We were fortunate to hear from the National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis at the Innovative Cities Conference. He and many other US Interior Department officials have been on duty in the Gulf of Mexico region responding to the oil pollution disaster. I think his visit was evidence of how highly Lowell…
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Mayor Terry Bellamy of Asheville, N.C., yesterday spoke about her city at the Innovative Cities Conference. One of the important attractions is the Thomas Wolfe House, the childhood home of the author immortalized in his novel “Look Homeward, Angel.” Read about the memorial and programs at the Wolfe House here.…
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Occasional New York Times columnist Bono offers his thoughts on the extraordinary report about the killings of civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland in 1972. A few of the Catholic-side leaders during the long and brutal “troubles” in that place stopped in Lowell over the years, in particular, Gerry Adams…
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Frederick Ayer, brother to Dr. J. C. Ayer of patent medicine fame, is in the news today. He too was in the patent medicine business, also the coal business but even more so in the textile business in the Merrimack Valley in both Lowell and Lawrence. His fashionable home on Pawtucket…
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Lowell SUN editor Chris Scott is reporting on-line that John Kelly of Dracut has dropped out the race for the Democratic nomination for State Senate in the Second Essex/Midddlesex District. Union leader Kelly was in the race early – planning to run head-to-head against the incumbent Senator Sue Tucker but…
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Nearly 200 people last night gathered for the opening dinner of the Innovative Cities Conference at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. In a video message, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas emphasized that older, mid-sized industrial (or post-industrial) cities have a particular set of challenges and assets that must be addressed…
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Two hundred thirty-five years ago today, 2400 regular troops of the British Army seeking to drive 1200 American rebels off of a hill just north of Boston engaged in a deadly battle that left half the British and one-third of the Americans killed or wounded. It was just two months…
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The Battle of Bunker Hill (that took place on nearby Breed’s Hill) Notwithstanding the recent decision of the Great and General Court, Bunker Hill Day commemorates a day of great historical significance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the country, to the conduct of the American Revolutionary War. Notes from…
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Lowell and Middlesex Community College had a big night tonight at the Auditorium, where “documentarian” Ken Burns wowed the crowd with his visual and verbal eloquence. I particularly enjoyed the question-and-answer portion of the program in which Burns demonstrated how quick he is on his “intellectual feet,” fielding questions on…
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What is Bloomsday? Fom Today in Dublin: Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The name…
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