Archive for May 10th, 2011

May 10th, 2011

Johnson Looks at Billerica As Predictive of Brown Race

by Marie

The Globe’s Political Editor – Glen Johnson – writes today on Political Intelligence about the candidates stepping into the U. S. Senate race against incumbent Scott Brown – reminding us that some Dems are feeling positive because it’s a presidential election year. He has an interesting take “by the numbers’ which you can read for yourself in his column. I was interested in his use of the nearby Greater Lowell Town of Billerica and its recent voting history as possibly predictive of the results in the 2012 race:

“In Billerica, a Merrimack Valley town, Obama won the 2008 election by a margin of 50 percent to 48 percent. He got 9,688 votes to McCain’s 9,274.

Yet in the 2010 Senate special election, Brown stomped Coakley in Billerica, 65 percent to 34 percent. He got 9,583 votes to her 4,972.

Last fall, there was a three-way race, but the general pattern held: Republican Charles Baker won Billerica with 54 percent of the vote, while Patrick garnered 33 percent and independent candidate Timothy Cahill received 11 percent.

Add Cahill’s 1,642 votes to Baker’s 8,121 votes, and you get about 200 more votes than Brown received against Coakley. Patrick received 4,967 votes — five fewer than Coakley.

Is there a group of Democrats waiting to come out and vote for Obama again, or are those two recent numbers more predictive of Billerica’s 2012 vote than the 2008 results?

As Johnson himself warns – it is the math of a “journalist” – still it makes for interesting reading. Check out the full article here at boston.com: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/05/breaking_down_t.html

May 10th, 2011

Maine Claims Whitney and Needham

by Marie

As we commemorate the Sesquicentennnial of the American Civil War, we have given much attention to the role that Lowell and the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment played in the pre-war and the early days of the Civil War. Programs, panels, exhibits, tours, a film festival and more have been part of the remembrances. We’ve had a special focus on the first to die in the war and especially remember Luther Ladd, Addison Whitney and Charles Taylor of the 6th Massachusetts with a mangificent memorial in Monument Square located in front of Lowell City Hall. In fact, both Ladd and Whitney were laid to rest at the site. I read with great interest a story in the Bangor Daily News headlined: “Maine lost its first Civil War soldiers in a Baltimore riot.” They story tells of the Maine roots of both Addison Whitney and Lawrence soldier Sumner Needham.

Read the full article and learn about those connections here: http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/05/09/living/maine-lost-its-first-civil-war-soldiers-during-a-baltimore-riot/

May 10th, 2011

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by MarieS

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May 10th, 2011

Lowell Historical Society Civil War Panel Discussion

by Marie

Join the Lowell Historical Society for its annual meeting this coming Sunday, May 15, 2011 at Middlesex Community College’s Federal Building on East Merrimack Street. The meeting will feature a panel discussion on the Civil War

May 10th, 2011

Joseph R Ouellette Memorial Bridge

by DickH

Lowell Details: The Joseph R. Ouellette Memorial Bridge AKA The Aiken Street Bridge. From Tony Sampas. (Joseph R. Ouellette was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Korea).

May 10th, 2011

This Is Encouraging: Renewable Energy Forecast

by PaulM

Renewable technologies could supply 80% of the world’s energy needs by mid-century, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Read what BBC reporter Richard Black says about the prospect of renewable energy by mid-century.

May 10th, 2011

Setti Warren Joins Race Against Brown

by Tony

Setti Warren is the latest Democrat to enter the race against Republican Senate Scott Brown. Presently Warren is the mayor of Newton. “Warren joined the Clinton White House in 1996 and later served as the New England director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He enlisted in the Navy Reserve after September 11, 2001 and completed a tour of duty in Iraq as an intelligence specialist in 2008″ (WGNtv,com). Warren joins Alan Khazei, Bob Massie and Marisa DeFranco with his bid to oust Brown.

May 10th, 2011

Save the Date: May 22 for New Books with Lowell Links

by PaulM

Loom Press on May 22 will release three new books by authors with connections to Lowell.

“The Big Move: Immigrant Voices from a Mill City” is a collection of interviews of people living and working in Lowell who have compelling stories about their roots far away and their experiences getting to America and becoming part of society here. The authors are Bob Forrant, familiar to our regular readers, and Christoph Strobel, both of the UMass Lowell History Department. This book puts humanity into the demographics of Lowell. Who are our neighbors and co-workers? What are the shared experiences of people from long-standing and newcomer groups? Lowell is a world community, a global city, and Forrant & Strobel update the case. Three of the people featured in the book will read from their stories.

Paul Hudon is better known in the Merrimack Valley as a teacher, historian, and regionalist, but he will add “poet” to his credentials when “All in Good Time” lands in readers’ hands. Dr Hudon, an occasional contributor to this blog, wrote a poem a day, short or long or medium-sized, for 12 months between 2005 and 2006. His book is a collection of poems, a journal, a series of literary sneezes, a symphony of observation, a stand-up/sit-down routine of commentary, a tour of his brain, a meditation in the spirit of Thoreau on his Walden stump—all of these and more. From a perch above Pawtucket Falls he gives us news of the universe.

Kate Hanson Foster comes from a long line of Greater Merrimack Valley poets, the first being Anne Bradstreet of North Andover, close to where Kate grew up in Andover, and the most recent being the slammers who show up to say their poems some nights at Brew’d Awakening coffee shop on Market Street. She made her own literary niche somewhere among Mistress Bradstreet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jack Kerouac, and the young Ann Sexton who attended Rogers Hall. Kate’s voice is all her own, and in her book “Mid Drift” you hear the “varied carols” of a gritty and graceful American choir that Walt Whitman first urged us to pay attention to. Kate is a graduate of UMass Lowell and Bennington College and will be familiar to some readers as co-editor of the important but short-lived “Renovation Journal” of Lowell.

Meet the authors, get the books, enjoy the launch on Sunday, May 22, 2 to 4 pm, at O’Leary Library auditorium, Room 222, UMass Lowell South Campus, 61 Wilder Street.

May 10th, 2011

Columns as I See ‘Em

by PaulM

There’s a trio of good reads in the NYTimes op-ed section today, and a column to mention from Sunday.

First, Tim Egan looks at why President Obama’s past as a community organizer may have something to do with the patience and persistence that were required to nail Bin Laden. Read his opinions here.

Second, David “Uncle Dave” Brooks offers an unusual take on the dangers of long-term unemployment of young adult men in the US. He has his social science hat on again and is looking through his cultural telescope. Read Brooks here.

Third, columnist Roger Cohen is eloquent and intensely personal in his summary about the Bin Laden matter. Read Cohen here, and get the NYTimes if you want more of this kind of writing.

Two days ago, Sunday, Maureen Dowd of the NYT was righteously indignant about the after-action criticism coming from some quarters regarding the way the Navy Seals found and killed Bin Laden. Read Maureen’s strong words here.