R.I.S.E. Newspaper Hits the Streets!!! Resources Information Services Employment

Blackstonian Exclusive

During this past Juneteenth/Father's Day Weekend Distribution started throughout the streets of Boston with a new survival guide just for you! R.I.S.E. Resources Information Services Employment was created to give you all the information you need in a one shot deal!



Get yours online here (PDF format):
DOWNLOAD THE R.I.S.E. Community Survival guide

AND Visit these Community Locations:
A Nubian Notion (Dudley Sq.)
Everything is Real Barber Shop (Dudley Sq.)
Roxbury Boys & Girls Club (Dudley Sq.)
Roxbury YMCA (Warren & MLK)
24/7 Variety Store (Grove Hall)
Mattapan's Finest (Grove Hall)
Mecca's Boutique (Grove Hall)
Back To The Roots (Grove Hall)
Peace Convenience (Codman Sq.)

READ MORE - R.I.S.E. Newspaper Hits the Streets!!! Resources Information Services Employment

Blackstonian supports Ayanna Pressley for re-election to Boston City Council

Blackstonian supports Ayanna Pressley for re-election to Boston City Council

Since her Historic win to become the 1st Black Woman elected as an At-Large Boston City Councilor, Ayanna Pressley has been very busy working on issues of importance to our community. Her work around Women's and Girl's issues has been important, working to ensure safe, healthy families free of abuse and neglect.  Recently, Councilor Pressley revealed her own personal experience in an effort to shed light on the problem of Sexual Assault on College campuses, which resulted in a recent hearing on the matter.  Time and time again, Pressley has shown that she is smart, courageous and committed. It is the opinion of the Blackstonian that Pressley is the strongest new voice to emerge on the Council in over a decade.

The Blackstonian is pleased to support Ayanna Pressley in her campaign to be re-elected Boston City Councilor At-Large.

(photo from Ayanna Pressley campaign. All rights reserved)

Ayanna Pressley Website

Get involved with the Ayanna Pressley for Boston City Council campaign

Ayanna Pressley Facebook

Ayanna Pressley Twitter

READ MORE - Blackstonian supports Ayanna Pressley for re-election to Boston City Council

Judges rips gun access at sentencing of ‘career criminal’

Judges rips gun access at sentencing of ‘career criminal’

By Laura Crimaldi  |   Wednesday, April 27, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

A Hub judge disgusted by easy access to guns on city streets sentenced a Dorchester “career criminal” to 14 to 15 years behind bars today for paralyzing a 19-year-old who was trying to shield his younger brother from gunfire.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly said the confrontation that left Joao Perreira without the full use of his legs would have only been a quickly forgotten fist fight if the suspect did not have an illegal .357 magnum.

“This was a very, very serious crime that I’m sure nobody thought was going to happen that night,” Connolly said before sentencing Daunte Beal, 23. “Once again the availability of guns. Guns, guns. guns. If the guns were not available this would have never have happened. ... The availability of guns is the biggest problem in this city.”

Perreira and his brother, Ovidido, then 15, were at a birthday party on July 13, 2008, when the shooting took place, prosecutors said.

Beal shot at Perreira and his brother after a confrontation with a group of people who threw bottles at Beal’s car. One bottle shattered a car window and struck Beal in the head, drawing blood, prosecutors said.

That incident was preceded by a verbal argument earlier in the evening that was settled amicably, prosecutors said. Authorities said Beal drove to the Howard Avenue party after that confrontation and threatened to slap anyone who had a problem.

After being struck, Beal got out of his car carrying a .357 magnum revolver, prosecutors said. The Perreira brothers and another man ran to the back of a nearby building as Beal tailed them, firing twice. The brothers ran to a porch and tried to open a locked door to escape. Prosecutors said Beal fired three more times at the brothers from 6 to 8 feet away. A bullet struck Jaoa Perreira in the lower back, leaving him in a wheelchair most of the time, prosecutors said.

The brothers did not attend the sentencing.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Janezic asked for a harsher sentence that would have put Beal away for 29 to 30 years. Under career criminal laws, Beal had to serve a minimum of 10 years because of his prior convictions for assault and battery, cocaine possession and assault and battery on a public employee, Janezic said.

Beal, dressed in a sweater, dress shirt, neck tie and eye glasses, waved to his parents and siblings as he was led away in handcuffs and leg shackles.

His father, Leon Beal, said his son is innocent and appealing the jury’s decision.

“I don’t see how he was found guilty,” he said. “I have sympathy for (Perreira) but my concern is for my child.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1333704

READ MORE - Judges rips gun access at sentencing of ‘career criminal’

Running into trouble?

Running into trouble?

By Adrian Walker
Globe Columnist / April 23, 2011

You might remember the glossy campaign brochure, the one that proclaimed the current mayor good, but his challenger better.

Or the quirky 11th-hour alliance between the second- and third-place primary finishers, who believed that united they could topple the longest-serving mayor in city history.

Quirky might be good, but it didn’t turn out to be better, at least not in the minds of Boston voters. They sent Michael F. Flaherty to a hard-fought but sound defeat in the 2009 mayor’s race. True, Flaherty came closer than any Menino challenger ever had, but that isn’t really saying much. Menino garnered 57 percent of the vote, cruising to a 15-point win.

It was Flaherty’s classic, coulda-been-a-contender moment. And since then, his challenge has been to craft an encore. For months now, he has been semipublicly mulling a run for the City Council and is said to be close to announcing a decision, maybe as soon as next week.

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/04/23/running_into_trouble/

READ MORE - Running into trouble?

Mayor Menino: Filene’s pit? So what! Moves forward, says stalled project ‘not my fault’

Mayor Menino: Filene’s pit? So what!
Moves forward, says stalled project ‘not my fault’

N.Y.-BOSTON RIVALRY: Mayor Thomas Menino, right- speaking with Sam Carlyle, co-owner of Scholars American Bistro in Downtown Crossing yesterday- blamed Vornado Realty Trust’s Steve Roth for the hole at the former Filene’s site.
Photo by Angela Rowlings
By Jerry Kronenberg  |   Thursday, April 14, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Business & Markets

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is giving New York’s Vornado Realty Trust a Bronx cheer, saying he no longer cares how long the developer leaves a hole where Downtown Crossing’s Filene’s building once stood.

“People say to me: ‘Oh, you’ve got a hole there (in Downtown Crossing)’ — so what!” Menino said yesterday at a reception for some 40 businesses that recently opened nearby. “The hole is going to be there until those folks from New York understand we in Boston know how to do development. And just because they can’t get development done, that’s not my fault.”

Vornado tore down the landmark Filene’s building in 2008 to make way for what was supposed to be a $700 million development featuring stores, condos, offices and a hotel.

But the project stalled a few months later when Vornado claimed it couldn’t get financing.

However, questions arose after Vornado chief Steven Roth boasted in a 2010 speech that his firm once left a Manhattan building half-demolished to make the area blighted and win government aid.

Roth’s comments prompted Menino to threaten to take the Filene’s site by eminent domain, and Hub officials ultimately yanked Vornado’s building approvals.

The firm has since put the property up for sale, but has failed to find a buyer — reportedly because Vornado set an unrealistically high price.

Menino yesterday told the Herald he’s stopped focusing on what the developer does.

“If they want to be stubborn — if they want to be arrogant — that’s too bad, (but) we’ll just keep moving forward,” he said. “I’m not going to let Vornado stop us from growing in Boston. If those New Yorkers want to be arrogant and think they can hold us up — we’re Boston, we’re much tougher.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1330637

READ MORE - Mayor Menino: Filene’s pit? So what! Moves forward, says stalled project ‘not my fault’

$2.4B budget eliminates programs, jobs

$2.4B budget eliminates programs, jobs

By Dave Wedge  |   Wednesday, April 13, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

The city is pulling 30 staffers out of five community centers and bracing for potential layoffs in the schools and possibly other departments as part of a tight $2.4 billion spending plan set to be unveiled today.

The budget calls for the Boston Centers for Youth and Families to stop running city-funded programs on June 30 at the Kent School in Charlestown, Tynan School in South Boston, Harbor School in Dorchester, Orchard Gardens School in Roxbury and the Mason Pool in Roxbury.

“I’m greatly concerned about losing another resource,” said state Rep. Nick Collins, who represents South Boston and parts of Dorchester. “I have received some calls from constituents about it. With summer coming, this is a great concern.”

The city hopes to avoid closing the five community centers by bringing in non-profit groups to run programs.

The budget, which Mayor Thomas M. Menino will present to the council this morning, also figures in the elimination of 240 school jobs, many of which will be cut through retirements and attrition, as well as staffing changes due to the department’s closure of nine schools and merging of eight others into four. Officials said there could be school layoffs but just how many will be unknown until the fall.

“There are still challenges, and we’re asking each department head to do more with less,” said Councilor Mark Ciommo, head of the council’s Ways and Means Committee. “We’ve laid the groundwork the past couple years toward sustainability, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Most departments will be funded at the same level as 2011 under the plan, but the Police Department would see a $2 million cut, shutting down one of the department’s “neighborhood interaction units” — a civilian call center for non-emergency calls.

Despite the cuts, the city is bringing in a new police class in June and is planning to hire 35 new cops.

Health-care costs continue to hamstring the city and are due to hit $315 million in 2012 — a $17.5 million increase — while city officials project state aid cuts of up to $37 million.

The budget also includes $8 million toward the design of Menino’s highly touted redevelopment of the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square, a $115 million project that will transfer hundreds of city workers to new digs in the Roxbury neighborhood.

— -dwedge@bostonherald.com

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1330366

READ MORE - $2.4B budget eliminates programs, jobs

City Council considers dedicating conference room to first black member

City Council considers dedicating conference room to first black member

Posted by Martin Finucane April 6, 2011 12:57 PM
By Jenna Duncan, Globe Correspondent

The Boston City Council is set to vote today on naming a new conference room after Thomas I. Atkins, the first African-American city councilor, at today’s meeting.

After some space at City Hall was reorganized and a new conference room was created, Councilor-at-Large Felix G. Arroyo knew he wanted to name it in Atkins's memory.

“We want to make sure he’s remembered in this building and in the body he served,” he said.

Atkins was elected in 1967, serving on the council from 1968 to 1971 and took a lead role when Boston schools were desegregated. He went on to be the first person of color to hold a state Cabinet post, and served as executive director of the Boston Chapter of the NAACP.

“As students of Boston history, we should all remember Thomas Atkins,” said Arroyo.

The potential naming of the conference room follows a tradition in the City Council of naming large spaces at City Hall after influential former council members.

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/04/city_council_co_1.html?p1=Local_Links

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Alleged perv: I just ‘wanted a massage’ Boston worker nabbed in sex sting

Alleged perv: I just ‘wanted a massage’
Boston worker nabbed in sex sting

By Marie Szaniszlo  |   Wednesday, April 6, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage
Photo by Nancy Lane

A Boston Public Health Commission employee accused of soliciting sex online from a minor told the Herald yesterday that he only wanted a massage when he answered an ad taken out by an undercover cop posing as a 15-year-old girl.

Jeanclaude Quach, a 36-year-old data analyst and married father of two, was arrested in a police sting Monday.

“I answered the ad because the girl said she was 18, and I wanted a massage,” Quach said yesterday after his Dorchester District Court arraignment. “I never said the word ‘sex.’ She said we can do this and that, and in my last e-mail, I think I said, ‘Sure.’ I couldn’t turn her away. . . . Right now, all I care about is my family.”

Quach arranged to meet the “girl” at Papa Gino’s on Gallivan Boulevard at 7:30 p.m. Monday, police said. Shortly after 7, the defendant arrived in a white BMW, looked in the pizzeria’s window, used an ATM next door and circled the block several times before officers dialed his cell phone, police said. He answered and was arrested moments later on Minot Street.

Quach pleaded not guilty to enticement of a child, posted $2,500 bail and was released, pending a June 1 hearing, on the condition that he stay away from children younger than 16, other than his own.

Quach, who has worked for the public health commission since 2002, was placed on administrative leave, with pay, from his $77,841-a-year job, said Christian Nielsen, a commission spokesman.

Lisa Goldblatt Grace, program director for My Life, My Choice, which works to prevent and intervene in the commercial sexual exploitation of girls, said the average age of entry into the industry is between 12 to 15 years old.

“We know that the old notion of the commercial sex industry as a victimless crime is not accurate,” said Goldblatt Grace. “The industry is replete with victims. And when someone makes the choice to buy sex, they are doing enormous harm.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1328696

READ MORE - Alleged perv: I just ‘wanted a massage’ Boston worker nabbed in sex sting

FBI had secret tape on Felix D. Arroyo

FBI had secret tape on Felix D. Arroyo

By Laurel J. Sweet  |   Tuesday, April 5, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

With his retirement to Uruguay on the horizon, former Boston City Councilor Felix D. Arroyo is good-humoredly brushing off the bombshell news that he was secretly recorded in his City Hall office by the same FBI snitch who helped send former Councilor Chuck Turner and state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson to prison for taking bribes.

It is unclear why Arroyo, the father of sitting Councilor-at-Large Felix G. Arroyo, was taped in 2007 or what his conversation with Hub businessman-turned-informant Ronald Wilburn was about. The taping came to light in last month’s unsealing of Wilburn’s March 3, 2009, federal grand jury testimony.

Arroyo said yesterday he has no memory of their meeting. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Wilburn cast no aspersions on Arroyo in his testimony and Arroyo was never charged with anything.

“Hey, God bless them,” Arroyo said yesterday of the feds. “I guess you have to go fishing from time to time, and sometimes you catch a fish. The only surprise is that they didn’t tell me.”

The 62-year-old grandfather noted he will step down from his $92,000 post as director of community services for the state Department of Transitional Assistance in November and move to Uruguay to write.

His 31-year-old son, who worked as support staff for federal prosecutors in the late 1990s, told the Herald, “I’m proud of my father. They (the feds) were clearly in the middle of an investigation. They were doing their job. What they found with my father is what I’d expect them to find: nothing.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1328388

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Campaign eyes Mass. redistricting, minority voting

Campaign eyes Mass. redistricting, minority voting

By Associated Press  |   Monday, March 28, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

BOSTON — A coalition of advocates has launched a campaign to strengthen the voting power of Massachusetts’ Latinos, blacks and Asian Americans during redistricting efforts.

The "Drawing Democracy Project" will urge residents to attend statewide hearing dates on redistricting and put pressure on state officials as they redraw voting district lines.

Common Cause, MassVote and Oiste (oh-EE’-steh) — a group that trains Latinos to run for office — are part of the campaign.

Minority advocates have complained that previous redistricting plans packed minority groups together and weakened their voting potential.

The project comes after census data showed significant population increases among blacks, Latinos and Asian-Americans in Massachusetts.

A 24-member panel is redrawing the state’s congressional districts to reflect the loss of one seat in the U.S. House due to population shifts.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1326623

READ MORE - Campaign eyes Mass. redistricting, minority voting

Important Public Information Phone Numbers

GTNA PUBLIC INFORMATION PHONE LIST

 Important Phone Numbers

DEPARTMENT/SUBJECT PHONE 

All Numbers Prefix (617)

Car Tow Lot 635-3900

Airplane Noise Complaints 561-3333 (Massport)

Animal Control 635-5349
Rodent Control 635-5352

Assessing 635-4264/4287

Code Enforcement 635-4896

Community Centers 635-4920

Consumer Complaint (City) 635-3834

Consumer Complaint (State) 727-8400

Elderly Affairs Commission 635-4366

Elections 635-4634

Electricity Issues 1-800-592-2000

Report Gas Leak 617-469-2300

Homebuyer Information 635-4663

Home Improvement Program 635-0600 (Loans & Grants)
ISD Building Issues 961-3268

ISD Housing & Sanitary 635-5322

Jobs and Community Services 918-5200

Landlord & Tenant Mediation 635-4200

Licensing 635-4165/4170

Mayor's Office/24-Hour Service 635-4500

MBTA Complaints 222-5215

MBTA Information 222-3200

Minority Business Enterprise 635-4084

Neighborhood Services 635-3485

Parks and Recreation 635-4505

Police Area B-2 343-4270

Police Head Quarters 343-4200

Registry of Motor Vehicles 351-4500

School Department 635-9000

Snow Removal 635-7560

State House 727-2121

Street Cleaning 635-7555

Street Lighting 635-7500

Street Repair 635-4963

Transportation 635-4680

Trash Pick-Up, Public Works 635-4941, 635-7555, 635-7573

Water and Sewer 989-7000

Zoning Board of Appeals 635-4775

Information provided by:

Garrison-Trotter Neighborhood Association
P.O. Box 191938, Roxbury 02119

garrisontrotter@gmail.com

READ MORE - Important Public Information Phone Numbers

Hundreds celebrate as Jackson joins City Council 35-year-old cites safe streets, jobs, schools as priorities

Hundreds celebrate as Jackson joins City Council
35-year-old cites safe streets, jobs, schools as priorities

Jackson thanked his mother, Rosa, for her support growing up. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
By Matt Carroll
Globe Staff / March 27, 2011

Tito H. Jackson was sworn in as a city councilor yesterday before a raucous crowd of several hundred supporters in an event that was part campaign rally and part community celebration — with a dose of official business thrown in.

The festive occasion reflected the optimism and enthusiasm residents of District 7 see in the new councilor and also relief at closing a tumultuous chapter on former City Councilor Chuck Turner, who entered a federal prison on Friday following his bribery conviction.

The event, at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury, was packed to overflowing with supporters from the district, from across the city, and beyond. People munched fried chicken and corn bread, cheered singers, and applauded dancers. But most of all, they cheered the 35-year-old lifelong resident of Grove Hall, who was sworn in before the full City Council and took his seat to cheers of “Tito! Tito!’’

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/03/27/hundreds_celebrate_as_jackson_joins_city_council/

READ MORE - Hundreds celebrate as Jackson joins City Council 35-year-old cites safe streets, jobs, schools as priorities

In Roxbury, new Jacksonian era

In Roxbury, new Jacksonian era
By Peter Gelzinis  |   Sunday, March 27, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Columnists

Photo by Ted Fitzgerald

For the past couple of years, Roxbury’s political landscape has been dominated by Dianne Wilkerson’s sullen sphinx on one side and Chuck Turner’s snarling goatee on the other.

Yesterday, it basked in the warmth of Tito Jackson’s smile.

Exactly 24 hours after Chuck Turner began his three-year federal prison sentence in West Virginia, his exuberant 35-year-old successor to the District 7 seat was sworn in.

“I want to tear down walls and build bridges,” Jackson told me, a half-hour before Mayor Tom Menino and 11 city councilors came to Dudley Square to administer the oath of office to their new colleague.

“I want people to know that Roxbury is the center of Boston,” Jackson said. “As goes Roxbury, so goes the city of Boston. I want them to know that economic development and jobs need to — and will be — flowing into this community.

“This is a community that has gone through so much politically, has gone through so much economically, but it is indeed still standing,” he said. “It’s a community of survivors.”

Yesterday, that community of survivors ecstatically embraced the adopted son of the late community activist Herb Jackson and his wife, Rosa, as its newest, and perhaps its brightest hope.

Indeed, the atmosphere inside Roxbury’s refurbished Hibernian Hall felt more like a huge family reunion or a wedding, rather than the christening of a new political voice.

But the significance of the moment wasn’t lost on Mayor Menino or the City Council.

Given the political tsunami that has washed over District 7, Steve Murphy, the council president, felt it was important to convene a special council meeting in Dudley Square “for the express purpose of swearing in Tito.”

“He’s got so much energy and optimism,” Murphy said, “I think we’re all looking forward to working with him.”

East Boston’s Sal LaMattina agreed: “This is a very good day for the city. Tito’s got so much energy and optimism. He’s someone who adds a lot to the public discussion.”

So what happened in Dudley Square yesterday was a kind of mini state-of-the-city moment, complete with the mayor and the councilors filing down the middle of this famous banquet hall with all the necessary downtown pomp and circumstance.

“What we’re doing today,” Tito Jackson said, “ is rebuilding, we’re connecting, we’re collaborating, we’re partnering for that new Roxbury, that new District 7, which I think will impact a new city of Boston. I want to make sure that this community and the whole city of Boston is connected.

“A kid from Roxbury should be able to go to any other part of the city,” Jackson said, “and a kid from any other part of the city should be able to come to Roxbury.”

Amen.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1326362

READ MORE - In Roxbury, new Jacksonian era

Ayanna Pressley on CNN with Steve Perry

Ayanna Pressley on CNN with Steve Perry

READ MORE - Ayanna Pressley on CNN with Steve Perry

Turner grooms successor, targets foes Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Turner grooms successor, targets foes
Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Chuck Turner headed to a speaking event yesterday at Northeastern University.
(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)
By Andrew Ryan
Globe Staff / March 25, 2011

Chuck Turner sent a trove of e-mails in the 36 days he served on the Boston City Council after his felony conviction: He groomed his successor, Tito Jackson; sparred with critics; and fanned resentment against councilors who voted to expel him.

He also reveled in constant affirmation from his followers, and he refused an offer to lobby prosecutors for leniency, saying that would amount to “collaborating with the enemy.’’

“From a consciousness-raising standpoint, the best thing would be for them to put me in jail,’’ Turner explained in an e-mail to his staff Nov. 8.

That day has come for the 70-year-old, who is required to report to the Bureau of Prisons today and begin serving a three-year term at a Hazelton federal penitentiary in Morgantown, W.Va.

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/25/ex_councilor_chuck_turner_grooms_successor_targets_foes/?page=full

READ MORE - Turner grooms successor, targets foes Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Chuck Turner goes out roaring

Chuck Turner goes out roaring
By Colneth Smiley Jr.  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

Photo by Herald File

On the eve of his departure for a three-year prison sentence, Chuck Turner last night gave a barn-burning speech — billed as “Framing the Innocent” — to an overflow crowd of rapturous supporters at Northeastern University.

“If we’re allowing the prosecutors to target those who are speaking up and trying to bring justice and we’re allowing them to tear them down, then obviously we’re not going to be able to achieve our other objectives in terms of equity,” he said. “We can’t allow the system to be controlled by rogues who are operating in the interests of the oligarchy rather than the interests of the people of the country.”

The longtime city councilor was convicted last fall of accepting a bribe from an FBI informant.

His address — interrupted repeatedly by applause — drew 130 supporters inside and dozens outside the lecture-style classroom, and Turner exited to a crowd chanting “Chuck! Chuck!”

Turner told the waiting backers to visit supportchuck turner.com, and urged his former constituents to become his pen pals.

“I’m going to be sent to Hazleton Penetentiary, a minimum-security camp in front of the maximum-security prison,” in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., Turner said.

“I put my address in the (Bay State) Banner so people can write to me.”

The ex-councilor promised to write back.

“I intend to keep writing, particularly about things that are going on in Boston,” he said.

“I think sharing my perspectives with everyone will be helpful in terms of the community keeping together.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325942

READ MORE - Chuck Turner goes out roaring

A stitch to pass the time

A stitch to pass the time

By James Hinton  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

A crocheting expert yesterday said convicted City Councilor Chuck Turner may well benefit from the arts and crafts program offered at the low-security satellite camp at the federal Hazelton penitentiary.

“I have had several customers that have learned to knit and crochet while incarcerated and they’re really pretty skilled at it,” said Annissa Essaibi-George, owner of Stitch House in Dorchester. “I know for lots of my customers it’s a way of distracting yourself from any personal challenges you may be facing.”

Essaibi-George noted the age-old art offers mental-health benefits that have made it an increasingly popular pastime for law-abiding citizens and cons alike.

“Lots of people do take crocheting and knitting as a relaxing technique, because it is a way of releasing tension and anxiety,” she said. “They definitely take it up as a hobby for therapeutic purposes.”

Turner will have three years to master the art — and the populist politician may come to value the egalitarian culture of crocheters.

“In knitting circles our only initial bond is our craft, so under regular circumstances I might not have too much in common with a convicted criminal, but crafts help bring people together,” Essaibi-George said. “It’s a nice opportunity for people to come together and meet on a mutual playing field.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325934

READ MORE - A stitch to pass the time

Locked up, but not shutting up

Locked up, but not shutting up

By Peter Gelzinis  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Columnists

As expected, Chuck Turner did not go gently into that miserable night of prison.

Personally, I like that.

There’s something endearing about Chuck going off to jail in West Virginia with his fists clenched, screaming about how he was “set up” by the morally bankrupt FBI before a crowd of supporters at Northeastern University last night.

It’s just too bad Chuck didn’t scream about all this three years ago, when Ron Wilburn slipped a wad of cash in his palm.

That’s when Chuck, the community activist, the grassroots pol, the old social radical should have gone to the press and yelled, “They’re trying to frame me!” That’s when we might have believed him.

But he didn’t. Instead, Chuck took the dough.

Those who love him foolishly continue to argue against visual evidence of cash being tucked into Chuck’s fist, in what he would infamously call “a preacher’s handshake.”

“What if it was only 20 bucks instead of a thousand?” one true believer argued yesterday. Sadly, you can’t seem to convince them a bribe is a bribe is a bribe. The amount is not the point.

It’s the breach of trust, the grabbing of the cash.

Make no mistake about it, Chuck Turner is right when he talks about the moral bankruptcy of the FBI. Their history in Boston is indeed deplorable.

The federal government has already shelled out well more than $100 million in damages to people who were framed and/or murdered by FBI informants.

Sadly for Chuck, he’s not one of these victims.

Some people, including Joe Salvati, Louis Greco and Peter Limone, got framed by the FBI. While others, such as Chuck Turner, got hooked.

There’s a difference, a big difference.

Chuck Turner, like a great big fish, took the bait that was dangled in front of him.

It is baffling because Turner was never known as a “player.” He never seemed to be about money or the trappings of political power. And yet, he cuffed that wad of cash from Ron Wilburn like an old pro.

At the end of a long conversation yesterday, one of Chuck’s close friends admitted that he “might have made a mistake in judgment.”

He then rightly asked, “Does he deserve three years in prison for that?”

The answer is no. Chuck is going to jail for three years because he didn’t apologize. He’s going to jail for three years because he didn’t cop a plea, or beg for mercy, or stop saying bad things about former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.

In truth, he’s also going to jail for three years because we don’t really know how many other “preacher’s handshakes” he pocketed over the years.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1325930

READ MORE - Locked up, but not shutting up

Chuck Turner in store for crochet & chili dogs Prison knot so tough for cell-ebrity

Chuck Turner in store for crochet & chili dogs
Prison knot so tough for cell-ebrity

By Laurel J. Sweet and Dave Wedge | Friday, March 25, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics

Photo by Christopher Evans
Deposed politician Chuck Turner today will trade his view of Fort Hill for the Appalachian Mountains as he reports for a three-year hitch at Club Fed — 577 miles from the City Council office he sacrificed for a $1,000 kickback.

The 70-year-old Harvard University alum will likely be admitted to a minimum-security, dormitory-style camp at the Hazelton big house in Bruceton Mills, W.Va. — a facility nestled in the hills of Preston County, where he will be able to partake of crochet classes, drawing, painting and what an inmate orientation handbook calls “paper arts.” The camp has no locking cells, offers periodic Town Hall meetings for airing gripes and serves up fare including oatmeal, fruit, chili dogs, Tater Tots, lasagna and chicken fajitas, according to the Bureau of Federal Prisons.

Fellow New England politicians who belong to the elite ex-con fraternity yesterday had encouraging words for the Roxbury rabble-rouser.

“It’s just one day at a time,” said former state Sen. Joseph Timilty, 72, who served four months at a federal prison in Pennsylvania for mortgage fraud in the 1990s. “In order to get through that thing, you have to be disciplined.”

“Find the humor in it,” advised former Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, 69, who logged four years at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey on corruption charges. “There’s humor in everything.”

Turner, who represented District 7 for 11 years, was convicted last fall of accepting a bribe to push a nightclub liquor license for a Hub businessman secretly taping him for the FBI.

At Hazelton, according to the inmate orientation handbook, the ex-councilor will be allowed to sport the hairstyle of his preference (bald), and his beard and goatee can stay. He may not walk around with his underpants showing. The knit caps will have to stay home — only slammer-approved headgear allowed.

Inmates at the camp are customarily assigned to sling hash, landscape or perform general maintenance.

“It’s not a country club,” said Cianci of his own experience. “It’s not like those in charge were cruise directors in their previous lives. There are rules. If you mess up, you’ll find yourself in trouble.”

Turner will not, of course, be the only Bay State solon behind bars tomorrow.

Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, 55, is two weeks into her own three-year bribery stint at the minimum-security camp at FCI Danbury in Connecticut.

“The fortunate part about her situation is she’s close to home,” said son Cornell Mills, an also-ran to succeed Turner in City Hall. “West Virginia is like another country.”

Mills plans to visit Wilkerson for the first time this weekend. He said she finds Danbury to be “very low-key” and is “looking forward to doing some teaching.”

Danbury is also where Patrice Tierney, 60, wife of U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem), on March 15 completed a monthlong stint for aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by her fugitive brother. The prison was previously the home-away-from-home of Boston Mayor James Michael Curley (mail fraud) and “Queen of Mean” hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley (tax evasion).

As for Turner, when he reports to Hazelton today, he will be screened for any medical, psychological or security issues, said Bureau of Federal Prisons spokesman Chris Burke.

“Chuck will be all right,” Timilty said. “I was treated fairly. You don’t get any special treatment and you don’t seek any special treatment.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325917

READ MORE - Chuck Turner in store for crochet & chili dogs Prison knot so tough for cell-ebrity

Chuck Turner's last stand

Chuck Turner's last stand

READ MORE - Chuck Turner's last stand