On Springfield
The Mayor Takes to the Court
It is a sure sign that you’ve reached middle age when you no longer can identify pop-culture celebrities, and you’ve stopped trying. Who cares if you have no idea who the host of Saturday Night Live is (forget about the musical guest)? It’s not like...Diocese Offers Immigration Aid to Haitians
With the Obama administration recently granting Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to Haitians living illegally in the U.S., the Springfield Diocese is hosting a workshop for people interested in applying on Feb. 9. The workshop, organized by the diocese’s...Hot Night at the City Council
Mayor Domenic Sarno may have created a new police review board last week, but that doesn’t mean the City Council is done with the matter.Tonight, the Council will consider a proposal by Councilor Jimmy Ferrera to create a Civilian Police Oversight Commission,...Putnam Protest
The Sarno administration’s decision not to apply recently adopted pro-worker ordinances to the new Putnam High construction project is not sitting well with local labor groups and their supporters, who are planning a protest at City Hall on Friday.Last August,...Labor Ups and Downs
The Sarno administration has headed off a potentially ugly confrontation with local labor groups by reversing course and deciding to abide by city ordinances that favor local workers on the new Putnam High School project. Last August, Mayor Domenic Sarno touted two...A Sort of Resolution
Springfield social justice activists will hold a “Stand Out Against Police Brutality” on Thursday, Feb. 18, from 2 to 3 p.m. outside the city bus station at 1776 Main St. Participants will call for city officials to create an effective and accountable...Follow the Money
Want to know what happens to the $19.50 of city taxes you pay for every $1,000 your property is worth? (Make that $39.25 per $1,000 if you’re a business owner.) Over the next couple of weeks, Springfield city officials will begin the process of putting together...Clock Ticking at Stop & Shop
This weekend is do-or-die time for Stop & Shop and its employees to hash out a new contract—or see its workers hit the picket line. Last weekend, the supermarket’s union employees (about 45,000 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut)...Rooke Out of DA's Race
Tom Rooke was in the race early, announcing a year ago that he planned to run for Hampden County District Attorney regardless of whether incumbent Bill Bennett planned to stay in the race. But now Rooke has changed course, announcing that he’s decided to opt out...Council Tackles Trash
The City Council tonight will take up a resolution that supports shifting the burden of dealing with hard-to-recycle trash from municipalities (and taxpayers) and to the manufacturers that make the products and packaging in the first place. The resolution calls for...Power to the Workers
Labor and social justice folks from around the Valley will gather this weekend at Holyoke Community College for the annual Western Mass. Jobs With Justice conference.The conference begins on Sat., March 6, at noon with an hour of registration and...Green Leaders
“Green” is the buzzword in Springfield these days, as city leaders call for “green” jobs, support “green” policies, and scramble for “green,” well, green, in the form of grants for environmentally sound projects. Those...Legislative Playdate
The push is on for state lawmakers to pass the Paid Sick Days bill, which would guarantee Massachusetts workers at least seven days of sick leave per year (to be used for themselves, or to care for a family member). The bill was recently reported favorably out of the...Senseless
Students from Cathedral High School will hold a candlelight vigil outside their school at 8:30 tonight in memory of their classmate Conor Reynolds, the 17-year-old senior who was stabbed to death Saturday night outside a party at a St. James Avenue restaurant. Earlier...Arrest
An arrest has been made in the stabbing death of Conor Reynolds, the 17-year-old Cathedral High student who was killed outside a Springfield bar last weekend. According to a report on MassLive by Springfield Republican reporter Patrick Johnson, the SPD has arrested a...Nightmare Image
At MassLive.com today is the kind of photo you hope to never see: a group of dark-suited teenagers carrying the coffin of their friend into his funeral mass. The friend was Conor Reynolds, the 17-year-old Springfield boy who was stabbed to death last weekend at a...Audacious Asselin
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes … here comes Chris Asselin again?No, it’s not an early April Fool’s gag—fresh off an 18-month stint in prison on federal corruption charges, the former Springfield state rep, dropped the bombshell...Walk for WIC
Tapestry Health will mark the end of National Nutrition Month tomorrow (Thursday, March 25) with its 5th annual Community Kids Walk, organized by Tapestry’s Springfield North WIC program. The event begins with a group of Springfield preschoolers walking down...“Hungry Hill” author reads in Northampton
When Carole O’Malley was 13 years old, her mother got sick, with what her father told her was mononucleosis. In fact, Betty O’Malley had cancer. But like many families of that time and place—it was the 1950s, in Springfield’s Hungry Hill...Curran on Asselin
Last week, in a post about former state Rep. Chris Asselin’s improbable efforts to reclaim the legislative seat he lost shortly before being convicted on corruption charges, I mentioned the trouble I was having getting Asselin’s successor, Sean Curran, to...Crime Report
Just a few days after state Sen. Stephen Buoniconti announced his candidacy for Hampden County District Attorney came a rather uncomfortable story in the Boston Herald: on Saturday, the Herald’s Dave Wedge reported that the former prosecutor has taken $4,800 in...Poll-axed
City leaders looking for a positive spin on the new WNEC poll on quality of life in the city will have their work cut out for them. According to the poll, 54 percent of city residents consider Springfield a “poor” or “fair” place to live....Outspoken Priest Responds to Springield Diocese
The Rev. James Scahill, pastor of East Longmeadow’s St. Michael’s parish, was chastised yesterday by Bishop Timothy McDonnell of the Springfield Diocese for the sermons he delivered at his church last weekend. In those sermons, Cahill suggested that Pope...Mason Square Library Update
Mason Square residents eager to know just when, exactly, they’re finally going to get back their neighborhood library branch should be sure to attend next Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council’s Veterans, Administration and Human Services...Score One for the Squeaky Wheel
Last week, Springfield Intruder blogger Bill Dusty wrote (in his side gig at MassLive.com) about a perennial thorn in the side of his South End neighborhood: a long-neglected house at 58-60 Adams St., where crummy tenants and a disengaged landlord created a major...Local Boy Cracks Wise
Springfield native Mark Oppenheimer reads from his new memoir, Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate, at South Hadley’s Odyssey Bookshop tonight at 7 p.m. Wisenheimer tells the story of the angst Oppenheimer experienced as a hyper-articulate kid whose...The Very Slow March Toward a Library for Mason Square
Just in case anyone somehow missed this, Urban League President Henry Thomas is not feeling any particular urgency to vacate 765 State St., the home of the once and future Mason Square branch library. “We’re not under the pressure of the clock with regard...Library Meeting This Evening
Eager to know just what is going on with the city’s taking of 765 State St. to restore full library services to the Mason Square community? That’s the sole item on the agenda of this evening’s joint meeting of the City Council’s Veterans,...Your City Budget: Up Close and Personal
Every year as it prepares to vote on the municipal budget, the Springfield City Council holds a long series of hearings to pore over the spending plan put together by the mayor and his financial staff. But this year, the Council will take a different tact—one...Riverfront Potential
Will you spend any of the coming warm spring and summer days at Springfield’s riverfront? In recent years, plenty of effort has gone into making that potentially prime, but long neglected, piece of downtown real estate into an inviting place, including efforts...Remembering Ravosa
When I first began covering Springfield in the mid 1990s, I quickly began learning the city’s landmarks, both formal (the Campanile, Forest Park, the old graveyards that my friend Tom Devine introduced me to) and informal (Mom & Rico’s, Gus &...Working on the Weekend
Looking for something exciting to do with your Saturday afternoons? For the next three weeks, at least, the Springfield City Council has got you covered: starting tomorrow (May 8), the Council will hold a series of marathon meetings to discuss the municipal budget for...Kicking Violence's Butt
It may sound counterintuitive: fighting violence through a sport that is, by its very nature, violent.But there’s a long tradition of organized boxing as a way to help kids—especially kids considered “at risk”—develop characteristics like...Movement for Mason Square's Library?
Is the Springfield Urban League finally getting ready to vacate the building at 765 State St., more than eight months after the City Council took the building by eminent domain? According to the most recent update from the City Hall Law Department, the Urban League...Springfield Standoff
For more than nine months, City Councilor Tim Rooke has waged a campaign against the decision— made last year by the Finance Control Board, and supported by the Sarno administration—to move the School Department headquarters to 1550 Main St., the site of...Rooke Stands His Ground
It appears safe to say that City Councilor Tim Rooke has not been intimidated into silence by the recent harsh words leveled at him by Mayor Domenic Sarno.Earlier this week, Sarno issued a press release chastising Rooke for his ongoing criticism of the plan to move...The Latest on Mason Square's Library
Could it really be true—is the Urban League finally preparing to move out of 765 State St., opening the way to the long-overdue restoration of full library services in Mason Square?According to a May 21 update on the status of the building—which the City...Going, Going …
One more promising, if long overdue, sign that Mason Square will, indeed, get back a full-fledged library this fall: a report in this morning’s Springfield Republican that the Urban League of Springfield, which has occupied the former library site at 765 State...Cheers to Belle Rita
Belle Rita Novak—manager of the Farmer’s Market at the X and unstoppable all-around Forest Park activist—has been recognized for her work by Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA, which has named her one of its three “Local...Thumbs on the Wheel, Buddy
Remember when life was simple, and you could safely assume the swerving driver in the car next to yours had just tied one on at the local pub?Now, thanks to the wonders of technological advancement, there’s all kinds of reasons for idiotic behavior. Perhaps that...McKnight Kids Call for Peace
Last weekend, it was the cops who hit the streets, as about 100 Springfield, state and federal law enforcement officers were deployed over a period of about 12 hours in “Operation Blue Knight,” described by officials as an effort both to deter crime and...The Intruder on Springfield's Bidding Problems
Bill Dusty has published a very intriguing story on his Springfield Intruder blog about Springfield City Hall’s apparently schizophrenic policy when it comes to public bidding for public leases. Most infamously, the city (namely, the Sarno administration and the...New Beginnings
Tomorrow’s groundbreaking ceremony at the new state data center at 53 Elliot Street will be dripping with political big wigs, among them Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal and Mayor Domenic Sarno—“and others,” according to the press...Budget Battle Rages On
It doesn’t appear that the budget battle between Mayor Domenic Sarno and the City Council is cooling down. Earlier this week, Sarno and Lee Erdmann, the city’s chief administrative and financial officer, sent a letter to councilors calling on them to make...Busted
Local labor activists and their allies are planning a two-day picket this week of training sessions held by the Springfield law firm Skoler, Abbott & Presser. Skoler, Abbott—which also has offices in Worcester and Meriden, Conn.—specializes in...CORI Independence Day
The Springfield Health Disparities Project hosts CORI Independence Day tomorrow (June 30), where the public can learn more about the criminal record system and how it affects them. The Mass. Legislature has recently made significant several changes to the state...Read All About It (While You still Can)
I’d hoped I’d read the headline wrong: “Red Brick Books—Springfield’s Last Bookstore—hangs in there.”But in truth, I already knew it was true: I’d seen Johnson’s Bookstore, on Main Street, close up shop not longer...Almost Overlooked
As one of those dinosaurs who still prefers to read my news off the inky page, rather than the computer screen, I run the risk of missing some great stuff that’s only available on that world wide web all the kids are talking about—or, at least, finding it...Working for Forest Park
Channel 22 reported last night on the latest in a series of neighborhood walks organized by Mayor Domenic Sarno. According to the mayor’s office, the walks are a chance for Sarno and others (he was joined by members of the Springfield Police Department and the...Spending the Green
The city of Springfield got official word this week of the grant it received under the state’s Green Communities program. The city—one of 35 municipalities across the state to share a total of $8.1 million from the Mass. Dept. of Energy Resources...The Cost of Prostitution
It wouldn’t be summertime without a new wave of interest in the issue of prostitution in the city.This time around, it’s City Councilor Jimmy Ferrera who’s taking up the charge. Tonight, the Council will vote on proposed home-rule legislation,...Embarrassment Averted—Sort of
On the surface, it was a pretty straightforward affair: At its meeting Monday evening, the City Council approved a request from Mayor Domenic Sarno to lease the old Our Lady of Mount Carmel school on Margaret Street from the Springfield Catholic Diocese. Mount Carmel...One Last Push for CORI Reform
With state legislators’ summer holiday fast approaching, advocates and lobbyists are working hard to get their pet bills out of the House and Senate and onto Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk by Saturday, which marks the end of the current legislative session. To...A New Start on Longhill Street
After months of construction work—and many more months of neighborhood bickering—the new Forest Park Apartment complex will be officially opened at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this Wednesday, July 28.The Forest Park Apartments are perhaps still better known...Party Off
It looks like Mayor Domenic Sarno and downtown club owners Steven Stein and Mike Barrasso are not exactly ready to kiss and make up. Earlier today, Sarno’s Law Department issued a cease-and-desist letter to the owners of the Paramount Theater, ordering them not...Good Things Come to Those Who Wait … and Wait … and Wait
Friday is the day I (sometimes) get an update on the oh-so-protracted process of returning full library services to the Mason Square neighborhood at 765 State St., the site of the former library branch. And while for too many weeks, the reports were an exercise in...Not About Neal
A recent post on Tom Devine’s “Cosmos Report” drew my attention to some interesting lawn signs being distributed by Tom Wesley, one of this fall’s Republican challengers for the 2nd Congressional seat currently held by Springfield’s own...Death Penalty Foes Plan Memorial
Eighty-three years ago this month, the Italian immigrants Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were put to death, via electric chair, for the murders of two men during an armed robbery at a Braintree shoe company. Police believed Sacco and Vanzetti, who...Meet Your Next District Attorney
Twenty years after he first took office—and almost as long since he was supposed to leave that office, had he followed the self-imposed term limits he gave himself during that initial campaign—Hampden County District Attorney is about to retire. And the...E-Edition
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