Omfg "Lake kids in Central Massachusetts are not fucking around" the new Chris Flemming special is so good

Today I'm peasantmaxxing. Got the volcano livestream up, im in the digital commons with the boys deciphering what the omen portends, we're all a little pissed about how they fenced it off with hedges but we're mostly just hoping we dont get conscripted

Not a great time to be taking credit for rocket technology lol. In fact probably the worst time in decades

🤞

hiiii late posting about it but i'm starting a monthly column at Worcester Sucks (and I Love It)!! shoutout @billshaner.bsky.social for seeing the vision. it's called How Did We Get Here? you should subscribe and get it direct to your inbox just sayinggg www.worcestersucks.email/p/how-did-we...

That + 6 accounts on polymarket made around $1 million in profit by betting on the US to strike Iran by Feb. 28. Accounts were all freshly created in Feb and had only ever placed bets on this bloom.bg/3ORPnBo

⬇️⬇️⬇️. Important reporting on WPS school committee work. Here in Worcester or nationally reporting on our public bodies is increasingly important. Thanks @aislinn.bsky.social and @billshaner.bsky.social and all of other independent writers. Thank you for your work.

There's no such thing as a police officer shortage. "The police chief is complaining" is not an objective measurement.

This lede is a good example of the torqued discourse around cops and crime in local news. The "though" at the beginning of this creates an implicit causality (need more cops for less crime), but the evidence presented suggests the exact opposite

You gotta hand it to her no one licks boot quite like kate toomey

Important story from This Week In Worcester. Duffy being barred from testifying to the political nature of the charges yet he apparently helped draft the apology letter to the police that was a condition of the plea deal Gagne offered. Cartoon corruption thisweekinworcester.com/duffy-gagne-...

25 in wustáh

Getting amped for the blizzard by watching this vid I took then forgot about of a kid eating shit snowboarding across the street from the gold star Shaw’s a couple weeks ago

lord help me I'm Getting Really Into Obsidian

I’d like to thank Thomas Duffy once again for making another Worcester progressive look like a hero. Keep doing it bud

@billshaner.bsky.social reporting is stellar. There are serious repercussions from this conviction & prosecution. Beyond the personal cost, this is about chilling community defense & police misconduct enabled by prosecutorial discretion. www.worcestersucks.email/p/convicted-...

In May we reported on the abduction by ICE of an asylum seeker in Worcester. @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social, a city councilor at the time, was absurdly and unjustly convicted last week of assaulting a police officer that day in what she says was a politically motivated trial. We talked about it.

There is no rational world in which what Haxhiaj did amounts to assault. It simply highlights the ridiculous double standard when it comes to how we allow our brave warriors to brutalize us to no end while also counting the most modest or incidental resistance as a grave affront to the law.

The Northwestern DA’s office successfully convicted Etel Haxhiaj, a rapid responder to a Worcester ICE raid, of assault on a police officer. Haxhiaj declined a plea offer that would have required her to sign an apology letter. “I chose the truth,” she said. @billshaner.bsky.social reports:

Thank you immensely @andrewjmarsh.bsky.social for this powerful beautiful analysis in @billshaner.bsky.social’s Worcester Sucks. ❤️ www.worcestersucks.email/p/criminaliz...

Thomas Duffy was in the building the whole time, had conversations with Gagne outside the courtroom, walked into the courtroom with the called witnesses and stared down the jurors with them (Gagne pretended to not know who he was) and now this, in the guardian... Yet judge barred him from the stand!

Major props to @billshaner.bsky.social for spending two days in court documenting the trial, the details and for also just being an outstanding G as my young son called him when Bill lent Danny a charger. We are fortunate to have Bill’s outstanding work & analysis.

On one side we have a dedicated community organizer with six months probation and on the other side we have a police dept spending two days showing us they collaborated with ICE, will do so in the future, don’t follow their own use of force policies, don’t know what de-escalation means don’t care

Couple things stick in my mind. Just before they called ppl back in to hear the verdict, a court officer came out and gave the cops on the other side of the hall a big thumbs up. Then Gagne came out and did the same. Then they tried to let just the cops in, past the public, but got called on it

WPD patrolman’s union president Thomas Duffy rn

I think it’d be fun if the pharmacy school in beautiful downtown Worcester was called MCP (Mass College of Pills)

Etel’s testimony was so good it reduced Gagne to snarky gotcha. His last Q : is McGuirk your constituent?

Should be repeated McGuirk gave conflicting testimony about the “shove” — most garishly in contradiction to the commonwealth’s case, she said Etel pushed off of the ICE SUV into her, knocking her off balance. The state’s case is that etel “shoved” her in the process of being “escorted” (tossed)

The state doesn't want Thomas Duffy on the stand today

Welp turns out my old coworker Kenny at the sole was right when he said every single day we worked together that bad bunny is the best to ever do it and everyone else is a little bitch

A troubling story of abuse of power against a Worcester City Councilor @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social who was trying to hold the WPD to account for a devastating DOJ report and found herself arrested as ICE tore apart a family without cause. By @billshaner.bsky.social theshoestring.org/2026/02/03/n...

Four or five lines in this hell world story about Surprise AZ's city council doing jack shit about a new DHS concentration camp proposal will ring familiar to anyone who's ever asked the Worcester city council to do something worthwhile lol www.welcometohellworld.com/a-surprise-z...

I know i'm a little late to it but the reality-outpacing-satire machine was fuckin on one with this story lmao better than Pynchon

As @billshaner.bsky.social notes in his reporting, ICE and #Worcester PD's actions separated a family that was in the country legally. And yet DA David Sullivan is bringing charges against community members who tried to stop the abduction instead of the people responsible for it.

One thing I’ve found in my decade as a local newsman: the more you learn about Massachusetts the worse it gets

Incredible stuff happening at Spencer’s Gifts

Worcester doesn't have Flock (might have an ALPR that feeds but no account to search). Some of the surrounding towns do tho! Here's an Auburn officer running a Flock query or two for ICE in 2024 👍

Great reporting from @billshaner.bsky.social about the ongoing case against @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social and Ashley Spring, stemming from community response to ICE and Worcester Police activity on Eureka St in Worcester last year. Court next week. theshoestring.org/2026/02/03/n...

Thank you @billshaner.bsky.social for your reporting on this. Prosecuting mothers protecting mothers isn't justice. Read the full article here: theshoestring.org/2026/02/03/n... Trials begin next Tues, Feb 10th at the Worcester District Court, Room 23, 8:30 am.

It's not a political critique it's a pure nuts and bolts balls and strikes objective failure of city governance what they did to the website over the past year

TY to the homies at @theshoestring.bsky.social for getting this important story in front of a western ma audience (and letting me dust off my ‘proper newsman’ voice lol still got it)Trial starts feb 10!!

Powerful vibe in the Worcester sucks back end dashboard tonight

changed the game low key

@worcester police department

Ochoa on the job since 2018, Gutiérrez on the job since 2014. Not “inexperienced,” not “untrained,” it’s an industry of unchecked violence. Can’t even imagine what these ghouls also likely got away with at the border.

Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez

Wow windows 11 is the most hostile and condescending piece of tech I’ve ever seen lmao. A barely concealed protection racket with a chatbot. What a piece of crap

Every clip of Greg Bovino bitchily prancing around Minneapolis is just this guy come to life