welcome to talking news we are delighted to have you with us listening to our priest station by members of the beach street center marian jonathan and irene we will be reading local news and happenings from the community newspapers mark towns are cafe permits by gerry rafferty citing public health benefits associated with decreased rates of smoking more communities in massachusetts are taking steps to limit the number of tobacco retailers in their communities i think it's definitely a trend that's going to continue said markheim of its massachusetts government relations director for the american cancer society cancer action network here in massachusetts we've made great process in reducing the smoking rate but we still have about fifteen percent of the population that smokes and the opportunity we have to come up with policies to reduce tobacco use will help reduce that number as of september thirteenth eighty one massachusetts cities and towns have approved company contineu and its continuances capping the number of tobacco sales permits according to the massachusetts municipal association once the cap has reached the community starts a waiting list for the next available permit even if the population increases the number of permits will remain the same reducing the ratio of tobacco retailers to residents the idea was not to start shutting down places but having as a slow decrease said d j wilson the tobacco control director and public health released on for the massachusetts municipal association some communities that have an active caps go to a step further there are sixty that don't allow tobacco retailers within five hundred feet of a school and some cities and towns once a reducer once a tobacco retailer closes or sells his or her business the permit for its back to the municipal government and is taken out of circulation ryan kearney general counsel for the retailer association of massachusetts said that approach harms businesses that plan by the rules that play by the rules some of the biggest issues we've seen as they are restricting they transferrable ability permits he said their view is that they're going to be able to sell the business along with th licenses but if it reverts back to the city or town that develops the business in recent years to packer retailers have had to navigate an increasingly diverse patchwork of regulations that very town from town to town he said more than one hundred thirty cities and towns have raised the tobacco purchasing age to twenty one while others have kept the age at eighty some have are strict in the sale of e cigarettes flavored tobacco products are allowed on store shelves in some towns but not have this with any of the our major stance is because the effects interstate commerce they should be decided at the state level cuny said we want a level playing field for everyone will stay said the tobacco regulation efforts are geared toward public health by by controlling the density of tobacco retailers local governments can eventually prevent clusters of cigarette vendors he said the public health theory is that if you keep a clustering of stores all in one area of town that tends to top the amount had for ties and neighbor neighborhood kids would see he said also when they're plastered the competition is fierce to lower the price of tobacco because they're so close to each other we have known for decades that when you raise the price of tobacco people buy less especially kids with vakil advertising restricted in many forms of media store displays are one why not only hand beloved cambridge bowling alley lanes and games will be open for approximately one more year before closing for good according to the developer who plans to build a high end apartment building in its place working with criteria development partners developer richard mckinnon is looking to build three hundred twenty five apartments in place of the bowling alley and joining motel lanes in games its neighbor in meeting wednesday night the gateway in is open twenty four seven and the bowling alley is open seven days a week marked in yeti family made a decision there they're tired the developers about three years ago many bowling leagues will be displaced when lanes and games closes mckinnon's and owners are working carefully to relocate them the games will remain open until the league's finished i'm sad to see another luxury condo development spring out what is being lost there is the de facto community center the bowling alley served it's one of the last few places in cambridge where you can see people of all different types colors and income levels and abilities get together i think it would be smart if we could develop places like that going forward he said criterion executive vice president jack angular said the company would be willing to consider the idea of the marketing yet these have made a decision and we will have to try to work with that decision perhaps there is a wider create some community space that can offset or replace lines in games maybe not to the same extent but maybe there is a way he said the projects three hundred twenty five studio one two and three bedroom apartments and two hundred forty two smart parking spaces would be spread across multiple building buildings at least thirty six units will be affordable the proposal submitted to the and c s c said the remainder of the units will be rounded for about three hundred three dollars fifty cents per square foot per month cambridge resident lisa wexler noted the housing crisis since in cambridge it's really obscene to see so many high income buildings go up in this area what kind of collective consciousness do we have here are we talking about the common good the go to five percent of people who live internationally and in this country she said engler said his company could not afford to build a project where seventy five percent of the units were offered below market rents i understand affordable housing i do i'm aware of it i'm trying to do it there are constraints he said with climate change a rising concern from the boston area and c s c member michael brandon called building in the alewife brook plopping fog plain foolish yes it's smart to build their transportation centers but not when they're in a flood plain right next to a reservation will be surrounding a natural resource area with buildings he said a letter from cambridge city engineer katherine walk ins to the cambridge conservation commission so the project has been designed to survive so called one hundred year storm and floods forecasters in the recent cambridge climate change vulnerability assessment from twenty thirty and twenty zone marion fatal crashes involving marijuana the rights fatal crashes involving drivers who recently used marijuana doubled in washington state after it legalized the drug according to research by the aaa foundation for traffic safety a washington was one of the first states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and these findings raise serious concerns about drug impaired driving especially with at least twenty states considering marijuana legalization this year another aaa report evaluates the challenges of the setting up  legal limits for marijuana and driving the reports found after washington legalized marijuana in december twenty eighth the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes who had recently used marijuana more than doubled from eight percent to seventeen percent between two thousand and thirteen and twenty fourteen in addition one in six drivers in washington involved in fatal crashes in two thousand and fourteen the most recent data available had recently used marijuana to enforce drug impaired driving laws some states have created legal limits also known as per se limits which specify the maximum amount of t h c the main chemical component in marijuana that drivers can have in their system based on a blood test triple a's research however shows that legal limits are arbitrary and not supported by science based on these findings aaa believe states should use more comprehensive enforcement measures to improve road safety the significant increase in fatal crashes involving marijuana is a learning said peter kissinger president and c e o of the aaa foundation for traffic safety washington serves as an eye opening case study for what other states may experience using legal limits to determine the amount of t h c in the blood is similar in concept to the zero point zero eight blood alcohol content limit for driving under the influence of alcohol researchers examined lab results of drivers arrested for impaired driving however and the results suggest that legal limits for marijuana are problematic because there is no science showing that drivers reliably become impaired at a specific level of marijuana in the blood how i see levels may drop below a legal threshold before a test is that minister marijuana can affect people differently making it more challenging to develop consistent and fair guidelines there is understandably a strong desire by both lawmakers and the public to create legal limits for marijuana impairment in the same manner as we do with alcohol said mary maguire director of public and legislative affairs for aaa north east in the case of marijuana this approach is flawed and not supported by scientific research mary said aaa urges states to use the two components system that requires a positive test for recent marijuana use and behavioral and physiological evidence of driver impairment this system would rely heavily on two current law enforcement training programs advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement and the fifty sta drug evaluation and classification program four states including alaska colorado oregon and washington plus washington d c have legalize the recreational use of marijuana and twenty states have legalized it for therapeutic and medicinal use martha journey affan hour period addict belmont men share story of recovery in cambridge police is new video series by natalie handy when former belmont resident tiki started using prescription opiates with his friends after graduation from college he said he it didn't seem like such a bad idea i didn't know what i was getting in myself into he said we were just doing it for fun it didn't turn out that way  turned to shooting heroin instead saying it seemed like a no brainer at the time eventually to case addiction landed him in mount auburn hospital after an overdose went to cambridge police department police detectives approached him in the hospital kiki said he experienced a level of support he didn't anticipate from a police department they saw i wanted to the series consisting of seven one to two minute videos aims to educate people on the dangers of addiction according to warneke many police departments have programs that are encouraging drug users to become addict sorry  addictive to the drugs and to drop off drugs and seek help building off that more next that they decided to seek out uses rather than special investigation unit implemented an overdose intervention and coaching strategy that includes responding to overdoses and conducting follow ups the idea for the video series came after tiki's overdose warneke said after this voluntary person to share his story with c p p d they thought it would be effective to break it up into segments he said he was very transparent and open about sharing his story said the combine at the demick c p d works with more than thirty service providers including the cambridge public health department who provide detox clinical stabilization services long term residential care and intensive outpatient treatment the  predominant message to take from the series is not to be afraid to ask for help or nix said jonathan tested screening october tenth belmont world fellowman and belmont against racism co present the award winning documentary tested on monday october tenth at seven thirty pm at the studio cinnamon belmont at three seventy six to pomona road director curtis chin a well regarded writer filmmaker and community activist who's currently in visiting scholar n y u will speak after the screening the film follows a dozen racially and socio economically diverse eighth graders in new york city as they fight for a seat at one of the city's top test schools their only white in ace a single ninety five question standardized test called the s s h a t the specialized high school achievement test that is administered annually in october explore it such issues access to high quality public education affirmative action and the model minority myth the film reflects the extreme gap in opportunities for different races in america particularly at the nation's top public schools in new york city where blacks and hispanics make up seventy percent of the city's school age population once than five percent attend the city's mostly public high schools as compared to as many as three percent of asian a mericans this is an issue that affects every one of you live in a city or not says alan gettleman belmont run films executive director boston's own free exam school initiative a free program that prepares students for the exam saw a dramatic increase in birds especially in the summer by black and latino students as compared to white students phenomenal home holds a lot of promise marion loading dock trying to transfer license transaction needed to help struggling business by bram berkowitz since belmont began distributing liquor licenses selectman chairman mark said the intent has always been to spur economic diversity and local growth but in a market driven by exploding to bandon limited supply that has catapulted the value of a liquor license officials are finding this is easier said than done what the character on monday september nineteenth sought to transfer the all alcohol liquor license he owns at the loading dock on bright street to star market road during a public hearing selectmen voted to continue on october three you cocker purchased the license in may twenty fourteen for four thousand dollars according to the town's website and now hopes to sell it to star market for four hundred thousand dollars in an attempt to keep his struggling businesses alive representing star market attorney joseph hanley said the company is planning to infuse two point four million dollars for a complete interior renovation of the belmont store that they hope will include two thousand square feet of space boyd by a diverse alcohol selection politico said he is currently unlikely to approve the transfer because he believes the liquor licenses were not meant for large corporations like star  despite the company's contributions in belmont over the last twenty five years the intent and spirit of these licenses is to provide liquor licenses to local businesses said polo star market is the local business but it is a giant we likely would not have approved a license for star market if they had applied earlier the statement sent swift outrage to the audience who wanted to see their friend meet kark or succeed after putting so much time and effort into the loading dock can we help out an average small guy here asked even parents of precinct eight can we do the right thing here the landing dock the loading dock rather originally a white hen pantry which meant cocker transformed first opened in april as a hybrid of a coffee house a market that sold out to holland a restaurant but several months later it was clear the store was struggling selectman earlier in the year voted to allow me cocker to use his full liquor license as collateral for a three hundred thousand loan this here has a lot of bad ramifications if this transfer doesn't go through to my business and to my family i said mubarak or you cocker had planned had been planning to also apply for a pouring license in order to serve wine and beer in the stores restaurant but he said two days before the selectmen were supposed to approve the license he was told he would not be able to obtain the pouring license because of a state law you caracter not only owns the loading dock but also the se to market unconquered ave the state restricts a business owner of two entities from owning a poor ring and an all alcohol license in the same community alum you kark are called absurd this prohibit sion has hardly ever been used said move cockers attorney thomas or landy someone dug deep to find this selectman jim william said the this assertion troubled him this idea that state law is absurd is a silly idea he said the town of belmont it's not going to violate state law to grant two liquor licenses to an individual martha quiet and gentleman treat of knowing october first two thirty first at ten juniper road belmont the arsonist reception will be one two three pm october twenty eighth the gallery is located in the visitor center gallery hours are eight thirty am to four thirty pm monday through friday and ten am to four pm saturday and sunday the gallery may be closed for weekend functions or weekday conferences to interested parties are they are asked to call jonathan selectman signed the vellum documents by the village development is within reach on september nineteenth selectmen approved this the execution and voted to sign the land development agreement parking management agreement and other documents related to the planned three building one hundred sixty three eight hundred eighty three square square foot development which includes fifteen residential rental apartments fifty municipal parking spaces and thirty seven thousand five hundred square feet of commercial space if the projects developer toll brothers can close on the municipal law at one sixteen propel road one of the projects sites the project will move forward after years of delay the fortune one thousand company has until september thirtieth to close after selectman amended the purchase and sale agreement and gratitude of an extension to close on the land which they position before with the project's first developer chris starr they voted to sign the same documents star's financing fell through and he eventually had to sell his stake in the project to tell the brothers star now has the option of managing crushing villages commercial property if the project comes to fruition marion award winning journalist jim browder to speak the belmont women's club  thirty to eight thirty pm october twelfth at the w f homer house six sixty one pleasant street belmont brody is a war and ward winning journalist and the television host of greater boston which airs nightly at seven pm on t v channel two he also co host with margery eagan from eleven am to two pm a daily talk news program on boston public radio eighty nine point seven f m he will talk about his career in television and radio as well as current news topics including the upcoming presidential election he will take questions and join the audience for a meet and greet this event is free and open to the public martha thank you for joining us for this episode of talking news please join us next week