Left In Lowell

Jackie has a well-written op-ed in the Lowell Sun criticizing a previous Sun piece promoting the “grades” given out for our school system that she believes are flawed.

I can’t pretend to know enough to make my own determination, but I’m not too enamored of the Pioneer Institute, so anything produced by them deserves serious scrutiny.

HT to Jackie herself on her blog.

The Boston Globe has an article on the communities with preliminaries they (successfully or otherwise) requested to eliminate. Our mayor and challenger Patrick Murphy are quoted.

I find this interesting…in Gloucester, there’s a third person in the race for mayor, and this triggers a preliminary. The third candidate is a perennial curmudgeon largely considered a “sideshow.” In Lowell, we have 21 pretty serious candidates of various stripes. Yet Gloucester (and Methuen) Home Rule bills were not approved, because they were about mayoral races. Lowell (and Revere) were.

I sometimes wonder how these legislators sleep at night. Seriously. WTF?? Apparently, Plan E forms of government or city council races are less important than mayoral races. Yeesh.

Information I got via email about a fundraiser for Ben Opara:

Date: Sunday, September 20, 2009.
Time: 6 p.m.-11 p.m.
Venue: The Elks Lodge (40 Old Ferry Road, Lowell)
RSVP: (978) 996 9135 or (978) 726 3236
Send Donations To:
Jeffrey Lambert (Treasurer)
Opara09 Campaign Committee
20 Arch Street
Lowell, MA 01851
info@opara09.org