a free thursday publication
Thursday, January 28, 2016 Here’s your seasonal reminder: Space savers are only to be used during snow emergencies. Page 6
“The important thing is to take that first step. Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next. (Daisaku Ikeda)
Volume XVIII - Issue 4
Addressing the Local boxer moves on to ongoing overdose crisis national championships This is No. 17 in South Boston Online’s series about drug use, abuse and addiction. The numbers are tragic. It is time to make a 2016 New Year resolution about the crucial issue of heroin - and we are being kind when we call it “an issue.” It’s at least an epidemic - more like an old-fashioned plague (deadlier than Ebola). You can help. Don’t let this continue. By Rick Winterson
I
n his State of the Commonwealth speech last Thursday, Gov. Charlie Baker spoke eloquently about how dull his governing might seem, since he’s devoting his time to fixing things in the commonwealth – “minding the store.” But he made a key, specific point of singling out opioid abuse as a highly important issue. Baker said, “four people a day are dying in Massachusetts,” and then said this situation sickens him. Please bear with us, as South Boston Online presents a few numbers: The total number of
American military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan is approximately 7,000. If you add in the 9/11 tragedy’s toll of nearly 3,000 back in 2001, Middle Eastern hostilities have so far cost 10,000 American lives. Do you recall the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa? It lasted for most of 2014. Some 28,000 people contracted Ebola; 11,300 died of it. It wasn’t an epidemic – it was a plague. Only concerted action from a consortium of nations prevented Ebola from becoming a plague as deadly as the Spanish flu in 1918 and 1919. Continued on Page 2
DON’T LET A FAT
Francis Hogan (from left), Derek Shea, Richie Hogan, and Rich Hogan (father of Francis and Richie), pose at Peter Welch’s Gym in South Boston.
captured his second consecutive New England Silver Gloves title but lost a tough fight in the Northeast Regional Championships held in New York. The Hit Continued on Page 14
By KEVIN DEVLIN
The Hogan brothers, Francis, aka the Tank, and Richie, aka the Hit Man, are busy every day with their boxing regimen. The Tank recently
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