Not A Seat At The Table

On September 1st, the City of Worcester joined the rest of the state in running the state’s primary. It is a rainy day, and low turnout is expected. For the most part, races are unopposed, and the way it is seems destined to continue at the State House.

Often, if you read the local news, Democrats here in Massachusetts celebrate themselves and the policies in our Commonwealth. There are a ton of lawsuits against the Trump Administration, and it seems like many victories. But for the poor and middle-class people of our state:

-Prices keep rising

-Rents keep rising

-Homelessness is at all-time records

-Addiction keeps rising

So I was unsurprised to see the picture that District Attorney Joe Early posted on his Facebook. The picture was clearly from City Manager Eric Batista’s office. I have been there a few times in futile attempts to get various city managers to change their minds on this issue or that. It never works. As our illustrious Mayor shows us, all deals are done in the dark.

This picture included the following caption:

Today we met with City of Worcester, Massachusetts City Manager Eric Batista, City of Worcester Health & Human Services Commissioner Dr. Seema Dixit, Worcester Police Department (Official)’s Chief Paul Saucier, and Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Lew Evangelidis to share ideas and brainstorm solutions to combat the opioid crisis and support Worcester’s unhoused population. Our hope is that by working together on a community solution, we can make a greater impact and continue building a safer, healthier Worcester.

How can it be a community solution if no one from the affected community is there? This is the disconnect our leaders have. In that picture there are registered Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled. All of them seem blissfully unaware that there is no one at that table with lived experience relative to the issues at hand. As much as the three law enforcement leaders might know about how to arrest people, prosecute them, and then house them in a corrections facility, none of them have ever lived on the street.

The interesting thing is that all of them know local professionals who have. All of them work in some capacity with program directors who interact daily with folks who have had successful recoveries. All of them have spoken publicly at events where people in recovery have had success. Yet, at this meeting of power brokers in that space, not one of them had the wherewithal to invite a person with relative experience.

It is such an interesting juxtaposition on this day, in the shadow of the Civilian Review Board debate, or the discussion of law enforcement accountability. If you go to their Facebook pages, you will see local people who argue up and down that no one without a law enforcement background should EVER oversee law enforcement personnel. The NEBPA Local 911 and its president take the same position.

Yet the same leaders think people without experience in the homelessness field or addiction field should have the ability to review and make decisions. They have a meeting, with a picture like this, taken on purpose on primary day, and show you exactly what they think of you.

I do not think that local people are stupid and offer no value to these important conversations. Looking at this picture, it would appear that they do.

Barre Woman Sentenced for $100,000 in Social Security Fraud

WORCESTER – A federal judge sentenced a local woman on Friday, August 28, after she pleaded guilty in May to Social Security fraud.

U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman sentenced Jennifer Valley, 51, of Barre, to 10 months of home confinement, three years of supervised release, and one day in prison, deemed to be time already served.  The court also required her to pay $100,218 in restitution.

According to federal prosecutors, Valley stole $100,218 in Social Security retirement benefits from the government between October 2022 and August 2025. The government alleged that Valley collected benefits for an individual with whom she lived after the person died.

The beneficiary appointed Valley as the beneficiary’s representative payee to manage their Social Security benefits

Rather than report the beneficiary’s death, in June 2023 Valley submitted reports to the Social Security Administration with false information, allowing her to collect another $23,157

Worcester Community Remembers Longtime Activist Lynn Norris

WORCESTER — Dozens of community members gathered at Pleasant and Winslow Park to remember Lynn Norris, a longtime Worcester activist whose decades of work touched causes ranging from voting rights, housing, public transportation, and family services.

Norris died in May at the age of 75.

Originally from Louisiana, Norris began participating in social activism during the Civil Rights Movement. At 14, she traveled to Selma, Alabama, where she marched alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Her commitment to activism continued throughout her life and eventually made her a familiar presence in Worcester’s community organizations and neighborhood campaigns.

“She was a fierce protector for the things and people she loved, and we were all lucky to have known her,” said local activist Parlee Jones.

Jones currently runs The Village, a community space on King Street that Norris helped establish as Stone Soup in 2006. The organization was created as a home for grassroots groups, artists and activists and became a gathering place for community organizing in Worcester.

Norris’s work extended across numerous organizations and causes. She was involved in the creation of the Worcester Parents Center, which eventually became the Worcester Family Resource Center, and worked as a grant writer at United Way. She also served as chair of Worcester’s Neighbor to Neighbor chapter and helped found the Worcester Zero Fare Coalition, which advocated for eliminating fares on Worcester Regional Transit Authority buses.

For many of those who gathered at the memorial, however, Norris’s impact was measured not only by the organizations she helped build or the causes she championed, but by the encouragement and support she offered to people around her.

“I met Lynn in 2016. She was really an amazing person,” two-time School Committee candidate and community activist Nelly Medina told This Week in Worcester at the memorial. “She always encouraged me to run for something, and when I did, she was the first one to support me and give a donation.”

Medina was among more than two dozen residents who spoke during the gathering, sharing stories about Norris and the influence she had on their lives and their involvement in Worcester’s civic life.

State Rep. Mary O’Keefe recalled Norris as a constant presence in neighborhood organizing, including at the Piedmont Community Center.

“She’d always check in and find out what’s going on, and like she always would, she became part of the woodwork,” O’Keefe said. “At one point we started a group called Women Together to address youth violence, and of course Lynn stepped up and became a strong voice.”

“She was tremendous,” O’Keefe added. “And we all need to think how we can help her legacy live on.”

$17.9 Million in Community Health Grants Awarded Across Mass.

BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey announced on Friday, Aug. 28, funding to improve community health across the state with $17.9 million in grants to 31 organizations.

The state intends the funding to support locally driven efforts for access to healthy food and housing, behavioral health, healthy aging, and other factors that impact health and well-being.

“Where you live, whether you can afford healthy food and housing, and whether you can get the support you need all have an impact on your health,” said Governor Maura Healey. “These investments put resources directly into communities to tackle those challenges and help people live healthier lives. We’re proud to support local organizations that know their communities best and are doing this work every day.”

This round of funding is the fourth awarded from the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds. The 31 grant awardees will receive the grants over five years.

The three major areas the awardees will work in are:

• Building healthier communities by advancing community-driven policies, systems, and environments that make it easier for residents to lead healthy lives;
• Coordinating community health improvement planning by bringing local partners together to identify health priorities and develop solutions; and
• Supporting healthy aging through age-friendly policies, systems, and community supports that help older adults live safely and independently.

The awardees providing services in Worcester County:

• Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission – $600,000
• Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund – $840,000
• Worcester Rise for Health – $1 million
• MAB Community Services, Inc./MA Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired – $400,000
• Friends of Indian Senior Citizens Organization, Inc. – $100,000
• Community Health Network for North Central Mass – $375,000
• Town of Ware – $375,000
• Worcester Community Action Council – $375,000

See the full list of awardees.

Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change (PSE) Grant

• Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (Worcester County, $600,000)
• Collaborative Resolutions Group (Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, $1,000,000)
• Franklin County Community Development Corporation (Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, $994,290)
• Harborlight Community Partners (Essex County, $752,886)
• Latino Support Network (Essex County, $999,999)
• Massachusetts Food System Collaborative (statewide, $999,948)
• Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance (statewide, $992,172)
• Massachusetts Public Health Association (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, $1,000,000)
• Merrimack Valley Project (Essex and Middlesex counties, $1,000,000)
• Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund (Essex, Hampden, and Worcester counties, $840,000)
• Old Colony Planning Council (Plymouth County, $525,000)
• South Asian Workers’ Center, Boston (Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk counties, $999,947)
• The Marion Institute, Inc. (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties, $997,363)
• Worcester Rise for Health (Worcester County, $1,000,000)
• Groundwork Southcoast (Bristol County, $100,000)
• Luminosity Behavioral Health Services, Inc. (Plymouth County, $100,000)

Healthy Aging Grant

• Health Care for All (Bristol, Essex, Hampden, and Suffolk counties, $500,000)
• MAB Community Services, Inc./MA Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Berkshire, Bristol, Essex, Hampden, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester counties, $400,000)
• Nuestras Raíces, Inc. (Hampden County, $499,953)
• United Way of Franklin and Hampshire Region (Franklin County, $472,845)
• Friends of Indian Senior Citizens Organization, Inc. (Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester counties, $100,000)

Community Health Improvement Planning (CHIP) Grant

• Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (Berkshire County, $375,000)
• City of New Bedford Health Department (Bristol County, $375,000)
• Collaborative for Educational Services (Hampshire County, $375,000)
• Community Health Network for North Central Mass (Middlesex and Worcester counties, $375,000)
• Greater Lowell Health Alliance (Middlesex County, $375,000)
• Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (Hampden County, $374,736)
• Town of Ware (Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties, $375,000)
• Worcester Community Action Council (Worcester County, $375,000)
• The Food Project (Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk counties, $100,000)
• IFSI-USA Immigrant Family Services Institute (Plymouth County, $100,000)

Give Your Input on Uses for ex-RMV Site at 611 Main St.

WORESTER – The Worcester Redevelopment Authority (RA) will hold a community input session to hear residents’ ideas for the future use of the former Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) site at 611 Main St., in Worcester,

The building served as the Worcester RMV branch from 1983 until 2022. The WRA took control of the property in January 2026.

The community input session takes place at the Worcester Public Library, at 3 Salem Square in its first-floor meeting room, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 5:30 PM

The current building includes 13,330 square feet of commercial space on a 65,017 square foot parcel.

The City of Worcester says it expects to issue a request for proposal for the development of the property during fall 2026.

Poor Recordkeeping Muddies Latest Target of MassHealth Fraud Probe

by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon

Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office has recovered almost $12 million from a string of settlements with Massachusetts medical transportation companies it accuses of defrauding MassHealth, the state Medicaid program – and it’s got more in sight.

For those on Medicaid, coverage will pay for non-emergency medical transportation, either through certain state-approved providers or reimbursement. Companies that bill for services they never provide can find themselves in prosecutors’ crosshairs.

The latest defendant is fighting the fraud charges. But he’s also blaming any errors on years of shoddy recordkeeping on the part of brokers and vendors that handle scheduling, patient records, and billing for the state’s Medicaid-covered rides.

Worcester resident Ardit Islamaj and his company, Instant Transportation, LLC, were indicted last year on 17 counts. They are accused of billing MassHealth more than $3 million for rides that never happened — to patients who were dead, hospitalized, or had canceled rides — between August 2018 and August 2023. Prosecutors also allege patient abuse and neglect, identity fraud, and witness intimidation.

“The attorney general’s office conducted a one-dimensional investigation and simply got this one wrong,” said Islamaj’s lawyer, Amy Crafts. “We will continue pushing to dismiss these charges and clear his name.”

Islamaj’s lawyers argue the company can’t properly defend itself because Coordinated Transportation Solutions — the vendor that scheduled and billed Instant Transportation’s rides — won’t hand over records they say would let them prove that some of the bills they submitted were either legitimate or honest mistakes. Separately, Islamaj has accused CTS of feeding prosecutors curated information to help build the case against him.

CTS is a Connecticut-based nonprofit that administers non-emergency rides for some MassHealth members. It told the court that it has already provided the attorney general’s office with all documents relevant to scheduling, patient information, and billing information for the defendants’ services to MassHealth clients.

Worcester Superior Court Judge James Gavin Reardon, Jr. wasn’t persuaded that even potential gaps in CTS’s files help Islamaj’s case.

“The defendants have provided no facts indicating that CTS is in possession of, or has withheld, potentially exculpatory evidence,” Reardon wrote in his May 21 order.

He noted prosecutors have said they’ll rely only on specific bills, trips, and patients — not on anything CTS might be missing.

The case is due back in Worcester Superior Court for a motion hearing September 16.

Islamaj’s case is one of seven the attorney general has pursued against Massachusetts transportation companies in the last few years. Roughly $11.6 million has been recovered through settlements.

“MassHealth serves millions of residents, and every dollar improperly billed is a dollar that cannot go toward legitimate health care,” a spokesperson for Campbell said in a statement. “The AG’s office will continue to vigorously pursue these cases to protect the integrity of our public programs, both with respect to patient safety and to ensure taxpayer dollars are appropriately spent.”

Islamaj is one of two current indictments, according to the AG’s office. Waltham operator Bakali Mukasa was indicted in February for billing $770,000 for almost 17,000 rides to methadone clinics that the indictment alleges were never provided, with the proceeds allegedly funneled to Uganda, where he now lives.

Last August, Weymouth’s Brewster Ambulance and EasCare — the state’s largest medical transportation provider — paid $6 million over inflated claims.

In July, Traveler’s Transit paid $1.045 million to settle charges on routes it never drove. Two North Dartmouth ambulance companies paid $1.6 million in February 2024 for billing more expensive services than the ones provided. Leominster’s MedStar Ambulance paid $2.6 million in August 2023 for similar false billing. In October 2024, Swampscott’s RM Transportation paid $380,000 for billing rides for MassHealth recipients with take-home methadone doses who had no reason to travel that day — roughly the same behavior for which a grand jury indicted Mukasa.

Most of the cases have targeted the companies that provided the rides, not the brokers or vendors responsible for verifying the bills. But in 2020, under then-Attorney General Maura Healey, the AG’s office and the US Department of Justice settled with the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) for $300,000, resolving allegations that the organization billed for and received reimbursement from MassHealth for thousands of rides between 2011 and 2015 that its transportation subcontractors did not provide.

A May 2025 audit by the state auditor’s office examined the $283 million in MassHealth business paid to MART and the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority. The office found the state had paid for rides with no matching medical appointment on record, and for rides without adequate documentation.

“Without sufficient evidence of trips, MassHealth may be paying for transportation services that did not take place,” auditors wrote.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services responded that brokers are now rolling out software to centralize trip logs and driver records. Some cases without documentation, the health office said, may reflect circumstances where the member did receive the medical service but it was not properly logged or documented.

That audit did not cover the transportation broker CTS, the Connecticut nonprofit at the center of Islamaj’s argument. No state audit or attorney general settlement has yet examined whether the recordkeeping there passes muster.

But Crafts, Islamaj’s attorney, says years of poor documentation by transportation brokers should cut in his favor.

“Both the [attorney general’s] prior settlement with a transportation broker and the auditor’s recent report made clear that brokers like CTS are not properly documenting contracted rides, and they are now out to scapegoat my client,” Crafts said.

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

WPD Says it Believes Body of Karen Solomon Located

WORCESTER – Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier told members of the media at a 4 PM press conference on Monday, Aug. 24, that a body recovered near Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital in the area of Coes Pond is believed to be that of Karen Solomon, 58.

The office of the medical examiner will make the official determination to identify the body.

In response to a question from a media member, Saucier said the body recovered appeared to have a gunshot wound. The department is attempting to identify the owner of the firearm used.

He also said the investigation is ongoing, but that the department believes the cases is a tragic murder-suicide.

Individuals employed at Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital walking near the pond discovered the body, according to Saucier. He also said the location of the body is six-tenths of a mile from the location of a video of Karen Solomon previously released by police.

The body of Worcester Police officer Kurt Solomon, 57, was discovered at the couple’s home on Wildwood Avenue on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 18. Solomon serves within the Worcester Police Department for over 30 years.

Saucier also said that Massachusetts General Law declares this current situation a domestic incident because the deceased and the suspect lived in the same home. He added that the couple had no history of domestic abuse.

Historic Worcester ‘Octagon House’ for sale

A historic eight-sided home on Plantation Street in Worcester is for sale.

Known as the Richard Barker Octagon House, the house is named for its first known occupant, Richard Barker, an architect who lived there in 1866. It is one of two octagonal homes in Worcester, the other being the Elias Crawford House on Norwood Street.

According to City of Worcester records, the Richard Barker Octagon House is believed to be constructed in 1853, during a decade-long fad of octagon construction, made popular by phrenologist Orson Squire Fowler and his book, “The Octagon House: A Home For All, or A New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building.”

State records show that it’s likely Barker purchased the home from a previous owner since the fad of constructing octagonal homes had faded by 1966.

According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the building’s eight walls are made of gravel, a very rare construction, since most octagonal homes were made of wood. The house is made of gravel and covered with stucco. Prior to 1920, the home had an octagonal cupola on its roof.

The Richard Barker Octagon House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Located at 312 Plantation St., the two-family home with a pair of two-bedroom, five-room units is listed for $499,000.

Cherry Picking Politics in the Face of Tragedy

During the early morning hours of Tuesday, Aug. 18, first responders discovered the body of Kurt Solomon, a 30-year veteran of the Worcester Police Department, at his home on Wildwood Avenue. Police continue to seek the location of his wife, Karen Solomon.

The widespread speculation about the case online won’t stop, but it should.

This is an obviously devastating time for the family and friends of the couple, the breadth of which is incomprehensible to those of us who haven’t experienced it.

Many at the Worcester Police Department are also hurting. Most of us have experienced the pain of losing a long-time friend or colleague. Few of us will ever experience the unimaginable toll of being assigned to an investigation into the death of a friend or colleague.

It’s a tragedy all around. No one would argue with that.

One would expect politics to take a backseat, especially on the day the tragic death occurred. Not in the Worcester City Council.

When Cherry-Picking is Good

The Worcester City Council is on its “summer schedule,” where over a nine-week period, from July 7 to September 1, it meets just twice.

During its last meeting on July 21, the report submitted to the city council by City Manager Eric Batista’s administration recommending that the city not establish a civilian review board appeared on the agenda. Councilor Khrystian King held the report, which brought it back to the agenda on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The Worcester Police Department reportedly received the report that led to the discovery of Officer Solomon’s body at around 5:30 AM. The case became the top local news story throughout the morning. The Worcester County District Attorney’s office held a news conference, with it broadcast on its Facebook page. That live stream began at 3:21 PM. Mayor Joe Petty appeared at that press conference.

At 4 PM, Mayor Joe Petty’s Facebook and other social media pages released the following statement:

“At the beginning of tonight’s City Council meeting, I intend to make a motion to hold Item 23f regarding a Civilian Review Board. In light of the unfortunate circumstances that occurred today involving the Worcester Police Department, I believe this is the appropriate and respectful course of action. I respectfully ask that there be no public participation on this item tonight. This important discussion should take place at a time when it can receive the full attention and consideration it deserves.”

The first reason this is objectionable: cherry-picking one item to hold out of “respect” and calling it the “appropriate” thing to do paints police oversight as offensive. The foundation of the American government, three co-equal branches, is in itself oversight. To find oversight offensive is to find the United States Constitution offensive. Rescheduling the meeting in its entirety would have been the far more appropriate action. 

The second reason this is objectionable is far more insidious.

The city council meeting on Tuesday started at 6 PM, as the council schedules its summer meetings half an hour earlier than most meetings for no discernible reason. Despite this being the biggest news story of the day, and Petty being at the news conference 40 minutes earlier, this announcement came just two hours before a meeting that advocates for a civilian review board organized over the last four weeks.

This was an obvious trap. Paint hearing the item on police oversight as disrespectful and inappropriate in a public notice issued with as little lead time as possible, then sit back and wait for someone to come in and say something that can be used to paint all advocates with a smear.

The tactic failed spectacularly. Just a few speakers appeared for public comment after rapid organizing by a coalition group advocating for civilian review.

A councilor raised a motion to suspend the meeting soon afterward. The council’s response defies decency.

When Cherry-Picking is Bad

See the motion by City Council Vice Chair and Councilor At-Large Khrystian King and the response from City Councilor At-Large Moe Bergman, running 2:33 combined.

King’s motion was entirely appropriate. Enabling the council to vote only on items required for city operations, like its financial matters, which are typically approved without discussion, is a reasonable response to the circumstances.

Bergman’s question of whether or not a city agency requested the meeting cancelled is just plain odd. Doing the decent thing doesn’t require the permission of a city agency.

Similarly, Bergman’s concern about council orders, which are almost always non-binding with no force of law, is strange. If there were individual items of importance, there was a willingness to enable those items to be taken up before adjourning.

No councilor proposed the idea of coming to work any time before its next meeting on Sept. 8. Coming to work only appears to be a theme when politically convenient.

King’s motion to postpone the meeting required eight votes to pass. It failed, with Councilor John Fresolo and the nexus of the anti-oversight wing, Councilors Berman, Jose Rivera, and Kate Toomey opposed. When King asked for reconsideration on the item later in the meeting, the same four voted against it again.

The council observed no moment of silence for Kurt Solomon, nor was the tragedy referred to by anyone but King. It refused to adjourn after only the necessary items on its agenda out of respect for those involved. It refused to exhibit common decency.

But oversight? Well, that’s just offensive.

Image courtesy of City of Worcester

Police Seek Woman in Connection with Death of WPD Officer

WORCESTER – The Worcester Police Department continues to seek the location of Karen Solomon, 58, of Worcester, in connection with the death of her husband, Worcester Police officer Kurt Solomon, 57.

Kurt Solomon served as a patrol officer in Worcester for 30 years. He was reportedly killed at the home of the couple on Wildwood Avenue early in the day on Tuesday, August 18.

Karen Solomon was last seen walk toward Westcott Street in Worcester early Tuesday morning wearing pajama shorts and a tank top. She is a white woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information related to the location of Karen Solomon is asked to contact the police through one of the following methods:

• Send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD + your message
• Send an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police
• Call the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651