(State House News Service) Baker "optimistic" opioid bill gets done before budget debate

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Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday that it's his sense House and Senate negotiators trying to reach compromise on opioid abuse prevention legislation will strike a deal "fairly shortly" and avoid the bill getting caught in the web of late-session dealmaking. 
Despite the fact that he said he's "anxious" to see a bill reach his desk, the governor refused to criticize the pace of progress in the Democrat-controlled legislation and even went out of his way to note funding bills and smaller opioid-related law changes that have reached his desk. 
"I'd like to see it in the next couple of weeks. There's been talk about trying to get it done before the budget becomes kind of the major part of the activity around here," Baker told reporters Tuesday. 
The bills currently under negotiation would take steps to reduce the number of painkillers that can be prescribed at any one time. Continuing to site a statistic that four people die every day in Massachusetts from opioid-related overdoses, Baker would not put a timetable on when his patience might run out. "I get the fact that this is complicated and we proposed some pretty disruptive stuff, but I'm more optimistic about this. It's my sense about this that we're likely to see something fairly shortly, and unless I get told otherwise, I'm going to presume that's going to be the case." 
– Matt Murphy/State House News Service
 

Write On: Journalism Scholarships Available

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The Journalism Education Foundation of New England, a division of the New England Newspaper & Press Association, will award up to ten $1,000 scholarships this spring to high school seniors and college students in the six-state region who aspire to pursue a career in journalism.
This program encourages and supports young people who wish to staff and lead newspapers into the next generation.
The JEFNE scholarship is available to New England residents. Applicants must be a college student or high school senior planning to attend college the following year to study journalism or a related field, and they are required to have a GPA of 3.0 or above.
Interested students can download the scholarship application from www.nenpa.com. The deadline for applications is March 11. For further information please call NENPA at 781-320-8042.

Coast Guard, good Samaritans respond to sinking tug

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The Coast Guard and the Boston Harbor Pilots Association responded to the 55-foot tug boat Emily Anne taking on water with three people aboard Tuesday about 5 miles east of Deer Island in Boston Harbor.
The captain aboard the boat contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Boston to report Emily Anne suffered a breech in its hull and was taking on water in the North Channel entrance of Boston Harbor.
A 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton and an MH-60 helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod launched to help.
The nearby crew aboard the good Samaritan pilot boat Chelsea, from the Boston Harbor Pilot Association, heard the report over the radio, arrived on scene, and recovered the three people. Emily Anne sank moments later.
The Coast Guard Station Point Allerton response boat crew escorted Chelsea to the Boston Harbor Pilots Association pier where emergency medical personnel evaluated the three rescued people.
“Given the nature of the emergency, if not for the quick and heroic response of the Chelsea crew, their lives may have been lost,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Darin Crozier, a watchstander at Coast Guard Sector Boston.
Despite exposure to the cold, all three people were reported to be in good health.
“We were out there and able to help,” said Captain Shawn Kelly, from the Boston Harbor Pilot Association. “If we had been in trouble, I know they would have done the same.”
Pollution investigators from Coast Guard Sector Boston are monitoring the location where Emily Anne sank.

(WCVB) Are turf fields safe? Federal Agencies Launch Research Project

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The Hull School Committee last week voted to have its consultant, Gales Associates of Weymouth, pursue permitting of a synthetic turf playing field through the Hull Conservation Commission later this month. 
The "carpet" for the Hull High field may be constructed of rubber crumb because it's the most cost-effective alternative, SchoolCom members learned. For full details of the board's deliberations relative to the project, see next week's Hull Times. 

In the meantime, Channel 5 TV posted this link today: Are turf fields safe? Federal agencies launch research project.

The investigation is particularly relevant because school officials will be asked to designate the specific material they want to use for field design at the board's meeting Feb. 22 so that the $1.9 million project can go out to bid.

(Fox25) Police looking for accused child rapist on the run

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According to a source who wishes to remain nameless, the police are still looking for the subject of this Fox News report, who has former ties to Hull, as well as several other South Shore communities. 
Anyone with information should contact the State Police at 1-800-KAPTURE. (That's not a typo.) 

Police looking for accused child rapist on the run

(State House News Service) State Confirms MA Zika Virus Case

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STATE CONFIRMS MASSACHUSETTS ZIKA VIRUS CASE
By Colin A. Young
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

State health officials have confirmed one case of the Zika virus in Massachusetts and said additional cases will not come as a surprise, although the virus cannot be spread from one infected person to others.

"We are aware of one case in Massachusetts, a person who had traveled to an area where we already know Zika is being transmitted," Dr. Larry Madoff, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Department of Public Health, told the News Service Thursday afternoon. The Centers for Disease Control confirmed the infection on Tuesday, DPH said.

Zika is a mosquito-spread virus that can cause fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis, Madoff said. About 80 percent of people who become infected do not show symptoms, but symptoms generally last up to one week and then go away "without additional problems," he said.
Madoff said the infected person is a man, so there is no concern about the possibility of microcephaly – a fetal malformation that affects the size of a baby's brain and head – which has been linked to Zika infections in pregnant women in South America and Asia. 
Privacy laws prevent him from disclosing which region of the state the man resides in, Madoff said.

"We were not surprised to see a case. We know a lot of people from our state travel to parts of the world where Zika has been transmitted," he said. "We won't be surprised to see some additional cases."

On Thursday, the head of the World Health Organization said that Zika virus was "spreading explosively" through the Americas and convened an emergency committee to meet in Geneva on Feb. 1 to provide "advice on the appropriate level of international concern and for recommended measures."

The virus had been confined to Africa and Asia until 2015, when it was first discovered on Easter Island, off the coast of South America, Madoff said.

Only people who have or are planning to travel to places with ongoing Zika virus outbreaks are at risk for getting the disease, Madoff said, and the type of mosquito that is known to carry Zika is not generally found in Massachusetts.

The Centers for Disease Control has also issued a travel advisory suggesting that pregnant women should postpone travel to South America, Central America, Mexico, Cape Verde, the Caribbean and Samoa. ∞