Podcasts about city hall plaza

You're probably listening to this on a Wednesday but if not, most likely a Thursday or a Friday or a Saturday or -- you get the point. But if you happen to be listening on a Tuesday, and it's the morning, THEN GET YOURSELF TO DOWNTOWN AUBURN FAST! Because every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. this spring and summer, City Hall Plaza is hosting two NEW food trucks (some repeats, apologies). Economic Development Coordinator Emerson Folker joins Jonathan and Chester to talk about the new food truck craze hitting Auburn, in addition to a city partnered discount program called Eat Local Auburn, with discounts on meals and deals across the city. Just head over to Economic Development's website here: https://www.ecdev.auburnwa.gov/current-restaurant-promotions The boys also talk about other upcoming events happening on Fridays in June, July and August, but we'll talk more about that later. For now, eat some food why don't ya.  Because we talked so much about food trucks, trivia this week is allllll about the 2014 movie Chef, starring Jon Favreau. Jonathan is a big fan. Sorry.

We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!U.S. Irish Dancers From All Over The World Competed in the World Irish Dance Championships in Dublin, Ireland. The owner, Molly Francis Lutwin, as well as dance competitor Francesca Santoro from the Francis Academy of Irish Dance (in NY) joined to discuss.Largest Pizza Festival in New England Returns to Boston's City Hall Plaza on Saturday, June 21st and Sunday, June 22nd.  Giancarlo Natale, Co-Director of the Boston Pizza Festival checked in!Haymakers Charity Event for Cancer at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Boxer Ben Heller is fighting for his wife who was diagnosed with breast cancer.Massachusetts Faces Math Crisis, Students Falling Behind at Alarming Rates… Genesis Carela – Senior Policy Analyst at EdTrust joined Dan to discuss!Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!

Aimed to send a message to the Trump Administration and advisor Elon Musk, thousands of people in Boston, along with several others across the state, took to the streets to march to City Hall Plaza. For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

If sex is a weapon then love is a double homicide.By kittybeaver, in 5 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels. "Start with the bookshelves." She pointed to the wall next to the fireplace. "Remember, we're looking for a bullet hole or an opening a gun could've been fired through."Tina turned her attention to the wall in front of her, moving her scanner methodically over the wood paneling and around the ornately framed oil paintings. It was her educated guess that the murderer had been in the neighboring office and drilled a hole in the wall."These are some fancy books," Dirk said. Tina looked over her shoulder and saw his head tilted sideways as he read the spines. "They're all hardcovers and absolutely no Harry Potter.""Don't worry about the books." She took one of the paintings off the wall and scanned behind it. "We're looking for something abnormal, something that's just slightly off.""There's something off with the bookshelves," Fact-Tel announced."I knew it," Dirk said. "Who doesn't, at the very least, have Sorcerer's Stone?"Tina placed the painting back on its hook and crossed to the other side of the room. "What did you find, Fact-Tel?""Should I have said Philosopher's Stone?" Dirk asked. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, that's the metric title, right?""They're not real books," the A.I. said, ignoring Dirk. "It's a false bookcase. The scans are picking up a hollow space behind them.""That is so cool," Dirk said. "What do you think's back there? Pirate's treasure? Porno magazines?"Tina ran her hand around the edge of the bookcase, searching for hinges or a hidden lever. "City Hall is over a hundred years old. It's rumored there are secret passages all through the building, from the base of the Matthias Middle statue on top of the clock tower to the top of that clock statue containing Matthias Middle's bones in the sub-basement. This could be how the killer gained access to the office." She stretched her arm up as far as she could, but even in her high heel boots she couldn't reach the top shelf. "Dirk, feel along the top with your hand. See if you can find a button or something that will open the bookcase."She watched him carefully as he reached his arm up, noting how his T-shirt rode up to reveal his flat stomach and that wispy line of hair that ran from his belly button down into his snug fitting jeans. It was a surprise to feel her tongue peeking out of her mouth and running along her upper lip, as if it too wanted to catch a glimpse of Dirk Allen's happy trail. It seemed every part of her body was proud of his physique.Tina quickly turned, averting the gaze of both her eyes and tongue. "Fact-Tel, how large is the space behind the bookcase?" 'Proud' wasn't the right word for what she felt and she knew it. She needed to stop lying to herself. Her physical attraction to Dirk was a problem, but not nearly as big a problem as her emotional attraction to him. "Could a person conceal themselves there?""Definitely," the computer responded. "If I can analyze the dust and air particles in the space I might be able to tell if someone's been in there recently.""I found something!" Dirk was so excited he nearly shouted. Both his arms were stretched way above his head, his fingers curling over the top edge of the bookcase."Is it a button?" Tina asked, remembering to keep her voice low. "Press it.""Ok." Dirk's hand pressed down, then he took a quick step back.A rumbling noise emerged from the shelves and they started to slide sideways. A dark space appeared, approximately three feet, or rather, Tina reminded herself, .0914 meters wide."Good job." She looked up into Dirk's pale green eyes and gave him another smile. He had such pretty eyes. They contrasted nicely with his dark hair and full, masculine lips. The better Tina got to know Dirk the more attractive he grew. And he was fucking gorgeous when she first met him. It was disturbing, to say the least. Increased physical attraction toward an individual was one of the first signs of,Tina swallowed. She didn't even want to think the words.Increased physical attraction toward an individual was one of the first signs of falling in love.According to SWSO rule #96, secret agents were only allowed to experience three types of love: love of country, love of duty and love of sacrifice. Any other love could be used as a weapon against an agent. It had taken Tina years of therapy to reduce her familial love to an ambivalent indifference. Now, if some deranged villain made her choose between saving the world or saving her parents, she'd make the right choice without regret. Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Blondell. You died for a good cause.Romantic love was the most dangerous and that was the direction Tina's feelings for Dirk might be heading. The intense romantic bond had to be avoided at all costs. It caused people to lie, steal, or, even worse, wear matching outfits to company picnics. She'd seen it happen too many times before and she had vowed never to let it happen to her.Love, in its essence, was a release of oxytocin in the brain. Every time she engaged in sexual intercourse with Dirk, every time he gave her another mind blowing orgasm, her brain released more oxytocin, conditioning her to feel love and affection for her coworker. As much as she wanted to invite him into her bed and ride him like a wild mustang, she couldn't do it. More sex meant more oxytocin. They couldn't have sex ever again, even if the job required it.Pushing those thoughts from her mind, she pulled her SWSO issued flashlight from her purse and peered into the void. Her beam of light fell on a small, but comfortable looking recliner, a stack of magazines, a box of tissues and a pump bottle of lotion.Dirk reached down and snatched a magazine from the top of the pile. "What do you know, it is porn. The murderer must have planned to wait a long time." He held the magazine sideways so that the centerfold flipped down. "Nice."Tina moved quickly and picked up the next magazine from the pile. While a woman graced the cover Dirk was holding, a man stared back from the one in Tina's hands. There was no mistaking his pretty, green eyes, dark hair and plump, manly lips. Dirk had worked as a model for years before joining the SWSO. It was possible he could have done a risqué photo shoot.It only took a second to open the magazine and look inside. Yep, it was him. She recognized that cock."Get a load of this, Fact-Tel." Dirk was holding his scanner over the magazine. "Tell me that's not DNA.""General Zero." Tina barely breathed the words. Could it be? Might they finally have some evidence that would help them track down their nemesis?"Nope," Fact-Tel said. "That's Appleton's spew.""What?" It almost felt like Tina's heart was breaking."Chesterfield Appleton," the A.I. continued, "Middleburg City Comptroller. The person whose office you're standing in. He's the one who ejaculated onto Miss February's mammary glands.""That makes no sense." Dirk dropped the magazine back onto the pile, while Tina surreptitiously rolled hers up and slipped it into her purse. "Why would Appleton hide for hours just to shoot himself?""I find no evidence of a firearm," Fact-Tel said. "No bullet casings or gunpowder residue.""The murderer was never behind the bookcase." Tina sighed. She knew it when she first saw the magazines, but she didn't want to believe it. Linking Zero to the murders was her top priority. The sooner she did it, the sooner she could put the criminal mastermind behind bars.Her feet felt heavy as she crossed the room to the fireplace, careful to step over the cadaver outlines. She ran her fingers over the intricate wood carvings in the mantelpiece. The winged cherubs holding satchels of money, seemed to mock her with their smiling faces."We're back where we started.""We know some things," Dirk said, his voice a little too perky. It was obvious he was trying to cheer her up. "We know Appleton was a horn dog with a rub cubby at work. We know he was doing the nasty with Snide.""Ugh, biologicals and your need to touch genitals," Fact-Tel muttered. "It's so gross.""It's too bad good old, smut aficionado Chesterfield didn't make his own pornos," Dirk said. "If he'd recorded schtupping Snide, then maybe he'd have recorded the murderer too."Tina looked up at the mirror over the fireplace. The whole room was visible behind her. There was Appletons's massive, wooden desk, the bay windows that looked out over City Hall Plaza, and over by the bookcase stood Dirk looking good in his tight pants and T-shirt. From this vantage point she could see everything."Maybe he did film it." Pointing her scanner at a section of the mirror, she turned it on and counted to 100. "Fact-Tel, what's on the other side of the mirror? Is there a camera or something?""I hate to tell you this," the A.I. responded, "but it's just a wall.""No!" In her frustration, Tina threw the scanner down onto the plush, red carpet, letting her purse drop to the floor with it. "Why does this case have to be so frustrating?" She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "Why can't it just solve itself?""Relax," Dirk said. "You're trying too hard." He walked up behind her and placed his large, strong hands on her shoulders. "When I think too hard, I get a headache and then I can't think at all." His fingers and thumbs started to work the stiff muscles of her neck and back, digging into the knots of tension. "If I stop thinking, if I let it all go, Well, by the time the headache goes away, you've figured it all out and I don't have to think any more."The touch of his fingers felt good. It did relax her. It also made her horny as hell.Her eyes popped open. "That's it. We'll make our own movie.""What?" Dirk's hands dropped to his side and he took a step backwards.Tina spun around to face him. "We're going to reenact the crime."He glanced down at the cadaver outlines taped on the rug and then back at her. "You mean, " He tugged at the collar of his T-shirt. "You mean, we're going to have sex?"Tina was excited. The little shadows her erect nipples cast on her blouse made that obvious. And Tina's excitement was infectious. It made parts of Dirk's body get erect too. But he couldn't have sex with her, not again.Not that he didn't want to, because he did. He couldn't spend a minute in her presence without fantasizing about lifting her skirt and pulling down her panties. He thought about bending her over the desk and taking her from behind. But the truth was, he didn't want to just have sex. He wanted to make love to her.He wanted to undress her slowly, surrounded by the warm glow of candlelight and soft jazz playing in the background. He wanted to lay her down on a bed scattered with rose petals and take his time kissing every inch of her gorgeous body. He wanted to sink into her slowly, moaning her name as she whimpered how much she loved him. They would become one, both body and soul. It would be so beautiful, they'd climax together with tears in their eyes.Dirk wanted to make a baby with Tina. He'd never had a pregnancy kink before, but the other night he'd rubbed one out while thinking about fertilization. It was freaking him the fuck out. If he was going to get past this, past his obsession with his work supervisor, he'd have to go cold turkey and not have sex with her ever again."We're going to have sex?" he asked."No." Tina smiled awkwardly. "Of course not. No."Dirk wasn't sure if he felt relief or disappointment. "But we're reenacting the murder."She nodded. "The moments that led up to the murder, yes.""And in the moments leading up to the murder," he said, his eyes dropping once more to the body outlines taped on the rug, "Appleton and Snide were having sex."Tina laughed nervously and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Sure, but there's no need for us to actually, do, you know, that. Not this time.""You're not going to touch genitals?" Fact-Tel asked."No." She laughed louder. "We're just going to go through the motions.""Oh." Dirk definitely felt disappointed. "Like an old married couple.""Exactly." Tina gave him a friendly, little punch on the side of his arm. Then she patted him in the same spot, gently squeezing his biceps. A dreamy look flitted across her eyes and her lips curved into a half smile. "That's nice.""What?" Dirk wasn't sure what was going on."What?" She dropped her hand to her side and took a step back. "I'm sorry. What?""You're reenacting the murder," Fact-Tel reminded them."Of course we are. I'll be Sylvestra Snide." Tina walked to one of the cadaver outlines and carefully placed her feet on top of the outline's feet. "She was standing here with her panties around her ankles." Then she reached up her skirt and wiggled her hips until her underpants slipped down her legs.All Dirk could do for a moment or so was stare at the silky blue with yellow polka dots fabric resting on the tops of her boots. He had recently come to the conclusion that women's panties were like the cover to a really good book. He just wanted to open it and bury his nose in the tight prose inside. Tina's book, of course, he'd red before, but, as with all the classics, it was worth going back to again and again."You're Chesterfield Appleton," Tina said, her voice super cheery, much more cheery than the reenactment of a brutal crime called for. "He was standing there." She pointed to the other cadaver outline. "And he had his pants and underpants around his ankles.""Oh. Ok." Dirk took his place near her and unzipped his fly."You can leave your boxers on." Her eyes drifted down to his underwear. "Boxer briefs. Snug, black, boxer briefs. Those look good on you.""Thanks." He wasn't sure what else to say.She blinked a couple times, then looked up to meet his gaze. "Leave them on. No reason to take them off since we're probably just going to dry hump.""Oh." That didn't sound so bad. "Like Catholic high school students.""Exactly." She turned, so that her back was to Dirk. "This is the general area they were in when they were shot. When they fell, the force of the bullets probably knocked them back a few steps. So we have to figure out where they were at the moment right before they were shot.""The fireplace." Dirk, his jeans still around his ankles, shuffled forward a few paces. "They were probably watching themselves in the mirror.""Oh sure." Tina shuffled forward too and placed her hands on the mantelpiece, one hand resting on a cherub's face, the other on a bag of money. "Snide would have stood here.""And Appleton would have been here." Dirk took his place behind her and grabbed onto her hips, which were way lower than he had expected. "We do not line up. Not at all."He'd known Tina was short, that was obvious from the first time they met. He just hadn't realized how much shorter she was than him. Even with her high heels on, if they were actually going to have sex, he'd be fucking the small of her back.Had they never done it standing up before? He tried to think back to all the times they'd had to have sex for work. They must have done it standing up for at least one of them. When the safety of the general public was at stake, one didn't usually have the luxury of lying down. They had done it bent over a table like surface. Dirk must have been bending his knees more than he was aware of at the time.Oh wait. They had done it standing up, but face to face. He'd lifted Tina and she'd wrapped her legs around him before he nailed her to the wall. That was a good one, ve

Carl Stevens

Boston City Councilors got into a debate over a resolution offered by Councilor Edward Flynn proposing the Israeli flag be raised at City Hall Plaza on Oct. 7, one year since Hamas' attack on Israel, to honor the civilian lives lost and Israelis held hostage. The resolution was objected by Councilor Benjamin Weber, who expressed concerns about inflaming passions on both sides. Councilor Ed Flynn and Jeff Robbins, former delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, join to discuss.*Councilor Weber denied our invitation to join the conversation*Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!

If sex is a weapon then love is a double homicide.By kittybeaver, in 5 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.“Start with the bookshelves.” She pointed to the wall next to the fireplace. “Remember, we’re looking for a bullet hole or an opening a gun could’ve been fired through.”Tina turned her attention to the wall in front of her, moving her scanner methodically over the wood paneling and around the ornately framed oil paintings. It was her educated guess that the murderer had been in the neighboring office and drilled a hole in the wall.“These are some fancy books,” Dirk said. Tina looked over her shoulder and saw his head tilted sideways as he read the spines. “They’re all hardcovers and absolutely no Harry Potter.”“Don’t worry about the books.” She took one of the paintings off the wall and scanned behind it. “We’re looking for something abnormal, something that’s just slightly off.”“There’s something off with the bookshelves,” Fact-Tel announced.“I knew it,” Dirk said. “Who doesn’t, at the very least, have Sorcerer’s Stone?”Tina placed the painting back on its hook and crossed to the other side of the room. “What did you find, Fact-Tel?”“Should I have said Philosopher’s Stone?” Dirk asked. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, that’s the metric title, right?”“They’re not real books,” the A.I. said, ignoring Dirk. “It’s a false bookcase. The scans are picking up a hollow space behind them.”“That is so cool,” Dirk said. “What do you think’s back there? Pirate’s treasure? Porno magazines?”Tina ran her hand around the edge of the bookcase, searching for hinges or a hidden lever. “City Hall is over a hundred years old. It’s rumored there are secret passages all through the building, from the base of the Matthias Middle statue on top of the clock tower to the top of that clock statue containing Matthias Middle’s bones in the sub-basement. This could be how the killer gained access to the office.” She stretched her arm up as far as she could, but even in her high heel boots she couldn’t reach the top shelf. “Dirk, feel along the top with your hand. See if you can find a button or something that will open the bookcase.”She watched him carefully as he reached his arm up, noting how his T-shirt rode up to reveal his flat stomach and that wispy line of hair that ran from his belly button down into his snug fitting jeans. It was a surprise to feel her tongue peeking out of her mouth and running along her upper lip, as if it too wanted to catch a glimpse of Dirk Allen’s happy trail. It seemed every part of her body was proud of his physique.Tina quickly turned, averting the gaze of both her eyes and tongue. “Fact-Tel, how large is the space behind the bookcase?” ‘Proud’ wasn’t the right word for what she felt and she knew it. She needed to stop lying to herself. Her physical attraction to Dirk was a problem, but not nearly as big a problem as her emotional attraction to him. “Could a person conceal themselves there?”“Definitely,” the computer responded. “If I can analyze the dust and air particles in the space I might be able to tell if someone’s been in there recently.”“I found something!” Dirk was so excited he nearly shouted. Both his arms were stretched way above his head, his fingers curling over the top edge of the bookcase.“Is it a button?” Tina asked, remembering to keep her voice low. “Press it.”“Ok.” Dirk’s hand pressed down, then he took a quick step back.A rumbling noise emerged from the shelves and they started to slide sideways. A dark space appeared, approximately three feet, or rather, Tina reminded herself, .0914 meters wide.“Good job.” She looked up into Dirk’s pale green eyes and gave him another smile. He had such pretty eyes. They contrasted nicely with his dark hair and full, masculine lips. The better Tina got to know Dirk the more attractive he grew. And he was fucking gorgeous when she first met him. It was disturbing, to say the least. Increased physical attraction toward an individual was one of the first signs of,Tina swallowed. She didn’t even want to think the words.Increased physical attraction toward an individual was one of the first signs of falling in love.According to SWSO rule #96, secret agents were only allowed to experience three types of love: love of country, love of duty and love of sacrifice. Any other love could be used as a weapon against an agent. It had taken Tina years of therapy to reduce her familial love to an ambivalent indifference. Now, if some deranged villain made her choose between saving the world or saving her parents, she’d make the right choice without regret. Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Blondell. You died for a good cause.Romantic love was the most dangerous and that was the direction Tina’s feelings for Dirk might be heading. The intense romantic bond had to be avoided at all costs. It caused people to lie, steal, or, even worse, wear matching outfits to company picnics. She’d seen it happen too many times before and she had vowed never to let it happen to her.Love, in its essence, was a release of oxytocin in the brain. Every time she engaged in sexual intercourse with Dirk, every time he gave her another mind blowing orgasm, her brain released more oxytocin, conditioning her to feel love and affection for her coworker. As much as she wanted to invite him into her bed and ride him like a wild mustang, she couldn’t do it. More sex meant more oxytocin. They couldn’t have sex ever again, even if the job required it.Pushing those thoughts from her mind, she pulled her SWSO issued flashlight from her purse and peered into the void. Her beam of light fell on a small, but comfortable looking recliner, a stack of magazines, a box of tissues and a pump bottle of lotion.Dirk reached down and snatched a magazine from the top of the pile. “What do you know, it is porn. The murderer must have planned to wait a long time.” He held the magazine sideways so that the centerfold flipped down. “Nice.”Tina moved quickly and picked up the next magazine from the pile. While a woman graced the cover Dirk was holding, a man stared back from the one in Tina’s hands. There was no mistaking his pretty, green eyes, dark hair and plump, manly lips. Dirk had worked as a model for years before joining the SWSO. It was possible he could have done a risqué photo shoot.It only took a second to open the magazine and look inside. Yep, it was him. She recognized that cock.“Get a load of this, Fact-Tel.” Dirk was holding his scanner over the magazine. “Tell me that’s not DNA.”“General Zero.” Tina barely breathed the words. Could it be? Might they finally have some evidence that would help them track down their nemesis?“Nope,” Fact-Tel said. “That’s Appleton’s spew.”“What?” It almost felt like Tina’s heart was breaking.“Chesterfield Appleton,” the A.I. continued, “Middleburg City Comptroller. The person whose office you’re standing in. He’s the one who ejaculated onto Miss February’s mammary glands.”“That makes no sense.” Dirk dropped the magazine back onto the pile, while Tina surreptitiously rolled hers up and slipped it into her purse. “Why would Appleton hide for hours just to shoot himself?”“I find no evidence of a firearm,” Fact-Tel said. “No bullet casings or gunpowder residue.”“The murderer was never behind the bookcase.” Tina sighed. She knew it when she first saw the magazines, but she didn’t want to believe it. Linking Zero to the murders was her top priority. The sooner she did it, the sooner she could put the criminal mastermind behind bars.Her feet felt heavy as she crossed the room to the fireplace, careful to step over the cadaver outlines. She ran her fingers over the intricate wood carvings in the mantelpiece. The winged cherubs holding satchels of money, seemed to mock her with their smiling faces.“We’re back where we started.”“We know some things,” Dirk said, his voice a little too perky. It was obvious he was trying to cheer her up. “We know Appleton was a horn dog with a rub cubby at work. We know he was doing the nasty with Snide.”“Ugh, biologicals and your need to touch genitals,” Fact-Tel muttered. “It’s so gross.”“It’s too bad good old, smut aficionado Chesterfield didn’t make his own pornos,” Dirk said. “If he’d recorded schtupping Snide, then maybe he’d have recorded the murderer too.”Tina looked up at the mirror over the fireplace. The whole room was visible behind her. There was Appletons's massive, wooden desk, the bay windows that looked out over City Hall Plaza, and over by the bookcase stood Dirk looking good in his tight pants and T-shirt. From this vantage point she could see everything.“Maybe he did film it.” Pointing her scanner at a section of the mirror, she turned it on and counted to 100. “Fact-Tel, what’s on the other side of the mirror? Is there a camera or something?”“I hate to tell you this,” the A.I. responded, “but it’s just a wall.”“No!” In her frustration, Tina threw the scanner down onto the plush, red carpet, letting her purse drop to the floor with it. “Why does this case have to be so frustrating?” She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “Why can’t it just solve itself?”“Relax,” Dirk said. “You’re trying too hard.” He walked up behind her and placed his large, strong hands on her shoulders. “When I think too hard, I get a headache and then I can’t think at all.” His fingers and thumbs started to work the stiff muscles of her neck and back, digging into the knots of tension. “If I stop thinking, if I let it all go, Well, by the time the headache goes away, you’ve figured it all out and I don’t have to think any more.”The touch of his fingers felt good. It did relax her. It also made her horny as hell.Her eyes popped open. “That’s it. We’ll make our own movie.”“What?” Dirk’s hands dropped to his side and he took a step backwards.Tina spun around to face him. “We’re going to reenact the crime.”He glanced down at the cadaver outlines taped on the rug and then back at her. “You mean, ” He tugged at the collar of his T-shirt. “You mean, we’re going to have sex?”Tina was excited. The little shadows her erect nipples cast on her blouse made that obvious. And Tina’s excitement was infectious. It made parts of Dirk’s body get erect too. But he couldn’t have sex with her, not again.Not that he didn’t want to, because he did. He couldn’t spend a minute in her presence without fantasizing about lifting her skirt and pulling down her panties. He thought about bending her over the desk and taking her from behind. But the truth was, he didn’t want to just have sex. He wanted to make love to her.He wanted to undress her slowly, surrounded by the warm glow of candlelight and soft jazz playing in the background. He wanted to lay her down on a bed scattered with rose petals and take his time kissing every inch of her gorgeous body. He wanted to sink into her slowly, moaning her name as she whimpered how much she loved him. They would become one, both body and soul. It would be so beautiful, they’d climax together with tears in their eyes.Dirk wanted to make a baby with Tina. He’d never had a pregnancy kink before, but the other night he’d rubbed one out while thinking about fertilization. It was freaking him the fuck out. If he was going to get past this, past his obsession with his work supervisor, he’d have to go cold turkey and not have sex with her ever again.“We’re going to have sex?” he asked.“No.” Tina smiled awkwardly. “Of course not. No.”Dirk wasn’t sure if he felt relief or disappointment. “But we’re reenacting the murder.”She nodded. “The moments that led up to the murder, yes.”“And in the moments leading up to the murder,” he said, his eyes dropping once more to the body outlines taped on the rug, “Appleton and Snide were having sex.”Tina laughed nervously and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Sure, but there’s no need for us to actually, do, you know, that. Not this time.”“You’re not going to touch genitals?” Fact-Tel asked.“No.” She laughed louder. “We’re just going to go through the motions.”“Oh.” Dirk definitely felt disappointed. “Like an old married couple.”“Exactly.” Tina gave him a friendly, little punch on the side of his arm. Then she patted him in the same spot, gently squeezing his biceps. A dreamy look flitted across her eyes and her lips curved into a half smile. “That’s nice.”“What?” Dirk wasn’t sure what was going on.“What?” She dropped her hand to her side and took a step back. “I’m sorry. What?”“You’re reenacting the murder,” Fact-Tel reminded them.“Of course we are. I’ll be Sylvestra Snide.” Tina walked to one of the cadaver outlines and carefully placed her feet on top of the outline’s feet. “She was standing here with her panties around her ankles.” Then she reached up her skirt and wiggled her hips until her underpants slipped down her legs.All Dirk could do for a moment or so was stare at the silky blue with yellow polka dots fabric resting on the tops of her boots. He had recently come to the conclusion that women’s panties were like the cover to a really good book. He just wanted to open it and bury his nose in the tight prose inside. Tina’s book, of course, he’d red before, but, as with all the classics, it was worth going back to again and again.“You’re Chesterfield Appleton,” Tina said, her voice super cheery, much more cheery than the reenactment of a brutal crime called for. “He was standing there.” She pointed to the other cadaver outline. “And he had his pants and underpants around his ankles.”“Oh. Ok.” Dirk took his place near her and unzipped his fly.“You can leave your boxers on.” Her eyes drifted down to his underwear. “Boxer briefs. Snug, black, boxer briefs. Those look good on you.”“Thanks.” He wasn’t sure what else to say.She blinked a couple times, then looked up to meet his gaze. “Leave them on. No reason to take them off since we’re probably just going to dry hump.”“Oh.” That didn’t sound so bad. “Like Catholic high school students.”“Exactly.” She turned, so that her back was to Dirk. “This is the general area they were in when they were shot. When they fell, the force of the bullets probably knocked them back a few steps. So we have to figure out where they were at the moment right before they were shot.”“The fireplace.” Dirk, his jeans still around his ankles, shuffled forward a few paces. “They were probably watching themselves in the mirror.”“Oh sure.” Tina shuffled forward too and placed her hands on the mantelpiece, one hand resting on a cherub’s face, the other on a bag of money. “Snide would have stood here.”“And Appleton would have been here.” Dirk took his place behind her and grabbed onto her hips, which were way lower than he had expected. “We do not line up. Not at all.”He’d known Tina was short, that was obvious from the first time they met. He just hadn’t realized how much shorter she was than him. Even with her high heels on, if they were actually going to have sex, he’d be fucking the small of her back.Had they never done it standing up before? He tried to think back to all the times they’d had to have sex for work. They must have done it standing up for at least one of them. When the safety of the general public was at stake, one didn’t usually have the luxury of lying down. They had done it bent over a table like surface. Dirk must have been bending his knees more than he was aware of at the time.Oh wait. They had done it standing up, but face to face. He’d lifted Tina and she’d wrapped her legs around him before he nailed her to the wall. That was a good one, very memorable.“Sylvestra Snide was a few inches taller than me,” Tina said.“Don’t you mean centimeters?”“Right. Sorry.” It looked like she was blushing. “Snide was a few centimeters taller and Appleton was several centimeters shorter than you. We may not line up, but they did and that’s all that really matters.”“I guess.” Dirk ducked his head and looked into the mirror. “But they would have seen the room at different angles.”“That’s true. Good catch, Agent Allen.” Tina shuffled over to the bookshelves. “They saw the murderer before they were shot. We need to have the same sightlines they had. Are any of these books real?”“According to the scans,” Fact-Tel said, “the ones on the lowest shelf are real books.”As Tina bent over to retrieve the thickest book off the bottom shelf, her skirt rode up in the back, revealing more and more thigh. Dirk held his breath. He knew what was above those thighs. It wasn’t panties, no sir.“Look at that, Atlas Shrugged, hardcover, large print edition.” She pulled the mammoth tomb off the shelf and stood up.Her skirt slipped back down and Dirk let out a disappointed sigh.“I will gladly stand on this.” She shuffled back to the fireplace and dropped the book. It fell onto the rug with a loud thud. When she stepped on top of it, she was, indeed, a few centimeters taller. “Oh yeah,” she said as she looked into the mirror and surveyed the room behind her. “I can see more of the floor at this angle.”Dirk bent his knees slightly and peered into the mirror as well. “And I can see more of the ceiling. I’m not sure what good it does, but we’re that much closer to solving the crime.”“So,” Tina said as she placed her hands back on the ornate fireplace, “Snide and Appleton were in flagrante.”“They were on fire?” he asked. “I thought they got shot.”“No fire,&rd

Boston City Hall Plaza is the site of an exhibit designed to bring attention to the plight of those who've been held hostage in Gaza since October. WBZ's Carl Stevens reports.For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

Plymouth Teen in custody after multi-car crash. Hip-Hop Celebration commences on City Hall Plaza. Team U-S-A Womens Soccer wins gold at the Olympics. Stay in "The Loop" with #iHeartRadio.

This weekend, Boston's City Hall Plaza is hosting The GLD FSTVL. It's a free festival celebrating hip-hop music and culture. It'll feature Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan, along with a slew of local artists.

The Mayor's Office announced a list of arts and cultural events happening every weekend at City Hall Plaza. For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

Jonathan and Chester are joined once again by the Office of Equity's Maddie Ralstin! And why? Because National Night Out is right around the corner -- that's right, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, from about 5-9 p.m., Auburn elected officials, staff, police and Mayor Nancy Backus will be out and about in the community! We're talking to residents face to face, sharing updates on what our city is up to, and fielding all sorts of questions. Don't have a neighborhood event to attend? Come to City Hall Plaza! We'll see ya Tuesday.

The concert at the Hatch Shell and the fireworks over Boston Harbor may be the star of Boston's Independence Day celebrations, but it was a patriotic scene at City Hall Plaza this morning for Boston's 4th of July parade. WBZ's Suzanne Sausville reports.For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

Liam Hendricks and the founder of Ben and Jerrys... Jerry join the show in order to discuss Hendricks' injury progression, whether or not the Red Sox are underachieving, the lack of sinks in the bullpen, and a great cause that Hendricks is supporting- the Scooper Bowl. Read more about it here: Since 1983, Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl® has been serving up sweet scoops of your favorite frozen treats from the Boston Common, Boston's City Hall Plaza, and Patriot Place in Foxborough! Jimmy Fund Scooper is the nation's largest all-you-can-eat ice cream festival and New England's sweetest kick off to summer. The event has raised over $7.3 million to support cancer care and research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to date. Thank you for helping us scoop to defy cancer.

Have you ever dreamed of putting on your swimsuit, zipping up your winter coat, and heading downtown for a free sauna experience with friends and previously-unknown neighbors? If so, we've got the story for you. Through March 3, Winter City Sauna, a free pop-up sauna, is posting up on Boston's City Hall Plaza and offering visitors the opportunity to warm up in community (up to six people at a time!) just steps away from City Hall. When we saw this headline, we knew we had to check it out - so Common Producer Katelyn Harrop hopped on the T, towel in hand, to learn more about this place-making effort lead by Somerville-based community organization CultureHouse in partnership with the city of Boston's Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture. Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

They're popular in Scandinavia and now there's one at City Hall Plaza. A public sauna that's open Friday through Sunday till March 3rd. WBZ's Suzanne Sausville reports.

With the wet, snowy, gray, dreary weather we've been having lately, a session in a steamy sauna would be the perfect thing to warm up! Unfortunately, access to saunas can be out of reach for many, but CultureHouse in Somerville's changing that with its new pop-up Winter City Sauna on Boston's City Hall Plaza, which is open until early March. Aaron Greiner of CultureHouse has all the details about the sauna, other projects CultureHouse is involved in around Boston, and their mission to help residents of the Boston area connect.

Mike Lake, CEO of Leading Cities and a member of the Smart Cities World Advisory Board, hosts a special episode recorded live from the 2023 Smart City Expo in Barcelona, where he is joined by Genesis Gavino, Chief of Staff Resilience Officer for the City of Dalla. Genesis provides a behind-the-scenes look at her role as Chief of Staff, detailing the essential elements that the role encompasses that don't necessarily fit elsewhere but are crucial for city operations. We hear how she manages diverse portfolios, overseeing strategic initiatives like the Resilient Dallas strategy, as well as smart city projects. Key to Dallas' digital resilience work is digital equity, with Genesis shedding light on the city's efforts to bridge the digital divide. She shares experiences from the field, discussing digital literacy programmes and the importance of community engagement in shaping policies. This conversation also takes a turn toward cybersecurity, touching on the ransomware attack on Dallas earlier in 2023, where Genesis emphasises the city's commitment to proactive measures, including the development of secure apps for residents. As the episode unfolds, we delve into the broader challenges faced by cities and the need for holistic, multifunctional solutions. Genesis stresses the importance of understanding each city's unique context and challenges, urging technology providers to align their solutions with the specific needs of the communities they serve. The episode concludes with a reflection on the continuous nature of urban challenges and the vital role of collaboration, innovation, and adaptability in building resilient cities. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation at the intersection of technology, governance, and community empowerment in this episode of "Cities on the Frontline."   About the speakers Genesis Gavino, Chief of Staff and Resilience Officer, City of Dallas Genesis currently serves as the Deputy Resilience Officer where she works closely with the executive team across the organisation to implement the Resilient Dallas Strategy. She is also the Chief of Staff to the City Manager where she manages the Council Agenda Office, Local Government Management Fellows Program, departmental budgets and works with the executive team to advance the City's strategic priorities. Genesis has served as lead in the organisation's interdepartmental and collaborative projects, most recently the implementation of the Council Agenda Preparation System through Granicus – Legistar, and the development and implementation of a pilot program to activate City Hall Plaza. Mike Lake, President and CEO, Leading Cities As President and CEO, Michael develops and establishes relationships with municipal governments, businesses and universities internationally, creating a global network of partner cities dedicated to implementing Smart City solutions that improve the quality of life in cities. Leading Cities builds bridges between academia and action, between business and government, and between urban problems and solutions.Among its signature programs are AcceliCITY- among the largest, most prestigious smart and resilient city solutions focused competitions- and AcceliGOV—a competition of cities vying for globally sourced, expert-vetted, pre-paid pilot projects.

City of Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus sits down with Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation Coordinator Amanda Valdez and 7-year-old Lucas Fernandez, who was selected to light the tree outside of City Hall earlier this year! It's a wonderful tradition that begins as a parade down Main Street from Auburn High School and ends at City Hall Plaza, where hundreds will gather to watch Lucas flip the switch. Lucas was one of about 30 applicants, the most in the history of this event! Hear from Lucas about his favorite holiday traditions, what it means to be a tree lighter, and why this time of year is so special.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken hustles to an Israeli bomb shelter during talks with leaders there. Governor Maura Healey says the state's shelter system is nearly full. First Night Boston moves to City Hall Plaza. 5 minutes of news that will keep you in The Loop.

New England's largest New Year's Eve celebration will be kicking off the new year at City Hall Plaza instead of its typical spot in Copley Square. WBZ's Chaiel Schaffel reports:

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+, a ranking the U.S. had held at Fitch since 1994. Prices are up, and the U.S. credit rating is down. Hooray for Bidenomics! We are still reeling from Biden's decision to have U.S. Space Command in Colorado instead of its planned location in Alabama — overruling Air Force leadership. John Kirby claims it's because of "operational readiness" and definitely not politics. A Boston police officer was hurt after tumbling down a children's slide at the newly renovated playground at City Hall Plaza. And more details emerge about the Auburn football player's wife who planned to hire a hit man after he sought a divorce.Sponsor: Naturally It's Clean: Naturally It's Clean provides effective cleaning products using powerful PLANT-Based Enzymes. These are hospital-grade solutions that won't reek of nasty chemicals.  Bob Vila says Naturally It's Clean has the most eco-friendly carpet stain remover on the market today. Everything is manufactured right here in the USA and that they offer free 2-day shipping on all cleaning kits. Their Essential Starter Kit which features 4 of their most popular products, is one of their top-selling items. Keep your home clean, and support companies like Naturally It's Clean while you do it — because they support you and your conservative values. Our audience can get an additional 15% off for a limited time by visiting https://NaturallyItsClean.com/RickBubba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+, a ranking the U.S. had held at Fitch since 1994. Prices are up, and the U.S. credit rating is down. Hooray for Bidenomics! We are still reeling from Biden's decision to have U.S. Space Command in Colorado instead of its planned location in Alabama — overruling Air Force leadership. John Kirby claims it's because of "operational readiness" and definitely not politics. A Boston police officer was hurt after tumbling down a children's slide at the newly renovated playground at City Hall Plaza. And more details emerge about the Auburn football player's wife who planned to hire a hit man after he sought a divorce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

00:00) A local police officer tumbled down a children's slide at City Hall Plaza yesterday. (14:22) Sean Payton apologized for his comments regarding Nathaniel Hackett, and Rich is tired of this situation. (33:01) Fred, Rich, and Ted discuss yesterday's busy MLB trade deadline.   CONNECT WITH TOUCHER & RICH: Twitter: @Toucherandrich | @FredToucher | @KenGriffeyrules  Instagram: @toucherandrichofficial | @fredtoucher Facebook: Toucher & Rich Twitch: TheSportsHub   Visit the Toucher & Rich page on 985thesportshub.com. Follow Boston's home for sports on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Thousands lined the streets of Boston today for the annual Puerto Rican parade. As WBZ's Suzanne Sausville reports, it went from Copley Square to City Hall Plaza for the Puerto Rican Festival.

The bike lane debate has reached a boiling point on Centre Street in West Roxbury. We opened the lines to hear what listeners had to say. Singer/songwriter Naomi Westwater performs for on Live Music Friday. They joined before the Beats By Girlz festival, which takes place July 8th at City Hall Plaza. The esteemed Callie Crossley makes a return! She discussed alternative pathways to higher education for refugees in the United States, Wu's innovative swimming and safety initiative, and exciting summertime food trends. Irene Li recently published an enticing book titled "Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking." She gave the audience samples of dishes from her book, including delectable dumplings. Julie Wormser, Fidel Maltez, and Alex Train discussed the Resilient Mystic Collaborative. This coalition brings together various towns and local communities to address the impacts of climate change within the Mystic River Watershed. Ashish Jha has concluded his role as President Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator and has returned to his position as the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. He joined to talk about his experience. Now that summer has truly kicked in with the sun scorching the streets, we asked listeners to share tips on how they're staying cool in the heat.

The Portraits of Pride photography exhibit at City Hall Plaza is one of many celebrations of LGBTQ identity and culture taking place in Boston this month.

Pride Month kicks off in Boston at City Hall Plaza. President Biden is fine, after stumbling during Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado. A spa in Boston. The Senate takes up the debt ceiling plan. 5 minutes of news that will keep you in The Loop.

Heavy police presence at a Dorchester school after a gun scare, get your steps in before the smog takes over the air and Boston kicks off Pride Month at City Hall Plaza. Five minutes of news that will keep you in “The Loop."

Boston officials hope to encourage at least 8% of commuters to bike to work by 2030. They invited cyclists to City Hall Plaza last week for free bike checks and breakfast. Hundreds of cyclists attended the event.

Crowds of bicyclists gathered at City Hall Plaza for Boston's National Bike to Work Day Festival on Friday morning. WBZ's Shari Small reports:

GUEST OVERVIEW: Gina Castiello is a grandmother who went from making meatballs to a boots-on-the-ground grassroots political activist fighting for freedom. Once she started going to community meetings, God handed this warrior her instructions. Realizing that her grandchildren's futures were being systematically destroyed by the very people who were supposed to be making them better, she started digging deeper and didn't like what she found. From Boston's Orwellian Human Rights Council to the Boston City Council, she learned who was behind things like flying the Communist China flag on City Hall Plaza (but not a Christian flag) to a sculpture of Baal on Revere Beach, and Gina joined with others to oppose them.

(00:00) Andrew Callahan covers the Patriots for the Herald and joins Toucher & Rich to talk Thursday Night Football(17:15) Boston City Hall is hideous and should be torn down.(30:50) THE STACK

Yesterday was the day the Royals came to Boston and Karson was there at City Hall Plaza, braving the rain and the cold to bring us his very own Royal Update!

Yesterday was the day the Royals came to Boston and Karson was there at City Hall Plaza, braving the rain and the cold to bring us his very own Royal Update!

On Wednesday Camp Constitution, the Christian group who sued the city of Boston over the right to fly their flag at Boston City Hall, finally saw their flag flying high after winning their Supreme Court case. Now three Boston City Councilors have filed an ordinance that would require Council approval or a mayoral proclamation to fly a flag at City Hall Plaza. Dan heard listener's thoughts on the filed ordinance and what the flag raising policies should be at Boston's City Hall Plaza.

More trouble on the MBTA tracks. The Christian flag will fly tomorrow at City Hall Plaza. The Red Sox are busy at the trade deadline. 5 minutes of news that will keep you in The Loop.

Celtics Legend Bill Russell has died. A Puerto Rican Parade in Roxbury today. Some Celtics fans are visiting Bill Russell's statue on City Hall Plaza. Five minutes of news that will keep you in "The Loop."

Boston-based architect Larry Chan discusses the design of the City Hall Plaza Arcade.

After postponing it for several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu held her inauguration party at City Hall Plaza on Thursday. WBZ's Karyn Regal reports.

Boston's City Hall Plaza has three flagpoles; one flies the American flag and another the state flag. The city's flag usually flies from the third pole but groups may hold ceremonies on the plaza during which participants may hoist a flag of their choosing on the third pole. Over 12 years, Boston approved the raising of about 50 unique flags for 284 such ceremonies, most were other countries' flags, but some were associated with groups or causes. In 2017, Camp Constitution asked to hold an event on the plaza to celebrate the civic and social contributions of the Christian community and to raise the “Christian flag.” Worried that flying a religious flag could violate the Establishment Clause, the city approved the event but told the group it could not raise its flag. The district court and First Circuit upheld that decision. The Supreme Court reversed. Boston's flag-raising program does not express government speech so Boston's refusal to let Camp Constitution fly its flag violated the Free Speech Clause. Employing a “holistic inquiry,” the Court noted that the history of flag flying, particularly at the seat of government, supports Boston, but Boston did not shape or control the flags' content and meaning and never intended to convey the messages on the flags as its own. The application process did not involve seeing flags before plaza events. The city's practice was to approve flag raisings without exception. When the government does not speak for itself, it may not exclude private speech based on “religious viewpoint”; doing so “constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination.” * Credit: Justia US Supreme Court, available at: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/596/20-1800/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scotus-opinions/support

Dr. Dan talks with  Hal Shurtleff, Co-Founder and Director of Camp Constitution. Shurtleff has a case before the Supreme Court regarding the City of Boston's refusal to allow the Christian flag to be flown outside its City Hall.  E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 2 of 3)E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 3 of 3)

Dr. Dan talks with  Hal Shurtleff, Co-Founder and Director of Camp Constitution. Shurtleff has a case before the Supreme Court regarding the City of Boston's refusal to allow the Christian flag to be flown outside its City Hall.  E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 1 of 3)E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 3 of 3)

Dr. Dan talks with  Hal Shurtleff, Co-Founder and Director of Camp Constitution. Shurtleff has a case before the Supreme Court regarding the City of Boston's refusal to allow the Christian flag to be flown outside its City Hall.  E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 1 of 3)E129: Hal Shurtleff - Christian Flag Banned in Boston (Part 2 of 3)

Harvard professor Alex Krieger talks about the Boston City Hall. Boston City Hall was a part of a major urban redesign effort in downtown Boston during the 1960's, a project which replaced Scollay Square with Government Center, which included City Hall and the City Hall Plaza. One of the most famous examples of so-called brutalist architecture, the design by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles was the unanimous winner in an international design competition. The building is famously polarizing and remains controversial to this day. Praised by many working within architecture and related professions for its vision, it has equally been criticized by workers, neighbors and other Bostonians as an unfriendly eyesore. There have recently been proposals both to demolish the building and to declare it a landmark.

David Fixler contextualizes and responds to the usual criticisms the City Hall Plaza by describing it as a public park space plaza, a paved urban space intentionally conveying certain grandeur. He also points out the changes that Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles made to the original IM Pei design to better connect the space to the city.

Songs, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and visuals all bring us back to amazing places. My father is a professional musician and his talents, songs, and friends, all played an integral part in shaping my life, and especially my love for music. This episode is dedicated to the man who always kissed us goodnight. See more classic David Polansky at City Hall Plaza in Boston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzVSPjQw6wE and stream or purchase his award-winning Animal Alphabet Songs for your children at https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Alphabet-Songs-David-Polansky/dp/B00000I6J2. Follow Aaron at @aaronpolansky on Twitter. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaron-polansky/message

The media has had it with President Trump not denouncing white supremacists more than the 53 times he has. Also, YOU are in trouble Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is angry that you are having parties and watching the NFL. Angry screeds on City Hall Plaza about the "pigs" are fine. Also, don't get naked even if you get a house for it. Follow Tom on Twitter: @Tomshattuck You can follow Alice too: @AliceShattuck More Tom stuff at www.tomshattuck.com Tom's "Insta" as the zoomers say: www.instagram.com/calvincaspian/ The opening theme music is called Divine Intervention by Matthew Sweet. Here is Biden being the bully in 2012. Looks familiar, right? Please enjoy this year's surprise hit, "Countin' on Joe" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EcPLhryiV8&feature=youtu.be Excelsior!

This episode is an overview of this Sunday's Star(k) Filled Christmas event that will be held at the City Hall Plaza.

Andy and Linda discuss brutalism, redwoods, the touristy parts of cities, mens fashion, traumatizing haircuts, and other ways they think about their bodies. Recorded on September 17th, 2019. If you'd like to sponsor an episode of Earth to Linda, send $4 to 'andymangold' through Venmo or Square Cash and we'll do an episode in your honor. It's that easy.

For several years, I have been receiving Letters from the Earth. Now, she urges me to share them with you. I believe they come from deep in the heart of God, the nurturing energy in all of creation. At this time of year my coworkers and I are very busy preparing for CultureFest, a wonderful annual community festival celebrating diversity, to be held September 22 this year on our City Hall Plaza. It’s a lot of work and can be stressful. So helpful for me reread this letter I received from the earth about CultureFest a few years ago.

For several years, I have been receiving Letters from the Earth. Now, she urges me to share them with you. I believe they come from deep in the heart of God, the nurturing energy in all of creation. At this time of year my coworkers and I are very busy preparing for CultureFest, a wonderful annual community festival celebrating diversity, to be held September 22 this year on our City Hall Plaza. It’s a lot of work and can be stressful. So helpful for me reread this letter I received from the earth about CultureFest a few years ago.

The Durham Police Department honored 25 individuals for above and beyond public safety service at its annual service awards ceremony on Thursday, May 24, 2018. The ceremony was held at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers of Durham City Hall (101 City Hall Plaza).Service award recipients included police department employees (police officers and non-sworn staff) as well as residents who have helped to advance the ideals of law enforcement and public safety in extraordinary ways.At the ceremony the department’s Executive Command Staff presented each recipient a specially crafted medal or plaque that signifies his or her achievement.This year, specific awards included three Community Service Medals; five Distinguished Service Medals; 14 Certificates of Merit; Civilian Employee of the Year; Officer of the Year; and one Police Medal. The Police Medal is the highest distinction presented to members of the general public, who apprehend or cause to be apprehended dangerous persons at grave and/or imminent danger to themselves; or to community members who perform an act that warrants such recognition.The entire ceremony is available on the City of Durham's YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/pJ4L9XS_6Ic

The Durham Police Department honored 25 individuals for above and beyond public safety service at its annual service awards ceremony on Thursday, May 24, 2018. The ceremony was held at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers of Durham City Hall (101 City Hall Plaza).Service award recipients included police department employees (police officers and non-sworn staff) as well as residents who have helped to advance the ideals of law enforcement and public safety in extraordinary ways.At the ceremony the department’s Executive Command Staff presented each recipient a specially crafted medal or plaque that signifies his or her achievement.This year, specific awards included three Community Service Medals; five Distinguished Service Medals; 14 Certificates of Merit; Civilian Employee of the Year; Officer of the Year; and one Police Medal. The Police Medal is the highest distinction presented to members of the general public, who apprehend or cause to be apprehended dangerous persons at grave and/or imminent danger to themselves; or to community members who perform an act that warrants such recognition.The entire ceremony is available on the City of Durham's YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/pJ4L9XS_6Ic

Anna is a musician, as well as the curator of All Together Now, a performance series highlighting women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. Pebbles and Anna RaeShe’s also a writer for QwearFashion, sharing stories about the lives and fashion of queer artists and performers.Listen to the interview here...  Pebbles, Anna Rae, and VOICES Producer Leroy Irvin Events mentioned on the showMayor Walsh's Summer Movie Nights Get the list of movies and parks HERE.Gospelfest, Sunday, August 6th at City Hall Plaza in Boston It's free from 5pm - 8pm. Get all the info HERE.Afro-RoxSunday, August 6, 2017 from 12pm-8pm at the First Church in Roxbury: 10 Putnam Street; Roxbury, MA 02119. We are super-exited to have over 30 vendors, Live DJ's spinning Afrobeat, Caribbean and Deep-House, dope-African & Afro Caribbean dancers, Spoken-word, Live Art, Haute African fashion-showcase The House Of Nahdra and very special guest, Berkeley College of Music recording artist Lee Wilson in song.  All info HERE.

The Community Connection Radio Show hosted a live broadcast of the Dallas Against White-Supremacy rally held Aug 19 2017 Dallas City Hall Plaza via SoMetro Talk internet radio station. The event was co-hosted by the following Supporting Organizations:* NOW (National Organization of Women)* UNA-USA Dallas Chapter* Indivisible* Faith Forward Dallas* ICNA-Dallas* Mothers Against Police Brutality* Downtown Residents Against Confederate Glorification* Snider for Congress* Lawyers for America* America's Choice for Discerning Citizens* Feed A Million Veterans* SURJ-DFW* Stonewall Democrats of Dallas*DSA-North Texas*Society of Native Nations*Dallas County Democratic PartySpeakers included:* Abeerah Muhammad, activist and member of In Solidarity;* Hieremila Haile, activist and member of In Solidarity;*Connie Trinh, activist and member of In Solidarity;*Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters, Joy Tabernacle A.M.E Church and Faith Forward Dallas, best-selling author and Dallas Theological Activist;* Alia Salem, Muslim community leader and activistl* Lee Merrit, Civil Rights Attorney; * John Fullenwinder, activist and advocate with Mothers Against Police Brutality; * Rev. Eric Folkerth, Northaven UMC and Faith Forward Dallas;* Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Co-Chair, Faith Forward Dallas* Rabbi Andrew Paley, Temple Shalom and Faith Forward Dallas*Omar Narvaez, Dallas City Councilman;* Chris Hamilton, co-founder of Lawyers for America;*Yolanda Blue Horse, Co-founder Society of Native Nations and DAPL activist;* Joanna Cattanach, candidate for Texas State Representative, HD108;* Ernest Walker, activist and founder of ACDC and FeedAMillionVets;* Edward Sebesta, Neo-Confederate researcher and expert;* Justin Snider, candidate for U.S. House, TX-06;*Deborah Beltran, DSA-North Texas;*Julie Ross, PWD advocate

The Community Connection Radio Show hosted a live broadcast of the Dallas Against White-Supremacy rally held Aug 19 2017 Dallas City Hall Plaza via SoMetro Talk internet radio station. The event was co-hosted by the following Supporting Organizations: * NOW (National Organization of Women) * UNA-USA Dallas Chapter * Indivisible * Faith Forward Dallas * ICNA-Dallas * Mothers Against Police Brutality * Downtown Residents Against Confederate Glorification * Snider for Congress * Lawyers for America * America's Choice for Discerning Citizens * Feed A Million Veterans * SURJ-DFW * Stonewall Democrats of Dallas *DSA-North Texas *Society of Native Nations *Dallas County Democratic Party Speakers included: * Abeerah Muhammad, activist and member of In Solidarity; * Hieremila Haile, activist and member of In Solidarity; *Connie Trinh, activist and member of In Solidarity; *Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters, Joy Tabernacle A.M.E Church and Faith Forward Dallas, best-selling author and Dallas Theological Activist; * Alia Salem, Muslim community leader and activistl * Lee Merrit, Civil Rights Attorney; * John Fullenwinder, activist and advocate with Mothers Against Police Brutality; * Rev. Eric Folkerth, Northaven UMC and Faith Forward Dallas; * Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Co-Chair, Faith Forward Dallas * Rabbi Andrew Paley, Temple Shalom and Faith Forward Dallas *Omar Narvaez, Dallas City Councilman; * Chris Hamilton, co-founder of Lawyers for America; *Yolanda Blue Horse, Co-founder Society of Native Nations and DAPL activist; * Joanna Cattanach, candidate for Texas State Representative, HD108; * Ernest Walker, activist and founder of ACDC and FeedAMillionVets; * Edward Sebesta, Neo-Confederate researcher and expert; * Justin Snider, candidate for U.S. House, TX-06; *Deborah Beltran, DSA-North Texas; *Julie Ross, PWD advocate

The Community Connection Radio Show hosted a live broadcast of the Dallas Against White-Supremacy rally held Aug 19 2017 Dallas City Hall Plaza via SoMetro Talk internet radio station. The event was co-hosted by the following Supporting Organizations:* NOW (National Organization of Women)* UNA-USA Dallas Chapter* Indivisible* Faith Forward Dallas* ICNA-Dallas* Mothers Against Police Brutality* Downtown Residents Against Confederate Glorification* Snider for Congress* Lawyers for America* America's Choice for Discerning Citizens* Feed A Million Veterans* SURJ-DFW* Stonewall Democrats of Dallas*DSA-North Texas*Society of Native Nations*Dallas County Democratic PartySpeakers included:* Abeerah Muhammad, activist and member of In Solidarity;* Hieremila Haile, activist and member of In Solidarity;*Connie Trinh, activist and member of In Solidarity;*Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters, Joy Tabernacle A.M.E Church and Faith Forward Dallas, best-selling author and Dallas Theological Activist;* Alia Salem, Muslim community leader and activistl* Lee Merrit, Civil Rights Attorney; * John Fullenwinder, activist and advocate with Mothers Against Police Brutality; * Rev. Eric Folkerth, Northaven UMC and Faith Forward Dallas;* Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Co-Chair, Faith Forward Dallas* Rabbi Andrew Paley, Temple Shalom and Faith Forward Dallas*Omar Narvaez, Dallas City Councilman;* Chris Hamilton, co-founder of Lawyers for America;*Yolanda Blue Horse, Co-founder Society of Native Nations and DAPL activist;* Joanna Cattanach, candidate for Texas State Representative, HD108;* Ernest Walker, activist and founder of ACDC and FeedAMillionVets;* Edward Sebesta, Neo-Confederate researcher and expert;* Justin Snider, candidate for U.S. House, TX-06;*Deborah Beltran, DSA-North Texas;*Julie Ross, PWD advocate

With high approval ratings, a formidable war chest, and a close working relationship with the state's Republican governor, is Mayor Marty Walsh already on track to be Boston's "mayor for life?" Adam met up with Gintautas Dumcius of Mass Live and Shirley Leung of the Boston Globe on the windswept steps of City Hall Plaza.

Lisa Kiefer interviews Wilson Riles, community activist and former Oakland city council member from 1979 to 1992, and the brains behind Oakland's alternative digital currency called ACORN (Alternative Currency for Oakland Residents & Neighbors).TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. You are listening to method to the madness, a biweekly public affairs show on k a l ex Berkeley celebrating bay area innovators. I'm Lisa keeper and today I'm interviewing Wilson Riles, Speaker 2:founder of Acorns, the alternative currency for Oakland residents and neighbors. [00:00:30] [inaudible] welcome to the program, Wilson. Thank you. Good to be here. Yeah. Wilson nine Speaker 1:understand that you have been working on a project to bring alternative currencies to Oakland. I think a lot of people don't understand alternative currencies and bitcoin and all that stuff and so today I'd really like to let you explain to us, help us [00:01:00] understand what you're doing in Oakland and as also part of the larger picture of alternative currencies. Speaker 3:Sure. I'll be glad to do it. It's something that I've been working on for quite awhile. I think that it's important to heal some of the micro economic structural problems within Oakland, not only in Oakland but there definitely in Oakland. Then I come at it. Do you mean by that? What is that micro problems? Well, you know, I come at it from the point of view of having served on the Oakland City Council for 13 [00:01:30] years. And in that you do get some view of what's going on in a lot of different ways in Oakland and including in terms of employment and commerce and Economics and what's going on in terms of particular neighborhoods and people. Speaker 1:And what kind of time span are you talking about studying? Speaker 3:Well, you know, I've, I've, uh, read a lot about the history of Oakland over a long period of time. And you know, I experienced it, uh, since I've been here, which is about 1973. [00:02:00] So that's quite a bit of time. And from the point of view of the city council, you get some sense of the flow of sales, taxes, property taxes and economics and streets fees and who they go to and what happens with the money. And one of the things that became very clear is that because of the way Oakland formed itself, particularly after World War II, a great deal of the hiring in Oakland and the business climate, business income [00:02:30] leaks out of Oakland to a greater degree than it does other community. Uh, even though there are a lot of corporations and businesses here and the prospect for them as it is generally for businesses in the bay area is very good because of the Pacific Rim trade, because of the silicon valley, because of the ports. Speaker 3:Oakland is the fifth largest port in the United States, one of the first containerized ports on the west coast. It has an advantage [00:03:00] for export traffic, which is the agricultural goods out of the, the Sacramento Valley for flow out through the port of Oakland. But even though it is in some ways a very strange way seen as a department of the city, it's also its own separate entity with its own fiduciary responsibility for all of the income that's gained at the port, including leasing land to all the companies that are out there. And 90% or more of the people who work in those companies, [00:03:30] and we're talking about 30 40,000 jobs are in Oakland residents and aren't likely to be Oakland residents. So the business is generated here because of the port, but when those folks get paid their salary, they go outside of Oakland to spend it generating a stronger economy for the region. Speaker 3:There's nothing wrong with that except that Oakland has so many of those kind of mechanisms going on and its economy that Oakland remains as one of the council [00:04:00] members called it the hole in the donut. We remain poor, highly unemployed, and all of the Plethora of problems that come from that, which are an additional cost for us. The kids that come to class in the schools without the preparation because their parents have been unemployed or are unemployed parents who for various reasons are either caught up in some kind of domestic crisis because of poverty or single family parents who [00:04:30] don't have the time to really spend with their kids that more middle class affluent families do. So they bring that deficit into the school district and it costs more to address that deficit and the dollars aren't there in the school district because the economic base isn't there to support the school. Speaker 3:Tell me what the alternative currency marketplace will do for this. Right. I begin to look at how to plug this hole, particularly have so much commuters coming in, holding the jobs [00:05:00] and then taking the money out. So I, I looked at what other cities have done and one of the mechanisms that they've found that holds the resources in the community and circulates it in the community is currency, is alternative. Currency is a currency that can only be spent in the community. So it's earned in the community and then spent back in the community. And so it circulates in the community and it is that circulation which has demonstrated its ability [00:05:30] to increase the affluence of all of those who participate in the system. What models did you look at to come up with this in Oakland? So there've been a number of communities in California. Speaker 3:Berkeley tried a currency that was based on hours on the exchange of hours, you would essentially provide some hours of work. And in order to do the hours exchange based on the U S tax system, you've got to rate the hours [00:06:00] of a doctor the same as the hours of a painter. So it's considered to be a bargaining. So they are valued the same. So that's a psychological understanding that a community needs to get over in order to use the hours system. Well, the hours program in Berkeley as in other places has worked very well where people are sophisticated enough and are willing to easily make that kind of transition in terms of their understanding [00:06:30] of the value of work so that a painter can go and give an hour one for it. The same as a doctor. The whole economic climate mitigates against us making these kinds of equality equitable. The Berkeley one, it's gone out of existence. Speaker 3:So one of the problems with local currencies, they said generally they don't come out of the community, but they come out of the efforts of an individual person or a small group of people. [00:07:00] And they work very hard. They raise the money, they do all the things they need to do to get it up and running. And then when the founder moves on or the group kind of falls apart, the currency disappears because the community hasn't bought it and owned it. And so this is one of the issues that I wanted to look at very carefully in modeling the my own currency that I was looking at. Another aspect that I wanted to look at comes from example of the word goal in Austria. So during [00:07:30] the 1930s when we had the world wide depression, the mayor of a Warragul Austria recognize that there were two major manufacturing plants in town and they were going to be affected by this depression. Speaker 3:And so folks who lived in, worked in the town wouldn't have a job and therefore they wouldn't be able to pay the taxes. The whole community would begin to fall apart. So he invented the word Schilling, got [00:08:00] the two businesses to accept the word gold Schilling and to pay their local employees in the work shilling and the city accepted the worker chilling as payment for their taxes. Within six months, the word go Austria was back up functioning and people were fully employed and they were being very successful. Go and spend that money in the town. They were able to go and spend that money in town. [inaudible] town. Exactly. [00:08:30] They got the buy in and retails and the buy in of the city. Unfortunately, most local currencies ended up just between the consumer and the business and that's the, the circulation that happens with the most local parents. Speaker 3:Very few. In fact, I only know of the word though, as where the public sector actually got in to using the local currency. I mean you can talk about alternative currencies and then you also need to bring up the greenback where President Lincoln [00:09:00] basically was not able to get the buy in from the banks to finance the civil war. So he took the powers that the constitution gives the United States government and he created the green back, the government's own currency published by the government, and he financed the war with greenbacks and actually financed a lot of the intercontinental railroad and a number of other kinds of things on the basis of the greenback. Now eventually the banking conglomerates were able to to [00:09:30] stop the federal government from doing that and we ended up with a reenactment of the Federal Reserve and the ownership of the Federal Reserve of our currency and our currency flow and the United States in a lot of ways is on the unusual end of countries that only have one currency that functions where there is a monopoly on the currency. Speaker 3:I mean it's not a legal monopoly on the currency, but the Federal Reserve basically because of [00:10:00] the way that they have been able to shape the system have have achieved a monopoly on the u s local currency except in, in these very small, they're ignoring bitcoin or at least they're letting bitcoin go forward. Why do you think they're letting bitcoin go? What is happening with Bitcoin is that maybe we should tell our listeners what bitcoin is. All right. So bitcoin in many ways, like the currency that I'm putting together is a digital currency. So it [00:10:30] flows around the Internet and it's possible to do what they call mining. And I've never used bitcoins. I don't know what's involved, but you can do some mining on your computer and come up with bitcoins and bitcoins then have value on the network where people who are participating using bitcoins and because it's an international currency and it's largely I think being used as a business to business currency. Speaker 3:The businesses are interested in maintaining this ability [00:11:00] because the US dollar is facing a lot of different crisises and pressures around the world. Just more recently, the more significant issue is the brick companies, Britain, Russia, China, South Africa, uh, in India they decided to start their own development bank and they're not going to use u s dollars in setting up their own development bank. When Iran threatens to denominate they're [00:11:30] all oil, not in US dollars, but in other, some currencies. That's a threat. That's to the economic system. And so the economic system is so tied up around the u s dollars that people are looking for other alternatives. So there's a growing number of alternatives, not just bitcoins but others. So are you saying that Bitcoin is almost there? They're watching it because they may need it? Oh, absolutely. Some of the companies have been very clear that they needed, even though [00:12:00] it's got into a little bit of a taint because of some of the uses of Bitcoin, not because of what bitcoin itself was doing, but because some of the users were using it in order to hire, hit people and do drugs and other kinds of stuff. Speaker 3:It's got a little taint on it, but the businesses are very, well [inaudible] a lot of the same ways. But you know, the businesses, particularly international businesses particularly at, uh, I [00:12:30] think at, at a level where the, the new businesses that are breaking out are finding this a very useful, uh, means of exchange. But the government is moving forward to develop regulations around the control of bitcoins. And there are some government regulations around alternative currencies. You can't use them in order to avoid taxes, to pay taxes, you can't use them to pay tax. That is one of the ways that the monopoly is held onto [00:13:00] by the Federal Reserve and its relationship to the United States government. It declares that Texas can only be paid in the Federal Reserve notes in the U s dollar. And so they will remain of some value. So it's, it's a complimentary currency. It's not an, uh, an alternative currency in the sense that we're trying to replace the u s dollar. Speaker 3:We're trying to give people another way of being able to express themselves monetarily that doesn't involve debt, [00:13:30] doesn't involve the amassing of capital, it doesn't involve inflation. It doesn't involve a lot of those things because we've shaped our currency so that it takes those kinds of things in account and it maximizes circulation within the community, local community. So let's get back to Oakland. What are you calling your currency and is it happening right now? We are within months of it happening and we've been working on it for awhile, for four years. So it's a complicated [00:14:00] thing and it's a new thing. And like you say, most people don't even understand [inaudible] what are you calling it? We're calling it the acorn. So for a lot of reasons, what we want to do is to Harken back to the people who lived on this particular piece of land the longest and in harmonious relationship with the land. Speaker 3:Our intent is to increase the sustainability of the folks who [00:14:30] live in this community. And so that's why we're hearkening back to the Aloni, uh, who were the first people in Oakland on the land and the Acorn, the nut of the oak tree was essential to their diet, into their sustenance. So they use the acorn in the products of the oak tree all the time and almost everything that they did. The other reason is because we have alliterated it as alternative currency for [00:15:00] Oakland residents and neighbors. So it's also kind of fits there and you know, and it's kind of a nice picture of an acorn Speaker 2:if you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness by weekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley. Celebrating Bay area innovators. Today I'm interviewing Wilson riles. Wilson has come up with an alternative currency idea called ACORNS, alternative [00:15:30] currency for Oakland residents and neighbors for years working on this. And you said you were promotes from starting. What is left to do and how will you roll it out and also like what challenges have you had and Speaker 3:it's left to do is uh, we've designated a startup board. We've drafted our articles of incorporation [00:16:00] and our bylaws. So these are the things in order to become a legal entity that can contract with other entities and hire people and move forward. We have now concretized that we have developed, um, a contract with a card vendors. So this is someone who takes the debit card technology, produces the plastic cards with the magnetic strip on the back of them, and then sets up the electronic transfers [00:16:30] of the resources off of that card to wherever it's going. I would have my own acorn card, right? Yeah. I wouldn't use it for any other purpose. Right. You would have, you would have your own acorn card. That card would carry though both u s dollars and acorns. There's enough space on the electronic strip on the back of what they call pockets where activity can take place for the acorn. Speaker 3:And then also activity for the [00:17:00] u s dollar can take place on there. How would I get this card? So you would come to either a designated merchant who has agreed to distribute the cards. You would come to the merchant or you would come to a facility that we'll be setting up our first one. We'll be downtown in a City Hall Plaza, no Oakland in Oakland. And you would essentially purchase the card. You would pay something in the neighborhood about $15 for the card and you would [00:17:30] get $30 of acorns for that first purchase. So and, and acorns are transferable one to one. So you would be paying $15 to get $30 at the stores that would accept the acorns. And we've already started identifying stores that would be willing accept acorns. We know that some of them are going, they have to provide food resources for people. Speaker 3:Cause that's one of the things people spend a lot of money on. Constant base [00:18:00] restaurants for sure. We also want to deal with other forms of businesses, calling businesses and so forth. We also want to deal with nonprofits so that folks could donate money to nonprofits and get service after them. And when someone donates to nonprofits using the Acorn, they get the same tax write off as if they had donated a with US dollars. Because if the federal government can tell us we have to pay taxes with the acorns that we spend, [00:18:30] we also get the tax break. The other part of the tax law for making a contribution to a nonprofit. Right? So we are including the nonprofit industry also within our gambit of who would use the acorns. So once you purchase that card, that card is uploadable, which means that you can then either through electronic transfer or a mailing a check, send money to your dollar account [00:19:00] and then have it transferred over into acorns. Speaker 3:So you can make that trans. By managing your accounts, you can manage your accounts all digitally smart card. When you go into a merchant, you want to purchase a meal that you bought or something, you would just swipe it in the same devices. In your studies, what have you seen as a benefit to local communities by using these alternative currencies? I think one of the greatest benefit has been to the business community, [00:19:30] particularly the small business community, particularly the locally owned the business community. So you see where these currencies have been used most and all of them up to now have been printed dollar bills, so you could Ithaca, New York, the Berkshire's have also kind of printed dollars. In fact, when the $5 note has WB Dubois on it, who's one of my heroes because he grew up in that area, so there are a lot of local heroes. Speaker 3:That's one of the things about printed [00:20:00] money that you won't have, but the local businesses have been able to find the financing they need through this kind of circulation shared economy where they couldn't find it from a regular small bank. Small banks don't make loans the way they used to. They're not focused anymore, particularly on the small business person. In terms of the availability of loans and others there. It has been some improvement within the last year or so in terms of the availability of funds, [00:20:30] but that's never going to be I think a primary business of the small banks the way they used to be. So once we have our acorn up and running, when someone gives us US dollars in order to get acorns, we then develop a pool U s dollars. We're going to then make those u s dollars available to participating merchants at no interest. Speaker 3:So you're going to become a funder, you know, we won't be under the banking finance laws, we [00:21:00] won't be under the fractional reserve banking, we won't be creating all of this new money. We'll be taking our own money and loaning it out directly interest zero interest just for the cost of managing and processing the loan. So in that way we are taking that interest element out of our local currency or at least reducing it to as minimum as we can. So again, it's about circulation and we're going to be constantly [00:21:30] finding as many ways as we can for that merchant. Then when they do accept the acorns to find ways to use the acorn either by making a contribution to a local nonprofit by paying fully or partially their employees in local currency by paying some of the fees, not taxes, but some of the fees of the city business, license fees, parking fees, other kinds of fees that city levies on small business, so you've got the city of Oakland, they're [00:22:00] going to accept acorns. Speaker 3:We've been dealing with the council to a certain extent with the staff and you know the council finds it hard to put their head into anything for very long no matter what it is. That's one of the reasons why it's taken four years. We started this concept by working with a city municipal identification card. There was a effort that was sweeping the country and to some extent it's still as I started in new haven, Connecticut then went to San Francisco and then we did [00:22:30] our adaption of for having it in Oakland, recognizing that a lot of the immigrant population was not fully participating in the Logan community even though they were in the local community for a long, long periods of time for generations to some extent still undocumented, but they were making powerful contributions to the community, but they couldn't open bank accounts because they didn't have the proper id to open bank accounts. Speaker 3:If they reported a crime to the police department and the police asked them for an [00:23:00] ID, they wouldn't have one. They ended up getting swept into the ice immigration system because of it. Their ability to participate in the community was restricted by not having a publicly recognized id. So the first effort was to try to fashion an ID that would work and both new haven and San Francisco got challenged on what they did. Once someone signed up for a city id, [00:23:30] the city would have a record that they had signed up for the city Id. Those records became public information and folks who were anti-immigrant went after that information in order to attack the immigrants. And that was a serious problem. San Francisco ended up spinning a half billion dollars for a laser card printing machine in order to give folks the card once they qualified, but then not keep the [00:24:00] data in the machine so that it wasn't accessible. Speaker 3:Oakland could not afford to buy a half million dollar machine. So that's where we moved into putting a a magnetic strip on the back of our ID card or city id card. And in presenting the city id card with the magnetic strip, we also presented the idea that this card ought to be useful for more than just the undocumented than it ought to be useful for almost everybody [00:24:30] in the community. And one of the ways of doing that was by adding the local currency to it because people already have debit cards and credit cards and everything. So you got the approval for this. So we have the approval. And so the council has agreed that the next phase of the ID card is to add the local currency that we're developing separately. But that can be run both on our separate cart. And on the city id you're talking about four months? Speaker 3:No, no. So four months is just to get our [00:25:00] card out. It's just a blanket basic card has no photo on the front of it. Like the ID does the ID card rolled out last February. Okay. So when will it merge? Right. So we're, we are now starting the discussion of figuring out how to emerge from everything that we have investigated. There is no technical problem. We just need to work out the corporate, their entity to our entity corporate agreements that need to be be worked out. So what have been some [00:25:30] of your major challenges are what's remaining as a challenge to get this off and running? Well, the primary challenge is we have to overcome a big education hill. People have to start to kind of understand what's happening with their own currency, why things are in the situation that they are in. A lot of communities and then once they see that, then there is a problem and then there that there's an alternative and they begin to compare. Speaker 3:What would [00:26:00] it be like to be able to use a currency like this? How are you doing that? Are you involved in an education? We did a, we did a number of public meetings where we invited people to come in. Bernard Latier has a, is a international economists whose specialty is local currencies, so he started local currencies in many countries around the world and he came here in one of our education sessions was to have him talk. [00:26:30] He's a very clear that if you look at the history of currencies in the world, a lot of the more successful civilizations in the world have had more than one currency, one currency that was based on circulation, local circulation, and another kind of a currency that was usually controlled by the king or the ruler of some kind that was about amassing capital and paying for armies and all other kinds of things that had very little benefit to the local community. Speaker 3:[00:27:00] And so there's, there's been this dynamic going on. Egypt had a local currency that was based on the grain that was stored, so when the farmers would put the grains in the silo, they would be given a little receipt for the amount of grain that they stored and then they started using that, those receipts for currency when a lot of the communities in the Middle Ages were building cathedrals. If you look back at how those cathedrals got done in a lot of those small communities in Europe, they didn't get done because the king or the pope [00:27:30] or anyone made the money available. They got done because those communities created local currencies. It makes total sense that we're going to need redundant systems anyway. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We have urban agriculture going on within Oakland. This will enhance the urban agriculture. Well, what I'm curious about you, how you came to this idea of the currency. Speaker 3:What's your background? It's definitely not economics. I was born in Flagstaff, Arizona. Spent a little time in Los Angeles, [00:28:00] but most of my life was in Sacramento and that was when my father was elected. Finally after spending much time in Sacramento, he worked for the Department of Education and then he was elected as state superintendent of public instruction. So I have a little taste of state politics. And then I went to Stanford University on a football scholarship intending to get a degree in mathematics, but ended up getting a degree in stead in psychology for a lot of reasons. Then with my degree in in psychology [00:28:30] and my father's and mother's interest in bettering the community, I then went into the peace corps, attempted to serve some time in west Africa. I decided that if I was going to make a difference there, I'd have to commit much more time than two years in the peace corps in order to really fit into the community, but that I could do some things here in this country. Speaker 3:So I came back, got involved in a number of campaigns, Dellums campaign, Shirley Chisholm's [00:29:00] cancer, came back to Oakland. I came back to the bay area originally, Berkeley, then a and then Oakland, and then I eventually ran for the Oakland city council. So I've kind of developed this interest in this research that I've been doing on how cities function and how micro economies function and what might be possible to do. And it was through that that I have to none a reading some things about a local and complementary currencies. We'll Wilson, a lot of our listeners are probably gonna want to learn more about [00:29:30] acorn and about you. Do you have a website that you could send our listeners to? There is a Nazi Jami Facebook website and Nazi Jami means community of souls. Nazi is n a F S I not c space yacht, which is why a and you don't have to capitalize the y and then a space. And Jami is j a m [inaudible] for being on the program. Thank you. [00:30:00] You've been listening to method to the madness. If you have questions or comments about this show, go to the k eight Speaker 2:hell x website. Find method to the madness and drop us a line. Tune in again in two weeks at the same time. Have a great weekend. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Market season is kicking off, Boise Depot 99th bday, early Earth Day celebrations, comedy shows, bike tune up party and more! Read the newsletter: fromboise.comOut of town tip: visitsouthwestidaho.org/fromboiseGet your tickets for Shade City Brewfest happening next weekend! MARKETSFri Apr 12: ​The Disco Tits​ are doing a pop up market at Bert's BrewingSat Apr 13: ​No New Vintage Market​ is happening at the Linen Building from 10am-4pmSat Apr 13: ​Boise Farmers Market​ is happening from 9am-1pm at 1500 Shoreline Drive Sat Apr 13: ​Capital City Public Market​ is happening from 9:30am-1:30pm on the Grove Plaza Sat Apr 13: ​Meridian Main Street Market​ is happening from 9am-2pm at City Hall Plaza & next to Meridian City HallSat Apr 13: ​Nampa Farmers Market​ is doing a soft opening from 9am-1:30pm in Lloyd Square Park in NampaSun Apr 14: ​36th Street Sunday Market​ is happening at Sockeye AlehouseSun Apr 14: The first ​Boise Flea​ of the season is happening from 10am-4pm at the East Stadium Lot at BSUBOISE DEPOT BDAYSun Apr 14: The ​Boise Depot 99th Birthday Celebration​ at the Boise Depot (duh!) EARLY EARTH DAY Th Apr 11: ​Earth Day Family Night Out​ is happening at Zoo Boise from 6-8pmSat Apr 13: ​City of Boise's Earth Day Celebration​ is happening at Kristin Armstrong Park from 12-4pmCOMEDY & STORIESFri Apr 12: Making of a true crime narrative ​with local author Kim Cross at The Lit RoomFri Apr 12: ​Bottom's Up! An Improvised Drinking Show​ at Lounge at the End of the UniverseFri Apr 12: ​The Riff​ improv show is happening at Mad Swede Downtown. Sat Apr 13: ​Lectures by Lushes: A Drunken Lecture Series (Special Brunch Show)​ is happening at Shrine Social ClubSat Apr 13: Almost Scary​, a Saturday the 13th Show at The Creative Space in Garden CitySun Apr 14: Comedian ​Louis Cervantez​ is doing a free stand up show at Mad Swede Brewing (Cole Road)FOOD & DRINK THINGSFri Apr 12: National Grilled Cheese Day​ with Meltz BoiseFri-Sat Apr 12-13: World Malbec Weekend​ with Huston VineyardsSat Apr 13: J​One Year of Beer​ at Sockeye AlehouseSat Apr 13: ​Cinco de Mayo Pre-Party: Cheladas and Micheladas​ at BUGSSat Apr 13: ​Gelande Quaffing​ with Lost Grove is happening at Cactus BarSat Apr 13: ​Classic Kentucky Whiskey & Dinner Pairing​ at The Riverside HotelSun Apr 14: Second Sunday Slay Brunch​ at The BalconyGet your tix for ​Taste Your Way Through France​ at Parcero on April 22STARGAZINGFri Apr 12: ​Astronomy Lecture and Stargazing event​ at Boise StateBIKE TUNE UP PARTYSun Apr 14: ​Bike Tune-Up Patio Party​ at Lost Grove Brewing