This New England

Logan Airport may get a lot more competition in a couple of years. Federal aviation officials endorse a plan to extend the main runway at T.F. Green Airport, in Warwick, R.I., to 8,700 feet so it can handle flights to the West Coast and Europe.

Densely populated southeastern New England has long needed this. The flights to Europe would be particularly alluring: It takes about 45 minutes less to get to Europe from eastern New England than from New York. The hope is that construction of the runway can start next year -- after years of NIMBY obstructionism.

The airport would draw from a market extending to a bit east of Hartford, to Route 128, around Boston, and out to the tip of Cape Cod.

This is about 20 years late.

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More good news for the Vermont maple-syrup industry! People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is asking consumers to stop buying maple syrup from Canada, the biggest syrup producer, to protest the bloody business of Canadian seal harvesting.

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You'd think that the American Civil Liberties Union would husband its resources better. It has joined in a gender-equity suit that has forced Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., to reinstate its volleyball team and drop men's indoor track.

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In a bad recession, you get deflation. Consider the Associated Press's story about Anthony Perrilli, who has been put on "accelerated rehabilitation'' (he's 74) by a Connecticut state judge for trying to bribe state Rep. Deborah Heinrich with $40 in cash in a case involving condominium law. $40? That's 1950 rates?

 Tags  ALCU Deborah Heinrich PETA Quinnipiac University T.F. Green Airport

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