Fishery officials reverse decision, cod limits
PLYMOUTH — Fishery officials who proposed slashing the cod catch to 30 pounds per trip to revive the fishery have flip-flopped, now recommending that the cod catch be increased to 700 pounds per trip. After hearing complaints at a meeting attended by about 150 furious fishermen, federal officials voted to recommend that the allowable catch per boat be increased to the 700 pounds. Fishermen had spent 6 1/2 hours protesting new fishing restrictions, telling federal officials they planned to defy new limits that reduce the allowable cod catch from 200 pounds per trip to 30 pounds. The recommendation will be considered as an emergency measure by U.S. Secretary of Commerce William Daley. The measure was proposed after officials realized that fishermen were catching and having to throw back far more cod than what they were allowed to keep, according to a fisheries official. Fish often die when they are discarded.
Residents divided over golf course proposals
EDGARTOWN — To some Martha’s Vineyard residents, three proposals for high-end golf courses mean more jobs and big money for local charities. To others, they’re a threat to what’s left of the island’s peaceful and private way of life. The debate has divided a community where wealthy outsiders and Islanders are known to mix, but not necessarily mingle. The three courses are all expensive, with price tags up to $65 million. But they all promise to generate cash for local businesses and give money to local groups like the Boys and Girls Club and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. But all the courses are planned for ecologically sensitive areas, which has rankled some townspeople. The Meeting House Golf Club is proposed for 200 acres of fragile sand plain near an undeveloped salt pond in Edgartown. The Vineyard Acres II club is planned a quarter-mile away on a “frost bottom,” home to rare species of moth and other invertebrates. A course by the Connecticut-based developer Preferred Links would sit on the Oak Bluffs aquifer.
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Fertility clinic finds contract unproductive
BOSTON — A fertility clinic that lost its contract with Tufts Health Plan has filed a lawsuit accusing the health maintenance organization of defamation and libel. The Fertility Center of New England Inc. claims it lost patients and was denied loans because of statements the HMO made about the contract termination. Tufts officials said they had not seen the suit and declined to comment Friday. According to the lawsuit, Tufts told the Reading-based center in January that it didn’t meet a new requirement that 50 percent of its physicians be board certified. But the public announcement was different — saying that Tufts terminated the contract because the center didn’t meet some new standards of care which included success rates and patient satisfaction, the suit said. At the time, HMO officials refused to publicly announce which of the five new standards the center failed to meet.
Harvard Pilgrim quits some Medicare markets
BOSTON — Plans by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to pull out of the Medicare market in western Massachusetts by year’s end will leave about 3,500 elderly residents looking for coverage. The health maintenance organization said it had been losing money in Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire counties on its First Seniority plan because federal repayments fell below costs in the region. Harvard Pilgrim lost more than $50 million last year and $20 million in the first quarter of this year, but spokeswoman Patti Embry-Tautenhan refused to say how much of that was due to the First Seniority program in the three counties. Reimbursement payments in rural Franklin County are around $420 per month, compared with $663 in Boston. The HMO did not rule out the possibility it would pull out of other Medicare markets.
Fore River Shipyard reaches accord with union
QUINCY — Sotirios Emmanouil, owner of the Fore River shipyard, has signed his first labor union agreement, recognizing the Sheet Metal Workers International Association as the bargaining unit for workers he hopes to hire over the next three years. “This is very important for the future of the shipyard,” Emmanouil said. “Our biggest partners are the workers.” The agreement with Emmanouil’s Massachusetts Heavy Industries company needs to be ratified by the yard’s current 15-person crew, and that could be done within the next few days, according to union executive Don Buchanan. The shipyard workers will have their own local when the yard reopens, said Joseph J. Nigro, business agent for the Sheet Metal Workers International Association’s Local 17. Emmanouil had pledged earlier to state and local leaders that he would use an all-union labor force.
New York man sentenced in Ponzi scheme
BOSTON — A 64-year-old New York man has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail for his involvement in a $24 million international Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said. Harold Glantz was also ordered to pay more than $21 million in restitution at his sentencing at U.S. District Court. Glantz and two other men — Norman G. Epstein of Swampscott, and Art James Laylock, 40, of London, England — were accused of defrauding eight European investors from 1993-94. Prosecutors say the three men told investors that their funds would double after being used to trade bank instruments and discounted letters of credit. But while taking a combined $24 million from investors in London and elsewhere, the three men did not invest any of the money. Instead, prosecutors said, they used the money for personal expenses.
