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Headline in today's newspaper. The thing that is interesting about this headline, and what I have been saying for years, is that the city is partners with the CDC's. In fact not only partners, but the buck actually stops with the city (the PJ - Presiding Jurisdiction), not the CDC's. Let me explain.
Mr McGhourthy after requiring three years of documentation. Wait a second, three years of documentation??!!
- Does this mean money was given to them without any documentation?
- How can this all be Jackie Vachon Jackson's fault when she was not there three years ago?
Evidently money was given out without documentation and now we are asking for three years of receipts and financial audits. Jahn, imagine running a business like this?? We will give you whatever money you request for three years and then we will ask for the reports later.
Then he goes on to say "If we are unable to justify certain costs disallowed by HUD, the impacted sub-recipient will be required to pay the disallowed cost." Although these sub-recipients may show net asset value, they typically do not have much CASH, especially when their Executive Directors receive compensation in the mid-$100,000s. If the sub-recipient does not have the cash, who pays HUD back?
- In the words of Bruce Almighty , if you said the PJ, the presiding jurisdiction, or the City of Worcester
- BINGO Yahtzee . You are right!!!
There is a great chart in the newspaper showing the average cost per unit of 6 different projects averaging about 350,000 per unit and that is all Jackie Vachon Jackson's fault too? Hey, why not blame George Bush while we are it. Don't get me wrong she was involved with some questionable dealings, of which we are sure to hear more, but she surely is not responsible for this scathing audit.
I could go on and on about this, but it is a beautiful Sunday morning and the Pats first home game today. At the same time you got to love the quote from Mullen Sawyer "The city does not build affordable housing, we build affordable housing". That's great then you do not need the City of Worcester giving you any more money then?
Lets hope this audit sheds some light on the systemic problem that has existed in the City of Worcester for at least the past ten years.
- An over reliance on CDC's as the developer of choice in the City of Worcester.
- We need to evaluate, if we really need more low income housing when we are well above the target set by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Lets hope also that the new RKG Housing Report, that will be coming out soon, will be listened to this time unlike it was ten years ago.
Here's a look at the latest surface map. Our next cold front is sitting off to our northwest and will continue to push in this evening.
As for the rain associated with the front, it's already starting to push into the far northwest corners of the viewing area. Look for likely showers between now and early this evening continuing through midnight.
Once the rain starts to push out after midnight, the cold air moves in. We're already seeing a twenty degree drop with the rain and cold front.
As for overnight lows, don't be surprised if many spots dip below freezing tonight.
Rain continues to move east early this afternoon with a few lighter showers continuing into the middle of the afternoon. A warm front lies just to the southwest of the Mississippi River and will likely remain there until the low pressure system in the northern Plains begins to strengthen and move northeast later this evening. Extensive cloud cover from the thundershowers earlier today will continue into the afternoon helping to keep the atmosphere across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin from becoming too unstable. Areas south of the warm front from southern Iowa to north Texas have the greatest potential to see severe storms along and ahead of a cold front. As the cold front moves closer to the Stateline tonight there will be more showers/storms that form but because they'll be coming through overnight the severe threat remains low. Heavy rainfall, however, still looks likely into the overnight. Some areas could pick up an additional 1 to 2 inches of rainfall by Sunday morning.
The Storm Prediction Center has shifted the slight risk for severe weather even further southwest of the area with their latest update. Could be a noisy afternoon for folks in the southern Plains.
The weather picture is becoming a little more clear regarding what is going to happen with storms Saturday and Saturday night. While there are still finer details that need to be hammered out we can give you a little better picture as to what will happen.
A strong mid-October storm system currently in the southwest will move into the Plains Saturday and Great Lakes by Sunday. Friday evening will remain quiet until high pressure slides east and a warm front currently to the south lifts north. As the front pulls north moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will also lift north increasing cloud cover as well as bring showers and thunderstorms to parts of Iowa/Illinois/Wisconsin by Saturday morning. The storms that are expected to develop overnight and into the morning likely will remain below severe criteria as they will mainly remain elevated due to the cool air mass across the Great Lakes. Because of the elevated nature of the storms hail would be the primary concern. As of right now it looks like the majority of the morning and even into the early afternoon may remain cloudy with scattered showers/storms with the warm front remaining just to the south of the Stateline and moisture overrunning the front. Severe weather late Saturday morning and into the afternoon look to be more likely across Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma right ahead of a cold front.
Looking at some of the latest morning model runs and it appears as if the surface low won't be as strong as initially indicated as it moves into the Great Lakes late Saturday night. This, to some extent, may play a role into the degree of severity of storms across the Plains. Cloud cover from storms Saturday morning may not break soon enough to allow enough heating for surface based storms to form from mid-Missouri northeast into Illinois during the afternoon. Another factor that could limit the severe potential for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin is the timing of the front. The whole system has slowed down and this in turn has delayed the passage of the cold front with the front now coming through Sunday morning. If a line of storms do form out west along the front Saturday afternoon they would likely arrive here after dark decreasing the severe weather threat. The Storm Prediction Center continues to have a slight risk for severe weather for the Midwest with a greater potential further southwest (outlined in the red on the map above). Timing wise for all of this it looks like the rain from Saturday morning may taper some after 1pm/2pm and then redevelop after 6pm and continue east into the overnight. It's important not to follow these times too closely as these likely will change by tomorrow morning.
After Thursday's weak cool front all eyes will turn west towards California as the next potent storm system moves onshore. Already bringing flooding rain and thunderstorms to the southwest, this storm system will move out of the Rockies and into the Plains by Saturday morning. The weather will remain quiet both today and tomorrow but thunderstorms, some strong to severe, are becoming more likely for the Midwest.
Let's start with Illinois. Drought conditions continue to improve slightly downstate, but extreme drought conditions continue across northern Illinois. 
Drought conditions continue to worsen across Wisconsin, especially across the northern part of the state. Just like northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin continues to deal with extreme drought conditions. 
Some relief is on the way, however. A weekend storm system will bring with it plenty of rain (not to mention the chance of severe weather, but that's for another blog post). The current rainfall forecast is showing an inch plus or precip possible for parts of the area through Sunday night.
Freeze Watches/Warnings and Frost Advisories extend from the northeast down to north Texas this morning. The jetstream over the weekend dropped all the way to the gulf pulling down some very cold air to the south. Over 600 record low temperatures were set this past week and Sioux City, IA fell to a whopping 15 degrees Sunday morning! 
Low temperatures Tuesday morning were a little more mild than what they were Monday morning all thanks to cloud cover and a brisk southerly wind. 
The up and down temperature swing this week will reach its peak this weekend as an area of low pressure currently off the coast of California spins into the Midwest by Saturday afternoon. A weak cool front that will come through Thursday night will lift back north as a warm front as gusty southerly winds move in from the south. Ongoing showers and thunderstorms will be likely at the start of Saturday before a possible break during the afternoon. It's during that break temperatures have the potential to warm into the middle 70s if enough sunshine breaks through. The Gulf of Mexico will be wide open for not only the warmth but moisture to lift northward. 
We have a series of cold fronts this week to thank for the constantly changing temps. The first will arrive late Tuesday, with two more fronts on Thursday and Saturday. You can see highs alternate between the 50s and 60s heading into the weekend.
Rain chances will not be as back and forth. Low pressure off to our northwest will begin to move through on Tuesday. A late afternoon cold front could bring us a few showers, especially in the evening, but as model runs show, showers should stay light and fairly scattered before we dry back out into Wednesday morning. Better rain chances move in on Saturday, with showers and few thunderstorms possible.
A Frost Advisory has been issued for southern Wisconsin beginning early Saturday morning. This includes the counties of Green, Rock and Walworth. 
By Saturday night winds should lighten up enough to allow temperatures to drop into the upper 20s. In fact, freezing temperatures are likely for a good chunk of the U.S. Saturday night as the jetstream dips all the way to Texas and the gulf states! 
The last weekend of September was absolutely beautiful and as we head deeper and deeper into the fall months those near perfect weekends will become few and far between. Before we look ahead to the month of October, September ended the eleven month above average monthly temperature streak we had going! It finished one degree below normal. This was the longest stretch of above average weather since the year long warmer than normal stretch from January 1938 to January 1939! Pretty impressive if you ask me! 
Temperatures by the end of this week are expected to nose dive from the readings we felt over the weekend. A strong cold front will move through Thursday morning ushering in an air mass that will be running 10 to 15 degrees below normal. Normal high temperatures this time of year should be in the upper 60s. Low temperatures will also be affected with the mercury dropping both Friday and Saturday night close to 30 degrees, if not cooler. This comes as the jetstream buckles with low pressure holding firm in the northeast and another ridge building out west. Potentially some of the coldest weather we've felt since early spring may right around the corner with highs only reaching the low 50s on Saturday and Sunday.
12:15pm Update: Cold front is east of the Mississippi River with a line of thunderstorms developing right behind the front. While severe weather isn't anticipated any storms that move through may produce a few stronger wind gusts and brief heavy downpours.
Temperatures by noon will warm near 75 degrees but by 3pm they will have dropped into the 60s with even colder air expected to be in place by 5pm. Winds will remain gusty this afternoon with the southerly wind we have right now switching to a west/northwest wind by dinner. The cold air will remain in place through the weekend with a slight modification in the temperatures early next week.
The average temperature in Rockford for September was 62.9 degrees, which was one degree below normal. That's the first time we've seen below normal temperatures for a month in about a year! Big surprise, you have to go back to the 1930s to find a similar streak.
It looks like the start of October will reflect those cooler temperatures we saw in September. Despite some seasonable weather to start the week, a cold front on Thursday will knock temperatures well into the 50s as we head towards the weekend.
Low pressure spinning south of Chicago early this afternoon has left a pretty thick cloud deck across much of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. However, if you look to the west I bet you'll be able to see a little blue sky on the horizon. There is a fairly sharp cut-off as to where the cloud cover is and where skies are completely clear. Temperatures under the sun have warmed into the upper 60s to near 70 degrees while under the cloud cover we're stuck in the low 60s. Not that great of a change but it's making for a fairly blah day across much of north-central Illinois.
Once this low moves into Michigan winds will shift around to the southwest ahead of a fairly strong October storm system currently in the northern Rockies. A strong cold front will move through by Thursday afternoon with temperatures ahead of the front warming into the low to mid 70s but dropping quickly once the front passes in the evening. Snowflakes are already flying in Montana right now where Winter Weather Advisories have been issued. A Winter Weather Advisory has also been issued for most of central and western North Dakota while a Winter Storm Watch has been issued for a few counties in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. It's there were a few inches of snow, yes snow, may fly by Thursday afternoon. While we won't see any snow the temperature will drop dramatically by Thursday night as some of the coldest air since very early spring arrives for the weekend.