By: Tom Duggan – July, 2015 Methuen resident Christine Prescott went to the Methuen police station last month to thank the officer who saved her life when her heart stopped while working out at a local fitness center. “I had just finished my 45 minute spinning class at the gym,” Prescott told The Valley Patriot. […]
By: Tom Duggan – July, 2015 Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington has once again violated state laws governing public records. This time, laws governing the retention of public records as part of a lawsuit. The lawsuit in question was filed by the Tomaselli sisters. Harrington is claiming that permanent documents being sought by Gracemarie and […]
By: Tom Duggan – July 14, 2015 BOSTON – Lawrence City Councilor Marc Laplante was on Beacon Hill Tuesday testifying for passage of his legislation to increase fines for illegal dumping in Lawrence. If passed, House Bill 1258 would let the City of Lawrence increase the maximum fine for illegal dumping from $300, to between $5,000 and […]
By: Bharani Padmanabhan – June, 2015 This month, Valley Patriot Publisher Tom Duggan was front and center in this state’s media environment for a couple of days. Most media people referred to him by name except for Dan Kennedy who refused to do so while using Tom’s testimony to support the new public records bill. Tom had […]
By: State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell June, 2015 Massachusetts gets an F grade for access to public records according to some very respected public interest groups. A number of bills have been filed to change this including legislation filed by Senator Ives and co-sponsored by both Representative DiZoglio and myself. As a member of the […]
By: Tom Duggan -June, 2015 A fired guidance counselor in the Lawrence Public Schools, Brenda Sudol-Kirwin, won an arbitration hearing against the schools in August of 2013, for sick leave for injuries she incurred while working in the schools. But Kirwin says the issue is not over and wanted to go public about the abuse […]
By: Sidney Smith- June, 2015 READ PART I HERE A young kid of 19 years old, like so many of the young guys my mother and I had met, was being assigned to the 8th AF and sent to England; a kid named Larry from Easton, Maine. His orders had to have read something […]
Massachusetts Legislators, members of the media and 1st amendment advocates testified last month before a joint House and Senate committee on Beacon Hill, asking legislators to add penalties to the state’s fake public records law. The law, MGL Ch. 66, states that the keeper of records in any municipality or public agency must turn over public […]
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2015 The Methuen police are testing new body camera equipment donated to the department as part of a pilot program. So, last month I had the opportunity to do a police ride-along in Methuen to see how well it was working out. Riding with Officer Jeff Torrisi, we pulled over […]
By: Peter Larocque – May, 2015 Before I get into this month’s column, please allow me to thank Mr. Tom Duggan, Editor of The Valley Patriot who with patience and understanding, afforded me all the time I needed to decide exactly what direction to take my writing. It was during this hiatus that I realized […]
Tom Duggan, May, 2015 The friends and family of a child murdered in 1985 have privately raised nearly $4,000 for a headstone, 30 years after the murder of Michelle Pimentel in 1985. Pimentel’s friends and family raised the money in less than one week after appearing on 980WCAP’s Paying Attention Radio program to tell their […]
AUDIO: Tom Duggan on Afternoon LIVE discusses the state’s impotent Public Records law and how it affects you. (VIDEO of Duggan’s testimony below at 41 MIN mark) Valley Patriot publisher Tom Duggan testified before a sub committee of the Massachusetts State Legislature in favor of a bill he wrote S1700 that would finally put teeth into […]
By: John Lenotte – May, 2015 Memorial Day is again approaching. That time for the unofficial beginning of Summer. And after this last Winter, we are all looking forward to sun and warm weather. As I do every year, I will ask you to take a few minutes to think about those who made sacrifices […]
By: Tom Duggan – May 18, 2015 North Andover voters rejected a measure at Annual Town Meeting Tuesday night, that would have allowed 16 and 17 year-olds the right to vote in local elections, at Town Meeting, and even run for local office. Had the Warrant Article passed at Town Meeting, the question would have gone […]
By: Tom Duggan & Janet Aldrich May 12, 2015 A long time ally, confidant, strategist, and campaign worker for former Lawrence Mayor and State Rep. Willie Lantigua, has been arrested and charged by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force. The task force is a partnership between HSI and other federal, state, and local […]