This New England

The College Board says that the average total cost of tuition and fees at four-year public universities rose $394, or 6.4 percent, to $6,585 for in-state students this year. At private colleges, which rule the roost in New England, prices rose $1,399, or 5.9 percent, to $25,143. That doesn't include housing! At such tony places as Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth the figure (including housing) is almost $50,000.

In other words, as usual, prices rose more than general inflation yet again Why? I'd say the relentless expansion in the number of "centers'' for the study of this and that, ever glitzier athletic facilities, luxury-hotel-like dormitories and other facilities to "nurture'' the kids, has something to do with it, along with a proliferation of very highly paid upper-echelon administrators, often with the title of vice president. It's stunning how much fancier colleges are these days to be, as they say, "competitive.''

Buy and burn local

The U.S. Forest Service and state agencies across the Northeast urge residents to help protect forests by buying and burning only local firewood this winter. Moving firewood long distances can speed the spread of pests, such as those longhorned beetles menacing central Massachusetts's woods. So deforest your own neighborhood!

As if they don't feel it

That the killing of sentient mammals is called "harvesting'' always struck me as creepy. Maine officials, for instance, warn that deer hunters face the lowest "harvest'' since 1987. You get the impression that by calling killing these animals "harvesting'' people will put them in the category of unfeeling (I assume...) plants, and so not feel guilty.

The people's bonuses

Maybe bad news for Connecticut's Fairfield County, where so many Wall Street honchos live, but good news for the wider public: New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo has asked nine big banks getting a piece of the Wall Street bailout to turn over information about how they are spending money on executive bonuses this year. Since the public are now shareholders they deserve this information.

Wilkerson way past due

That it took so long to indict sleazy and astonishingly arrogant Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, of Boston, is depressing. But at least a federal grand jury has finally indicted her, for allegedly accepting $23,500 in bribes (some of it allegedly stuffed at one time in her bra). Over the years she has had the reputation of the quintessential bad urban pol, even as her constituents let her get away with, and she received enabling help from Mayor Thomas Menino and Governor Patrick, who supported her in the most recent primary..

Another JFK what if?

At the Cable Car Cinema on Providence's South Main Street, a new film, Virtual JFK: Vietnam, If Kennedy Had Lived, will start showing Oct. 31 and run through Nov. 6. A fascinating rumination on woulda, coulda, shoulda.

 Tags  College Board Virtual JFK Wilkerson. deer hunting

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