Our bylaws require that we send out an announcement in advance alerting the Mediefld community to our annual meeting.
Susan Maritan
The Annual Meeting of the Medfield Food Cupboard is scheduled for Thursday, November 8th at 7:00 PM at Medfield’s Church of the Advent, 28 Pleasant St. All community members are welcome to attend.
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Good ending story from WickedLocal Medfield –
http://medfield.wickedlocal.com/news/20180905/umass-experts-see-major-gains-in-war-on-winter-moths
With the help of a parasitic fly, a group of Massachusetts scientists is declaring victory over the leaf-munching, tree-damaging winter moth caterpillar.
Winter moth larva, which feed on tree leaves, blueberry crops and orchards, have been responsible for the defoliation of tens of thousands of acres along the New England coast each year since the early 2000s.
But entomologists at UMass-Amherst now say the winter moth population is decreasing to non-pest levels thanks largely to the introduction of a parasitic fly native to Europe. The pest-reduction approach, known as “biological control,” is expected to save Massachusetts residents millions of dollars in future pesticide costs, according to researchers.
“After 14 years of effort, we have successfully converted winter moth, a major defoliation invading Eastern New England, into a non-pest, presumably on a permanent basis,” Joseph Elkinton, an entomologist at UMass-Amherst, said in a statement. “We have averted what was shaping up to be another major invasion calamity for the entire United States comparable to gypsy moth.”
Elkinton, along with entomologists George Boettner and Hannah Broadley, has been working toward this goal for years. In 2005, the group started collecting the flies, which prey specifically on the winter moth, and grew them in a controlled UMass lab.
The flies were released at 44 sites along the Massachusetts coast, and the researchers have verified the flies have successfully populated in at least 38 of the locations.
The pest-reduction effort mirrors a biological control approach that succeeded in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, Canada, where the winter moth was found prior to invading the United States. The species is originally from Europe.
Elkinton said the biological approach, which is common in fighting invasive pests around the world, is working especially well here.
″(It’s) quite rare, at least on forest trees,” he said. “In fact, I can’t think of any other example involving a major forest insect in North America.”
The flies do not prey on anything besides the winter moth, according to the researchers. And while the approach will not wipe out the winter moth entirely, it will greatly reduce the invasive species.
“The object of biological control is to reduce density of the invasive species to non-pest status,” Elkinton said. “That is what we believe we have achieved.”
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From Kerri Krah, seeking to add to their 700 worldwide followers –
#MedfieldProjectHappiness is spreading #happiness @ the Medfield Public Schools. Follow us on Twitter on our journey & join in our happiness challenges along the way 😀
Tag @HappyBlakers #MedfieldProjectHappiness #AugustAppreciationChallenge #medfieldps
We would really like to get folks in the community to participate. I’m looking for your ideas and also would love your participation. I’m happy to answer any questions.
Thank you in advance for your support of social emotional learning in Medfield!
Best,
Kerrie
—
Kerrie Krah
Speech-Language Pathologist
Medfield Public Schools
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Posted in Children, health, Schools, Uncategorized
More from the American Association for Justice daily newsletter –
CBS News (7/25, Gibson, 6.78M) reports on its website, “Consumers can expect additional recalls of products possibly contaminated with salmonella in coming days” as “believe a common whey ingredient supplied by Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) may have been contaminated with salmonella.” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement on Tuesday, “As there are likely other food products made by other manufacturers that also use this common ingredient, there may be other recalls initiated in the coming days,” citing certain food products under the Hungry Man label.
TIME (7/25, Ducharme, 19.27M) reports that Associated Milk Producers “reiterated in a statement that the whey powder recall is precautionary, and that all samples have so far tested negative for salmonella.”
The Food Poisoning Bulletin (7/25, Larsen) also reports.
The Miami Herald (7/25, Neal, 1.07M) reports that Kraft Heinz “recalled about 7,000 cases of Taco Bell Salsa Con Queso dip on Tuesday night as a precautionary measure” against potential botulism contamination. No illnesses have been reported. According to the recall notice, “Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled.” .
USA Today (7/25, May, 11.4M) reports that “at least 212 cases of salmonella infections have been linked to contact with backyard chickens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.” The CDC says as of Monday, about 25 percent of the reported cases are children younger than five years old, and at least 34 people have been hospitalized. The article says the outbreak has been reported in 44 states and includes several strains of salmonella.
Fox News (7/26, Lieu, 16.38M), the AP (7/25), the Bangor (ME) Daily News (7/25, Curtis, 168K), and the Connecticut Post (7/25, Cuda, 318K) report.
Politico Pulse also highlights a new Gallup (7/25, 35K) poll, which found that 38% of Americans viewed vaping as “very harmful,” while 82% thought the same of cigarettes and 27% saw marijuana this way. A “majority” thought all of these substances, plus chewing tobacco cigars, and pipes, are “at least ‘somewhat harmful.’”
U.S. News & World Report (7/25, Lardieri, 1.97M) reports 96% of Americans consider cigarettes to be “at least somewhat harmful” to smokers. The coverage states, “Researchers even suggest that, as cigarettes become even more tightly regulated and laws governing marijuana use continue to loosen, a day could come in which more people report smoking pot than tobacco.”
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From my American Association for Justice daily e-newsletter –
Reuters (7/24, Raymond) reports Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said at a press briefing that her office has opened an investigation into Juul Labs Inc. and online retailers Direct Eliquid LLC and Eonsmoke LLC to determine if they broke state law by “failing to prevent minors from buying their products.” The investigation intends to evaluate the effectiveness of Juul underage sales prevention efforts and what it does, “if anything” to stop its products from being sold by online retailers without age verification. The office said it was sending cease-and-desist letters to the online retailers to stop sales of Juul and e-cigarettes to Massachusetts residents “without adequate age verification systems.”
CNBC (7/24, LaVito, 4.81M) reports Healey said, “I want to be clear with the public. This isn’t about getting adults to stop smoking cigarettes. This is about getting kids to start vaping. That’s what these companies are up to. They’re engaged in an effort to get kids addicted, get them hooked so they will have customers for the rest of their lives.” Healey’s office will investigate whether the Massachusetts consumer protection statute or state e-cigarette regulations were violated.
The Hill (7/24, Wheeler, 2.71M) reports Healey “said Tuesday morning her office has sent Juul Labs subpoenas for information.” The Verge (7/24, Becker, 1.55M) reports the investigation is part of “a statewide push to end youth vaping and nicotine addiction.”
Also reporting are the Associated Press (7/24), Boston Globe (7/24, Campbell, 945K), and the Springfield (MA) Republican (7/24, 412K).
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Posted in Children, health, Marijuana, MCAP - Medfeild Cares About Prevention, Uncategorized
The Swap area at the transfer station gets more and more organized each year. It is looking really good this year.
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The final Cherry Sheet numbers for the Town of Medfield in the FY19 state budget agreed upon this week appear below. Our state aid is up about $61K over last year, and on a percentage basis the state aid continues to decline, so more of the municipal services to residents must therefore be funded from our property taxes.
Representative Garlick has arranged for the Town of Medfield to also get $30,000 in the state budget this year to combat suicide.
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Every year Bonnie Wren-Burgess asks me to judge her tenth grade Medfield High School honors English class debates, where the students are supposed to apply the methods of Blaise Pascal. And every year I have to figure out exactly what that means.
This year Bonnie informed me that I had been judging her debates for fifteen years, which she told her students was as long as they had been alive.
My reward, in addition to hearing how smart and eloquent the students are, is to get a really cool thank you note – this is the one from this year –
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A Patriots fan from Medfield wasn’t expecting to make friends with Philadelphia Eagles fans when he went snorkeling in Bermuda last week, but he did just that after rescuing a couple from rocky waters, where they had become trapped.
Allen Yannone, 28, was on a getaway with his wife when they decided to snorkel in Church Bay last Tuesday, he said. But conditions turned out to be less than ideal.
“There was a little rain coming in and of course rip tide and current — kind of a perfect storm,” Yannone said.
After being tossed around by a few rough waves, Yannone decided to return to dry land. That’s when he heard a cry of distress.
“I thought I heard someone yell ‘help,’ ” Yannone said by telephone Wednesday. “But I wasn’t sure if it was a person or a bird or what.”
“They were pretty cut up,” Yannone said. “The waves were hitting them harder than I thought.”
Yannone checked out the couple’s wounds, and found Paul Trenholm was cut badly at his knees. His wife, Anita Trenholm, also suffered cuts to her arms. Yannone said both were bleeding, but he was able to determine the wounds were not too serious to return to shore.
“I knew there was no way we could go back the way I came,” Yannone said. “It was way too rough. Once I realized they could walk, we decided to walk the rocks and go as far as we could toward the shore on the rocks before we could get back in the water and swim.”
As they made their way back to shore, Yannone engaged in friendly banter to help the couple calm down.
“I said, ‘Oh, you’re from Philly, so you must be Eagles fans,’ ” and they said, ‘Yes,’ ” Yannone said. “And I said, ‘I’m from Boston, so I’m a huge Pats fan, so I’ll see you back at the beach.’ ”
Of course, Yannone was joking, he said, and the trio laughed and talked about the
Super Bowl as they navigated back to shore. After making sure the Trenholms were OK, Yannone went back to his vacation.
A few days later, he had returned home when he got a text message from his mother asking him if he had been on Facebook recently. When he logged on, he found that the Trenholms had been trying to track him down to thank him.
“They were so gracious and so generous, and I never thought in a million years that I would see them or hear from them,” Yannone said. “I would do that 10 out of 10 times. It was one of the coolest, most humbling things that’s ever happened.”
Yannone has been in touch with the couple and says he hopes to see them when they make an annual visit to Boston in the fall.
“The way I was raised was to always do the right thing,” he said. “I’m glad I did the right thing that day because I got to meet two amazing people. I’m no hero or anything like that.”
Laney Ruckstuhl can be reached at laney.ruckstuhl@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @laneyruckstuhl.
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Medfield Select Board member
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
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