News
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
The UMass Labor Center has a new lease on life after facing an uncertain future due to planned cuts to its operating budget and courses available.Last week, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and members of the Labor Center Committee sent...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Malls reached peak radicalness in the ’80s, but we still love them. Yes, the crowds, prices, and parking can get on your nerves, but where else can you buy a puppy, an apple pie, new underwear, and get your eyebrows threaded? That’s right, the mall! Here are five...
by Matt Burkhartt and Miranda Davis | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
When Mike McCusker and Polly Anderson finished sawing down their Christmas tree, McCusker held the saw up to his nose. The heavy scent of fresh pine from the just-cut tree was just part of the appeal for the two from Shelburne Falls, who had been coming to the...
by Peter Vancini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Like many college students in the Valley, Ellen Brancart and Lupe Valle rely on Uber — a smartphone app that allows users to catch rides from local drivers — to get around the Five College area after the buses have stopped running at night. On average, the Smith...
by Chuck Shepherd | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
American gangsters traditionally use euphemisms and nicknames (“Chin,” “The Nose”) to disguise criminal activities, but among details revealed at a November murder trial in Sydney, Australia, was that members of the “Brothers 4 Life” gang might have used “pig latin.”...
by Alicia Fuhrman | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter
Make me something good. I used to get this request (and versions of it) often, and almost always from strangers. It was a high-turnover tourist town I worked in — most faces you’d only see for one night. But isn’t that so much of the bar experience: not knowing? The...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Good news, everyone! The U.S. just found $125 billion in surplus funds. Can you believe it? This money can help with education, scientific research, health insurance, elder care, space exploration, repairs on the nation’s crumbling bridges, improvements to our...
by Letters from our readers | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
US flag represents truths both inspiring and terrible We write to offer a veterans’ viewpoint different from those dominating the events at Hampshire College in Amherst. We are members of chapter 95, Veterans for Peace, an international veterans’ organization whose...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 6, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, News
Pantera Tribute and more \m/ • Saturday Trendkill “the ultimate Pantera tribute” is gonna blow up The Tank with a tribute night to Dimebag Darrell. Also on the bill to make the night even more metal and heavy are locals As Misery Fades, NIM, An Unction In Braille,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Since the election of Donald Trump, anything seems possible. Pigs can fly, hell can freeze over, your parents will apologize for that thing they did a long time ago (you know the one), ravens are writing desks, and anyone can get any job no matter how utterly...
by Sarah Crosby | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
A rocky path led veteran Mary Wilson to the doorstep of the Soldier On Women’s Program. “The gift of desperation,” she calls it. A former U.S. Marine Corps private, Wilson in July moved into the transitional housing program located on the grounds of the VA medical...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, News, Newsletter
There is nothing more cynical than fake news. The entire concept is to play readers for suckers, manipulating the foundation of reality in exchange for cash or furthering of what is likely a heinous agenda.And the people hosting and spreading fake news online — the...
by Chuck Shepherd | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Almost all law enforcement agencies in America use the Scott Reagent field test when they discover powder that looks like cocaine, but the several agencies that have actually conducted tests for false positives say they happen up to half the time. In October, the...
by From Our Readers | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Forced to Fly a Flag? Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to Hampshire College’s recent decision to stop flying the American flag on campus. Shortly after receiving this letter, threats made against students, faculty, and staff were part of a decision at the...
by Naila Moreira | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
I sometimes startle people by saying I don’t have much hope for the environment. “But you’re an environmentalist!” they stutter. “Surely, you must think we can prevent nature from being destroyed? That taking action is worth it?”The other day, for instance, I chatted...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 1, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Continuing our weekly chats, the Advocate staff tackled the topic of fake news, that scourge to lovers of truth everywhere! The chat has been lightly edited. kristinpalpini (Kristin Palpini, editor): Let’s do this! So, Dave, wanna give a description of the...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Protesters clumped together like Gore-Tex penguins on the North Dakota, bridge.On Nov. 18, hundreds of people congregated at Backwater Bridge, in the path of Dakota Access Pipeline construction, to pray — and if their prayers happened to get in the way of an oil...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
Reports of hate crimes have spiked across the nation in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, and dozens of people marched through Holyoke on the evening of Friday, Nov. 18, to protest the president elect’s campaign promises and policies that many...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter, Wellness
Chocolate is a treat, but when you add kava, chocolate is medicine. At least that’s what Rachael Gibney, a reiki healer from Shutesbury says. She is mixing a bowl of raw cacao with ground kava at a workshop at the Bower Studio in Pelham, showing people how to make...
by From Our Readers | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Time to Unite? Was Peter Vancini’s Nov. 24-30, 2016 column “Between the Lines: One Nation Under Trump?” the kick in the pants you needed to get over your Clinton funk or the musings of a dreamer? Great thoughts on joining together at Thanksgiving instead of...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Australian aviator David Mayman has promised investors that his personal jet packs will hit the market by mid-2017, though early adopters will pay about $250,000 for one, to fly a person at up to 60 mph for 10 minutes. The JB-10, developed by Mayman and designer...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music, News, Newsletter
That slight scratching sound the needle makes when you gently place it on the record. The brief static that comes through the speakers before the music hits. Then: bam! Just like magic, music emerges from my vintage suitcase record player, sounding like nothing else....
by Hunter Styles | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Every morning at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II’s first order of business is to meet with her hairdresser. She drinks from bone china, eats breakfast served by footmen in tailcoats, wanders the grounds, and reads fan mail. Throughout the day, people bow. People...
by Kyle Olsen | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter
High school sucked for me. Before college, I had no friends. My days consisted of going to school, talking to almost nobody, and coming home to do almost nothing before bed.In the midst of all this nothing, I had time to think up a glamorized chain of events that I...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Leisure, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
If you get up real close to the New England Treatment Access medical marijuana dispensary in Northampton, you can smell the earthy aroma of cannabis through the brick walls. Established in 2015, NETA’s Conz Street dispensary is, so far, the only medical Mary Jane shop...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
While “democracy” in most of America means electing representatives to run government, on Nov. 8 in San Francisco it also expected voters to decide 43 often vague, densely worded “issues” that, according to critics, could better be handled by the professionals who...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News
Decades later and General Electric still hasn’t remedied its contamination of the Housatonic. Woods Pond in Lenox is the picture of quaint backwoods New England: the kind of place leaf-peepers flock annually to the Berkshires to behold. The golden yellows and...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, News
The Housatonic River in Massachusetts and Connecticut has been polluted by suspected human carcinogen – and known cancer-causing agent in animals – since the 1930s when GE used the lubricant during transformer manufacturing at its Pittsfield plant. And the...
by From Our Readers | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Enough Disappointment to Go AroundI was sorely dismayed by the publication of your editorial as if Hillary Clinton had won (“Between the Lines: What Might Have Been,” Nov. 9-16, 2016). I am a supporter of Mrs. Clinton, but your decision to print the column you’d hoped...
by Kyle Olsen | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Nerding Out, News, Newsletter
Dianna Smith walked to her third floor office at her home in Leeds to sort a collection of dried fungi. The specimens were picked during a workshop on identifying native fungi she teaches through her club, the Pioneer Valley Mycological Association. (Mycology, as you...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter
The Valley Advocate is starting up a new feature: chats! Our inaugural chat will be about mixing family and politics during Thanksgiving. If you want to hear about some of our coping strategies, read on! The conversation has been lightly edited. dave.eisen (Dave...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Hillary Clinton voters: It’s time to get on with it. Donald Trump is our next president, whether we like it or not, and the great American experiment in democracy is going to continue. Please, stop protesting the free and fair election of Donald Trump and petitioning...
by Tom Relihan | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
The deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl has largely outstripped heroin as the leading cause of opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts, according to state data. Experts say the powerful drug, considered to be up to 50 times as potent as regular heroin, has been has been...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
New York City officially began licensing professional fire eaters earlier this year, and classes have sprung up to teach the art so that the city’s Fire Department Explosives Unit can test for competence and issue the E29 certificates. In the “bad old [license-less]...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, Leisure, News, Newsletter
It isn’t hard to pick Dean Rohan out of a crowd. He’s the tall guy with glasses in the muck boots and ratty work pants. And he’s wearing a red T-shirt with his own face on it that reads “I’m with Dean.” Today, he’s overseeing the arrival of a tanker truck filled with...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
Room to Breathe What pairs well with local beer and wine this week? My opinion: some peace and quiet. It’s not always appreciated, or sought out. But after a nightmare of an election season — full of vitriol, lies and low blows — I was feeling a serious need to go...
by Lisa Rathke, Associated Press | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter
Grape harvests are underway at vineyards in the Northeast where unusually dry warm weather this summer was ideal for growing grapes. But in parts of New York and southern New England, where drought struck, some growers are seeing decreasing yields. New York, the...
by From Our Readers | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Facebook Salutes TrumpEditor Kristin Palpini’s lament over Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in “Between the Lines: What Might Have Been” drew a bunch of comments:William G. Petrone: Trump won not because people liked Trump but because people did not...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Editor’s Note: As an American woman who believes that words matter, I feel like I matter a little less today. Below is the editorial I was planning to run to applaud the first female president of the U.S., Hillary Clinton. It seems poignant to publish it, still. To...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 7, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Kids as young as 6 who live on a cliff top in China’s Atule’er village in Sichuan province will no longer have to use flexible vine-based ladders to climb down and up the 2,600-foot descent from their homes to school. Beijing News disclosed in October, in a...
by Naila Moreira | Nov 7, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
Just across from one of my favorite writing spots — the window counter at Northampton Coffee — I can see a dark mark on the former lumber building: “Flood Level — 1936.” When I walk past, the mark is almost a foot over my head. After writing, I often hop on my bicycle...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 14, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter
Talk to Pour Man Warren Johnston if you want excellent suggestions for which wine to serve at your next dinner party. Hit up Beerhunter Hunter Styles to find the best brews to drink with your buds. But if you want to know the best way to pair wine and beer with the...
by From Our Readers | Nov 7, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Totally RiggedThank you, Editor Palpini, for the recent article about the “rigging” of the election (“Between the Lines: Are the Elections Rigged?”, Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2016). It is indecorous in the extreme for Republicans to stoke the public’s fear of this possibility...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter
Prozacs/Pajama Slave Dancers • Saturday Shenanigans Pub in Westfield is the place to be Saturday night if your heart is made of punk rock. For the first time in 30 years, Pajama Slave Dancers come back to their roots and perform in their original birthplace. If that...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2016 | Articles, News
Deep breath: Donald Trump will be the president of the United States come January. The man who’s got a date with the Oval Office may be a silver-spoon clutching, bankruptcy-filing, Mexican, Muslim, Chinese-hating, tax-dodging, student-swindling, reality TV star, but...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 7, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
Before you step outside puffing on a celebratory fattie, know that, despite the vote on Tuesday, recreational marijuana isn’t legal in Massachusetts, yet.That’ll happen on Dec. 15, when the ballot measure goes into effect. And even when Dec. 15 comes, the state is...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
It was an intense meeting in the winter of 2015: On one side of the room sat the owners and operators of the Mt. Tom Generating Plant, a coal-fired power station on Route 5 in Holyoke. On the other were 60 community members and environmental activists. Carlos...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 9, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
For the 2016 presidential election, Valley Advocate arts and production director Jennifer Levesque designed two posters: one for each candidate. The winner of the election got their poster on the cover (and back) of this week’s Advocate. Download Trump, but...
by Peter Vancini | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
It’s official: Easthampton’s Platinum Pony has taken its last ride. The business’ former owner Kristen Davis announced that the bar, which closed its 30 Cottage St. location last fall following a suspected electrical fire, would not reopen as planned. The Platinum...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 9, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
In the wake of complaints about officer discipline, the latest development in a long-running dispute over organization of the Springfield Police Department is going down: City Council President Michael Fenton said that he has the votes necessary to shut down the...
by Chuck Shepherd | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
A network of freelance Buddhist priests in Japan last year began offering in-home, a la carte services for those adherents who shun temples through Amazon in Japan, quoting fixed fees and bypassing the usual awkward deliberation over “donations.” And in September,...
by From Our Readers | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
The low standards of charter schools I couldn’t believe it when I heard from the MTA that charter schools are not required to hire certified teachers, unless English as a Second Language/English Language Learners (ESL/ELL). They don’t even have to hire teachers with...
by Kyle Olsen | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Wellness
The upcoming winter months prompt the return of the flu shot — and disagreements between alternative and traditional medical professionals, and even the general population, about its importance. Reminders of the flu vaccination for Pioneer Valley residents become more...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
At some point over the past few weeks, each of the four Nov. 8 state ballot measures stirred up mixed feelings in me (yes, even the weed one). But no issue had me more conflicted than Question 2, which proposes to authorize the state Board of Elementary and Secondary...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
If Frodo had been living in Easthampton’s new Mill 180 Park when Gandalf stopped by, he probably would have turned down the wizard’s all-powerful ring. Hidden inside an old mill building — with food, lawn games, coffee, beer, and wifi at your fingertips — it’s already...
by Chuck Shepherd | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
As nine states next month ask voters to approve some form of legalization of marijuana, a “new customer base” for the product — pets — was highlighted in an October New York Times report. Dogs and cats are struck with maladies similar to those that humans...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
A stoner buddy of mine recently shocked me when she said she has no intention of voting on Nov. 8. Weed is already practically legal, she argued, and both the presidential candidates are duds. I reminded her that Question 3 on the ballot may set more humane standards...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has spent the last several months asserting that the Nov. 8 election will be rigged against him.He doesn’t have any evidence to support this claim — except for all the polls that say the real estate developer and reality...
by Phoebe Weissblum | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter
Remember applying to college? I’m sure you recall the glossy promotional packets you received in the mail from schools trying to win your application. There was always a picture on the front that looked like this: a group of college age kids sitting in a circle on a...
by From Our Readers | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Charter schools hurt larger society Certain institutions should always be public. Social Security, prisons and education are three of them. We dodged a bullet when Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. People realized that the financial industry would be taking 31...
