News
Bizarro Briefs: So I Divorced an Axe-Thrower
We’ve all seen the extravagant divorce celebrations: divorce cakes with decorations rivaling wedding centerpieces, “newly single” clubbing events that make bachelor and bachelorette parties look tame, and more. Now, you can throw axes as part of that celebration — so...
In Uncertain Political Climate, Democratic Challengers Hope to Unseat Popular Gov. Baker
By most accounts, Gov. Charlie Baker is popular with the people of Massachusetts despite being a Republican in a state that’s known to be one of the bluest in the country. Baker’s popularity has survived his mediocre environmental record and his bill mandating state...
Jewish Day School in Northampton to Hold First ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ Saturday
The Lander-Grinspoon Academy, a K-6 Jewish day school in Northampton, is celebrating the Jewish ceremony of Havdallah with music and a Drag Queen Story Hour featuring local drag queen Jenayah De Rosario this Saturday on Jan. 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. “I hope that the...
Northampton Resident Challenges Mayor to Race Over Plastic Bag Ban
Northampton’s two-year-old plastic bag ban has an outspoken opponent in McDonald House resident John Gibney, who gets around using a cane. Gibney, who wrote the Advocate an email this week with the subject “paper bags suck,” challenged Mayor David Narkewicz and...
Connecting with Red State America: Reflections from a Meeting Between Western Mass and Eastern Kentucky
It Begins in October 2017 All 18 of us in Leverett are excited and maybe a little nervous. We live in a small town — Leverett: population, less than 2000 — in western Massachusetts. The Kentuckians are coming to us — 15 of them, men and women, young and not-so-young,...
Henry Rollins on Travel, Photography, and Running for President
Henry Rollins embodies the punk ethos in more ways than one — he’s well known for his role as vocalist for 1980s hardcore punk band, Black Flag, and he’s also an actor, orator, photographer, writer, television and radio host, as well as a comedian. Rollins is stopping...
Editorial: 2018 Should Be The Year Massachusetts Moves Toward Single Payer
I recently got my first pay stub of the year. I was curious to see how the Republican tax plan would affect me, if at all, but it turns out that none of us will see the results until February. So stay tuned. One thing I did notice, however, is that (surprise!) my...
So … Is Pot Legal or Not in Massachusetts?
Despite the support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent out a federal memo this month that makes the future of cannabis in Massachusetts even more unsure. According to a Gallup poll from 2017, 64 percent...
Bizarro Briefs: The Great Vodka Heist
On the early morning of Jan. 2 a thief entered Cafe 33 in Copenhagen, Denmark, which houses one of the largest collections of vodka in the world — more than 1,200 bottles. Captured in black and white security camera footage, the thief was only after one bottle — a...
Back Talk: Let’s Overturn Citizens United
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Trump Rhetoric Simmers During MLK Event
Hundreds of the people gathered in the auditorium of the MassMutual to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his ideals to fight against racial injustice on Jan. 15 in downtown Springfield. Young musicians from the Community Music School of Springfield...
Panhandlers Find Loophole in Holyoke Law
Matt LeBlanc stood near the Interstate 391 exit near High Street in Holyoke, holding a sign that read, “Homeless vet — hungry and cold” while heavy snowfall rained down in the frigid afternoon of Jan. 4. LeBlanc started panhandling at around 10:30 a.m. and by 1 p.m....
Bizarro Briefs: Do My Clams Look Small?
There was a seafood emergency at Crabby’s Seafood Shack in Stuart, Florida, in the southeastern region of the state. A 51-year-old Stuart resident, did what anybody would do when they have a gripe with their undersized and minute meal of clams — he called 911. The man...
Editorial: Lawsuit may help recovery of those affected by opioid addiction
Treating America’s opioid addiction crisis is, tragically, creating a growth industry that provides long-term intervention and treatment for millions of our fellow citizens. But who is going to pay the tab? Families? Insurance companies? State, local and federal...
Back Talk: Raising Awareness about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Puerto Rico Professionals in Limbo: Massachusetts Laws Create Roadblocks to Employment
When Hurricane Maria devastated her area of Isabela, Puerto Rico, 52-year-old Brenda Trujillo traveled to Holyoke in search of a more stable life and employment. Trujillo has been a nurse for nearly 30 years, but since arriving on November 3 she has not been able to...
Iron Horse Entertainment Group Marketing Director Jim Neill Leaves For DSP Shows
For more than a decade, Jim Neill has worked as the marketing director of the Iron Horse Entertainment Group (IHEG), promoting shows featuring local and national acts, acting as a spokesperson for the venue group, a media liaison, and one of the most prominent faces...
Getting on the Ballot: What we’ll be Voting on in 2018
From September to the end of November, Mickey Prout, 22, a student at Westfield State University, and other volunteers would set up tables in the dining commons to talk to other students about two statewide ballot initiatives: raising the minimum wage and...
Editorial: Taking Up Running to Slow Down
I’m in my mid-30s, and “getting fit” is something I think about more now. It took me a long time to come around on the idea of exercise for exercise sake — but it has become something that I actually enjoy (even if I don’t do it as often as I should). In middle...
Bizarro Briefs: Frisky Interspecies Bird Sex
Get the Lead Out The Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis has likely done permanent damage to thousands of children, but for at least one child, it served as an inspiration. Twelve-year-old Gitanjila Rao of Colorado used her scientific knowledge to invent a fast,...
The Top 9 Ways to Get Fit in Western Mass this Winter
The warmer fall was nice and December was capped off by a white Christmas. But now that we’re in the heart of winter, it might be a bit harder to get outside for your usual walks or bike rides. And meanwhile, one of your New Year’s resolutions was to get...
Back Talk: Rejoice – Nukes are Now Illegal
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Cannabis Consultant Ezra Parzybok Talks Marijuana as Medicine in New Book
As its medical uses evolve and marijuana becomes legally available for recreation in Massachusetts, an area cannabis consultant is working to fill an information hole he thinks is undermining its use. “In our culture, marijuana is known for all the bad reasons because...
Halos & Horns: A look back at the good, the bad, and the dead of 2017
It’s Halos and Horns with a side of hashtags this year. While President Donald Trump was busy tweeting from the White House throughout 2017 (we gave him his own whole article), the rest of the world had their own Twitter responses, many of which inspired the...
Editorial: We’re Talking Horns upon Horns, Horns within Horns …
As we continue the Valley Advocate tradition of awarding halos to the good and horns to the bad in 2017, I reflect on the year’s ups and downs. It didn’t take long to realize that a lot of the “downs” had something in common – they originated with President (for now)...
Letters to the Editor: Scared of Inexperienced Bully Trump with Nukes
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
A Bizarro Year
It’s been about six months now since longtime “News of the Weird” writer Chuck Shepherd decided to call it quits, which means it’s been about six months since we’ve taken up the reigns and delivered you our “Bizarro Briefs” right from the Advocate newsroom. Here are...
The Valley Advocate’s Apocalypse Survival Guide
Let’s face it: We live in uncertain times. Seas are rising. The climate is changing. Nuclear-armed countries are escalating their rhetoric, with our own president making threats of nuclear strikes. Increased dependence on automation is making us ever more vulnerable...
Back Talk: Men, Stop Harassing Women
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Editorial: The Nuclear Option is Not an Option
North Korea’s steps toward accelerating its nuclear program and testing its missiles has been truly horrifying. So has President Donald Trump’s response, with threats to release “fire and fury” upon North Korea. Nuclear devastation is one of the gravest threats we...
Bizarro Briefs: The Itsy, Bitsy Spider Went Up the President’s Back
Mark Burns is a South Carolina pastor who is such a big Trump fan that he would risk his life to save the president from sure peril. Sort of. Burns was standing behind Trump in the Oval Office on Monday for an award presentation when he saw a white spider the size of...
V-Spot: How Do I Tell Dates I’m Heartless?
Dear Yana, I have a cold, dead heart. Well, not really but pretty much, yeah. I was married to my ex-wife for nearly a decade and the end of our relationship was really complicated. I feel almost certain that I don’t have the capacity to be in love or be in a...
Bearing the Burden of Controlling Birth
Emily Cooper, 23, is a graduate student at UMass Amherst who has taken oral contraceptives since she was 15 years old. In 2013, when a condom failed during a snowstorm, University Health Services (UHS) and the university bus system were both closed due to the weather....
Editorial: There Goes the Internet
Let me start by saying that I would avoid the internet if I could. It is creepy to think about huge corporations tracking each page I visit, and, potentially through my smartphone, actually physically tracking me wherever I go. Social media interactions are a far cry...
Column: Eversource Screws Mass Consumers
With a little help from its friends, the “regulators” at the Department of Public Utilities It is perhaps understandable that one of the most important Massachusetts news stories of the year was buried in the avalanche of reports coming out of Washington last week....
Back Talk: Communicating with climate skeptics comes down to pancakes
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Bizarro Briefs: Foxy Lady of Fortune
For more than 40 years, Mumtaz Begum has been reading the fortunes of visitors from within the cage of a Pakistani zoo. With a body of a fox and a head of a woman, Begum is one of the oddest attractions at the zoo. However, the fortune teller is actually played by...
The Advocate Guide to Winter in Western Mass
We know our winters in Western Massachusetts. As the last of the color fades from the leaves, the realization sets in that it’s going to be a while before the warm and colorful days of spring. But winter doesn’t have to be all about darkness and cold. Winter is a time...
Editorial: Take Northampton’s Pledge for Human Dignity
During now-President Donald Trump’s hateful and divisive campaign, Northampton’s Human Rights Commission noted anecdotally how even in this Western Massachusetts community, there seemed to be an increase in racism, sexism, and anti-semitism, spurred on by Trump’s...
Back Talk: Where do we go with this?
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Bizarro Briefs: Quench Your Thirst With Celery
Celery isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about a flavor of soft drink, but surprisingly it was one of the first. In 1869, Dr. Brown (Is that you, Doc?!) founded the Cel-Ray soda company. The good doctor made tonics intended to alleviate bowel and...
Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen in Chicopee gets Giving Tuesday boost from huge charity
When Andrea Marian, executive director of Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry in Chicopee, first read an email offering to match the funds the pantry raises over Facebook this Giving Tuesday on Nov. 28, she thought it was a spam message. “We got an email from Facebook...
Full Shelves, Empty Calories: Springfield Neighborhoods Still Waiting For Healthy Food Options
It’s been more than two years, since former Valley Advocate staff writer Amanda Drane wrote an article about residents in the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield who rallied together, collecting 1,300 grocery receipts totaling more than $50,000, to entice...
Editorial: Gateway Regional has some explaining to do in exclusion of LGBT grad
Each year, Gateway Regional High School in Huntington holds an event welcoming back alumni to share their experiences about college and post-graduate life. This year, however, the event was closed to one graduate: Marcelle LaBrecque, who spent 12 years in the Gateway...
Back Talk: Where are police when downtown violence breaks out
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...Bizzaro Briefs: Holy Bong Water
Two churches in San Jose, California, have a whole new take on the Bible’s burning bush. In Coachella Valley Church, cannabis is treated as a sacrament. For a $10 donation you get an identification card and become a lifetime member, with access to a store in the back...
Former Inmates Launch Greenfield Compost Cooperative
Many residents of Greenfield will have an additional bucket on their curb next year. The Compost Cooperative is a newly formed worker-owned business that is going to start picking up commercial and residential compost in in Greenfield in 2018. The idea for the Compost...
Holiday Events Across the Valley to Beat the Winter Blues
Even though the holiday lights were strung up before the kids even trick-or-treated for their Halloween candy this year, the official start to the holiday season is this weekend by most people’s assessment. The Pioneer Valley will be abuzz with activity over the...
The Advocate Guide to Open Mics in the Pioneer Valley!
The Pioneer Valley is home not only to a bountiful music scene, but to dozens of open mics where artistic communities blossom. Open mics are places where the generational lines between artists blur while they’re jamming out to a bluesy ballad or talking about their...
Editorial: Oh, you’re a spouse abuser? No guns for you.
Gun control. It’s a topic that rarely gets any traction at the federal level, even after the most devastating and horrific mass shootings. After the Sandy Hook shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children: nothing. After Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, the...
Smashed Northampton Window brings Biblical Threat
Two painted planks of wood covered one of the main display windows in front of Shop Therapy in Northampton on Monday morning. The smashed pane, which looked like someone’s elbow or head was pushed through it from the outside, was covered with a message in red...
Back Talk: Misquotes, misuse of media, and misallocation of tax cuts
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...Bizarro Briefs: Venomous Snails, Baby Language, and Cats in Space
Many people know that the opioid crisis has been linked to over-the-counter pain medication being over prescribed by doctors. The problem is that there is not a practical solution for people with chronic pain. Brain scientists have been studying this question and are...
Courtesy, Melted Ice Cream, and Conspiracy Theories: Out on the Street in a Power Outage
In front of Northampton Market, employee Rilshad Azez shoos away potential customers as they pull into the lot. “No power,” he says. The mailman he welcomes, but he asks a question: “You didn’t bring the power?” “Sorry, not...
Voters Deliver Left Hook: What it means in Holyoke, Greenfield
Progressives had reasons to celebrate the morning of Nov. 8 more than at any point in the past year. Not only did the Democrats capture the big prizes of Election Day on Nov. 7 — the governors races in New Jersey and Virginia — but Democratic and progressive...
The Best Opportunity Yet to Resist Trump
Last week featured two news stories that rocked the political landscape in this country. The first was that Democrats and progressive candidates all but swept the Nov. 7 elections from coast to coast, and the second was that Republican Alabama U.S. Senate candidate...
Bizarro Briefs: It’s Good to Laugh Again
The woman arrested for laughing at the hilarious statement that Jeff Sessions has a “clear and well-documented” record of “treating all Americans equally under the law” at Sessions confirmation hearing (Sessions in fact was rejected as a federal judge in the 1980s...
Back Talk: Respect for Immigrants and Recommended Reading on Porn
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
Immigrant Father takes Sanctuary in Amherst Church
When her four children go to sleep at night, Dora Gonzalez says her youngest, 8-year-old Lucy, often wakes up around 1 a.m. and says, “I miss my dad.” Her oldest son is graduating high school this spring, and Gonzalez worries his father, Lucio Perez, won’t be able to...E-Edition
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