Massachusetts
Massachusetts body shops to demonstrate in favor of higher labor rate – Repairer Driven News
Massachusetts physique outlets to reveal in favor of upper labor price
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Bulletins | Associations | Insurance coverage | Authorized
The Alliance of Automotive Service Suppliers of Massachusetts (AASP-MA) helps collision repairers take their case for increased auto physique labor charges on to the general public, with a motorcade and demonstration Might 18 on the State Home in Boston.
Auto physique store house owners, relations, workers, vo-tech college students, and allies will probably be urging members of the general public to contact their legislators in help of filed laws that might elevate the state’s $40 labor price, the bottom within the nation.
The demonstration is supposed to convey the problem to shoppers’ consideration, and to maintain strain on lawmakers to cross laws, Evangelos “Fortunate” Papageorg, the manager director of AASP-MA, advised Repairer Pushed Information.
Papageorg stated he expects not less than 200, and presumably 300, folks will participate within the day’s occasions. Members will start gathering at 10 a.m., with picketing and a motorcade of flatbed vans carrying broken vehicles starting at 10:30. Addresses by repairers and lawmakers will start at 11.
He stated some physique outlets are planning to shut for the day, giving all of their workers the chance to participate.
Anybody all in favour of collaborating can go to AASPMA.org/rally to register.
AASP-MA helps Home Invoice 1111, which might alter the labor price for 34 years of inflation and index future adjustments to the area’s Client Worth Index. Though it enjoys bipartisan help, with 38 legislators signed on as co-sponsors, the invoice has thus far didn’t emerge from the Joint Committee on Monetary Companies.
A number of payments addressing the labor price, together with HB111, had been held in committee pending the completion of a report by the Particular Fee on Auto Physique Labor Charges. That report, adopted by a 10-3 vote, was submitted to the committee on April 13.
The fee declared that the state’s auto physique labor charges “have to be addressed” after greater than three many years of inaction by auto insurers, and beneficial a variety of potential options, together with HB1111 and several other different pending payments that might regulate reimbursed charges.
“The Fee acknowledges that auto physique labor charges have to be addressed and that the auto physique labor price has not elevated considerably since 1988,” the report states.
Throughout Jan. 25 and March 22 public hearings, dozens of auto physique professionals and vocational lecturers testified in regards to the hurt that the stagnant labor price has finished to the business, which has absorbed many years of rising prices. Repairers famous that the low reimbursement price makes it troublesome to draw new technicians to the business once they could make extra per hour in lots of different associated fields.
Given the pace with which the fee labored, beating its July 1 deadline by a number of weeks, Papageorg stated AASP-MA anticipated that the payments would have been reported out of committee by now.
He stated the group is dedicated to creating certain that the fee’s report doesn’t undergo the identical destiny as a 2008 report that was shelved with no motion taken.
The 2008 report beneficial that the legislature overview the impact on labor charges of managed competitors within the insurance coverage business, contemplate whether or not legal guidelines requiring “truthful and affordable” charges had been needed, and convene bi-monthly conferences of repairers and auto insurers to debate bettering their companies to shoppers.
The reimbursement price has solely moved $10 in almost 34 years, in keeping with AASP-MA. Since 1988, the labor price has elevated $10 whereas the Client Worth Index (CPI) has elevated 137.7% and insurance coverage premiums have elevated 254%.
Extra info
Particular fee helps legislative options to Massachusetts’ stagnant labor charges
Photos
Featured picture: One of many indicators that will probably be displayed on the rally. (Supplied by produced by David Deutsch of Deutsch Inventive)
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California man charged with threatening to ‘shoot up’ Massachusetts businesses in explicit voicemails
A California man is charged with threatening to shoot up Massachusetts companies over five extremely explicit phone calls.
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Massachusetts
Treasure mystery: Who found the gold statue in Mass. woods — and who gets the bounty?
We now know the identity of the clever treasure hunter who tracked down a gold statue worth more than $25,000 — though whether he gets to keep tens of thousands more in bounty money apparently remains up in the air.
Dan Leonard, a meteorologist in Andover, Massachusetts, was identified as the winner, not by the founders of Project Skydrop, but by NBC affiliate News Center Maine, which actually introduced Leonard and the people whose puzzle he solved in the woods of Wendell State Forest.
Leonard described the moment to founders Jason Rohrer and Tom Bailey like this: “I’m kind of in disbelief that this is happening. I see the camera so expertly hidden in that stump, and I think, ‘Oh my god.’”
The digital treasure hunt for the gold statue whose value was appraised at $26,536.25 sparked widespread speculation from puzzle enthusiasts and more. The founders created clues to make the search hard, but not too hard, specifying an area where the 10-ounce, 24-karat gold statue could be that shrank every day. People could also pay $20 to receive a daily clue, which helped fund the bounty.
People are searching for a golden statue worth more than $25,000.
The circle was centered roughly on Greenfield, Massachusetts, north along the Connecticut River from Springfield.
The person who tracked the statue down was seen on cameras grabbing the puzzle off the floor, but the Skydrop organizers didn’t hear from him until News Center Maine reached out. Leonard explained that he narrowed down where the treasure could be based on the temperature recorded in the camera, plus the cloud cover and plant life seen in the stream.
When they did meet, Leonard learned there was a catch to claiming the bounty, as News Center Maine reported: the prize could only be accessed by solving clues written onto the trophy itself, which technically meant that anyone with access to the statue could crack the code and claim the money.
Leonard was surprised, but not particularly bothered, saying, “Let’s say I don’t get it: I still had a really good time and got a treasure out of it.”
Rohrer shared more about the circumstances around Leonard’s victory in a message to the game’s official Discord server, a social media chat site where players were able to get more information about what happened.
The winner’s name is Dan Leonard. A news channel up in Maine figured out who he was, based on their meteorologist connections. They connected us with him, and we got to talk to him on camera yesterday. That encounter should appear on the news soon.
Dan joined Project Skydrop for $20 on October 25. He explained how he solved it. Along with weather patterns, temperature data, and cloud cover stuff from the trail cameras, he also depended heavily on the aerial image clues. He said it would have been impossible to solve if:
- He had no aerial clues
or - We had cropped the temperature sensor data off the camera images.
The aerial clues helped him in two ways. First, they showed him that the treasure was in a large, deciduous beech grove, and there aren’t many large beech groves in the Erving area. Second, they showed him a “map” of what the scene looked like around the treasure (the logs, etc.)
He never had an exact GPS coordinate figured out. He was simply walking the (few) large beech groves in Wendell, looking for the distinctive logs that he saw in the clues.
The temperature sensor data and weather patterns just helped him narrow down the area.
Also, he actually stared right at the treasure and didn’t see it. He walked away, thinking he had found the wrong logs. He was about to leave (he walked off-camera for 1 min and 30 seconds), and then he came back to take one more look, because those logs looked like such a close match. Then, staring at the leaves in the spot he had already checked, he suddenly saw that the treasure was there after all. He said it was almost impossible to see.
Massachusetts
Why Massachusetts loves Nibi the beaver and is fighting to keep her out of the wild
There comes a time in every young beaver’s life when they decide to branch out and leave their parents’ lodge to build their own home.
For Nibi, Massachusetts “diva” beaver, it’s a bit more complicated than that. And in the end, the governor of Massachusetts had to get involved.
Nibi was just a baby when she was abandoned and discovered on the side of the road about a few years ago. She was saved and cared for by Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, northwest of Boston. That’s how the public was introduced to and fell in love with the beaver, known for its round furry frame, tiny paws and mischievous smile.
Rescuers have referred to Nibi as a “diva” because of her confidence and how she has misbehaved in the past when she did not get things her way.
Nibi, now 2 years old, is roughly the age when wild beavers embark on their journey to find a mate and build a home. Over this past summer, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), a state division, said it was time for Nibi to do the same, according to court documents.
But Nibi’s rescuers disagreed — arguing that the beaver was far from ready to live on her own without human intervention, and warned that her chance of survival would be low in the wild, court documents read.
Newhouse Wildlife Rescue cited beaver ecology expert Glynnis Hood, who speculated that if Nibi is released in October, she would be ill-prepared for the winter and likely experience starvation and hypothermia.
The disagreement ultimately went through state courts. It also amassed 29,000 signatures on an online petition advocating for Nibi to remain at the rescue center.
On Thursday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey entered the debate, announcing that she sided with Newhouse Wildlife Rescue and would issue a permit for Nibi’s stay as an education beaver.
“Nibi has captured the hearts of many of our residents, mine included,” Healey said in a statement. “I’m happy to report that we have issued a permit for Nibi to remain at a wildlife rescue as an educational beaver and inspire folks to protect our natural world.”
Newhouse Wildlife Rescue applauded the governor’s decision and thanked the overwhelming support from Nibi fans.
“This was not about making a wild animal a pet. That’s so far from what happened here and was never the goal,” the group wrote on Facebook. “This was about speaking for a creature who could not speak for herself. This was about righting a wrong.”
MassWildlife told the Associated Press that the state division is “committed to protecting the well-being of all wildlife, including Nibi the beaver,” adding that agency officials plan to “work with Newhouse Wildlife Rescue on the best steps forward.”
Beavers are common and plentiful throughout Massachusetts. They play a vital role in the state’s ecosystems by damming rivers and streams and forming shallow ponds.
In court documents, Newhouse Wildlife Rescue said they tried several times to introduce Nibi into the wild, but given that she was so young when she was found, she appeared to have no instincts on how to hunt for food on her own. “She also refused to integrate with other beavers on more than occasion,” court documents read.
The group said they plan to continue training Nibi so she could eventually be released into the wild.
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