BOSTON — As July rolls in and we celebrate our nation’s birthday, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank is preparing to become the first congressman to have a same-sex marriage.
 
Frank, who is retiring at the end of this term, is getting married to Jim Ready, his partner of 5 years, this month. News reports are speculating the event will take place in Newton on July 7.
 
Planning the wedding has been “a little stressful,” Frank said in June in an interview with Todd Zwillich of The Takeaway.
 
However, Frank said he wasn't worried, and thinks the couple did a good job, in part thanks to some helpful assistance from Ready’s mother and Frank’s sister.
 
While there will be a disc jockey and decorations (although those will be left up to the hotel), a couple things will not be there: the press and the president.
 
The lack of the press is not surprising. In a November 2011 interview with WGBH News, Frank said one thing he intended to do when he retired was to "talk to the media less."
 
As for the president, it’s nothing Frank has against Obama, but rather the Secret Service.
 
“I was asked if I would invite the president,” Frank said, “and it’s not his fault, but he brings [The Secret Service] with him, and they can ruin a party.”

Excerpts from Frank's interview with WGBH News co-production The Takeaway

Q: So, how is the wedding planning going? Is it stressful at all?
 
A: It is. It’s a little stressful, but Jim and I called in some reinforcements. Jim’s mother and my sister, who, between them, you know, weddings are new for both of us but Jim’s mother married off three of his siblings and my sister married off two of her children, so they’ve been helpful to us. And I just spoke to Jim, he was up at his mother’s house today, they were going through the RSVPs. We’ve got it pretty well organized.
 
Q: Do you guys have any taste for wedding planning, do you guys get into decorations and whatnot?
 
A: No, we left that to the hotel. I’m not very focused on those things, but we are dealing with the hotel on that one, not getting into that much, we’re going to have a disc jockey, Jim has been talking to him about songs, and we’ve gotten suits for all of the guys who are going to be at the wedding for that.
 
Q: Are you at all worried about the wedding?
 
A: No, it’s under control, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of planning it. We have a certain issue of we don’t want it to be a spectacle. I suspect there might be some disappointed press people when we tell them they’re not invited.
 

 
BOSTON — Everyone knows what happens once you’re inside a taxi. You might gaze out the window, check your phone or watch what’s on the little television screen. Every now and then, you lean over to take a peek at the meter to get an idea of what the tally is.

Now think about that taxi ride experience as a blind passenger.

In God we trust; all others pay fare

Jim Denham described the problem: “Finding a cab that knows the route, trusting a cab driver ... You have to really trust them because you can’t read that meter."

Denham is blind. He is also the director of assistive technology at the Perkins School for the Blind. He’s got all sorts of smartphone apps and gadgets that help him get around. But even with all those apps and gadgets, he still needs to rely entirely on the cab driver to know what his fare is.

“Making sure that they are taking you the same route that you think you should take, that they’re not going to drive around the block just to run up their meter a bit — it’s just something to be cautious about," Denham said.

The bigger benefit is that it’s a step closer to independence. Even something as simple as knowing your fare is empowering. And soon, in the City of Boston, blind passengers will get some help. Thanks to new technology, that television screen in the back of the cab will soon be talking to the visually impaired.

The technological solution

A CMT card for blind taxi passengers. (Danielle Dreilinger/WGBH)

“We said let’s take the existing technology and see if we can extend it and come up with a solution for the visually impaired," said Jesse Davis, CEO of Creative Mobile Technologies, a New York–based company that makes those TVs that are in the backseats of taxis in major cities all over the country.

“When you hear the frustration out of the community about something as simple as going to the ATM or how intimidating it can be if you are in a cab to make sure that you really are paying the proper amount — I mean, it’s an extremely unnerving position to be in," said Davis.

In collaboration with advocacy group Lighthouse International, CMT devised a way to turn those televisions into touch screens with audio capability for the blind. Here’s how it works: Lighthouse International issues cards that look like credit cards, with a magnetic strip. Inside the cab, the passenger swipes the card through the credit card slot. That activates the TV screen, turning it into a touch screen, and the audio prompt greets the passenger and tells the rider how to operate the device.

I asked Denham to go for a ride to test out this new technology.
 
The system in action

Once we step inside the cab, Denham feels around and immediately finds the credit card machine. He swipes the card through, and the TV screen suddenly greets us with a wobbly automated voice: “Welcome. You’ve entered Cab B0321.” On the screen, four large squares replace the weather forecast and stock market figures. The voice prompt instructs us on how to control volume settings by tapping certain sections of the screen.

So far, Denham is pleased.

“I like how they’re using the corner of the screen to quickly identify things. And it makes it easy to find the different pieces of information, but the speech is a little difficult to understand. They could use a better speech synthesizer. But still, it’s not horrible. It’s nice getting the fare — it’s nice to be able to quickly identify that," Denham says.

I think the automated voice sounds British, but Denham disagrees, contending, "I don’t know if that’s a British voice. I think that’s just one of the synthesizers that’s out there."

The screen after a passenger has swiped the CMT card. (Cristina Quinn/WGBH)

While Denham and I politely avoid a debate over the dialect of the software, he feels his way around the screen.

“I’m surprised there’s not a headphone jack. But it’s really nice that when I swiped the card, it immediately started talking. That’s a really nice feature. I mean just to know, ‘Hey, the system is working,’" says Denham.

The screen is connected to the meter so as our ride continues, the voice states the fare increases. When we pull into the parking lot at Perkins, it tells us how much we owe and the prompt allows Denham to decide how much he wants to tip and guides us through the payment process.

CMT’s software gets an overall thumbs-up from Denham: “That was some neat technology. I think it is a great thing. It fosters independence. Minor improvements could be made; I think the speech could be a little clearer. But I think it’s a great system, and I’m really happy that it’s going into more cabs.”

With the technology down, the logistics

But the next part is pretty tricky: how to distribute all those cards out to the blind community. This is something Kim Charlson, first vice president of the American Council of the Blind, is concerned about.

“It is a challenge to reach people blind or visually impaired because they don’t use the traditional newspapers and mail and things like that," said Charlson. At her office inside the Talking Book Library at Perkins, her guide dog German Shepherd Dolly rests at her feet, under her desk.

“We have to use alternative ways to communicate — through agencies and organizations of the blind, including information in newsletters, audio, Braille, large print so that we can get the word out to people," Charlson said.

The technology is already up and running in New York City and San Francisco. Currently there are 1200 cabs in the city with CMT technology. It will be a few months before it’s launched full-scale in Boston: City officials here want to work out the kinks. When they do, it’ll be a major step toward greater independence for the blind community and a life with fewer boundaries.
 
 

BOSTON — During his two terms as Massachusetts governor, Michael Dukakis had health care reform on his agenda. In fact, in 1988 Dukakis signed into law a health care act that would have forced businesses that didn’t offer their employees health insurance to contribute to a fund to provide such insurance — but Dukakis said his successor William Weld did what he could to stymie the effort.
 
I sat down with the former governor and presidential candidate at Northeastern University, where he is now distinguished professor of political science. I spoke with him soon after the Supreme Court decision was released — a decision that somewhat vexed Dukakis

Excerpts from the interview

"Well, I'm pleased that the basic core piece of it was upheld. On the other hand, I must say I'm confused about the decision on Medicaid. Congress has regularly required the states to expand Medicaid coverage as a condition for receiving that money ... So what you're going to end up with, I guess, is a kind of pitched battle in conservative legislatures over whether or not they're going to agree to make it possible for working people and their families — up to 133 percent of poverty, which isn't a lot of money — to get decent, affordable health care. And in point of fact that's the whole issue anyway, which I'm sorry to say my party hasn't done a very good job of explaining. This is all about working folks and their families because the overwhelming majority of uninsured people in this country, and it's about 60 million, are working or members of working families ...

"We're finally going to, I hope, move ahead with decent, affordable health care, especially for working families in this country — unless of course Mitt Romney, who's done his 125th 180, in this case on health care — gets elected! If he does, then forget it."

 
BOSTON — There are many reasons you may give money to a charity: a sense of philanthropy, for instance, or a desire to see better outcomes in society. The majority of U.S. families donate. The average contribution is 2-3 percent of annual income. 
 
But many people could give more — but don't. That's according to a group called Bolder Giving. Its founders, Christopher and Anne Ellinger, live in Arlington and became philanthropists when Christopher came into an unexpected inheritance in his early 20s. They're on Humankind on June 24. Host David Freudberg visited the WGBH studios to talk about the couple's ideas.
 

Perhaps the town will have to post a no-swearing sign. (Sir Intellegent/Wikimedia)

BOSTON — At a June 11 Middleborough town meeting, residents approved a proposal to impose a $20 fine for using profane language in public — and now it's made headlines worldwide.

Mimi Duphily said she and other merchants in downtown Middleborough were fed up with the high school kids yelling and swearing at the park close by, and wanted to take a stand.

"I find it very difficult that a young person can’t string together six words without having two F-bombs in it. You know, learn a little bit of English and learn how to express yourself in a better manner rather than always swearing," Duphily said.

Middleborough has had a bylaw against public profanity since 1968. But it's rarely been enforced because, officials said, pursuing a case in court would be too costly. The new ordinance decriminalizes the bylaw, allowing police to issue tickets instead.

That's raised questions about First Amendment rights.

Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said that while decriminalizing the bylaw is a good thing, profanity is a constitutionally protected right, and that this new ordinance could prevent people from exercising their freedom of speech because they’re worried about getting fined.

“This kind of provision stops people from engaging in protective speech, and exposes people to the risk that they are going to be fined based on better discretion of police officers to single out which acts of profanity they think are worth fining,” Segal said.

Duphily contended it was not a move against free speech but rather against unacceptable behavior.

“You can express yourself. You can have a conversation with someone, you can be in a bar, in a coffee shop — anywhere, but when you get out into public, on the public streets, there’s a level of acceptability and non-acceptability,” she said.
 
Duphily is not alone in her convictions. She has received countless phone calls in support from people in California, Virginia, Philadelphia, New York and even Germany.

Our partners at the Takeaway are asking: What would you outlaw in your town? Tweet your answer with the hashtag #whatwouldyououtlaw. Results so far include "motorcycles so loud they trigger car alarms" and "Nickelback."

 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the weather warms up and tourists fill the streets, panhandlers appear in droves, asking for spare change at almost every busy square and intersection. The treatment they receive from pedestrians, storeowners and police varies widely, as does their income. Now there's a new effort in Cambridge to get panhandlers off the streets.
 
Please spare change
 
Justin Newton divides his time between two trendy and rather affluent areas of Greater Boston: Harvard Square and Newbury Street. He's 31, tall with shaggy red hair and a beard. He's also a panhandler. For up to 8 hours a day he sits or stands with a cardboard sign, usually scrawled with a funny message — for instance, one day in May, "Too Ugly to Sell My Body, Already Sold my Soul. Please Spare Change."
 
The shelter where Newton usually stays is closed until the fall, he said, so he and friends sleep on the street. You might see them in front of the Coop or in the Pit in Harvard Square. He said on a good day, after about 8 hours, he makes about $75. He spends his money on what he called homeless "gear."
 
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t using some of it to buy, like, pot," he said. "But well, I just bought these two foam mattress pads because my back’s been really bothering me and I needed a better surface to sleep on."
 
When asked if he'd tried to get a full-time job, he shrugged. "I was looking for work for 2 1/2 years before I became homeless. If I couldn’t find a job when I had a roof over my head, think of how much harder it is to get a job when you don’t have a roof over your head, when your address is a drop-in center," he said.
 
The scope of the problem
 
Newton is one of the estimated hundreds of panhandlers in Boston. There's no actual data, and the annual homeless census cannot account for panhandlers. Many of them are just passing through the city. In an informal survey in Harvard Square, those interviewed said they were homeless. On a good day they made about $80, on a bad day about $15. Several said they have caseworkers and collect Supplemental Security Income, the Social Security Adminstration's benefit for people who have disabilities and limited resources. 
 
But even as panhandlers work solo on the streets, they're organized. In Harvard Square, they stagger themselves. John Casey, 59, said he and his friends met each morning to divvy up territory.
 
"We talk in the morning and then we just decide where to go," he said. "I got three other friends who are doing it. We meet at Starbucks. We have our coffee then we head out."
 
What the police think
 
Panhandling is legal. In fact, it's a First Amendment right. But panhandlers can't follow people, touch them or become verbally abusive. It's a fine line, according to Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas. 
 
"We have officers that are just dedicated to working with that population," he said. "And our officers are really good at talking to them, setting some boundaries with them, and oddly enough we've been doing this for 2 1/2 years, they follow these rules."
 
The business perspective
 
The real tension in Harvard Square is between panhandlers and business owners. Haas said Cambridge police have just started a "homeless ambassador program" to train business owners to interact positively with panhandlers and distribute information on local social service agencies. 
 
"What's been really successful is we really have struck a fabulous partnership with the business association and social service providers and we're really working closely together," said Haas.
 
There are efforts to empower panhandlers. For example, for 20 years they've had the option of selling a newspaper called Spare Change News. The police don't take a stance on whether the public should give money to panhandlers; the Harvard Square Business Alliance, however, encourages local residents and tourists to give instead to shelters and other homeless support organizations.