“There’s nothing in the Constitution that says a jail can’t have a cumbersome grievance process … [or] any process”

Apparently some people think the right to petition for a redress of grievances is just part of a Seinfeld sketch. I guess I’m just old fashioned, but I take my first amendment kinda seriously; makes you wonder if we’ve got at least some of the criminals on the wrong side of the bars.

Been quite the week for Sheriff Glodis, with Dianne Williamson pointing out the sweet perks some of his people are getting. A federal court putting a mysterious 20k check on the record and now this DOJ report. Something tells me Howie Carr is going to be staying up late writing his next Central MA chronicle.

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He also wants the City Manager to work with the delegation to change the funding formula to more accurately reflect what Worcester put into the system. It shouldn’t be our job to subsidize the other cities and towns.

While on the surface I agree with this sentiment in totality, reality says it’s time Mr Smith read the second paragraph of the preamble to the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

We’re not living on an island Joff and while there is an excellent, logical argument for keeping Worcester money in Worcester that can only happen when people start leaving the suburbs to move back here. You would need to rewrite over sixty years of federal law and essentially roll back every aspect of our economy to pre WWII levels to make that possible. All very noble goals indeed, but unfortunately, the schools need pencils today.

Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama.

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Can’t be long now, what’s it going to be Jim?

At-Large Councilor Rick Rushton. His request that the School Department find five new places to cut spending make one wonder if he’s been anywhere near a school budget over the past six years. One suspects not. He’s standing in front of a skeleton, trying to cut more fat. It isn’t there.

• Are you telling me there is not one no-show job in the Worcester Public Schools?
• You’re telling me that kids on Olean St need a bus to West Tatnuck School? And the ones who walk need crossing guards, even though their parents are holding their precious little hands?
• That overcrowding is as relevant in HS as it is in elementary schools and reshuffling or even outsourcing to the colleges (the colleges that will do anything for the city if we back off PILOT foolishness), isn’t possible?
• How about energy costs? Are we working on cutting down plant costs overall?
• Meals? Are the foods we provide the best and most cost effective?
• And most importantly, can we guarantee that EVERY union member in the Worcester Public Schools is carrying his/her own weight?

There are six, since I know nobody on the council has the testicular fortitude necessary to tackle that last white elephant.

Bang for the buck, we’re looking down the barrel of one of the worst deals in history. I have zero interest in my son being educated simply to pass standardized tests in an authoritarian time warp. Good luck on the rest of this one kids, you’ve just crossed the line from concerned parents, to shills fueled by mock outrage.

In other ridiculous news, the Council last night voted to apply for a 10 million dollar grant from the FAA for airport upgrades. What makes this confusing is it seems if we were to shutter the airport today we would be about 9 million in the hole to the FAA. Call me crazy but if we have a 9 mill balance sheet with the feds instead of taking another 10 might it make more sense to call it even and just turn the lights off? I know these monies don’t truly balance themselves out, but at what point do we start reeling this one in? I don’t follow airport happenings the way I should, all my airport info comes from Bill Randell these days, but this seems like one of those times when you sort of expect Kenny Rogers to show up and start singing the chorus from ‘The Gambler‘.
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Oh, and councilor Rosen is calling for a local hearing on marijuana decriminalization. Apparently years of research, overwhelming popular support and no end to the dollars flushed down the toilet is still not enough to convince some local leaders everything they were raised to believe about drugs is utter horse shit. No, what we need is the opportunity for Councilor Haller to trot out her Breault on a leash to make us look like back water buffoons in a public forum. sweet.
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that’s fine. whatever.

Since the analysts predict that newspapers may soon be obsolete, it’s time to consider a new career. The only problem is, I have no skills that would qualify me for a real job.

It always strikes me as a little sad when I try to imagine what it must feel like to be stuck on a sinking ship. But the reality in this case is the ship didn’t get torpedoed the way many like to spin things, its sinking because the captain is asleep at the wheel.

What may be my biggest frustration where local business is concerned, is watching good business go bad and suffer simply because the owners didn’t want to learn new tricks. I’ve talked about this here before, in the form of the Tatnuck Bookseller. But a newspaper is something different, can anyone actually imagine a city the size of Worcester without a daily? Of course not and therein lies the rub. The T&G isn’t going anywhere, it’s just going to continue to get smaller both in scope and impact until it can be bought out by someone who cares less about local news than the Times, which is nearly impossible.

The unfortunate thing is it doesn’t have to be this way. Talk to anyone who’s over 35 in the newspaper business and you’ll get the same tired line about the internet being at fault for declining readerships, it’s code for ‘we’re old and the internet scares us’. All one has to do is take a quick glance at the T&G website and it becomes pretty clear they are willfully pissing potential revenue away. There’s no search engine optimization in play, the advertising is all local which means cheap and their headlines and ledes are written to hit with old ladies in Spencer instead of the news readers discovering and seeding stories via social bookmarking sites like digg, reddit and stumbleupon. And let us not forget the T&G employees who still publicly proclaim the internet to be some sort of fad. These problems can all be fixed, easily.

Last month the WSJ recorded 15 million unique page views, up 175 percent from the same period a year prior. This was probably both the biggest as well as worst reported story in this sector of the quarter, which shouldn’t be surprising, why would publishers want a reminder on how things should be done. Where’s the humor in that? It’s easier to just pretend that nobody reads the news anymore and spin it into a joke, right? If that’s the case then the jokes on us.

Come meet Ed’s brother. Sorry, Ed can’t make it.

What the fuck is that? Why would I want to meet Ed’s brother? Nothing against Ed’s sibling, I’m sure he’s a great guy, but isn’t Ed the one running for office here? What would compel anyone to go listen to a stand in discuss another guys positions, because the guy who should be there is too busy?
I wish you luck Ed, where ever you are, you’re going to need it.