City Council Liveblog–1/16/10

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

We’re back after a week off. Tonight will hopefully be as eventful as the agenda promises.

7:09: Here we go. Clancy and Germain aren’t here.

7:10: J. O’Brien begins by thanking people for their time and money spent at Friday’s Haiti fundraiser.

7:14: Commissioner Mikielian, the city’s Director of Inspectional Services, is leaving for Savannah, GA, and the councilors and City Manager are giving him his props. Haller says he’s done wonders for D4, Toomey says it’s important to note there are city employees–including him–who don’t work 9 to 5, and she says that his hard work carried over into nights and weekends. Eddy says that during his campaigning he had an ally in Mikielian. Smith says it seems like they’ve had a retirement like this every week. Petty says he would see him every morning while getting they got their coffee, and that Mikielian has helped address cleaning up neighborhoods during his tenure. Palmieri loved that Mikielian would answer the phone directly when called. Rushton wishes him the best, and hopes he doesn’t have to be like Dr. Morse and come back four or five times.

Robbery on Park Ave.

Word is that TD Bank on Park Avenue was robbed just a little while ago. No details, other than the suspect did get away with some money. Nothing yet about whether he had a weapon.

Free vegan donuts

Members of VegWorcester.com and Compassion Over Killing will gather outside of Dunkin’ Donuts at 421 Main St. on Jan. 27 at 9 a.m. to hand out free samples of vegan baked goods — including vegan donuts — and to urge Dunkin’ Donuts to offer vegan options. The press release says, in part:

In August 2009, a COK investigator worked inside an egg factory farm owned by Michael Foods, one of the nation’s largest egg producers that also supplies egg products to Dunkin’ Donuts. COK documented horrific abuses including:
• Hens immobilized in the wires of their cages,
• Decomposing corpses left in cages with live birds,
• Hens suffering from overcrowding,
• And severe feather loss, untreated injuries, and other abuses.
“No responsible company should support this animal cruelty,” said COK’s executive director Erica Meier. “Dunkin’ Donuts can — and should — make the right decision by removing eggs from its donuts and offering more humane vegan menu items.”
For more information, visit DunkinCruelty.com. Video-quality footage of the Michael Foods investigation available upon request.

Over on our A&E blog…

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Over on WorcesterDiversions is a link to an article that proposes MTV’s show “Jersey Shore” set its sights on a different cultural sub-group that’s here in Massachusetts, and creates a hypothetical character from Worcester.