By: Mike Hruby – August, 2011 On Thursday, July 21st, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) announced that our state unemployment measure stayed at 7.6% for another month. This signaled no improvement for 263,800 unemployed individuals, more than seven full Fenway Parks. By definition the 7.6% figure does not include […]
By: Tom Duggan – July, 2011 During the late 80’s, former Lawrence Mayor Kevin Sullivan tried to orchestrate a recall election against two members of the Lawrence School Committee who opposed his Emerson College relocation plan. That effort, backed with money, resources and the help of the daily newspaper, failed. In the early 90’s, former Lawrence Mayor Larry Lefebre lost a […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL July, 2012 Last month, The Valley Patriot criticized Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins for his failure to notify the public of an escape from the Lawrence jail on Marston Street (known as “the farm”). After our editorial was published, we were contacted by Paul Fleming, the sheriff’s press director, stating that we were “wrong” and that they […]
By: Diana Dizoglio – July, 2012 About a year ago, I wrote an article regarding civic engagement and community involvement. The article was inspired out of my encounter with a group of high school honor students from the Merrimack Valley. In the piece, I discussed the lack of understanding that the students seemed […]
By: Paul Murano – January, 2011 The scandal within the Catholic Church was one of ignorance and evil. No question. It was the cause of much confusion and pain. But two evils do not make a good. The second evil I speak of is the mischaracterization communicated through the media about it. The facts seem […]
By: Lonnie Brennan – June, 2011 So, what did the spring Georgetown elections and the approved $1.2 million school override cost you? If you’re the average homeowner (half of whom sat at home and ignored the election), the vote raised your property tax to the point where either this year, next year, or the year […]
By: Jeff Katz – June, 2011 Sporting his best Brooks Brothers casual while serving up chicken-chili in a barnyard, Willard Mitt Romney made it officially official the other day while visiting his home State of New Hampshire that he was once again running for President of the United States. This announcement was completely different from […]
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2011 Local U.S. Marine recruiters in The Valley got their first look at the latest batch of recruits last month at Ft. Devans Army Base in Massachusetts. The new recruits, called “poolees” (recruits yet to attend basic training) were put through preliminary training to get them ready for the extensive […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – June, 2011 I noticed from Facebook the number of people that grew up in Lawrence and settled in the Merrimack Valley is very high. While this might not just be a Lawrence thing, it seems particularly pronounced here. The Lawrence Diaspora (migration) doesn’t seem like a random scattering. Almost everyone who […]
By: Peter Larocque – June, 2011 As the City of Lawrence prepares itself to begin budget discussions on the FY-2012 Budget, I thought it would be good to review some background information concerning Labor Unions. According to Wikipedia, the Web-based free encyclopedia, labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL June, 2011 For the last few years The Valley Patriot has sporadically received information about prisoners from the Lawrence Jail (the “Farm”) on Marston Street escaping from the facility. Each time we are informed by law enforcement officials at other agencies that another escape has occurred, we wait. We wait, and […]
By: Tom Duggan, June, 2011 With several law enforcement agencies investigating the finances and political dealings of Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua, and the Boston media finally waking up to his political shenanigans, the question most people are asking is: can Lantigua survive? Let me start by saying that I’ve known and studied the political genius […]
By; Tom Duggan – May, 2011 Lawrence School Committeeman Sammy Reyes (District D) has written a scathing letter to the city council demanding that education funds (which were used for city services) be repaid to the school children of Lawrence. In his letter, Reyes threatens to turn in the Lantigua administration for misappropriation […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – May, 2011 A recall effort is underway in the City of Lawrence. The process of a recall is contained in the City Charter (hereafter Charter). Section 9.7 entitled “Recall of Elected Officials.” As this section is written in government lingo, it does require a careful reading as well as some […]
By: Peter Larocque – April, 2011 According to Wikipedia, (meaning quick encyclopedia), a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia, Public Safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm, crimes or disasters, (natural or man-made). In the United States we have the […]