By: Robin Desmet – Sept. 2016 Oftentimes when I show up at someone’s home to trap their backyard cats, I am by myself. I set up the traps and then spend a few hours getting to know them and explaining what I do. But although I am by myself, I am by no means doing […]
By: Cheryl Hajjar – November, 2014 ‘Tis the season for homework. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. If you have grade school children, even mentioning the word homework is like dragging your fingernails down a never ending chalkboard. Some days I honestly would rather walk over a 1000 hot coals in my bare feet than suffer the […]
By: Cheryl Hajjar – Sept. 2014 The temperatures are cooling, the autumn coffee flavors are brewing and those of us who are parents are all settling into our fall routines along with our children with their homework assignments, sports schedules and school events. As always, summer went by way too fast. Your child is easing […]
By: Kristen Peaks – July, 2014 I work in public relations at Cook Children’s. It’s my job to be on social networking sites, peruse the internet and keep up with the latest Apps offered on smartphones. It’s a great job and I love what I do, but over the last couple years, I have learned […]
By: Tom Duggan 6-23-14|3PM According to Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral, at least seven flights landed in Massachusetts recently containing illegal aliens transported from the Mexican border prior to April 18, 2014. Five flights landed at Hanscom Air Force base, two landed at Logan. “These flights were routine transports of detainees either to […]
By: Cheryl Hajjar – April 26, 2014 As some of you know my company, Indigo Magic was a recent Merrimack Valley Sandbox Winter Accelerator winner in February. Here ,17 finalists gathered for 3 months in a grant program that helped us all accelerate our businesses. At the first class, I sat down next to Mickey […]
By: Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives April, 2014 April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. I’m glad to report two recent developments that will strengthen safety for our children in the Commonwealth. There have been significant discrepencies in child services this past year; one being the serious challenges at the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) […]
Podcast of Paying Attention with Tom Duggan, April 19, 2014. Paying Attention is produced by Chris Poublon and airs on 980WCAP in Lowell CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD HOUR 1 CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD HOUR 2 Today Lou Pelletier, father of Justina Pelleteir joined us by phone to talk about his harrowing ordeal of his family at the […]
By: Dr. Jin Sung – January, 2014 One in five American children today has a mental disorder and the rate is rising, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Affecting 13 to 20 percent of youth under 18, mental disorders impact a child’s behavior, ability to learn, and cope […]
By: Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives – January, 204 A year ago I was sworn in as the State Senator of the First Essex District, representing the communities of Amesbury, Haverhill, Merrimac, Methuen, Newburyport, North Andover and Salisbury. It has been a very busy and productive year, during which I have advocated for initiatives that have […]
By: Jeff Katz – November, 2013 Do you remember back in the olden days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and we had to walk up hill to school…both ways? You know the age when we rode bikes with no helmets and swam without goggles. There was a time when American kids were fairly sturdy creatures capable […]
By; Eva Montabello – July, 2012 For more than a decade several pieces of child protection legislation have been in front of Massachusetts’s leadership, typically dying in the Judiciary Committee. Finally, many pieces of legislation are progressing through the process with help from Merrimack Valley advocates Laurie Myers, Founder and President of VOICES, Joseph […]
Catholic Church to Close Saint Mary’s After Promising to keep it Open By: Tom Duggan – May, 2011 Hundreds of students, parents and supporters of Saint Mary’s School of the Assumption in Lawrence, rallied and held a vigil Saturday to oppose the decision of the Boston Archdiocese of the Catholic Church to close the school […]
By: Paul Murano – August, 2010 When I moved back home from Tampa in the early 1990’s I gathered together a young adult group from St. Margaret’s in Burlington to share an idea. A crisis pregnancy center was needed in the area. To make a long story short everything fell into place, and from […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL January, 2009 The people of Israel endure immanent destruction on a daily basis from a number of terrorist organizations, governments and civilian populations in the region. The threat they face is something that most Americans cannot fathom. Palestinian terrorists, civilians by definition, use ambulances to transport weapons and terrorists from place to place on the […]