From Lifehacker :Your Kids Can Now Walk to School Alone Without You Getting Arrested

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Your Kids Can Now Walk to School Alone Without You Getting Arrested 

Article from Lifehacker-

You might have heard a few news stories recently of parents getting arrested because their children were walking to school alone or playing outside unsupervised. You can relax a little: A new federal law allows parents to choose whether your kids can roam free.

The new law is part of the recently-passed Every Student Succeeds Act (on page 858 of the 1,061-page document). It protects parents from civil or criminal charges for allowing their children to travel to or from school in whatever manner the parents believe are age appropriate.

This doesn’t overrule state or local laws, but it’s a step forward if you want to give your kids some freedom (even in a dangerous world). The law also only specifies walking to and from school, but hopefully one day maybe children will be able to go to the park on their own also if you give them permission to.

Federal Law Now Says Kids Can Walk to School Alone | Fast Company via Slashdot

Joey writes-

It’s such a different world now than when we grew up.   On my way to dropping off my girls to school I often see this young girl (guessing 7 years old) walking alone to school without her parents and it always seems a little strange to me in this day and age.  But then I was thinking about it and we always walked to the bus stop alone or we would ride our bikes to practices or were dropped off and picked up at practices.   Nowadays most parents stay at practices and either drop off their kids at school, walk to the bus stop with them or sit in the car with them til they get picked up by the bus.

I’m not saying one way is right or wrong, just pointing out that not too long ago it wouldn’t have ever been considered that a parent be arrested for letting their kid walk to school.

There’s A New Rotary in My Life

Posted on by Nichole S.

Not sure if it is temporary or permanent but there’s officially another rotary in my life.  This one near the school where I teach in Beverly.

Happily (I think) it is there due to the clearing and construction of the new Whole Foods due to open later this year.

In case you were not aware that Beverly is indeed getting a Whole Foods you can read more about it by following the link below.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET PLANS BEVERLY, MASS., LOCATION

Whole Foods Market will open a location at 140 Brimbal Avenue in Beverly, Mass.

The store, which will be part of the North Shore Commons Shopping Center, will be approximately 35,000 square feet and will employ approximately 150 team members.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to open another Whole Foods Market location in the metro North area,” said Laura Derba, president of Whole Foods Market’s North Atlantic Region. “Beverly is a great community, and we are eager to open and to become partners with our new neighbors.”

The store is projected to open in 2016.

– See more at: http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-plans-beverly-mass.-location#sthash.sQk50OIZ.dpuf

http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-plans-beverly-mass.-location

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TWO IMPORTANT NOTICES ABOUT REQUESTS FOR GRANT PROPOSALS

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS #1

From Mayor Sefatia Romeo Thekan:

CITY OF GLOUCESTER

2016 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS & NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

The Grants Division of the Community Development Department is seeking proposals from qualified organizations, agencies, or individuals for its Program Year 2016 (PY16) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. The CDBG Program is designed to promote safe, sanitary, and affordable housing, encourage handicapped accessibility, improve public facilities, support social service and job training activities, provide economic development assistance, and improve the living environment for low- and moderate-income residents of the City of Gloucester. The 2016 CDBG Program is expected to be funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Funding of proposals is contingent upon receipt of funding from HUD.

The Five Year Consolidated Action Plan (PY15-PY19) offers direction for housing and community development efforts over the next five years. The goals and priorities indentified in the ConPlan will be used to guide future funding of CDBG activities and programs.

The REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) requirement packets will be available on Tuesday, January 19, 2016, and can be picked up at the Community Development Department, 3 Pond Road, Gloucester, MA or retrieved from the City of Gloucester website: http://www.gloucester-ma.gov.

Proposals will be received until:

12:00 PM (noon) – Thursday, February 25, 2016

City of Gloucester

Community Development Department

Grants Division

3 Pond Road

Gloucester, MA 01930

(978) 282-3027

AN INFORMATIONAL PUBLIC HEARING to address any questions and explain the CDBG RFP requirements and to obtain the views of the citizens of Gloucester regarding the CDBG Program will be held on Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. in the Friend Room of the Sawyer Free Library, 2 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA.

A PUBLIC HEARING will be held on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. in the Friend Room of the Sawyer Free Library, 2 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA. Individuals and organizations requesting funds will be required to make a brief presentation outlining their proposal at this meeting.

*    *     *

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS #2

 

Gloucester’s Community Preservation Committee (CPC) has set its 2016 schedule for all those seeking grants from the city.  The Committee funds a wide variety of large and small programs from individuals and groups in four specific areas: open space, historical preservation, community housing and recreation.
Recent recipients include the community garden and backstops for the softball diamond at Burnham’s Field, renovations of the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, a fire suppression system for the Universalist Unitarian Church in downtown Gloucester.

The initial single-page eligibility form must be submitted to the CPC by February 29th.
The material should be sent to:

Community Preservation Committee
c/o The Community Development Department
3 Pond Road
Gloucester MA 01930
or via e-mail to
dlaurie@gloucester-ma-gov

Completed applications from those who pass the preliminary review are due by April 15th.

Final decisions by the City Council will be made in November or December.

Full details are available from Debbie Laurie, Senior Project Manager of the Community Development Department, at 978-282-8004 or email above. Information is also available from the City of Gloucester website at www.gloucester-ma-gov.

RAINBOW CLOUD OVER GLOUCESTER HARBOR

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Tonight’s sunset panorama from Rocky Neck’s Wonson’s Cove, with a pretty rainbow-like arch over the Harbor.

Gloucester Harbor Wonson's Cove ©Kim Smith 2016

“ROMANTIC OUTLAWS” AUTHOR AND ENDICOTT COLLEGE PROFESSOR CHARLOTTE GORDON TO SPEAK AT THE SAWYER FREE LIBRARY

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

51pzhdhu6QL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_About Charlotte Gordon’s latest book Romantic Outlaws, which was named one of the top books of 2015 by The Sunday Times (London), “This groundbreaking dual biography brings to life a pioneering English feminist and the daughter she never knew. Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley have each been the subject of numerous biographies, yet no one has ever examined their lives in one book—until now. In Romantic Outlaws,Charlotte Gordon reunites the trailblazing author who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the Romantic visionary who gave the world Frankenstein—two courageous women who should have shared their lives, but instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy.

In 1797, less than two weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft died, and a remarkable life spent pushing against the boundaries of society’s expectations for women came to an end. But another was just beginning. Wollstonecraft’s daughter Mary was to follow a similarly audacious path. Both women had passionate relationships with several men, bore children out of wedlock, and chose to live in exile outside their native country. Each in her own time fought against the injustices women faced and wrote books that changed literary history.

The private lives of both Marys were nothing less than the stuff of great Romantic drama, providing fabulous material for Charlotte Gordon, an accomplished historian and a gifted storyteller. Taking readers on a vivid journey across revolutionary France and Victorian England, she seamlessly interweaves the lives of her two protagonists in alternating chapters, creating a book that reads like a richly textured historical novel. Gordon also paints unforgettable portraits of the men in their lives, including the mercurial genius Percy Shelley, the unbridled libertine Lord Byron, and the brilliant radical William Godwin.

“Brave, passionate, and visionary, they broke almost every rule there was to break,” Gordon writes of Wollstonecraft and Shelley. A truly revelatory biography, Romantic Outlaws reveals the defiant, creative lives of this daring mother-daughter pair who refused to be confined by the rigid conventions of their era.”

Gordon-author-talk

A Horse, Of Course

Posted on by Marty Luster

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As I drove by Kent’s Landing the thing caught my eye

It looked like an animal ready to fly;

I pondered and stared and said “O My gosh,

I think I’ve discovered a horse in the maash.”

 

Doesn’t This Photo Look Familiar!

Posted on by Sista Felicia

Durring yesterdays interview with Gloucester Powerball Organizers Lillian LoGrasso & Misty Amero I asked both ladies to pose for a photo with the official Group list inbetween calls from verious media outlets! Today a photo of this occursnce was highlighted on the front page of the GDTimes!

Below is the “Original” photo posted yesterday on GMG


Below is the photo highlighted on the front page of the GDTimes…. Yes that is  Sista Felicia’s Hands & Cell Phone in the bottom left frame of the photo! Pretty fun to see!

  

Montessori Art Kitchen East Gloucester

Posted on by James Eves

Give a child an experiential gift
ARTS and CRAFTS for LITTLE ONES in the
Montessori Art Kitchen East Gloucester

Creative Montessori Based Art Classes ages 3-7
with Colleen Apostolos-Marsh 978 648 0601

colleenapostolos@gmail.com

Mike O’Connell, George McCann and Forrest “Frosty” Padgett Tonight @ The Rhumb Line’s “Dave Sag’s Blues Party 8:30-11:30 1.14.2016 It shall be smokin!

Posted on by Joanne

dave-sag-bw

 

Mike O’connell and the Three Stooges, featuring George McAnn, Chuck’s brother and erstwhile guitarist in the Jas. Montgomery Band.

mike george bw rlAlso, Mr. Frosty “Forrest ” Padgett on defibrillators. Gonna be a hot time in Fishtown Thursday night!

frosty Put on your shoes and lose yer blues!Spread out! Why don’t you get a toupee with some brains in it? Nyuk Nyuk.

rhumbline

40 Railroad Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283-9732

http://www.therhumbline.com/

GHS Girls Hoop vs Lynn English

Posted on by David B. Cox

GHS girls lose in battle with Lynn English

Dedication of a bench on Magnolia Beach for Philip Bouchie

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

A. Philip Bouchie, Jr. passed away last January.  He was the Acting Lieutenant of the Gloucester Fire Department.  On Wednesday, January 13, 2016 there was a dedication to Lt. Bouchie with a bench in his name on Magnolia Beach.  The winds were blowing and the temperatures were in the 20’s but the warmth of the crowd exhibited how much the Gloucester Fire Fighter was respected

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Jeff Cluett continues to be one of my favorite young artists.

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Nichole’s Picks 1/16 + 1/17

Posted on by Nichole S.

Pick #1:  The New England International Auto Show

JANUARY 14-18, 2016

BOSTON CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTER

Head HERE to see all important information!

 

 

Pick #2:  Rock n Romp, Boston with Freezepop

Saturday, January 16th at 11:30 a.m.  The Sinclair, Cambridge.

The Sinclair

Got kids? Love music?   Then Rock-n-Romp is for you. Started in the Washington D.C. Rock-n-Romp is a family friendly concert series showcasing fantastic local-area musicians and bands. Shows are held during the day in a relaxed, kid-safe environment. The volume might be low, but the music is designed for parents and kids both in mind. Kids enjoy the music, dance, or just enjoy the other activities available to them, and parents get the ever-so-rare opportunity to listen to great live music and enjoy a beer with other parents. Romps give parents who miss that aspect of their social life a chance to get out, enjoy some music that might be new to them, and expose their kids to great bands in a safe, friendly environment.

This show is all ages, but all children must be accompanied by an adult. Adults must also accompany a child to enter. Please ensure that no adult is responsible for accompanying more than three children. The child ticket is for ages 12 and younger. Opening acts subject to change without notice.

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Follow this link to read more!

Follow this link to order tickets!

 

 

For a more comprehensive list of family activities visit our friends at North Shore Kid

Rose Baker January Artists

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

More Cape Ann Community News –
http://www.capeanncommunity.com

oldfolks76's avatarCape Ann Community

Each month Juni Van Dyke, Director of the Art Program at the Rose Baker Senior Center selects one or two artists to honor with a show of their works. To start 2016, Virginia Dench and Genevieve McNamara are the honorees and their works are on display now.

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Virginia Dench (l) and Genevieve McNamara in front of their art exhibit.

Virginia Dench has always enjoyed observing the natural world around her and taking in its beauty. But after she took an art class at the Rose Baker Senior Center everything changed. She found that she could capture the beauty of nature in her drawings and paintings. She is still observing nature, but now she is able to share what she sees with others. In the exhibit at Rose Baker, you can see her love of nature and enjoy her view of the natural world.

Coming from a family of artists, Genevieve…

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