Transcripts For WHDH Urban Update 20160911

Founder of boston tweet. A sorely media tom mom that is connected hundreds of thousands in boston and beyond. But up first, the Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative also known as question four is on the november 8 ballot in massachusetts. A yes vote supports this proposal to legalize marijuana, but regulate is similar to alcoholic beverages. A no vote opposes this proposal to legalize recreational marijuana, keeping only medical marijuana legal. Thus bar governor baker and marty walsh and maura healy have all come out against legalizing marijuana while others such as former has mass governor bill weld, city councilor tito jackson and city counsel president michelle wu have come out in support of a yes on question four. In an effort to better inform the public and the voters, a 20 panel person convened through the results of their four day of deliberation on the billion out on that question is out. The statement focuses on the panels five key findings as well as the strongest reasons to support or oppose question four. To tell us more about the findings we invited state representative Jonathan Hecht who represents the 29th middlesex distribute which includes watertown and parts of cambridge. Representative hecht organized the Pilot Project and he joins us this morning. Welcome to urban update, thanks for coming in. Reporter first of all, we know what ballot four, question four on the ballot is all about. Why and how did the massachusetts Citizens Initiative review begin . Why did you take up this issue . Well, the Citizens Initiative review is a system that has been used out in oregon for a null of years now. Its being mighted in several other states and in massachusetts like many other increasingly we see these ballot questions come before voters, it seems like every year we have three or four of them and that allows voters to have a direct say in the laws that we make. It also presents some challenges. Some of these ballot questions are very complicated. The one or Marijuana Legalization thats before the voters this year in massachusetts actually runs 25 pages long. The text pressed for time in their every day lives to get threw that. What runs 25 pages long . The Marijuana Legalization question on the full legal text of the statute that it would create runs 25 pages in length. So its very, very complicated and involves a lot of different issues. Most voters, you know, are busy with their every day lives, they dont really have the chance to get into all of the details of that and they are getting much either in favor or very much against and sort of assessing all of that information can be difficult. Now did your panel come up with an opinion one way or the other, a recommendation on yes or no . It did not take a final vote. Instead, what it did was it had an opportunity to basically on behalf of voters just like themselves and these were 20 people from all overt state of massachusetts, men, women, older democrats, republicans, independentents were very reflective of the population as a whole. They took four days out of their lives to really dig into this question. They heard from both campaigns, they heard from independent experts and the result of their work is a one page summary, 250 words, that lays out what they think is the most Important Information for voters to know and then what they think are the strongest arguments in favor of the question and strongest right to the overall conclusion. What are essentially the strongest arguments on beth sides it. Sounds like you are trying to lay out information for people to make their own decisions. Exactly. Its a voter information effort and by citizens in their own words and for citizens and what i would urge people to do is go take a look at the citizens statement, have you one page long you can see on the project web site ci see the Key Information that the panel thought other voters would want to know. Anchor what are pros and cons that your palm identified, some of the most important pros and cons. I will quote protectly from the statement if i could, i dont want to use my words. Its really important that this be their words. Again, this is in the statement there on the web site. They pointed some of the question four were that legalized and regulated marijuana is safer than black market marijuana because it would be tested and clearly labeled. They said it would create a new industry with new jobs and adding to the economy. Those were arguments in favor. Some of the arguments against was they pointed to the experience in other state such as colorado where marijuana is legal now where the black market has continued to thrive. They pointed to the fact that we dont have a definitive method of testing people for impairment they are driving under the influence of marijuana. Again there are anumber of different questions i would again to urge people to take a look at the statement and take advantage of what their fellow citizens were able to do during this process. Anchor were you do you feel it was important to do this well, again, i mean the particular question was chosen by an Advisory Board that we formed that included some people from the political world, from the world of Civic Education and voter education. They felt that among the four questions that are going to be before the voters this year, this one was one that lent itself well to this process because it is complicated and involves a lot of different issues. Anchor and just to wrap up here, where can people go to find the actual statement if they this and make up their mind . Reporter go to the web site, cirmass 2016. Org. You can see not only the statement but the process that we went through to form the panel, what information they drew on, so people get a full sense of what this Citizens Initiative review is about. Anchor its not a super long statement. Not at all. That really came away that i came away with from observing this was the Citizen Panel took their work extremely seriously. They really felt empowered that they were able to take that much time and look into the question and they felt they had an obligation to their fellow voters to really do their work thoroughly and i think they did a wonderful job. Anchor okay, wow, putting all the pros and cons you guys did a wonderful job i think helping the public understand the very complex and couldnt verse criminal issue. Represta for really for all of this work that have you done and informing voters. Thank you, very much, we byron for helping me. Anchor could up net, making strides against Breast Cancer. The annual event is right around the corner and well have all of the details right here in just a few. Stay with us, well be right continues to be one of the most common cancers a morning american women. About one in 8 women in the u. S. Will develop invasive Breast Cancer during their lifetime. This includes 6,000 massachusetts residents who will be diagnosed and more than 700 who will lose their battle with cancer. The good news is that there are more than 2. 8 million Breast Cancer survivors in the u. S. Because with Early Detection, the chances for beating Breast Cancer are much more favorable. One way you can he societys making strides against Breast Cancer. Over 300 communities like the city of boston unite across the country raising more than 460 million to fight Breast Cancer. This years every will take place on sunday object 2 at the department, dcr hatch shell starting at 8 00 a. M. Oh tell us more about this years eand also how you can get involved weve invited on the against Breast Cancer and dorothy bishop, a Breast Cancer survivor and strides participant. Welcome to urban update, ladies. Hangs for coming in. Sasha, let me start with you sort of by giving our viewers a psyched up for the walk this year of i know have you been on some of the other shows here on channel 7. How do you describe this event to those who are not familiar with it . So the making strides against Breast Cancer walk is the boston one particularly is the oldest and largest one day Breast Cancer walk in the country and it is all one morning, a two or five mile noncompetitive walk that takes place at the hatch shell and encourages ebb to come down, rally around survivors, remember those who weve lost, surrender those who are concernly in the battle. Going through Breast Cancer treatment and kind of remind people that this is still a cause we need to Pay Attention to. Anchor dorothies a Breast Cancer survivor, how important is seeing and all of the support for those battling breast anchor when you think about all of those people out there walking and getting involved and doing this, as a Breast Cancer survivor, how does that make you feel . Well, its my passion of course now being a two time survivor. It makes me feel good that people come out because that is important when you are going through this that you have a support team. Its tough when you are battling cancer. So the more people that get involved is to help other people family. Thats why American Cancer Society is a good lace to go because they do help people that maybe going through that dont have family members so there is otherwise to get support because you do need support when you are going through this. So thats very short period of time. Anchor sasha, how much years has it been now and who participates in this. This is our 24th year. Were real excited. The making strides brand happened in boston so we have that hometown pry. We have over 40,000 participants Greater Boston area, all ages, a great family event, but also reminds people that Breast Cancer affects men shall women, children, adults, everybody who surrounds the survivors. Anchor now dorothy it not only raises funds but serves to raise awareness. Thats another big part of it about Breast Cancer and how to prevent it. What are some of the things you think need to be said around prevention and Early Detection. Its important to have Early Detection because this is what happened to me time i had a 3 d mammogram. People should know the resources that is out there to help them so its very important, Early Detection, getting your checkups on time, followups. Anchor thats a problem with some women way too long or some men and women just wait too long . I believe thats the case because now with, its different than say 30 years ago. Sentence. So if you get early doe tex, your chances are most likely positive but if you just let it slip through and you say, oh, i department need it and dont go on by the time you get there its either gone to the lymph nodes or spread around so its good to. Anchor okay. Sasha so tell us how people can help and how people can get involved . Sure. So they can come down to the walk on sunday, october 2. Its a rolling start from to 10 00. There is no official start time they can go whenever they like of they can go to our web site which is making strides walk. Org forward slash boston ma. They can register start a team, get their family and friends involved, which dorothy did last year with her office and when they can also continue to fund raise until the end of the year they are not able to make it to the walk. Anchor dorothy, you have met a number of wonderful people im sure in the times that you walked. Any lifelong friends that came about because of your participation. Of people were going to get their mammograms and i met a lot of wonderful people at the American Cancer Society, research doctors, people at my job has rallied with me and its like they are my best friends and each day they keep, you know rallying with me so i met a lot of people. Authorize thee is pat of the Cancer Society making strides family. Anchor the 24th . Yes of the you all ve thank you so much for your continued support with channel 7. We reap really appreciate it. Anchor its an honor to do that of i speak on behalf of the station. Thank you for coming in, ladies. When we return well give you a quick up debt on what sickle cell anemia is, what the populations are affected most and how you can help. All that information is right anchor the Greater Boston Sickle Cell Disease association is a local Nonprofit Organization dedicated to voting for and providing support services to patients and families facing the challenges associated with this disease. Their goals are to give persons living with Sickle Cell Disease a chance to live healthier and more Productive Lives and to promote awareness in the community. The organization was founded in 1995 due to the lack of circle cell awareness and services and programs available for families affected in our region. Today they join us as we welcome dr. Part trisha kavanah in a, board chair and profess of speed rat ricks and karisa juarez a patient ambassador and parents of a child living with Sickle Cell Disease. Welcome tourban update. Thanks for coming in. Dr. Kavanagh lets give viewers Sickle Cell Disease affects approximately 100,000 people in the united states. It actually is a condition that affects the red blood cell whose job is to deliver oxygen throughout the body and starts off in the , guess threw the body, drops off okay general and comes back. In the red blood cells molecule called hemoglobin in Sickle Cell Disease that molecule is affected. When it goes to the lug, picks up the oxygen, goes t to drop it off it changes its shape. A red blood cell looks like a donut. In Sickle Cell Disease when it drops off the oxygen, it actually changes the shape to look like a Crescent Moon or a sickle. That sickle shape doesnt get through your blood vessel very well and causes damage and chronic inflammation which can lead to strokes, both in children as well as adults. It can lead to complications in lifethreatening to these individuals but i think the thing thats most unfortunately wellknown for is pain. And it can affect children as young as six months of age all the way threw adulthood. A third after adults live with pain every day. Anchor karisa, you as a patient of a child with the disease, talk to me about how this affects your family and some of the challenges that you have . So its hard because were constantly in and out hospital with pain and its kind of hard to manage the pain at home sometimes and we have to go into the hospital to get medication as morphine and stuff like that. It is higher than what we can give them at home and they need to be monitored in the hospital with iv pain medication. Anchor again, were talking about your son, daughter. My daughter. Anchor how old is she . Five years old. Must be tough to watch that. It is. Its very tough. Very overwhelming because you feel like you cant do anything to help her out when she is going through it. Anchor dr. Kavanagh we always heard Sickle Cell Disease affects africanamericans more than the general population at a higher rate. Why so . So they think that its due to the fact that, so Sickle Cell Disease is inherred condition. So each of your parents have to have something called a trait. So if trait they think its protect . Ive against malaria so the one thing i want to caution us about is that Sickle Cell Disease is most common in africanamericans. However, its common wherever you would have malaria so that would include india and also with a spread with trade and also unfortunately the is live trade, you can see a lot of sickle cell in greece, italy, brazil and caribbean as well as africanamericans in the united states. Anchor karisa, you had a disease and minimize its impact. Have you not . Yes actually. She has started medication and since she has started this medication she has been not in the hospital as frequently as she was before being admitted. She is not having as many pain crisis as she was in the past. Its actually been helping her out more better now than before. Anchor dr. Kavanagh talk by the boston greater Sickle Cell Disease association that addresses the needs of patients. I think the key activity is we are strong advocates for individuals living with Sickle Cell Disease so with the opiod epidemic and the laws that have been put too place we really have been very active with our legislatures to make sure its not impacting individuals with sickle cell. The other thing we do is we actually work in schools as well. Really proud of our Scholarship Program and so that we are helping children who are graduating high school go to college, become successful adults living with this condition. Anchor you have a walk coming up on september 17. Correct. Yes. I want everyone to possibly go out there if you can, its going to be a lot of fun. Were going to do a walk around franklin park. Were going to have lots of activities for the children. A lot things going on that day making strides, are we making any improvements in fighting sickle cell and also working where can viewers find more information about all of this . Anchor we are making strides so karisa actually mentioned a medicine we have in our arsenal but looking at bone more owe trance plan and gene therapy. Cambridge is leading that charge and so to find more information go to our Facebook Page Greater Boston Sickle Cell Disease association. Anchor thank you very much. That will do it dr. Patricia kavanah. Thank you. When we return, the man who is followed on twitter by hundreds of thousands. Meet them, the man of boston tweet coming up here onurban anchor in no have bother 2 08 boston tweet was created as an attempt to use twit tore promote local businesses during the economic recession by posting images of local coffee shops, restaurants, concerts and fun events going on around the quickly become the social media account for new students, tourists and locals when trying to make plans around the city. Even the governor, charlie governor baker, follows boston tweet and so admittedly do i. Yes, im guilty as well as several other members of our staff here aturban update. So to tell us how he became such a social media sent take, weve invited the man behind all of the tweets himself, tom okeefe founder of boston tweet. Tom, welcome thank you for having me. Anchor lets go back to the beginning. How did the idea of this idea of starting boston tweet pop too your head . So 8 years almost to the day i have two internet startups. I have been in the start up space for years of i was in a really buying position in my life and i needed to brand myself to get a job and the way to do that and only money i had was free for twitter and i started twitter in boston tweet as a way to promote local businesses during a recession, make sure people still were and inaccidently that promoted me. Anchor how do you pick which places to visit and which places to tweet about . The places i visit, i am a very casual guy. I like places that are a little more laid back so those are the ones i go to. I am not sort a club person and i usually cant get in because i always wear chuck taylors. Local beer bars, restaurants, eastern standard, public house, all of my Favorite Places that i have been going to for years are the winds i continue to go to. Anchor what have been some of your experiences through boston tweet . You know, the biggest eye awakening thing for me is how many people in the city it reaches not just in number but from freshman to business lead tours media. Kind of the biggest eye opening was maybe 8 years ago at a fenway party and henry said she was a fan an follower. That wasa huge like seriously of me . Like im. A fan of the red sox. How are you a fan of me . At that part it really opened my eyes to how much reach that anchor wow. What about some of the other big followers, you know, famous followers besides me of course. You and your top ten fanclub i think of my main followers in there. Its kind of early days dean elmar dean of students at bu, i think he is one of the biggest rock stars in the city. He has a been my favorite follower. A lot of politics you mentioned tito earlier. He is one of my favorite guys that follows me. Even mayor of boston has it reaches everyone in the city which is amazing. And people outside of the city. Its about promoting boston. Everything it meant to be positive. Anchor any events, what events does boston tweet attend regularly . You know, i tend to explore the city. Just on foot and going out a run a lot in the city and seeing whats there so a lot of food trucks around in the city. But every day life thats happening. There is owa is a great event that happens every sunday. There and just exploring the city. Anchor any advice for those who want to create a brand for themselves, starting, getting going on social media . Its tough. So i think timing was very important for me. It was twitter was early. My biggest advice is be genuine and be authentic and be yourself. And that comes through. I have, i cannot be someone didnt on twitter as i am in real life. Others can. So my advice is be authentic to who you are. Anchor en realize boston tweet was really taking off. It was i start saw it november 21, 2008. By january of the following year 09 it had become a few thousand followers at that time and at that time i realized this is actually probably the best start up i ever created. And it was free. So it was so the of a kick because a lost a lot of money in the economy when my other startups failed but it took a count of months to realize this might be powerful. Anchor talk about a Silver Lining behind that cloud. Its a great lifestyle. Its not. Another one of my big passions projects is charity and i have a Company Called flutter. Flutter raises money by creating experience thats people donate 10 for the chance to win so we actually right now in todays first day of football we have a meet tom brady experience. Anchor very quickly how many times a day do you tweet. Do you tweet a lot or just important things. The latter. I used to try get everything in the city that was going on. Now its maybe five at the most. Anchor tom okeefe, thanks for coming in. Tweet about your appearance here on urban update yeah, definitely. Anchor thanks for coming i. Thank you, byron. Anchor congratulations on boston tweet. Thats it for this edition ofurban update. Before we go a special remighter tonight the new England Patriots kick off their season against the Arizona Cardinals and you can watch all of the action live right here on 7 news here at 8 30. For all of us here at urban update im byron barnett. Welcome to the nbc primetime preview show, starring the cast of superstore. Lift with your kneeswe dont need anyone getting hurt. Were fresh out of workmans comp forms after that vaseline spill. Thanks, dina. Yeah but its actually pretty light. Yeah. Its susuper light. You know, huge tvs just feel so 90s to me. And not in a good wearing a dress with jeans kinda way. More like a scrunchy kinda way. Totally tv is meant to be watched on a phone, not a tv. Thats why its called television, no. Come on sitting on a couch with your family . Eating popcorn, arguing for five hours about what youre gonna watch you cant beat that. I just stream stuff on my laptop. I use my stepdads password. That guy binge watches a ton of bravo shows. We had to get rid of our tv cause jerusha developed a bit of a Home Shopping pro see, i shouldnt call it a problem. She was really good at it