By: Dr. Frank MacMillan – Jan. 2016 Years end is a good opportunity for us to look back and take stock in what is good and what is not so good. Yes, the turning of the calendar year is an artificial boundary, but why not use this as an opportunity to leave the old behind […]
PAYING ATTENTION! ON-LINE EXTRA On the day of the Challenger explosion I was teaching at the Henry K. Oliver School in Lawrence. Having lost my first bid for school committee at 18 years old, I had been offered a position as a substitute teacher and oddly enough, made a permanent substitute almost immediately […]
By: Paul Murano – Jan. 2016 It is now political season and New England must choose the nation’s front-runners for President of the United States. I don’t place my faith in politicians and neither should you, but the upcoming primaries could be vital to picking the man or woman who will choose the next few […]
By: Ana DeBernardo – Jan. 2016 The minute I stepped off the plane, the familiar sensations struck me like a thunderbolt. Five years had passed since the last trip, but it seems that in my absence the distinctive sounds and smells had only been put on pause. All of my fondest memories were transported into […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX By: Dr. Charles Ormsby – Jan. 2016 On Tuesday, February 9th, New Hampshire will hold its presidential primary election to determine the New Hampshire delegates to the Republican National Convention. Massachusetts holds its primary on March 1st (Super Tuesday) along with eleven other states. So, Republican voters in New Hampshire and […]
By: Bill Cushing – Jan. 2016 Now that 2015 has come and gone, it’s time to look back on a great year of TV. It was very hard narrowing it down, but here are my choices for the best shows of 2015. 10. Bates Motel (A&E)– A&E’s Bates Motel centers on the early years […]
Haverhill resident Stephanie Bellapianta, a freshman at Merrimack College, presented an award to State Representative Brian Dempsey in front of 350 leaders from the state’s higher education sector, at an annual dinner for the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM). The December 14 event held at the Seaport Hotel in Boston honored […]
On Saturday, December 19th, Evelyn Rodriguez of the Lawrence/Methuen Community Coalition (LMCC) under the Family Services of the Merrimack Valley, collaborated with the Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) of Methuen High School, as well as Dean Brouder, Mike Caban, and Jackie Rubino. They came together in order to organize a “Sticker-Shock” campaign geared towards underage […]
The story of one foster kid is on the shelves to raise money to help hundreds more. A small non-profit is taking aim at a huge goal. The Foster Kids of the Merrimack Valley is raising money to open a halfway house for kids aging out of the foster system. At the center of their […]
“We’ve turned a corner,” said Rep. Jim Lyons, “but we still have a long, long way to go.” Reflecting on the first half of the 2015-2016 legislative sessions, State Representative Jim Lyons (R-Andover) noted that it was a productive year marked by many legislative accomplishments, although vital challenges remain to be addressed. “From the beginning,” […]
By: Dani Langevin – Jan. 2016 Meet Hector Black: Hector is a ninety-year-old man who lives in Tennessee. He has been featured on StoryCorps, Radiolab, and The Moth. He fought in World War II and attended Harvard where he studied social anthropology. None of this sounds remarkable, but Hector’s personal story is. Seven years ago, […]
By: John Macdonald – Jan. 2016 It’s an odd thing when the American entertainment industry blends popular couples by binding their names together. An example would be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that got the name “Bradgelina” or when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez cursed tabloid covers with the name “Bennifer”. However, let’s not forget […]
By: Tom Duggan – Jan. 2016 He’s a Hollywood actor, an author, a musician and a singer, but Steve Blackwood says his latest passion is teaching and he has started up his own actors studio in North Andover to teach local talent what it takes to make it in show business. “It’s funny,” he […]
By: Jeff Katz – Jan. 2016 Bill Cosby, once seen as the elder statesman of American family friendly comedy now stands charged with a felony count of aggravated indecent assault and is only free to walk around because he was able to post one million dollars in bail. Most of America now looks at The […]
In the race for the Republican nomination for President, there are really only four viable candidates as we approach the February 9th New Hampshire Primary, and the Massachusetts Primary in March. They are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie. To understand the race and why it is so contentious, you first have […]