Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.
Just a reminder that the national Catholic Worker gathering, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the movement, is at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Worcester July 9-12. More info here.
Tracy Novick takes us on a tour of Worcester’s Cascading Waters, a project of the Greater Worcester Land Trust.
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Wild turkey at Cascading Waters
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This is the text of a document submitted today to Judge Timothy S. Hillman by Ken Hannaford-Ricardi. Emphases added.
Dear Judge Hillman,
At our June 16, 2008 pre-trial conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin M. Bell’s written reply to our motion for the right to present evidence in support of a defense of necessity stated that the defense should be excluded as a matter of law because: “the defendants in this case had a very specific legal alternative they could have pursued. They could have requested a permit to enter the courthouse to perform a short prayer in protest of the war in Iraq. Indeed, the defendants were provided with this information by the U.S. Marshall upon entering the courthouse to pray.”
Continue reading “No “permit process” for Worcester federal building”
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s conversation is one of the best ever, but due to sound problems is almost unintelligible. Panelists are Brendan Melican, Jeff Barnard, Cha-Cha Connor, Kevin Ksen, and Dave Maciewski.
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Topics include bears, Billy Breault, Barbara Haller, Counselor Palpatine, NebuAd, Tim Heard’s final blog post, “Q”, the Q, Mike’s pre-trial hearing, and lots of talk about hot dog vendors.
Pictured: The Commons is torn up again for a new ice skating rink.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette: Judge to decide on ‘necessity’ of prayer: Group says other anti-war tactics failed
(This isn’t on their website . . . it is now.)
Today was originally supposed to be our trial, and since we mailed out many announcements some of us went to morning mass and the federal building in case some supporters hadn’t heard about the change. Two folks did show up.
Continue reading “A little no-trial vigil”
Today was the pre-trial hearing for the Worcester “rosary arrest” case. Note that I am a defendant in this case, and that while I will try to present a fair view of the proceedings, it will probably be biased.
The big news so far: the trial will be 9am, September 23, 2008.
Photos outside the courthouse.
Continue reading “No necessity decision yet in “rosary arrest” pre-trial hearing; trial Sept 23″
508 is a show about Worcester. Unsteady electricity from a storm earlier this week threatens to derail, then does derail, the show. Brendan Melican and Cha-Cha Connor appear briefly. Mostly it’s Bruce Russell.
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There was a big storm in Worcester. Cha-Cha went to New England’s first trans pride march. Mike reads the InCity Times: both unconvincing arguments against a shelter at 62 Elm St, and Rosalie Tirella channeling Jean Teasdale on “Sex and the City.”
Watch out for the latest WordPress hacks; they got the Worcester Republican blog, they could get you too. Mike’s pre-trial hearing is Monday. The Toxic Soil Busters debuted a short film about their project last night. It’s Bruce’s birthday; call the hotline if you want to leave a birthday greeting to be played on the show.
Note: the Charter ads have returned in this week’s Worcester Magazine.
Extra note: this is the greatest Worcester blog post in history.
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Patrick Duffy was one of 25 confirmed today at St. Peter’s in Worcester. I was honored to be his sponsor.
I occasionally see an article about what baby names are popular, but never confirmation names. So for the curious, here were the confirmation names: Patrick, Marcella, Sophia, Anne, Dwayne, Beatrice, William, John (Pat Duffy’s), James, Arthur, Angelica, Andrew, Christopher, Emmanuel, Marie, Elizabeth, Mateo (first name: Matthew), Concepcion, Andre, Clare, Manami, Sebastia, Daniel (first name: Daniel), Thea, Del Transito.
(We weren’t allowed to pick confirmation names when I was confirmed. Yes, I’m still bitter about that.)
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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On Monday, June 16th at 2:30 p.m., five Roman Catholics, facing federal charges in the United States District Court at The Donohue Federal Building, 595 Main Street, Worcester, will argue for the right to put the Iraq War on trial.
The court requires two forms of ID if you want to enter the building.
The trial date had previously been set for June 17. After the judge rules on the defendants’ motions, a new trial date will be set.
In the first act of civil disobedience in Worcester for many years, they were arrested on March 19th, during Holy Week, after they entered the lobby of the same federal building in which they will be tried, knelt, and prayed the rosary for an immediate end to the Iraq War. At least five U.S. marshals and several Worcester police officers were called to the scene, but none of them interrupted the anti-war activists until they concluded their prayer with singing in Latin a hymn to the Virgin Mary and then reciting it in English.
They were charged with refusing a lawful order of a U.S. marshal and with obstructing the entrance to a U.S. courthouse, even though the activists positioned themselves so that no one was prohibited from entering the building. If convicted on both charges, they fact a maximum of $15,000 in fines.
At the hearing, the judge will hear arguments from the prosecution and the defense on motions they have filed to define the structure of the trial itself. The defendants will argue for the right to raise a necessity defense which excuses the breaking of lesser laws to prevent greater harm. The prosecution will argue for the exclusion of any reference to the Iraq War. The defense will argue for the right to introduce evidence and bring witnesses to substantiate their claim of necessity.