How To Handle To Panhandlers

Amidst budget crises, the City of Boston is trying to address the problem with bums–the panhandlers.

Desperate panhandlers scrambling in this tough economy are risking life and limb wading into busy intersections – prompting city councilors to call for a crackdown and even the mayor himself to report dangerous encounters.

The Herald has found several examples in recent weeks of street beggars blatantly violating a city law barring “aggressive solicitation,” including panhandling in traffic.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino “is concerned about pedestrian and driver safety, including people who step in between moving cars in traffic,” said Jim Greene, director of the city’s Emergency Shelter Commission.

“This is a concern. (The mayor) has called me himself when he sees a situation he thinks is unsafe,” Greene added.

The Herald found panhandlers in rush-hour traffic on major roadways, including the Massachusetts Turnpike offramp in Cambridge, Albany and Herald streets near the onramp to Interstate 93, the Jamaicaway, Cambridge Street near the Haymarket MBTA station and I-93 offramps in Dorchester.

The aggressive solicitation law prohibits panhandlers from “intentionally or recklessly blocking or interfering with” vehicles or people. The law also bars beggars from soliciting near banks and ATMs or “in an aggressive manner.” Violators can be fined $100.

Everyone feels the pinch. Now how come the charitable people out know to spend less and give less to the bums, but the bums in the State House (and Capitol Hill for that matter) can’t figure out that the solution is not spend and give away free money?

Atleast the panhandling bums are willing to work a little extra hard to earn their keep–the Beacon Hill bums just vote themselves a pay raise.

So what happens when you fine the panhandlers $100? They aren’t writing checks–that’s for sure. You’d be luck to get anything resembling a wide array of nickels and dimes and cigarette butts. What do you do when they don’t pay? How do you keep track of these bums and go after those who are delinquent in paying their fines? Are you really going to fine a bum $100?

Let’s be realistic; Boston cops are not going to waste their time issuing fines to bums, and quite honestly, they have more important things to worry about then writing fines that won’t be paid. Panhandlers who are creating unsafe traffic conditions or loiter in front of the ATMs need to be dealt with–but fining the people who have nothing is just silly. Can you come up with a better idea?

Gloucester High Gets Knocked Up

When you are in high school, you try to keep up with the latest trends and fads in order to stay “hip” and “cool.” Typically this involves clothing, or recreational drug use, and of course sex. However, some 17 girls at Gloucester High School kicked it up a notch, and thought it would be super cool to make a pregnancy pact.

There’s a stunning twist to the sudden rise in teen pregnancies at Gloucester High School. 17 students there are expecting and, according to a published report, most of them became that way on purpose.

Time Magazine is reporting that nearly half of the girls confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. None of the girls is older than 16.

Principal Joseph Sullivan has not returned calls from WBZ to confirm the report.

Is there nothing else to do in Gloucester? Seriously? Are these girls just unhappy with their lives that they feel the need to bring a child into the mix and ruin another life, or are they just plain stupid?

Sullivan told the magazine that the pact wasn’t the only shocking incident.

“We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” he told Time.

I guess one girl doesn’t like guys who live with their parents. Good luck getting child support money from a guy whose greatest achievements are not dying in the gutter and sleeping with a girl 8 years his junior. Will she sue the homeless guy for his cardboard box and his collection of empty soda cans?

The jump in pregnancies has, of course, sparked the debate about distributing contraceptives in the school.

Last month, two top officials at the high school’s health center resigned in a fight over contraceptives distribution.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly support confidentially giving contraceptives to students. They were outraged about resistance from Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers the state public health grant that funds the school clinic.

Perhaps Gloucester should consider a Prop. 2 1/2 override to provide free birth control–well, maybe not. Perhaps they need to revamp their sex education program.

Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year.

According to Time, school officials started looking into the spike in pregnancies after an unusual number of girls came to the school clinic for pregnancy tests. Some came by several times.

“Some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were,” Sullivan told the magazine.

So there you have it…these girls are just plain stupid. Good luck raising your bastard children. Can’t wait for my tax dollars to pay for your stupid mistake.

Romney Pushes Welfare Reform

Governor Mitt Romney is trying to save the Commonwealth $56 million in federal funding by urging legislators to move quickly on welfare reform.

“We have the potential of losing substantial federal dollars unless we conform with federal rules,” Romney said after sending letters to House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini urging them to “take rapid action to approve welfare reform legislation.”

Romney said new federal standards that go into effect Oct. 1 require that half of all welfare recipients work or risk funding for the state. Only about 15 percent of Bay State families receiving federal welfare assistance have a working adult, Romney said.

Some people suggest that Romney’s intentions are not entirely about saving the state some money.

…sources close to the conference committee negotiations on the proposed welfare reform bill say lawmakers are aware of the federal requirements

They hinted that Romney’s urgency may have more to do with welfare reform being a hot issue for the 2008 presidential race, with which Romney continues to flirt.

Welfare reform is long, long overdue, and regardless of whether or not Romney may be making this an issue for 2008, the bill is critically important.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Romney said his bill to boost the welfare work requirement is not just about saving the state money but also represents his belief that more people receiving state aid should work

“I also believe that work is a benefit,” Romney said, “and that requiring people to get work, and helping them get work, and providing for child care and training, is the most generous and charitable thing that a society can do for someone who is out of work.”

Generally speaking, the Democrats in the legislature would cringe at the idea of increasing the working requirements for welfare recipients, but just as it is noted, the state could lose $56 million if the state doesn’t conform to these new federal guidelines. I can’t be certain how strongly the Democrats on Beacon Hill are pushing this along, but one quote from James Eisenberg, spokesman for House Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop), doesn’t make me confident that they see this as critical a point as does Gov. Romney.

“Committee (members) from the House and Senate are aware of the provisions of the federal government,” [DeLeo] said. “We do have that issue in mind.”

Well, don’t act too concerned, Mr. DeLeo.

Katrina Evacuees Wasting Their Federal Money

They have just lost everything, so what do they do? Drink in public and get lap dances.

Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday acknowledged that alcohol abuse has been a problem among Hurricane Katrina evacuees since their arrival on Cape Cod last month, but said there was little the state could do to stop the refugees from spending their federal money on booze.

“It was quite obvious in the first day or two that we might have an issue with alcohol,” Romney said, responding to a Herald report that some of the 235 evacuees used their $2,000 federal relief handouts to binge on liquor in public.

“The people responsible for the base have a great deal of concern about alcohol on the base,” Romney said. He called the drinking and use of taxpayer money to pay for lap dances in strip joints “regrettable,” but added: “We certainly don’t seek to curtail people’s rights to live their lives as they choose to do.”

This, of course is standard operating procedure with the doling out of federal or state funds. We don’t hold welfare recipients responsible for the money they get to not better themselves and get out of welfare, why should this be any different, right?

It really is a shame because a handful of bad apples are giving the whole bunch a bad reputation.

Get To Work, Fatty

Mitt is pushing for common sense welfare reform…

Bay Staters who are seriously overweight or have mild problems concentrating on one thing should not escape from having to work, Gov. Mitt Romney says.

Romney wants stricter standards for welfare recipients who do not have to work under current law, which considers them “disabled” if they are obese or have a “deficiency” in concentration.

There are currently about 46,000 families on welfare in Massachusetts.

Roughly 11,600 people work or are in job-training under the current system.

Romney wants to adopt more stringent federal standards that would force more people to work by disqualifying them from the current “disabled” category.

Unfortunately, Romney won’t get much help from the legislature… So, the fatties will get fatter and our wallets will get thinner…