With the twenty inches of snow – shown in these pictures shared by regular reader Paul S – that fell on Lowell just ending at around dusk, the school department wisely canceled school for tomorrow. I had to take the car out twice today – once late in the afternoon and again this evening – and while the streets are plowed pretty well, they’re not very wide and sidewalks and especially curbside snowbanks would make walking to school or waiting for a bus and risky endeavor.
John Edward, a resident of Chelmsford who earned his master’s degree at UMass Lowell and is an adjunct professor of economics at Bentley University, contributes the following column
The state of Massachusetts bucked the national trend in the 2010 elections. While most states were trending “red,” Massachusetts preserved its’ “blue” identity. The mistake in reading these results is to assume that confirms Massachusetts is a liberal state. Public policy defines liberalism, not political party affiliation.
In addition to electing democrats to all the statewide offices, and electing an entirely democratic delegation to the United States House of Representatives, we still have democrats in firm control of both state houses. However, in many cases the policies adopted by our blue legislature, and blue Governor, are far from liberal
Tax policy says a lot about how liberal a government is. In The Conscience of a Conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater said: “government has a right to claim an equal percentage of each man’s wealth, and no more” (author’s emphasis). In Massachusetts, we fall far short of this conservative goal.
Massachusetts is one of only seven states that have a personal income tax without progressive rates. The state taxes your income at 5.3 percent whether you make $40,000 or $400,000 or $4 million. A progressive income tax is necessary to offset other taxes that are regressive – where low-income earners people pay more of their income than the wealthy.
In Massachusetts, the personal income tax represents only about one-third of state and local tax revenue. We rely heavily on regressive sales and property taxes. Overall, the tax structure of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is very regressive. Low-income earners pay taxes at a rate twice as high as the wealthy. Massachusetts may be blue, but a regressive tax structure is not liberal. read more »
Tony Sampas observes that being deemed “non-essential” has some benefits: you can stay home and take great photographs of the snow through the window of your home.
See Choosing a Soundtrack/Kad Barma for snow tracking info. He linked from Rob Mills.
Current Events, Election 2010, History, Lowell | 
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Does Sarah Palin REALLY not know the difference between true “debate” and using language with images of weapons and violence to refer to people that disagree with her? Seriously, does she really NOT see the difference?
Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.
Lowell High Air Force ROTC color guard
This past Monday night I traveled to the TD Garden to see the Boston Celtics play the Houston Rockets. The last time I had seen the Celtics in person, the starting lineup consisted of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish, Danny Ainge and DJ Johnson, so my pattern of going to a Celtics game once each era continues. Prior visits allowed me to see Dave Cowens, John Havlicek and even Bill Russell, the latter from a seat in the balcony that had decreased visibility in the second half due to the large amount of cigarette smoke that accumulated in the building as the game progressed.
All aspects of my 2011 trip were excellent except for the price of the ticket which was hugely expensive even though it was purchased directly from the Celtics and not from a reseller. And the ticket price for a game versus the lowly Rockets was only half the price of a ticket to see the Heat or the Lakers. The evening began at Lowell’s Gallagher Terminal where Andrew and I caught the 5:45 pm train to Boston. The train works great for events at the Garden. You pay $5 to park in Lowell, $13.50 for round trip train fare, and 55 minutes later, you step off the train and onto an escalator and then you’re inside the Garden ready for the game. (The 7:30 pm Celtics game finished at about 10 pm in plenty of time to catch the 10:40 pm train back to Lowell).
A bonus of Monday’s game was that we got to see the Lowell High School Jr Air Force ROTC color guard present the flag at center court for the playing of the National Anthem (pictured above with my grainy cell phone camera). Once the game began, it was great to see Shaq and Rondo and Pierce and Allen and all the others – except Kevin Garnett who was still injured – in Celtics uniforms. But the Rockets were fast and aggressive and the Celtics seemed old and slow. Every time the Celtics created some momentum, the Rockets raced down court and would sink a jump shot. It seemed the Rockets couldn’t miss, although afterwards I read comments by Celtics coach Doc Rivers that this game was the worst defensive effort by the Celtics in three years, which might account for the Rockets high shooting percentage. In the end, the Rockets prevailed, 108-102. It was a fun night. Perhaps I won’t wait 20 years to go to my next game.
Opening tip-off, Celtics v Rockets - Jan 10, 2011
MassMoments reminds us that on this day – January 12, 1912 -the so-called Bread and Roses Strike of workers in our sister city of Lawrence Massachusetts began.
On January 12, 1912, workers in the American Woolen Company Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, opened their pay envelopes to find that their wages had been cut. They took to the streets in protest, beginning a history-making confrontation between labor and capital…
Massachusetts militiamen with fixed bayonets surround a group of textile strikers in Lawrence.
Newspapers reported this ugly scene, and people all around the country were outraged. A congressional investigation began. As witnesses described working conditions in the mills and the events of the strike, President William Howard Taft ordered an investigation into industrial conditions in Lawrence and throughout the nation.
By March, the hearings had caused so much negative publicity that the American Woolen Company decided to settle. On March 12, 1912, management agreed to the strikers’ demands for a 15% pay raise, double pay for overtime, and amnesty for strikers. The striking workers had demonstrated a powerful lesson: even traditionally powerless groups such as women and recent immigrants could prevail if they worked together.
Read the full MassMoments article here at http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=16
At 5 am, the Massachusetts Trial Court announced that all courts in the Commonwealth will be closed today due to the major snowstorm that struck the region overnight. Since the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds is located within the Superior Courthouse in Lowell, it too is closed for the day. The announcement that Lowell Public Schools were closed was made last night at 7 pm. All other schools in the area are also closed.
Also at 5 am, there was already about 5 inches of snow on the ground with heavy snow continuing to fall. The weather forecasters on TV are telling us that the storm and the snow will continue throughout the day. I’ll update this post periodically through the day with more observations. Please share your experiences with today’s storm in the comments section.
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