By: Alex Talcot – Feb. 2017 More than 110 million Americans collected a tax refund – worth an average of just under $3,000 – after filing their 2015 tax returns, according to statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If you’re one of the many Americans who expect to receive a financial “windfall” (note: […]
By: Robin Desmet – Feb. 2017 The building in New York City is so non-descript that you could easily walk by and think nothing of it. But inside the locked structure is a veritable beehive of activity. The building serves as a temporary residence to over 450 New York shelter cats that were exposed to […]
By: John MacDonald – Feb. 2017 Is the new Facebook public group called “New High School at Cawley Stadium” a sign that there are cracks in the Belvidere “Clark Road branch” foundation? Is there a small ground swell of resistance or is this the little boy sticking his finger in the dyke? To be honest, […]
By: Linda Dean Campbell – Feb. 2017 The deadline for filing and co-sponsoring legislation guaranteed to receive a public hearing occurs a few weeks after the session starts. While we shall file additional more complex bills later, here are those that I have filed before the deadline: Recreational Marijuana (HD1494). Changes the composition of […]
By: Al Kaprielian – Feb. 2017 With February now here we have one month to go for meteorological winter. January was a mild month with many days having high temperatures running above normal. The month finished with Boston just over six degrees above normal for January 2017. Manchester New Hampshire also saw a mild January […]
By: Jeff Katz – Feb. 2017 There are those times when you just have to shake your head, pour another cup of coffee, shake your head and then rinse and repeat. America’s left wingers are absolutely apoplectic and it is nothing if not thoroughly entertaining. Some of this nation’s most delicate of flowers are still […]
By: DJ Deeb – February, 2017 Methuen Public Schools are continuing to move forward and we have much to be proud of, but I am also disappointed to report that I do not believe that all of our tax dollars are being spent wisely and I believe that some Methuen city officials are being negligent […]
By Duncan Burns – Feb. 2017 Now that The Presidential Election is over, and Donald Trump has since been elected President, the controversies surrounding his platform while he was running continue to follow him into his Administration. Aside from the circus surrounding President Trump’s cabinet confirmation hearings, President Trump has started, as he promised, to […]
As a municipality, the City of Lawrence does not collect enough in local property taxes to pay for even half the cost of fire, police, schools, and other essential services. As such, Lawrence gets millions of dollars every year from the state and federal government. In the past 30 years, billions of taxpayer’s dollars have […]
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 […]
BUY NOW Each month since March of 2004, The Valley Patriot newspaper has published a front page story about the bravery and dedication of a local veteran called “Valley Patriot of the Month, Heroes in Our Midst”. In the 13 years we have been publishing The Valley Patriot, we’ve amassed quite a collection of stories […]
By: Beth D’Amato – January, 2017 Treblinka, Buchenwald, Dachau and Auschwitz… The mere mention of these places should make every human’s blood run cold. The horrors that went on within the walls of those extermination camps in Germany and Poland during WW II were unimaginable. Why did some Jews survive the death camps while others […]
By: Paul Murano – January, 2017 If you’re looking for a new year’s resolution I have a suggestion. Resolve to contemplate more. Busyness of life and of mind may be the biggest obstacle to inner peace. The great Aristotle once said contemplation was the highest form of happiness. It satisfies the highest part of human […]
By: Dani Langevin – January, 2017 There has been a lot of focus on celebrity deaths over the past year, especially in the past few weeks where 2016 seemed hell bent on shocking us all with a number of rapid losses. Instead of focusing on the past year’s losses, I thought I’d focus on some […]
By: Dr. Bharani Padmanabhan – January, 2017 Medscape and other medically-oriented web organizations periodically conduct surveys of physicians nation-wide on various topics such as physician burnout, compensation, best places to work and so on. Around once a year the ethics survey comes out and is always worth examining. One question from this year’s survey […]