"Mist on the River, Dawn,'' oil and canvas by SAM VOKEY, to appear in his show Dec. 3-27, at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury St., Boston (617) 536-7660.

This, picture, presumably of the Charles River in Boston or Cambridge, is a nice reminder of better weather in about six months. Hang in there

The AP reports that the small, family-owned Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer is suing The Hartford Courant for repeated plagiarism of J-I stories after cutting its own reporting staff to save money.

The Manchester paper accuses The Courant of "pirating" at least 11 local stories in August and September. It then published them as its own work under Courant reporters' bylines, says the suit.

Our colleague J-I managing editor Chris Powell put it well to the AP:

"Either hire reporters to cover these towns or don't.'' Sadly, the once very respectable if stodgy Courant is now part of the Tribune Co., which has been ravaged by Chicago real-estate developer Sam Zell's catastrophically debt-leveraged ownership.

I hope that the Connecticut case reflects a tougher attitude toward the cut-and-paste expropriation (euphemistically called "aggregation'') of intellectual property in the Internet world of journalism.

Whatever the details of The Courant case, it must be said that the relentless drive to grab something for nothing threatens to destroy serious journalism. What bother getting news at all if there's no payment?

Interestingly, the J-I charges non-subscribers for access to news on its Web site while The Courant offers access to its site for free.

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Tiny and elite Amherst College just got two huge anonymous gifts -- $100 million and $25 million -- and made a big announcement about it. New England's public institutions make a big announcement when they get a $2 million donation. (The anonymity in the case of the Amherst donors probably won't last for long; the amounts are too big.)

Such is the peculiar two-tier system in New England, where the old private colleges, which were here first, still rule the roost. Big givers exspecially like to give to colleges where they went or with whose social prestige they want to be identified. It's sexier for high rollers than institutions that most need the money -- public colleges and universities.

Amherst is a member of the " Little Ivy League,'' with arch-rival Williams, and Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Middlebury and maybe a couple of other places.

While New England's reputation as a place where people design and make things has declined there are still many fine craftspeople dreaming up and making beautiful things in the region, even in towns that are too small to even have been real mill towns.

Take this very unusual pendant, called "Delfina,'' made by a small company owned by designer (and veteran and distinguished snowboarder) Mathew DiSpagna.

He started his operation in Lennox, Mass., in the Berkshires, which still has its share of rich New York summer folks who buy jewelry, but he has since moved his shop to smaller Richmond and is now carefully entering the New York market with his gorgeous, internationalist and idiosyncratic stuff (and hoping that the recession is ending!).

He has already been selling nationally. Now will it be breakfast, lunch and dinner at Tiffany's?

(The exotic Delfina features an etched spessartine garnet, lavender scapolite, Nigerian tourmaline and 2 periwinkle indicolites set in gold and silver.)

His New England ingenuity and craftsmanship would have been appreciated by Norman Rockwell, much of whose work can be found down the road in Stockbridge, at the Norman Rockwell Museum, from which I will be pulling images soon (with their permission).

New England, especially Rhode Island, once had a major jewelry industry. Indeed, Providence called itself "the Jewelry Capital of the World.''

Now much of the manufacturing has been sent offshore in search of cheap labor, and though many designers remain, many have left.

How refreshing to see someone still designing and making. beautiful things in these parts, and sending them off the wider world to be enjoyed and passed down as heirlooms, such as the vest-pocket watch made by the Waltham Watch Co. (RIP) that I inherited from my father, whose initials were the same as mine so it looks like it was made for me (in 1934).

I treasure it but it's too precious to carry with me. But I suspect women will be free-spirited about wearing Mr. DiSpagna's very unusual work.

Next stop on my New England entrepreneurial tour: The upscale cherry-wood-puzzle-making company in Norwich, Vt., which sells to Queen Elizabeth II.

An untitled painting by MAXWELL MAYS owned by the Providence Art Club.

Mr Mays, who died at 91 this past Monday, had an avid following in New England for his happy and innocent-looking pictures of a New England that never existed. Many readers remember him for his Yankee magazine covers. As was Norman Rockwell with the old Saturday Evening Post, Mr. Mays seemed perfectly attuned to the sense of the publication in its heyday. It was a place to escape to the land of John Greenleaf Whittier.
No wonder it sold so well in California.

I have no idea what Congregational town is shown here, but it's not Peyton Place.
No sex, no booze, no drugs, no child labor! And that's fine -- they can all lead to an early death.

Massachusetts A.G. Martha Coakley

Providence Journal photo by Ruben Perez

We had Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley in last Friday to chat about her campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held for so long by Edward Kennedy. She is a very thoughtful, careful and calm person, with pleasant-sounding thoughts about which federal programs especially need money.

She seems more conventionally "senatorial'' than her leading rival, Congressman Michael Capuano, who is very smart but sometimes quite angry.

Of course, some controlled anger is sometimes a good thing if you want reform, and blandness can do a lot of damage, too.

But she, as with the other candidates, has presented no plausible ways of paying for these programs. No one dares say what should be said -- that the middle class will have to pay more taxes for the programs it wants and to prevent total budgetary meltdown.

Lest, among other things, the dollar collapse, whoever is in the next Senate will not be able to put off for long hard decisions about dealing with the deficit.

The fact is that just about every federal program has such strong advocates that it's practically immortal.

XXX

While some groups contend that Maine is moving too fast and too big in developing wind power, especially on mountain ridges near ski areas, others, on the coast, are reveling in it.

The Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power is trying to get the state to reconsider statewide goals the group say will put turbines atop 360 miles of mountaintops. (Bit of a stretch, I'd say.) The Forest Ecology Network also raises issues about how big wind farms would hurt the ecology of Maine's vast woods.

But.residents on the beautiful Fox Islands on the Maine Coast are thrilled that they're getting a new and more reliable source of electricity because of a $15 million three-wind-turbine project.

Interestingly, the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative did the financing, which involves tax credits that the federal government gives to encourage renewable-energy projects. Such cooperatives, which evoke the '30s, may be increasingly important in the future for local electricity generation and distribution.

XXX

Is this another sigh that public officials are growing concerned about the demise of newspapers? The State of New Hampshire is guaranteeing part of a loan to the new owner of the Claremont Eagle Times newspaper, in the western part of the state.

The newspaper ceased publishing on July 10, putting 95 people out of work. But then the Sample News Group of Pennsylvania bought it from the local owners and restarted publication -- but only rehired 25.

There is a growing sense that local newspapers are essential local utilities that need to be kept alive, even if in part with public money, which makes First Amendment purists nervous..

He has a riveting tale and charismatic but humble persona.

What can happen when a city gives away the store to a big company? See what happened to New London: link:

Commentary and photo by WILLIAM MORGAN

Mansfield Crossing, south of Boston, touts itself as an upscale shopping village, but it is nothing more than a suburban strip mall cloaked in small-town trappings.

The name--like Grovers Corners or Washington's Crossing or Mallard Run--is meant to evoke a nostalgic small town past that was long ago paved over. Meaningless peaked gables provide a picturesque skyline, there is a town square clock, some nasty stone-veneer columns, and the occasional awning.

All the stores are chains; there are no local merchants--no butcher or baker who hails you by name and asks after the children.

Is anyone fooled? You have to drive to Mansfield Crossing and the biggest feature is the parking lot. Yet, we keep giving away the farm to greedy developers who give us back more asphalt and plastic.

Just a little farther up I-95, a cranberry bog is being eradicated to develop yet another cutesy shopping village, this one to be called Sharon Commons.

Photo and comment by CHARLES PINNING

The cruise ship Crystal Symphony departs Newport Harbor at exactly 1700 hours, at the

end of a perfect Indian Summer day, Nov. 9, 2009.

We watched it go, wishing our dangling legs were aboard, from a breakwater on Goat Island. To reach the spot, we had crossed a wide expanse of lawn dotted with signs that said "Private Property."

If we were caught, we would tell them that we were looking for privacy.

"Christina's View,'' oil on canvas by Amy Ryan, at the Providence Art Club.

This is run with permission from Cape Cod Today, where it originated.

BY CARL B. FREEMAN
ORLEANS
On Aug. 25, Bobby Kennedy Jr. was a guest on an NPR morning show discussing a variety of issues. I found myself agreeing with almost every point he made until the subject of putting a wind farm in Nantucket Sound came up.

I am sorry to say that everything he claimed to be outraged about concerning Cape Wind was either a complete lie, or at least a distant relative of the truth. I downloaded the podcast of The Point recorded his assertions (as noted by, after which I have written the truth behind each of his statements.

RFK Jr: "Cape Wind will absorb all of the Renewable Energy Credits (REC's) for Massachusetts."

CF: REC's are a nationally traded commodity. Cape Wind can't absorb all of the REC's for Massachusetts because there is no state allotment ceiling. Business law simply doesn't work that way. REC's are a 'virtual' commodity where we measure the amount of clean power produced and polluters buy them to get under regional emission caps. REC's are designed to ignore state lines and address regional and national pollution. I have a five-kilowatt photovoltaic array on my roof and have a three-year contract with the state to sell them about $180.00 each year in REC's from the power I produce. A 'yes' or 'no' on permitting Cape Wind has no ability to rescind my existing contract.

The intention of REC's was to 'grease the rails' for clean energy to get a foothold and satisfy the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS), which that sets benchmarks of clean energy to be generated in the state. The RPS target for 2009 is 4 percent, of that we currently derive less than 0.25 percent clean energy from state sources forcing Massachusetts to import the other 3.75 percentage points of our clean energy (at a higher cost) from surrounding states and Canada. Here again is an example of how Cape Wind will lower costs IF WE LET IT.

RFK Jr: "Photovoltaics (PV) for electricity installed on your own roof are three times cheaper than the power from the wind farm."

CF: This clever verbal footwork is trying to hide the fact that wind farm power will cost the same as any other power. Cape Wind can't make Independent System Operator New England (which manages the regional grid) buy its power at a higher price. All power generators are paid the same for any given hour of power needed. This is called clearinghouse pricing.

Several wind farm foes have been making this idiculous claim for years. The actual method of selling utility power simply doesn't work the way they claim it does. Though, I suppose if you are fighting the 'evil' wind farm, a few fibs are O.K.

I work in photovoltaics. They are a great investment. I encourage anyone with a south facing roof to look into investing in them. Over 35 years, your system will pay for itself three times over. (Hence the three times cheaper statement)

Even when Cape Wind provides 75 percent of the power of the Cape and Islands, it will take years to fill in that other 25 percent with residential clean power.

RFK Jr: "Cape Wind would control the wind; it would no longer be a Democratic power."

CF: This sounds like rhetoric to scare people. Is he implying that Cape Wind would exclude anyone else from making money from wind power? Cape Wind would be the first American offshore utility selling power into the grid. Currently 99.99 percent of energy comes from private corporations (Like Cape Wind).

Cape Wind would be the only major utility around here using wind to make electricity instead of fossil fuels. Some day (Hopefully) all of our power will be clean & sustainable.

To imply that a man doggedly determined to bring utility scale clean power to America is somehow an impediment to future clean energy development, I'm not sure I can put my disbelief of such flawed thinking into words.

RFK Jr: Claims "Currently there are 4 ½ million boats that travel through /those/ waterways each year."

CF: Hmmm, 4,500,000 divided by 365 days equals 12,328 boat trips each day that would be negatively impacted by a Windfarm. Hmmm. Even at low tide when its zero to 20 feet deep? Hmmm. I believe this is called exaggeration, or more specifically, a HUGE exaggeration. At the shortest dimension the space between turbines is 6 football fields wide. Any boat captains out there want to raise their hand and say:"I can't steer a
boat between poles 1/3 of a mile apart?" In the 30-year history of offshore wind there have been NO reported collisions with turbines.

Every turbine will be GPS marked. Is there a reputable boat captain out there not using GPS these days?

After six years, Danish fishermen who work among Horns Rev or Nysted offshore wind farms have reported no issues with navigating among the monopoles. Some have asserted that they provide a point of reference and help avoid the shallows, the same assertions made by the American Coast Guard about the Cape Wind project.

RFK Jr: "Cape Wind will put every South Cape fisherman out of business."

CF: I'm not sure how Cape Wind could do this. As proud as opponents are of their quote "Nantucket Sound, not for SALE." The technical name of the agreement between the Mineral Management Services and Cape Wind is called a "right of use" that clearly defines the footprint of the monopole as the only area under Cape Wind's control. There is no right to prohibit or restrict boat travel of ANY kind in the waters around the
Wind farm. (In Denmark sail boats do a healthy business traveling within the wind farm for paying tourists.)

In light of this revelation, opposition forces have changed their story and now claim; fishermen will refuse to fish in the area based on "boating safety". We'll see how long that lasts once the fish stocks increase from the 130 artificial reefs the wind farm 'dangers' fade to distant memory.

RFK Jr "The cables running between the turbines would present a hazard for fishermen's gear."

CF: He would have a point, if it weren't for the fact the cables will be buried eight feet deep. This has been presented publically several times. I am certain that the opposition is aware of the jet trenching of cables because of their adamant opposition to it. I guess they want it both ways. Or more accurately, they don't want it any way.

RFK Jr talked about a solar concentrator farm in Southwest America he has been working to get up and working. He implied it was such a great idea that Jim Gordon should abandon his proposal.

CF: I commend him. I believe solar concentrators are an excellent way to generate clean energy. Unfortunately, the sun resource in the Northeast is significantly less than the desert. The cardinal rule of renewables is to tap the resource you have in abundance; around here it is the wind. If RFK Jr. wanted to put solar concentrator farms in Massachusetts I would be glad to support his efforts.

That doesn't change that Cape Wind has been legally permitting a wind farm here going on 9 years. Is Bobby saying we should stop a significant clean-energy-producing wind farm here just because another project might come along? As previously stated, we are well below the required level of clean energy for Massachusetts now; a wind farm will help make up the gap.

We will still need more utility-scale projects to achieve cleaner air, energy independence, lower prices, and local industry. Currently there are no other large scale projects of any kind that have begun the permitting process in the New England area except for more wind farms.

For some reason, wind farm opponents seem to breeze over these glaring facts. Of all people, Bobby Kennedy Jr. should know this. It just shows the degree of prejudice he apparently has against this specific project.

RFK Jr "The grid could not handle the power produced by the wind farm."

CF: ISO-New England released an exhaustive report last year that determined that the percentage of wind power our system can accept is roughly 20 percent (as published in the Cape Cod Times). Currently we get less than .03 percent of our power from the wind, Cape Wind would bring that number up to around 2-3 percent. Again, we have a 'disconnect' from the truth.

RFK Jr "There is no legal framework for permitting a wind farm."

CF: Well Bob, it has all of the permits needed, it is only waiting for final approval from Minerals Management Services. Even though Denmark figured out how to permit offshore wind farms years ago with no lasting environmental impact, America felt obligated to reinvent the simple process over the last 8 years and released it last April.

The President has announced that the Department of the Interior completed The Final Renewable Energy Framework to grant leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible renewable-energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of offshore wind farms.

RFK Jr claimed "They are giving away coastline 'Willy Nilly'".

CF: Wind farm opponents have a basic premise; that if you see wind turbine offshore, get to an emergency room ASAP. They are dangerous and could cause 'wind turbine appreciation' if stared at for more than a few seconds.Has every home in view of a lighthouse been 'given away' to ruthless boat safety? Has every beach in view of a sail boat mast been 'given away' to sailing fanatics?

If they can convince everyone that domestic, clean energy is 'ugly', they could still stop this project. Enough accurate information about how a wind farm looks, sounds, and the environmental impacts have reached the mainstream lately that public sentiment has gone from 30 percent approval in 2002 to 71 percent in 2008 just on Cape Cod.

RFK Jr "We should be building wind farms 20-30-40 miles offshore in 125 feet ft of water"

CF: Anyone can propose such a project. I suspect since they're still refining economically feasible deepwater technology, not a lot of corporations are knocking each other over YET to get their applications in.

Every mile from shore dramatically runs up the cost of project materials, time, permitting, and logistics not to mention the beating it would take from the much, much larger waves out in the deep. A company builds this kind of project to make money.

Deep water will cost more than Cape Wind. This point is irrefutable.

There are several shallow water wind farms around the world; many more are on the way. There are NO deepwater wind farms. There are a few 1- or 2-turbine, deep-water experiments going on, not revenue producing wind farms.

RFK Jr "Ferry boats will have to steer around the wind farm."
The proposed location of the wind farm is 300 feet outside the shipping lanes. (This is law) If the ferry boat is way off course and in danger of stranding in the shallows of Horse Shoe Shoals, then it is possible it will have to steer around the wind farm.

Lucky for the ferry boat it will have a much better landmark of a monopole to warn it where the shallows are.

RFK Jr "Airlines don't want it"

Cape Air flies over the sound more than any other airline. Dan Wolf, president of Cape Air was initially against the project. He went over to Denmark personally to see it and gauge reaction. Upon his return he made comments that if the project passes environmental muster, he would strongly support the project.

This is consistent with almost everyone that has seen the Denmark offshore wind farm up close and personal.

RFK Jr.:"Virtually everyone on Cape Cod is against the wind farm"

On this point the host, Mindy Todd brought up the fact that a majority of people on Cape Cod were FOR it.

Then RFK Jr said:"Virtually every business on Cape Cod is against the wind farm" *
I don't have the time to personally ask every business owner on Cape Cod if they are for a wind farm, but if you look at the number of tourists attracted by offshore wind farms around the world, I'm betting business will love it once it is here.

I stand behind my statements and would willingly debate RFK Jr. anytime, anyplace about the facts surrounding the wind farm "controversy.'' I understand that Jim Gordon, Cape Wind's chief, is treated with great disdain because he dared to propose a clean-energy project in the Kennedy's private yachting waters.

If you notice on NPR, they always preface any wind farm stories by saying "the controversial wind farm project proposed for Nantucket Sound." I wonder where the controversy is?

It has all of its permits legally earned after 8 years of grueling attempts by the mega rich of Osterville to delay and derail it. Alarming bird kill numbers have been dismissed by Mass Audubon. It has received praise from the Conservation Law Foundation, Sierra Club, as well as several other responsible environmental groups.

The "controversy'' always seems to come from stories that once delved into, yield little to no connection with reality.

NPR has had many discussion forums on the topic, allowing representatives on each side of the debate to voice what they believe.

The sides are so far apart, they can't both be true.Hmmm. Strange that such a 'controversial' project hasn't been investigated to see whose version of the facts is closer to the truth. I suspect that some sizeable donations would be withheld if the real story were more generally reported.

When you assess Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements an alarming picture emerges; one of America's foremost environmental crusaders sings a different song when a visible project is in his back yard. Real life examples of what 'is' and scientific data suggest that he is poorly informed or just plain lying to get 'his' way.

I am sure Bobby would agree that America is way behind where we should be in producing clean energy. It is such a shame he has misused his clout and name to sabotage the largest clean energy project so far in the world.

To end, I wish Bobby Jr. all the luck in the world developing clean energy. Please be honest with us when it is developed in your family's backyard.

Carl B. Freeman is a renewable energy installer and consultant living in Orleans.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island should be commended for putting up what is actually a very attractive modern building in downtown Providence. It's alluring night and day.

Kudos to architects Symmes, Maini and McKee Associates, and Blue Cross CEO James Purcell's crew.

Its beauty offsets a tad the two hideous Soviet-style apartment and/or condo buildings next door.

But, in a display of John Kenneth Galbraith's line about "private wealth and public squalor'' in much of America, the walls around the Amtrak Station close by are crumbling. Embarrassing, especially since the station itself is a fine piece of work.

And why, oh why, can't they fix the clock on the station tower!?

"Maine XXI,'' painting by GRETCHEN DOW SIMPSON

That Mainers rejected a plan to allow gay marriage is a reminder that many New Englanders remain socially conservative, especially those in the rural parts of northern New England. (Actually, most of the real estate in northern New England is rural!)

The liberals in Maine are mostly strung along the coast from Kittery to Bar Harbor -- especially in the summer. Inland, except in college towns, it's like rural New Hampshire, or Wyoming.

But everyone understands physical, as opposed to a more psychic, pain, so a medical-marijuana plan won in the Pine Tree State. Pot dispensaries may soon be as frequent a sight as lobster boats and canoes.

XXX

Very rich, but recession-battered Yale, needs to sell $1 billion of notes to pay expenses. Weeping at the tables down at Morey's

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Will New England someday have as dense a passenger-rail system as it had in 1950? Maybe. Consider that Plaistow, N.H., officials are pushing to get commuter rail service to their part of southern New Hampshire.

Townspeople want to plug the region more into Boston business, education, technology, art and culture.

Of course, they don't want to pay the taxes or deal with the congestion of living in the real Boston area. They want exurban sprawl and close-at-hand city pleasures.

Commentary and Photo by WILLIAM MORGAN

The small Narragansett Bay-side community of Buttonwoods is a jewel that comes as a complete surprise, deeply hidden as it is in Warwick -- a strong contender for Rhode Island's and perhaps New England's ugliest bit of suburban sprawl.

This bucolic enclave was once a modest summer getaway for city dwellers. They'd close up the house in Providence and head down to the shore for the summer.

Not all the houses in Buttonwoods are special; goop has seeped in here, too. But there are still a few delightful gingerbread cottages. The 19th-century Carpenters Gothic confections bring to mind their more famous brethren at the Methodist camp meeting at Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard.

And as we hunker down for winter, these treasures also remind us that summer will come again. Then there will no better place to be than on a porch near the water.

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-- Photo by ANDREA LEGGE

This is the Lincoln Street green strip in Boston's Allston neighborhood (much of which Harvard has bought up through sneaky cover companies).

Artist team Legge Lewis Legge worked with the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation (ABCDC) to transform a strip of trash-filled land on Lincoln Street into public green space. They installed installed decorative planters and sculpture into the landscape.

This project was supported by Art & Community Landscapes, a partnership of the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.

What a wonderful project to emulate in urban areas all over New England.