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By William Corey, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- When Carol Wengenworth's daughters were just toddlers, they would play on the shores of the Acushnet River, a stone's throw from their Covell Street home.
"I never allowed them to go in that water," Ms. Wengenworth said, adding that the river has been so dirty for so long that she, like many of her neighbors, "never gave it much thought."
Residents in the tightly packed tenements that lead to the shoreline have long lived with a river that was so cut off from the neighborhood it was easily forgotten.
By David Rising, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson was ordered yesterday to eliminate overcrowding in cells and to stop using the Ash Street Jail as a holding facility for local police departments.
The order has local police worried about where to house their overnight prisoners. The largest police department in the area -- New Bedford -- is moving to a temporary building in late December where there are no cells.
By Joe Beaird, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- Noxious gas trapped in the hold of a clam boat killed one man yesterday and incapacitated several rescuers who climbed down to save him.
"They got down there, and they couldn't get back out," said a tuna fisherman who was ashore when the incident took place aboard the clam boat John N around 3:25 p.m.
The rescuers descended into the hold to check on another man who officials said was likely overcome by fumes, causing him to collapse and drown in the bilge water.
FALL RIVER --The city's incinerator, which bellows smoke over Interstate 195 and can be seen for miles, could expand and become a regional facility if approved by the Legislature.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norton, D-Fall River, has filed a bill that could help the incinerator meet federal clean air standards. The bill would transfer part of $7 million already appropriated for a municipal co-generation facility at the Industrial Park, which has yet to get off the ground.
WASHINGTON -- In a final salvo before a vote on impeachment hearings, the House yesterday released 4,600 pages of evidence that meticulously detail President Clinton's efforts to contain the Monica Lewinsky scandal as it erupted.
"It was not good," Oval Office secretary Betty Currie told the grand jury, recounting a midnight phone call she received from the president in which he warned that a news story about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky was about to emerge.
By Jeffrey Ulbrich, Associated Press writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- With the clock ticking down to possible NATO airstrikes, Serb authorities scrambled yesterday to show they are complying with U.N. demands to pull back their forces and bring peace to Kosovo.
The ethnic Albanians' political leader called it a false show and said NATO strikes on Serbia would be welcome.
By Beth Harris, Associated Press writer
LOS ANGELES -- In his movies and TV series, Gene Autry played the same unchangeable character: a true-blue son of the West who always fought fair and square and loved his horse, Champion.
Off the screen, Autry was a shrewd businessman who owned baseball's Anaheim Angels for more than 30 years.
Hollywood's original singing cowboy died at his home yesterday after a long illness. He was 91.
NEWTON -- Thirteen minority students at Boston College logged on to their e-mail accounts this week to find the following anonymous note: "BC is for white men."
Administrators at the Jesuit university said yesterday they would suspend or expel the author. They'd even consider taking the guilty party to court. But first, they said, they had to figure out who was responsible.
BOSTON -- A medical assistant who was strip-searched by officers after being pulled over for a traffic violation has settled her case against the city's Police Department.
Sharon Teicher, who said the search violated her civil rights, will receive $48,000 from the department, which also agreed to adopt a policy on procedures for such searches.
BOSTON -- The number of people in the Bay State without health insurance has dropped sharply in the past few years, from more than 700,000 people to slightly more than 500,000, acting Gov. Paul Cellucci's administration said yesterday.
But Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, the Democratic nominee for governor, said he doubted the newly released statistics.
By Bruce Meyerson, Associated Press writer
NEW YORK -- Blue-chip stocks rebounded yesterday, wiping out a third straight day of heavy losses just as the market was returning to the summer's lows.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which had lost 450 points the prior two days, erased an early 102-point deficit and rose 152.16, or 2 percent, to 7784.69 by the close.
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton declared yesterday that the United States must aggressively combat the most serious challenge to the world economy in 50 years. He put foward proposals for keeping the U.S. economy from being drawn into a global recession.
Among the ideas: changing the way the International Monetary Fund works to allow it to give emergency loans more quickly to countries to head off the panicked rush that has flattened Asian nations and Russia.
NEW YORK -- A powerful association of insurance agents has dropped its opposition to allowing banks to sell insurance, opening the way for a Senate vote as early as next week on legislation that would lift Depression-era barriers between the two industries.
The Independent Insurance Agents of America and the American Bankers Association agreed this week to suggested changes in a bill before the Senate that would regulate the sale of insurance by banks.
By John Estrella, Standard-Times staff writer
The Grossman's name is returning to New Bedford Sunday, but the new store is very different from what was the region's original hardware superstore, having become a bargain outlet.
The store opening tomorrow is the 30th in the chain, now based in Stoughton. In an interview, Grossman's spokesman Tom Dowd said he considers the spot on Hathaway Road a perfect location for the different type of store Grossman's has become.
Children who are ready to read their first novels have lots of choices. In recent years, publishers have started catering to this group of readers, publishing both "stand alone" first novels, as well as various novel-style series, like the "Cam Jansen" mysteries, the "Junie B. Jones," "Magic Treehouse" or "Marvin Redpost" series, or the "Amber Brown" books.
SPRINGFIELD -- With three NBA championships, almost universal respect as one of the game's greatest players, and now a place in basketball's pantheon, Larry Bird still won't take a full bow.
About 7,000 players, coaches, basketball officials, many home state fans and others set off throaty chants of "Lah-ree, Lah-ree, Lah-ree" for two minutes to celebrate his induction last night at this city's Civic Center.
Jonathan Comey
This has been a strange couple of weeks for the New England Patriots.
First comes a bye week on the heels of a momentum-building win over the Tennessee Oilers. Then, the whole region catches Red Sox fever, and the Pats find themselves enjoying an unusual measure of peace as they prepare for -- what!? -- the undefeated Saints.
Yes, it's an odd time.
More...
NEW BEDFORD -- Don't count the New Bedford Whalers out of this season just yet.
Given up for dead by some after losing their first two games, the Whalers came to life big time last night, with Clinton Dunston providing the lightning, as they shocked previously unbeaten Barnstable, 33-24, at Walsh Field.
In his first start of the season after spraining a knee in a pre-season scrimmage, Dunston rushed for 221 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.
By Steven Krasner, New England Sports Service
BOSTON -- The sounds of silence.
That pretty much sums up yesterday's happenings at Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox hosted the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
At least that's the way it was for Boston's offense, which managed only four hits in eight innings against Charles Nagy, one of the major league's biggest gopher-ball artists.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, there were four loud booms coming off Cleveland bats as the Indians powered their way past Boston, 4-3, and took a commanding 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series before a subdued sellout crowd of 33,114.
By Buddy Thomas, Standard-Times Senior Sports Editor
LAKEVILLE -- A gutsy fourth down call with less than three minutes left in the game turned potential disaster into an insurance touchdown as Apponequet rolled to a 26-12 South Coast Conference victory over Fairhaven in a battle of football unbeatens last night.
Leading by eight points (20-12) and facing a fourth-and-two from the Fairhaven 44 with 2:44 remaining, Apponequet coach Dave Morgado decided to gamble, shunning a punt for a shot at the first down.
Someday, no one will much remember that New Bedford Harbor was the site of the world's highest concentrations of PCB pollution. Someday, no one will remember the Superfund and the 15 years it took to go from making the list to coming up with a plan to rid the harbor of the chemicals dumped there in the days when no one had a second thought about it.
The abnormal baseball season has produced a lot of media flapdoodle about the national psyche. The theme most commonly expounded is that the spirit of America has been saved from despair and lifted into exuberance by baseball. The idea underlying this nonsense is that the media frenzy generated by a White House sex story had sent the nation reeling to the brink of terminal melancholy. Then -- hark!
WASHINGTON
For an organization that has been portrayed as a powerful engine behind the House move to impeach President Clinton, the Christian Coalition is leading a very tentative and defensive charge against a president whose job approval numbers continue to be astonishingly high.
Organizing an impeachment in the face of heavy public majorities opposing it is possible, but proving very tricky.
By Michael Fleeman, Associated Press entertainment writer
After the Cannes Film Festival, the future looked bright for "Happiness," the pitch-black comedy about the bleak underside of suburbia.
Despite its troubling subject, the film won critical raves and a festival prize, positioning it as a movie to watch this year.
"I certainly thought it was a film that would cause controversy and that people were going to be split on it," producer Christine Vachon said. "But it never occurred to me that what happened would happen. Suddenly, we were a little blind-sided."
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to talk to somebody really great? Some historical character maybe? Or someone with extraordinary ideas or philosophies, lurking, or sometimes screaming, beneath the surface of an ordinary existence?
If the thought of such a meeting has ever tickled your imagination, the UMass Dartmouth Theatre Company can provide the perfect outlet in a stunning and insightful production of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," by that "wild and crazy guy" turned playwright, Steve Martin.
Ready for a good cry? Viewers who prefer their tissues damp and close at hand should not miss "About Sarah" (9 p.m., Sunday, CBS, TV-G). The story revolves around bright college senior Marybeth McCaffrey (Kellie Martin, "ER") whose plans to attend medical school are put on hold when her grandmother (Marion Ross) dies. Grandma had always cared for Marybeth's developmentally disabled mother, Sarah (Mary Steenburgen). Now it's Marybeth's turn. Her efforts to help her mother to become more independent are challenged by her emotionally distant but overly protective great-aunt Lila (Diane Baker).
Most people over 70, whether living alone or with a spouse, remain in regular housing as part of the general community.
Surveys show that only 3 percent live in housing for frail seniors and another 6 percent are in age-restricted housing that offers no services.
But as large numbers of Americans survive into their 80s and beyond, more will need some kind of help and, as a result, the housing options available are increasing. It's no longer a choice between a standard house and a nursing home, with little in between.
By Sarah Guille, Standard-Times correspondent
Seclusion and isolation are the operational key words for this well-built modern colonial at 229 Perry Road in Acushnet.
"It's extremely private back here," said David Pelletier of Pelletier Realty. "You really have a lot of room here. It's set back 220 feet from the road, and it's very picturesque, very serene."
NEW BEDFORD -- This year's traditional Living Rosary ceremony at St. Joseph Church in the city's North End at 3 p.m. Sunday also will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Legion of Mary of the parish.
The Rev. Matthew Sullivan, spiritual director of the New Bedford Curia of the Legion of Mary, will be the speaker.
NEW BEDFORD -- Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 235 N. Front St., will be the setting for a Commemorative Mass at 11 a.m. Sunday in honor of Polish-American Heritage Month.
The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Stanislaus Sypek, a native son of the church, will be main celebrant and guest homilist at the Mass of Thanksgiving and Grace for all of Polish heritage in Greater New Bedford.
The penitential days of the new year have passed and Jews now pause to reflect upon the bounty of the earth and express thanks as they prepare to celebrate the Festival of Sukkot, which begins at sundown Sunday.
Sukkot, known also as the Festival of Ingathering and the Festival Tabernacles, is an ancient harvest festival that recalls the travels of the ancient Israelites through the wilderness and is a precursor of modern Thanksgiving observances. It continues through sundown Oct. 13.
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