A classic diner is closing in downtown Fitchburg, again.
From Telegram & Gazette
FITCHBURG ― The Moran Square Diner, which operates out of a 1939 Worcester Lunch Car Company diner car, will close its doors at the end of this year, according to business owner Adam Willoughby.
Willoughby, 35, who reopened the diner in October 2021 with his wife, Brittany, said in a call they will close because he has accepted a job as a sous chef for Gibbet Hill Grill in Groton.
Willoughby said he and his wife don’t own the diner car and that they didn’t know of any future plans for the location.
Glenn C. Fossa, who purchased the property from previous owners Christopher and Mary Giannetti, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Giannettis ran the diner from August 1994 until closing in 2018.
Hostages were carrying white flag on a stick when Israeli troops mistakenly shot them dead in Gaza, IDF says
From CBS News
Three hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza were mistakenly killed by friendly fire, the Israeli military said in a statement Friday.
During combat operations in Shejaiya, a dense neighborhood in the Gaza City area where fighting has been taking place, the Israeli military said troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat.” Troops fired at the three and they were killed, the Israel Defense Forces said.
On Saturday, the IDF told CBS News that the events occurred during a period of “intense combat,” with Hamas militants moving around in what the official described as civilian attire, including sneakers and jeans. There were “a lot of ambushes” and “a lot of deceptions,” the IDF official said.
The hostages emerged “tens of meters from one of our forces positions,” the IDF official said. The hostages were not wearing shirts and were waving a white flag on a stick, but two were killed immediately, the official said. The third ran away “crying for help in Hebrew.” Though the battalion commander issued a ceasefire order, there was “another burst of fire at” the third hostage, which killed him, the IDF official said.
“This was against our rules of engagement,” the official said, calling the incident “very tragic.” It’s not clear if the hostages had been abandoned or if they had escaped their captors, the official said. The IDF official said that there was a building within meters of where the incident took place with “markings of SOS on it.” The Israeli military is investigating the building, the official said.
Federal Reserve on cusp of what some thought impossible: Defeating inflation without steep recession
From The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the most painful inflation Americans had experienced since 1981, when “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “The Jeffersons” were topping the TV charts. Yet the Federal Reserve now seems on the verge of defeating it — and without the surge in unemployment and the deep recession that many economists had predicted would accompany it.
Inflation has been falling more or less steadily since peaking in June of last year at 9.1%. And when the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge for November is reported next week, it’s likely to show that in the past six months, annual inflation actually dipped just below the Fed’s target of 2%, economists at UBS estimate.
The cost of goods — such as used cars, furniture and appliances — has fallen for six straight months. Compared with a year ago, goods prices are unchanged, held down by improved global supply chains.
The Global Debt Problem Is Enormous, and the System for Fixing It Is Broken
From The New York Times
Economists are offering alternatives to financial safeguards created when the U.S. was the pre-eminent superpower and climate change wasn’t on the agenda.
Martin Guzman was a college freshman at La Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, in 2001 when a debt crisis prompted default, riots and a devastating depression. A dazed middle class suffered ruin, as the International Monetary Fund insisted that the government make misery-inducing budget cuts in exchange for a bailout.
Watching Argentina unravel inspired Mr. Guzman to switch majors and study economics. Nearly two decades later, when the government was again bankrupt, it was Mr. Guzman as finance minister who negotiated with I.M.F. officials to restructure a $44 billion debt, the result of an earlier ill-conceived bailout.
Today he is one of a number of prominent economists and world leaders who argue that the ambitious framework created at the end of World War II to safeguard economic growth and stability, with the I.M.F. and World Bank as its pillars, is failing in its mission.
Athol Council on Aging partners with Athol Library for senior digital literacy program
ATHOL—Starting next February, the Athol Council on Aging and Athol Public Library will offer a series of classes to help seniors over 60 improve their digital literacy.
Funded by a $69,781 grant by the American Rescue Plan Act through the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, the new Embrace Technology Project is geared towards those seniors with little technological experience. The project will help seniors navigate e-mail, use video communication apps and learn how to use shopping and banking apps, among other goals. This project will serve residents in Athol and the nine-town Quabbin region and is free and open to the public.
Cathy Savoy, director of the Athol Council on Aging, added that this program will help to combat isolation and loneliness.
Savoy and Athol Public Library Director Jean Shaughnessy—along with Library Assistant Director Robin Shtulman and Library Technician Robin Brzozowski—wrote the grant over the summer.
Just for fun!
