May 2010

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Jeff Barnard and Brendan Melican.

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If you would like to boycott 508, please contact us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

Various epic Worcester stories climaxed this week. [0:30] Unum signed a lease to became the “trigger tenant” for CitySquare, and Massport agreed to take over the airport.

[6:10] Also, the MA House passed CORI reform.

[9:40] The Worcester movie “Boy Band” will premiere locally next week.

[10:40] Mike looks at InCity Times issues from before and after Dianne Williamson called for a boycott of the paper, and finds, if anything, more ads now. Two contributors, Jim May and Doug Chapel, have said they are leaving the ICT.

[14:33] Brendan notices the many local construction projects are stimulus-funded.

[16:25] There is a new president of the local teacher’s union.

[18:15] A bear was captured in Worcester and died.

[20:48] The T&G website, as we have often discussed, has problems.

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Brendan Melican and a mystery guest.

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508 contact info

If you would like to boycott 508, please contact us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

[1:18] Brendan and Mike went to stART in the Street. They speculate about Alec Lopez shirts.

[4:34] Mike talks about youth-led lead-safe landscaping in Worcester and wonders about levels of brain damage between generations.

[6:48] Our mystery guest talks about the life and legacy of Ronnie James (Padavona) Dio and the horns.

[11:29] A girl at Melican Middle School is a finalist in a contest to design a Google front-page doodle. You can vote in the contest.

[13:43] The InCity Times has threatened legal action against a critical blogger over “copyright.” Brendan complains about the InCity Times. The only person or advertiser we’ve confirmed has left the paper recently is frequent contributor Jim May.

[22:44] Jordan Levy complains that Councilor Palpatine is being a bully over this CSX expansion thing. Brendan supports the expansion.

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Imagine a British coalition Government with Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, with Nick Clegg and David Cameron as prime minister and deputy.

But add to this coalition the Greens and the Scottish National Party, each having Cabinet posts. Caroline Lucas is the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions; Baroness (Jenny) Jones of South Camberwell, the Secretary of State for Justice.

The opposition parties in Parliament include Labour, United Kingdom Independence Party, Christian Peoples Alliance (yes, seriously), and Respect. Read the rest of this entry »

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Jim Henderson, Nikki Erskine, Tina Zlody, and Brendan Melican.

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508 contact info

If you would like to boycott 508, please contact us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

[0:57] Jim is running independently for Secretary of the Commonwealth. He taught Mike to podcast back in the day.

[10:55] stART on the Street is coming to North Main on May 16 from 11am-5pm. Art and music, free of charge.

[15:50] This week, the Worcester City Council declined to discuss a boycott of Arizona.

[24:25] Mike ran the course of the upcoming Worcester Half Marathon.

[25:50] You can submit a city census form online.

[25:35] We recap this week’s InCity Times boycott/fiasco. You can find mp3s of the Jordan Levy interview on this page.

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Worcester’s City Councilors have a rough job, and I respect them for doing it. But tonight a lot of them acted like cowards and hypocrites.

Three years after voting unanimously to divest from Sudan over the violence in Darfur, tonight they voted, 7-4, that discussion of a similar city boycott of Arizona over the recent immigration law would not be “germane” to the business of the council.

Of the 7 voting to not even discuss the Arizona issue, 6 (if memory serves) were OK with the Sudan divestment–Haller, Clancy, Palmieri, Lukes, Toomey, and Petty. Toomey was absent. Eddy also voted against discussion, but I don’t think he was on the Council for the Sudan vote.

It’s interesting to note that one of 3 Worcester residents who spoke in favor of the Sudan vote in 2007, Joe O’Brien, is now the mayor and a supporter of the Arizona boycott.

Update: I made a mistake in not noting that at least one of the original supporters of the boycott no longer wanted it brought up:

But when that item came up for discussion last night, Mr. Rushton moved to have it “filed,” which is the equivalent of placing it in the parliamentary wastebasket. . . .

Councilor Clancy challenged that the issue wasn’t germane, after which the mayor ruled it was, after which the full Council voted it wasn’t.

Jeff Barnard has more thoughts on this angle.

Another update: Note that Toomey, who voted against discussing the Arizona issue, was absent from the Sudan vote.

Related from Worcester Magazine: Liveblogged notes from the meeting
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We prayed this prayer at a joint communion service, marking the beginning of Christian Aid Week, of the four Oxford city-centre ‘Faith in Action’ churches: New Road Baptist Church, Wesley Memorial Church, Saint Columba’s Church, and Saint Michael-at-the-Northgate. My friend Dr Martin Hodson preached.

Will you join me in the prayers of concern. Let us pray.

God the Creator, we adore you for creating the universe, full of potential to unfold; for creating our world, teeming with life and the possibility to develop.

God the Christ, we marvel that you have come among us; that we can find you in the least of these, the most unassuming of our neighbours.

God the Holy Spirit, we ask you to fill us with your power, now comforting, now challenging, as you invite us to participate in the continuing creation, transformation, and renewal of our cosmos. Read the rest of this entry »

The result of this British general election is, on the whole, a good result. No party can claim that it does not need to eat the humble pie. The Conservatives (Tories) did not win a majority of seats nor garner more than half of the popular votes. The Labour Party took a beating, losing several frontbenchers. The ‘surge’ did not deliver for the Liberal Democrats. Instead, they lost great MPs such as Dr Evan Harris (in my constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon) and Lembit Öpik. The Greens, though getting our first MP in party leader Caroline Lucas, did not make as many breakthroughs as we would like. Read the rest of this entry »

Catholic Workers are constantly being profiled, but you gotta love this article, from Richmond’s alt-weekly Style.

An awesome cover and solid writing:

BILL FRANKEL-STREIT and his wife, Sue, did not fight once during their first year of marriage, largely because the state of New York was holding them in separate prisons.

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In December 2002, before we knew about hurricane Katrina, I visited New Orleans for a last piece of Americana before moving to Europe. I saw the Gulf of Mexico display at the Audubon Aquarium of Americas, and was struck uncomfortable that it was sponsored by the oil companies. Now we know how these do not sit well together, thanks to the reminder that was the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. So this afternoon we wrote a postcard to Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana (PO Box 94004, Baton Rouge, LA 70804):

Dear Governor,

We here in England note with concern the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Along with hurricane Katrina, it should serve as another reminder of the devastating consequences of our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels. The animals grieve with humanity the destruction of the ecosystem. We hope you will reorientate your leadership of the great State of Louisiana, so it soon becomes a pioneer in zero-carbon economic models, in partnership with the federal government. We look forward to your response.

A brief note on British politics to a friend. This Thursday we shall elect a new Parliament. Feel free to skip if you are not interested.

If the results of the the present elections turn out to be (as Nick Clegg intimated) a ‘two-horse race’, that is to say a return to the Tory–Liberal duopolistic hegemony, tactically perhaps I (as a Green) can comfortably say ‘bring on the Liberal surge’, expecting electoral and other important reforms to follow. But the obvious strategic concern is whether by this we are indeed catapulting British politics into the 21st century, or we are actually taking a retrograde step back to 19th-century politics. Read the rest of this entry »