Just started to snow here as I sat down to type this:
Morning trip on Red Line shuttle buses mired in long waits
Look at the length of the line, and this won't help:
Downed light pole causing delays on Red Line buses
Maybe you can read this while stuck:
"With riders at wits’ end, Beverly Scott quits as MBTA leader" by Nestor Ramos and Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff February 11, 2015
A series of snowstorms that crippled the transit system made Beverly A. Scott both a scapegoat and a star.
****************
Scott, through an MBTA spokesman, did not respond to an interview request.
That left others to try to explain her departure from the $220,000 a year job she started in December 2012.
My que$tion from yesterday was answered.
“I suspect that she didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” said Robert Prince Jr., who led the T from 1997 to 2001 and considers Scott a friend. “And if she does, it’s another train coming at her.”
For Scott, 63, known to most as “Bev,” the silence followed a fiery performance at a news conference on Tuesday, where she suggested that “God Junior” would have been hard pressed to keep the T’s old railcars running in so much snow.
It was vintage Bev.
Scott often peppers her public and private conversations with homespun aphorisms.
She doles out hugs and shout-outs liberally, and has a habit of wandering away from live microphones when she really gets going.
“Oh Lord Jesus,” she muttered Tuesday as a reporter reminded her that the MBTA is billions of dollars in debt.
Which bozo did that?
“The general manager has a way of speaking that we don’t hear in New England very often,” Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, said Tuesday, a day before Scott resigned. “Maybe it’s good that we have someone who says it like it is.”
Not anymore.
Behind the bluster, those who know and work with Scott say, is a mastery of the material forged over 40 years of work in transit systems all over the country.
Scott used her allotted time at Wednesday’s MassDOT meeting to show pictures of MBTA crews working to free frozen rail switches and clear snowbound tracks.
“She was experienced and she was caring,” said Liz Levin, a former MBTA board member who chaired the committee that recommended Scott and another finalist. “The beast of the transportation system eats a lot of good people.”
Scott, said to be then-Governor Deval Patrick’s choice for the job, left Atlanta to become general manager of the MBTA.
Her contract in Atlanta was set to expire, and officials here learned only later that a business psychologist had been paid $144,000 to help Scott and her leadership team improve their management style.
But here, Levin and others said, Scott’s leadership was evident in the long-term improvements that got rolling at last. The Green Line extension is finally funded.
Green and Blue serve elite, Red and Orange neglected poor.
******************
During her passionate, defiant, and at times rambling news conference on Tuesday, Scott pointed out that there was little anyone could do to make trains that are practically antiques run on snowpacked rails and frozen switches.
“Take Bev out the picture,” Scott said more than once
On Wednesday, she did just that.
The beast chugged groggily back to life on Wednesday after being totally offline on Tuesday, but wait times between trains were twice as long as usual, and many passengers endured terrible commutes.
They waited on crowded Red and Orange line platforms and in shuttle lines snaking through snowy parking lots, but the shuttles were often already full when they arrived at some stations, leaving commuters to wait for hours in freezing temperatures, only to realize each time a shuttle arrived that there was no room....
At least the Green Line is being extended and the Globe reporter had time to instruct the citizenry of the dangers of global warming, right?
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"Lacking transport, low-wage workers take a hit" by Katie Johnston, Globe Staff February 12, 2015
The $30 cab ride that Chazmaine Carroll had to take to get home from her job as a security guard this week amounted to nearly half her take-home pay for the day.
For Medina Ahmed, a fast-food worker who does not have the option of working from home, the MBTA shutdown cost her two days’ wages. Taking a taxi to work would have cost her more than she makes in a day.
Isidro Melo, who’s part of the cleaning crew at Boston Medical Center, also was stranded, unable to get to work without the commuter rail or the Red Line. He and his wife live in Lowell because of the lower cost of housing there.
These workers illustrate the disproportionate hardship the snow has imposed on the area’s lowest-paid workers. For them, it’s more than a temporary inconvenience. It’s a financial blow that can make all the difference in paying bills, making the rent, and putting food on the table.
**************
Lower-wage employees depend heavily on public transportation. In Boston, more than 40 percent of low-income workers use trains or buses to get to their jobs, compared with about 30 percent of other workers, according to the US Census. And when public transit grinds to a halt or slows to a crawl, as it has many times in the last few weeks, it can exact a serious toll on them.
Carroll, the security guard, recently bought a car so she could drive, but during snowstorms, the plows rarely make it down her street, and she has to rely on public transportation.
Lately, however, the MBTA has been far from reliable. Carroll took cabs and Uber rides a few times to speed up her regular public transit route — two buses and an Orange Line train — but on Tuesday, with the T completely down and no money for a cab, she called her supervisor and told him she couldn’t make it in. The loss of about $80 will make it even tougher to catch up on bills.
I would no longer take Uber because of all the rapes by drivers.
On Wednesday, with her car still buried and her street still a mess, Carroll turned to the bus and T again. She got to work 45 minutes late.
Is Walsh fining himself on this after the warnings days ago about unremoved snow?
“I’m just chalking it up to a loss that I have to suck up,” she said. For the 35-year-old Carroll, sucking it up could mean being unable to pay the electric bill, which she is already behind on.
Yes, as the corporations and elite are rolling in dough we all need to suck up losses.
Carroll’s employer, Securitas, did not return a call seeking comment....
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And with yet more snow and bitter cold in the forecast, the Globe says "a study finds stormy centuries linked to warm seas by looking back farther than scientists have been previously able to, but its real importance may simply be in showing what occurred even without human-induced climate change, since history is used as an indicator of what could happen in the future." I suppose there is no level of bullsh** they will not stoop to sling in $ervice to the agenda. (Blog editor just shakes head)
Federal heating aid exhausted in Boston area
Thanks for the help and taking the call, although it was not the kind of delivery others received.
Insurance claims on the rise as snow piles on
And up go the premiums yet again.
Looks like there may only be one way left to travel in Massachusetts.
"GM 2014 profit falls 26 percent to $2.8B on recall costs" by Tom Krisher, Associated Press February 05, 2015
DETROIT — If it weren’t for the recalls, 2014 would have been a stellar year for General Motors.
Even with $2.8 billion in pretax costs to fix more than 42 million recalled vehicles worldwide and $400 million set aside for death and injury claims, GM still managed to turn a $2.8 billion profit. It plans to raise the quarterly dividend.
And the U.S. taxpayers took a loss on the stock buy-up and selling via the government.
Except for the recalls, most of the stars lined up last year for the Detroit automaker. Gas prices dropped more than a buck to $2.26 per gallon. The US economy gained steam. Cheap credit was abundant.
Combined, they sent buyers to GM’s newly redesigned and lucrative pickup trucks and large SUVs in North America, the company’s most profitable market.
At the same time, truck plants for chief competitor Ford were down much of the year while it switched to a new pickup with a risky aluminum body.
Sales in China grew faster than the market. Global sales rose 2 percent to 9.9 million vehicles, a record.
Things were so good, GM plans to raise its dividend 20 percent next quarter, to 36 cents, pending board approval. And the company said the dividend could go even higher this year once GM gets a better handle on recall costs.
Yes, there was trouble in Europe, Russia and South America, but by and large, GM had a good year.
Investors agreed. GM shares rose 5.4 percent Wednesday. The gain could be the largest one-day increase since July 3, 2012.
**********
For the full year, GM’s net income fell.
And it's good year?
Chief financial officer Chuck Stevens said earnings were strong when recall costs aren’t counted. The company earned $6.5 billion before interest and taxes last year, and that would have been more than $9 billion without the recalls, he said.
In North America, GM’s most profitable region, the company earned $6.6 billion before taxes, 11 percent below 2013. That will bring record profit-sharing checks of about $9,000 for 48,400 eligible union factory workers later this month. To reward employees, GM excluded recall costs and measured the profit-sharing based on core earnings.
Stevens said the company is on its way to achieving a 10 percent North American profit margin next year. Last year the margin, which is the percentage of revenue a company gets to keep, was 6.5 percent. Without recalls, it was 8.9 percent.
What's good for GM is good for America, remember that?
Not now.
GM expects increased pickup truck and big SUV sales this year, and it’s looking for ways to increase factory output, Stevens said.
The company’s pretax loss in Europe widened almost 60 percent for the year to $1.37 billion, mainly on Russian currency problems. International operations profits, including Asia, fell 3 percent to $1.2 billion. South America reported a full-year loss of $180 million, compared with a $327 million profit in 2013. Stevens said the company is still predicting a pretax profit in Europe in 2016.
In the fourth quarter, GM earned $1.1 billion, or 66 cents per share. That’s 21 percent better than a year ago.
The same factors that helped GM overcome the year of the recall remain today, so the company needs to perform well, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors. ‘‘We may be looking at as close to an alignment of forces in GM’s favor as we’re going to see this decade,’’ he wrote.
Still, there are uncertainties. Recall costs could grow. Sales in Europe and Russia could falter. Cheap leases and financing for six years or longer have likely pulled sales from future months, Jonas wrote.
Even so, investors liked GM....
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Related: Death toll from GM ignition switches rises to 52
Also see: New York Times Appraises GM Settlement Process
They then put out a public relations release for them.
Also see:
"Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s top auto maker, reported a better-than-expected $5.1 billion profit for the three months through December. Toyota is also trying to lead a move toward what it calls a ‘‘hydrogen society,’’ one centered on fuel cell vehicles, which run on the power produced when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to produce water. Hydrogen can also provide heat and electricity for homes, if not entire towns."
What is in that air bag again?
Automakers must do more to counter hackers, senator says
Throws a whole new thought process into suspiciously timed car accidents.
Time for me to fly:
"Regular people buy plane tickets. The super-rich buy the whole plane. And now a startup called Beacon is proposing an intermediate option. “This is an obvious need for a lot of people, particularly corporate executives.”
That's who the Globe and government serve since it is their core readership and constituency.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
So what is the talk on the T today?
MBTA needs a leader who has Baker’s full confidence
Baker has ‘healthy exchange’ with outgoing T chief
Beverly Scott told the truth, and forced us to listen
And here I am.
"It’s time to get Charlie back on the MBTA" by Shirley Leung, Globe Columnist February 13, 2015
Imagine this headline over a story: “Rails coming back to life, but roads, airport closed.”
It’s not imaginary at all; it’s a relic from the Globe back in 1978, from that century’s most famous blizzard.
Hate to say it, but that would be a switch for a change.
And there was Mike Dukakis, the governor at the time, not long after holding onto a strap on a Green Line trolley, making his way to Beacon Hill.
Sure, the trains were late, and the service was limited, but you could get around. And for a while, it was just about the only way you could.
“We did it,” said Dukakis, an avid MBTA commuter even while governor. “The time when the T should shine is exactly times like this. This is when you pick up ridership. If it’s a disaster, you’ve lost a great opportunity to market the system.”
I bring this up not just to point out how far the T has fallen in the past quarter-century but to suggest a way to start making it somewhat better. And it begins like this: Charlie Baker parking his state-issue SUV and going for regular rides on the T.
As long as Walsh gives up his, and this rotten T after years of reading how ridership was up and things were great! Had late night and everything!
Riding the T, Dukakis experienced firsthand the problems that bugged other commuters. He remembers how the Green Line kept breaking down during the winter. He asked the conductor: “What the hell is going on?”
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"Storm-weary parents now fret about vacation" by Beth Teitell and Taryn Luna, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent February 13, 2015
In future years, parents may look back with nostalgia at even having a February vacation to be ruined.
I already am to a day when the ma$$ media was not so deceptive.
As snow days mount, so is discussion of consolidating February and April school breaks into one. This year, there’s talk of holding school during April vacation or on Saturdays to make up for lost instruction time, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh has announced that Boston’s public schools will be in session on Evacuation Day (March 17) and Bunker Hill Day (June 17).
I'll bet that idea will get demolished pretty quickly.
What's the teacher's union contract say about it?
With ample time left to stress over April vacation plans that may or may not become complicated, many parents are looking short term — as in this weekend.
At this point, I don't want to hear the whining or satisfy the tension-instigating, fear-promoting paper.
In Needham, Glenn Rosengard and his family have been looking forward to Puerto Rico for months, but this week, after he and his girls, ages 12 and 14, finished shoveling, he broke the news of a possible delay — or worse.
“It can’t happen!” they wailed with the passion of a tween and teen wronged.
“But they’re not infants,” he said. “They see the snow, they understand the reality.” And yet, he too was in denial. “We’re going, even if we have to drive,” he said, although he and his wife did rebook their flights for Monday.
But are these worst-case scenarios realistic, or just the panic of parents who’ve lost track of time amid the onslaught of snow days?
Deirdre Carey, a single mother from Franklin, sighed and asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Why do we live here?”
Because it is home, right?
--more--"
A reminder of why we live here:
"Region set for another punishing wintry blow; With storm approaching, Walsh asks T to shut down" by Peter Schworm and Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff February 13, 2015
Another menacing storm appeared to be headed toward Massachusetts in the coming days, a forecast that exasperated a region well into a severe case of snow weariness and that prompted Mayor Martin J. Walsh to urge Thursday that the MBTA be shut down this weekend.
That isn't going to be good for all those low-wage workers.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard watch from Saturday evening until Sunday evening from the North Shore through Boston to the South Shore, and forecasters warned that the weekend storm could bring as much as 15 inches along the coast.
The MBTA, whose top executive announced she was resigning this week amid a series of shutdowns, was noncommittal on its plans for weekend service, saying the agency would “do what is best for the safety of both its customers and employees.” A spokesman for Governor Charlie Baker said the decision on whether to shut down the T “was largely dependent on the forecast and the amount of snow we get.”
The latest storm would add another chapter in a record-breaking month of snow, said Alan Dunham, a National Weather Service meteorologist. The light, fluffy snow will be whipped by wind gusts as strong as 65 miles per hour on the Cape and 60 miles per hour in Boston.
“I think if we get a blizzard storm on Sunday, I would suggest that the T gets shut down Saturday night into Sunday and possibly Monday so that proper snow removal can happen,” Walsh said at an afternoon news conference.
A blizzard watch means that snowfall may be accompanied by sustained winds or frequent gusts over 35 miles per hour. Central Massachusetts and parts of Southeastern Massachusetts could receive 10 to 14 inches of snow, with 6 to 12 inches west of Worcester.
Okay, it looks like us rubes out here will -- once again -- miss the big brunt of it all, although local forecasters say different.
The point I want to make is how karmically ironic it is that the fart-misters from the east, with their global warming gas filling my news pages, are getting dumped on.
********
Before the storm, bitter cold will grip the region.
I know. It chilled me to the bone as I got a cup of coffee and a Globe today. May not be going to get a Sunday Globe this weekend, but we'll see.
Close on the heels of three major storms that have caused widespread disruptions and slowed public transit to a crawl, the forecast brought new urgency to a third day of recovery efforts. Exhausted road crews worked long hours Thursday to make room for the latest blast from an unyielding winter....
Which is where I'm yielding to you the rest of the article (Globe went over to Logan airport to find out).
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Can you believe the Globe is already talking spring?
"Study sees even bigger longer droughts for much of US West" Associated Press February 13, 2015
SAN JOSE, Calif. — As bad as recent droughts in California, the Southwest, and Midwest have been, some scientists say far worse ‘‘megadroughts’’ are coming, and they could last for decades.
Okay, what I see here -- through the agenda-pu$hing fart mist -- is a bunch of $cientist (because they are the ones cited in my pre$$) clowns. They are predicting things decades down the road when they can't even get today or tomorrow right. The proof is literally IN YOUR FACE in the form of FROZEN WHITE RAIN!
‘‘Unprecedented drought conditions’’ — the worst in more than 1,000 years — are likely to come to the Southwest and Central Plains after 2050 and stick around because of global warming, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances on Thursday.
Or because of massive mismanagement and neglect of water and irrigation systems by industries and governments, because those are the real reasons. The elites are not hurting for water.
‘‘Nearly every year is going to be dry toward the end of the 21st century compared to what we think of as normal conditions now,’’ said study lead author Benjamin Cook, a NASA atmospheric scientist. ‘‘We’re going to have to think about a much drier future in western North America.’’
NASA literally Cooking the books.
--more--"
Related:
"Firefighters made progress after rain moved in, but Captain Liz Brown of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the rain hasn’t been enough to put out the fire."
Globe coverage went out, though.
UPDATES:
Death toll from General Motors ignition switches rises to 56
