Author Archive

Financial education for teens

I spent this morning at the UMass Lowell Tsongas Center participating in the “Money Strong” Fair sponsored by Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union for the benefit of seniors at Lowell High School. It was an amazing event, one that all students (and many adults) should be required to attend. The JDCU…

Read More »

Good Friday 1984: The Cold War turned hot

For two years in the early 1980s I was assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment as an intelligence officer. The unit’s peacetime mission was to patrol the border between West Germany and Czechoslovakia/East Germany. The patrols were conducted by troops on foot, in vehicles and in helicopters like the…

Read More »

Supt Scott a finalist in Cleveland

According to this story from wkyc.com, Lowell Superintendent of Schools Chris Scott is one of eight finalists for the school superintendent position in Cleveland. Here’s what the article says about Scott: Lowell, Massachusetts Public Schools Superintendent Chris Augusta Scott became the superintendent of Lowell public schools in March, 2008. Before…

Read More »

The Royal Wedding

On the rare occasion I’m watching TV these days, nothing will cause me to change the channel faster than a story on the Royal Wedding. I don’t mean to sound curmudgeonly, but who cares? My negativity is not the result of my Irish heritage nor some kind of popular embrace…

Read More »

Congressional Redistricting

The Globe has a story by Mark Arsenault speculating that the First Congressional District, which covers close to one-third of the entire geographic area of the Commonwealth and stretches from the New York border to nearby Pepperell and Townsend is the most likely candidate for dismemberment in this year’s Congressional…

Read More »

Back from Baltimore

Yesterday I returned from a long weekend in Baltimore for that city’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Pratt Street Riot, the April 19, 1861 confrontation that cost the lives of Luther Ladd, Addison Whitney, Sumner Needham and Charles Taylor. The centerpiece of the Baltimore celebration was a parade…

Read More »