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 […]
By: Tom Duggan, May 3, 2016|820pm The Lawrence City Council refused to tear down a crumbling building owned by one of their own councilors by refusing to take the measure up as an emergency. The roof of the building has collapsed and the cinder blocks at the top of the building and are […]
By: Tom Duggan – 2-22-16 The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF ) has fined two Lawrence City Councilors and warned a third because of campaign finance violations from the last city election. Lawrence City Councilor at Large Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, who has served more than 10 years on the city council, was fined […]
By: Kathy Runge – Jan. 2016 Happy New Year from recall central! Most of us in Lawrence are suffering from recall fatigue, with objections to signatures on the first recall petition due to be heard this month, while the second recall has until the 23rd to collect the required number of signatures. At the December […]
HEROES – REP. DIANA DIZOGLIO (Methuen) and STATE SENATOR KATY IVES (Newburyport). Both DiZoglio and Ives worked tirelessly to get my public records bill a fair hearing in sub committees, made sure they were voted out of those committees favorably, held strong on penalties for law breakers, and then forced a full vote in the […]
By: Kathy Runge – December, 2015 Merry Christmas and greetings from Apache territory! In a pre-election article published at editorialweek.com, Jose Alfonso Garica’s website, South Lawrence was referred to as Apache territory. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be offensive to Apaches, Anglos, or both. This man works for the school department. It’s been […]
By: Tom Duggan – Dec. 11, 2015 The recall efforts against Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera was dealt a critical blow Friday as recall supporters fell 655 signatures short of the 5,645 required to trigger a special election to throw Rivera out of office. This is only one of two recall efforts to unseat Rivera. Both recalls are being […]
In November of 2013, (then) Lawrence City Councilor Dan Rivera defeated incumbent Mayor Willie Lantigua by 84 votes. After a recount was conducted, and Rivera was again declared the winner, Mayor Lantigua told The Valley Patriot that he would be coming back to run against Rep. Marcos Devers and then, working full time to recall […]
By: Kathy Runge – November, 2015 The election has come and gone and the good news is, I should have no scarcity of material for the foreseeable future. The bad news is that Brian DePena was top vote getter in the Councilor at-Large race. Mr. DePena, I will be thrilled if you prove me wrong. […]
By: Tom Duggan – November 29, 2015 RELATED STORIES – PHOTOS (videos below) More than 100 people rallied in support of embattled Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera Sunday on the Campagnone Common, in the wake of two recall petitions to throw Rivera out of office. Rivera is in his second year of a four year […]
Kemal Bozkurt is the first Muslim elected to public office in Lawrence. Bozkurt, the city’s acting library director, ran a sticker campaign for school committee last month as there was not even one candidate on the ballot to fill the seat. Now, Bozkurt is being pressured by members of the city council to either […]
LAWRENCE – The recall effort against Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera by former Mayor William Lantigua supporters has declined into chaos with two separate (legally valid) recall petitions circulating throughout the city to remove the mayor from office. Rivera’s attorney was in court Wednesday asking a judge to put a halt to the second recall, the […]
On Tuesday morning, (10/27/15), the US Marshals and Haverhill Police arrested Willy J. Metz age 29 at 30 Briarwood Dr. Haverhill MA on multiple warrants for Trafficking Firearms and Trafficking Cocaine. These warrants were the result of a joint Haverhill Police/ ATF investigation. To date 28 individuals have been charged as part of the investigation involving […]
By: Kathy Runge – Oct. 2015 I heard that the real reason for the extreme shortage of poll workers for the Preliminary Election was that the city required the poll workers to be citizens (of the United States). Does that mean that there were non-citizens working the polls for the other elections? There was at […]