Compassionate loophole

It’s Monday, March 15th. Beware.

What would spring break be without a little teargas?

It appears that the Legislature left a opening for convicted first-degree murderers to be released from prison for medical reasons. Twenty-one murderers have been released as a result, the Globe reports. The compassionate release bill pushed through by lawmakers was inspired by the situation one of their colleagues found himself in at the time. Sal DiMasi, the ex-speaker, was serving federal time for fraud and extortion and was asking for compassionate release for hospice treatment after what his doctors said was a fatal cancer diagnosis. He got out. That was over four years ago. Today DiMasi is working as a lobbyist. And the bill his plight inspired is playing out in the headlines.

A giant walrus has come ashore on the southwest coast of Ireland. Experts think it may have fallen asleep on an iceberg and floated down from the arctic. I assume officials will waive quarantine requirements. No comment were reported from the eggman.

About 12% of the population of Massachusetts has been fully vaccinated. More than 23% have had their first shot. To put that number in perspective, under 9% of people in the state have tested positive for the virus. That takes us to about 20% of people with immunity. Throw in another ten percent who may have asymptomatic infections to produce antibodies and subtract the overlap of people with antibodies getting vaccinated and that might take us up to about 30 percent or so with immunity. So we still have a ways to go. Assuming an R0 of 5.7 for Covid, that means that we need to get to about 80% before we shut this thing down. But we’re moving fast on vaccinations and that’s a good thing.

And a man in Charlton said he was following the instructions from his GPS navigation system when he drove his car into a lake. Was he using Google Maps or Apple Maps? Inquiring minds want to know.

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