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Now, of course, this is hardly the case. But Worcester still has its share of factories and the like.

I’m trying to compile a list of things, especially consumer products, made in Worcester. Feel free to e-mail me or add a comment with your suggestions.

Sports equipment

• Nokona baseball gloves (Interview with videos)

Weapons

• Kahr handguns (a href=”http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church”>background)

Garment/Fashion

• Soy Wallets

Prepared food

• Polar beverages
• Table Talk pies
• Dr. Gonzo’s condiments
• Pickle factory on Mason St
• Bay State Bakery

Agriculture

• You can buy produce from YouthGrow’s garden in Main South

From 1914: A ready reference hand book of Worcester made products

Thanks to Brendan, Tracy, Dr. Gonzo, 4rilla, Greg, and Destination Worcester for suggestions.

Newspaper circulation nationwide was down 7%. The T&G has been loosing circulation faster than average for the past few years; this much-better-than-average showing is a welcome surprise.

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508 is now arguably the first local program to be an equal citizen of both the internet and TV. You can watch it on Worcester cable channel 13 Tuesdays at 12:30am and 11:30am. Plenty of local programs from traditional media have some internet component, in most cases, unfortunately, on the periphery of what they do, rather than near the core.

We touch on shopping locally, then delve into this year’s school budget. Mike promotes the upcoming Blogger Beer. The restaurant Quan Yin is closing. (You should watch at least a few minutes of Supreme Master TV.)

The Worcester City Council’s CORI vote was apparently delayed by an unreported screw-up by people in the Clerk’s office.

The InCity Times has an angry, personal rant inspired by an unlikely issue.

Brendan had a great time at Worcester’s Pecha Kucha.

Our conversation about urban “open space” takes a turn when Mike brings up the article “US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive.”

If you’d like to leave a comment for next week’s show, the number is 508-471-3897.

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Colin Novick’s ordination is tomorrow (we got this wrong last week); the Save Our Poolz movement looks back at the past year and considers new strategy; Worcester may be getting CORI reform.

This week’s Worcester Magazine covers our nation’s hard times by noting the stories of Foothills Theater, Lujon, and Papamoka.

The Telegram and Gazette is up for sale–Mike had predicted this would happen by May 1. Scott Zoback predicts the sale price will surpass $1,000,000.

T&G does a sorry job covering the latest Rep. Spellane gossip compared to the Herald.

Rushton to buy NWA album for son?

Scott Zoback enjoyed the Dive Bar’s 100th Thursday Music Night and the haberdasher trailer.

Mike suggests Worcester Magazine imagine how they could cover a large, local story 100%, then post the “assignment list” and try to engage the community in reporting it. (Inspired by Jay Rosen’s idea for Brooklyn.

Mike also notes the Uighurs are finally getting out of Guantanamo.

Worcester’s “vegetarian renaissance” has lasted a month now, continuing with Drew Wilson’s WoMag article “Top places to get mock-meats.” We note Drew’s idea for mock dodo, mock tyrannosaurus rex, etc.

HBML has been replaced by the “Fuck Yeah Center.”

City Council Candidate Joe Casello should appear on 508.

We finish with a report from the year’s first Main South Farmer’s Market, and the story of the Woodchuck of Main South.

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I would say, by-and-large, the answer is Yes.

• The Catholic Worker movement is decentralized, and there’s nobody in a position to enforce these things.
• Many folks in Catholic Worker communities are not Catholic or not church-goers.
• That said, based on visits to dozens of communities and meetings with hundreds of Catholic Workers, I think that most Catholic Workers are at least occasional churchgoers.
• Some Catholic Workers make churchgoing a priority. Co-founder Dorothy Day attended mass every day. There are Catholic Workers who are priests, nuns, and deacons. On this website, we have archived many homilies from masses at the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker in Worcester. I think most of those who go to mass there on Fridays also attend at their own churches on Sundays.

Guantanamo Uighurs to be released to Palau, Bermuda?
This is years overdue. Having spent a good chunk of 2009 agitating for their release, I’m still not very satisfied. Time will tell how this works out–some of them seemed to have ended up in Bermuda rather than Palau.

Rick Rushton, gangsta councilor
A friend passes along this exchange from Councilor Rushton’s Facebook wall:

Frederick Corr Rushton can’t shake the line “Mix em and cook em in a pot like gumbo” ….
May 27 at 11:27am

Kevin Murray at 11:56am May 27
NWA?

Frederick Corr Rushton at 2:32pm May 27
straight outta compton…is Ricky’s 7th birthday today…getting him the Striaght Outta Compton album

George Plimpton, RIP
My personal Worcester summer theme song will be Jonathan Coulton’s “A Talk with George.”

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Dear Catholic Workers and friends,

The Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker community was founded in 1986. We did not want to be tax exempt and we did not want to receive any interest, so we opened an non-interest bearing checking account under the name “SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker.” Our bank called the account a club account and took my name and two other members of our community as signatories. For the past 15 years, my wife Claire and I have filed a tax return listing our personal income (from free-lance writing and public speaking) and have attached a letter on house stationary telling the IRS that our personal income was deposited in our house account and that we live and work in the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker along with our four children, we do not receive salaries, but do have room and board which come out of private donations to our community. We also reported to the IRS how much was income was donated to our community and deposited in that account and how many people were sheltered each year with those donations. The IRS never audited us or even asked us any questions.

Unfortunately, the manager of our bank called today and told me that our checking account was going to be closed in two weeks because it is no longer legal to have an account under a group name unless that account is a business account with a tax number different from my social security number. I called the IRS to ask them about this and a very nice woman listened to me explaining the Catholic Worker philosophy and our desire not to be tax exempt status or to receive interest. She suggested that we file to become a non-profit organization without tax exempt status, and I quoted Peter Maurin that the Catholic Worker is an organism not an organization. She dutifully referred to our community for the rest of the conversation as an organism. She told me that there was a form of nonprofit status that was not tax exempt, but admitted that it required considerably more documentation than we currently keep. She suggested that I talk to an accountant or tax attorney. I know neither.

I spoke to Chris Allen-Doucot at the Hartford Catholic Worker, and his community is in the middle of a similar quandary. Lawyers have told Chris that the Catholic Worker doesn’t fit any of the government’s designations.

What are other communities doing? Does anyone have any helpful suggestions? In two weeks checks we receive in our community’s name will have no place to go. If we change our account to a personal account, we can only accept checks in our own names and all the income will be seen as personal income by the IRS. Our house received about $50,000 in donations last year. The IRS would want taxes on that income. Many donors would be reluctant to give to a personal name instead of a community name.

We want to be creative and faithful to the alternative economics of the Catholic Worker. Do we have to give up banking altogether and take our bills door to door to get strangers to pay them, while we fill a begging bowl to feed our guests? Do we need to ask donors to give only cash or actual food and cleaning products?

The IRS lady appreciated it when I told her that our community shelters people without taking a dime from the government and without asking for a tax exemption from our local taxes. She agreed that it was strange to penalize us. She also suggested that the new banking laws which have restricted a bank’s ability to reap huge profits on credit cards and other loans have prompted them to try to force customers into business accounts which charge for every transaction, including every check deposited. I would hate to see donor’s money diverted into the clutches of greedy banks.

Some Answers

Thank you to the many Catholic Workers in many communities who have already responded to my email. I am impressed with the speed and thoughtfulness of all the replies. They might be helpful to post on this site for new communities to see.

What I have learned since yesterday is good and bad news. The bad news is that credit unions, although better in many ways than regular banks, are still required to get an EIN (Employee Identification Number) for an account that is not in an individual’s name. The good news is that Claire and I can go to our city hall and get a “business certificate” for $25 to designate both of us as “doing business as Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker.” We then take this certificate to the Worcester Credit Union and they will create a business account with an EIN. (They will require us to deposit $25 in a savings account which earns 2% interest because all customers are members. The nice woman I spoke to at the Credit Union said that we could not return the interest to the bank at the end of each year, but did allow that we might bake the employees a cake or some bread equal to the small value of the interest.) This would not make us a non profit, either taxpaying or tax exempt. It was suggested to me that Claire and my personal income be kept in a different account, but we want to “hold all things in common” and not separate what happens to come to us in our name from any other gifts. We aren’t sure what this means for income tax purposes. We know that our expenses equal or exceed our donations which would go into this account, so it would not make a profit. We also learned that any personal donation under $10,000 is not taxable and since most of our donations are under $150, we aren’t worried. We like the designation “doing business as” because it doesn’t say we are a business, which we aren’t, but it also doesn’t say what we are. I feel like the Catholic Worker should be a square peg in a round hole which encourages individuals to personally reach out to others without go-betweens or government benefits or scrutiny.

A multi-faceted solution is for us to:

1. to live more simply, thereby reducing our costs;
2. to encourage supporters to give material support, like food, laundry soap, postage stamps, and so on;
3. to expand our cottage industry for which donors give cash;
4. to consider asking some regular donors to make their checks out to a
   utility bill instead of to our house;
5. to produce more food from our garden (Peter Maurin loves this one); 6) to stay away from banks as much as possible.

The only problem we have from time to time is that the IRS and colleges, to which our children go, cannot believe that American families can live on less than $50,000 a year. They think we are starving someone to death or going around in loin clothes. (As a prudish Irish Catholic, I take exception to the latter suggestion.)

Many people suggested we talk to an accountant, some suggested that we steer clear of accountants, lawyers, and the IRS. Some told us terrific stories of how they have created unique arrangements and even gotten their cities and courts to create special categories to fit us into.

One thing is clear, I told the IRS and the bank and I will tell all or our readers, not a penny of money that comes to us is being misused (unless you count an occasional trip to the movies as extravagant). None of my concern has anything to do with hiding income for personal use. It has to do with identity, simplicity, non-bureaucracy, anarchism, personalism, and respect for the privacy of our guests.

I will continue to read the posts from other houses and want to thank everyone for your input. We’ll let people know how it turns out.

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Worcester Magazine has a great article and slideshow about our screwed-up taxi system. Cab driver Jeff Barnard has a brief comment; Brendan has proposed solutions in the past.

The “vegetarian renaissance” in Worcester continues. VegWorcester has installed 5 newsracks and distributed 1000 veg dining guides in the past couple weeks.

Our friend Colin Novick is being ordained a Catholic deacon tomorrow June 13–but the local priest shortage continues. A former street vendor is running for City Council. Craigslist is too nice for newspapers to compete with.

If you’d like to leave a comment for next week’s show, the number is 508-471-3897.

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This week, Mike is joined by Brendan Melican and Cha-Cha Connor.

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There’s a good show tonight at the Firehouse. The Catholic diocese is closing 2 more parishes. A Worcester woman is missing. Street vendors are being put out of business by new city regulations. (Video)

We read the African Radiant and mention Rep. Jim McGovern’s February letter to President Obama (PDF) asking for the 17 Uighurs at Guantanamo to be released into the U.S.

We read Worcester Magazine’s stories about panhandling and the Worcester Vegetarian Dining Guide. We mention Twitter.

The Pulse profiles the designer of the Veg Dining Guide.

This week’s InCity Times includes 2 mysterious items. The Worcester TwitCab is closed.

We contemplate the new Park Avenue CVS location through the teachings of Jim Collins.

We glance at the Catholic Radical. Cha-Cha talks about the situation with the City’s pools. The Telegram & Gazette website is still partly broken. We don’t have time to discuss Jeff Barnard’s “Worcester City Council: Bad for Business.”

If you’d like to leave a comment for next week’s show, the number is 508-471-3897.

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