Category: Items

Democracy Now! and other items

Democracy Now debuts in Worcester, April 3, 2006Television: A few dozen people gathered outside the WCCA TV13 studios downtown this morning to watch Worcester’s first cablecast of Democracy Now on the TV in the window. It was pretty fun. Not surprisingly, there was an interview with Noam Chomsky.

Mark Dixon speaks: The Wal*Mart king clarifies some of the details around his 49 hours at Wal-Mart.

Holy Cross: Some Holy Cross students made a monument to American and Iraqi war dead. Of course, it was vandalized. Taryn Plumb:

Perpetrators pulled or kicked the green stakes from the ground and chucked them around the surrounding area. Signs signifying what the stakes represented were torn up and replaced with an American flag and a sign reading, “Freedom is not free.”

Worcester County college students: If you need 2,000 crosses for a war dead memorial, contact me at pieandcoffee@gmail.com.
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Various Articles

ImmigrationDemonstration
The L.A. Times today is chock-full of articles relevant to P&C.

  • The lead story is on the massive demonstrations against proposed draconian laws against illegal immigration. They say it’s the biggest demonstration of any kind in L.A.’s history.
  • Steve Lopez continues to write compelling columns about life on Skid Row and the issues surrounding it. Today he writes of single mother Elizabeth Brown and her two children and their struggle to find affordable housing. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of opposition to putting homeless shelters anywhere besides Skid Row.
  • A obituary of the remarkable Desmond Doss, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII as a conscientious objector.
  • A look at the controversy around erecting fields of crosses as war memorials/protests.
  • The Hospital Association of Southern California is urging its members to revamp their policies for dealing with homeless patients in the wake of allegations of “dumping” the homeless on Skid Row.

Some of those links may require you to register for free at their site.

Items

Democracy Now!: Worcester’s mighty WCCA TV13 will begin broadcasting the independent news show Democracy Now starting April 3, weekday mornings from 8am-9am.

Keet: Don’t miss Steven McGarity’s comment.

InCity Times: this week tries to bring the muck with Steven Maher’s cover story “Long-time Central Massachusetts political operative Louis C. DiNatale faces possible probes by the State Ethics Commission and the State Auditor’s office.” It’s a great look at the world of Central Massachusetts political operatives.

Mr. Maher, of course, was responsible for the infamous cover story about Paul Giorgio, another sometime political operative.

Worcester Magazine: Scott Zoback interviews other local coaches who agree with Patrick Williams that there is bias in local high school sports.

Also, this week the disclaimer “swear words are not reprinted” reappeared in the Blog Log.

Telegram & Gazette: Did I mention that I’m among the “196,000 participants in Hewlett-Packard Co.’s pension and 401(k) plans” whose personal info was on a stolen Fidelity laptop? Got an express letter Wednesday morning about it. The T&G has a business reporter covering the fiasco, instead of relying on wire reports.

Items

A lot about signs this week.

Darfur: Some updates to the March 29 Darfur demonstration in DC. If you live near DC, and can take the morning off, I hope to see you out there.

More Darfur: You can now see our “Fasting for Darfur” series archived by the Library of Congress/Internet Archive project.

ACLU: Ron “Worcester ACLU” Madnick, on the whole thing of the Catholic Church not supporting gay couples adopting kids:

“If they want to discriminate, that’s fine . . . . The bishops need to understand they need to give up their tax exemption and stop bringing in state and federal money.

“We cannot allow government funds to be used to discriminate against a class protected by the anti-discrimination laws of Massachusetts . . . .”
(Telegram& Gazette)

I don’t know about giving up their tax-exempt status, but I think giving up government money is an excellent idea for my church.
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Items

Tom Lewis getting better: The Worcester artist/activist has been in the hospital for a few days, both for cardio surgery and because of complications. With luck, he’ll be out in a couple days. He was in a very good mood when I saw him this morning, and he denied reports that he’d developed an infection. Please do send a “get well soon” letter to 136 Austin St, Worcester MA 01609.

Tom Lewis making a print
Tom Lewis making a print. Photo by the artist.
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