Sunday, November 9, 2014 THE DAILY NEWS E1 OPINION BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY INSIDE CONTACT Opinion Editor Rick Holmes at [email protected] or 508-626-3932 GLOBAL VIEW Long a dream, fusion power may be just fi ve years away e would like that in the lab.” the hope of raising enough “You can fret all radioactive waste, no risk to get to a Dr McGuire was talk- capital to build a prototype. of meltdown, and of course “Wprototype (of ing to Aviation Week, the It’s the biggest player in US you want about no carbon dioxide emis- a nuclear fusion reactor) oldest and most widely defense-related technology, terrorism and sions – so if it is competitive in fi ve generations,” said read magazine covering the and it has a reputation to in cost, it could easily sweep Dr Thomas McGuire, the defense industry, and he protect. It would not have the other minor the fi eld. director of the Revolution- was promising a working invited Aviation Week in last complaints of Fusion power would not ary Technology division at nuclear fusion reactor that GWYNEE DYER week unless it was pretty replace the “renewables” Lockheed Martin’s famed puts out more energy than confi dent that the project our times, but (wind, solar, and “bio” Skunk Works. “If we can it consumes in fi ve years. “It will succeed. this is major- power), whose cost would meet our plan of doing a wouldn't be at full power... machine in another fi ve So suppose there really league Good probably fall fast enough design-build-test generation but basically just showing years. is a full-scale prototype of to stay competitive. But it every year, that will put us at that all the physics works,” Lockheed Martin is not a a 100-megawatt nuclear News.” would rapidly replace the about fi ve years, and we've he added – but he did fringe player hyping some fusion reactor, ready to go in just 10 years. Nuclear already shown we can do predict a fully operational technological fantasy in into volume production, fusion is clean energy – no SEE DYER, E2 LOCAL VIEW NATIONAL VIEW MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG Gridlock doesn’t stop states from acting ere's the big news from Tuesday's H election: Faced with gridlock in Wash- ington, more and more voters are turning to states and municipalities to do the work that the nation's capital seems increasingly unable to do. Let me give you one example: Voters in four states - all of them won by Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race - passed ballot measures increas- ing their state's minimum wage. In those states, many local Republicans favored the increases, even as Republicans in Wash- ington have refused to take up the issue. I would have preferred to see Congress Massachusetts Governor-elect Charlie Baker greets supporters the night of his election victory. DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY RICK HOLMES pass an expanded earned income tax credit, which is the most e! ective way of increasing real incomes for low-wage workers. But after it did nothing, voters GOVERNOR CHARLIE BAKER decided to take matters into their own hands. about what it takes to “In business did something pretty Waiting for Washington is Baker’s pledge: ‘I will love succeed. unusual for someone like a Samuel Beckett play It starts with keeping and in life, trust who has had a career at without any of the intrigue the job every single day’ your ear to the ground. is a big deal. It the center of state gov- or humor - just absurdity. “I like to get out there ernment: He went home And voters have seen here’s cam- and talk to people on makes it easier to Swampscott in 2004 enough. paigning the ground about what’s to do things and ran for selectman. I share their frustration, “Tand there’s happening,” Baker told Local government and as a strong believer governing,” Charlie me in a lengthy inter- that are hard. wasn’t new to him, he in the idea that cities and Baker told me a week view after an appearance It’s true in gov- said. He’d served on the states are the laboratories before the polls opened. in Framingham. “I really town’s charter review of democracy, I share their He knows the di! erence, do believe that if you ernment too." committee – a test of determination to act. This fall, I supported state- he said, and the rest of RICK HOLMES just talk to your own Care, he was known anyone’s tolerance for level e! orts on several us, having watched the team and if you don’t get for calling strangers detail and process – as ballot measures designed candidate for a year, outside and talk to other well down the corpo- well as the town man- to bypass Washington on are about to meet the way around the State people, you get a warped rate ladder in search of ager search committee three major issues that governor. House when he takes sense about how things information. and the high school are hurting the country: Unlike his two prede- o" ce in January. He are going.” As governor, a lot of building committee. gun violence, obesity and cessors, Deval Patrick spent most of the ‘90s Baker likes to get into those calls will go to “I really liked running political polarization. and Mitt Romney, Baker working closely with two the details. As CEO at local o" cials. Baker will already know his SEE BAKER, E2 governors, and we talked Harvard Pilgrim Health SEE BLOOMBERG, E2 MORE OPINIONS NATIONAL VIEW INSIDE Lena Dunham's bare, naked truth ena Dunham, the air. ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW: creator of the Basically, Dunham Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the sensational HBO wrote about her 7-year-old threat to the monarch but- L terfl y. 5E series "Girls" - and now self and her anatomical the object of overwrought curiosities at the time, LOCAL VIEW: Framingham child abuse accusations by which included wonder- State University president F. Javier Cevallos and Board boys on the right - seems ing whether all vaginas of Higher Education chair the perfect antidote to KATHLEEN PARKER are the same. To answer Richard Freeland on the state election fatigue. this question, not satisfi ed of the state's colleges and Poor Dunham. Every- with her mother's "I guess universities. 3E thing was rocking along she wrote. so," Dunham explored her OUR VIEW: Opportunities for just fi ne. At 28, she has It's a cinch that many of 1-year-old sister Grace's the state's leaders to respond to some of the questions on her own television series, her harshest critics haven't private parts. Lo and Actress Lena Dunham at a London book signing. Her last Tuesday's ballot. 4E a new book released in Sep- read the book themselves, behold, there she discov- memoir, Not That Kind Of Girl, has drawn criticism NATIONAL VIEW: George tember, money, fame and, but a few principles have ered pebbles, put "there" by from conservative commentators. AP PHOTO BY JOEL RYAN as these things go, critics. emerged that concern not little Grace for reasons that Will says Democrats may discussions took place But then, I am sentimental need to think twice before Her book, "Not That Kind the content but the treat- only 1-year-olds know. nominating Hillary Clinton. 2E of Girl," has become an ment of the author. We're Let me interrupt primarily in homes and about many things, such as HUMOR: Maybe Democrats overnight cri de coeur for not quite at the point of myself here to say that I doctor's o" ces. It isn't the days when people mar- can win a majority on the righteous types o! ended by burning books, though would prefer a world in prudery but decorum that ried before having children. moon, Phil Maddocks writes. what they read about what there's a hint of kerosene in which uterus and vagina compels me to say this. 8E SEE PARKER, E2 E2 THE DAILY NEWS Sunday, November 9, 2014 NATIONAL VIEW year. Taxing sugary drinks, Americans elected - and I BLOOMBERG in addition to reducing supported - centrist can- From Page E1 consumption, will lead the didates who promised to beverage industry to pro- work across party lines to Rethinking Hillary 2016 So how did we do? duce more products that are e! ect genuine change in In Washington state, low in sugar. their states. In Rhode Island, ow that two of in the smaller and more an organization I helped The soda industry has Democrat Gina Raimondo the last three liberal Democratic Senate found, Everytown for Gun successfully fought e! orts won the statehouse after Democratic caucus that will gather in Safety, worked with local to tax and regulate sugary leading one of the most N advocates to pass a ballot presidencies have been January. There is, how- drinks in the United States, comprehensive pension emphatically judged to ever, evidence that the left measure requiring a back- and although it spent heavily reform e! orts in the country. have been failures, the is too untethered from ground check for all gun to defeat the measure, voters In deep blue Massachusetts, world's oldest politi- reality to engage in e! ec- sales, a step 16 states have weren't fooled: 75 percent voters elected a Republican cal party - the primary GEORGE F. WILL tive politics. For example: already taken. In those endorsed the measure. If governor, Charlie Baker, architect of this nation's Billionaire Tom Steyer's states, the rates of gun it works, we should expect who pledged to work with administrative state - has environmental angst is tra" cking and gun suicides other cities and states to Democrats on education, some thinking to do.