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On March 16, 2011, the much awaited revision of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 188 (The Homestead Law) takes effect. Perhaps the most noteworthy element of this new law is that it creates an automatic homestead exemption of $125,000 for every homeowner without the need to file any document. The law…
Read More »Earlier tonight I presented a report to the city council housing subcommittee on foreclosures in Lowell from 2007 to 2010. The full report is available on the registry of deeds website HERE. The report scrutinized foreclosures conducted in 2008 and 2009 and calculated the time that passed between the various…
Read More »Tony Sampas provides some close-ups of the Ouellette Bridge, named for Joseph Ouellette who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor during the Korean War. The bridge runs from Lelacheur Park on the south side of the river to Top Donut on the north. It’s also known as the Aiken…
Read More »Here’s the late Ken Harkins emceeing the 1989 Lowell City Manager’s St Patrick’s Day Breakfast [youtube]W2XTf4IIG8Q[/youtube] [youtube]9Y1tCu4lgWA[/youtube]
Read More »In this week when we celebrate St. Patrick and all things Irish, it’s natural to think back on the history of the Irish in Massachusetts – the firsts, the lasting contributions and then the prejudice. In his Boston Globe column today, Kevin Cullen tells the story of Barney McGinniskin – “the first Irish cop,…
Read More »The Huffington Post today has an interesting feature about authors who have had success with books they have published themselves. There’s a long tradition of this type of entrepreneurship. Blogging, websites, e-books, and other innovations have taken self-publishing to a whole new and higher orbit. The means of production are now…
Read More »Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just 4 percent among the human walkers. . . human walkers often complained about the heat and talked each other out of exercise, but that people who were paired with dogs didn’t make those excuses. Several studies reported…
Read More »Read the NYTimes report on last night’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame annual induction ceremony. The class of 2011 is an eclectic bunch and the presenters and performers on the program made it even more so. When you read about these events or watch them on TV, you plug…
Read More »MassMoments advises us today that on this day – March 15, 1820 – Massachusetts lost the over 30,000 square of the “province” of Maine. The relationship between Massachusetts and Maine was always rocky from the 1650s to the separation – with Maine feeling discontented by the political control, the great distance…
Read More »The following account of an 1833 Yankee v Irish riot in Lowell was recently forwarded to me by one of Lowell’s foremost historians. Because it includes details of Hugh Cummiskey being shot by the rioters and because this is Irish cultural week, I’ve reproduced the story below: Riotous. On Friday…
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