May 21, 2025 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
The Salvation Army Announces Return of ‘Fly the Flag’ Program with Installation of 500 American Flags to Provide Support to Local Residents in Need - Salvation Army Milford Corps will install flags throughout Milford, Hopedale, and Mendon May 20-24. Major Kevin Polito - Corps Officer, Milford Corps Community Center - The Salvation Army, Massachusetts Division joined Dan to discuss.
Comcast Rise to support 100 small businesses in Greater Boston - will award $3 Million in Grants to Local Small Businesses. Becca Fracassa - Director of Community Impact and the architect of Comcast RISE in Boston explained.
A new, non-invasive technology using a device called TAMBE to treat a certain type of aortic aneurysm, that previously required major, open-heart surgery. First surgery using the device went successfully and could be a game changer. With Dr. Shivani Kumar - MD, Vascular Surgeon at Tufts Medical Center – surgeon who conducted this first TAMBE procedure.
Weekend Weather Forecast Looks to Be Rainy For Memorial Day Weekend. AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson checked in.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
The Salvation Army Announces Return of ‘Fly the Flag’ Program with Installation of 500 American Flags to Provide Support to Local Residents in Need - Salvation Army Milford Corps will install flags throughout Milford, Hopedale, and Mendon May 20-24. Major Kevin Polito - Corps Officer, Milford Corps Community Center - The Salvation Army, Massachusetts Division joined Dan to discuss.
Comcast Rise to support 100 small businesses in Greater Boston - will award $3 Million in Grants to Local Small Businesses. Becca Fracassa - Director of Community Impact and the architect of Comcast RISE in Boston explained.
A new, non-invasive technology using a device called TAMBE to treat a certain type of aortic aneurysm, that previously required major, open-heart surgery. First surgery using the device went successfully and could be a game changer. With Dr. Shivani Kumar - MD, Vascular Surgeon at Tufts Medical Center – surgeon who conducted this first TAMBE procedure.
Weekend Weather Forecast Looks to Be Rainy For Memorial Day Weekend. AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson checked in.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, i'mdelling you mazy Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Beg you very much, Madison, as we start a Wednesday
night edition of Nightside. And wasn't it cold today? Boy,
it showed doesn't feel like May, it feels like March.
Let me get some of that global warming going here.
My name is Dan Ray. It's gonna warm up. Don't worry.
June will be here before you know it. It's May
(00:26):
twenty first. I am the host of Nightside. Rob Brooks
is the producer of this program. He's back in the
control room. He'll begin to take phone calls at nine o'clock.
At nine o'clock, we'll be talking with the Auditor State
Auditor of the Commonwealth, Diana Disauglio. She has released a
seventy four page report and audit of the Executive Office
(00:51):
of Housing and Liverpool Communities. Well, that has generated a
lot of conversation today. And then we'll talk tonight at
ten o'clock about coyotes not just in the suburbs, but
coyotes in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is really very very close.
It's a suburb of Boston, but it's sort of surrounded
(01:12):
by Boston itself. So anyway, we'll get to that later
on tonight, and who knows, maybe a couple of other topics.
We have four topics to deal with here at the
beginning of the program, in the first hour, we want
to introduce first of all, Major Kevin Pallito. He's a
major in the Salvation Army and works out of the
Milford Core Community Center. I believe, is that correct, Major Polito?
(01:34):
It is correct.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Thanks, it's great to connect with you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Nice to have you with us. So you're in the
midst now of a program that runs, I guess from
yesterday through the end of the week here the twenty
fourth which is called through the weekend called Fly the
Flag program, and you're going to install some five hundred
American flags to provide support to residents in need. Uh,
(02:02):
I'm unfamiliar with this, So tell us how the flag
the Fly the Flag campaign works specifically in Milford, Massachusetts,
and I guess also hope they'll and mend it as well.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, first, can you tell me if
there's been any coyotes spottings in Milford? I hope not.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'll tell you they're a lot closer to you are
than than I if you got to kind of keep
an eye open. I suspect it's probably a good amount.
If coyotes are in Brookline, I think that they probably
have at least passed through and maybe set up shop
in Milford as well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I know, extra careful when I'm putting out flags at dusk,
I think. But that's a good tip.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah. So that the Fly the Flag program is it's
a program, a fundraiser that's unique to the Salvation Army
in Milford and it's been, uh, you know, it's become
quite the labor of love for a lot of allolunteers.
For both my wife and I who give leadership to
(03:03):
the Salvation Army in Milford. We do put out almost
five hundred flags all around the communities of Milford, Mendon
and Hopeedel at different residences or businesses that will sponsor them.
And it helps us to raise critical needs to help
neighbors in our community that are that are in need.
(03:24):
So it's a great partnership.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So you folks identify people in your community surrounding community
as well who we're proud to fly the American flag.
And this, of course is the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary really of the beginning of the revolution. Yeah, as
particularly of time when I think a lot of people
feel the need to fly a flag, and so do
(03:49):
you bring them to their homes, into the businesses. Does
does certain flags generate a certain amount of money or
is it something where all contributions are gratefully accept it?
How does it work?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah? So basically, you know, we have we send out
enrollment forms to you know, those house those residences and
businesses who have supported us in the past. We of
course tried to do some advertising and we have an
online website that it's Salvation ARMYMA dot org backslash Fly
(04:23):
the Flag where people can go out and sign up online.
They can sign up for one, two, three, four. I
have one particular corporation in our community that gets sixteen
flags that it's a very large business and they have
multiple interrances, so they have flags flying at at least
two or three different entrances there. So, you know, and
(04:45):
what's great is it definitely you know, raises those critical
funds that help a lot of our neighbors in their
need as you know that you know, one out of
three Massachusetts families struggle with food security that they are
food insecure. So our pantry has seen probably since we
got here in June twenty twenty one, there's been almost
(05:07):
a five hundred percent increase in utilization of that program,
our emergency food pantry. So you know, we we definitely
are seeing it. And also I think probably another thing
is surging utility prices. I'm sure a lot of people
in your audience know all about that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
You know, we talked about that drawn up. Is this
a program that is run by various Salvation Army organizations
around the commonwealth or is this one that you folks
have come up with as a fundraiser. Is this is
your idea?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
This is one that is unique to Milford. I don't
think there are any other Salvation Armies that in the
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that run the program. It
was a predecessor of mine, Major Dave Irwin, who you know,
just was looking for a way to come up with
a creative program and it really took off. And you know,
(06:02):
now it's become a critical revenue source for us year
in and year out, and it helps us, you know,
so enables us to do all the things we do.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's the projection? What what this is? Obviously a labor
intensive effort one to sign people up and then to
get back.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And oh wow, it's definitely way Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
What were you raised by the end of the week.
I mean, you're going to this apparently runs through Saturday.
So by Saturday, I assume all the flags will be
distributed and they'll all be flying and it's too beautiful
in advanced Memorial Day. Uh, in these communities. But what
do you think you're going to raise?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, I mean the you know, like a lot of nonprofits,
our goal is high for we want to raise twenty
five fouls. Then I would say that we're almost probably
seventy percent good already towards that goal. But we actually
do three distribution So flags go out now before Memorial
Day and then they'll stay out through the July fourth holiday.
(06:58):
Then we take them down we can spect them. There's
a lot of behind the scenes work. My one course,
argant major at our Salvation Army Milford Corps. He has
like a whole workshop downstairs where he's straightening pulls and
repairing tattered flags. You know, we want to make sure
they stay in tip top shape, and then we'll actually
put them out again prior to nine to eleven. They'll
(07:20):
stay out for a couple of weeks and then we'll
bring them back in and then they go out a
final time right before Veterans Day. So all told, it's
almost between the field of flags, which is they're installed
a draper park. It's a partnership with a Citizen for
Milford group. We put two hundred and twenty there and
it's a beautiful, wonderful spectacle that really, you know, always
(07:45):
seems to increase the mood of the community. You know,
it's a great program for generating a lot of community spirit.
And then we also put out another three hundred sum
flags at these businesses and residents throughout the towns of Milford.
Ended in Hope, Tel Matt.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Great job, major congratulations to you and all the other
members work with you, the Salvation Army volunteers and others
who volunteer. If people want to get more information, give
us a quick website that folks in the the Root
eighty five area I can can get involved with.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like I mentioned prior, it's the Salvation Army
m A DOT O r G backslash fly the flag.
People do have to live in you know, one of
those three communities. Sometimes we do have people that will
from outside those communities that will, you know, buy a
flag and say, hey, donate it to a veteran or
(08:42):
you know, a neighbor need in your local community, and
we try to do our best to honor that request.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So but well, Happy Memorial Date to you and to
everyone else in the in the organization. Thank you, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Thanks to you. Dan, I wish you all a great
Memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
All right, thanks very much, Major Major Kevin Palito of
the the Salvation Army based in Milford. Back on Nightside.
This is a Monday night. We're going to talk about
a great program that Comcast is running. We're gonna speak
with the director of Community Impact and the architecture what's
called Comcast Rise in Boston. I think you want to listen,
(09:18):
particularly if you have a small business in Boston. There
may be some help for you coming up from Comcast.
Just on the other side of the s break, my
name's Dan Ray. This is a Wednesday night, Stay right
with us. Back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Right after this, if you're on night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Well, this is an interesting program that I heard about
about a week ago. It's called Comcast Rise. Comcast, of course,
everybody knows Comcast and with us is Becca Fracasa? I
hope I pronounced that correctly. Becca, Is it beca fracassa
or is it a heart?
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You? You did it excellently, Thank you?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right? Okay, that's good. I was afraid it might have been.
Just names get pronounced differently, and it's important to me
to get them right. Becca is the director of Community
Impact and the architect of Comcast Rise in Boston. My
understanding is this is a program the Comcast is doing
across the country in several different communities, but we're lucky
to have it in Boston. First of all, let's talk
(10:19):
about the scope of this. It's it's not just in
Boston this year. It's in four other communities as well. Correct.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, We're in Nashville, We're in Seattle, We're in South Valley,
Utah as well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So yeah, Grid, I think Grid Rapids, Michigan is in
there too, if if my memory serves from from what
I read here, Yeah, Grand Rapids, Michigan isn't. There. By
the way, we have listeners in all of those communities,
so this applies more than just to just to to Boston,
Greater Boston. But it's housing a great program, So tell
(10:54):
us about it and uh it to some extent it
almost sounds too good to be true. That's how good
it is.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Go right, Yeah, absolutely, And we get that a lot.
We're like, is this Real's what's the catch? It really
is real. We do every year we pick five cities
in which we do five hundred really comprehensive grants for
small businesses. As you mentioned, it's coming to Boston this year.
We've given away one hundred and forty million dollars in
(11:21):
value over the years for this program. And when we
talk about it being comprehensive, it really is. It's a
technology makeover, creative production, a media schedule, educational resources of
five thousand dollars, monetary grant, and business consultation services. And
when we think about that locally, we're going to give
one hundred of those packages away inside the one twenty
(11:44):
eight belt. So really a very comprehensive package to give
away here in Boston and then in our community cities
across the country that we were we just afore mentioned.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, looking at more with more specificity technology makeover. So
there's computer equipment, internet, voice, and cybersecurity services. For twelve
months you help them develop thirty second TV commercials, which
which obviously can be can be used whatever community they serve.
(12:17):
Education resources, twelve month access to online entrepreneurship courses, the
monetary right who's who's opposed to that? As well as
coaching sessions. All in all, each of these grants are
really are we talking like one hundred thousand dollars or
more in each of these grants, And.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
When we put all of this together per market, we're
talking about three million dollars of investment, which is really
a stunning amount when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, so it's about it's about thirty it's about thirty
thousand dollars all in for each. If I'm doing my
math right, it helped me out if I'm not. And
is this the sort of thing that that this I
don't know. You know, it says small business, but is
there a definition says the small business has to have
(13:10):
so many employees or or only can have so many employees?
Are there any limitations or is it basically available to
anyone who thinks of themselves as a small business.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
So there are a couple of limitations so it is
one hundred employees or less there were that qualifies as
a small business. You have to have been in business
for a couple of years two years to be exact,
and you have to have generated a dollar of revenue
in the past twelve months. So those are the qualifications.
Nonprofits do not qualify either. So there, there's there's what
(13:44):
we've defined as a small business.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Really I missed I missed the one thing, Becker. You
said they have to have generated a dollar of revenue
or or.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
A dollar of revenue in the past one dollar, one
dollar in the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Okay, Well, I think most people can get past that hurdle. Yeah,
yeahh So, and my understanding is that people can businesses,
and obviously some of these I assume we're going to
be family owned type businesses. They have to apply. There
is a deadline, though, and the deadline's coming at us
a little faster than maybe people should be aware of.
(14:20):
It's the deadline is what May.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Thirty first, Yes, midnight on May thirty first, is when
you need to have your application in at comcast Rise
dot com about a go ahead.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I didn't mean to drop go ahead.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
That's okay, it's about a fifteen to thirty minute application process.
And you can and you can save it so you
can go in, you can save your application. You can
say Okay, I want to tweak it a little bit
later and get back to it.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Okay, So what happens? So let's go through the logistics,
because I think this is so important. People are sitting there. Okay,
so they have they have to go. I'm sure to
Comcast dot Now where do we have to Where do
we got to get these the applicants to get to?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So Comcast Rise dot com. Where we're going?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Okay, Comcast Rise r I se dot com. And if
you if you do, you have to be a Comcast customer.
Is it open to just businesses?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Okay, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, So you go to Comcast Rise and there is
it sounds to me like this a written application. You
need some information? Uh, they fill out the information. Is
there any essay that has to be Is this like
a college process where you got to write an essay
application to be to be admitted. I don't want to
make it too hard on these my listeners.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
No, no, And when I when we say fifteen to
thirty minutes, we mean it. There are a couple of
short answer questions where we ask about the growth of
we're your business, you know, what do you see as
your growth growth being? And we're just looking for the
story of someone's business and how they think these resources
are to help. Right, we're not judging on grammar. We're
(16:02):
looking for stories. The other piece we're looking at that
the other short answer question, besides you know those sort
of fill in the blank cut things will be centered
around how do you feel that your business impacts your community?
And I, honestly, personally, I believe that every small business
has a great story of how they're important to their
communities to tell. So that's what we're looking for in
(16:24):
those short answer questions. And there's just those two of
them that we're looking for. So yet, not a lengthy
process at all.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
This is great. Now you are in charge of this
in New England. When will the winners? When will the
people who get the grants be announced? How long do
they have to wait to figure out if they're one
of the one hundred winners here in the Greater Boston area.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, we expect to have an announcement for those winners
in the middle of August, so that we'll start talking
about and reaching out to those one hundred winners and
then really activating around all of the resources. Work very
collaborative with collaboratively with each winner on our own timeline
to make sure we're really responsibly activating around each of
(17:09):
those benefits so that they can utilize them to the
best of their businesses ability.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Okay, just one final clarification, Sure, how do we define
We defined businesses, but how do we define businesses in Boston?
Do the businesses have to be within the city limits
or is it more of a Greater Boston concept?
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Did you say it's a little bit of a Yeah,
it's a little bit of a Greater Boston concept. We're
referring to it in many places as Metro Boston. If
you think about the one twenty eight loop and try
to staying inside of that loop, we've taken it all
the way up to Gloucester and all the way down
to Angham. When small businesses go into the application, one
(17:50):
of the first things that they're asked to fill out
is their ZIP code, and that will determine whether or
not they're in that particular geography.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, well, it sounds to me like a right program.
I hope all the winners take it full advantage of
everything that you guys are offering here, and again, thank
you very much, Beca for the time tonight. I think
you've explained it well. And I hope that people who
have listened if they want to get information. If someone
was listening and their their son or their daughter or
(18:19):
their brother in law has a small business and didn't
hear tonight, give us the website where they can go
to to get all the information. They can listen to
our interview tomorrow on Nightside and demand. That's easy. But
give us that website one more time. I know what
it is, but it yeah, hear it from you?
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Go ahead, yeah, please come visit us at Comcast Rise
dot com. So it's Comcast ri se dot com and
you'll get all of the information that you need and
have access to the application.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Sounds great. Well, thank you for the generosity from Comcast
to the businesses to thank you for your time tonight.
Thanks very much, better much. Maybe what we can do
when you pick some winners when the one hundred folks
are selected next August, maybe we can have one or
two of them come on and talk about exactly what
they're going to do with these grants.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
We'd love to have that conversation. Thanks so much, Dan, Okay,
thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
All Right, the news awaits at the bottom of the hour,
so let's get right to that right now. My name
is Dan Ray. This is Nightside, and we will be
back on the other side. We have a couple more guests,
and beginning at nine o'clock tonight, we will talk with
State Auditor Diana Dezaglio. She released a seventy four page
think one of the papers described it as a scathing report.
(19:34):
Today we'll talk about that coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on waz Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
All right, thank you very much. Madison. Let us continue
here on the night before the big storm. I hope
that some of you can maybe take a mental health
day tomorrow. It's going to be nasty, nasty weather day.
We'll be talking with someone one of the ACU weather
actually weather meteorologist beginning at about quarter of nine. But
(20:05):
right now we're talking to doctor Shivani Kumar. He is
a vascular surgeon at Tufft's Medical Center and doctor Kumar.
Welcome to Nightside. First of all, thank you for joining
us tonight.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Thank you so much for having me pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And we're going to talk about a new non invasive
technology which I've never heard of, using a device called Tamby.
I don't know, is that the correct pronunciation ta mbe tamby.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
That's the correct planciation of the acronym. The long name
is a thorical abdominal branch endoprop thesis, so so we
abbreviate that to campy.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I'm going to call it tamby. You can call it
anything you want, but this is intended to treat a
certain type of aortic aneurysm that previously required major open
heart surgery. First of all, for those of us who
are not spot about this, as you are in a
order aneurysm, I think most of us know what an
(21:05):
aneurism is. I think some of us have an idea
where our order is. But I'm sure you can explain
it much better than that.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Go right ahead, sure, So our order is the biggest blood,
that's all that comes off of our heart. It supplies
blood all over our body. And an aneurysm you can
think of as a bulge, dilation of ballooning of the order,
and the bigger that gets, the higher the risks that
that can rupture and cause internal bleeding and death.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And so when kids blow bubble sort of like when
kids blow bubblegum, you know, the bubble keeps getting bigger
and bigger, and you know at some moment that bubble's
going to burst and that the kid's going to have
bubble gum all over his nose and his chin and
his cheeks.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Go right ahead exactly like that, exactly, And so that's
the problem that carries high high mortality. And this particular
type of aurism that we're treating is one that involves
blood flow to the major organs in the belly, your liver, spleen,
small vowel, stomach, kidneys, and so in the past, the
(22:15):
way we've had to repair these is by doing you know,
really the biggest surgery we do in vascular surgery, which
is opening someone up from the chest down to their
navel and move their organs out of the way, clamp
their reorda need to have some partial bypass to provide
blood flow to these vital organs while we're operating, and
(22:37):
it carried a lot of you know, risk with it,
with the tamby. We now have a this is a
first and only kind of FDA approved minimally invasive solution
for these aneurysms, and that got to proved an August
of twenty twenty four. And now we have a way
to treat these patients with one small incision like up
(22:58):
on the chest and then two needlesticks in the groin
and patients can recover and go home from the hospital
on post operative day two or three.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So have there been a lot of these surgery, these
so called TAMPI surgeries? You said that's only been approved
since last August, But how's the track record at this
point to this.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Procedure so far?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Very well? Actually, I was speaking to the medical team
the last few days and now we've hit one thousand
implants across the country since approval.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
So this is this involves an implant.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And my question is, and you know, for those in
the audience maybe who are more medically knowledgeable than me,
maybe they'll sound like a silly question, but oftentimes when
you hear of aneurysms, you hear of brain aneurysms. Are
these aneurysms, these aortic aneurysms, Are they before you can
(24:04):
intervene in this part of the body more.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Easily, So yes or no, They're easier to identify because
oftentimes patients come into the er with abdominal pain or
another problem, and they get a capped inner an ultrasound,
and so we oftentimes find them incidentally, you're sort of
by accident, and that allows us to kind of track
(24:28):
them and treat them when appropriate, when they reach that
size that's big enough, like that bubblegum about to burst. Okay,
we also, you know, the United States Prevented Task Force
also recommend screening for aneurisms of specific patient populations, men
over the age of sixty five who have ever smoked,
people who have a family history of aneurysms, and women
(24:51):
with high risk factors.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Now, doctor, I want to give medical advice over the
over the radio, but I want you to know I
am on the wrong side of But I'm happy to
tell you I have never smoked a cigarette in my life.
And I actually do my annual physical tomorrow morning with
my doctor. So when I say to him, do you
think I have it? I could possibly have an aortic aneurism.
(25:18):
Is he going to look at me like I have
two heads, or do I then have to tell them. Well,
just last night I was talking to doctor Kumar. I
love it when you say people who haven't smoked, and
I've never. I just never liked to have it, to
be honest with you. And so does that help protect
(25:39):
me about people who haven't smoked with both aortic or
with other aneurisms and other parts of the body.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Yes, that's definitely a protective factor for you, you know, and
patients who have never smoked, the prevalence of an aneurysm
is about one to two percent, so it's pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I've enjoyed this conversation. You know why I never smoked.
I don't know. You know what your experience has been.
But my dad was a two packa day smoker, and
I can remember as a kid in the house, I
hated smoke. I hated the smell of smoke, hated everything
about it. And when the Surgeon General's report came out
in nineteen sixty four, he went cold turkey. It's very,
(26:22):
very stubborn or adamant, whichever adjective you want to use.
But I credit him for making sure that I had
never picked up the habit. I just thought it was
a dirty, you know, a filthy sort of habit, and
it never appealed to me. I have other vices, but
not that. So you've made me happy. What should people
(26:48):
do who are listening and maybe have smoked over the
age of sixty five? Should they ask their primary care
physician to consider what or not they could have an aneurism?
What advice can we give generally to people who maybe
would be in the category who are susceptible?
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Absolutely, I think anyone over the age of sixty five,
especially men who have ever smoked in their lives, even
if it was five years remotely, they have an increased
risk of an aneurysm. So they should talk to their
primary care doctor about doing a one time screening. It
is covered by insurance, and that screening is painless. It's
an ultrasound down of the belly and that detects if
(27:31):
you have one or not, and if you do, you
can be referred to a vascular surgery who can then
follow your aneurism with appropriate imaging an appropriate timeline depending
on the size.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Okay, so I think the yeah, I'm sorry, but I
think what I heard you say was that even if
someone had given up the cigarettes, five years or ten
years ago. That's a good thing, but they still if
they had smoked for any period of time, they got
to be aware of this when they talk to their PCPs.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Absolutely absolutely, Land and you kind of touched on it,
but smoking succation and stopping smoking is also very important
for aneurism growth. You know, smoking is the number one
risk factor for aneurysm development and then for that aneurism
to grow to that bubblegum size you were talking about
that Pops.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you really, I so appreciate you
coming on. We're very fortunate with the number of medical
professionals and experts we have in the Greater Boston area
who will give us a few minutes on this program
and talk about to you know, tens of thousands of
listeners about medical issues. And I just want to say thanks,
very thank you very much for what you do, and
(28:41):
congratulate everybody over at Tough's Medical Center. It's a great
medical facility. We're blessed to have so many great medical
facilities here in the Greater Boston area. And I learned
a lot tonight from this interview, and I really do appreciate.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You taking the time our pleasure. Thank you so much
for having me and bringing some more awareness to this
disease process.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Okay, doctor Schavani Kumar, there's there's no particular website that
you want to refer folks to here. I assume this
that they can google. I guess aortic aneurysms if they
fall into that category, I get some more information. But
there's no nothing particularly that we can refer people to.
Let's say, you know, Tamby dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Or something like that, right, you can google Tamby that
will come up. You can also, you know, I think
googling abdominal aoricaneurism is helpful, but there's no particular website
dedicated to aneurismal disease. But that's a good idea and
maybe something that we can work on as ascular surgeons.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Thank you very much, Doctor chavann Kumar. Talk again, I hope,
thank you very much. When we get back. We're going
to talk about the reality of the weekend and the
reality of tomorrow is a big time rain. It's as
simple as that. I don't think we're going to escape it.
I'm sure we're not going to escape it. And I
hope to be talking with acute Weather Media A just
Brian Thompson, not only about Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, but
(30:04):
what the rest of the weekend might hold. This is
the first long weekend of the summer. It doesn't feel
like the summer. It doesn't feel like the start of summer.
But hopefully, hopefully we can turn around now and at
least give you some hope that Saturday or Sunday might
be better. We'll be talking with Brian Thompson right after
the break.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Night SI with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well, if you were out today rowing on the Charles
or sailing on the Charles, or walking along the public garden,
I mean, eighty five degrees isn't a bad weather day.
Of course it wasn't eighty five degrees, but maybe in
your imagination today was a nasty day. I mean it
felt like March more than May. And to explain all
(30:50):
of this, first of all, why we're having a deal
with this type weather is our good friend acuweather meteorologist
Brian Thompson. Hey, Brian, what did we do wrong that
had the weather gods so angry? Have you figured that
one out yet? No?
Speaker 6 (31:06):
I haven't done. It is it's not unusual to have
days like this in mid to late May. It's it's
not it's not particularly common to get this many days
of chilly weather. And it's going to stay pretty chilly
through tomorrow, Friday, even Saturday is going to be a
bit on the cool side. So we're talking about highs
in the fifties, which again is not uncommon. It does
(31:27):
happen this time of year, especially with the water still
being so chilly, but it's just an unusual for it
to be a string of days like this.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It seems like it's been. It seems like it's been
the entire month, and I don't remember April being that
grade either.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Well I actually believe it or not. We're running three
degrees above average for the month. We've especially early in
the month, we did have some warm days got to
eighty four. That was way back on May third, it
was nearly three weeks ago. Yeah, but we've certainly had
some chillier stretches in between. And this is actually some
of the cool weather of the month we're seeing right now,
(32:02):
so unusual, kind of backwards the way you think of it,
You normally think the cooler weather of May would be
in the beginning of the month to get warmer tour
Memorial there.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So what's going on. We got a whole bunch of
tornadoes running around in the Midwest, and this apparently is
what we're not that we're going to be seeing tornadoes
because I think it's probably too cool, too cold for tornadoes.
If I think I learned that somewhere, and what you
know when I read it somewhere tornado.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
It's not impossible to get tornadoes and cooler weather. It's
rare though, because to get the to get the instability
you need for severe thunderstorms, typically it needs to at
least be on the milder side.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Okay, So, so what happens these tornadoes. We've just seen
them down in Oklahoma and Missouri and Kentucky. As they
come up towards New England, they they're losing that that
wind power. But the cold is staying and the ra
(33:01):
is the rain's coming up nonetheless, and we're gonna look
at a really nasty day.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Tomorrow from yeah, yeah, tomorrow is gonna be the worst
day of the stretch. It was it was cool today,
it was cloudy, was damp, it was drizzled. But we're
gonna have a lot more rain tomorrow that's gonna certainly
make it worse when you tied in with the severe weather.
The storm system that has helped to fuel that severe
weather has been moving through the Ohio Valley, and this
weather map looks very similar to something we'd see in
(33:27):
the wintertime, because we've talked about the storm being a
kind of a nor'easter type storm here, because you have
a storm that's moving into the Ohio Valley and you
have another storm that's developing along the east coast, and
that there's kind of an energy transfer that takes place.
The storm along the coast kind of takes over as
the main storm and then moves up again. We see
(33:48):
this a lot of times in the winter months. That's
where we sometimes get the big snowstorms. And that's what
we're going to see into tomorrow. The storm along the coast,
it develops, that intensifies, and that's going to put us
in the in the area of some heavy your rain
and some strong winds as well.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And I think at least one of the weather forecasts
I saw in the last day or so talked about
some snow up in Maine and eastern New Hampshire.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
Yeah, it's very possible. I mean we're talking about temperatures
most of the day tomorrow that will be in the
forties around here, and when you get up in elevation,
it won't have to get super high to be talking
about some snow in northern parts of New England.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
When is it going to break? Okay? So tomorrow is
a washout, Okay, but tomorrow's Thursday. It's not Saturday or Sunday.
Is Friday going to be a transition day or is
it just going to creep and get a little bit better?
At no point? I mean the song from Annie the
(34:48):
Sun will be up tomorrow. That's not playing tomorrow at all.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Right, that is not playing tomorrow. I don't think it's
playing Friday either. Maybe Saturday. I think there's some hope
to see some sun. To your point of Friday making
a transition day, I think it will be to some extent. Again,
it's going to be cloudy. It is still going to
be very chilly on Friday. I don't think we get
past the mid fifties in most spots, but it won't
be nearly as wet as tomorrow. We'll have a couple
of showers still around Friday, but kind of transitioning out
(35:14):
of the wetter pattern. I think Friday is going to
be that transition day, and Saturday kind of falls into
that category too. Now I think Saturday we have a
better chance of seeing some breaks of sun than Friday,
but we'll still have a couple of showers around. But
as nasty as the next thirty six hours or so
are going to be, I don't think it's a bad
holiday weekend.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Again.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
It'll start off kind of cool Saturday, and overall it
is going to be on the cool sign for a
Memorial Day weekend. But by the time we get to
Sunday and Memorial Day, highly back into the sixties again,
and as possible, attempts may get well into the sixties
on Memorial Day. I know it's not the summer preview
that some people want, but it's going to be an
improvement certainly, and if you have outdoor activities, I don't
(35:54):
think I think most of the weekend is going to
be dry. I don't think we're going to be dealing
with rain a lot at the time. Again, the chance
for a shower two Saturday, maybe a stray shower either
Sunday or Monday, but again, a lot of the time
looks dry at this point.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Now I know that, and I just I don't want to,
you know, put any pressure on here. But when we
talk about New England, New England's it's a small place
on a map, but it's a big place if you
have to drive around. Who's going to get the better weekend?
Let's say, let's talk about Saturday, the Cape of the
Mountains or western Massachusetts. It's gonna or is it just
(36:28):
going to be kind of the same.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
It's going to be kind of the same. We're going
to be in this broad pattern where there's an upper
level low overhead. So I don't think the weather is
going to vary all that much from place to place,
just looking at some of the forecasts on the Cape
or looking at temperatures in the mid fifties on Saturday
with a shower or two, but out in Western mass
probably a little cooler but still in the low fifties
(36:50):
and very similar with clouds and a shower too. So really,
actually across most of New England Saturday, I think it'll
be very similar weather. We'll just have these spotty showers
that are around. Itill be pretty cloudy, but at times
the sun's going to pop out, but most of the
time is going to be dry.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Okay, So last question, I swear, and that is when
does this pattern? Can you foresee this pattern finally be
done with it and getting it. Yeah, we'll have rain
in June, I get it, We'll have some cooler days,
et cetera. But is this this huge pattern that we
have We're going to all of a sudden turn around
sometime next week, which is June, well not June. Let
(37:28):
me look at my calend. It's it's June first. Don't
get you until next weekend. Following next weekend on Sunday,
when will it feel like June? It's fun.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
It may take until June. Actually, yes, because we're in
this pattern through the weekend again, it warms up a
little bit at least into the sixties by Monday. But
the problem is the jet stream is going to still
be kind of kind of up in the western part
of the US and down in the east. That allows
the cooler air to kind of stick around. So I
think kihceptre's a lot of next week could still be
(38:00):
in the sixties. But as we get late in the
next week and especially toward next weekend, as we get
toward the beginning of June, there are signs that may
be some of that warmth from the western part of
the country will start to slide eastward a bit, so
we may finally start to warm things back up a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
All right, Well, look, I so appreciate you taking the time, Brian.
I'm sure that everybody is bugging you at this point
and trying to figure out what the weather forecast is
going to be. But you've reached a lot of people tonight.
And although you haven't provided the forecast that we wanted,
you know, seventy five and Sonny, you've given us. You've
given us a great explanation. I so appreciate you taking
the time. My friend will talk sooner, and you have
(38:35):
a great Memorial Day weekend. Okay, you two damn thanks
very much. Ack you weather meteorologists. Brian Thompson telling us
the way it is, not the way we want it
to be, necessarily, but the way it is. So we're
going to wrap it up here for the eight o'clock hour,
and we will be standing by and after the nine
o'clock newscast, we're going to have an opportunity to speak
with the State Auditor of conwalth and Massachusetts. Diana Desauglio
(39:00):
is not the most popular person at the State House
these days, but good for her. She has the courage
and backbone to stand up and do what her office
mandates true to do. So we'll be talking with Diana Desauglio,
and I'm going to tell you right now that if
you want to talk to a get on the line early,
because she's going to stay with us, not for the
entire hour, but just till nine thirty. Feel free to
(39:23):
join this conversation six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Come
on right back on Night's side after the nine o'clock
news
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, i'mdelling you mazy Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Beg you very much, Madison, as we start a Wednesday
night edition of Nightside. And wasn't it cold today? Boy,
it showed doesn't feel like May, it feels like March.
Let me get some of that global warming going here.
My name is Dan Ray. It's gonna warm up. Don't worry.
June will be here before you know it. It's May
(00:26):
twenty first. I am the host of Nightside. Rob Brooks
is the producer of this program. He's back in the
control room. He'll begin to take phone calls at nine o'clock.
At nine o'clock, we'll be talking with the Auditor State
Auditor of the Commonwealth, Diana Disauglio. She has released a
seventy four page report and audit of the Executive Office
(00:51):
of Housing and Liverpool Communities. Well, that has generated a
lot of conversation today. And then we'll talk tonight at
ten o'clock about coyotes not just in the suburbs, but
coyotes in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is really very very close.
It's a suburb of Boston, but it's sort of surrounded
(01:12):
by Boston itself. So anyway, we'll get to that later
on tonight, and who knows, maybe a couple of other topics.
We have four topics to deal with here at the
beginning of the program, in the first hour, we want
to introduce first of all, Major Kevin Pallito. He's a
major in the Salvation Army and works out of the
Milford Core Community Center. I believe, is that correct, Major Polito?
(01:34):
It is correct.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Thanks, it's great to connect with you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Nice to have you with us. So you're in the
midst now of a program that runs, I guess from
yesterday through the end of the week here the twenty
fourth which is called through the weekend called Fly the
Flag program, and you're going to install some five hundred
American flags to provide support to residents in need. Uh,
(02:02):
I'm unfamiliar with this, So tell us how the flag
the Fly the Flag campaign works specifically in Milford, Massachusetts,
and I guess also hope they'll and mend it as well.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, first, can you tell me if
there's been any coyotes spottings in Milford? I hope not.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'll tell you they're a lot closer to you are
than than I if you got to kind of keep
an eye open. I suspect it's probably a good amount.
If coyotes are in Brookline, I think that they probably
have at least passed through and maybe set up shop
in Milford as well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I know, extra careful when I'm putting out flags at dusk,
I think. But that's a good tip.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah. So that the Fly the Flag program is it's
a program, a fundraiser that's unique to the Salvation Army
in Milford and it's been, uh, you know, it's become
quite the labor of love for a lot of allolunteers.
For both my wife and I who give leadership to
(03:03):
the Salvation Army in Milford. We do put out almost
five hundred flags all around the communities of Milford, Mendon
and Hopeedel at different residences or businesses that will sponsor them.
And it helps us to raise critical needs to help
neighbors in our community that are that are in need.
(03:24):
So it's a great partnership.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So you folks identify people in your community surrounding community
as well who we're proud to fly the American flag.
And this, of course is the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary really of the beginning of the revolution. Yeah, as
particularly of time when I think a lot of people
feel the need to fly a flag, and so do
(03:49):
you bring them to their homes, into the businesses. Does
does certain flags generate a certain amount of money or
is it something where all contributions are gratefully accept it?
How does it work?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah? So basically, you know, we have we send out
enrollment forms to you know, those house those residences and
businesses who have supported us in the past. We of
course tried to do some advertising and we have an
online website that it's Salvation ARMYMA dot org backslash Fly
(04:23):
the Flag where people can go out and sign up online.
They can sign up for one, two, three, four. I
have one particular corporation in our community that gets sixteen
flags that it's a very large business and they have
multiple interrances, so they have flags flying at at least
two or three different entrances there. So, you know, and
(04:45):
what's great is it definitely you know, raises those critical
funds that help a lot of our neighbors in their
need as you know that you know, one out of
three Massachusetts families struggle with food security that they are
food insecure. So our pantry has seen probably since we
got here in June twenty twenty one, there's been almost
(05:07):
a five hundred percent increase in utilization of that program,
our emergency food pantry. So you know, we we definitely
are seeing it. And also I think probably another thing
is surging utility prices. I'm sure a lot of people
in your audience know all about that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
You know, we talked about that drawn up. Is this
a program that is run by various Salvation Army organizations
around the commonwealth or is this one that you folks
have come up with as a fundraiser. Is this is
your idea?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
This is one that is unique to Milford. I don't
think there are any other Salvation Armies that in the
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that run the program. It
was a predecessor of mine, Major Dave Irwin, who you know,
just was looking for a way to come up with
a creative program and it really took off. And you know,
(06:02):
now it's become a critical revenue source for us year
in and year out, and it helps us, you know,
so enables us to do all the things we do.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's the projection? What what this is? Obviously a labor
intensive effort one to sign people up and then to
get back.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And oh wow, it's definitely way Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
What were you raised by the end of the week.
I mean, you're going to this apparently runs through Saturday.
So by Saturday, I assume all the flags will be
distributed and they'll all be flying and it's too beautiful
in advanced Memorial Day. Uh, in these communities. But what
do you think you're going to raise?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, I mean the you know, like a lot of nonprofits,
our goal is high for we want to raise twenty
five fouls. Then I would say that we're almost probably
seventy percent good already towards that goal. But we actually
do three distribution So flags go out now before Memorial
Day and then they'll stay out through the July fourth holiday.
(06:58):
Then we take them down we can spect them. There's
a lot of behind the scenes work. My one course,
argant major at our Salvation Army Milford Corps. He has
like a whole workshop downstairs where he's straightening pulls and
repairing tattered flags. You know, we want to make sure
they stay in tip top shape, and then we'll actually
put them out again prior to nine to eleven. They'll
(07:20):
stay out for a couple of weeks and then we'll
bring them back in and then they go out a
final time right before Veterans Day. So all told, it's
almost between the field of flags, which is they're installed
a draper park. It's a partnership with a Citizen for
Milford group. We put two hundred and twenty there and
it's a beautiful, wonderful spectacle that really, you know, always
(07:45):
seems to increase the mood of the community. You know,
it's a great program for generating a lot of community spirit.
And then we also put out another three hundred sum
flags at these businesses and residents throughout the towns of Milford.
Ended in Hope, Tel Matt.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Great job, major congratulations to you and all the other
members work with you, the Salvation Army volunteers and others
who volunteer. If people want to get more information, give
us a quick website that folks in the the Root
eighty five area I can can get involved with.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like I mentioned prior, it's the Salvation Army
m A DOT O r G backslash fly the flag.
People do have to live in you know, one of
those three communities. Sometimes we do have people that will
from outside those communities that will, you know, buy a
flag and say, hey, donate it to a veteran or
(08:42):
you know, a neighbor need in your local community, and
we try to do our best to honor that request.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So but well, Happy Memorial Date to you and to
everyone else in the in the organization. Thank you, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Thanks to you. Dan, I wish you all a great
Memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
All right, thanks very much, Major Major Kevin Palito of
the the Salvation Army based in Milford. Back on Nightside.
This is a Monday night. We're going to talk about
a great program that Comcast is running. We're gonna speak
with the director of Community Impact and the architecture what's
called Comcast Rise in Boston. I think you want to listen,
(09:18):
particularly if you have a small business in Boston. There
may be some help for you coming up from Comcast.
Just on the other side of the s break, my
name's Dan Ray. This is a Wednesday night, Stay right
with us. Back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Right after this, if you're on night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Well, this is an interesting program that I heard about
about a week ago. It's called Comcast Rise. Comcast, of course,
everybody knows Comcast and with us is Becca Fracasa? I
hope I pronounced that correctly. Becca, Is it beca fracassa
or is it a heart?
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You? You did it excellently, Thank you?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right? Okay, that's good. I was afraid it might have been.
Just names get pronounced differently, and it's important to me
to get them right. Becca is the director of Community
Impact and the architect of Comcast Rise in Boston. My
understanding is this is a program the Comcast is doing
across the country in several different communities, but we're lucky
to have it in Boston. First of all, let's talk
(10:19):
about the scope of this. It's it's not just in
Boston this year. It's in four other communities as well. Correct.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, We're in Nashville, We're in Seattle, We're in South Valley,
Utah as well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So yeah, Grid, I think Grid Rapids, Michigan is in
there too, if if my memory serves from from what
I read here, Yeah, Grand Rapids, Michigan isn't. There. By
the way, we have listeners in all of those communities,
so this applies more than just to just to to Boston,
Greater Boston. But it's housing a great program, So tell
(10:54):
us about it and uh it to some extent it
almost sounds too good to be true. That's how good
it is.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Go right, Yeah, absolutely, And we get that a lot.
We're like, is this Real's what's the catch? It really
is real. We do every year we pick five cities
in which we do five hundred really comprehensive grants for
small businesses. As you mentioned, it's coming to Boston this year.
We've given away one hundred and forty million dollars in
(11:21):
value over the years for this program. And when we
talk about it being comprehensive, it really is. It's a
technology makeover, creative production, a media schedule, educational resources of
five thousand dollars, monetary grant, and business consultation services. And
when we think about that locally, we're going to give
one hundred of those packages away inside the one twenty
(11:44):
eight belt. So really a very comprehensive package to give
away here in Boston and then in our community cities
across the country that we were we just afore mentioned.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, looking at more with more specificity technology makeover. So
there's computer equipment, internet, voice, and cybersecurity services. For twelve
months you help them develop thirty second TV commercials, which
which obviously can be can be used whatever community they serve.
(12:17):
Education resources, twelve month access to online entrepreneurship courses, the
monetary right who's who's opposed to that? As well as
coaching sessions. All in all, each of these grants are
really are we talking like one hundred thousand dollars or
more in each of these grants, And.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
When we put all of this together per market, we're
talking about three million dollars of investment, which is really
a stunning amount when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, so it's about it's about thirty it's about thirty
thousand dollars all in for each. If I'm doing my
math right, it helped me out if I'm not. And
is this the sort of thing that that this I
don't know. You know, it says small business, but is
there a definition says the small business has to have
(13:10):
so many employees or or only can have so many employees?
Are there any limitations or is it basically available to
anyone who thinks of themselves as a small business.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
So there are a couple of limitations so it is
one hundred employees or less there were that qualifies as
a small business. You have to have been in business
for a couple of years two years to be exact,
and you have to have generated a dollar of revenue
in the past twelve months. So those are the qualifications.
Nonprofits do not qualify either. So there, there's there's what
(13:44):
we've defined as a small business.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Really I missed I missed the one thing, Becker. You
said they have to have generated a dollar of revenue
or or.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
A dollar of revenue in the past one dollar, one
dollar in the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Okay, Well, I think most people can get past that hurdle. Yeah,
yeahh So, and my understanding is that people can businesses,
and obviously some of these I assume we're going to
be family owned type businesses. They have to apply. There
is a deadline, though, and the deadline's coming at us
a little faster than maybe people should be aware of.
(14:20):
It's the deadline is what May.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Thirty first, Yes, midnight on May thirty first, is when
you need to have your application in at comcast Rise
dot com about a go ahead.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I didn't mean to drop go ahead.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
That's okay, it's about a fifteen to thirty minute application process.
And you can and you can save it so you
can go in, you can save your application. You can
say Okay, I want to tweak it a little bit
later and get back to it.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Okay, So what happens? So let's go through the logistics,
because I think this is so important. People are sitting there. Okay,
so they have they have to go. I'm sure to
Comcast dot Now where do we have to Where do
we got to get these the applicants to get to?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So Comcast Rise dot com. Where we're going?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Okay, Comcast Rise r I se dot com. And if
you if you do, you have to be a Comcast customer.
Is it open to just businesses?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Okay, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, So you go to Comcast Rise and there is
it sounds to me like this a written application. You
need some information? Uh, they fill out the information. Is
there any essay that has to be Is this like
a college process where you got to write an essay
application to be to be admitted. I don't want to
make it too hard on these my listeners.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
No, no, And when I when we say fifteen to
thirty minutes, we mean it. There are a couple of
short answer questions where we ask about the growth of
we're your business, you know, what do you see as
your growth growth being? And we're just looking for the
story of someone's business and how they think these resources
are to help. Right, we're not judging on grammar. We're
(16:02):
looking for stories. The other piece we're looking at that
the other short answer question, besides you know those sort
of fill in the blank cut things will be centered
around how do you feel that your business impacts your community?
And I, honestly, personally, I believe that every small business
has a great story of how they're important to their
communities to tell. So that's what we're looking for in
(16:24):
those short answer questions. And there's just those two of
them that we're looking for. So yet, not a lengthy
process at all.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
This is great. Now you are in charge of this
in New England. When will the winners? When will the
people who get the grants be announced? How long do
they have to wait to figure out if they're one
of the one hundred winners here in the Greater Boston area.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, we expect to have an announcement for those winners
in the middle of August, so that we'll start talking
about and reaching out to those one hundred winners and
then really activating around all of the resources. Work very
collaborative with collaboratively with each winner on our own timeline
to make sure we're really responsibly activating around each of
(17:09):
those benefits so that they can utilize them to the
best of their businesses ability.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Okay, just one final clarification, Sure, how do we define
We defined businesses, but how do we define businesses in Boston?
Do the businesses have to be within the city limits
or is it more of a Greater Boston concept?
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Did you say it's a little bit of a Yeah,
it's a little bit of a Greater Boston concept. We're
referring to it in many places as Metro Boston. If
you think about the one twenty eight loop and try
to staying inside of that loop, we've taken it all
the way up to Gloucester and all the way down
to Angham. When small businesses go into the application, one
(17:50):
of the first things that they're asked to fill out
is their ZIP code, and that will determine whether or
not they're in that particular geography.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, well, it sounds to me like a right program.
I hope all the winners take it full advantage of
everything that you guys are offering here, and again, thank
you very much, Beca for the time tonight. I think
you've explained it well. And I hope that people who
have listened if they want to get information. If someone
was listening and their their son or their daughter or
(18:19):
their brother in law has a small business and didn't
hear tonight, give us the website where they can go
to to get all the information. They can listen to
our interview tomorrow on Nightside and demand. That's easy. But
give us that website one more time. I know what
it is, but it yeah, hear it from you?
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Go ahead, yeah, please come visit us at Comcast Rise
dot com. So it's Comcast ri se dot com and
you'll get all of the information that you need and
have access to the application.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Sounds great. Well, thank you for the generosity from Comcast
to the businesses to thank you for your time tonight.
Thanks very much, better much. Maybe what we can do
when you pick some winners when the one hundred folks
are selected next August, maybe we can have one or
two of them come on and talk about exactly what
they're going to do with these grants.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
We'd love to have that conversation. Thanks so much, Dan, Okay,
thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
All Right, the news awaits at the bottom of the hour,
so let's get right to that right now. My name
is Dan Ray. This is Nightside, and we will be
back on the other side. We have a couple more guests,
and beginning at nine o'clock tonight, we will talk with
State Auditor Diana Dezaglio. She released a seventy four page
think one of the papers described it as a scathing report.
(19:34):
Today we'll talk about that coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on waz Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
All right, thank you very much. Madison. Let us continue
here on the night before the big storm. I hope
that some of you can maybe take a mental health
day tomorrow. It's going to be nasty, nasty weather day.
We'll be talking with someone one of the ACU weather
actually weather meteorologist beginning at about quarter of nine. But
(20:05):
right now we're talking to doctor Shivani Kumar. He is
a vascular surgeon at Tufft's Medical Center and doctor Kumar.
Welcome to Nightside. First of all, thank you for joining
us tonight.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Thank you so much for having me pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And we're going to talk about a new non invasive
technology which I've never heard of, using a device called Tamby.
I don't know, is that the correct pronunciation ta mbe tamby.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
That's the correct planciation of the acronym. The long name
is a thorical abdominal branch endoprop thesis, so so we
abbreviate that to campy.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I'm going to call it tamby. You can call it
anything you want, but this is intended to treat a
certain type of aortic aneurysm that previously required major open
heart surgery. First of all, for those of us who
are not spot about this, as you are in a
order aneurysm, I think most of us know what an
(21:05):
aneurism is. I think some of us have an idea
where our order is. But I'm sure you can explain
it much better than that.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Go right ahead, sure, So our order is the biggest blood,
that's all that comes off of our heart. It supplies
blood all over our body. And an aneurysm you can
think of as a bulge, dilation of ballooning of the order,
and the bigger that gets, the higher the risks that
that can rupture and cause internal bleeding and death.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And so when kids blow bubble sort of like when
kids blow bubblegum, you know, the bubble keeps getting bigger
and bigger, and you know at some moment that bubble's
going to burst and that the kid's going to have
bubble gum all over his nose and his chin and
his cheeks.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Go right ahead exactly like that, exactly, And so that's
the problem that carries high high mortality. And this particular
type of aurism that we're treating is one that involves
blood flow to the major organs in the belly, your liver, spleen,
small vowel, stomach, kidneys, and so in the past, the
(22:15):
way we've had to repair these is by doing you know,
really the biggest surgery we do in vascular surgery, which
is opening someone up from the chest down to their
navel and move their organs out of the way, clamp
their reorda need to have some partial bypass to provide
blood flow to these vital organs while we're operating, and
(22:37):
it carried a lot of you know, risk with it,
with the tamby. We now have a this is a
first and only kind of FDA approved minimally invasive solution
for these aneurysms, and that got to proved an August
of twenty twenty four. And now we have a way
to treat these patients with one small incision like up
(22:58):
on the chest and then two needlesticks in the groin
and patients can recover and go home from the hospital
on post operative day two or three.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So have there been a lot of these surgery, these
so called TAMPI surgeries? You said that's only been approved
since last August, But how's the track record at this
point to this.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Procedure so far?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Very well? Actually, I was speaking to the medical team
the last few days and now we've hit one thousand
implants across the country since approval.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
So this is this involves an implant.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And my question is, and you know, for those in
the audience maybe who are more medically knowledgeable than me,
maybe they'll sound like a silly question, but oftentimes when
you hear of aneurysms, you hear of brain aneurysms. Are
these aneurysms, these aortic aneurysms, Are they before you can
(24:04):
intervene in this part of the body more.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Easily, So yes or no, They're easier to identify because
oftentimes patients come into the er with abdominal pain or
another problem, and they get a capped inner an ultrasound,
and so we oftentimes find them incidentally, you're sort of
by accident, and that allows us to kind of track
(24:28):
them and treat them when appropriate, when they reach that
size that's big enough, like that bubblegum about to burst. Okay,
we also, you know, the United States Prevented Task Force
also recommend screening for aneurisms of specific patient populations, men
over the age of sixty five who have ever smoked,
people who have a family history of aneurysms, and women
(24:51):
with high risk factors.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Now, doctor, I want to give medical advice over the
over the radio, but I want you to know I
am on the wrong side of But I'm happy to
tell you I have never smoked a cigarette in my life.
And I actually do my annual physical tomorrow morning with
my doctor. So when I say to him, do you
think I have it? I could possibly have an aortic aneurism.
(25:18):
Is he going to look at me like I have
two heads, or do I then have to tell them. Well,
just last night I was talking to doctor Kumar. I
love it when you say people who haven't smoked, and
I've never. I just never liked to have it, to
be honest with you. And so does that help protect
(25:39):
me about people who haven't smoked with both aortic or
with other aneurisms and other parts of the body.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Yes, that's definitely a protective factor for you, you know, and
patients who have never smoked, the prevalence of an aneurysm
is about one to two percent, so it's pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I've enjoyed this conversation. You know why I never smoked.
I don't know. You know what your experience has been.
But my dad was a two packa day smoker, and
I can remember as a kid in the house, I
hated smoke. I hated the smell of smoke, hated everything
about it. And when the Surgeon General's report came out
in nineteen sixty four, he went cold turkey. It's very,
(26:22):
very stubborn or adamant, whichever adjective you want to use.
But I credit him for making sure that I had
never picked up the habit. I just thought it was
a dirty, you know, a filthy sort of habit, and
it never appealed to me. I have other vices, but
not that. So you've made me happy. What should people
(26:48):
do who are listening and maybe have smoked over the
age of sixty five? Should they ask their primary care
physician to consider what or not they could have an aneurism?
What advice can we give generally to people who maybe
would be in the category who are susceptible?
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Absolutely, I think anyone over the age of sixty five,
especially men who have ever smoked in their lives, even
if it was five years remotely, they have an increased
risk of an aneurysm. So they should talk to their
primary care doctor about doing a one time screening. It
is covered by insurance, and that screening is painless. It's
an ultrasound down of the belly and that detects if
(27:31):
you have one or not, and if you do, you
can be referred to a vascular surgery who can then
follow your aneurism with appropriate imaging an appropriate timeline depending
on the size.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Okay, so I think the yeah, I'm sorry, but I
think what I heard you say was that even if
someone had given up the cigarettes, five years or ten
years ago. That's a good thing, but they still if
they had smoked for any period of time, they got
to be aware of this when they talk to their PCPs.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Absolutely absolutely, Land and you kind of touched on it,
but smoking succation and stopping smoking is also very important
for aneurism growth. You know, smoking is the number one
risk factor for aneurysm development and then for that aneurism
to grow to that bubblegum size you were talking about
that Pops.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you really, I so appreciate you
coming on. We're very fortunate with the number of medical
professionals and experts we have in the Greater Boston area
who will give us a few minutes on this program
and talk about to you know, tens of thousands of
listeners about medical issues. And I just want to say thanks,
very thank you very much for what you do, and
(28:41):
congratulate everybody over at Tough's Medical Center. It's a great
medical facility. We're blessed to have so many great medical
facilities here in the Greater Boston area. And I learned
a lot tonight from this interview, and I really do appreciate.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You taking the time our pleasure. Thank you so much
for having me and bringing some more awareness to this
disease process.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Okay, doctor Schavani Kumar, there's there's no particular website that
you want to refer folks to here. I assume this
that they can google. I guess aortic aneurysms if they
fall into that category, I get some more information. But
there's no nothing particularly that we can refer people to.
Let's say, you know, Tamby dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Or something like that, right, you can google Tamby that
will come up. You can also, you know, I think
googling abdominal aoricaneurism is helpful, but there's no particular website
dedicated to aneurismal disease. But that's a good idea and
maybe something that we can work on as ascular surgeons.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Thank you very much, Doctor chavann Kumar. Talk again, I hope,
thank you very much. When we get back. We're going
to talk about the reality of the weekend and the
reality of tomorrow is a big time rain. It's as
simple as that. I don't think we're going to escape it.
I'm sure we're not going to escape it. And I
hope to be talking with acute Weather Media A just
Brian Thompson, not only about Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, but
(30:04):
what the rest of the weekend might hold. This is
the first long weekend of the summer. It doesn't feel
like the summer. It doesn't feel like the start of summer.
But hopefully, hopefully we can turn around now and at
least give you some hope that Saturday or Sunday might
be better. We'll be talking with Brian Thompson right after
the break.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Night SI with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well, if you were out today rowing on the Charles
or sailing on the Charles, or walking along the public garden,
I mean, eighty five degrees isn't a bad weather day.
Of course it wasn't eighty five degrees, but maybe in
your imagination today was a nasty day. I mean it
felt like March more than May. And to explain all
(30:50):
of this, first of all, why we're having a deal
with this type weather is our good friend acuweather meteorologist
Brian Thompson. Hey, Brian, what did we do wrong that
had the weather gods so angry? Have you figured that
one out yet? No?
Speaker 6 (31:06):
I haven't done. It is it's not unusual to have
days like this in mid to late May. It's it's
not it's not particularly common to get this many days
of chilly weather. And it's going to stay pretty chilly
through tomorrow, Friday, even Saturday is going to be a
bit on the cool side. So we're talking about highs
in the fifties, which again is not uncommon. It does
(31:27):
happen this time of year, especially with the water still
being so chilly, but it's just an unusual for it
to be a string of days like this.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It seems like it's been. It seems like it's been
the entire month, and I don't remember April being that
grade either.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Well I actually believe it or not. We're running three
degrees above average for the month. We've especially early in
the month, we did have some warm days got to
eighty four. That was way back on May third, it
was nearly three weeks ago. Yeah, but we've certainly had
some chillier stretches in between. And this is actually some
of the cool weather of the month we're seeing right now,
(32:02):
so unusual, kind of backwards the way you think of it,
You normally think the cooler weather of May would be
in the beginning of the month to get warmer tour
Memorial there.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So what's going on. We got a whole bunch of
tornadoes running around in the Midwest, and this apparently is
what we're not that we're going to be seeing tornadoes
because I think it's probably too cool, too cold for tornadoes.
If I think I learned that somewhere, and what you
know when I read it somewhere tornado.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
It's not impossible to get tornadoes and cooler weather. It's
rare though, because to get the to get the instability
you need for severe thunderstorms, typically it needs to at
least be on the milder side.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Okay, So, so what happens these tornadoes. We've just seen
them down in Oklahoma and Missouri and Kentucky. As they
come up towards New England, they they're losing that that
wind power. But the cold is staying and the ra
(33:01):
is the rain's coming up nonetheless, and we're gonna look
at a really nasty day.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Tomorrow from yeah, yeah, tomorrow is gonna be the worst
day of the stretch. It was it was cool today,
it was cloudy, was damp, it was drizzled. But we're
gonna have a lot more rain tomorrow that's gonna certainly
make it worse when you tied in with the severe weather.
The storm system that has helped to fuel that severe
weather has been moving through the Ohio Valley, and this
weather map looks very similar to something we'd see in
(33:27):
the wintertime, because we've talked about the storm being a
kind of a nor'easter type storm here, because you have
a storm that's moving into the Ohio Valley and you
have another storm that's developing along the east coast, and
that there's kind of an energy transfer that takes place.
The storm along the coast kind of takes over as
the main storm and then moves up again. We see
(33:48):
this a lot of times in the winter months. That's
where we sometimes get the big snowstorms. And that's what
we're going to see into tomorrow. The storm along the coast,
it develops, that intensifies, and that's going to put us
in the in the area of some heavy your rain
and some strong winds as well.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And I think at least one of the weather forecasts
I saw in the last day or so talked about
some snow up in Maine and eastern New Hampshire.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
Yeah, it's very possible. I mean we're talking about temperatures
most of the day tomorrow that will be in the
forties around here, and when you get up in elevation,
it won't have to get super high to be talking
about some snow in northern parts of New England.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
When is it going to break? Okay? So tomorrow is
a washout, Okay, but tomorrow's Thursday. It's not Saturday or Sunday.
Is Friday going to be a transition day or is
it just going to creep and get a little bit better?
At no point? I mean the song from Annie the
(34:48):
Sun will be up tomorrow. That's not playing tomorrow at all.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Right, that is not playing tomorrow. I don't think it's
playing Friday either. Maybe Saturday. I think there's some hope
to see some sun. To your point of Friday making
a transition day, I think it will be to some extent. Again,
it's going to be cloudy. It is still going to
be very chilly on Friday. I don't think we get
past the mid fifties in most spots, but it won't
be nearly as wet as tomorrow. We'll have a couple
of showers still around Friday, but kind of transitioning out
(35:14):
of the wetter pattern. I think Friday is going to
be that transition day, and Saturday kind of falls into
that category too. Now I think Saturday we have a
better chance of seeing some breaks of sun than Friday,
but we'll still have a couple of showers around. But
as nasty as the next thirty six hours or so
are going to be, I don't think it's a bad
holiday weekend.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Again.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
It'll start off kind of cool Saturday, and overall it
is going to be on the cool sign for a
Memorial Day weekend. But by the time we get to
Sunday and Memorial Day, highly back into the sixties again,
and as possible, attempts may get well into the sixties
on Memorial Day. I know it's not the summer preview
that some people want, but it's going to be an
improvement certainly, and if you have outdoor activities, I don't
(35:54):
think I think most of the weekend is going to
be dry. I don't think we're going to be dealing
with rain a lot at the time. Again, the chance
for a shower two Saturday, maybe a stray shower either
Sunday or Monday, but again, a lot of the time
looks dry at this point.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Now I know that, and I just I don't want to,
you know, put any pressure on here. But when we
talk about New England, New England's it's a small place
on a map, but it's a big place if you
have to drive around. Who's going to get the better weekend?
Let's say, let's talk about Saturday, the Cape of the
Mountains or western Massachusetts. It's gonna or is it just
(36:28):
going to be kind of the same.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
It's going to be kind of the same. We're going
to be in this broad pattern where there's an upper
level low overhead. So I don't think the weather is
going to vary all that much from place to place,
just looking at some of the forecasts on the Cape
or looking at temperatures in the mid fifties on Saturday
with a shower or two, but out in Western mass
probably a little cooler but still in the low fifties
(36:50):
and very similar with clouds and a shower too. So really,
actually across most of New England Saturday, I think it'll
be very similar weather. We'll just have these spotty showers
that are around. Itill be pretty cloudy, but at times
the sun's going to pop out, but most of the
time is going to be dry.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Okay, So last question, I swear, and that is when
does this pattern? Can you foresee this pattern finally be
done with it and getting it. Yeah, we'll have rain
in June, I get it, We'll have some cooler days,
et cetera. But is this this huge pattern that we
have We're going to all of a sudden turn around
sometime next week, which is June, well not June. Let
(37:28):
me look at my calend. It's it's June first. Don't
get you until next weekend. Following next weekend on Sunday,
when will it feel like June? It's fun.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
It may take until June. Actually, yes, because we're in
this pattern through the weekend again, it warms up a
little bit at least into the sixties by Monday. But
the problem is the jet stream is going to still
be kind of kind of up in the western part
of the US and down in the east. That allows
the cooler air to kind of stick around. So I
think kihceptre's a lot of next week could still be
(38:00):
in the sixties. But as we get late in the
next week and especially toward next weekend, as we get
toward the beginning of June, there are signs that may
be some of that warmth from the western part of
the country will start to slide eastward a bit, so
we may finally start to warm things back up a bit.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
All right, Well, look, I so appreciate you taking the time, Brian.
I'm sure that everybody is bugging you at this point
and trying to figure out what the weather forecast is
going to be. But you've reached a lot of people tonight.
And although you haven't provided the forecast that we wanted,
you know, seventy five and Sonny, you've given us. You've
given us a great explanation. I so appreciate you taking
the time. My friend will talk sooner, and you have
(38:35):
a great Memorial Day weekend. Okay, you two damn thanks
very much. Ack you weather meteorologists. Brian Thompson telling us
the way it is, not the way we want it
to be, necessarily, but the way it is. So we're
going to wrap it up here for the eight o'clock hour,
and we will be standing by and after the nine
o'clock newscast, we're going to have an opportunity to speak
with the State Auditor of conwalth and Massachusetts. Diana Desauglio
(39:00):
is not the most popular person at the State House
these days, but good for her. She has the courage
and backbone to stand up and do what her office
mandates true to do. So we'll be talking with Diana Desauglio,
and I'm going to tell you right now that if
you want to talk to a get on the line early,
because she's going to stay with us, not for the
entire hour, but just till nine thirty. Feel free to
(39:23):
join this conversation six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Come
on right back on Night's side after the nine o'clock
news
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