Fat chance of seeing marijuana dispensed at our local pharmacies. Maybe back in the day before the mom and pop pharmacies were run out of business by insurance companies and chain pharmacies. As long as marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law you won't see it, to risky for them. I wonder what's going to happen at hospitals when cancer patients bring in marijuana prescribed to cope with chemotherapy-related nausea. What if a patient wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette prior to, or while receiving chemo treatment. How will they handle that situation? I'm all for the little Amsterdam idea. Not only will it provide jobs for some local women but maybe the towns sex offenders will visit there and leave the underage girls alone. View Comment

Are you talking about the Sunrise Ave. area also? I didn't see the trucks in action but witnessed the aftermath and saw a woman who had to leave her car in the street because of the 3 ft. heavy wet snowbanks. Earlier this season they widened the roads after a storm but they pushed the snow up they had gotten in the driveway. I don't understand why they didn't do the same this time, especially when they pushed so much heavy wet snow in the driveways and they had the equipment/manpower to do it. I know plows are going to come by after you are all shoveled out but this was a bit ridiculous. View Comment

CBS Boston's website has a video with a picture of the sled and it's a Yamaha SRX 700. If it was an Arctic Cat it might not have gone under. I have seen people on Cat's ride up to open water at 10-15 mph, break through the ice and ride over 100-150 ft of open water and back onto the ice in Grafton. View Comment

Where are these places in East Grafton that are open to snowmobilers? i.e. open to public How is the snow cover there? View Comment

The Chief of Police didn't say the ice isn't safe, he said "the temperatures continue to fluctuate above and below freezing making ice conditions very uncertain". The article also says "many towns will not sanction the safety of lakes". I don't think any public official will ever tell the public the ice is safe because they can't afford the liability. When I drove by Lake Ripple at 2:00 Sunday and saw at least 30 people ice fishing and skating. The majority of ice safety charts say that ice needs to be 4" for ice fishing and 5" for snowmobiles. He could have just assumed the ice was safe because people were out on the ice. It's possible he asked people who were on the ice how thick it was, we don't know that do we? It's not as if it's uncommon to see snowmobiles on Lake Ripple, I have done it myself. Do you really think he would have taken his son with him if he thought they were in danger of going through the ice. Maybe he could have been a little better prepared with some ice safety picks or had some sort of plan since he had a child with him. But you want him to pay for the rescue? They were only in the water for 10 minutes. It took the officers or firefighters that responded less than 10 minutes to save two lives and you think their time was squandered. I don't think that the towns police and fire departments are stretched thin where making this rescue was an issue. I could see if this were the second time Mr. Vento did this or 5 others had gone through the ice and needed rescue this year but that's not the case. There are many calls the police and fire department respond to that are due to actions of the caller. The one you want to charge for is the one that saves two lives in less that ten minutes? View Comment

Maybe that's why he didn't have the guns registered. He figured when Academi or Blackwater Worldwide goes door to door rounding up everybody's firearms they wouldn't know he had any. He's certainly not the only one. View Comment

Smiley is between the window and mirror of a Daily Voice Jeep in the northern end of the parking lot at Lake view Pizza looking across Worcester St. View Comment

Looks like he is at the Grafton Food Bank. View Comment

Over the past few years, I've been involved in three separate car accidents involving deer. Each of these accidents, they've occurred shortly after I've seen a deer crossing sign on the highway. My frustration is that the department of transportation would allow these deer crossings to be in such high-traffic areas. I mean, I've even seen them on the interstate. Why are we encouraging deer to cross at the interstate? I don't get it, that's such a high traffic area. I understand that deer are wild animals and need to cross the streets occasionally to survive and of course to find food. It seems to me that it’s so irresponsible of us to allow these deer crossings to be in an area where these deer are so likely to be struck by oncoming traffic. You would think they would put deer crossings on less busy roads or at a school crossing where it would be a safer place for the deer to cross. There are so many other places I can think of to put the deer crossing signs other than the highway. View Comment

That must be Elwood Adams on Main Street in Worcester. I haven't been in there for years but it looks like the neon clock says Elwood Adams since 1782. Thanks for the link. View Comment

Where was the hardware store scene shot? I checked the filming locations for "The March Sisters at Christmas" but they are not listed on IMBd yet. All that is listed is the cast, crew and that it is a comedy basically. View Comment

You do realize this Sativex Oral Spray that you mention is just a tincture of the cannabis plant, aka cannabis extract. The same product could be produced at home by a patient with access to medical marijuana for 1/10th the cost. The patient would be able to customize their extract with cannabis plants that best worked for them instead of being limited to the THC and CBD ratio offered by the Pharmaceutical companies. You mention carcinogens but that only applies to those who smoke it. Cannabis vaporizers are becoming more popular with many medicinal users in addition to, beverages, edibles, salves and tinctures. And then you mentioned addiction. I was really hoping you were going to follow by saying Marijuana is responsible for the raping of white women by crazed negroes. When I hear someone mention marijuana addiction I have trouble taking anything else they say seriously. Out of these 6 substances (cannabis, caffeine, cocaine, alcohol, heroin and nicotine). Cannabis ranked least addictive, with caffeine the second least addictive and nicotine the most. Alcohol is more addictive, is involved in countless ruined lives, provides no medicinal benefit but it's legal and people are fine with it. Yet, many people still believe marijuana is bad because of all the propaganda despite evidence to the contrary. For the record, I don't use marijuana or illegal drugs. When marijuana is eventually legalized I won't be using then either. View Comment

Do you really think that hunters shoot blindly at "sounds" in the woods? During the recent decades in which the state has been keeping close tabs on hunting, there have been three incidents of non-hunters being shot by hunters. The most recent "yahoo" was a MA State Trooper. He misidentified the tails of two dogs in the woods as a deer, so he shot the woman walking them instead. There are well over 100,000 active hunters in MA. Even with a "large number of yahoos who will shoot at anything they hear moving in the woods", hunting is still one of the safest of all outdoor activities. View Comment

M.G.L. c.131 s.58 A person shall not discharge any firearm or release any arrow upon or across any state or hard surfaced highway, or within one hundred and fifty feet, of any such highway, or possess a loaded firearm or hunt by any means on the land of another within five hundred feet of any dwelling in use, except as authorized by the owner or occupant thereof. So other than it being illegal, maybe the neighbor thought it was dangerous and didn't like the idea of being hit by a stray or deflected arrow. View Comment

I know a department in town that could probably benefit by having more fuel efficient vehicles. I was at a business located 30 minutes from this Grafton department, when two town employees arrived. They drove out there to see if the business had a particular item. Guess what, the business didn't carry it. In Worcester County, there are about three other places that may have had the item. I don't know if they went to these other places or not. If they had more fuel efficient vehicles, the two employees could have driven to all the businesses on the same amount of fuel their current vehicle used going to just one business. If the town is going to send employees on wild goose chases instead of calling first, they should at least have fuel efficient vehicles when hauling more than one employee. View Comment

Any idea when it will be uploaded onto YouTube? I'm not around on weekends and my VCR is broken? View Comment

According to the article, the cause of the accident is under investigation by Grafton Police. Readers of the article have no idea of the exact circumstances. I am more concerned with the injured victim, their health and the effect it might have on their loved ones. At the same time, it is nice that there are things you feel strongly about too. ac-ci-dent noun 1. an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss; casualty; mishap: automobile accidents. MVA - motor vehicle accident The unintended collision of one motor vehicle with another, a stationary object, or person, resulting in injuries, death and/or loss of property. Motor vehicle accidents are also known as road traffic accidents. Seems as if dictionaries, law enforcement, insurance companies as well as the general public consider crashing a vehicle an accident in most cases. View Comment

What makes you think the state would guarantee the bonds? In the past two years MassDevelopment issued over $5 billion in bonds. There is no way they could guarantee payment of these amounts. In the event of default, the credit providers (i.e. private investors), have a claim on a company's assets. If a company cannot make the payments they might file for bankruptcy protection, restructure, liquidate or be foreclosed. Similar to an individual who defaults on a mortgage or loan. You mentioned that WCS will be made more attractive and will have better services to offer paying students. Would you prefer they didn't and the 530 students who attend WCS be funneled into the local public schools. After all, the families pay the same taxes as others who benefit from the public school system. View Comment

Keepitsimple- Just want to clarify a couple things, not trying to prove you wrong. MassDevelopment assisted WCS in getting a $3 million bond. The $3 million is a loan that WCS has to pay back, not a handout. The money isn't loaned by the state, MassDevelopment finds private investors to loan the funds. Any public school could also seek MassDevelopment's services but probably wouldn't be interested since there is a $3 million limit. View Comment

The state is not financing religious training. I believe no public funding is used to pay the bonds, MassDevelopment works as a middle man between the borrower and investors. WCS is using the bonds to fund a media center and a library renovation, not to build a new chapel. MassDevelopment cannot deny WCS a state service that it provides to all sectors of the Massachusetts economy. It would be like denying them use of public parks or the police departments services. MassDevelopment's policy, is to issue bonds for religious schools only if they do not discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring or admissions. It is a bit of a gray area and similar issues have been challenged in court in other states. I don't think it has been challenged yet in MA and bonds have been issued to other schools such as BC. View Comment