Guest Column: Voting Reform in Massachusetts

by | Feb 5, 2014 | News

New England has a long, proud history of citizen participation; the town meeting is still alive and well in western Massachusetts, as elsewhere in the Northeast. Given this history of citizen engagement, it may be surprising to realize that some New England states lag...
Beautifully Screwed

Beautifully Screwed

by | Jan 21, 2014 | News

Have you ever taken a selfie? Think about that question for a moment before you answer. Think about the word itself, which was just chosen as the International Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries. Surely you’ve taken a picture of yourself before. I...

From Our Readers

by | Feb 5, 2014 | News

Tilting at Top Cops Regarding your Jan. 23 guest column, “Springfield Needs a Police Commission”: Jesse Lederman’s quest for a Police Commission is quixotic. Come home and run for mayor, Jesse. C.V. Ryan Springfield   Self-Inflicted Injury Your...

Jobless Stats a Sham

by | Jan 21, 2014 | News

We have all read the “official” unemployment rates. I have always wondered how many people believe those rates. Several years ago the author Barbara Ehrenreich said the real unemployment rate was closer to 30 percent. It must be even worse by now. When I...
Splash Page

Splash Page

by | Mar 4, 2014 | News

Seen This Painting? Drop a Dime Agatha Christie could have written this one, except she didn’t. It’s a real-life mystery centering on the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College—a cold case file involving a stolen work of art, Interior With Figures...