News Around Town October 8, 2013

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   More political - and musical - ramblings

  27 days and 3 city council meetings from now!
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20131105T00&p0=43&msg=Election+Day+2013+McGlynn+Removal

   There are only 3 more city council meetings until the November 5th election - tonight - October 8, October 22 and, of course, the Halloween edition of the council on October 29.  October 29th, by the way, is the 5 year anniversary of the Judge Marie O. Jackson-Thompson evaluation hearing (and the seventh year anniversary of the passing of my dear friend Jo Jo Laine.  We were in the middle of negotiating an album deal for Jo Jo but when she passed away we shelved the project out of respect. The label thought we should release it immediately as a tribute - Get Back Jo Jo featured Laine singing Beatles songs - "Come Together," "Here Comes the Sun," "It Don't Come Easy," "Blackbird" etc. etc.  There is a nice release, Japanese Tears, out on Takoma/EMI which features Jo Jo and her ex-husband as well as members of Wings, Paul & Linda and the gang. )

   Paul McCartney was on Jimmy Kimmel last night.  Good interview though the gushing from Kimmel was a bit over the top.  It was a bit put on and ended up put-off-ish but Sir Paul carried the show.  Kimmel did a better job with actor David Duchovny though this new crop of Jimmy Fallon / Jimmy Kimmel / Conan O'Brien / Craig Ferguson just don't do it for me (side note: WBCN's Charles Laquidara raves about Ferguson on Facebook so what do I know?)    The old days of Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson and Joan Rivers (what a mistake not keeping Joan's show on the air) and the early days of Arsenio Hall, or Bill Maher currently, a little more mature and inspiring.  Cavett's bringing Janis Joplin and actress Raquel Welch together was perfect chemistry and he just had to sit back and let those two intelligent women do the show for him.  It was amazing TV which we can watch on DVD these days because the art of focusing on the guest seems lost to the mainstream (another reason why access television is so important.)

Watch Sir Paul Live
http://news.radio.com/2013/10/08/watch-paul-mccartney-preview-new-album-on-jimmy-fallon/




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  27 days from now!    KNOW YOUR CANDIDATES
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20131105T00&p0=43&msg=Election+Day+2013+McGlynn+Removal

     So there's a rumor going around that yours truly was denied the opportunity to be a panelist at candidate's night because the people at candidate's night invited an editor (never mentioning my name) and the editor declined!  For the record, if you subscribe to the MedfordMass Yahoogroup, I put in my name as a television host.  It should also be noted that in my July 29th letter I made it clear that I knew they would have to come up with some excuse.  You see, the candidate's night is presented by the Democratic City and Ward Committee which has as its Chair of Ward 2 a certain 26 year incumbent Mayor.  For more details tune in to Comcast Channel 22 tonight (the Verizon Government Channel is in the 40's I believe) and hear my discussion of Candidates Night, which will be held on October 16th.

   On October 15th there will not be a city council meeting because of the election (like, we're not going to have council meetings because it is summer, we're not going to have council meetings because there's a primary for the 5th Congressional seat, ho hum...such a deal when about $200,000.00 is spent on a city council that should be required to have a meeting 52 weeks out of the year.  That's not a lot to ask.)  On October 15th there will be a bullying forum.  I''ll post the information from MadeInMedford which is a Comcast additional public access venue so the use of the press release is fair game:
Bullying???
What is it? How can we avoid it? How do we respond to it?
All parents and students are welcome!
Hosts:
Paul Donato, State Representative
Ann Marie Cugno, Medford School Committee, MASC president-elect
Featured speakers:
Marian T. Ryan, Middlesex District Attorney
Carly Burton, Deputy Director of Mass Equality
Jeannine Marie Lenehan, Communicationn Coordinator of Child Development, Tufts University
Guests include:
Margie Daniels, Executive Director, Middlesex Partnership for Youth, Inc.
Medford School Superintendent Roy Belson
Medford Police Chief Leo Sacco
Medford Police Officer Jim Riccardi, Resource Officer
Medford Police Officer Pat O’Keefe, DARE program
Where and When:
Medford High School
Marsha Caron Theater
489 Winthrop Street, Medford
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
6:30-8:00pm
http://madeinmedford.com/2013/10/04/anti-bullying-forum-on-october-15/
TWO COURT CASES THE MEDIA NEEDS TO ADDRESS
   This morning in Somerville Court, October 8, 2013, was a date with an individual who was accused of making a false bomb threat.  That fact alone is reason for the press to pick up on the story, but the Patch was the only publication to offer any information, posting the September 4 arrest of that individual, the webmaster for the now-defunct Medford Community Cablevision, Inc.  The weekly paper jumped on the story 30 days later, the incumbent mayor allegedly trying to keep too much information out of the public eye since he was not only a good friend of the defendant, the Mayor took time out from the School Committee to praise the individual who already had myriad complaints lodged against previous wrongful conduct, including a reprimand from the City Solicitor after a woman filed a complaint on the defendant about a decade ago.  
   People aren't gloating over this - in fact - there seems to be genuine anger out there that the authorities did not move more efficiently (read: more quickly) to rein in the nonsense from a politically connected bully who mocked a senior citizen, women, an autistic man, a fellow homosexual ...as City Solicitor Rumley dubbed the TV3 crowd "equal opportunity slappers."   Don't laugh - the fact that Mr. Rumley made that remark in his official capacity to me in his office means that City Hall was well aware of the problem.   This one falls squarely on the shoulders of Michael J. McGlynn and he's running from it at 90 miles per hour.
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    Which brings us back to the West Medford Hillside Little League case that broke last December, 2012.  Why has the media dropped that story? The individual that had control over the WMHLL was in power just about as long as the individual that ran the also-defunct Medford Community Cablevision, Inc.  Both non-profits need to be scrutinized, there are similar patterns of control, lack of transparency and failure to do what the public needed those organizations, those well-funded organizations, to do for the community.
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   Today's Medford Mercury
   Since the Merc is pretty much a print edition only, I don't think the Patch editors will mind highlighting two stories.  
   The first is the passing of Claire McGlynn Valente, the Mayor's aunt on September 30th.  Mike McGlynn gave a touching moment of silence for his aunt at the School Committee on October 7th.  The obit is on page 6.
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   The second story is on page 2, "CITIZEN OF THE MOMENT" for Medford is Tony Bova, "longtime Medford Recreational Hockey officer."  Mr. Bova produced a wonderful hockey show on Channel 3 which, as most residents know, vanished under the old regime.
   Here's a note to Mr. Bova: as we citizens work to bring a flourishing access TV station to Medford, you are one of the Medford access legends we want to see back on the air.

   More breaking news as it arrives.  Stay tuned.

http://medford.patch.com/groups/rock-journalist-joe-vig-/p/27-days-to-election-only-3-more-council-meetings-to-november-5