News
News of the Weird: Hardly a ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress
In March, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the House Rules Committee, introduced a resolution to recognize magic as one of America’s “national treasure(s),” backed by a 711-word paean urging all to “support and protect” the...
Indignant in Short: Bathroom Bill, East Longmeadow, and Snakes
There was a lot in the news this past week that made my blood boil and eyes bulge. While driving in my car, yelling back at NPR’s coverage of the latest violent flare up at a Trump rally incited by the old circus barker, I realized there might not be enough room in...
News of the Weird: Glaciers and Gender
University of Oregon professor Mark Carey produced a 10,300-word journal article in January proposing a new sensitivity to Earth’s melting icecaps: a “feminist glaciology framework” to “generate robust analysis of gender, power and...
In the Clouds: Vape industry billows as science and regulation struggle to keep up
Stephen Bilia’s Gorilla Vapess is like a candy shop for adults. Vapers smoke at the bar, ordering from a list of two hundred-plus flavors displayed in multi-colored chalk. Squirt bottles full of food-grade flavor concentrates wait to be ordered and mixed with...
From Our Readers: Praying for Bernie, GMO veggies or hunted deer meat?
Praying for Bernie I am praying for a Bernie Sanders presidency. If we want our compassionate world to come truly, in our heart of hearts, then we say to each other we are ready to take the steps and say the words to invite that world. Bernie is the only candidate who...
News of the Weird: Take That, Portland!
Seattle’s ambitious Office of Arts & Culture has allocated $10,000 this year to pay a poet or writer to create a work while present on the city’s Fremont Bridge drawbridge. The office’s deputy director told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in January that the city...
Between the Lines: No Room for Biomass in Clean Energy Future
Back in the early 2000s, most people thought biomass power plants seemed like an excellent renewable resource, but now we know better. Burning excess construction materials and/or wood scraps and pellets — the typical “mass” in biomass — releases an unhealthy level of...
News of the Weird: The Square Wheel of Justice
In February, New York’s highest court finally said “enough” to the seemingly endless delays on a multimillion-dollar judgment for negligence that occurred 23 years ago. Linda Nash had sued, among others, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for injuries she...
What Goes in the ‘A’ Hole? The Calvin sign in Northampton has been missing a letter for too long
– A huge faucet that releases a daily torrent of craft beer (bring your growlers) – A basketball hoop – A big fat “$” – An “O,” to give ’90s singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin her moment to shine – For that matter, add an M too, and rearrange...
Between the Lines: Get Community into the Springfield Community Police Review Board
With public pressure and frustration mounting, last week Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said he would take steps to improve communication between residents and the city’s Community Police Hearing Board. The board provides a crucial forum in which people from the...
Down to Earth: The Meadows as Alien Territory
By Naila Moreira The Meadows are one of my favorite places to walk, daydream, write, and watch nature change in its numberless daily ways. A swath of agricultural land between Northampton’s downtown and the Connecticut River, they’re within easy walking distance of my...
‘I Want To Get Out There Before My Life is Ended’
Every weekday morning, a PVTA van picks up 83-year-old great-grandmother of four Pardelma Hall at her home on Roosevelt Street in Springfield’s North End. For the past seven years, she’s been one of the first to arrive at the Mason Square Senior Center and often one...
Watchdog or Lapdog? The obscure record of Springfield’s police review board
Police brutality in places like Ferguson, Cincinnati, and New York City sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and a national debate about how police use their power to detain, arrest, and deploy potentially deadly force. Citizens — including ones in the Pioneer...
Guest Column: Two Years, Two Lockdowns – Guns and campus life
By Tess Halpern, Daily Collegian I have only once cried in school that I can remember, and it wasn’t because I was hurt, heartbroken, or had just failed a test; it was because I was scared. Sept. 24, 2014, in the beginning of my senior year in high school, my...
News: MGM Mixtape
LET’S GET IT STARTED: MGM had been waiting on approval from the Springfield City Council for proposed changes to the casino site plan, but also on something even more important: the council’s permission for the city to amend the host community agreement with the...
BTL: What People Are Saying About the Advocate
The Valley Advocate recently conducted a reader poll and the results are in. Thank you to the hundreds of readers who took the time to fill out or mail in feedback about the paper’s past, present, and future. We also learned a bit more about who Advocate readers are...
News of the Weird: Cat Culture
Longtime National Symphony cellist David Teie announced in November that his crowdfunding project was hugely successful, freeing him to produce an album of music meaningful to cats. Cats, for example, relax in response to the earliest sound of their mother’s purring,...
Between the Lines: An Unpalatable Plan to Starve the Poor
D rug testing people before providing them with food assistance has nothing to do with saving states money and everything to do with humiliating illegal substance users. Massachusetts is not among the seven or so states that require some or all low-income residents to...
From Our Readers: Slavery study would be divisive, Corrections
Slavery study would be divisive Your expectation that HR 40 has no chance is valid (Between the Lines: Congress Keeps Killing Conversation on Race” Feb. 18-24, 2016). The concern is that after the conclusion of the investigation there will be a louder call and greater...
It’s Not Enough to Recruit the ‘Black Bourgeoisie’: Cornel West has challenge for elite campuses
Before Cornel West concluded his remarks to a crowd of 2,000 people at Smith College during a lecture last week, he trained his critical eye on the very institution hosting him, and Amherst College, as places for “ruling class formation.” He challenged the schools to...
Between the Lines: Congress Keeps Killing Conversation on Race in America
Every congressional session U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) files H.R. 40, a bill to study the impact of slavery on the nation. And every congressional session it dies in committee. That’s where the tenth submission of this bill, filed in January of last year, is...
News of the Weird: Intelligent Design
Wired.com’s most recent “Absurd Creature” feature shows a toad devouring a larva of a much-smaller beetle, but the “absurdity” is that the larva is in charge and that the toad will soon be beetle food. The larva’s Darwinian advantage is that, inside the toad, it bites...
Seeing Springsteen, again and again and again
So, yeah. I’m obsessed. I began following Bruce Springsteen as a schoolboy coming of age in mid-1970s Omaha. A few seconds after graduation, I loaded up my Mercury Bobcat (creamsicle orange paint, white vinyl top) and headed east. Crossing the Jersey state line, I...
Not Your Grandpa’s Sex: What we do, who we do, and what gets us going has changed a lot over the last 50 years
Sex has been around since day one, and it’s still evolving. Just over the past 50 or 60 years, getting down has changed significantly. Influenced by popular culture and social mores, sex has become a more liberated and experimental experience since the 1950s. With a...
Between the Lines: Objectively, Albano Is a Bad Choice for Sheriff
Mike Albano is Western Mass’ perennial candidate. A member of the Governor’s Council — but more famously the mayor of Springfield, from 1995 to 2004 — Albano has amassed a following and developed a political acumen that has kept him on the short list most years for a...
News of the Weird: The Well Armed Woman
Even though concealed-carry gun permit-holders in Texas can now “open carry,” pistol-packing women concerned with fashion are not limited to traditional firearms in ordinary cowboy holsters. An online company, The Well Armed Woman, offers such carry options as stylish...
From Our Readers: What’s up with WMUA? Readers weigh in on pit bulls
WTF WMUA? UMass Amherst radio station WMUA’s draconian reduction of community programming warrants focusing the spotlight of public scrutiny on this newly minted, institutionalized contempt for the community. In one instance, the student leadership of WMUA, acting...
Scene Here: Free Radical
The man is 74 years old. For half a century of tilting at the bone-grinding windmills of Darwinian capitalism, you’d think he’d be weary, wised-up, aching for retirement. But no, here he is in New Hampshire, on short sleep caught on a night flight halfway across the...
Still Poised to Pour: Discount liquor licenses in Holyoke haven’t attracted buyers
Most restaurants rely on liquor sales for survival, which is why the city of Holyoke acquired 13 additional all-alcohol licenses to sell on the cheap as part of an urban renewal plan. But that was over a year ago and no one’s biting yet. At least one of the former...Grounded: Plastic Bag Ban in Northampton ‘Necessary, But Not Sufficient’
A friend of mine recently forgot his reusable bags when he dropped in at Stop & Shop. To make matters worse, he’d also forgotten about Northampton’s new plastic bag ban, which started Jan. 1. Then the person in line behind him lectured him on the merits of the...
Who Kicked the Dogs Out? New legislation could mean more homes for pit bulls, other commonly “blacklisted” breeds
Rupert the pit bull stands at the feet of his 2-year-old owner, calmly snorting up popcorn while the toddler yanks forcefully at the dog’s collar. Tai Wickline is pulling hard enough to elicit bulldog-like breathing from his 3-year-old canine. “You trying to pull...
News of the Weird: Newest Fashionistas
In January, the upscale Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana introduced stylish hijabs and abayas aimed at Muslim women unafraid to call attention to themselves as they exercise their obliged modesty. D&G’s marketing effort even accessorized models’...
Between the Lines: Don’t Screw the Pooch
I have a confession to make, people — I own a pit bull. Phew! I’ve been hemming and hawing over whether or not to outright say that for weeks. Because the consequences are indeed scary. As a disclaimer: if anyone tries to take my dog-son away we’ll go on the run...
Scene Here: Songs Aloft
The creaky floorboards cry out when Tom Matherly shifts his weight. He rocks from one heel to the other in his tan boots, staring down at the frayed red rug while he twists the tuning keys on his vintage electric guitar. He’s pausing his set list to play “The Man Who...
News of the Weird: Streaming News
The “public art” statues unveiled in January by Fort Myers, Florida, Mayor Randy Henderson included a metal structure by sculptor Edugardo Carmona of a man walking a dog, with the dog “lifting his leg” beside a pole. Only after inspecting the piece more closely did...
From Our Readers: Clinton stonewalls on status quo, co-op revolution
Healthcare: More Bern for Your Buck As a surgeon, I have participated in our healthcare system since 1979. I have witnessed the attempts of medically naive politicians seeking to reform our compromised healthcare system. Bankrolled by health industry lobbyists, these...
Medical Marijuana is Coming to Town
Who knows what’ll happen with legalization on the ballot in November, but in the meantime, the state seems to finally have a handle on the whole medical marijuana thing. Previous caps that limited potential dispensaries to one per county, and then 35 statewide, were...
Between the Lines: Burning Over Bernie & Hillary
Last week, I wrote a column, “Hillary Clinton is the Real Revolution” about why I will cast my vote for Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the March primary. An immensely qualified candidate, Clinton also has the advantage of being a woman, which allows her to bring a...
Marching in Time: Football, music, and racism with Willie Hill
It’s difficult to argue against Beyoncé’s greatness, it is true. But skimming through clips of marching bands past elicits one big question about the Super Bowl halftime shows of today: with all the fireworks and special effects, have we strayed too far away from the...
From Our Readers: My trip to Westfield was awesome; More ways to volunteer
Many ways to volunteer I read your article about volunteering, “Giving Back” (Dec. 24-30, 2015), and I was a little irritated. Why is it that when someone says “volunteer,” the focus immediately goes to homeless/food banks/shelters. There are other organizations that...
Between the Lines: Hillary Clinton is the Real Revolution
With many people in the U.S. prepared to bomb the fictional land of Agrabah, plus a full-on conservative war against women, the Affordable Care Act under siege and a fragile economy, America needs Hillary Clinton to be the next president. The former senator and...
The New Grade Inflation
They are simply “‘spas’ designed to attract teenagers,” according to one university official — plush, state-of-the-art “training” complexes built by universities in the richest athletic conferences to entice elite 17-year-old athletes to come play for and, perhaps,...
Not the One: Northampton’s One Bar to reopen as Midnite Tavern
One Bar and Grill — formerly Tully O’Reilly’s and The Elevens — is once again reborn after little more than a year in its former incarnation. Following last week’s convening of the Northampton License Commission, the establishment is officially doing business as...
From Our Readers: Halos and Horns, you’re doing it wrong
Halos and Horns: You’re doing it wrong Editor’s note: One Dec. 31, 2015, the Advocate came out with its annual Halos and Horns, an edition dedicated to skewering and praising the people, places, things, and events of 2015. Here’s some reader reaction: Responding to...
News of the Weird: Hard Times for Science
A tractor-trailer driver with a load of bottled water tried to make it over an historic bridge in Paoli, Indiana, on Christmas Day, with the obvious outcome when 35 tons of water starts across a limit-6-tons span. The driver told police she saw the 6-ton sign, but did...
Between the Lines: If This Is Reform, You Can Keep It
Massachusetts has some of the most ineffective and restrictive public information laws in the country. Data that is published online in most U.S. states is difficult to access in Massachusetts. For example, Massachusetts is one of a handful of states in the nation...
Los Tres Reyes
DAN LITTLE PHOTO The camels may not be here at this year’s Three King’s Day celebration put on by Springfield’s Women of the Vanguard and various community partners, but the party’s so much fun that no one seems to mind. Arriving around 5:30 at Main Street’s...
Not the One: One Bar in Northampton to be reborn as Midnite Tavern
By Amanda Drane One Bar and Grill — formerly Tully O’Reilly’s and The Elevens — is once again reborn after little more than a year in its former incarnation. Following Wednesday’s convening of the Northampton License Commission, the establishment is officially doing...
New World Order
In December, Canada’s supportive organization The Transgender Project released a biographical video of the former Paul Wolscht, 46, and the father of seven children with his ex-wife, Marie, describing his new life as not only a female, but a 6-year-old female,...
More Than Granola: With corporate chain stores selling natural foods, co-ops double down on community ties
Steve Alves rolls up an chair, sits down at his desk, and opens a spreadsheet of every food co-op in America. He has been compiling this list for years. As his finger flicks the scroll wheel, hundreds of rows spill upward on the monitor: co-ops in states like Idaho,...
From Our Readers: Social media mobs bully those who make mistakes
Social media mobs bully those who make mistakes In place of the N-bomb, I would like to offer the P-word – p-r-o-p-o-r-t-i-o-n-a-l-i-t-y. Nowadays, a person makes an error, uses a nasty word, commits some politically incorrect faux pas and the hunt is on! Go...
Between the Lines: Bruised Students, What is going on at the Peck School in Holyoke?
In December the Boston-based Disability Law Center rocked the Valley with a report about alleged physical and psychological abuse suffered by students at the Peck School in Holyoke. In the report, the protection and advocacy agency details a number of disturbing...
Vermont Yankee, a little less nuclear contamination to worry about
Those who worried about accidents at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant causing environmental and health hazards severe enough to affect its downwind neighbors in Franklin County have less to worry about now. For about a year now, the 42-year-old, 620-megawatt...
Forecast: Messy
AMANDA DRANE PHOTO It’s here — the white we all wanted on Christmas. But they sent the wrong stuff. Given the Valley’s tropical Christmas — we saw people posting Christmas bikini pics on social media — it’s really a mean joke that flakes fell last Tuesday while...
Halos & Horns
Halos and Horns is the Advocate’s kind of annual review of the Pioneer Valley and beyond. We take aim at everything from politicians to pants, awarding kudos and condemnation. Food Justice Workers For some strange reason, humanity has gotten so far ahead...
Giving Back
It’s a new year, time to look forward to the future, but it’s also a great time to give back donating or volunteering. If you’ve never volunteered before, here’s how to get started: • Know what you’re in for. Sarah Tanner, director of development at Friends of the...
From Our Readers: Voting on holiday, Democrats will do more harm to drug laws
Voting on holiday Your recent column (“U.S. to blame: Government at fault for low voter turnout,” Nov. 26, 2015) about the lack of voter turnout missed, I think, an answer. Make Nov. 4 a federal holiday. Democracy, anyone? Michael D. Joyce Wendell Democrats will do...
One-man Arsenal
According to the flabbergasted sheriff of rural Chesterfield County, South Carolina, “This has completely changed our definition of (what constitutes) an ‘ass-load’ of guns.” Brent Nicholson, 51, had been storing more than 7,000 firearms in his home and a storage...
Life Beyond a Limb
Maggie Baumer doesn’t want to sugarcoat it — it was hell losing her arm in a trash compactor. But in a strange way, the loss set her on the path toward a better life. Many people strive for the fast track, only to find that long hours produce little but exhaustion and...E-Edition
Best Of 2025
Readers Choice 2025
