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Matt Hanson, who is familiar to many of us as the chair of the Chelmsford Board of Selectmen, also serves as the chair of the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG), the regional planning agency for Lowell and many surrounding communities. The Council met last night and this video Matt…
Read More »Our far-flung Western net-desk night editor Tom Sexton, once the Poet Laureate of Alaska and always a distinguished alumnus of Lowell High School, sent this new poem inspired by a work of art he bought from Bill Giavis, a legend at the Brush Gallery in Market Mills downtown.—PM .…
Read More »This week’s rain and thaw are not good for ice on local ponds, brooks, and lakes, but January is hockey season, so I thought I’d dig this composition out of the vault this morning. The poem was first published in my second full-length collection of poems, Middle Distance (1989). Sweeney’s…
Read More »The Lowell City Council meeting of January 14, 2014. The following is not a verbatim transcript but my notes taken as the councilors speak. For brevity’s sake, I just use the last names of councilors. Elliott: Reads letter from Auditor Sheryl Wright informing council of her planned retirement on February…
Read More »The Lowell City Council meets at 5:30 pm in special session to discuss the process for selecting a new city manager and a new city auditor. The following is not a verbatim transcript but my notes taken as the councilors speak. For brevity’s sake, I just use the last names…
Read More »“Wonderful radio, Marvelous radio, Wonderful radio, Radio, radio . . .” —Elvis Costello When I was a kid I had a black transistor radio about the size of my hand that I would take to bed and listen to until I fell asleep. My stations across the dial played rock…
Read More »Last Wednesday night I was the guest of a UMass Lowell Community Psychology class. The students had all attended the prior evening’s Lowell City Council meeting. That was the meeting at which there was a lengthy discussion about the location of the city’s Nativity Scene and at which City Manager…
Read More »John Edward teaches economics at Bentley and UMass Lowell. He’s a frequent contributor of columns on economic issues. Here is his latest: A couple of years ago I wrote a column called Winners Stay. The phrase “winners stay” refers to advantages that the affluent enjoy under trickle-down economics. In the…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s on blog. If Chris Christie runs for president, do we agree that “I’ll get the country moving again” won’t be his campaign slogan? But such a campaign, if it ever happens, is a political lifetime away. A more immediate concern…
Read More »A stellar review in yesterday’s Boston Globe North section prompted me to traverse the Richard P. Howe Bridge to get lunch at Eggroll Cafe at 110 University Ave in Lowell. Located just beyond the north campus of UMass Lowell, the Cafe, the trip there from the Highlands and finding parking…
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