News
The Ripple Effect
It is, at the very least, premature to say that Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke's campaign to stop the School Department from moving into the old federal building on Main Street is making headway; despite the councilor's efforts, City Hall shows no signs...Imperium Watch: Money, Trapped at the Top
A recovery that may soon show the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the upswing without a commensurate increase in new jobs: how is that possible?Tight credit is partly responsible, but so is the fact that the top layers of the economy are soaking up the money, not...Letters: What Do You Think?
I'm writing regarding this year's Valley Advocate Grand Band Slam. In his "A Slammin' Time" article (Aug. 27, 2009), James Heflin writes about what a wealth of music and musicians there are in this Valley, and about how hard it was for the...The World This Week: Dahr Jamail on Iraq
Dahr Jamail is the embodiment of the citizen journalist. Though raised in the Republican enclave of Houston, the self-made reporter "unplugged from that matrix" at a young age to think for himself. When the Iraq War began in March, 2003, he was working as a...Imperium Watch: Climate and National Security
Environment or economy? It's a false antithesis. Without a sound environment, sooner or later there will be no economy. Typical media reporting that tends to pigeonhole topics rather than illuminating relationships between them reinforce this false dichotomy. Now...Between the Lines: Step Up, Springfield
After a dozen years covering the protracted battle for ward representation in Springfield—the relentless work by reformers, the infuriatingly evasive tactics employed by city councilors determined to kill the effort, the plan's eventual 3-to-1 victory on the...
Imperium Watch: Health Care, Go Figure
Some stories are best told by numbers. Here are the numbers that tell two stories: how patients have gotten lost in the morass of the health insurance system, and how doctors have gotten lost in it. Patients: Researchers from the California Nurses Association/National...The World This Week: Informing on America
The Informant is coming, hot on the heels of Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. While Moore's grandstanding always carries the risk of detracting from his message, Matt Damon's note-perfect performance as Mark Witacre in the film...Between the Lines: Collateral Damage
Springfield City Councilor and mayoral candidate Bud Williams has seized on one of the most contentious issues to hit the city in recent months: plans to redevelop the former Longhill Gardens complex into low-income housing.Last week, Williams called for a moratorium...Letters: What Do You Think?
Car Party Is OverI was horrified to hear of the hit-and-run incident on Montague Road (Rte. 63) in North Amherst. Two bicyclers were hit on a Saturday night; one was killed, the other was severely injured. I happened to be riding my own bicycle near that scene right...Between the Lines: To Make Your Vote Count More
There's a flaw in our election system that's frustrated thoughtful voters for a long time. It's the winner-take-all structure of our balloting: the fact that you find yourself having to worry about the "horse race" level of the election to feel...Imperium Watch: Why Didn't He Tell the Rest of Us?
Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor, a new book by Bush 43 speechwriter Matt Latimer, offers vignettes that are riveting for at least two reasons. First, they shed some light on what the president who rigidly stuck to his script and expressed so little of...
Bourgeois Town: The Game
Bourgeois Town Rule Book3-12 Players, Ages 10 – 110Published by the Valley Advocate Games DivisionEdited and designed by Mark RoesslerIllustrated by Standard DesignContributing Editors: Stephanie Kraft, Maureen Turner, Tom VannahComponents1 Rule Book, 2 dice, 8...Letters: What Do You Think?
Biomass Plants Are ClunkersWe are taking gas guzzlers off the road, but poised to subsidize biomass electricity generating plants. The efficiency of biomass incinerators is 15 to 25 percent, meaning 15 to 25 percent of the energy in wood is captured and converted to...
Tautznik's Time to Fight
Mayoral elections are still something of a novelty in Easthampton; until 1996, the city was but a town, and was run by a Board of Selectmen. In that year, the board was dissolved and a City Council formed, and Easthampton elected its first and only mayor, former...Between the Lines: The Dwight Slight
Bill Dwight apologized repeatedly, trying to put the story to rest. But he also pushed it, used it as fodder for his WHMP radio show. Last week, the former Northampton city councilor and longtime ally of Mayor Clare Higgins opened his radio show at least four times...Imperium Watch: The Fourth Lever
It's easy to think the debate on health care lies black, blue and bleeding somewhere between Capitol Hill and the scenes of the summer's "Town Meetings." It's easy to think that the President who promised us health care reform has failed us. That...
The Prison Town Advantage
To say that Danny Young did not win his seat on the Anamosa, Iowa, City Council by a landslide is an understatement of extreme proportions. Young won that seat in 2006 with just two write-in votes, one of them cast by his wife. The definition of the reluctant...The World This Week: Train Train
Two nights a week I work in a newsroom housed inside a former train station. Not just any train station, but one of the showpieces of New England, a majestic red-brick structure designed by McKim, Mead and White and topped by a venerable Seth Thomas clock tower...The World This Week: “Classic New England Country Charm”
In 2005, the various commissions in the town of Middlebury, Conn., approved a development called Ridgewood. This massive project was slated to add 326 "well-appointed and spacious luxury residences" on 314 acres, a nine-hole private golf course, private...Imperium Watch: ACORN and Who Else?
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had his own reaction to the scandal that led Congress to defund ACORN, the multi-state anti-poverty and voting rights organization. Freelance videos recently purported to show ACORN employees giving advice on how to evade taxes and run...Letters: What Do You Think?
Nukes, Weapons Linked It is an honor to have a U.S. president awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It has occurred rarely in history. It is important to remember in the discussion of the control or abolition of nuclear weapons, though, that nuclear plants play a critical...Between the Lines: You Won't Hear Gunfire
Well-watered farmland and forest like the Valley's is becoming rarer and rarer in the U.S. and the world. Developers and even governments—China's is one example—are buying agricultural land in other countries—a practice which, if not...
Legalize It?
In 1981, Dick Evans, a Northampton attorney and long-time advocate for drug law reform, drafted a marijuana legalization bill "just to see what one would look like," he said.Evans got the bill before the state Legislature via the right to petition, a law...Letters: What Do You Think?
I really loved your board game, and thought when I opened your paper to glimpse it that great minds think alike. I have a similar game in mind, "Stateball," that will be played like fantasy baseball but will auction state's economies, then follow them...
Bardsley: Bomb Thrower or Healer of the Breach?
He's a grandstander. A panderer, covering his own lack of significant accomplishments by carping at the mayor and his colleagues on the City Council as they do their best to guide the city through difficult times with ever-diminishing resources and an increasingly...Letters: What Do You Think?
Obama and the NobelOn October 9th, the Nobel Committee announced that it had selected President Barack Obama as the recipient for its 2009 Peace Prize. My initial reaction was "For what?" After all, he has not even had a full year to accomplish much....The World this Week: Economic Theories
The recovery of the nation's economy entirely depends on a New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series. That's how thin is the ice upon which we are collectively treading, and that's as logical an economic prognostication as any of the others...
Praying for Salvation
Parishioners at Indian Orchard's Immaculate Conception Church are not alone in their grief over news that their church has been scheduled for closing. This summer, the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese, which includes the four western counties, announced that 14...Imperium Watch: Flying Girders, Falling Towers
In the lofty auditorium of Northampton's First Churches on October 10, an audience of perhaps 200 listened as San Francisco architect Richard Gage presented evidence that the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 were brought down on Sept. 11,...The World this Week: “Give It Back, Barack”
Barack Obama should apologize for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He should really be big about this and just give it back to the socialists in Norway. Because if he doesn't give it back, then he really is the Antichrist. These and other similar sentiments are...Easthampton: And They're Off…
The polls will be bustling next Tuesday at White Brook Middle School, one of Easthampton's largest voting locations. Since it's an odd year, chances are you might even catch a glimpse of the person you're voting for, since the city's unusually closely...Between the Lines: Is Your Name Written There?
'Tis the season when the state treasurer's office comes forward with its list of owners of unclaimed property. Hundreds of names have been paraded through the papers to 1) notify people who might be shocked to learn that their forgotten bank account has made...Springfield: No Thrills, Some Chills
A few days ago, one of my favorite Springfield politicos (yes, I have a few, and yes, the list is short) asked me what I thought of next week's mayoral contest between incumbent Domenic Sarno and his challenger, city councilor Bud Williams. "Not exactly the...Imperium Watch: Nuclear Strip Poker
Nuclear weapons: they served their purpose in World War II because only one side had them. The more there are, the more useless they are except to terrorists—and the more likely it is that terrorists will get them.President Obama's unexpected Nobel Prize,...Northampton: Not Just Anybody But Clare
This is one man's opinion.I don't live in the city of Northampton, although, like many people in the Pioneer Valley, I regard it as an important center of political, cultural and economic activity in our region. Northampton has been an important place to me...The World This Week: Harryin' the Librarian
It seemed like such a simple request. The town where I live, Cheshire, Conn., was the scene of one of the most publicized acts of brutality in recent years—the July, 2007 home invasion and murders of a mother and two daughters. Some residents, still traumatized,...Between the Lines: Tom Walsh's Curious Candidacy
When Tom Walsh decided last summer not to go through with plans to run for the Springfield City Council, he told the Advocate he'd decided to defer any political aspirations of his own to concentrate on his day job. Walsh is communications director for Mayor...Letters: What Do You Think?
I wanted to thank Maureen Turner for her well researched and well-written article concerning the scheduled closing of Immaculate Conception Church in Indian Orchard ("Praying for Salvation," Oct. 22, 2009). For those of us in the Springfield Catholic Diocese...
Mars-Crossed Lovers
After his 1907 expedition to the Andes to photograph Mars, Amherst College astronomer David Peck Todd became obsessed with the planet and the Martians whose canals he was convinced he saw there. In 1909, he planned a trip in a balloon to an altitude sufficient to...The World This Week: American Myths-tory
They say history is written by the winners, but it's written by myth-makers, too—if that's not a redundancy. In recent weeks, while researching a publishing project on the myths of American history, I have combed through an unending supply of stories...
Steve Sauter's Keys to the Cosmos
Clear or cloudy, each night at eleven Steve Sauter walks his dog to the end of his long driveway in Ashfield and looks skyward. The home he and his wife built is positioned so that on the solstice, the sun shines directly through the center of it. Every month of the...Imperium Watch: New Milestones for a New Road
What with economic collapse and galloping climate change, old indicators of economic wellbeing are rushing into obsolescence. New "sustainability" indexes have not yet replaced them in mainstream institutions or the media, but they're being...Letters: What Do You Think?
HigginsIn September, 2007, I heard Senator Obama give a primary campaign speech in Peterborough, N.H. I concluded he was "world-class" and I worked on his campaigns. Although he hasn't yet solved the economic crisis, health care, the environment, two...Between the Lines: That Little Girl From Bristol
My daughter looked up and smiled weakly. I put my hand to her forehead: she was warm, flush with fever."Daddy, H1N1 is the same thing as swine flu, right?" she said. I nodded, wondering where our eight-year-old had picked up that bit of information. Did she...Election 2009: Darby O'Brien Takes a Bow
In the wake of Clare Higgins' successful re-election bid in Northampton, the South Hadley firm that created the mayor's campaign advertising wasn't too shy to take a little credit, bringing into view the way in which marketing influences...Election 2009: No Surprise in Springfield
It hasn't always been easy to understand the decisions made by the Springfield electorate. This is the city that elected Mike Albano to multiple terms, defeating impressive candidates such as Charlie Ryan (in 1995) and Paul Caron (in 2001); the city that almost...Imperium Watch: A Breath of Fresh Air
While the nation remains fixated on Obama's health care policy, two federal agencies have addressed perennial health issues: the effects of air pollution and of dosing livestock with antibiotics. The agencies' health-promoting measures have gotten lost in the...Election2009: Bardsley Looks Ahead
In an interview after he'd just lost his mayoral bid in Northampton by a mere 344 votes, Michael Bardsley didn't exactly sound defeated."I'm feeling very good about things," Bardsley told the Advocate. "It was a very successful campaign in...The World This Week: Farewell From a Father
It was an accident, this missing of a familiar highway exit in my wife's childhood home in Massachusetts. And yet it wasn't an accident at all. We had arranged, on this return visit, to stay at a hotel in the area for the weekend of her brother's wedding....Pandemic Report: Farm to You?
As swine flu spreads, affecting nearly 6 million Americans by now, spreading fever and discomfort and creating long lines of people waiting for vaccine that's in short supply, reports say that scrutiny of large hog farming operations has slowed down, not speeded...Pandemic Report: Degrees of Mandatory
On September 2, 2009, a memo was released by John Auerbach, Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health. Its subject: "False Rumors Regarding Mandatory Vaccination for H1N1 Influenza." The opening paragraph reads:"Many of you may have heard rumors that...Between the Lines: The Wishbone
There it was, two weeks or so after the first meal, sitting on the windowsill: dry, brittle.I presented it to my daughter without comment. She inspected both sides carefully, looking for the weakness. Satisfied, she grabbed one end of the wishbone and nodded....Pandemic Report: Beyond the Factory Farm
Though researchers acknowledge that workers on small as well as large pig farms may contract and spread the swine flu virus, the large farms are special objects of concern because of the much higher numbers of animals, the confined conditions (some pigs never see the...Whole Foods Boycott Explores Local Angle
About three months after it started, a national boycott against Whole Foods seems to be petering out—but local activists are determined to keep the pressure on the company and specifically its CEO, John Mackey.Calls for the boycott were sparked by an op-ed piece...Election 2009: Tautznik Wins Big in Easthampton
While many in the Upper Valley wrung their hands over what would turn out to be a relatively narrow margin of victory in neighboring Northampton, Easthampton's voters proved considerably more decisive in last Tuesday's mayoral election. Despite a broad field...Letters: What Do You Think?
Nuke Reduction UnsafePresident Obama naively suggests the world can be free of nuclear weapons if the U.S. and Russia commit to arms reduction. Obama is negotiating a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia in December which could reduce the U.S. and...Letters: What Do You Think?
Whither Northampton?I'm writing to express my heartfelt sympathy to Northampton for the election results, and for the ongoing erosion of the town I knew and loved. Your leader doesn't understand or care about your beauty, history, and character: you are in a...Imperium Watch: The “Empire of Bases”
The U.S. is expanding its military presence in Colombia, which prompts a look at our ever-growing overseas troop presence and what it is costing us—not just in money.The Institute for Policy Studies finds that we have at least 865 bases outside the United...E-Edition
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