Author: Mike

Worcester Telegram & Gazette
(Appeared the next morning)

NECN
(Nightly news. The headline is “Senator Kerry in Worcester to talk business.”)

WCCA
(Appeared that afternoon.)

Worcester Independent Media Center
(First IMC pix posted within the hour.)
Continue reading “Kerry: Who got the story?”

Locals holding signs reading “Bring the Troops Home” met U.S. Senator John Kerry at Worcester’s Broadway Diner this morning. Despite Kerry shaking several of their hands, many remained frustrated with his lackluster efforts to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Paul Giorgio and John Kerry. Photo: Kevin Ksen.

Many local bigwigs were there. The response from passers-by was very positive.

This sign was too big to hold tight. Photo: Kevin Ksen.

My Photos.

Kevin’s much better Photos.

Video: Demonstrator Michael True (AVI)

Worcester Indymedia has more coverage.

At a February 2005 visit to Worcester, Kerry called for military expansion.

(WCCA has some video of Kerry talking about public access funding at an event later in the morning.)

A reader writes:

remember that Wayfinding grant a ways back?

turns out it’s a “matching funds” grant

the City will vote on Tuesday to appropriate $50K to match the grant funds!

City Manager Michael O’Brien:

June 13, 2006
TO THE WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL
COUNCILORS:

I respectfully recommend that Nine Thousand One Hundred Thirteeen Dollars and Twenty Eight Cents ($9,113.28) be transferred from Account #91C780, Citywide Capital Equipment, and appropriated to Account #14C707, Signage Program. This transfer, in addition to the $40,886.72 available balance in the Signage Capital Account, is needed to provide the $50,000 in matching funds to the Worcester Cultural Coalition for the “Worcester Finding Your Way” wayfinding initiative, per the request of Julie A. Jacobson, Assistant City Manager for Economic & Neighborhood Development.

Respectfully submitted,
MIchael V. O’Brien
City Manager

Jule Jacobson, Assistant City Manager:

The $50,000 in required matching funds to be provided by the City can be allocated from previously approved, allocated, and unexpended funds remaining in an expired signage account that was established to fund a signage program several years ago.

Pictured: Screwed-up sign on Main Street.

Local radio personality Tom “Mr. Hetero” Crouse says he will support the impeachment of President Bush if the UN grants NGO status to 2 gay rights groups with US support.

KK: I wish Tom Crouse would move to Worcester.

Mike: Yeah! I don’t think of him as being my nemesis or anything.

KK: He’s my entertainment.

Mike: Yes! Exactly!

In case you think Crouse is a fool, check out his latest:

I would be someone who would be considered his political base, and I am not buying it. I do not believe the President cares about a marriage amendment. If he did there would have been a constant drumbeat for one, like we have heard from him on other issues that he really cares about, like making the tax cuts permanent. As a supporter of the President I am disappointed with his transparent effort to pander to a base that for the most part left him a long time ago.

Mr Nemeth, in Sunday’s T&G:

When the South Middlesex Opportunity Council took over PIP in early 2004, it unveiled a master plan: Downsize and eventually relocate the wet shelter on Main Street — a move critics have demanded all along — and serve recovering clients in five halfway houses and lodging facilities. That plan ran into vociferous opposition, fueled by fear, distrust and self-serving politicians. The turning point came when state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler abruptly stripped $200,000 in state funding she helped to secure for a group home for women SMOC planned to open on Catharine Street after she learned the facility would be shifted to a middle-class neighborhood on the West Side. Such punitive action by a nice liberal Democrat made attacks on social service providers not only acceptable, but respectable. It was no longer just neighborhood demagogues, such as Billy Breault, who went after SMOC.

Then there was the Mayor’s Social Service Task Force with proposals on how to lighten the burden social services place on the city. The Research Bureau issued a report with the same aim. The city conducted a silly, and ultimately fruitless, billboard campaign to eradicate panhandling. There is now a bill in the Legislature to regulate social service providers. However, none of these reforms calls for viable action to eradicate the source of the problem: homelessness, hunger, substance abuse and mental illness.

Rep. Robert P. Spellane, co-chairman of the mayor’s task force, chimed in with blatant fear-mongering. He announced that PIP seriously endangered the Main South neighborhood because 13 convicted sex offenders are being “warehoused” at the shelter. SMOC refuted the charge as “irresponsible,” which did not stop Mr. Breault from parroting them on television.

The message of Real Solutions has been that open discussion about our responsibility to the poor, and the pros and cons of social service programs, has been derailed by “fear, distrust and self-serving politicians.” Nice to see a similar opinion in print.

On an unrelated note, check out this ad featuring Niniane.