The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 35

CityRegion News 1-8 Starts Stops B2 New England News Briefs B2 Peaks Valleys B4 Political Capital B6 Q1DD1 Weather B8 Lifestyles C19 Education G15 Deaths G18 Boston Sunday Globe November 18, 2001 Eileen McNamara US fears help stall a N.H. town's downhill slide Defense tactic insults us all By Tara II. Arden-Smith GLOBE CORRESPONDENT DEXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. That everyone who lives here works for someone named Tillotson comes as no great surprise to the people of this mountain-rimmed hamlet. Neil Tillotson, who died last month at age 102, more or less created this place 41 years ago when he invented the latex examination glove and decided to manufacture it.

These days, as manufacturing jobs in this rural and rugged corridor of New Hampshire become more scarce, it's the Tillotson glove and a surprise surge in demand for it that's fueling new hope. The latex examination gloves made in Dixville Notch are the last still manufactured in the United States; cheaper labor costs have forced most production overseas. Tillotson Healthcare was holding on by a thread until recent weeks, when the threat of anthrax led some government agencies to take the extraordinary precaution of ordering gloves for all of their employees who handle mail or packages. Since then, Tillotson's orders have surged, and the company has been operating at near full capacity for the first time in years. It even restored overtime, tooled up an extra machine, and brought back shifts on Sundays.

It's a dramatic shift from just weeks ago, when the mood in the factory was grim after a decade of shrinking business. The guys would be coming up to me to ask, 'Should I buy a house? Should I buy a Those are things you need up here, but I didn't want to be too optimistic. You dont want to see DIXVILLE NOTCH, Pag B4 Misogyny is a measure ofcharacter.notof sanity. Child abuse is a trauma, not an excuse. Cross-dressing is an eccentricity, not a mental illness.

The insanity defense in the first-degree murder trial of Dr. Richard 1 Z3 GLOBE STAFF PHOTOBARRY CHIN Quality-control chief Debbie Bickford eyeing her company's product. MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIMItlllllllllllllllllllllllllMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllMIINIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Mastering MCAS Taunton High focus on math, English pays off as students' passing rates have soared since 1998 List of running mates shortens Rappaport pushes Swift to name him 1 By Frank Phillips GLOBE STAFF On top of raging public battles over severance deals and turnpike tolls, Acting Governor Jane Swift is quietly dealing with a political problem: finding a strong candidate to be her running mate. Swift had hoped to announce her choice shortly after her announcement four weeks ago that she would seek a full four-year term in the 2002 gubernatorial election. But she has yet to come up with some one to join her on the Republican ticket, and a search by one of her advisers has yet to yield a hoped-for crop of top-notch candidates, according to longtime Republican party leaders.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin, her number one choice, is opting for the private GLOBE STAFF PHOTO JONATHAN WIGGS Taunton High sophomore Eric Davis says MCAS prep courses are "the same thing over and over." Sharpe is in big trouble. No number of courtroom outbursts or hours of closed-eyed testimony from the willowy defendant with the bad Veronica Lake hairdo is likely to convince Superior Court jurors in Lawrence that Sharpe is anything other than what he is: a controlling husband who committed the ultimate act of domestic violence on July 14, 2000, when he fired the shot that killed his estranged wife, Karen. Sharpe admits that he pulled the trigger. There were witnesses, after all, on the night he violated a restraining order and showed up at her Wenham home toting a stolen, loaded rifle. But on the stand last week, the Gloucester dermatologist made a mockery of his own defense.

He offered precise details of the shooting, of his escape, of his disposal of the murder weapon, of his flight to New Hampshire, even of his credit card purchases of a six-pack of beer and a tank of gasoline. In his methodical reconstruction of that fatal evening, Sharpe made a convincing case, not that he is insane, but that he is a chronic drug and alcohol abuser who was driven by jealousy, greed, and rage to fire that bullet into Karen Sharpe's chest. It is hard to say which is more offensive about this specious defense, the tri-vialization of insanity or the vilification of a murder victim. To hear Sharpe and his attorneys tell it, Karen was a lying, unfaithful thief. According to Sharpe's testimony, she lied in court documents about his history of violence, slept with other men, and wrote unauthorized checks to a lover on his business accounts.

If any of that is true, even if Sharpe only thought it was true, it sounds less like evidence of insanity than motive for murder. Asked by defense counsel how the rifle discharged that night, Sharpe said "the gun went off" after he thought he saw Karen waving the court order at him that prohibited him from coming near her. In other words, it was her fault he fired; she provoked him. No doubt that restraining order was a red flag to an enraged bull. She waved it; he attacked.

But that is not the reaction of an insane man; that's the behavior of a classic batterer. Richard Sharpe may well have suffered emotional pain as a boy in the home of a verbally abusive father. Perhaps, like so many other victims of childhood abuse, he replicated that behavior in his own home as an adult. Relatives and acquaintances testified that he often lashed out physically and verbally at his sister and his mother, as well as his wife of 27 years. That Sharpe, a wealthy and well-educated doctor and businessman, chose to pop pills and swill booze rather than confront his childhood demons is a tragic shame, not an indication of insanity.

On the day that he chose to deprive his three children of their mother, Sharpe took too many pills and drank too much red wine. But he also conducted business meetings, took a female associate out to dine and dance, stole a gun and ammunition, made an 8-mile drive down a windy, rural road, parked his car, turned off the headlights, opened the front door, and fired at the woman in the foyer whom he could no longer control. We have, as a nation, spent at least the last 20 years struggling to understand the dynamics of domestic violence. We have learned a lot and still have much to learn. One thing I thought we did know was that blaming a battered woman for her own murder is the final, posthumous degradation.

Next week, when the jury decides whether to convict Richard Sharpe of first-degree murder, Joseph Balliro and the family firm ought to give thanks at their holiday table that lawyers cant be tried for defaming the dead. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 JANE SWIFT Facing a hard choice Taunton failures Percentage of Taunton High students who failed the MCAS test over the past four years: Math English By Scott S. Greenberger and Anand Vaishnav GLOBE STAFF TAUNTON What is it about Taunton High School? There's nothing special about its redbrick, 1970s-era building, which resembles a charmless apartment complex or a prison. Like many schools, Taunton High struggles to energize parents only eight showed up for last week's PTO meeting. The district's per-student spending is close to the state average.

When it comes to MCAS, however, Taunton High is extraordinary: Out of 318 Massachusetts high schools, Taunton is one of only six that has raised its Last week, in an MCAS prep course during his regular school day, sophomore Eric Davis's eyes glazed over as he stared at decimals and percentages on the blackboard. Davis already had covered decimals and percentages in two MCAS summer sessions. And he's likely to get them again later this month when he begins after-school MCAS tutoring. "I'm really sick of the MCAS classes. It's the same thing over and over," he complained.

The repetition, Davis said, can be sttdtifying but he doesnt deny it's effective. "It does help me, I will admit that," he said. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 29 26 1998 1999 2000 2001 sector. Charles D. Baker, the former Weld and Cellucci administration fiscal chief, says he wants to remain as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Marshall Carter, the retired State Street Bank CEO, rejects the idea outright Haunting the horizon, meanwhile, is former state GOP chairman James Rappaport, the multimillionaire who is laying his own plans to run for lieutenant governor despite Swift's rejection of him. His resources and support within the party are a serious threat to any potential candidate chosen by Swift. Swift continues to keep her selection process under tight wraps. To allay fears that she is having problems, administration officials said last week that Martin Linsky, the Republican activist she tapped to draw up a list of candidates, is expressing confidence that the names he submits to her will be "stellar." Linsky would not comment for this story. Republican party leaders and even close allies of Swift are expressing concern RUNNING MATE, Pag B6 English and math scores, and reduced failure rates in those subjects each of the past four years, according to a Globe analysis.

Between 1998 and 2001, Taunton's passing rate soared from 28 to 71 percent in math and from 47 to 74 percent in English. That impressive record isnt the result of cutting-edge computer software, or creative motivational events such as the "MCAS Mardi Gras," though that post-exam party is popular. Instead, it is rooted in a simple principle: If you want better English and math scores, give students more English and math. Taunton High piles on the English and math, using summer and after-school sessions, tutoring, and even MCAS prep courses for freshmen and sophomores. Wareham High School and Boston's Jeremiah E.

Burke High School, two other schools that have consistently raised their scores every year, pursue similar strategies. MCAS critics charge that rising scores have more to do with "teaching to the test" than better instruction. They say subjects that arent part of the graduation re- TAUNTON, Page B7 I 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Ill II Mill 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II I III 1 1 1 1 1 1 III) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Mil I II 1 1 1 1 1 1 i I II 1 1 1 1 1 til 1 1 1 1 1 rll I Cambridge neighbors cool to building plan Community fr College Proposed new "-v Lechrnerestop. GreenXr-fS H0RTH POINT Proposed Line extent MtOJECTSITI 'if By Anthony Flint GLOBE STAFF CAMBRIDGE A Back Bay-style residential neighborhood, two transit stations, 14 acres of open space, and a bikepath leading to a new Charles River park, all replacing a rusting railyard it's hard to argue with what developers are promising in North Point, the $1.2 billion neighborhood eyed for land near the Museum of Science. The site, 48 acres at the easternmost edge of the city beside Monsignor O'Brien Highway at the Lechmere station, gives environmentalists a thrill: industrial land close to Boston that is effectively being recycled, instead of farmland being bulldozed for more sprawl.

Affordable housing advocates are also overjoyed, because the proposal is mostly resi(Jontial, not commercial: up to 2,700 units, including some for low- and middle-income residents, by any standard a healthy jolt of supply to ease Cambridge's infamous housing crunch. Yet if North Point represents "smart growth" for the region, residents in the nearby, working-class neighborhood of East Cambridge are still unsure how they fit into the plans. Traffic, building heights, access to parks, a new class of people who would raise property values even further the litany of concerns grows long in the once Portuguese-dominated enclave already overwhelmed by development around Kendall Square. "It's not clear how you'd cross over to it," said Mary Ann Donofrio, a lifelong East Cambridge resident who views North Point with some skepticism. "If that doesn't get re-NORTH POINT, Page B7 AS Cambridgeside Gaflenj Museum ft Vn Science Park FleetCenter Charles River Eileen McNamara's e-mail address is mcnamara (gglobe.com.

GLOBE STAFF MAPDAVID SCHUTZ.