By: Kathy Runge, July, 2015 The City Council, led by Council President Maldonado, a.k.a. Lawrence’s Ambassador to the UN, has been busy in the last month. The FY16 budget got approved with Maldonado providing the only dissenting vote. He proposed a series of potential cuts and argued for them while acting as president of the […]
July 28, 2015 The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission has fined Methuen City Councilor Joyce Campagnone, $1,000 civil penalty for the violation of conflict of interest laws and was ordered to pay restitution to the City of Methuen in the amount of $4,000. Campagnone, a Methuen City Councilor, is also a full-time paid employee of the Greater Lawrence […]
By: Tom Duggan – July, 2015 Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington has once again violated state laws governing public records. This time, laws governing the retention of public records as part of a lawsuit. The lawsuit in question was filed by the Tomaselli sisters. Harrington is claiming that permanent documents being sought by Gracemarie and […]
July, 2015 Now that his pal Willie Lantigua is out of office, you will hardly find another politician in Lawrence as slick and sleazy as City Council President Modesto Maldonado. Maldonado was a part of the Lantigua machine. His job in that span of four years on the council was to advance Lantigua’s agenda and […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL July, 2015 Those who work in the “news” industry are obsessed with promoting lies and half-truths to destroy political candidates they do not like, instead of just doing their jobs and reporting the news. Last month, Donald Trump became the latest to fall victim to the liars in the “news” media, as […]
By Christine Morabito – July 2015 Supporters of Cape Wind desperately want you to believe that those opposed to the massive offshore industrial project are afflicted with the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) syndrome. This conjures up images of affluent, elitist Cape Coders, who cannot bear to have their precious views spoiled by unsightly turbines. […]
By: Bharani Padmanabhan – July 3, 2015 Valley Patriot readers may be familiar with the 17 month long ordeal suffered by young Justina Pelletier at the hands of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the huge effort it took from 100,000 ordinary people from across this great land who came together to […]
By: Bharani Padmanabhan – June, 2015 This month, Valley Patriot Publisher Tom Duggan was front and center in this state’s media environment for a couple of days. Most media people referred to him by name except for Dan Kennedy who refused to do so while using Tom’s testimony to support the new public records bill. Tom had […]
By: Dani Langevin: June, 2015 Last month I had the pleasure of visiting Methuen High School and sitting in on a meeting of the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance). Several of my colleagues and I are currently organizing such a group at the Marsh Grammar School and wanted to see one in action. I was very […]
By: State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell June, 2015 Massachusetts gets an F grade for access to public records according to some very respected public interest groups. A number of bills have been filed to change this including legislation filed by Senator Ives and co-sponsored by both Representative DiZoglio and myself. As a member of the […]
By: Tom Duggan -June, 2015 A fired guidance counselor in the Lawrence Public Schools, Brenda Sudol-Kirwin, won an arbitration hearing against the schools in August of 2013, for sick leave for injuries she incurred while working in the schools. But Kirwin says the issue is not over and wanted to go public about the abuse […]
By: Kathy Runge – June, 2015 Myra Ortiz, Candidate for District A Councilor I recently spoke with Myra Ortiz, who will be running against incumbent Sandy Almonte. Myra has made Lawrence her home for 15 years and currently represents District A on the School Committee. Although the school system is under receivership, Ms. Ortiz has […]
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Tulimieri also required to make restitution to the Redevelopment Authority in the amount of $21,245 The State Ethics Commission approved a Disposition Agreement (“Agreement”) in which Joseph Tulimieri, the former Executive Director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (“CRA”), admitted to violating G. L. c. 268A, the conflict of interest law, by increasing his own compensation […]
PUBLIC RECORDS SIDENOTES By now you know I’m in a fight to change the state’s fake public records law. One of the things not really discussed in the many stories this month about that fight is the MMA, or the Massachusetts Municipal Association. This is a group that opposes putting penalties on public officials who […]