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Tom
Duggan's Notebook
Click cartoon to make it Bigger
(09/05/07)
The First Annual Callahan
Cannonball
The First Annual Callahan
Cannonball to benefit the family of Officer Kevin
Callahan. The run will start at the Claddagh Pub 399,
Canal Street Lawrence, MA. and wind through the back
roads of Southern New Hampshire returning to the Claddagh
Pub. Following the run there will be food, raffles and
music featuring Beyond the Pale. All makes and models
welcome. Pre registration is recommended and is available
at: www.CallahanCannonball.com
The Claddagh Pub & Restaurant, the Lawrence Police
Department or the day of the run. Registration / sign-in
beginning at 9:00 am. If you cant make the ride
come and enjoy the food, music, and raffles. Fees $25.00
per ride, $10.00 per passenger T-shirt & Admission to
Cookout included $15.00 for non run participants who
would like to attend cook out.
Local Radio
Station Implodes - Ronnie Ford Quits WCCM
When I was growing up, anyone who was interested in local
news and politics in Lawrence and Methuen were tuned in
to local radio where, WCCM (800AM) was the undisputed
king of talk radio. Lou Marcell, John Moran, Ben
Mevoracch and a host of talented newsmen and talk show
hosts covered everything from the national news of the
day to the latest breaking stories in the Merrimack
Valley. Often times they would scoop the Tribune
and always saw themselves as in competition with the
daily newspaper for more in depth news coverage and
better fact gathering. Today, however, WCCM is barely a
shell of its former self. Under the new ownership
of Pat Costa (who sold his soul and 49% of the station to
the Eagle~Tribune) has absolutely no news team gathering
and writing relevant news stories. Having moved twice on
the radio dial and going from a 5,000 watt radio signal
to less than 1,000 watts, those who can actually find
WCCMs current position on the radio dial can barely
hear the broadcast (even in Lawrence) through waves of
static. But if you can find the station and you can
actually hear the broadcast, you wont find Hot
Line host Ronnie Ford on the air anymore. Word has
it that Ronnie Ford had simply had enough of Costas
meddling when he showed up for work one day with two
guests booked for the show, only to find out that Costa
himself had booked Arnie Arneson to do the show in place
of Ford, telling Ford to come back the next day. Ford
reportedly got up and walked out the door, never to
return.
Get John
Romero
Lawrence city councilors Grisel Silva and
Nunzio DiMarca were quite vocal during last months
budget battle with Mayor Sullivan when it came to their
reasons for cutting the city budget and trying to
shut down the city. When asked why she was so hell
bent on cutting $3.7 million in city services when every
single department head testified that it would devastate
their departments, Silva reacted We are going to
make him suffer, if he wants to back John Romero and let
him do whatever he wants on the police department we are
going to shut down the city. Romero is corrupt and as
long as Sullivan defends him we are not going to pass his
budget, Period. Not surprisingly, Councilor
DiMarca, who was present when Silva made her feelings
known, was overheard less than an hour later repeating
her words, but pretending it was his original thought,
repeating charges that the chief was corrupt and that
Sullivan had to pay the price.
Did
Tribune Concoct Cuomo Bridge Story?
Given
the choice between believing what I read in the
Eagle~Tribune and believing a politician who claims they
were wronged by the daily paper, well, you know who Im
going to believe. But let me put this one out there for
my readers in Haverhill and let you decide for yourself.
According to Sally Cerasuolo-ORorke, candidate for
mayor in Haverhill, a reporter from the Trib.
called her and said he was working on a story concerning
the renaming of the Cuomo Bridge. ORorke
said she told the reporter she hadnt heard anything
about renaming the bridge but the reporter, she claims,
pushed her to come up with an alternate name. He
said, well if they are going to rename the bridge,
what would name it? ORorke said she couldnt
come up with anything off he top of her head but thought
that John Greenleaf Whittier might be a good choice.
I never said I wanted to change the name of the
bridge, I was asked a question about alternative names
and just gave him one off the top of my head, in no way
was I suggesting that we take Mr. Cuomos name off
the bridge. Now, I have no favorites in the mayors
race in Haverhill but after interviewing Sally for more
than 2 hours I can tell you I believe her 100%. The
question now is: will this Tribune-concocted bridge
controversy have any effect on ORorkes
chances on election day?
Technical School
Committee Exonerated ... For Now
Chairman of the Greater Lawrence Tech. School Committee
announced during a meeting last month that the school had
received notification from the Mass. Ethics Commission
exonerating members of the board for a recent trip taken
by board members. Henrick said openly that he wanted the
committee to approve sending a letter to the Methuen City
Council because there were public comments made by
one councilor on this matter and I think the record
should be set straight. The Ethics commission said we did
nothing wrong. But, while making the announcement
in public, board members immediately began shuffling in
their seats and tried talking over Henrick saying they
wanted to discuss it in executive session.
When asked by a reporter for a copy of the letter from
the Ethics Commission, Henrick said they would have to
vote on it in executive session. And apparently thats
what they did. After the meeting chairman Henrick said
they decided in executive session not to release
the letter. Heres the problem, according to
state law, any vote taken in executive session must also
be taken in open session. The Tech School Committee didnt
do that.
Conventional
Wisdom - Whos
UP WHos Down
DOWN: Ruth Rojas,
Rojas failed miserably two years ago in her bid to beat
Grisel Silva for the District B city council
seat and this year she failed to properly sign and
prepare her nomination papers so the board of registrars
threw her name off the ballot. Whats worse, two
years ago the Valley Patriot took pictures of the trash
and deplorable conditions outside Rojas home and in
her yard. With talk of Rojas launching a sticker campaign
to get her name on the November ballot we sent a
photographer back to her home to see if she finally
picked up her property (after all she wants to represent
her neighborhood on the city council) but lo and behold
the garbage in front of Rojas Summer Street home looks
like it hasnt been picked up since before we took
our pictures back in 2005. Look for before and after
pictures in our next edition
and have fun trying to
tell which is which.
DOWN: Barry Finegold,
A year ago Andover State Rep Barry Finegold was under the
misimpression that his Merrimack Valley Colleagues were
going to support him in his bud for congress. Now, just a
few days after Finegold finds himself on the losing end
of a Democrat primary he has to be looking around and
wondering why every single state representative and state
senator he serves with on Beacon Hill endorsed his
opponents. For what it is worth, Finegold deserved much
better treatment from those he thought were his friends.
One thing for sure, Finegold now knows who his friends
are. I only hope that the next time one of his colleagues
asks him for political support in a local or state race
he has the courage to tell them all where to go. Hey
Barry, you were robbed, but you were robbed by people you
thought you could trust. Let that be a lesson to you,
there are no friends in politics and no politcal favor
goes unpunished.
UP: Lawrence City
Councilor Joe Parolisi, hes
not even the council president but he made a valiant
effort to educate the public during budget hearings as to
exactly what kind of cuts would be made to the fire and
police department if Grisel Silvas $3.7 million in
proposed cuts were approved by the council. Whats
more, the fact that Modesto Maldonado architect of Latino
Agenda) is targeting Parolisi for defeat in November
means he is now a shoe-in to take one of the two top
at-large spots on election day.
UP: Methuen Councilor Phil
Lahey: Lahey picked up a few big
endorsements last week with endorsements from former
Veterans Services Director Ed Hoppy Curran,
Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi, and former councilor Mike
Hennessey. Lahey is doing the work on the campaign trail
and not taking endorsements for granted but he does have
a tough race ahead of him in one of the most crowed races
in the city.
DOWN: Willie Lantigua:
Lantigua backed Lowell City Councilor
Eileen Donoghue in Lawrence while his rivals in the
Marcos Devers camp were supporting Niki Tsongas. Guess
which candidate won Lawrence in the Democrat primary for
congress? Yup, Tsongas overwhelmed Donoghue by a vote
tally of 1,425 (Tsongas) to 927 (Donoghue). Looks
like Lantiguas endorsement doesnt carry as
much weight as it use to in the mill city. But at least
Lantigua can brag about one thing, his candidate defeated
Barry Finegold in Lawrence by seven votes and Finegold
actually represents Lawrence in the House of
Representatives. Lantigua must be nervous now with the
possibility of Devers challenging him next year but
Finegold has to be smarting even more knowing he lost big
in a city he has always enjoyed wide popularity.
UP: State Senator
Steve Baddour: Even though his candidate
for congress, Eileen Donoghue was (barely) defeated at
the polls in the special primary last week, Donoghue won
Methuen by more than 200 votes. Baddour was the architect
of a series of newspaper ads (something Finegold failed
to capitalize on) showing Donoghue and Baddour touting
them as a team. The team concept is wildly
successful if done correctly and Baddour and Donoghue
almost pulled it off perfectly. Now if only Finegold had
been smart enough to spend his money on local newspapers
(where super voters are best targeted) instead of wasting
all that cash on silly television commercials. Now, lets
see how the Baddour team does in the
Methuen municipal elections come November.
Essex St. Development
Congratulations to Michel S. Tarshi on the groundbreaking
of his new construction project on Essex Street. (see
picture on page 17). Tarshi, formerly of Donald Trumps
The Apprentice is helping the city of
Lawrence with his development near his fathers law
office at 510 Essex Street. Tarshis building will
hold retail and office space, perfect for the
redevelopment of the down town area.
All in the Family
President of the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Association
Frank Incropera may be supporting David Abdoo in the
District E city council race but his cousin
Jay Incropera is backing Abdoos opponent Matty
Brien. Acording to insiders involved in both races, the
Bien campaign is planning to mail out friend to friend
cards signed by The Incropera Family to fool
people in Mt. Vernon into thinking that Frank and Dotti
Incropera are endorsing Brien and not Abdoo. Its
typical Willie Lantigua
politics if its true.
A Shameless Plug
Since my friends Danielle Lamorandi and Ray Torrisi
recently had a baby this gives me the perfect chance to
kill two birds with one stone. First, to put a picture of
her daughter Kayla (god I hope I spelled that right) in
the paper (our readers love babies) and secondly to
promote a new idea for the Valley Patriot baby pictures
and BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS! Yes, for $45 you too can post
your baby announcements in the Valley Patriot and, if
this is successful enough we will mark out a whole
section for baby pictures, and birth announcements.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 15,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Newburyport,
Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach, (summers
only)
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