REGIONAL – It was raining on the Friday morning before Easter when dozens of volunteers for the First Parish Food Pantry gathered, as usual, to fill bags with groceries and a special candy treat for the needy. The rain forced the volunteers inside the...
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.
Nuke Agency Studies Seabrook’s Emergency Plan Changes
REGIONAL — NextEra Energy, owner of the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant, offered last week to conduct a demonstration of its proposed new emergency response program to prove to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that its plans for reducing its emergency...
State: Volunteers May Serve on Multiple Town Boards
REGIONAL – A challenge most small towns and cities face is finding enough volunteers to fill out the memberships of various municipal committees that regulate everything from land use to community health. At least two municipalities – Amesbury and Georgetown – are...
Watershed Council Fighting for the Merrimack
REGIONAL -- To raise money to continue the battle to clean up the Merrimack River, Curt Rogers, dressed as “King Sturgeon,” and 11 more hardy souls plunged into the cold Atlantic Ocean off Plum Island last month. Seventy fans watched from the shore. Rogers dressed as...
Voters Will Decide Georgetown $3 Million Tax Increase
GEORGETOWN – Whether taxpayers here will see a large, permanent tax increase next year will be decided by the voters on May 13, not by the Town Meeting on May 6, as previously thought. Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco told the SelectBoard last week that he had...
Georgetown Faces $3 million Override
GEORGETOWN – Property owners here are facing the possibility of a hefty tax increase to overcome a shortfall in revenues that has been years in the making. The Finance Advisory Committee voted unanimously last week to move forward with a proposal to the Board of...
State Tennis Champs Ask for New Courts
NEWBURYPORT – For the last two years the Newburyport High School girls’ tennis team has won the state championship, but always with other teams hosting the championships. Newburyport trains outstanding players, whose record entitled them to be the host for the...
Tax Relief Coming
REGIONAL – Massachusetts, jokingly nicknamed Taxachusetts for its long history of high taxes, took steps this year to lower the provide $1 billion in tax relief for businesses, families, rents and two programs to help seniors, 60 and 65 years old and older. During the...
Evans Steps Down at River Valley Charter School
REGIONAL – The River Valley Charter School is looking for a new director following Jonnie Lyn Evans’ announcement Friday that she will leave the school in June after helping found it 25 years ago and serving in its administration for the last 11 years. “While there is...
MeVa Rerouting Buses
NEWBURYPORT – The Merrimack Valley Transit Authority (MEVA) and city leaders will hold a forum Thursday on proposed changes to the city’s bus routes designed to appease unhappy residents on two streets near Ana Jaques Hospital. The proposed change will eliminate...