News
by Maureen Turner | Jan 10, 2008 | News
In the three and a half years since I've been following Richard Sitcha's case, I admit to maintaining a low-level—and uncharacteristic—degree of optimism that things would turn out all right for him.In 2001, the Cameroon native had come to the U.S....
by our readers | Jan 10, 2008 | News
Pro-Life Not Just StylishIt sounds like Ann Lewinson [Film: “She’s Having a Baby,” Dec. 27, 2007] is disappointed that Juno did not abort her baby in the new, critically acclaimed comedy (“It’s no coincidence there have been two comedies...
by Natalia Muñoz | Jan 10, 2008 | News
These days were born from the Civil Rights movement. In an American-as-apple-pie, history-making display of e pluribus unum, the Democratic debate in New Hampshire last week featured Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. It was as inspiring...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 10, 2008 | News
It's a new day in Springfield—sort of.Inauguration ceremonies, like the one held Monday at City Hall, are, by custom, dripping with the rhetoric of change, of new beginnings, fresh starts, glistening opportunities. That rhetoric has particular resonance in...
by Laura Holland | Jan 10, 2008 | News
Proposals (Not Yet Programs) for Public Higher Education * Free Community College in MassachusettsGovernor Deval Patrick proposed free community college as part of his 10-year plan when he announced the Readiness Project, his commission on public education. The Board...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 10, 2008 | News
When the design for the Hilton Garden Inn was first revealed this spring, Wayne Feiden, Northampton City Planning Director, quickly sought to reassure residents upset by its lackluster appearance. He published computer-rendered images of what the hotel would look like...
by Laura Holland | Jan 10, 2008 | News
To low- and middle-income families, higher education may seem a necessity that is priced like a luxury and entangled in loans and subsequent debt. How can undergraduates avoid being indentured by student loans? Amherst College has one solution: a new financial aid...
by Alan Bisbort | Jan 16, 2008 | News
Barack Obama's and Mike Huckabee's victories at the Iowa caucuses last week provided some sweet relief if for no other reason than that they screwed up the mainstream media's pre-written script for 2008. From the New York Times to Fox News, from the New...
by From Our Readers | Jan 16, 2008 | News
Abortion SemanticsI'm writing in response to Tim Grant’s letter, “Pro-Life Not Just Stylish” (Jan. 10, 2008). First, I’m forever amused by the way those who like to label themselves conservative cling to certain simplistic mantras like...
by Kendra Thurlow | Jan 17, 2008 | News
Kissing your spouse in public earned you a few hours in the stockade and a faceful of rotten fruit in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Regulated by a colonial blue law that is no longer enforced, public displays of affection were one of many things banned in the 17th...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 17, 2008 | News
As everyone gets ready for the political Super Bowl of the presidential primaries, it's worth it to take a moment out for a quick study in the kind of disaster capitalism (a phrase made famous by author Naomi Klein) that's changing the landscape in important...
by Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen | Jan 17, 2008 | News
Many journalists qualified for the annual P.U.-litzer Prizes, but only a few were able to win recognition for turning in one of the truly stinkiest media performances of the year. As the judges for these un-coveted awards, we have done our best to confer the honors on...
by Alan Bisbort | Jan 17, 2008 | News
To hear Bill Clinton tell it, his wife, as president, will reach up to the sky and swat down al Qaeda missiles with her bare hands. She will chill global warming, rescue our economy and repair America's tattered reputation around the world. With characteristic...
by Gary Carra | Jan 17, 2008 | News
Mhen it comes to literary inspirations, Easthampton's Yucky Octopus has its tentacles around a myriad of sources. One of the more prolific lyricists on the scene, singer/Yuck-fronter Tony DeNucci alone has been known to lace the band's tunes with references to...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 17, 2008 | News
As everyone gets ready for the political Super Bowl of the presidential primaries, it's worth it to take a moment out for a quick study in the kind of disaster capitalism (a phrase made famous by author Naomi Klein) that's changing the landscape in important...
by Natalia Munoz | Jan 17, 2008 | News
I know an 18-year-old who is the daughter of an undocumented Mexican. She is the GOP’s nightmare.But for her mother, with whom I spoke about the upcoming Feb. 5 primaries, she embodies a dream that steadied her through nine straight hours of walking the day she...
by Martha Biondi | Jan 23, 2008 | News
AStanford University computer scientist named John Koza has formulated a compelling and pragmatic alternative to the Electoral College. It's called National Popular Vote (NPV), and has been hailed as "ingenious" in two New York Times editorials. In...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 24, 2008 | News
On December 7, 2007, then councilor-elect Bob Reckman contacted Northampton city councilors, asking them in an email how they would vote on an amendment to a Best Practices resolution. Finding that the majority were going to vote in support of his position, he emailed...
by Robert Tobey | Jan 24, 2008 | News
Did you catch the squalid YouTube dust-up between Mitt Romney and Glen Johnson, the Associated Press reporter? These hip and vivid little video snippets that now pepper our lives are remarkable for their novelistic detail and nuance, and go to show how...
by Jack Brown | Jan 24, 2008 | News
At night, empty, Pleasant Street Theater is a profoundly dark place. The wan light of the streetlights doesn't reach the recessed lobby doors, and from within, it seems as if Northampton were a stage play, brightly lit and busy. College students heading toward the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 24, 2008 | News
His father may have liberated Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq 17 years ago, but on his recent visit to that country, President Bush was not exactly a rock star. Bush was trying to muster support against Iran as he visited Kuwait and other Arab countries. Kuwait is...
by David Moberg | Jan 24, 2008 | News
If Mr. or Ms. Change were a candidate for president, he or she would be the Democratic nominee by now. But we would not know precisely what candidate Change looks like. It’s an idea—or image—that is as ambiguous as it is popular with voters. Polling...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 24, 2008 | News
Across the train tracks, underneath an I-91 overpass, and a few hundred yards through the woods, a stream runs from a pile of collapsed masonry into the Connecticut River—the remnants of the first mass transit system to reach the Pioneer Valley. I've known...
by Niall Stanage | Jan 31, 2008 | News
The controversy over Barack Obama's admiring mention of former President Ronald Reagan thrived in recent days, fed and nurtured by Hillary Clinton and her allies. Clinton used her rival's comments about Reagan and the Republican Party to assert that he must...
by Natalia Muñoz | Jan 31, 2008 | News
The missing sense of urgency in the Springfield public schools has been restored now that the Finance Control Board has seized from the city's rubber-stamp School Committee the authority to negotiate another contract with Superintendent of Schools Joseph Burke or...
by Analee Newitz | Jan 31, 2008 | News
Six years ago I wrote a column titled "Blog Anxiety," which was all about how bloggers make me nervous and jealous with their lightning-fast news cycles. I bemoaned my inability to commit words to public record without waiting for editorial oversight and for...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 31, 2008 | News
Headlines screamed about a provocative action by Iran against American warships in the Strait of Hormuz early in January. But the tension sparked by the reports fizzled as TV footage showed that the Iranian craft were tiny speedboats, and the Pentagon soon admitted...
by our readers | Jan 31, 2008 | News
Repeal Sunday Hunting BanI am writing in response to your article ["Open Season"] in the January 17, 2008 issue of the Valley Advocate regarding the possibility of repealing the ban on Sunday hunting in Massachusetts. I would like to address points which...
by Alan Bisbort | Jan 31, 2008 | News
The American people must love sports metaphors, because they use them so often to shed light on just about any person, place or thing. For example, no metaphor better sums up the character of George W. Bush than "he was born on third base and thinks he hit a...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 7, 2008 | News
Because of this newspaper's deadline schedule, Super Tuesday has not happened as I write this. It will have happened by the time you read this. Since I don't know what voters in the 24 states that held primaries on Tuesday will do, I offer anticipatory...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 7, 2008 | News
Last week we discussed the incident involving three American warships and a few Iranian speedboats that made big, scary headlines when it was played as a threat by Iranians against the U.S. Navy. The small craft weren't armed with torpedoes or indeed with...
by our readers | Feb 7, 2008 | News
Fear-Free SundaysAdvocates of Sunday hunting claim it is unfair not to be allowed to shoot anything on the seventh day (see "Open Season," Jan. 17, 2008). They argue that the law banning hunting on Sundays should be repealed, making it easier for them to...
by Levon Kinney | Feb 7, 2008 | News
While I inhaled the cherry blossom promises of change from an enthusiastic yet clearly exhausted Hillary Clinton, I wondered, "What change will I be handed? If I am owed 73 cents and only get a quarter back, then I'll buy my candy bar somewhere...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 7, 2008 | News
Late in the afternoon on the Thursday before Christmas, Jim Polito was working at his desk in the WGGB/Channel 40 newsroom. Polito, who's been an investigative reporter and sometime anchor at the station for eight years, had already wrapped up his assignments for...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 7, 2008 | News
Lost amid the tributes at the end of 2007 were the deaths of two special people: Steve Gilliard, the blogger, and Daryl Stingley, the New England Patriots' pass receiver.Gilliard's was the blogosphere's most distinctive voice. He led a one-man army called...
by our readers | Mar 6, 2008 | News
Pushing Old NukesThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy held a joint meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, Feb. 19-21, planning "the technical issues and research topics for potential extended operation of the nation's nuclear power plants...
by Sarah Feldberg | Feb 14, 2008 | News
In a 2006 Washington Post article describing Massachusetts' then-nascent health insurance legislation—which mandates that all citizens making 150 percent or more of the federal poverty level purchase health insurance or face fines—a Princeton professor...
by Cynthia L. Cooper | Mar 6, 2008 | News
Republican presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain has been clear about his position on abortion since he first ran for office 25 years ago: he opposes it. But as he tries to finish off former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who distantly trails McCain in the...
by our readers | Feb 14, 2008 | News
Stray Bullets a FearPioneer Valley Hiking Club president Anne Marie Visconti is absolutely correct about the fear factor during hunting season ("Open Season," January 17, 2008). I appreciate the heritage and enjoyment of hunting. As landowners whose property...
by Tom Sturm | Mar 6, 2008 | News
Around the same time we East-coasters were bundled up, looking at the full lunar eclipse on Wednesday night, Feb. 20, another somewhat celestial event occurred: The U.S. Navy successfully shot down a "defunct spy satellite" with a missile launched from The...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 14, 2008 | News
The most important resource in the world that's prone to shortages at the moment isn't oil. It's water. And drought isn't just a potential future result of global warming. Drought is here—not just in Africa or the Middle East, but in America....
by Robert B. Reich | Feb 14, 2008 | News
For years, I've preached that corporate social responsibility helps the bottom line. Respect the environment, your employees, and the community, I argued, and they'll not only respect you back; they'll buy your products. Unfortunately, I've never been...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 6, 2008 | News
Sibel Edmonds, one of the most important whistleblowers in today's world, has gained new attention now that the London Sunday Times has recently published her claims that Americans were part of a network that sold nuclear secrets to Turkish agents. The Turkish...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 6, 2008 | News
The fervent marketing efforts of the formula industry notwithstanding, it's pretty much universally acknowledged that breast milk is the ideal food for babies: It possesses crucial immunological properties and disease-fighting antibodies, promotes healthy brain...
by Kendra Thurlow | Feb 14, 2008 | News
Until very recently, the Garden House at Look Park had been advertising on its website a Valentine's Day celebration. The virtual flyer offered, for $9 per person at the door, music by the O-Tones, a "decadent dessert buffet," dancing and a "cash...
by Alan Bisbort | Mar 13, 2008 | News
The Democratic Party faces a major dilemma in the 2008 election, one that needs to be resolved sooner rather than later. That is, supporters of Hillary Clinton and supporters of Barack Obama have different emotional attachments to their candidates. The emotional...
by Shikha Dalmia | Feb 14, 2008 | News
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "universal" health-care plan was just shot down by a committee in the state Senate, 7-1. The most vociferous opponents weren't fiscal conservatives, but labor unions that launched a last-minute revolt against...
by From Our Readers | Mar 13, 2008 | News
I write regarding your cover story, "Hip-Hop Happening" (March 6, 2008). The so-called "hip-hop" genre of music, which a genuinely accomplished musician, Wynton Marsalis, and a noted journalist and music critic, Stanley Crouch, have labeled...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 14, 2008 | News
Five years after he was granted political asylum by the U.S. government, Richard Sitcha was deported last month to his homeland of Cameroon, leaving his friends anxious about his safety.Sitcha had fled Cameroon, where government abuses are well documented, in 2001 and...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 13, 2008 | News
You hear that what's missing for the Republicans in this presidential election is another Reagan—someone who can evoke the spirit of the Gipper.But does the average American need another Reagan? That average voter is drowning in a sea of problems whose...
by Salim Muwakkil | Feb 21, 2008 | News
How can racism still be a problem if so many white Americans are willing to support Sen. Barack Obama for president? This rhetorical question worries some analysts, who warn that Obama's prominence, ironically, could set back the struggle for racial equality. They...
by Natalia Muñoz | Mar 13, 2008 | News
Diversity is in danger when a presidential candidate's middle name can't be uttered nor a picture of him wearing traditional Somali clothes shown without these incidents being framed by Barack Obama as personal attacks.The Obama campaign has been successful in...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 21, 2008 | News
L ike rats abandoning Exxon Valdez, Republican Congressmen are retiring in droves rather than face the sound thrashing that awaits them at the ballot box this November. Of course, each of the rats claims he's leaving to "spend more time with my family"...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 13, 2008 | News
The recent decision by the Springfield Finance Control Board to let city officials have a crack at shaping next year's municipal budget hardly comes across as a vote of confidence. The newly restored power comes with a list of conditions and a general tone of...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 21, 2008 | News
Standing at the empty lot at 686 Main St. in Holyoke, it's easy enough to imagine a trash transfer station at the site. The land, ringed by a chain-link fence, sits in the city's designated waste management district. On one side of the two-plus acre parcel is...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 20, 2008 | News
In the world of David-and-Goliath environmental battles, good news is never final. The company that backs away from a big-box development project one day can decide somewhere down the road to start all over again, particularly when it calculates that the...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 21, 2008 | News
After last year's Extravaganja festival on the Amherst Town Common, event organizer Terry Franklin stayed up late picking up garbage and assembling the full plastic bags where he could easily pick them up when the dump opened in the morning. When he came back the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 20, 2008 | News
Who's really egging on the so-called insurgency that bolsters the argument that our troops must stay in Iraq?Could it be the U.S.?Unthinkable as it seems, there's evidence that it is. Here's one example. Two Britons disguised as Arabs were arrested in...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 21, 2008 | News
One Valley family after another is losing its house, especially in Hampden County. Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, 2007, 427 homes—more than one a day—went into foreclosure. That's twice as many foreclosures as in the first 11 months of 2006. In December...
by our readers | Mar 20, 2008 | News
First and foremost, let me congratulate the Valley Advocate for your continuing coverage of the burgeoning hip-hop community of the Pioneer Valley and for your coverage of the culture of hip-hop in general. In order for people to accept and appreciate a culture, they...
