NEWBURY – Sounds of an oboe playing a Handel concerto wafted across racks of boxed pasta, can goods and cereals Friday afternoon as Boston Orchestra principal oboist Andrew Price entertained a dozen volunteers at the First Parish Newbury Food Pantry. For the last...
Stewart Lytle

Stewart Lytle is the lead reporter for The Town Common newspaper. Before joining The Town Common, he was a national correspondent for Scripps-Howard Newspapers in Washington, D.C., covering the Pentagon and Congress. He has also written for newspapers in Dallas, TX, and Birmingham, AL.
As a national reporter for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, Stewart wrote the inside story on military life of soldiers and sailors and their families. He landed on aircraft carriers, experienced oxygen deprivation for high-altitude flight training and crawled through the mud with Marine snipers.
One of his proudest achievements outside of journalism was assisting USAA Chairman Robert McDermott in securing federal legislation that mandated air bags in vehicles.
Stewart is also a novelist and has written non-fiction books. He is currently working on a non-fiction book and screenplay about an incident that occurred in Boston.
His first novel, Iron City Conspiracy, explores power in a city. It features a black newspaper editor solving the bombing of a historic black church in a tough Alabama town.
Following in the footsteps of his idol, Ernest Hemingway, Stewart has completed a new novel about a love affair in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. The book, Montserrat, is based on a true story and has been made into a screenplay that will become an international feature film.
A graduate of Phillips Academy and Princeton University, Stewart lives with his wife, Mary, in Newburyport.
Help for Cleaning the Merrimack River
Merrimack River Watershed Council releases a new video on sewage overflows in Merrimack River. Credit to Merrimack River Watershed CouncilMERRIMACK RIVER VALLEY – Since the daily rains this month have canceled usual summer river and beach fun, you may not have noticed...
Mike Wilson Crosses the Mississippi River
The Illinois-Iowa Border – Mike Wilson dodged several tornadoes last week in Iowa as he excitedly crossed the Mississippi River at Clinton, IA, into Illinois, roughly halfway across the country on his Run Across America. Mike is running across America from Oregon to...
Willows Senior Housing May Impact Water Supply
BOXFORD – GEORGETOWN LINE – With one bitter fight going on over a proposed 500-ton trash transfer station on one side of town, Georgetown residents now face a possible threat to its drinking water supply across the Boxford line. Toll Brothers, a Fortune 500 national...
Is That Tesla Flashing Red Lights?
REGIONAL – If there is any lingering question that electric cars are the future, ask your police chief. He may be driving an all-wheel drive Tesla or will be soon. The Newburyport City Council has approved Marshall Mark Murray’s proposal that the city buy a Tesla as a...
Mike Wilson’s New Shoes Arrive
AMES, IA – Mike Wilson got a new pair of Hoka running shoes in the mail, but must wait to get his new running stroller down the road. “I’m so happy to have new shoes,” he said. The old ones felt like “I was running barefoot on the pavement.” It had a hole that...
Lynn’s Vintage Flair is Closing
ROWLEY – For 20 years, shoppers for antique furniture, jewelry, home décor and almost anything you can think of have been visiting Lynn Norloff’s Vintage Flair store in quest of the treasures she has found and now offers for sale. But in September, the shop that has...
Mike Wilson Needs New Shoes
WESTERN IOWA – Mike Wilson needs a new pair of running shoes and a new running stroller. Replacements for both items, essential to his Run Across America, were mailed to him at a post office in Columbus, NE. But when he arrived in the eastern Nebraska city, the post...
The Battle Of Long Hill Cemetery Continues
SALISBURY — Only a few minutes remained last week in the otherwise peaceful monthly meeting of the Cemetery Commission when war broke out again over the maintenance of the town’s Long Hill Cemetery. Chairman Gordon Frost was called “dictatorial” by Vice Chairman Ken...
Help Design the Newburyport Waterfront
NEWBURYPORT – When the new waterfront park is completed on the Merrimack River in 2024, is it better to have the two smaller parking lots on opposite ends of the park or consolidate all parking into one larger lot on the east side of Market Landing Park? Would you...
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