Between the Lines: Mommie Darkest

Here are some reasons you might know of Ayelet Waldman: She’s the author of a number of well-received novels, including, most recently, the absorbing Red Hook Road, about the effects on two families when a young bride and groom are killed in a wedding-day limo...
Fighting for Western Mass. Libraries

Fighting for Western Mass. Libraries

The fiscal 2011 budget passed by the state Senate last week included a provision that will help protect library services in Western Mass.—although not as completely as some had hoped. Adopted as part of the $28 billion budget was an amendment, sponsored by Sen....
Fighting Foreclosure

Fighting Foreclosure

At 11 o’clock on a chilly, sunny March morning, Inez Williams’ house is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction. Williams and her husband, Bill, bought the house—a 1,428-square-foot, three-bedroom home on St. James Avenue in...

Imperium Watch: Not Defined by Capitalism

What with the shouting about socialism during the health care debate, the caricaturing of Obama as a socialist and the shrillness of rightwingers tossing the term around like paper airplanes, you’d think socialism was still a McCarthy-era scare word in this...

Fertile Soil for Local Products

There aren’t a lot of industries seeing dramatic growth in this economy—which makes the continuing expansion of the local food market even more impressive. Last week, South Deerfield’s Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA—the...