November, 2005 The running joke before last week’s election was: “who is going to LOSE by a wider margin, Marcos Devers in Lawrence or Ellen Bahan in Methuen?” Well, Ellen won that one, but not much else. She lost the mayoral race to Bill Manzi by a margin of 28% to 68%, a resounding victory […]
By: Tom Duggan – November, 2005 With 80,000 plus people crammed into six square miles, Lawrence has been a very attractive (and profitable) place for poverty pimps to ply their trade: mainly, strong-arming local officials to give them government money for their so-called non profit organizations. Of course, these poverty pimps pretend that their goal […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – August 25, 2005 Lawrence City Councilor Marie Gosselin is always complaining about the “measly $97 a week” she gets paid for being a City Councilor. And she is right, of course. Lawrence School Committee members and City Councilors should be paid more for the amount of […]
June, 2005 Lawrence State Representative Willie Lantigua has betrayed the Latino people of Lawrence. He has been playing a dangerous game of race baiting and making racial slurs for far too long, and it is about time someone called him to task for his shenanigans. Lantigua has deliberately misinformed his Dominican constituency about Licensing […]
By: Tom Duggan – April 04, 2005 Just as I reported after the November Presidential election (which was a bittersweet moment), I was again blessed with the same feelings and emotions following this week’s North Andover town elections. Why, you ask? Well, in November I was thrilled with George Bush’s victory, the defeat of […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN Tom Duggan It’s always cute when a local politician adopts a catchy slogan to help shore up the image of his campaign. And while most voters rightly dismiss these slogans as meaningless rhetoric, one campaign slogan from this year’s North Andover town election begs to be discussed. Political […]
January, 2005 Even if we accept that everything Judy Brito says is true, Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan is absolutely right when he says that most firefighters in the city of Lawrence are honest, decent, hard-working individuals. They are the men and women who go out and respond to the cries for help from innocent victims […]
The Grinch is REAL! Tom Duggan (Dec-2009) Warning: This column may offend anyone bothered by truth, goodness and holiday celebrations! No longer just a children’s fantasy story, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” is alive and well in modern day America. But, the real Grinch doesn’t live at the top of Mount Crumpet. No, no, he […]
Kudos to Selectman Wendy Wakeman for defending free speech in North Andover. Wakeman supports an open door policy for political candidates who wish to campaign at the North Andover Senior Center. A belated three cheers for The Town of Methuen Council on aging as well as the Councils on Aging in Lawrence and Haverhill […]
Massachusetts State Representative Barbara L’Italien should be ashamed of herself. She has not only taken a public stand against two of the Catholic Church’s teachings, abortion and gay marriage, (she favors both) the liberal legislator was seen on election day verbally attacking and abusing pro-life activists, some of whom were members of her church parish. […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN Tom Duggan – November, 2004 Massachusetts State Representative Barbara L’Italien should be ashamed of herself. She has not only taken a public stand against two of the Catholic Church’s teachings, abortion and gay marriage, (she favors both) the liberal legislator was seen on election day verbally attacking and […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – November, 2004 With all due respect to the Superintendent of Schools in North Andover, you might think his previous job experience in Reading would have taught him a lesson or two about listening to parents and not supporting fuzzy math programs. Unfortunately for […]
Hey People! It’s Just A News Story! October, 2004 Last month The Valley Patriot ran a front page news story about Brooks School Summer Camp in North Andover conducting mock marriage ceremonies between same-sex kids (some as young as five years old). Some people were clearly offended and outraged by the headline, “Brooks Marries Same […]
By: Tom Duggan – September, 2004 LAWRENCE – After more than thirty years of neglect and empty promises by elected officials, the Veterans Memorial Stadium has finally become a priority for government leaders in the city. In an unusual display of cooperation, Mayor Michael Sullivan and the Lawrence City Council worked out a $30 million capital […]
September, 2004 One of the major problems with the Lawrence City Charter is that there’s no accountability clause when any mayor simply refuses to follow or enforce the law. This has been a problem since 1986 when the city charter first went into affect. Since then, the frustration of Lawrence residents and City Councilors […]