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 […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL AUGUST, 2010 Late last month Massachusetts education officials decided to discard the MCAS testing requirements and adopt a new federal program called the Common Core State Standards. In recent years, Massachusetts has ranked at the top or near the top compared to all other states when it comes to the education […]
Calls for casino money to be returned to homeowners, businesses July, 2010 BOSTON – Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei has called for the creation of a new Property Taxpayers Relief Fund that would use casino revenues to annually reduce property tax bills across the Commonwealth. Tisei filed the proposal as an amendment to the […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL JUNE 2010 North Andover State Rep. David Torrisi has some nerve. He was elected by American citizens in Lawrence and North Andover to represent their interests in the state legislature. When he took his oath of office he swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States […]
By Tom Duggan – May, 2010 Congressional candidate Sam Meas sat with Valley Patriot editor Tom Duggan and his WCAP co-host Paul Murano for an on-air interview about his life escaping the killing fields of Cambodia and how his experience with communism and socialism shaped his political ideology about freedom, capitalism and the Ameriocan way. […]
By: Richard Howe – March, 2010 Senator Steve Panagiotakos Says Goodbye Since announcing last month that he would not seek re-election to the State Senate, Steve Panagiotakos has repeatedly said that he is proudest not when he’s called Senator or Chairman, he’s proudest when he’s called “Panagiotakos of Lowell.” That sentiment was clearly on […]
Is it time for City Councilor Grisel Silva to resign? By: Robert O’Koniewski, Esq., – March, 2010 Just how far Lawrence can sink has yet to be seen. The recent events surrounding Mayor Lantigua’s insistence on keeping, and then resigning from, his State Representative job certainly has enabled us to plunge to the […]
By: JAMES O’TOOLE – March, 2010 Sam Meas, the first Cambodian-American to seek congressional office, talks about growing up in war-torn Cambodia. Sam Meas, a 36-year-old investment analyst from Haverhill, Massachusetts, is a Republican candidate for the United States congress in Massachusetts’ 5th District. He is the first Cambodian-American to run for Congress, or […]
By: D.J. Deeb – March, 2010 Several candidates have taken out papers to run in the upcoming Dracut Town Elections scheduled for Monday, May 3rd. The positions that are drawing the most interest as of this writing are Selectmen, School Committee, and Housing Authority. All three are likely to stimulate interest among Dracut voters […]
Suffolk Poll shows voters favor casinos, cutting taxes Riding the coattails of Scott Brown’s upset win for U.S. Senate, Republican Charlie Baker has jumped into second place and is within striking distance of Gov. Deval Patrick in a tight gubernatorial race, according to the latest Suffolk University/7News poll. Patrick (33 percent) still leads the […]
PAYING ATTENTION! WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – February, 2010 Well, it’s been a while since I last wrote a column under this title, but maybe it was worth the wait. Last month’s special election here in Massachusetts was electrifying. But not just here in Massachusetts, all over the country people were energized and […]
For the last several weeks radio talk show host Michele McPhee from 96.9 FM talk has made it her personal mission to force Willie Lantigua to resign from his State Rep. seat while also serving as the city’s mayor. McPhee has also ramped up her efforts to stop House Bill 4421, a $35 […]
By: Joe Mendonca, Lowell City Council January, 2010 The New Year has begun. The new City Council has been sworn-in. Jim Milinazzo was elected as the Mayor and Kevin Broderick was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Council. Now the work begins. There are many challenges ahead for the new Council. The largest […]
By: Bob Okoniewski – January, 2010 As we go to print, the City of Lawrence stands on the threshold of history. On Monday, January 4, Lawrence state representative William Lantigua was sworn in as the city’s first elected mayor of Hispanic descent. As a newly elected mayor, however, Mr. Lantigua is now faced with a challenge […]
Paying Attention! with Tom Duggan By: Tom Duggan – January, 2010 Being a State Representative in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the easiest job in the world. You don’t have to punch in, you have no immediate supervisor checking your work, there are no assigned hours, no dock in pay for missing work and no […]