Category: Podcasts

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

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We start by interviewing renegade blogger Marc Reece. John Wood and Karon Shea, if you want to give your side of the story you can contact us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com or leave a message at 508-471-3897. (Other listeners can drunk dial this number.)

Mike’s federal trial date is now up in the air; there’s a pre-trial hearing June 16. The Telegram & Gazette lost several reporters this week. (See Scott McLennan’s farewell column.) Charter ran no advertising in Worcester Magazine the week after WoMag ran an article critical of them; Scott Zoback comments. (John has fun trying to find someone at Charter who knows about their web monitoring plan.)

Taxi fares are going up. People are complaining about a proposed shelter on Elm Street. Jordan Levy’s blog is still kinda lame. The Grecian Festival should be awesome.

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week, I sat on a couch with Brendan Melican and Jeff Barnard and talked about the city. Here’s a photo of us.

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Relevant links: The Catholic Free Press ran a better story about the Planned Parenthood hearing than the T&G; the T&G moderates comments in odd ways; Start On The Park is a great arts event Sunday 11am-4pm in Beaver Brook Park; Claire Schaeffer-Duffy was found guilty for her Gitmo protest; Mike’s federal trial is in a couple weeks, please come out and support him; last night we rejected Worcester’s lame marketing slogans at the Dive Bar. (And Kate Toomey bought Mike a beer!)

People at the Dive Bar representing Worcesterite, I Heart Peanut Butter, 4-rilla, Daily Worcesteria, Wormtown Taxi, and Pie and Coffee.

Also: Worcester Magazine wrote about Charter’s web monitoring plans, despite Charter being one of their biggest advertisers; Bruce Russell has been entered into the “We Got the Beat” casting call; the InCity Times celebrate’s Godwin’s Law; the diocese should make better use of its young Catholics; Mike’s new favorite blog is Cascading Waters.

Note: Brendan recommends this Ted talk on letting your kids do “dangerous” things; Mike name-drops Ted speaker Paul Rothemund.

And: You can sign up to be a poll worker, and we plan to interview renegade blogger Marc Reese.

Plus: We’re really mad about that kid who got suspended for having a bullet casing.

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel includes Brendan Melican and Bruce Russell.

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The march for criminal records (CORI) reform went well; WCCA has the kickoff and the Metro reported along the way. The Telegram & Gazette reports that legislative efforts are hung up in committee. We hear Gary Rosen (who Brendan praises for his wiley ways) speak up for CORI reform.

Brendan comments on this quote from Police Chief Gemme:

The single most effective way to reduce fear…is foot patrols.

Mike brings in this quote from Bill Randell:

Do me a favor walk around the Commons some day and even walk into the street level of City Hall. Do you feel safe, or better yet would you want your mother walking around by herself? I would not.

The locally-produced film “We Got the Beat” is now looking for actors! Mike talks Bruce into auditioning. Brendan mentions the Bruce Willis film now shooting in Worcester.

Please find this man a speaking role.

Worcester Magazine still hasn’t mentioned Charter’s plans to sell data about its internet customers.

John Monfredo wrote an article about keeping your kids safe on the net in the InCity Times; Brendan ridicules this article. A listener takes issue with Cory Doctorow’s portrayal of Tor in Little Brother. (Mike mentions counter-measures used against British Telecom that he now can’t find….)

WCCA’s contract with the City has been extended a few months, giving more time to hammer out a long-term contract. Sheriff Guy Glodis was on WCCA and at least mentioned the federal report on the county jail.

Worcester City employee salaries won’t increase for the moment. Mike suggests the City Manager’s salary be a multiple of the median income in Worcester.

We finish up with a pledge drive from maximumfun.org.

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike skips his coffee, with predictable results. Brendan Melican, by contrast, is sharp as ever. (Note that Brendan now appears on WTAG Mondays at 6:30.)

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Mike loved the Dragon Sorcerer, and interviews author Asa Needle.

The City Council and other city employees got raises this week. If Charter cable provides your internet service, they’re now selling info about your browsing habits to an ad company. (Related: how to encrypt your Gmail e-mail.)

Mike reads the InCity Times.

There was a hearing about Planned Parenthood changing its Worcester location. Critics of PP, including local blogger JayG, come off looking like nuts in press coverage; this is possibly their own fault.

Worcester CORI-reform activists are walking to Boston next week. The feds say the county jail has problems; Brendan expands upon his blog post on the subject. Mike is going to DC next week to ask the Chinese and Sudanese governments to stop supporting genocide in Darfur. WCCA is holding (and broadcasting live) a public meeting on an impending funding crisis at the station. “To this date, we have no contract with the City, and no real assurances for the continuity of WCCA’s future.”

We talk more about Charter recording information about users’ internet habits, and finish with an explanation of Tor from the audiobook of Cory Doctorow’s great young adult novel Little Brother.

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelists are Cha-Cha Connor, Brendan Melican, and Bruce Russell.

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The show begins with an excerpt from Fr. Bernie Gilgun’s homily at the memorial mass for Tom Lewis.

Cha-Cha was part of a Real Solutions press conference this week looking to change people’s attitudes towards “sex workers” and “drug users,” among others. Real Solutions has asked the City Manager for information about the state of rooming houses and “SROs” in Worcester over the past decade.

The license commission suspended the city license for a gun range and will allow alcohol to be served at an event at Green Hill Park. City Councilor Joff Smith has suggested the city start a lottery.

“Renegade blogger” Marc Reece had a bad experience with Karon Shea Modeling and started a blog about it. Mike ties this to some of the ideas in Clay Shirky’s great new book Here Comes Everybody.

Jeff Barnard and Jordan Levy have criticized some of the recommendations the Research Bureau made about the city’s finances. Mr. Levy’s blog now has an RSS feed.

Jeff:

They recommend that the city sell, among other things, the airport. . . . the city’s been trying to sell the airport since the beginning of time . . . They’ll probably recommend in some future report that the empty mall on Front Street should be redeveloped . . . .

We experiment with reading Mr. Levy’s blog aloud.

Brendan: You, Mike Benedetti, just fixed everything that’s wrong with Jordan Levy.

Mike: As Muhammad Ali said of someone else, he’s “too old and too ugly to be the champion. Look at me! I’m pretty!”

The Telegram & Gazette spammed Mike this week. Jeff Barnard pointed out that blogging for the T&G is a rip-off. This week’s best online discussion threads include this one about school funding and this one about WRTA funding.

Fitchburg is cutting library services.

Papamoka and Wormtown Taxi posted some interesting info about groceries. Mike encourages you to hike the Massachusetts Midstate Trail and read his thru-hiker’s guide (PDF).

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508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel includes Brendan Melican.

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You wouldn’t know it from reading the Telegram & Gazette, but, as at other papers, their circulation is still dropping. The news could be worse. Mike notes a goofy headline. (Brendan mentions the 2-headed kitten in Milbury and a T&G column that made it to Fark.)

We have an exclusive interview with two of the kids behind the play The Dragon Sorcerer, which will be performed in Worcester May 9 and 10.

I already have my tickets

Mike summarizes this week’s InCity Times and praises Annie’s Clark Brunch.

We listen to Gary Rosen speak about the possible decriminalization of marijuana in Massachusetts.

Brendan:

Next fall marijuana will be decriminalized in the state of Massachusetts. There’s no doubt about it . . . . All the Billy Breaults in the world are not going to stand in the way of this happening. There’s just too much public support out there.

Brendan shares his thoughts on the resolution of the strip club zoning issue.

We finish the show with an excerpt from the audiobook of Cory Doctorow’s new young adult novel Little Brother. Mike is going to buy a copy for a teen he knows who likes civil liberties and dislikes The Man.

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