Massachusetts voters will consider five statewide questions on the Nov. 5 ballot. Barnstable County voters will have a sixth question to consider in addition to the statewide questions. Question #6 […]
ELECTION 2024
Top-Down Control Thwarts Health Insurance Reform
Big-money players have repeatedly shelved Medicare for All
In his thoughtful op-ed essay “The Choice Facing Peake’s Successor” (Feb. 1, page A3), Stephen Kinzer reflected on the workings of the Massachusetts General Court and on Rep. Sarah Peake’s […]
COUNTY LINE
Shifting Sands: An Ongoing Challenge
The county dredge service has burned through its reserves
The glacial moraine left behind millennia ago underlies a fact of life for all of Cape Cod: we live on what is essentially a pile of gravel and sand. Given […]
COUNTY LINE
Self-Governance in the Assembly
A new session may offer a refreshing model of collaboration
Every two years, the voters in every town on the Cape elect delegates to the Barnstable County Assembly, our county’s legislative body. The new session of the Assembly just begun […]
COUNTY LINE
Respiratory Illnesses Threaten Health-Care Systems
Covid, flu, and RSV stress hospital staff
We have become accustomed to living in the Age of Covid. Even blasé about it. For almost three years, we have faced existential threats from potentially every person we come […]
COUNTY LINE
Provincetown’s Sewer Epiphany
Voters accept the dual reality of climate change and the need for more housing
A remarkable consensus developed last week at Provincetown’s special town meeting. A packed town hall auditorium agreed, nearly unanimously, to commit $75 million to an ambitious effort to make this […]
COUNTY LINE
Equity Must Be Our Goal
Poverty and homelessness are here among us on Cape Cod
On WOMR’s Alternative Radio the other night, I listened to a compilation of talks by Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on Sept. 1 and is best known for her groundbreaking undercover […]
COUNTY LINE
An Ominous Drought
We may need to rethink our expectations of annual rainfall
This was written in a dune shack in the Province Lands, where, on the day we arrived, the well was not pumping any water. We rationed our limited supply. Until […]
COUNTY LINE
Law Enforcement and Our Mental Health Crisis
Locking people up has never been a good approach to psychiatric illness
I was in a Brewster back yard on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon that was made for the beach but was instead an introduction to some unfamiliar — to me […]
COUNTY LINE
Remembering Susan Quinones
An advocate for human rights who inspired by listening
Cape Cod lost a powerful leader last week, and I lost a dear friend and colleague. Susan L. Quinones, Esq., who was coordinator for the Barnstable County Human Rights Advisory […]
COUNTY LINE
A Debate on Citizen Petitions
How many signatures should be required?
Basic issues of democratic process sometimes arise in the most apparently mundane proceedings. The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates recently held a hearing on an ordinance proposed by the Cape […]
COUNTY LINE
Dividing the ARPA Millions
Helping neighbors who are having a hard time is a priority
Forty-two million dollars sounds like a pile of money. Until it gets divided up. Across the Cape this month, the glint of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds has […]
COUNTY LINE
Stuck in Virtual Reality
Learning, reluctantly, to work together remotely
I’m a meeting guy. I have always been motivated to get together in a room with others and work to find collaborative solutions to the issues of the day. Serving […]
COUNTY LINE
Public Health and Medicare for All
The full spectrum of preventive care should be available to everyone
One of the clearest lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is that, for society as a whole to be healthy, everyone needs access to health care. Untested and untreated people in […]
COUNTY LINE
Let’s Change the Power Structure
Short-term profits won’t allow us to strengthen our fragile electric service
The last week of October brought fierce winds, broken trees and poles, and power outages. In Provincetown, no one had electricity for the first day, and in large sections of […]
