* Valley Patriot Editorial * December, 2006 For years, officials in the city of Lawrence have been talking about returning Essex Street to two-way traffic. But all we’ve heard is talk. This past January, District “B” City Councilor Grisel Silva wrote her very first column in The Valley Patriot calling for the restoration of two-way […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL September, 2006 For years the people of Lawrence and visitors to the city have enjoyed the majesty of a giant fountain at the corner of South Union St. and Winthrop Avenue. And for years the DPW has neglected to adequately fix up that fountain when it fell into disrepair. Now DPW […]
By:Tom Duggan – August, 2006 One of the best parts of my job is that I get to ask lots of questions. And because of the nature of my press credentials, I am often in a position to get answers to those questions. But let me start with a question for you. What do you […]
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2006 It was the usual circus at last nights meeting of the Lawrence City Council’s Housing Committee as Councilor Nilka Alvarez, (who is supposed to chair the meeting), completely lost control, allowing the meeting to degenerate into name calling, accusations of racism, a spate of misinformation, and a […]
PAYING ATTENTION! WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – June, 2006 Every year people who work for “non profit” organizations like Lawrence Community Works make their fortunes crowding into Lawrence’s council chambers, whining about how badly “they” need more of your tax dollars to build and secure housing for the “poor” people of Lawrence. Yet, […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL April, 2006 Last week a few hundred illegal aliens and their collaborators held an illegal protest on the streets of Lawrence. What exactly were they protesting? They were protesting America’s laws, which requires that they go through a legal process before entering the United States. But it wasn’t just in Lawrence. […]
By: Tom Duggan – November, 2005 With 80,000 plus people crammed into six square miles, Lawrence has been a very attractive (and profitable) place for poverty pimps to ply their trade: mainly, strong-arming local officials to give them government money for their so-called non profit organizations. Of course, these poverty pimps pretend that their goal […]
By; Michael R. Sweeney – October, 2005 A moment of clarity. After all is said and done that is what election results, whether a primary or final, provides to those seeking public office and to the people who support them. Some candidates grow under that light and some crumble. This past primary night in […]
By: Tom Duggan – September 2005 LAWRENCE – Lawrence School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy is increasingly coming under fire by candidates for both mayor and school committee, as the city elections in November draw near. Embroiled in public scandal over the alleged assault on School Committeeman Amy McGovern, Laboy has become the subject of controversy […]
By Dr. Charles Ormsby – August, 2005 Bound, blindfolded and badly injured, Captain Jim Mulligan was led through the angry crowd of Vietnamese peasants. They screamed in Vietnamese while striking him with sticks and pelting him with stones. He was then placed on a mound of freshly dug earth while a man made a loud and […]
By: Tom Duggan – February, 2005 LAWRENCE – After years of complaining about Lawrence residents not being considered for top positions at City Hall, City Councilors rejected lifelong Lawrence resident David Camasso by a vote of 5-4 to be the city’s new Comptroller. Nearly two dozen city residents and community activists turned out […]
By: Lawrence City Council President, Patrick Blanchette – December 2004 Unfortunately the City of Lawrence is dealing with tough financial problems this year. When I was first elected to the Lawrence City Council (over five years ago,) the annual operating budget was roughly $170 million, with a contingency reserve account of $3 million. The […]
By: Paula Porten & Tom Duggan – December 2004 For the last two years, residents of Lawrence have been calling the construction of a $110 million high school “The Big Dig of Lawrence,” because of its price tag. For months, School Committeeman Amy McGovern and Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy have been questioning the quality of work […]
September, 2004 One of the major problems with the Lawrence City Charter is that there’s no accountability clause when any mayor simply refuses to follow or enforce the law. This has been a problem since 1986 when the city charter first went into affect. Since then, the frustration of Lawrence residents and City Councilors […]
By: Hartley Pleshaw – September, 2004 You probably don’t realize it, but if you live in Lawrence, you live in a place which should be as hallowed as Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg or Normandy. If you have an ancestor who worked in the Lawrence mills in the early part of the 20th Century, you […]