By: Rob Eno – May, 2012 After completing work on a $32.5 billion budget, Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) said the budget process was, “the most open and transparent we can have”. The non-partisan Center for Public Integrity, among others, strongly disagrees. They recently gave Massachusetts an F for openness and transparency in our budgeting […]
By: Joe D’Amore – May, 2012 Here is my response to questions raised by a reporter of a local newspaper. Groveland’s Candidate’s Night is the only event that offers an opportunity for citizens to view candidates and discuss issues for upcoming elections. The event occurred on April 12th at Town Hall and was not […]
By: Peter Larocque – April, 2012 The response to an article in March’s Boston Magazine entitled, “Lawrence, MA: City of the Damned” by city politicians and community activist young and old has me scratching my head. I do understand some of their reasoning, but in the end it is just more of the same, […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL April, 2012 The media coverage of the recent Trayvon Martin case (where a black man was shot to death by a Latino) should have Hispanics in the United States in an uproar. Oddly enough, we have not heard one story in one media outlet showing this to be true. Without speculating on […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – February, 2012 The Mayor of Lawrence, everyone must admit, is an interesting character. Some people love him, some hate him. Some really, really hate him. I for one am fascinated by how he seems at times to show two completely different sides to his character. He’s always being mentioned or […]
December, 2012 North Andover School Superintendent Christopher Hottel handed The Valley Patriot a bill for $7,099 to fill a freedom of information request last month. The Valley Patriot had requested copies of all emails, sent and received by members of the school committee and the superintendent covering a 30 day period just prior to and […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – December, 2011 Last month, The Valley Patriot received several calls from North Andover residents saying that they had seen former high school wrestling coach Dave Castricone coming and going from School Committee Chair Chris Allen’s Belmont St. home. Others called to report that the Allens […]
By: Jeff Katz – November, 2011 We’re now more than a month in to the “occupy” movement and there does not seem to be any end in sight. The question is, is that a good or bad thing? If we are to believe the official narrative crafted by the occupiers they are a homegrown […]
Last month’s article detailed irregularities in the list of Lawrence registered voters. On the official voter list hundreds of voters were registered two or three times, with the repeating names typically spelling errors or maiden names.In any circumstance this would be troubling, as one of the primary responsibilities of the City Clerk’s Office is to […]
By: Lonnie Brennan – June, 2011 So, what did the spring Georgetown elections and the approved $1.2 million school override cost you? If you’re the average homeowner (half of whom sat at home and ignored the election), the vote raised your property tax to the point where either this year, next year, or the year […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – May, 2011 A recall effort is underway in the City of Lawrence. The process of a recall is contained in the City Charter (hereafter Charter). Section 9.7 entitled “Recall of Elected Officials.” As this section is written in government lingo, it does require a careful reading as well as some […]
By: Peter Larocque – April, 2011 According to Wikipedia, (meaning quick encyclopedia), a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia, Public Safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm, crimes or disasters, (natural or man-made). In the United States we have the […]
By: Tom Duggan – September, 2010 State Representative Barry Finegold is a candidate for State Senate. Valley Patriot editor Tom Duggan interviewed him last month on the Paying Attention! Radio Program on WCAP in Lowell. Duggan asked Finegold about his vote in favor of a $35 million loan for Lawrence with no financial oversight. […]
By: Attorney Robert O’Koniewski – September, 2010 The financial crisis plaguing our fair city is well documented and requires no re-hashing. You’d have to be living in a cave at this point not to know about the $35 million state bailout of our community and the accompanying controversy. Surely a steady string of incompetence, […]
Lawrence Councilor LaPlante says mayor wrong for only putting city job postings in Spanish Language newspapers By: Tom Duggan, February 2, 2010 Lawrence City Councilor Marc LaPlante took Mayor Willie Lantigua to task Wednesday night for his policy of only posting city jobs in Spanish Language weekly newspapers and not “the daily paper of record. Since […]