News
by From Our Readers | Nov 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 22, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by Peter Stilla | Nov 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 20, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
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...
by Our Readers | Nov 15, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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...
by Luis Fieldman | Nov 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 13, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 13, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by From Our Readers | Nov 8, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
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...
by Steve Pfarrer | Nov 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 6, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 6, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by Our Readers | Nov 1, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
The state isn’t listening on the Route 9 bridge Are you aware the state is starting work on a two lane roundabout to replace the traffic lights at the bridge? While none of us like sitting at traffic lights, they do serve a purpose. Years ago there were public...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 1, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
So You Want to be Scared? Visiting so-called “haunted houses” for Halloween is very popular, but if you want to get chills in two of them in particular, you’ll need to be medically cleared by a doctor and sign a 40-page waiver before you can go in. The McKamey Manor...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Oct 30, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Paranormal investigator Liette Casey speaks politely when she thinks she may be in the company of a spiritual presence, as she would if she were meeting a living person for the first time. Standing in the attic of the historical Josiah Day House in West Springfield,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 30, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
As we come upon Halloween, that night of frights, there’s a bill going through the Statehouse now that addresses real horrors with our prison system. As reported in Tuesday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette by writer Noor Adatia, Nia Reid-Patterson explained through tears...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 30, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
The Halloween edition of weird news with Dave and Trumpy. 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 a scary house you don’t...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
With Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg testifying before the United States Congress in September and teenagers from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, becoming leaders advocating for more rigid gun control laws following the 2018 shooting in...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 23, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Two years. That’s how long it’s been that Springfield resident Lucio Perez has been forced to live in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church in Amherst. Before taking the extraordinary step to escape an immoral deportation order — based on a minor charge that...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 23, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A joke from beyond the grave … or in it An Irish man raised the spirits of those attending his funeral by requesting a recording be played of him pretending to be alive in his coffin as it was lowered into the ground. “Hello? Hello. Hello? Let me out!” the recording...
by Our Readers | Oct 18, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Tennessee Gas project puts my neighborhood at risk In response to “Could it happen here?: Gas explosion in Merrimack Valley hangs over new pipeline efforts,” published Oct. 3-9. I live in a neighborhood in Longmeadow. The homes are not large and luxurious as those...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 17, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A fish out of water The United States is being invaded by a creepy invasive species of fish that can breathe on land. The state of Georgia is taking no chances, and its Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division announced last week that the public...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News, Valley Show Girl
Editor’s note: Julia Clark is transgender, and asked the Advocate to refer to her using she/her pronouns for the time both before and after her transition from male to female gender identity. Chris Clark was about 8 or 9 years old when she heard the classic song “Wild...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 16, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
We’re now about three weeks into Gov. Charlie Baker’s unilateral four-month vape ban. How did we get here? It’s really not clear. Very little information has come out of the Governor’s office to justify what has appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction to recent reports...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Writer Luis Fieldman wrote the Advocate’s cover story on Whately strip club Castaway, and it’s reopening with some new policies, including having male and queer-identified dancers, lesbian nights, and transgender performers. Listen here: You can hear more...
by From Our Readers | Oct 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
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...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 11, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Um, there’s some toilet paper on your … nevermind The long-awaited results are in: Mimoza Haska from Surfside Beach, S.C., is the winner of this year’s Toilet Paper Wedding Dress competition. In this annual contest, competitors design and build elaborate wedding...
by Luis Fieldman | Oct 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
It will soon be a new day for Club Castaway, which will reopen later this month as a rare strip club that showcases a diverse body of male, queer, and transgender entertainers, and with a manager who says she is committed to treating her workers well. Out among the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 9, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
We’re less than a month out from Election Day 2019 — Tuesday, Nov. 5 — and while there won’t be candidates for state or federal office on the ballots, there will be a number of important local elections decided. But there are few places that will see as many important...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 8, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Advocate Associate Editor Chris Goudreau wrote about how gas explosions last year in eastern Massachusetts have affected gas pipeline activism locally. He speaks to editor Dave Eisenstadter about the perspectives of the people he spoke with for the article and what...
by Our Readers | Oct 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Animal cruelty is more than a ‘fluff piece’ In response to “Between the Lines: Animal rights is the elephant in the room for the Big E,” published Sept. 26 – Oct. 2, 2019. I read your editorial on Beulah’s death at the Big E and was so touched by your thoughtful...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 2, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Across Massachusetts people rely on natural gas to heat their homes and businesses, provide their electricity, cook meals every day, and for their hot water supply. Most of the time, natural gas, which is delivered to residents via local distribution lines, is...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 2, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Here’s to your health A former British Marine became the first person to drink a cocktail using his own mummified toe, after he had lost it to frostbite during a long-distance race in Yukon. Bolton, U.K., resident Nick Griffiths had lost three toes during a 300-mile...
by Luis Fieldman | Sep 30, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Jim Robinson is close to opening a retail marijuana shop in Chicopee, but until recently, cannabis actually might have been holding him back from getting work. Robinson had two minor offenses for possession of marijuana on his criminal record. “I had an active...
by Our Readers | Sep 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
‘Joe Biden should not be our president’ In response to “Between the Lines: Biden’s Electability Argument is Crumbling.” I have to say I agree with this. I don’t agree with being “mean” about it all, but objectively, Joe Biden should not be our president … It is...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
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. Learn this week about disappointing attendance at Area 51 raid, a nonexistent flatulence...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 25, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Who says the arts have to stop when summer is over? The Pioneer Valley, as always, delivers when it comes to creative nights out and interesting things to check out. Here is a sampling from the Advocate staff. -DE Arcadian sounds Date: Sept. 28 Though summer is prime...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 25, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Bread-throwing girl costs robber his dough A would-be robber armed with a knife in a supermarket in the UK met an adversary he hadn’t counted on — an 11-year-old girl wielding a loaf of bread. As seen on security footage at an Express Supermarket in the city of...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 24, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
It is long past time the Big E ended displays involving wild animals — or what should be wild animals — held in captivity. As if to prove the point, earlier this month, Beulah the elephant, owned by R.W. Commerford & Sons Traveling Petting Zoo in Goshen,...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Musician and poet David Berman, who was a part of the UMass Amherst MFA program and went on to front the music group Silver Jews, committed suicide last month. Steve Pfarrer wrote about his ties to the Valley and those that remember Berman and his music and writing....
by Our Readers | Sep 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Defining ‘bad for business’ In response to “Petition directed at IHEG costs co-creator her job at Gateway City Arts,” published Sept 12 – 18. This is horrible. Gateway City Arts should be proud to have employees who stand up for the rights of musicians, artists,...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 19, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News, Podcast
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. Learn this week about explosive bull semen, beating an elevator up a building, and stuffed...
by Steve Pfarrer | Sep 18, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
For a long time, he was unsure of his singing voice, wondering if it was really good enough to front a band. And for a good part of the time he was making albums, he also shunned most live performances, not feeling he could sing in front of an audience. But David...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 18, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
I’ve never been an enthusiastic Joe Biden supporter. His history on criminal justice — supporting harsh sentences for drug crimes and the War on Drugs — his mishandling of the Clarence Thomas hearings, his vote for the Iraq War, and his lack of support for Medicare...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 18, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In one of his first public statements since being deported in February, immigrant rights activist Eduardo Samaniego wrote about the support he received from his friends and of the difficulties of the time he spent in prison, also stating he has appealed his...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 17, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A Race to the Top The 2016 world champion of sport climbing took on an unexpected challenger earlier this month: an elevator. The 26-year-old Polish man, Marcin Dzienski, raced a neon-lit elevator on the side of a Warsaw hotel and reached the top of a 75-foot...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Gena Mangiaratti speaks about her Advocate cover story in which she spoke with Gina Rose Napolitano, a young woman who says she engaged in a sexual relationship with a teacher at her school. The relationship had consequences that affected her mental health, she said....
by Advocate Staff | Sep 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A lifetime of suffering for a moment’s diversion? It’s time for the Big E to stop featuring animal abuse as a cheap diversion. Times have changed since the early days of this festival, and most folks do not enjoy seeing wild animals living such unnatural and horrific...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 13, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Praying with Robot Priests Religion, that opiate of the masses, has found a new way to spread dystopia — robot priests. A robot named Mindar is operating at a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and is programmed to give sermons. Right now it only knows one...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
When Gina Rose Napolitano was a freshman in college, she received an unexpected call from the Granby police. An officer asked if a teacher at her high school had sexual contact with her. She said no. That was in early 2017, and she was still communicating with the man...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Massachusetts Senator and presidential Front-Runner-To-Be Elizabeth Warren made waves this week by endorsing two progressive Democratic challengers to sitting conservative Democrats in districts in Illinois and Texas. These insurgent candidates — immigration lawyer...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
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 awful gun testing, robot priests, and a poop knife. Listen here: You can hear more of...
by Luis Fieldman | Sep 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In mid-August, an online petition calling for touring bands to boycott Iron Horse Entertainment Group venues began collecting signatures of musicians, performers, and community members. Less than three weeks later, an organizer of the boycott lost her job at Gateway...
by From Our Readers | Sep 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
RIP Frances Crowe In response to “‘An organizer to the very end’: Northampton activist Frances Crowe dies at age 100,” on Page 6. How sad to learn that we’ve lost Frances Crowe. But she had a good run, 100 years. When I heard of her death my thought was, “She lives on...
by Luis Fieldman | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Rick Paiva, of Northampton, said he smoked cigarettes before switching over to vaping, but “it wasn’t helping my health any better.” He quit vaping two-and-a-half years ago because he said it worsened his asthma, caused bronchitis, made his chest tight and caused him...
by Jonathan Kermah | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Whether it be for a late night snack after a long night of partying or studying, or calling the police to handle an emergency in the wee hours of the morning, you’ve probably interacted with a third shift (loosely defined as work between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.) worker at...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
As all the world knows, Frances Crowe is an activist institution in the Valley, and well beyond. And that’s why, even having lived the full life she did, the community still feels her passing deeply. But in her 100 years, we can all find some inspiration. I’m proud to...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Naked lunch … er … dinner A family from Fortuna, California, came home to unexpected — and unwanted — visitors. After returning from dinner last week, the family found two naked strangers that had broken into the household and made themselves a little too comfortable....
by From Our Readers | Aug 29, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A mayor that makes blood boil In response to “Sarno a No Show: As election looms, critics say Springfield’s mayor not there for all,” published August 22 – 28, 2019. The mayor led the charge and marched onto the Hampshire College campus to protest the decision...
by John-Manuel Andriote | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In this summer of half-century look-backs to the “Summer of ’69,” it’s natural to wonder: What will the summer of 2019 be remembered for 50 years from now? Will the grandchildren of today’s Millennials wonder what took us so long to do something about the mass murders...
