News
by Stephanie Kraft | Jul 31, 2008 | News
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform—known as the "field marshal" for the Bush tax cut strategy—is an amazing man. On television in the wake of the publication of his latest book, Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's...
by Words and pictures by Kendra Thurlow | Jul 31, 2008 | News
I've lived in the Pioneer Valley for 13 years. During my time here, I've spent hundreds of Saturday afternoons wandering around Northampton. Therefore, I'm well versed in many of downtown Northampton's feature attractions—Pulaski Park,...
by our readers | Aug 7, 2008 | News
Tow BizPraises to [Maureen Turner] for such a straightforward article concerning the towing contract for the City of Springfield. There should be more reporters like yourself who will go out and search for the truth, rather than sugarcoat wrongdoings as the Republican...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 7, 2008 | News
The story of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian who fought to save his people from environmental destruction at the hands of Shell Oil, ought to give us a crisis of conscience about what the fuel in our gas tanks is and isn't worth. It also provides a clue as to why...
by Maureen Turner | Aug 7, 2008 | News
David Panagore keeps on his desk a small plastic Lisa Simpson doll that waves a placard reading "Save Springfield." It comes in handy in his daily work; in the midst of a conversation about rebuilding the city's economy, a grinning Panagore pauses to...
by Mark Roessler | Aug 7, 2008 | News
MassDevelopment wanted a bright and bold sign at the entrance to its blossoming construction site on Hospital Hill.At the planning board meeting on June 12, Beth Murphy, vice president for real estate development, presented MassDevelopment's plan for the sign,...
by Alan Bisbort | Aug 7, 2008 | News
Often, the first thing one sees when visiting a city in quaint, historic New England is a McDonald's wrapper, a styrofoam Dunkin Donuts cup, a bucket-sized Big Gulp, and mounds of Snapple and "Eco Shape" Poland Springs bottles. These sorts of items dot...
by Maureen Turner | Aug 7, 2008 | News
Give credit where it's due: Springfield state reps Angelo Puppolo and Sean Curran may not have proven to be giant killers last week, but at least they attempted something many in Massachusetts political circles apparently don't have the stomach...
by Mark Roessler | Aug 14, 2008 | News
"Elections are the way we have conversations about the direction the city is going in," Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins explained during her June 12 appearance on WHMP's The Bill Dwight Show.She was announcing the launch of her reelection campaign and...
by Maureen Turner | Aug 14, 2008 | News
Holly Richardson is keeping a close, if skeptical eye, on Springfield's new citizens police review board. As a member of the peace and anti-violence committee at the activist group Arise for Social Justice, Richardson works with her colleagues to find new ways of...
by our readers | Aug 14, 2008 | News
Seven Billion Suckers There has been a lot of talk lately about the so-called "law of supply and demand" and oil prices. There was an article in the Advocate recently, in fact ("Oil: The Fear Factor," July 24). There is, however, no such thing as a...
by Maureen Turner | Aug 14, 2008 | News
Eight months into his first—and, unless things take a dramatic turn, perhaps only—term as Springfield's mayor, Domenic Sarno seems to have retreated to his City Hall bunker. As the list of crucial matters left unattended by his administration steadily...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 14, 2008 | News
In the Bush administration's early years, every news broadcast seemed to end with the ominous statement that Vice President Cheney had been "moved to an undisclosed location." What was the point of those spooky announcements? Was it to remind us that we...
by Tom Devine | Aug 14, 2008 | News
I almost never give to panhandlers, but only because I can rarely afford to. Towards the end of the month I'm pretty much just a step above them—and not a very long step.That is one of the reasons why I am interested in the latest proposal coming out of...
by Maureen Turner | Aug 14, 2008 | News
The economic woes of the city of Springfield make for a compelling story, but hardly a unique one. Up and down the Connecticut River Valley—and, indeed, in once-thriving areas around the country—many communities have faced the same problems: the loss of...
by Alan Bisbort | Aug 21, 2008 | News
It sounds like the plot to a new Monty Python Broadway musical, Spy-a-lot: You are a librarian in a quiet town. One day a government spy—played by Eric Idle sporting a greasy moustache and doing his nod-nod-wink-wink routine—hands you a "secret...
by our readers | Aug 21, 2008 | News
Unflattering ReviewsOnce upon a time an interviewer asked Louis Armstrong to explain jazz. Satchmo, with his characteristic good humor and rich, bass voice, replied, "Man, if I have to explain it to you, you ain't never gonna get it." The same can be...
by Mark Roessler | Aug 21, 2008 | News
Driving around the other day, I turned the radio dial. Mid-song, Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" came on, and from the car seat in back, my three-year old son demanded I start the song from the beginning. I explained I couldn't control the...
by Tom Vannah | Aug 21, 2008 | News
Oh, heavens, let's not offend the Chinese. Why not? In 1980, the United States was only too happy to boycott the Moscow games. But that was so 20th century. Nowadays we don't snub great nations like we used to—particularly not great nations to whom our...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 21, 2008 | News
High gas prices and the prospect of future energy supply problems are reviving support for nuclear power, but the foundation for a nuclear "renaissance" is turning out to be surprisingly weak. For years the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has warned that a...
by Alan Bisbort | Aug 21, 2008 | News
Given how much it means to us, how often we crave it, dream about and seek it out, food gets very little "play" in our political discourse. We just keep right on munching Cheetos, Dunkin' Donuts (with "sprinkles") and Big Macs while the talking...
by our readers | Aug 28, 2008 | News
Throwaway Society No MoreAs a volunteer for Keep Springfield Beautiful, I appreciated Alan Bisbort alerting us to expanded bottle bill legislation ("Litter Bugs Us," Aug. 7, 2008) and will definitely write to my state rep and senator. In addition, in line...
by Mary Serreze | Aug 28, 2008 | News
On a balmy June day in 2006, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), under Gov. Mitt Romney's Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, did something new: it gave a small city in the western part of the state permission to circumvent drinking water...
by Alan Bisbort | Aug 28, 2008 | News
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) finds himself in exactly the same position that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman found himself in in 2000. Biden has been selected as the Democratic presidential candidate's vice presidential running mate in a year when he also faces a...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 28, 2008 | News
Hats off to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for demanding that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission consider the potential of hot waste stored at nuclear power plants to become a bomb in the hands of terrorists. Two years ago, Coakley petitioned the NRC to...
by Mark Roessler | Aug 28, 2008 | News
Last month, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins died an innocent man. Days later, authorities sought to shroud his passing in a cloud of guilt.His wife and children barely had weeks to grieve before the Federal Bureau of Investigation decided to bypass judge and jury and argue their...
by David Weigel | Aug 28, 2008 | News
We few, we proud, we Delawareans have a particular view of Sen. Joe Biden, the six-term Democrat announced as Barack Obama's vice-presidential running mate. If you take the Acela Express to D.C. often enough, you'll see him in the back of one of those cars,...
by Mark Roessler | Sep 4, 2008 | News
Keeping the Paradise City a paradise must be tough work. I mean, paradise is supposed to be perfect, right? Completely comfortable, without any cause for concern. But even in a city like Northampton, set snugly in the Pioneer Valley, undesirable people still slip...
by Stephanie Kraft | Sep 4, 2008 | News
The mill of the gods grinds slowly, they say, but it grinds exceeding small. In Washington, something very like the mill of the gods is the GAO (Government Accountability Office), whose anonymous researchers crank out facts about nearly everything the government does....
by Alan Bisbort | Sep 4, 2008 | News
You don't get elected president, or dogcatcher, in America by suggesting that citizens change their profligate lifestyles. America is all about excess and consumption, forever and ever. The pleasant fantasy that keeps us going is that by the time the oil runs out...
by Eesha Williams | Sep 4, 2008 | News
The Vermont Legislature will make history in a vote expected as early as January on whether to allow the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to continue operating after 2012. Never before has a state taken such a vote. "This is a tremendous opportunity for...
by Maureen Turner | Sep 11, 2008 | News
It was not, presumably, the kind of media coverage Chelan Brown was hoping for.One day back in April, Brown found herself holding a press conference to address questions from a reporter at WWLP about Alive With Awareness, Knowledge and Empowerment, or AWAKE, the...
by Mark Roessler | Sep 11, 2008 | News
On Sunday night, the Northampton Senior Center hosted the first night of the Northampton Design Forum's urban design charrette. Even though the facility's ample public meeting room was packed, the presenters seemed a bit nervous.All this week, in the A.P.E....
by Maureen Turner | Sep 11, 2008 | News
Try as parts of City Hall might, it's hard to ignore the pile-up of evidence that the Springfield Towing Alliance, which handles police-ordered tows in the city, has been consistently, and egregiously, out of compliance with its contract. The latest to join the...
by our readers | Sep 11, 2008 | News
Running Neck and NeckSenator Obama's energy policy consists of trying to rein in speculation of oil, promoting alternative energy sources and increasing the mileage standards of automobiles. First, the automobile manufacturers have been increasing mileage...
by Alan Bisbort | Sep 11, 2008 | News
Because my talk was not matching my walk, I've turned to an old friend—my bicycle. Second only to my dog, my bike is my most loyal companion these days. For the past several months, I've used the vehicle to get around town, to the grocery store, post...
by Sarah Gibbons | Sep 11, 2008 | News
There's a 282-acre parcel of land off Burt's Pit Road in Northampton that's used for a variety of recreational activities, as well as some agricultural ones. Hundreds of apartment dwellers from Northampton and surrounding towns use the community gardens...
by Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Dan Oppenheimer: A Voice on the Arts and Pop CultureWith just a few freelance articles and a master's degree in nonfiction writing under his belt, Dan Oppenheimer deemed his first "real journalistic job"—covering the arts beat for the Valley...
by Stephanie Kraft | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Imperium Watch grew out of our idea that an alternative paper evolves in relation to events and to its readers' needs. The Advocate began as a local paper, giving its readers a voice for their issues. The Vietnam War ended two years later, and through the 1970s,...
by Paul Shoul | Sep 18, 2008 | News
This is what Wikipedia has to say about Al Giordano's career before 1989, when he joined the Advocate as a reporter: "In 1976, when he was sixteen, he went to Albany and testified before a legislative commission in the state senate against nuclear power, felt...
by Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Robert Tobey has been an eye for the Advocate family since he began working for the New Haven Advocate 31 years ago. "In 1977, I worked as a staff photographer and also wrote music reviews," Tobey recalls. "It was a real lifesaving job at the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Here's something you should know when you start to evaluate John McCain's energy policy: he doesn't believe a massive changeover to renewable, really clean power is possible. This is what McCain said at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. last December...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 18, 2008 | News
About a year ago, we were summoned to Hartford, to a meeting with the publishers. We were given homework: write a mission statement for our respective newspapers.By we, I mean the editors of the four newspapers in the Advocate chain. (That chain was broken with the...
by Mark Roessler | Sep 18, 2008 | News
"The business of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."The above maxim, adopted by many in alternative publishing, originated as part of a satire written by a Chicago Tribune writer in the early 1900s. He meant it as a...
by Mark Anderson | Sep 18, 2008 | News
My story at the Valley Advocate begins, like so many good journalism stories, with a simple proposition: free food. I had grown up in the Twin Cities (far, far superior to the riot-cops-'n'-rich-whiteys impression suggested by coverage of the recent Republican...
by Stephanie Kraft | Sep 18, 2008 | News
When I started work at the Advocate in 1974, just a year after its founding, I became part of a motley crew with a passionate interest in news and arts and very little training in journalism. Our tiny staff included two reporters: Preston Gralla, who ran around the...
by our readers | Sep 18, 2008 | News
I've lived here in Easthampton my entire lifetime. I've seen a lot of changes over the years and, for the past 35 of those years, I've relied on the Advocate to provide arts and entertainment information, news coverage, and an alternative viewpoint on some...
by Kendra Thurlow | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Being an intern is a curious thing. You work long hard hours for no pay, get little to no respect—and if you're really lucky, you actually learn something. I was one of the lucky ones. As an intern at a newspaper, you do the grunt work—opening mail,...
by Do-Han Allen | Sep 18, 2008 | News
I've been thinking a lot about my home in Alaska recently as I prepared for this 35th anniversary issue of the Valley Advocate. Not because our moose-whackin' governor has got the Republican right all excited. I've been thinking about real Alaskans. Real...
by Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser and Stephanie Kraft | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Sut Jhally Questions AssumptionsWhen teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Sut Jhally, founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation (MEF), says that he works inside and outside academia to help people think critically. "The most...
by Maureen Turner | Sep 18, 2008 | News
In more than a dozen years working at the Advocate, I've heard plenty of criticisms of my work and my paper. I try to be a good sport about most of it. After all, I get paid to publicly pass judgments, and particularly to inflict on readers my opinions about which...
by Sarah Gibbons | Sep 18, 2008 | News
Richard Asinof, an Advocate editor in the very early days, predicted that the paper would become "one of those publications that's famous for being the place where talented people used to work." Here's a case in point. In the early '80s, the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Sep 25, 2008 | News
Sarah Palin was irresistible as a speaker at the Republican National Convention. Her lustrous eyes, glamorous smile and beautiful cadences had unmistakable star quality. Her delivery projected spontaneity and sincerity. But that event, contrary to appearances, was a...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 25, 2008 | News
As a news organization, the Valley Advocate is rarely nostalgic, rarely sentimental.Sure, we look back at the history of things all the time; one of the advantages of publishing just once a week is that we have the time to research topics deeply, seeking as much...
by Eesha Williams | Oct 2, 2008 | News
In Greenfield, a group of citizens is fighting plans by a Connecticut developer to build a massive store and parking lot on a piece of land that's home to several wetlands. The developer has not said which company would rent the store, which would be bigger than...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 2, 2008 | News
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno says that his preference for buying a new building for the long-missing Mason Square branch library—rather than taking the old site by eminent domain—is untainted by the base concerns that might guide other, lesser...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 2, 2008 | News
The Big Bailout involves not just numbers but people. One of those people is ex-U.S. senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas). This summer, as home foreclosures soared toward a rate unparalleled since the Great Depression, Gramm said that recession in America was...
by Alan Bisbort | Oct 2, 2008 | News
When Sarah Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, asked the town librarian about banning certain books from the collection, she claimed hers was merely a "policy discussion." Palin told the Anchorage Daily News at the time that this was "about...
by Mark Roessler | Oct 2, 2008 | News
On September 13, Professor Phillip Bess of Notre Dame and his team of urban design students presented their week's worth of design work to a packed house in the Northampton Senior Center. The assignment the Notre Dame graduate students had just completed was to...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 2, 2008 | News
Two years ago, hard on the heels of his election, Gov. Deval Patrick launched a preemptive strike on people like me. I should have seen it coming; he'd used the same tactic in his campaign. To bolster his hopeful "Together-We-Can" message, he created a...
