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5th
Annual Alzheimer's Benefit Family Picnic


When & Where: Saturday MAY 31st
12 NOON
Rain or Shine
The Son's of Erin 22 William Street, Westfield
Highlights
Bounce House
Door Prize
($275 Citizen watch)
Lots of Raffle Prizes Hamburgers, Hotdogs, French Fries and more.
Volleyball, Horseshoes
Tickets available at:
The Son's of Erin 552-5927
Slovak Citizens Club 552-9732 or call 209-2223, 572-1417 or
562-5927, 896-2943 for more info.
100% of the proceeds go to Alzheimer's research.
$15.00 Per Ticket (Children 12 & Under Free Admission) www.teamcallahan.org.
MASSIVE
HOUSE CLEANING SALE!!
$0.50 ¢ to $100 !!! Complete
home furnishings!! Furniture, lamps, tables, dining room, bedrooms!!
Complete room accessories!! Priced to sell! Many Items NEW!!! 594
Main Street Becket MA – fenced yard across from Becket Country Store
& Café. Every Sunday in May.
PSA Free
Open Mic, Sunday,May 18, Hadley
Lend Me Your Words! Join
fellow book lovers and writers/poets for an Open Mic for the Spoken
Word, Sunday, May 18, from 3 to 5p.m. in Hadley. Bring
poems, prose, proems (and even a libretto, some musical riffs,
watercolors or any creation light enough to carry and share) to the
Food Bank Farm, 121 Bay Road (Route 47), in Hadley. Sign ups begin
2:30p.m. Hosted by the Equinox, a local, illustrated literary
journal of repute and enthusiasm. Light refreshments, good
fellowship, free and open to the public.
Russian
Actress and Singer to Perform
Springfield - Famous
Soviet-era Russian actress and singer Aida Vedischeva will give a
concert this Saturday, May 10, at 5:00 p.m. at New Generation
Christian Center, 605 Liberty Street in Springfield (behind the
Save-a-Lot Supermarket).
Ms. Vedischeva will also hold a brief press conference at 3:00 p.m.
at the Christian Center to meet members of the local media and
answer questions.
According to Dr. (Pastor) Scott Lively, Ms. Vedischeva's special
knowledge and experience offers a glimpse into a world of art and
culture that, due to the Cold War, most Americans have never seen or
heard about.
Vedischeva appeared in many films during the height of Soviet
cinema, but her most famous films were titled Caucasian Captive and
Diamond Arm, equivalent in terms of popularity and artistic stature
with such American films as Casablanca and The Thin Man. She has
won many Russian awards for artistic merit.
A highly talented singer and "Broadway-level" state performer as
well, Vedischeva will perform a number of songs in Russian and
English.
"The concert is not religious in nature," Lively said. New
Generations is hosting it because it is a bilingual Russian and
English church that seeks to promote good will between differing
cultures in the Springfield area.
For more information, please contact Dr. Scott Lively at
1-951-834-5933, or via e-mail
sdllaw@gmail.com.
DOWNING
VOTES TO ADVANCE TAX FAIRNESS AND COMPETITIVENESS IN THE BUSINESS
COMMUNITY
Bill strikes balance
between Governor and House proposals
Boston- The Massachusetts
Senate on Tuesday approved legislation to modernize and simplify the
Commonwealth’s corporate tax structure and establish an automatic
rate reduction plan for businesses, from 9.5 percent to 8 percent,
over a three-year period beginning in 2010.
“This package was carefully crafted to strike a delicate balance.
It raises the revenue necessary to support critical state programs
and services, while implementing reforms to the Commonwealth’s tax
code that bring Massachusetts in line with competitor states,” said
State Senator Benjamin B. Downing (D-Pittsfield).
Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) said the Senate bill
“strikes a balance” between corporate tax proposals submitted by the
Governor and the House of Representatives.
“The Senate’s proposal is a reasonable representation of everyone’s
interests that provides predictability and fairness,” the President
said. “It’s a bill that is sensitive to the needs of the business
community to help them maintain their competitive edge while also
generating appropriate and much-needed revenue for state services.”
Senator Steven Panagiotakos (D-Lowell), Senate Ways and Means
chairman, said: “Business, state government and private citizens are
all partners in moving the Commonwealth forward. This legislation is
a fair and appropriate way for businesses to continue to contribute
to that partnership. These provisions not only provide much-needed
revenue for Massachusetts, but also, in time, provide a majority of
businesses with a tax cut.”
The Senate proposal adopts the “check-the-box” reform to prevent
corporations from claiming one status for Massachusetts taxes and
another for federal and other-state taxes. It also adopts “combined
reporting” to prevent multi-state businesses from moving their
Massachusetts income to affiliates in lower-tax areas.
These reforms will bring the Commonwealth in line with its
competitor states, making Massachusetts the last in the nation to
adopt “check-the-box” and the 23rd state to implement combined
reporting.
The proposal includes financial institutions in the combined
reporting regimen and similarly reduces their proportional excise
rate from 10.5 percent to 9.0 percent over three years, beginning in
2010.
For smaller corporations, which make up the majority of businesses
in the Commonwealth, the bill also reduces excise rates over three
years, beginning January 1, 2010. The rate for “S-corporations” with
gross sales between $6 million and $9 million moves from 3 percent
to 1.8 percent, and the rate for S-corporations with gross sales
above $9 million moves from 4.5 percent to 2.7 percent.
In addition to restructuring corporate taxation, the Senate proposal
also adopts a one-dollar increase in the cigarette tax and applies
it to existing inventories effective July 1, 2008.
The bill also ensures that businesses or Internet retail agents who
resell hotel/motel rooms cannot avoid the tax on the full price of
the room as paid by consumers.
Other provisions of the bill include:
- Allows businesses to use
their federal consolidated return group as the base for their
combined group as long as the election does not reduce by 20
percent or more and $1 million or more the total net income that
would be apportioned to Massachusetts in the absence of such
election.
- Clarifies that recipients of
the personal earned income tax credit must live or work in
Massachusetts.
- Eliminates the minimum
pricing law for cigarettes to allow market competition on
cigarette prices.
The bill will now go back to
the House of Representatives for further action.|
Please visit
our advertisers and let them know you found their ad Online at
HilltownsOnline.com
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Connecticut River Valley Car Club To Sponsor Tours of Berkshires
From August 4
-7, 2008 there will be an AACA National Car Tour based at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel in Pittsfield, MA. At this event there will
be a long tour for 125 antique cars to travel. The Route will
go from Pittsfield, down Route 2 through Shelburne Falls/Buckland,
Ashfield, Plainfield to Route 9 and back to Pittsfield. There
will also be short tours through the Berkshires. This is a
major event and we'll be looking for people to advertise their
business in our tour booklet.
We will collect flyers and pamphlets if business would like to
contribute them to our tour packets that will be handed out to those
who have registered to participate. We can take a maximum of
125 antique cars and people participating must be members of the
AACA (Antique Auto Club of America). This is a wonderful way
to showcase our beautiful part of the country.
People on the tours will be stopping in the towns along the way to
shop and eat. The event takes place from August 4th – 7th in
2008, but many people will come early and stay later since they will
be coming from all around the U.S.
Berkshire Bank in Pittsfield is a major sponsor to this event.
For more information
contact Lori Baronas at 413-665-3190.
Theatre Camp Still Has Openings
Available
The Westfield Theatre Group Summer Theatre Camp, now
in its 15th year, still has openings available in all sessions. The
camp has three sessions with the first session beginning Monday,
July 7 and ending on Friday, July 18 with a performance
on Saturday, July 19. The second session begins Monday,
July 24 and ends on Friday, August 1 with a performance
on Saturday, August 2. The third session begins Monday,
August 4 and ends Friday, August 15 with a performance on
Saturday, August 16. Theatre Camp has 2 divisions: a morning
session for Campers aged 8-12 and an afternoon session for Campers
aged 13-19.
Campers learn the basics of acting on stage, learning basic stage
movement, character development, auditioning basics and
improvisations. Acting in and working on plays has proven to
increase a young person’s self-confidence, self-expression and gives
the camper a positive experience in public speaking. Campers with
reading problems and speech problems also benefit from the
experience. The campers will perform a workshop production that is
open to the public to practice what they have learned at the end of
each session.
Larry Andersen, M.Ed., a teacher for more than twenty years, has
been the Camp’s director for all fifteen years. He is a drama coach,
an award winning designer and director of Beyond Therapy and
director of Westfield Theatre Group’s acclaimed productions of “Godspell,”
“Sound of Music” and “Barefoot in the Park.” Mr. Andersen has
assisted in casting movies filmed in the local area. Former campers
have appeared in the Disney movie “Cider House Rules” as well as
other movies and one former camper appeared on Broadway in “Cats”.
Tristan Andersen, a 2007 graduate of Westfield State College, is the
co-director of the camp, having acted as Assistant Director for the
previous 4 years.
The camp sessions are held at the Westfield Woman’s Club building at
28 Court Street in Westfield. Registration is $150, with discounts
are available for families and groups. Tuition assistance is also
available. Registration forms can be obtained by calling
413-568-8149 or 413-214-1926 or by emailing
WTGTheatreCamp@aol.com. For more information regarding Westfield
Theatre Group go to our website at
www.WestfieldTheatreGroup.com or about the camp
www.myspace.com/WTGTheatreCamp.
Spirit of the Hills Concert
Spirit of the
Hills Intergenerational Chorus
will present
"Celebratory
Songs from the World's Singing Traditions"
on Sunday May 11 at 7 pm at Smith College's Helen Hills Hills
Chapel. Local folks, ages 6 through 72, join hearts and voices to
sing Russian, Yiddish, Roma, West African, and traditional American
harmonies. Directed by Penny Schultz and accompanied on piano and
accordion by Chris Haynes. A reception will follow the concert.
Suggested donation is $5 through $15; concert proceeds will benefit
construction of "Clinique Monique," a maternity and child health
facility in Mali, West Africa. (more info at
www.moniquemangorains.com ) For more information, call
413-268-3828.
Solar
Energy for Your Home or Business
A solar energy for your home
or business presentation will be offered by the Center for
Ecological Technology (CET) on Wednesday, May 7, from 6:30 to
8:30 p.m. at the Berkshire Athenaeum (Library) on Wendell Avenue in
Pittsfield. Chris Vreeland, a registered professional engineer, will
be the featured speaker. Pre-registration is required and a donation
of $10 is suggested. BerkShares are accepted.
With rising fuel prices and concern about the effects of fossils
fuels on our health and environment, many businesses and homeowners
are trying to conserve and seek local, clean sources of energy.
Interest in solar hot water and solar electric (photovoltaic)
systems for homes, farms, schools and businesses in the Berkshires
continues to grow. Grants and tax incentives are available to help
offset the cost of investing in solar energy and other renewable
technologies.
Vreeland will provide an overview of financial incentives available
from Massachusetts and the federal government and will summarize
funding available through the new Commonwealth Solar program for
photovoltaic projects. Businesses and homeowners are eligible for
rebates, and can reduce costs by 40 percent. Other changes are
pending, including legislation that would make it easier for
homeowners with solar electric panels to sell energy back to the
power grid.
This seminar is designed to help homeowners and businesses determine
if a solar installation would be a good fit for their situation.
Attendees will learn the basics about how solar hot water and solar
photovoltaic panels work, the components of a solar energy system,
how to determine what size system is needed, whether they have a
good site and how to gain additional benefits through energy
efficient improvements.
If you are interested in attending, or have questions about the
workshop, contact CET at 413-445-4556 ext. 25, or
cynthiag@cetonline.org.
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