508 #117: Half-marathon

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Brendan Melican.[display_podcast]

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[0:00] Mike was out of town this week.

[0:48] We attempt to say something interesting and informed about public sector pension liabilities, using the ongoing Mark Rojas fiasco as the hook.

[10:58] Mike, Rick Rushton, and hundreds of others ran the first Worcester Half-Marathon. (Councilor Rushton beat Mike by 5 minutes; such is life.)

Rick Rushton

[14:45] Worcester Magazine has revamped their website, now running on Broadcast Interactive Media. We favor WordPress.

womag_new Danny Cross, stippled

[18:36] No T&G paywall yet.

[19:00] Mike doesn’t like Inside Worcester. Thanks for asking.

[20:02] Mike explains what he knows about “We the People.”

[24:10] We talk a little about the Gulf Oil Spill and local seafood consumption, referencing this WoMag piece.

[26:12] Yeah there are PCBs, asbestos, etc. in the old Crompton Park Pool materials.

[27:39] Mike liked Jeff Barnard’s post Nothing Left to Complain About?

5 thoughts on “508 #117: Half-marathon”

  1. Whee! Thanks for taking my ideas into consideration, even though they have already been hashed over in the past.

  2. The municapility that filed bankruptcy in California was Orange County. Incidently, among conservative counties in the country and the place I grew up!

  3. The city we were thinking of was Vallejo:
    http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_7abc2b20-6e56-11df-a425-001cc4c03286.html

    According to Wikipedia, OC is “well-known for being the largest US county ever to have gone bankrupt, when in 1994 citizens rejected tax increases to pay back debts incurred by the county treasurer’s misinvestments. . . . An investment fund melt-down in 1994 led to the criminal prosecution of County of Orange treasurer Robert Citron. The county lost at least $1.5 billion through high-risk investments in derivatives.”

  4. I think we could solve half the problems of Worcester (or make half the cranks who write letters to the T&G editor happy, at least) if the Worcester PD assigned Mark Rojas to the Common, specifically to do the following:
    1) Rough up the stalkers who harass letter writers
    2) Unlock the tables and chairs on the weekend

    Can the guy operate a wrecking ball? I think it’ll be a win-win!

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