Primary Rant

New York, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oregon, Indiana, Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona, and many other states have not yet held primaries or caucuses for the presidential race, and yet the media experts are in a rush to declare victors on both sides. This is what’s wrong with the approach used every four…

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Parker Lecture: Empire of Cotton

Last evening, I joined an overflow crowd at Lowell National Park Visitor Center to hear Harvard history professor Sven Beckert talk about his bestselling book, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2015; also a finalist for…

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Neighborhood Subcommittee goes on the road

The City Council’s Neighborhood Subcommittee took its meeting on the road last night to Temple Emmanuel on West Forrest Street. The gathering was co-hosted by the Highlands Neighborhood Association which meets regularly at the Temple. The Subcommittee, chaired by Dan Rourke with John Leahy and Bill Samaras as members, plans…

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