By: Kathy Runge – June, 2018 It’s budget season again. When Mayor Rivera and ex Alcalde Lantigua brag about “their” balanced budgets, they should be giving the credit to the Director of Budget and Finance, Mark Ianello, who has ultimate control of the budget. It is he who provides the balanced budget. It’s pretty clear […]
By: Kathy Runge – April, 2018 The Lawrence Ordinance Committee, consisting of Councilors Reyes, Rodriguez, De La Cruz and Levy, only met twice during the first three months of this year. They met once in January and again on March 1. The one regularly scheduled meeting in February and two other March meetings were cancelled. […]
By: Kathy Runge – January 2018 In the past month, the city has created two positions requiring fluency in the Spanish language. In December, a community liaison position in the city council office was posted requiring Spanish fluency. The council was appropriated a sum of $9K for a part-time interpreter in this year’s budget. I […]
By: Kathy Runge – Dec. 2017 The city election has come and gone and not much has changed. Mayor Rivera is happy thinking that most of the voters preferred him. We have the usual murders and mayhem. I was surprised by the number of people who came out and said they only voted for Rivera […]
By: Kathy Runge – Oct. 2017 Why are most of our elections in Lawrence a choice between who you can’t stand the least? I can endorse almost no one in the November elections. Much to my surprise, it is Dan Rivera vs William Lantigua in the mayoral race. Boy, was I ever wrong about Lantigua. […]
I’ve been gone for a few months and there’s so much news you may not have heard about it’ll take two months to catch up. Council Business: The Ordinance Committee didn’t have a quorum of regular members at any of its meetings during March and April. Each of the four members of the committee missed […]
By: Kathy Runge – Feb. 2017 First, I would like to thank Mayor Rivera and Governor Baker for protecting us from the snow. Snow is easy. Snow doesn’t vote. Let’s protect the people from the evil snow! Mayor Rivera is proposing a gun buyback program. It’s scheduled to go before the council at the first […]
By: Kathy Runge – Feb. 2017 If you want to see forgotten people, come to Lawrence. They’re easy to spot. Just hunt for the person who seems out of place and looks like they can’t understand the conversations around them. They are the English only speakers. In this city, bilingual means fluent in Spanish, hardly […]
By: Kathy Runge – January, 2017 In December ex-District A Councilor and potential mayoral candidate Sandy Almonte verbally abused a Lawrence police officer at the scene of an accident involving her son. Elsewhere in this month’s edition she is quoted as saying: “He acted like he didn’t know me, and told me I couldn’t pick […]
By: Kathy Runge – Dec. 2016 The election is finally over, but it just won’t go away. Donald Trump is our president-elect and the crybabies won’t stop whining. When it was speculated that Trump could win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College there were no complaints from the Hillary supporters, but now they’re […]
By: Kathy Runge – Nov. 2016 First, the DA can’t prove that a worker is stealing from this city because the City of Lawrence hires incompetents and can’t keep records. Please put this city into receivership! Secondly, when politicians argue for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and say “Of course we will make […]
By: Kathy Runge – Oct. 2016 It’s been a year since Lawrence became a sanctuary city. Have you ever wondered how it’s working out? The answer is that we don’t know. The ordinance states starting on September 1, 2015 and on every other month thereafter, the Lawrence Police Chief shall submit a report to the […]
By: Kathy Runge – Sept. 2016 The City Council needs an official summer schedule. I said this last month but it’s so important I have to say it again. Both the councilors and public deserve to know when the council will meet during July and August. How’s a responsible councilor supposed to plan their summer […]
By: Kathy Runge – July, 2016 The soap operas have nothing on the Lawrence City Council. The meetings are filled with fabricated drama. The Budget Drama: During the first meeting to consider the budget, Councilor Maldonado said that because 95% of the residents of the city are low income, catering to middle class wishes, such […]
By: Kathy Runge – June, 2015 Let me start with a shout out to State Rep. Marcos Devers, who had the courage to vote against the “bathroom bill,” which I’m sure wasn’t easy for a Democrat. Thank you Rep. Devers! I was at Lawrence’s Memorial Day commemoration and only three councilors attended. None of the […]