It’s a weekend afternoon, and a young father and mother walk through the doors of the newly opened “Frank’s Barber Shop” on 150 Main Street in North Andover. Two boys are in tow; knees dirty, shin pads in place, snug, along with jerseys which are draping loosely on the shoulders of both. On their way […]
By: Dani Langevin – December, 2013 In 1927, fifty-five year old Andrew Kehoe, school board treasurer in Bath, Michigan shot his wife, fire-bombed his own barn then set off a bomb at the Bath Consolidated School killing thirty-eight school children, six adults and injuring fifty-eight others. It was and still remains the deadliest act against […]
December, 2013 Right to the bitter end, Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua went down swinging as he told reporters on the day he conceded that if he were white, he would be on the cover of Forbes or Money magazine for his financial achievements as mayor. “Those who are not blind of conscience, as I always […]
By: Helen Mooradkanian – December, 2013 In the early dawn hours of March 25, 1969, in the rice paddies of South Vietnam, near Bong Son, in the province of Binh Dinh, 22-year old Sergeant Thomas F. Siopes, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade (separate), was leading a patrol on a “search and […]
We started off the year of 2013 losing our good friend and colleague, Ronnie Ford of Methuen. We missed him all year and it would be impossible to start a “year in review” without remembering Ronnie and his family. AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP & ALL THOSE MISSING EBT CARDS Massachusetts State Auditor Suzanne Bump conducted an […]
Contract victory ensures wage increases, job security provisions, and affordable health coverage for hospital workers MASSACHUSETTS – Nearly 5,000 healthcare workers who are members of the state’s largest healthcare union have voted to ratify a new three-year labor agreement with Steward Health Care, the largest community hospital network in Massachusetts. The pact covers a broad […]
PART ONE: OBSERVING LAWRENCE POLICE AND DISPATCH By: Tom Duggan – December 16, 2013 Last week Lawrence City Councilor Mark Laplante went on a “ride along” with the Lawrence police, fire, and DPW snow plows to get a better understanding about how city services are delivered to Lawrence residents. In Part Two we will explore what […]
By: Christine Morabito – In July of 2013 the Massachusetts legislature did something both historic and fiendishly clever. When voting to increase the gas tax (not historic) they also voted to index the tax to inflation, meaning the tax will continue to rise, and rise without lawmakers having to perform the unpleasant task of voting […]
By: Tom Duggan – December 15, 2013 Last month all three of Lawrence’s State Representatives voted in favor of Voter ID in Massachusetts. This is odd given that we are told day in, and day out by the Democrat leadership, and the so called “news” media that people who support Voter ID are, in fact, […]
Chairman of the Andover Board of Selectman, Alex Vispoli announced that he is running for the Massachusetts State Senate in the Second Essex and Middlesex district comprising of Tewksbury, Dracut, Lawrence and Andover. “I am running for the State Senate because it’s time to give the people of our district a break from compulsive tax […]
PHOTOS More than eighty people attended the annual Menorah Lighting on the North Andover Common Monday night as Rabbi Asher Bronstein of Chabat Merrimack Valley praised G-d that we live in a country that still respects religious freedom, “even in the public square”. Jews and others from across the Merrimack Valley sang on the common […]
By: Ana DeBernardo – November, 2013 Over the summer, I attended a Christian camp called C.A.M.P.S., an acronym that stands for Christ As My Personal Savior. This was my second consecutive year attending C.A.M.P.S., and I had also gone to SnowCamps, the weekend retreat version of C.A.M.P.S., during the winter. I can honestly say that my […]
Pavel Payano, Vice Chair of the Lawrence School Committee, has launched an exploratory committee for the Democratic nomination to succeed Senator Barry Finegold to the Second Essex and Middlesex District. Senator Finegold has announced his intention to run for State Treasurer in 2014. Payano has set his sights on becoming the first elected Latino Senator […]
By: Paul Murano – November, 2013 November is the month when religious traditions remember the dead. It is a fitting month to do so. The clock gets turned back an hour and the world becomes a darker place; leaves fall, grass dies, birds evacuate, and various mammals hibernate until spring. Death is in the air […]
By: State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell – November, 2013 State Representative Brian S. Dempsey (D-Haverhill), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means, along with State Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives (D-Newburyport), Representative Linda Dean Campbell (D-Methuen), Representative Diane DiZoglio (D-Methuen) and Representative Lenny Mirra (R-West Newbury) announced today that the Massachusetts Department of […]