03-19 When former Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua first took the corner office at Lawrence City Hall he fired a number of department heads whom he believed had campaigned against him. He wasn’t firing them for doing a bad job or committing a crime; it was all politics. Lantigua did not want anyone in his administration […]
Former Lawrence School Committeeman Jim Blatchford has withdrawn from the 2017 city council race. Blatchford was fired last Friday, as an aide to Rep. Carmine Gentile, a Democrat from Sudbury. Blatchford issued a statement Tuesday saying he is dropping out of the At-Large City Council race because he needs to concentrate on finding another job. […]
May 14, 2017 Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera finally pulled the trigger this week and fired embattled Lawrence police officer William Green for a host of corruption offenses including theft, threats on other police officers, abandoning a prisoner who escaped, refusing to show up for scheduled shifts, and falsely accusing another police officer of committing an […]
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 […]
By: Tom Duggan, 12/19/14 Valley Patriot medical corruption columnist, and Cambridge Hospital whistle blower Dr. Bharani Padmanabhan appeared before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday to explain to Justice Botsford that Cambridge Hospital had retaliated against him for exposing a scam concerning inaccurate brain scan reports that he said put his patients at risk. Dr. […]
By: Tom Duggan – July 17, 2014 The turmoil surrounding the removal of Arthur T. Demoulas as the head of the Market Basket supermarket chain continues as a letter was sent to all employees today informing them that a “special meeting” has been called for next Monday July 21st to discuss the demands of employees that Arthur […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL JANUARY 2014 Earlier this month former Lawrence City Councilor Dan Rivera was sworn in as Lawrence’s new mayor after defeating the once-thought unbeatable, William Lantigua by 82 votes. We know all too well the problems Lawrence faces and the long road ahead of Mayor Rivera just to get the city to stop […]
Rivera Hires Three Assistants, Neighborhood Planner and Business Development Director By: Tom Duggan – January 3, 2014 LAWRENCE – Less than twenty four hours after taking office as the new Mayor of Lawrence, Dan Rivera has started naming new members of his administration and removing The Valley Patriot has learned that on Friday, Lawrence’s City […]
SCULLY RETURNS! By: Tom Duggan – February, 2011 When Lawrence School Superintendent Jim Scully was fired by the School Committee back in 1997, the injustices were numerous. He was accused of misspending public dollars by a School Committee that had approved every single expenditure they fired him for. The press, in particular Boston […]
Fire Chief Resigns at Council Meeting, opposes taking job out of Civil Service… Council Backs Mayor By: Tom Duggan, February, 2011 After months of personal attacks and shoddy treatment by the Lantigua administration, Lawrence Fire Chief Murphy spoke out at a Lawrence City Council meeting last month saying he opposed taking the Chief’s job out […]
Sweeney uses award-winning Valley Patriot article to make his case Tom Duggan – January, 2010 It was a contentious meeting before the Lawrence City Council’s Personnel Subcommittee Tuesday night, when three city department heads (fired by Willie Lantigua) got a chance to appeal their terminations. The subcommittee first elected Roger Twomey as their chairman […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL June, 2009 Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini is planning to close the Bradford Fire Station in June and we find that unacceptable. Even more unacceptable is how Fiorentini blames the firefighters for racking up overtime and exhausting the city budget. But the firefighters we talked to showed us hard facts and figures proving that the fire […]
By; Tom Duggan May, 2007 When Lawrence resident David Camasso was being interrogated by members of the Lawrence City Council last month, one issue was repeatedly brought up for Camasso to address: If hired as comptroller, would Camasso bow down to political pressure when it came to approving expenditures he believed were excessive, illegal […]