 to 12 had been bullied electronically in the 12-months prior to the fall 2008 survey.

The surveys, administered by the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation, were completed by 20,406 students from 22 high schools in the MetroWest area, and 10,650 seventh- and eighth-graders from 19 districts.

For high schoolers, 11 percent reported that they had bullied others electronically, and 7 percent said they were both victim and perpetrator. Nine percent of the middle school students reported they had bullied online.

More often than not, parents and teachers are unaware that cyberbullying is happening because it occurs out of eyesight and without sound on Internet Web sites and in e-mails and text messages, said Kevin Fox, a social worker at Framingham High School.

Students are also wary of telling an adult, fearing that it will make the bullying worse, said Fox.

“It’s really underground a lot of times,” he said. “A lot of times we don’t know about it until it really reaches a boiling point.”

While Fox said that simply passing a law against bullying and cyberbullying may not cause kids to stop harassing their peers, it could raise needed awareness about the problem among students and parents.

He hopes parents realize that it is a problem, and one they should be watching for to make sure their children aren’t victims or bullies.

“I think people within the home are the first defense - you have to monitor your child, know what sites they’re on and what they’re doing with technology.”

While vigilance by parents on monitoring their child’s behavior online is important, so too is alerting school officials when they discover hurtful messages or taunts online, he said.

“If we’re not aware of something that happened the night before, how can we help?”

Fox said students often try to ignore cyberbullying or get friends to help them go after the bully or bullies. Sometimes, it drives students, in particular young females, to self-mutilation.

“They’re hurting themselves,” he said. “It really snowballs into a horrific situation for a lot of kids.”

In Northborough, Melican Middle School assistant principal Michelle Karb said the district is focused this year on cutting down bullying and building a positive school culture, and formed the Teachers, Administrators and Students for Kids (TASK) group.

Lessons around tolerance and empathy have been going on in classrooms recently, including for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and this week students heard a poignant message about bullying from the father of a teen who committed suicide after being cyberbullied.

John Halligan, of Vermont, spoke to students at Melican and Trottier Middle School in Southborough this week, and also to parents during night meetings, telling the story of his son, Ryan, 13, being bullied online before taking his own life.

“It’s easy to hide behind a computer screen or a cell phone and spread mean rumors because there is no way for anyone to stop it,” Halligan told the Melican students.

Karb said Halligan’s talk had a profound effect on students, many of whom cried during it, then talked in homeroom briefings afterward about how the anti-bullying message had hit home.

“Kids were really moved by the whole thing,” she said. “We want to try to empower the kids to take responsibility.”

One female student, crying, wrote a letter to Halligan, telling him she was one of the bullies, and that she vowed to stop. On Halligan’s Web site, many students signed a guest book, saying they appreciated his talk and that his story had touched them, and hopefully sparked change.

“As someone who has been bullied in the past and present, I truly hope that the people in our auditorium who listened to your speech truly take what you said to heart,” an anonymous commenter said.

Parents looking for more information on cyberbullying, Internet safety and how to understand and monitor a child’s online behaviors can attend a talk by Dr. Elizabeth Englander Tuesday, Feb. 2 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Weston Middle School, 456 Wellesley St.

January 31, 2010
By Becki Harrington-Davis

Eating chocolate biscotti at a coffee shop within walking distance from his Acton home, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge talked about the issues he is passionate about and described his lengthy recovery from serious injuries after his seizure last fall.

After months of surgeries and rehabilitation, he is back to a full 80-hour work week - six days a week - at the State House as of Jan. 1. While Eldridge said he is not 100 percent recovered and is currently not allowed to drive because of his seizure risk, he was eager to get back to work.

“It’s nice to have a job you love,” he said.

On Oct. 7, Eldridge suffered a seizure while sleeping, which resulted in a fall that injured his spine, shoulder and ribs, and required three surgeries. He spent several weeks at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital while his staff handled constituent services.

Eldridge, who grew up in Acton, is always thinking and talking about issues facing the state and his community. In an interview at Cafe Ziba last week, he talked about preserving open space, creating a green community and working with the MBTA to build a new train station that fits into the historic South Acton neighborhood.

“I have never met anyone who works as hard as Jamie Eldridge,” Selectmen Chairwoman Paulina Knibbe said.

Eldridge said he feels “very positive” about Acton residents’ efforts to achieve the energy-savings guidelines detailed in the Green Communities Act, which would warrant a share of the state’s $10 million grant fund for green projects. The money could be used to make public buildings more energy-efficient, installing more solar panels, wind turbines and hydro-electric facilities.

He is also hoping to pass an e-waste bill, which would require electronics companies such as Dell and Apple to pay for old computers to be recycled or disposed of safely, rather than consumers paying to recycle them or throwing them in the garbage.

To help preserve open space, Eldridge said he recently filed a “No Net Loss” land bill that would control the location of commercial buildings in hopes to preserve the town’s small-town feel.

“We don’t want Acton to look like Framingham with Rte. 9,” he said.

The senator was scheduled to meet with MBTA officials at the South Acton train station yesterday for a site visit to go over the disputed station renovation plans. Eldridge, who takes the commuter rail to Boston frequently, said he also hopes to make renovations at the Littleton station go more smoothly by having transportation officials meet with residents in advance.

Other issues for the coming year include finding savings in the state budget and making big businesses more accountable for their tax breaks, he said. For example, he described a municipal relief bill that helps towns collaborate to reduce paperwork as a money-saving measure.

Eldridge, a Democrat who represents Marlborough, Hudson, Northborough, Southborough, Westborough, Sudbury, Stow, Maynard, Acton, Boxborough, Littleton, Ayer and Shirley, is running for re-election this fall, as well as campaigning for other Massachusetts Democrats including Gov. Deval Patrick. Eldridge supported Patrick as a campaign co-coordinator in the Senate district when Patrick was elected in 2006, and plans to do so again this year, he said.

Eldridge lauded many of Patrick’s accomplishments, such as funding public education, restoring funding for regional school transportation, investing in public transportation such as the commuter rail, passing the Green Communities Act and working on ethics and pension reform.

However, Eldridge had one criticism: While Patrick ran a successful grassroots campaign for the governor’s seat in 2006, Eldridge said Patrick should have kept supporters more involved in his administration after the election.

Eldridge also campaigned for Attorney General Martha Coakley in the special U.S. Senate election to fill the late Edward Kennedy’s seat. While he attributed her Jan. 19 loss largely to voters who were angry at the current administration, he said Coakley should have taken Patrick’s and President Barack Obama’s grass-roots approach in her campaign.

The senator said Democrats were overconfident in this election, thinking Coakley was a “shoo-in” until it was too late. He also criticized the Democratic platform in general, calling on leaders to be bolder and more progressive.

“If you are too centrist, if you don’t stand up for what you believe in, you’re in trouble,” he said.

Dear Editor,

As your readers may know, this past October I suffered a seizure in my home, leading to multiples surgeries to repair the resulting injuries. I then spent several weeks at Mass General Hospital and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, recovering from the surgeries.

I returned home in late November, continuing to recover from my injuries and doing physical therapy. Throughout this time of recuperation, I was so moved by the outpouring of support I received from across the Middlesex and Worcester district that I represent. The thoughtful cards, well wishes, and expressions of sympathy meant a great deal to me, and helped speed up my recovery. I cannot thank my constituents enough for their support, understanding, and prayers throughout my recovery.

I’m extremely happy to announce that as of the New Year, I am back to my full schedule as a state Senator, both at the State House and attending meetings and events in the district on weeknights and weekends. It has been wonderful to re-connect with constituents, friends and supporters who I did not see for some time while I was hospitalized.

I expect that 2010 will be a busy year for the Legislature, as we finish education reform and move on to other pressing issues, including the FY’11 state budget. Please contact my office any time at 617-722-1120, or e-mail me at James.Eldridge@state.ma.us, with any thoughts or questions you may have on any legislation, or to receive help in finding information about government programs or services or in working with a state or local agency.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their well wishes, and I’m happy to be 100 percent back after a difficult end of the year.

Jamie Eldridge
State Senator
Middlesex & Worcester District

“My constituents shake their heads when they hear there is no law in the commonwealth banning the practice,” said state Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton. “Several years ago there was an elderly man in Ayer who was run down in a crosswalk by a driver who was texting.

“I heard he’s OK now, but when will they learn?” Eldridge said.

By Evan Lips
12/28/09

In the time it takes to type the average text message, the car you’re driving could have hurtled at least the length of a football field all while your eyes were glued to your cell phone screen, according to the National Safety Council.

That’s too much time for bad things to happen, said Marlborough Police Chief Mark Leonard.

“It’s extremely dangerous and it’s still hard to believe there’s not a state law banning it,” he said.

When Leonard heard about the Boston City Council’s unanimous vote to make texting while driving in the Hub an offense subject to a $100 fine, he applauded the decision.

“It just makes sense to me,” Leonard said. “But this is something that should have already been done statewide.”

Leonard believes local ordinances like the one in Boston don’t deliver enough of an impact.

“We may be able to pass something locally but suppose a driver crosses over the Marlborough town line and into Hudson,” he said. “What do we do then?”

Texting while driving is banned in 19 states according to the Governor’s Highway Association, a nonprofit organization representing state highway safety. The last state to enact a law was Rhode Island in November. Next up is New Hampshire where a texting while driving ban will take effect Jan. 1.

“My constituents shake their heads when they hear there is no law in the commonwealth banning the practice,” said state Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton. “Several years ago there was an elderly man in Ayer who was run down in a crosswalk by a driver who was texting.

“I heard he’s OK now, but when will they learn?” Eldridge said.

The latest Bay State fatality resulting from texting while driving was a Tewksbury man who died in a single-car crash Dec. 13 in Lowell. But Leonard said it’s hard for police to determine afterward if a driver was texting during an accident.

“We rarely get the admission from a driver that they were texting during a crash,” he said. “Even if there are actual statistics out there, I’m sure the real number of crashes caused by texting is a lot higher.

“It’s difficult to collect that data accurately.”

But a recent study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation department discovered other telling data when researchers determined that texting drivers face a collision risk 20 times greater than drivers who aren’t distracted. Moreover, the study discovered that the practice keeps a driver’s eyes away from the road for 4.6 seconds out of a 6-second interval, more than enough to prove the National Safety Council’s football field comparison.

“There is an alarming amount of misinformation and confusion regarding texting while behind the wheel,” said Dr. Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech research, in an e-mailed press release. “The findings from our research at VTTI will hopefully clear these misconceptions since it’s based on real-world driving data.”

Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said there are several texting while driving bills being considered right now on Beacon Hill.

“Cars can be weapons that cause fatalities,” she said. “Hopefully something can get taken care of this year.”

Eldridge said the last chance the state had to pass a law occurred in May when a Senate budget amendment passed that banned drivers from either writing or reading text messages. The amendment would have imposed a $75 fine and would have allowed insurance companies to assess a surcharge for drivers cited for the violation. However, when the bill moved to the House, the amendment was dropped.

When asked why a law has not yet been enacted, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, D-Marlborough, said one reason was because the offense is almost impossible to prove.

“From a lawyer’s perspective I think it’s tough to determine if someone was texting,” she said. “There also might be a freedom of speech issue there.

“It’s not something I have personally taken a look at or pursued at this point.”

Spilka said another reason might be reluctance by the state to encroach on the private space of citizens.

“I understand there’s a lot of people who feel if we ban texting we’ll ban other things, too,” she said. “But the major issue is safety on the road, whether it’s texting, eating, talking or picking up something that was dropped.

“I’ve even witnessed some people reading while driving.”

Gregoire did point out there is a law prohibiting distracted driving.

“That does include texting since it would fall under that category,” she said.

“Impeded operation is what that really means,” said Framingham Police Chief Steven Carl. “Texting is not mentioned in the law but it’s more or less included.”

Carl added that his biggest concern is for young drivers.

“Texting is a way of life for them,” he said. “To them it’s natural and you always see kids walking while texting, bicycling while texting, and unfortunately, driving while texting.”

Carl also wondered how many lawmakers are guilty of the offense.

“That’s the funny thing,” he said. “We’re probably all guilty of it at some point, especially with all these Blackberries, iPhones, and other gadgets that have become a way of life for some people, especially legislators.”

Luckily for Framingham, Carl said he could not remember an instance when texting was cited as the reason for a serious car crash. In Marlborough, Chief Leonard could not recall if there were collisions resulting from texting.

“I just hope that some day if a bad accident happens in Marlborough because a driver was texting, we don’t look back and think about what might have happened if there was a state law against (it),” said Leonard.

December 12, 2009
By John Collins

TYNGSBORO — Credit cards aren’t the form of plastic Americans should fear most, according to naturalist Mark Fraser.

Plastic shopping bags that supermarkets give out by the billions present a greater threat, Fraser claims, because they’re increasingly ending up in a giant, swirling garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean — and in our food.

Fraser, host of the public TV series Nature Walks with Mark, is hoping to rally the public to support Sen. Jamie Eldridge’s bill calling for a ban on single-use plastic grocery bags in the state’s largest supermarket chain stores.

“If Massachusetts bans these single-use plastic grocery bags, I believe it’ll start a chain reaction on a national level,” says Fraser, who met with Eldridge recently to discuss a strategy for more public awareness.

Said Eldridge, an Acton Democrat: “These plastic bags are something that really shouldn’t be in the consumer market. Because after they’re used to bring groceries to your car, (the plastic) is very hard to break down. It impacts wildlife and wastes oil,”

Eldridge’s bill, which is currently in the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, would “prohibit the use of plastic carry-out bags” in the state’s largest grocery stores, requiring them to offer their customers reusable cloth, nylon or paper bags instead. The bill exempts smaller stores, defined as those with less than $500,000 in annual sales.

Also exempt would be plastic bags found in fruit-and- vegetable aisles, “and in applications where small, loose hardware is sold,” the bill states.

“About 380 billion of these plastic bags are used every year by Americans, and only about 5 percent are recycled, That’s why we need the ban,” said Eldridge. “It would be better for the environment, and better for the supermarkets because they wouldn’t have to spend money on the bags.”

Eldridge’s bill is opposed by the Massachusetts Food Association, representing 500 supermarkets statewide, large and small, according to the trade group’s vice president, Brian Houghton.

The association has also worked to defeat previous legislation, filed by Sen. Brian Joyce, a Milton Democrat, in 2007 that sought to charge consumers 2 cents per plastic bag, gradually increasing to 15 cents over seven years.

“It’s not the plastic bag that’s the problem. It’s what people do with it after the fact,” said Houghton. “If you’re doing the right things with them, I don’t really see the need for a tax or an outright ban on them.”

Houghton said the association recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, pledging to carry out a 33 percent reduction in the use of plastic bags by 2013.

“We’re the first state in the country that’s done something like this,” said Houghton.

Count Lowell resident Betty O’Brien as someone who’s also opposed to the ban. O’Brien told The Sun she couldn’t imagine life without the dozen or so plastic bags she takes home from Market Basket every week.

“We use them as small trash-barrel liners, as lunch bags — we use them for everything,” said O’Brien, who, before yesterday, had been unaware of the existence of the Pacific Ocean’s giant plastic garbage patch, as described by the environmentalists.

“Plastic bags are so aerodynamic that even when properly disposed of, they can still blow away and become litter in the oceans and on land,” said Phil Sego, spokesman for the Sierra Club of Massachusetts, citing a United Nations’ estimate that “1 billion animals are killed every year by plastic bags.”

According to Fraser, a billion more marine-animal deaths yearly are being attributed to plastic poisoning and ingestion, which affects the global food chain. The smallest fish and marine life ingest bits of plastic, and these petroleum-based chemicals work their way up the food chain eventually to be consumed by humans who favor seafood, including tuna, said Fraser.

“This is the gift from the plastic industry that keeps on killing,” said Fraser.

Fraser said he believes changing consumer habits is the key, with passage of Eldridge’s bill being a big step toward.

Eldridge is “optimistic” about getting a positive recommendation from the joint House-Senate committee early next year.

Grocery store employees at Stop & Shop, Market Basket, Hannaford, Shaw’s, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods informed The Sun that they all offer cloth, nylon or canvass reusable grocery bags for sale at prices ranging from 99 cents to $3 each. Some of the stores offer cash incentives for using the reusable bags, including Stop & Shop, which gives the consumer 5 cents for each filled reusable bag of groceries. Hannaford just recently ended their reusable grocery bag cash-back promotion, a manager said.

December 10, 2009
By Paul Crocetti

MARLBOROUGH -The city yesterday received a $38,000 state grant for water conservation in the Sudbury-Assabet-Concord watershed.

The grant is expected to fund leak detection equipment, said Ed Coletta, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman. The $47,500 project requires a 25 percent match.

About 19 percent of the water pumped through the city’s system is lost or unaccounted for, Coletta said, and the grant will help get communities down to a target of 10 percent.

“This grant will help Marlborough reduce the amount of water wasted through leaks in the city’s drinking water delivery system, saving the city money while preserving our limited water resources and reducing our negative impact on the local environment,” state Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton, said in a statement.

The new water equipment will help foster greater efficiency in the city and surrounding communities, said state Rep. Danielle Gregoire, D-Marlborough.

“We’re always looking out for any help we can get from the state and federal government,” she said.

Part of the plan is to share the equipment with Northborough and Sudbury, Coletta said.

The watershed has a drainage area of about 377 square miles, according to the state’s Web site. The watershed encompasses all or part of 36 cities and towns and supports 365,000 residents.

The state awarded $538,000 to 13 projects to reduce drinking water losses. The projects are part of the 2010 Water Conservation Grant Program.

“Given the energy intensive nature of pumping and treating drinking water, it is critical for the health of our natural infrastructure and fiscal economy to conserve drinking water, especially within our most stressed watersheds,” DEP Commissioner Laurie Burt said in a statement.

The Massachusetts Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund provided grant funding.