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With today being the annual running of the Boston Marathon, my thoughts drifted back to that event in 2013 when terrorism injected itself into the iconic sporting event. Most are familiar with what happened, but this post, which I wrote on April 22, 2013, provides many details and a feel…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was a business-like gathering with no overt controversies. However, a couple of innocuous items on the agenda shed some light on the workings of local government and some important public policy considerations so I’ll discuss them first. **** A routine public hearing on a request…

Donuts Back in the Day By Leo Racicot There was a time in the 1960s and 1970s when Lowell could have earned the nickname, The Donut Capital of Massachusetts. The city was home to many. Let’s see now: there was Donut Shack. Its made-on-the-premises, old-fashioned donuts have been a crowd pleaser…

Living Madly: Lost Worlds By Emilie-Noelle Provost On my website, I often write essays about places, and sometimes people, that were once an integral part of my life but today no longer exist. Some of them are part of what I call the Lost World Series, but there are others…

“Let them eat …” Croissants! By Louise Peloquin In a world where the wild whirlwind of war blows needless destruction, it seems frivolous and callous to think about the pleasures of sampling food. This post, written by a “Nam generation” baby who participated in a Boston sit-in for peace in…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting covered a variety of topics with a discussion of how the Lowell Police Department interacts (or doesn’t interact) with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents being most important, although I’ll save that until last. **** There was a public hearing and then a vote to…

Buttercups and Birthdays By Leo Racicot I started to say there are no more bakeries here in Lowell but there are a couple downtown I’ve yet to investigate. Growing up, I guess I was spoiled for choice; there was Price’s on Chelmsford Street where the family and most Lowellians went…

A Franco Poet Graces National Poetry Month By Louise Peloquin In 1996, the Academy of American Poets declared April as National Poetry Month. For the 30th anniversary, we remember a great Franco-American poet of the 20th century – Normand C. Dubé. Maine native Normand Camille Dubé (1932-1988) was a proud…

On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, the Lowell City Council authorized the city manager to execute a land disposition agreement that would transfer a large parcel in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District (HCID) to Wexford Development to construct a 75,000 square foot research and development facility that will be used by…