InCity Feature

Claude Dorman, the Worcester Wonderland blogger (Will WW), leaving the Worcester courthouse last month.

Claude (Will WW) filed two (TWO!) reports with the Worcester Police Dept. on Steve, a man he has never met, a man who has never caused Claude any harm, a man for whom Cluade created CRIMES. False, false, false. Here is a portion of Steve’s letter to the attorney general’s office re: Claude Dorman (Will WW) of 38 Sever St., Worcester. I have made some sentences bold.   – R. Tirella:

1. In the redacted letter of January 9, 2013 shown at M-135 the blogmaster wrote: “I have filed two incident reports with the police.” I believe this is directly related to question of my discharge. I would like copies of any police reports [XXXX] has in their possession regarding this information.

1. In his letter to you, [XXXX] stated: “However, the IT Department did have such documents and provided them once this letter was received and a search was done to ensure all responsive documents were produced.” If I have not been given ALL the IT documents in [XXX]’s possession, I would like [XXXX] to state that in writing. If they have other documents I should be sent copies.

1. Chapter 149 Section 52C contains a loosely written phrase that a personnel file must include “any other documents relating to disciplinary action regarding the employee.”

Unfortunately, the state legislature did not define what “documents’ meant in this context. Nor does the Code of Massachusetts Regulations. I could not find any advisory on the Attorney General’s web site.

The central focus in this matter is my use of the company computer. That was the basis of the decision to discharge me and suspend me. I would therefore like to narrow the focus to those relevant emails can be retrieved at the least expense of time to [XXX]. I would like to request that {XXX] provided the following:

1. Copies of emails to [XX] and [XX] from the IT department on the investigation.

1. Copies of emails from the IT department to the HR representatives present where I was suspended.

1. Copies of the emails between [XXX] and [XXX] discussing the decision to suspend and terminate me. This are key documents regarding my discharge and ultimately were the records on which the decision was made.

I request that [XXX] submit an evidence log, listing all the files above it has, which ones were released, and their grounds for not releasing them

Thank you! I am attaching list of the documents in this letter, in the event you want to send it to [XXX] asking them the documents to me.

Sincerely yours,

**********

DOCUMENTS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IS ORDERED TO BE RELEASED BY [XXXXX]  TO STEVEN R. MAHER.

1. Internally produced [XXX] studies, which evaluate the allegations by Mr. Dorman, be they written or electronic.

1. Identify the HR representative who wrote the handwritten notes on M-151 and M-152 and the date they were written.

1. Any police reports [XXX] has in their possession regarding Steven R. Maher.

 …

We ran this New York Times story in January. We re-post it in light of tonight’s city council meeting. We ask all Worcesterites to please say NO TO THE SLOTS PARLOR IN GREEN ISLAND!! Thank you!

- Rosalie Tirella

How Slot Machines Raise Our Hopes, Even When We’re Losing

Lloyd Miller

By RANDALL STROSS, The New York Times

Published: January 13, 2013

STEP into a casino and chances are good that slot machines are filling much of the space, as far as the eye can see. That dominant presence reflects the preference of many customers for machine gambling over human-mediated table games. Not surprisingly, electronic game machines contribute a clear majority of casino revenue in the states that permit them.

What may not be so evident is how a shift in casino gambling to screen-based games contributes to gambling addiction. It’s a story that would fill a book – and just such a book has arrived: “Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas” by Natasha Dow Schüll, an associate professor in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at M.I.T. The book offers a history of digital technology in casino gambling and shows how it grabs hold of players in ways never before available to equipment makers.

Professor Schüll, a cultural anthropologist, spent considerable time in Las Vegas casinos as part of her research. She met players who told her how they sought to enter a mindless state, a “zone,” in which all else is obliterated, and to stay there as long as possible.

“You aren’t really there – you’re with the machine and that’s all you’re with,” one subject said, describing the zone “where nothing else matters.”

This isn’t the only place where gamblers can reach such a state of mind. It’s also known to occur at table games and at the racetrack. But casino machines arguably supply the most immersive, distraction-free gambling experience.

Speed is one design element of modern gambling machines that helps preserve that zone. When the machines’ gear-driven handles were replaced by electronic push-buttons, the number of games that could be played in an hour doubled. On today’s video slots, played with credit cards instead of coins, players can complete a game in as little as three seconds. There is virtually no pause between plays, and virtually no opportunity to process what has just transpired. …

To read more, click here.

 

By Edith Morgan

We give a lot of lip-service to the preciousness of our children, and are forever trying to improve their educational experiences. And now there is much talk about pre-school education, with the hope that here at last is the magic pill that will prepare every child to succeed in the test-crazed environment of our schools.

I am a fervent believer in early childhood education, and if done right, it can be a very beautiful and enlightening experience. My parents, who never even left us with a baby sitter, had enough faith in the public schools to let me attend free public pre-school in 1934 – in Paris, France. Though I have a terrible memory, I still vividly remember one hands-on experience, “dissecting” an orange, and admiring the wonderful structure containing the tiny “juice containers” in each slice – which you can see if you carefully peel back the skin and push out the inside. Try it sometime! Of course we were read to, sang songs, learned rhymes, and were taught many valuable lessons in how to cooperate, take turns, follow directions, etc.

If the idea is merely to prepare toddlers earlier to learn letters and sounds (which takes so long at this age, and is so quick and easy at age 7) it is not worth the money and time… Just stretching an already bad curriculum down two years will simply produce more learning-disabled children, more turned off by school earlier, more disinterested in academics. Save your money and your children if that is the plan.

But if we are serious about really helping our young to be competent, creative, full-fledged human beings, giving them all a good start is worth the money and effort. There are models of what great early education looks like, and they have been around a long time. But are we willing to hire and pay for the best-trained, most experienced early-childhood teachers, give them the environment and supplies they need, and get out of their way? Are we ready to understand that PLAY is the work of young children, and expanding their vocabularies via great literature, poetry, music, and art is job #1?

Too many of our children today come to school with tiny vocabularies, and have to compete with others who have 10 times as many words, and who live in a home where every day they build more ideas and concepts. There is NO way that even the greatest teacher, best school, most wonderful books and music can make up for the daily advantage of a good home. But at the very least, we should do our best to level the playing field a little – not with more testing, more phonics, more drills, but with well-structured experiences that will enable them to start on the road to becoming more than job-seeking drones and eternal consumers. How sad that the richest nation in the world is unwilling to offer its children that great experience, which I had almost 80 years ago in another country.

Activities aimed to help Female Veterans learn more about the services available to them at Bedford VAMC

Bedford – Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital (Bedford VAMC) is hosting a Women’s Tea to celebrate Women’s History Month on March 28,  2 p.m.,  at Bedford VAMC’s Canteen Service Dining Room, located in building 78.

The event will feature a presentation by Air Force Captain Joyce Massello, Retired Reserves, a decorated Vietnam Veteran who served as a flight nurse.   Following Captain Massello’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to socialize and enjoy the displays highlighting women in history, including Edith Nourse Rogers.

The recent growth of female Veterans accessing VA health care has outpaced that of the male Veteran population. VA is stepping up to meet the needs of a growing women Veteran population by enhancing primary care to meet their needs. This is a major undertaking for VA.

“It’s all about personalizing care for our women Veterans so that everything we do supports a patient–centered approach benefiting the Veteran,” said Christine Croteau, acting director at Bedford VAMC. “We are pleased to showcase the services offered at Bedford and to partner with our patient population to provide the care that best meets their specific health care needs.”

The Women’s Tea serves as an important way to highlight female Veterans’ contributions to history, and more specifically, Edith Nourse Rogers, for whom the hospital is named. Bedford VAMC was the first VA hospital named after a woman. Edith Nourse Rogers was the first Congresswomen from New England and was dedicated to Veterans’ issues.  She introduced the unprecedented bill to establish the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1941. When the law passed in 1942, it opened up military service to thousands of women in countless occupations other than nursing.  Edith Nourse Rogers dedicated her life to Veterans’ issues for more than 40 years.  The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was just one of her many accomplishments, which also included the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (commonly known as the G.I. Bill) which provided educational and financial benefits for soldiers returning home from World War II.

By Michael Moore, filmmaker

Friends, I am hosting a nationwide series of house parties this Saturday night where tens of thousands of people will gather together in living rooms to watch ‘Bowling for Columbine’ and then hold a live “town hall” to discuss what the 310 million of us who aren’t members of the NRA are going to do about our continual gun tragedies.

Please, please join me and be part of this! With Senator Harry Reid this week announcing he’s too afraid to bring the assault weapons bill up for a vote – “because we’ll lose!” – you can see how now more than ever that if we the people, on a mass, grassroots level, don’t get it together, the status quo will remain the same and we can just sit back and wait for next week’s gun massacre.

So, I don’t know what you’re doing Saturday night, but I’m asking you to please spend it with me. I need you to email or text or call a few friends, family members, neighbors or co-workers and invite them over to you home to be part of the virtual nationwide gathering – first to watch my movie, and then to participate live, online, with me and a panel I’ve put together to discuss a plan of ACTION. And, as Saturday is only two days away, I need you to make those calls and send those texts TODAY.

Thanks to the good people at Netflix, you’ll be able to watch ‘Bowling for Columbine’ for free this Saturday! Last night we got a call from them and they told us they will stream the movie for free starting tomorrow so everyone can watch it. If you’re already on Netflix, then you’re all set.If you’re not, they’ll give you a free one-month trial subscription so you can stream the movie into your home on Saturday.

There are many other ways to get the movie too, just click here.

This nationwide movie night/town hall is being put on by a number of groups including Moveon, USAction, Progressive Democrats of America, RootsAction and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. This is going to be a big night, so please be part of it. Our plan is to watch the movie at 7:00 PM ET. You can watch it then or you can watch it earlier or later, depending on when’s best to have people over to your house. The only thing that’s at a fixed time is the live online Q &A/discussion with me. That will happen at approximately 9:00 PM ET. It will also be available later on my website in case you can’t join us until 10:00 or 11:00 PM.

Friends, this is the moment to make this happen. The gun lobby is on the ropes but they are confident of victory because there is no comparable group as big and as well-funded on our own side to fight them. What we do have is the majority of Americans who have spoken loud and clear since Newtown that we want, at the bare minimum, some sensible laws passed to bring this gun violence down.

The time is now. Call your friends today and invite them over on Saturday night. We can do this if we all start to act.

See you Saturday!

By Congressman Jim McGovern

What if I told you that within a quick drive of Worcester lies an incredible agriculture community you have never seen, touched, or tasted?

In 2010, there were nearly 8,000 farms in Massachusetts, according to the United States Census—the highest number in the state dating back to at least 1978. And that doesn’t count hundreds of additional community and personal operations that fall below the size threshold.

That’s thousands of farmers, right in our backyard. It’s a testament to the long endurance of some family farms, as well as a sign of the returning, growing impact of farms on our local economy and society.

It’s a move that parallels the so-called “locavore movement” towards locally-grown food over the past decades; a demand that has grown as we have all learned about the economic and health benefits to buying and eating local.

Yet, despite the breadth and increasing number of farms in Massachusetts, in our urban centers such as Worcester, there remains a huge physical and emotional disconnect between the producers (the farmers) and the consumers (us).

Despite the presence of some truly admirable local farmers markets, there is a gap in our food infrastructure that prevents food produced in the state from getting to the consumers who want and would benefit from it the most.

As I’ve travelled around the 2^nd Congressional District, visiting farms across Central and Western Massachusetts, the most oft-cited challenge relayed to me by small to mid-sized farmers and producers is a lack of processing, packing, and storage space to get their products ready to sell and ship.

It leaves us with a major question: What if we could drastically improve the economic output of local farmers, allowing them to grow their businesses, while simultaneously making good, fresh, healthy, locally grown products more available to consumers who want them in cities like Worcester? It’s clear that if we could bridge that gap, there would be a huge impact on our local, regional, and state economies, as well as a huge societal benefit.

I believe that Worcester can be the epicenter of that impact by being the home of an innovative concept known as a “food hub.”

The word “Food Hub” can encompass a variety of operations, both in terms of size and scale, but the National Food Hub Collaboration defines regional food hubs as “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.”

In essence, food hubs allow small and midsized farms reach markets and consumers they’ve never had access to. They provide a central collection point for products from a variety of farms; they provide space and equipment for processing, packing, and storage. And they provide an economy of scale, allowing smaller local farms to pool their products and sell to larger consumers, such as grocery chains.

In many ways, food hubs are a return to the traditional economic values that made Massachusetts and New England so strong.  Food hubs allow for a stronger local food economy based on closer relationships between farmers and consumers. They allow institutional buyers, such as hospitals, a greater opportunity to provide the healthy, local food they want to, but can’t always access.

Though food hubs are relatively new, there is a demonstrable positive economic, social, and environmental impact where they are located. Based on the 2011 National Food Hub Collaboration Survey, food hubs gross nearly $1 million in annual sales on average, with many reporting double and triple-digit annual sales growth.

That same survey reported that, although the majority of food hubs have been in operation for five years or less, there is a clear and immediate impact on job opportunities. For example, the Local Food Hub in Virginia, which opened in 2009, had already created 15 paid jobs at its distribution and farm operations. And that says nothing for the spin-off job growth at the farms that utilize the hub. Green B.E.A.N Delivery, a food delivery business that serves Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, estimates that since 2007, the company has invested more than $2 million in local food economies and helped create more than 100 jobs in the Midwest.

I look at those stunning numbers, combined with the growing demand for local food, and it’s clear that a regional food hub belongs here in our city. This is an idea I am passionate about, and one that I plan on continuing to talk about with local, state, and national partners in the coming year.

Food hubs must be a critical piece of how we think about our broader economic development strategy in Massachusetts, and I believe that Worcester is the right location. We have strong local leadership on local food issues, through groups such as REC, and we have a geographic location that makes us an enviable location for any statewide distribution network.

The question for me isn’t whether we’ll see a food hub built somewhere in Central Massachusetts—it’s when and where. We’re a state with agriculture resources beyond what many of us have traditionally realized, and a consumer base chomping at the bit to take advantage of those resources.  If we can only build the bridges, we’ll be healthier food wise, and economy wise.

By Paula Moore

What are you eating, really? If you’ve been following the news about Europe’s horsemeat scandal — and how could you not, with new developments springing up seemingly every day — you know that consumers who thought that they were buying beef and pork have actually been buying horseflesh. Authorities have found horsemeat in everything from burgers and frozen lasagna to Swedish meatballs.

But that’s Europe’s problem, right? Not so fast. A similar food-labeling scandal is brewing here at home, this one involving fish. It’s raising red flags — and it should make all of us think twice about what, or whom, we are putting on our plates.

A study just released by the ocean-conservation group Oceana has ”uncovered widespread seafood fraud across the United States.” One-third of the more than 1,200 fish samples that Oceana bought from restaurants, supermarkets and sushi bars and DNA-tested were found to be mislabeled. According to the study, premium red snapper is almost never red snapper. “White tuna” is more often escolar, a species that has garnered the unforgettable nickname the “Ex-Lax fish” (more on that in a minute). “Wild” or “king” salmon is often actually cheaper farmed Atlantic salmon.

This pervasive fish fraud affects more than consumers’ purses and palates. It also poses a real health risk.

In what Oceana calls “one of the most egregious swaps,” tilefish—a species that often contains dangerous levels of mercury—is substituted for halibut and red snapper. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns pregnant women, children and other vulnerable populations not to eat tilefish.

High levels of mercury in the body can cause symptoms as diverse as fatigue, depression, difficulty concentrating and headaches. In severe cases, neurological damage can result. A study released in January by Maine’s Biodiversity Research Institute found that fish flesh from around the world is regularly contaminated with mercury levels that exceed human-health guidelines. But because both mercury pollution and fish supplies are global—90 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported—and because, as we now know, mislabeling is common, how can consumers avoid eating tainted fish?

Oceana’s study also revealed that 84 percent of all “white tuna” samples were really escolar. This fish, a deep-sea bottom-feeder, is full of wax esters (similar to castor or mineral oil) that are not digestible by humans, and eating it can cause severe gastrointestinal distress. Think explosive, oily diarrhea distress. There’s a reason why it’s called the Ex-Lax fish. Escolar has been banned outright in Italy and Japan, and several other countries, including Canada, require that it come with warning labels.

But for the fish, none of this really matters. Whether they are tuna or tilapia, farmed or wild-caught, “sustainable” or not, all fish feel pain and they suffer horribly on the journey from sea to supermarket.

When fish are dragged out of their ocean homes in huge nets (along with “non-target” victims such as dolphins and turtles), their gills often collapse, their eyes bulge out of their heads and their swim bladders burst because of the sudden pressure change. Farmed fish suffer from stress, infections and parasites as a result of crowded, filthy and unnatural living conditions. And since many of the most popular species of factory-farmed fish are carnivores, fish must still be caught in the wild to feed fish on farms.

Since the horsemeat scandal broke, many consumers in Europe have stopped buying meat altogether and have switched to eating vegetarian meals. Anyone concerned about their own health (or animal welfare) should do the same, no matter where they live. Going vegetarian reduces your risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity and many other ills. And while consuming mislabeled meat or fish can put you at risk, you’re in little danger if you mistake a kumquat for a kiwi.

By Edith Morgan

Many of us have them – shoe boxes scrapbooks, drawers full of letters and postcards, some already yellowed with age; pictures of scenes already changed beyond recognition.

And even if the signatures are sometimes illegible, the body of each is clearly in the writer’s own hand, with the slants and curlicues  particular to that person, betraying so much about the writer that is lost in e-mails and other mechanical messages.

I still write letters, though I have e-mail, facebook, and all the other devices of modern communications. And at 46 cents  my letters are a bargain of individuality and permanence in an ephemeral world. So it is with great anger that I have witnessed two or more decades of attempts to kill off the Constitutionally-mandated Post Office. I have always been willing to pay extra taxes to keep it alive, because I  know  of NO private business which can or wishes to deliver the many, often unheralded, services performed daily  by the U.S. Post Office; and they are worth fighting for: to retain the guaranteed privacy, the universal delivery to the outermost places, the freedom to mail in my precious vote if I so choose, hearing from my elected officials about what they are doing, and getting the “oddball” magazines and newsletters that fill the details on the news others do not see fit to print – all at a reasonable price, and not eliminated because they are “not profitable”. And it has been good to know that the hundreds of thousands of mail carriers are decently paid, have good benefits, and can retire comfortably after so many years of slogging through snow, sleet, gales, heat waves and floods to get my mail to me and to all Americans, here and in the service of our country. I always know who delivers my mail, and appreciate the extra things like taking letters to be mailed for me when I can not get to the mailbox or post office myself. Do FedEx and UPS do all that? No, It is not profitable….

In a decent society, not everything can be made to  yield a profit for investors – some things are services, and should remain so:  we have already gone much too far in giving up vital services, turning them into businesses that are only concerned with the bottom line: our airwaves are for sale to the highest bidder, our children are increasingly being turned into obedient, low-paid workers, our prisons are profit pits , and even our military services are money makers for private contractors who enrich  themselves and deliver cut-rate goods with our tax money.

The attack on the Postal Service should no longer go unchallenged: Congress must lift the unfair burden that requires the Post Office to pay their pension obligations ahead for 75 years, and in only ten years. No other private or public agency is asked to do this: it would lead to bankruptcy. No more small offices should be closed down, especially in small, rural areas where they are often the only resource available, And in many places, delivering the mail is the only avenue to a decent, steady job. In a time of unemployment, It is a crime to lay off tens of thousands of workers all over the U.S. and disrupt a successful system that delivers so many benefits to so many…

Let’s get behind our mail carriers, and flood our representatives with our protests. NOW!!

Click here to listen to song!

By Deb Young

There is no greater therapy than the love of a dog.

This animal/human love bond is demonstrated every day in millions of homes around the world. It is also the basis for what is becoming a powerful, common mode of therapy in many facilities.

A therapy dog is a dog trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and hospices, people with learning difficulties, and stressful situations, such as disaster areas.

Therapy dogs come in all sizes and breeds. The most important characteristic of a therapy dog is its temperament. A good therapy dog must be friendly, patient, confident, gentle, and at ease in all situations. Therapy dogs must enjoy human contact and be content to be petted and handled, sometimes clumsily. Click to continue »