By: Tom Duggan – November, 2010 LAWRENCE, MA: Reductions in the Lawrence Police Department continue to negatively impact crime in that City. Aggravated assaults climbed 94% for the months of July-September 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. “The loss of 41 police officers and the dismantling of the various specialty […]
By: Marc LaPlante – Lawrence City Councilor – November, 2010 The following is from a prepared statement given to the Lawrence City Council by Councilor Marc LaPlante two days before the story above took place. Lawrence’s Mayor Lantigua laid off 25 police officers earlier this year after borrowing $35 million and gave raises to people in […]
By: Tom Duggan – November, 2010 Former Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan says he has had enough of the “lies” by current Mayor Lantigua and members of the Deval Patrick administration regarding his handling of Lawrence finances over the last eight years. Sullivan called into the Paying Attention! Radio Program with Tom Duggan on WHAV last […]
By: T0m Duggan – November, 2010 When Lawrence police got an anonymous tip that a man with a gun in his waistband had just left Bali’s, a nightclub on Essex Street, there were only seven patrolmen protecting the city of more than 80,000 people. The caller told police that the man got into a black […]
Mayor Lantigua has SIX cops Patrolling Early Nights Mayhem ensues as citizens left unprotected, Missing teens found drugged in Andover By: Tom Duggan- November, 2010 When the call went out one Tuesday night last month, alerting Lawrence Police officers of an impending crisis, the details were sketchy. A thirteen year old Arlington School girl never […]
By: Tom Duggan – October, 2010 Last month hundreds of friends supporters and elected officials gathered at the Meadow Creek Golf Club in Dracut to honor the outgoing State Senator Steve Panagiotakos who announced earlier this year that he would not be seeking reelection after 21 consecutive years as an elected official. Flanked by […]
Blanchette is Mayor Lantigua’s Economic Development Director and Former City Council President By: Tom Duggan – October, 2010 The State Office of Campaign Finance (OCPF) has fined former Lawrence City Council President Patrick Blanchette $20,000 for taking money from his city council campaign account going back to 2006 among other violations. Blanchette has admitted to […]
We Predicted his illegal Firing would lead to his return and it has Valley Patriot Editorial October, 2010 Love him or hate him, Methuen Police Chief Joe Solomon may not be a saint, but he is certainly not the demon he was made out to be by The Eagle~Tribune and others when he was […]
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: Tom Duggan – September, 2010 Last month, a man walked into a downtown bank in Lowell brandishing a weapon and took the bank occupants hostage as he filled a bag full of other people’s money. He didn’t care that he was disrupting the lives of those people in the bank just trying […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL September, 2010 Next year marks the 10th Anniversary of 9-11 and the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. And while the ‘war on terror” is still going on and we are still fighting Al-Qaeda and Muslim Jihadist in Afghanistan, around the world and here at home, many have forgotten the terror […]
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, […]
Finegold Defends Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua By: Tom Duggan – August, 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 […]
Solomon: No deals I’m Coming back to work By: Tom Duggan – August, 2010 Last month, the Mass. Civil Service Commission ruled that the City of Methuen wrongly terminated Police Chief Joe Solomon. After more than two years of appealing his firing by Methuen Mayor Billy Manzi, and a spate of what turned out […]
Lawrence Cops chase man with gun through Lawrence alleys By; Tom Duggan – August, 2010 “Common and Newbury, Common and Newbury!” an out of breath officer Dan Fitzpatrick yelled over the police radio early Friday morning around 12:15am. Every cruiser patrolling the city rushed to the downtown Lawrence neighborhood, lights and sirens […]