News
Reading for a cause: Valley Eye Radio volunteers read news for those who can’t read it themselves
A little over a decade ago, David Manning, 81, retired from Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton, where he worked for 45 years as a teacher and administrator. In retirement, with additional time on his hands, Manning dove headlong into the many...
Former Club Castaway manager says she quit following dispute over queer performers
Bella Vendetta, who worked for Whately’s Club Castaway and planned to move forward with a line-up of queer and trans performers, said she left after three weeks following a dispute with ownership over those plans. “My original thoughts were sadness that it didn’t work...
Amherst Cinema series on new directions in movies gets prestigious grant
Amherst Cinema’s original film series, Bellwether: New Directions in Cinema recently received a $15,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Amherst Cinema’s General Manager, George Myers, Pioneer Valley-based filmmaker Luke Meyer, and...
Editorial: Needless election tech — and the Iowa Caucus — need to go
In years past, there may have been times for me when the beginning of February was a time to look forward to the Super Bowl, or even the State of the Union with other presidents. This year, it was all about the Iowa caucus. After more than a year of anticipation, we...
Sign-Holding Stalwarts: A talk with some regulars at Northampton’s weekly anti-war protest
For past 20-plus years I would head to downtown Northampton to run errands on Saturday mornings and smile at the small group holding anti-war signs in front of the courthouse on Main Street. A few weeks ago, I decided to join them. I have joined many a protest in the...
Letters to the Editor: Gambling research already underway
Gambling research already underway In response to “Between the Lines: Problem gambling data collection is coming too late,” published Jan. 16-22, 2020. On January 15, 2020, the Valley Advocate published an editorial about the importance of problem gambling-related...
The other side of Plymouth Rock: River Stories series, highlighting the Valley’s Native population, is a counterpoint to Plymouth 400
Plymouth, Massachusetts, is gearing up for a big anniversary this year: It was in December 1620 that a group of English Puritans, who came to be known as the Pilgrims, landed on the shore of eastern Massachusetts and began to build a settlement that would eventually...
Editorial: The slow progress of East-West rail
With recent success in the expansion of North-South rail, in some ways it feels like there is momentum finally building for an East-West line. However, Gov. Charlie Baker seemed to throw some cold water on that last week during the opening of a handicapped-accessible...
Bizarro Briefs: Lost your thumb? Use your big toe
Lost your thumb? Use your big toe A British cobbler was distraught after a freak accident last year — his thumb was caught in some machinery and severed completely. The man thought his work as a cobbler, which he is passionate about, was over. Instead, he agreed to an...
Letters to the editor: A note on gun terminology
A note on gun terminology In response to “A Loaded Topic: Pioneer Valley firearms community is active, but often hidden,” published January 16 – 22, 2020. I just read this article. It is an interesting way to introduce the topic to your readership which, I...
Bizarro Briefs: Robber in the Dark
Robber in the dark A man attempted to rob the Bank of Scotland last September armed with a meat cleaver and disguised by a pillowcase over his head — but he forgot to cut eye holes. The 47-year-old stormed into the bank and wielded the meat cleaver while wearing the...
‘Get it, sell it, put everything together’: Local independent record labels in the Valley
The Valley is known for its rich array of musicians and bands, but as owners of the handful of local, independent record labels can tell you, there’s more to the local music scene. Labels in this area include Feeding Tube Records in Florence, Disques de Lapin in...
Editorial: We Can’t Afford To Let Them Divide Us
It was probably inevitable that — with so much at stake — the tone of the Democratic primary would ratchet up. Supporters of various candidates who believe in the vision of those candidates can look at the world, at the conditions that brought us President Donald...
Podcast: Pete Redington on guns in the Valley
Writer Pete Redington talks about his recent article about gun owners in the Valley and about how people on opposite sides of the gun issue rarely speak to one another. Listen here: You can hear more of the Valley Advocate’s podcasts...
Shannon Liss-Riordan drops out of Mass. Senate primary, leaving only Markey and Kennedy
In a statement Friday, Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer who made her reputation representing workers against large corporations like Uber and FedEx (and even her alma mater, Harvard), announced she would be dropping her candidacy for U.S. Senate. That leaves incumbent...
Letters to the Editor: Responses to ROE
Responses to ROE In response to “With majorities in both Houses, ROE Act could expand abortion rights in Mass,” published January 9 – 15. Mr. Fieldman’s article “With majorities in both Houses, ROE Act could expand abortion rights in Mass” is an excellent and...
A Loaded Topic: Pioneer Valley firearms community is active, but often hidden
The Conway Sportsman’s Club lies at the dead end of a quarter mile dirt driveway, a small cabin of a building flanked by a panoramic wooded hillside containing several shooting ranges, whose ridgeline separates the South and Bear River watersheds. At a shaded table...
Editorial: Problem gambling data collection is coming too late
In a spectacular example of closing the door after the horse has already run off, the city of Springfield now has a new program to collect data on problem gambling, also known as compulsive gambling — nearly a year and a half after the MGM Springfield Casino has...
Bizarro Briefs: Immigration Policies Make Vultures Puke
Immigration policies make vultures puke It’s not clear if they’re making a statement about the Trump administration’s immigration policies. But whatever the reason, a large group of vultures has been getting the drop, so to speak, on a U.S. Customs and Border...
Letters to the Editor: Clarifications about ranked-choice voting
Clarifications about ranked-choice voting In response to “Ranked-Choice Voting gaining speed in Mass,” published December 19-25, 2019. Thanks for your recent article about ranked choice voting (RCV). It’ll be a very important topic in Massachusetts in 2020, so it’s...
With majorities in both Houses, ROE Act could expand abortion rights in Mass
As the constitutional right to an abortion is threatened in various states and in the country as a whole, the Massachusetts Legislature may soon consider an expansion of abortion rights in the state. Massachusetts lacks a program to financially support individuals who...
Bizarro Briefs: Man bites dog … while naked and high on meth
Man bites dog … while naked and high on meth A man in Florida is facing several charges after he allegedly punched a deputy and then bit the ear of a K-9. He did it while he was buck naked, too, and apparently high on meth. According to police in Columbia County,...
Editorial: ‘The Moment We All Feared’
“The moment we all feared is likely upon us. An unstable President in way over his head, panicking, with all his experienced advisers having quit, and only the sycophantic amateurs remaining. Assassinating foreign leaders, announcing plans to bomb civilians. A...
Local activists participate in coal blockade aimed at shutting down NH facility
In the early hours of Friday, January 3, a group of protesters — some from the Pioneer Valley — blocked a train carrying 10,000 tons of coal by erecting a three-tiered scaffold on tracks in the town of Harvard. They blocked the train for over nine hours after...
Bizarro Briefs Podcast: Be your own farm
Valley Advocate editor Dave Eisenstadter and Hits 94.3 host Trumpy talk about the week’s weird news in a podcast version of the Valley Advocate’s Bizarro Briefs section. Hear about being your own farm in a dystopian future, generous burglars, and the danger of...
Editorial: Another Year, Another Women’s March
If there’s one good thing the Trump presidency has brought us, it’s the annual Women’s March. Begun as a response to Trump defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman to earn a major party nomination in the United States, the march attracted nearly half a million...
Turning music into philanthropy: Percussionist Tony Vacca talks about his work in West Africa
When he looks back on more than two decades of forging connections with musicians in Senegal, playing with them both there and in the United States, longtime Valley percussionist Tony Vacca laughs, shakes his head in wonder, and summarizes the situation like this:...
Bizarro Briefs: Become your own chia pet … TO SURVIVE
Become your own chia pet … TO SURVIVE Climate change is a scary concept and is driving people to extreme lifestyles, but it was left to a Californian landscape architect to offer us the self-sustaining vest — essentially a wearable farm that can be watered using...
The Halos and Horns of 2019: Advocate staff says who’s been naughty and nice this year
It’s time again for the annual Advocate tradition of giving halos to the good and horns to the bad. The year 2019 closed out the decade with some highs, with local activists going down to the border and speaking out on climate issues, residents in Longmeadow saying no...
In Memoriam: Those who died in 2019
Frances Crowe At 100 years old before she passed away this year, Frances Crowe was already a legend in activism not just in the Pioneer Valley, but the world. She’d been arrested numerous times over the decades, putting her body on the line for causes such as working...
Bizarro Briefs: In the Socks of Fox
In the Socks of Fox If you ever watch the Fox network and think — are these guys on something? — turns out some of them likely are. A reporter for Fox Business was busted last week at a Manhattan courthouse with a crack pipe in his sock. The man was ticketed and...
Letters to the Editor: Put the Ha back in Hanukah
Put the Ha back in Hanukah As the holiday season rolls around we have to brace ourselves for the seasonal secular humanist assault on one of our nation’s most sacred holidays. However you spell it, I’m talking about the “war” on Hanukah. Chanukah has turned into yet...
Ranked-choice voting gaining speed in Massachusetts
Starting in 2022, Massachusetts voters might be able to vote for their second favorite, third, fourth, and last-pick choice for political office, if voters across the state approve a proposed ballot question next year to adopt ranked-choice voting. In Amherst, which...
Editorial: Advocates for human rights deserve to be heard
This week a disgusting lawsuit — that tried to censor a Palestinian human rights panel that in part dealt with how Palestinian voices are censored — was dropped. Three anonymous students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tried to stop the May event, titled...
Bizarro Briefs: Someone on the Naughty List
Someone on the Naughty List It’s unfortunately a scene that is not completely uncommon. On a train heading from Manhattan to Long Island this past Saturday, two men began arguing until it culminated into a physical altercation. One man, allegedly drunk, shouted...
Letters to the Editor: Come together over hunger
Come together over hunger As a Kansan, I’m proud that Rep. Roger Marshall (R-Great Bend, Kansas) introduced H. Res. 189 alongside Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) to work towards bettering global nutrition with U.S. aid. It’s been introduced to recognize...
Jazz for the holidays: FlavaEvolution to play their take on some holiday classics at Gateway City Arts
David Picchi, who conducts arrangements for jazz quartet FlavaEvolution, labels the group’s sound as “fresh new jazz music for your mind and soul.” “We’re trying to bring something that you haven’t heard or things that you have heard and put them into new contexts to...
From scales to skin: Former Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles artist Eric Talbot talks about his move to tattoos
Eric Talbot got his first tattoo at around 19 years old living in Portland, Maine, during the early 1980s. When the veteran tattoo artist who inked Talbot’s first tattoo — a skull and crossbones on his left forearm — saw Talbot’s artwork, he was impressed and told...
Editorial: Don’t Let Big Money Win the Argument Over Medicare for All
Every year around this time, I take a look at my pay stubs and look at the accrued total I’ve paid in health insurance premiums. This year, it will be almost exactly $5,000, which doesn’t include the additional copayments as well as the hundreds spent on dental...
Bizarro Briefs: Eating a $120,000 Banana
A man walked into the Art Basel gallery in Miami Beach, Florida, and ate a work of art that had recently sold to an art collector for $120,000. The piece of art consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall and was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and titled...
Letters to the Editor: ‘We all know how that goes’
‘We all know how that goes’ In response to “Between the Lines: Automation without oversight has deadly consequences,” published Nov. 28 – Dec. 4, 2019. Self-driving cars is a stupid technology. It assumes computers will always function well. We all know how that...
An imaginative trip through history: Valley historical novelists talk about their craft
Time travel has been a perennial theme for fiction writers for over 200 years, as well as a theme from ancient myths, dating back far longer, from countries all over the world. It’s also an idea — or at least the notion of moving into the future is — that’s been...
Editorial: Support for those seeking sanctuary
It was as recently as October when I used this space to observe the two-year anniversary of Lucio Perez taking sanctuary in the First Congregational Church in Amherst. A resident of the Valley for nearly 20 years, Perez is married and has three children who are U.S....
Bizarro Briefs: Cows hooked into the Matrix
Next stop, The Matrix Farmers in Moscow are now experimenting with virtual reality headsets to help improve milk production among cows. The thought is by rigging a VR headset on cows that simulate tranquil experiences, it will create a calmer atmosphere for the cattle...
Letters to the Editor: Psychedelics on their way
On its way In response to “The Return Trip: Psychedelics may come back from the abyss of illegality,” published November 21-27, 2019. Serene, I bet we beat your state to this. — Billy Tower, Facebook comment Billy Tower, lol you’re probably right! But glad to know...
Editorial: Automation without oversight has deadly consequences
In March 2018, a 49-year-old woman named Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed by an Uber-owned self-driving car in Tempe, Arizona. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a summary of its report on the accident, and the results are quite...
Bizarro Briefs: Would-be burglar beaten up by 82-year-old woman
Housebroken A would-be burglar encountered something he didn’t expect when he broke down the door of a Rochester, New York, home — the brute strength of the 82-year-old woman who lived there. The woman, who told a local television station she works out almost every...
Letters to the Editor: Is an interrupted crime still a crime?
Responses to Greenfield’s Safe City Ordinance In response to “Greenfield is now a Safe City: What’s next for the sanctuary movement?” published November 14-20. Thank you for your good coverage of this issue, and your ongoing good coverage of Greenfield. I think the...
Bizarro Briefs: Crappy Booze
In Mossel Bay, South Africa, a gin maker is infusing their alcoholic drinks with something that’s pretty crappy — elephant dung. The creators of Indlovu Gin thought of the idea after learning that elephants eat a well balanced meal of fruits and flowers, of which they...
The Return Trip: Psychedelics may come back from the abyss of illegality
When over the past several years states began to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes and then some of them for recreational use, many people from the Baby Boomer generation witnessed something they doubted they would ever see in their lifetimes. People who had...
Editorial: Use your billions on something other than running for president
There has rightly been much interest in the Democratic primary, both from voters and from potential candidates. By spring of this year, it became clear we had a record number of people running to be the one to take the dishonest, racist Trump out of the office of...
Letters to the Editor: What you can do about the climate crisis
What you can do about the climate crisis I just called Congress about the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. energyinnovationact.org. I think it is the best hope for getting us to stop putting carbon in the air! You might also night check out Citizens Climate...
Greenfield is now a ‘safe city’: What’s next for the sanctuary movement?
After last week’s election, Greenfield joins Amherst, Easthampton, Holyoke, Northampton, and Springfield as communities in Western Mass that have rules that limit cooperation of city employees with federal immigration enforcement. A ballot question in favor of...
Editorial: Battling ALS, David Kaynor continues to inspire
One of the first ways I got connected to Western Mass was through the vibrant contra dance community that continues to exist here. When I first stumbled on contra dance in 2002 in southwestern New Hampshire where I grew up, most agreed that some of the best dancing to...
Bizarro Briefs: Thanksgiving revolt
Thanksgiving revolt Just as Americans get ready to tuck into their annual Thanksgiving meal, wild turkeys in a New Jersey town are counterattacking. Residents in the aptly named Toms River (a male turkey is called a tom) are reportedly being terrorized by the large...
Letters to the Editor: How do we get to Medicare for All?
How do we get to Medicare for All? Medicare for all is certainly the best plan which is why other developed nations have it. There are four sizable expenses that private insurance has to pay that Medicare does not. 1.) Lobbying Congress and making contributions to...
400 Years of slavery and inequality, set to music: Bassist Avery Sharpe’s African American Musical Portrait
Bassist Avery Sharpe has been playing and composing music for years, touring and recording with jazz greats like McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, and Billy Taylor. As a composer, he’s written music not just for his own ensemble but for a...
Editorial: Addressing a fading news industry
Usually, we the journalists don’t like being the story. It’s much more comfortable reporting the news of events with which we’re not directly involved, but there are times it has been unavoidable. Over the past couple of years, the Advocate has been the subject of...
Bizarro Briefs: Fake Cop of the Week
Fake Cop of the Week An eager North Carolina man was arrested for impersonating a cop during a police chase. In October, police pulled over a car in Wilson, N.C., searching for a possible murder suspect, but as police approached the vehicle it took off. A chase ensued...E-Edition
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