New England has been clearing out its homeless camps. Most recently, Worcester Police on Oct. 20 cleared an estimated 10 to 25 tents out of woods along the Blackstone River directly behind Walmart. The crews hired by the state and a private railroad company began clearing possessions, trash and other detritus that were left behind. “The camp was cleared due to public health concerns and complaints from the nearby Walmart and people using the trail along the Blackstone River,” city officials told the local Patch newspaper. The Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance reports that between 2020 and 2021, the region saw a 30% increase in homelessness, “which may be due to evictions and job losses during the pandemic,” noted Patch reporter Neal McNamara.

In New Hampshire, officials issued a Nov. 8 deadline for clearing out one of the largest “houseless” encampments in the Seacoast at Willand Pond. They were preparing to move dozens of people currently living there in tents and under tarp on privately owned land, near the Dover-Somersworth line at the pond that also has a recreation area for the public. In Concord, N.H., meanwhile, police warned residents to leave an encampment near Interstate 93 to make room for a mixed-use development with as many as 266 housing units in five buildings, as well as a gas station, car wash, sandwich shop and convenience store. Many of the people had already been pushed out of another encampment along the highway. In November, the Dover City Council approved a resolution and awaits votes from the councils in Rochester and Somersworth to expand the Strafford County warming center into a full-time warming center.

In Vermont, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger directed police to clear a homeless encampment on city-owned land in the South End.

In a higher-profile case, Boston Public Health Commission workers went tent to tent in late October to clear out Mass and Cass, ahead of an October nor’easter. The area, also known as Methadone Mile and derided as an “open-air drug market,” was home to an estimated 250 tents. An earlier proposal by Boston’s Acting Mayor Kim Janey to move the occupants to a Revere hotel was rejected by the Revere mayor. The conservative Boston Herald reported on officials “taking time to help occupants pack their things and transport them to temporary housing.”

Here’s how Luke O’Neil covered it in his Substack column.

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The Center for Immigration Studies continues its bad-faith effort. The center describes itself as “animated by a unique pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted.” On May 24, the center posted: “In addition to President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, a handful of members of Congress are also calling for the release of child rapists, armed carjackers, and other criminal aliens into our communities. …”

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Isn’t it odd how we brand attacks by the enemy as “cowardly”? And PR people speak of things “rapidly evolving.”

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At a recent reunion of adolescent comrades, an old friend greeted me with, “Hey Harns, why do you have that mask on in your LinkedIn picture?” The pandemic was raging again at that time, and I could only answer with a joke. But the bigger question to me was, why follow LinkedIn so closely?

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Began working with some colleagues on a way to make our journal stories accessible by audio. I have mixed feelings about personally doing the voice. But I don’t think our stories are suited to actors with parts like some books-on-tape do. And I don’t like the idea of a robot-sounding auto-computer translation. By coincidence, came across a way to have a book I plan to read “read aloud” to me. Unfortunately, it’s about education programs that quickly prepare people for jobs. For me, a topic that is pure anesthesia.

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More on the hurry-up offense from the generally informative K-12 publication, the 74 … The gist of a piece headlined Accelerate, Don’t Remediate: “students who experienced learning acceleration struggled less and learned more than students who started at the same level but experienced remediation instead. Students of color and those from low-income backgrounds were more likely than their white, wealthier peers to experience remediation—even when they had already demonstrated success on grade-level content. Learning acceleration was particularly effective for students of color and those from low-income families.”

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As the conventional wisdom continues to trash the slogan “Defund the Police,” consider … In May 2021, Bates College officials took away the batons carried by its security officers, following a petition signed by 18 groups and 546 people related to an altercation in which a veteran officer tackled and handcuffed a first-year student who refused to identify himself. A student who had worked with administrators told reporters that Bates planned to move away from hiring people with police backgrounds of campus safety work and seek people with more expertise in social work and dealing with young people. Bates would also hire residential life staff to deal with issues such as noise and liquor complaints.