News
by Maureen Turner | Dec 24, 2009 | News
Last year, Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke says, John O'Brien of Rock 102's Bax and O'Brien Show passed on to him an interesting news article. The article described a new technology, used in several Connecticut cities, that allows police to quickly...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 12, 2010 | News
On January 6, 2010, the U.S. Justice Department announced it would take on the task of evaluating the proposed merger between Comcast, the nation's largest cable and broadband provider, and NBC Universal, the media production conglomerate. This resolves...
by Maureen Turner | Dec 24, 2009 | News
The news last week that the state commissioner of education wants to revoke the charter for Springfield's Robert M. Hughes Academy for MCAS cheating was a reminder of just where the ever-mounting pile of scandals at the school began.Back in November, the charter...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 12, 2010 | News
On Monday, January 4, 2010, a Vermont judge overturned a permit for a planned museum celebrating the life and work of famed children's book illustrator Tasha Tudor.Tasha Tudor died in June, 2008 at the age of 92. In addition to writing and illustrating many books...
by Stephanie Kraft | Dec 24, 2009 | News
Four Valley women, Paki Wieland of Northampton, Ruth Hooke of Amherst, Ellen Graves of West Springfield and Priscilla Lynch of Conway, will travel to Gaza to participate in the Gaza Freedom March December 31. The march commemorates the Israeli invasion of Gaza last...
by Robert B. Reich | Jan 12, 2010 | News
The Labor Department just reported that 85,000 jobs were lost in December. The official rate of unemployment (which measures how many people are looking for jobs) held steady at 10 percent nonetheless. That's because so many more people have stopped looking....
by Stephanie Kraft | Dec 24, 2009 | News
Last Sunday, bells, drums, gongs and horns at churches, synagogues and mosques the world over sounded 350 times to tell the world to lower the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. It was a plea for global cooperation to control climate...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 14, 2010 | News
If you saw a man beating another man on the street, you’d probably call the police.But what if the man doing the beating was himself a police officer? Maybe you’d get your video camera. That’s what one unnamed bystander did on Nov. 27, capturing an...
by Stephanie Kraft | Dec 29, 2009 | News
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo has given us all a holiday present. The Democrat from California got a bill through the House that will lower the volume of TV commercials to the level of the program carrying them instead of letting them spout unbearably shrill, disruptive...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 14, 2010 | News
What does the familiar assurance that the U.S. is the richest country in the world mean in times like these? Look at individual Americans just now and you see more and more signs of psychically stressful, health-threatening want. One such sign is the growing number of...
by Tom Vannah | Dec 31, 2009 | News
Valley Advocate Senior Writer Maureen Turner sent me a teasing email last week to ask me if I planned to write a farewell column to Larry McDermott, the longtime editor and, since 1999, publisher of the Springfield Republican. "Did I dream this," Turner...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 14, 2010 | News
For Massachusetts voters who are invested in the reform of existing drug policies—and the success of Question 2 on the November 2008 ballot would suggest that's a significant chunk of the electorate—next week's special Senate election presents a...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 31, 2009 | News
Horns to Springfield State Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera and West Springfield State Sen. Stephen Buoniconti for their so-called attempts to "improve" the state's endangered species protection program. In truth, the bills pushed by these two urban...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 14, 2010 | News
On what had seemed like a nice spring day in April, 1999, Jim Schaefer and his wife, Elissa Anne Henderson, were climbing to the summit at Berkshire East Ski Resort in Charlemont—Jim with skis, Elissa on snowshoes—when Elissa had an asthma attack. Shocked...
by Our Readers | Dec 31, 2009 | News
False Alarms:Chris Matera's vision of Massachusetts being clearcut at an ever-accelerating pace (Letters, Dec. 10, 2009) is simply false. Endless repetition of the claim does not make it any more true. Matera's photographic sleights-of-hand, fanciful rhetoric...
by Our Readers | Jan 14, 2010 | News
Give It Up for MassHealthMy letter is in part a response to those who advocate for single payer health care and claim that, like health reform in Massachusetts, congressional health reform is a sham. First, I too agree that single payer is the way to go. It is just...
by Maureen Turner | Dec 31, 2009 | News
In response to a recent article on our "On Springfield" blog about the controversial proposal by Palmer Renewable Energy to build a $150 million wood-burning plant on Page Boulevard—a plan that activists argue poses significant public health and...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 14, 2010 | News
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has thrown a wrench under the wheels of a galloping foreclosure crisis in which banks and mortgage companies who could not even show clear title to a property have often managed to foreclose on it and evict the borrowers. Last Friday...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 7, 2010 | News
The National Rifle Association is busy soliciting new members—even offering discounted membership fees—and spreading its message that President Obama will unveil an anti-gun agenda sometime, perhaps as a "wellness" component of health care...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 14, 2010 | News
The talking heads were wringing their hands and pointing their fingers. To some in the leftwing establishment, the connection was obvious: the vitriolic political rhetoric coming from the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, among others, surely...
by Our Readers | Jan 14, 2010 | News
Rich Not Backbone of Free Enterprise On its face, Anne Gelinas’ letter in your Jan. 6 issue [which was responding to “In Praise of the Free Market,” December 16, 2010] seems a persuasive defense of a free enterprise system. Rhetorical questions of...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 14, 2010 | News
For police, 2010 was a difficult year. After 2009, when the number of officers who died in the line of duty hit a 50-year low at 117, deaths in uniform jumped 37 percent last year, to 160. Fifty-nine of those killed were shot, up from 49 in 2009; 73 were traffic...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 14, 2010 | News
Last year, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield filed a lawsuit against the City of Springfield that touched on a crucial—and often politically touchy—legal question: where, exactly, is the line between the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 21, 2010 | News
For decades now, the Internet has thrived with minimal regulation. As it increasingly moves from a fringe medium to the primary one through which business, entertainment and ideas are carried on and exchanged, the threat of regulation looms large. To preserve what is...
by Tom Sturm | Jan 21, 2010 | News
Starting next fall, approximately 200 children will have to travel a bit farther to go to school, thanks to a 13-3 vote by the Gateway Regional School Committee whose primary effect will be the closing of three rural elementary schools. Russell Elementary, Blandford...
by Our Readers | Jan 21, 2010 | News
Keeping Them in CollegeIf our government, both federal and state, had any interest in making college more affordable for low-income independent students, they could take two very simple steps (see "A Matter of Degree," Jan. 7, 2010). On the federal level,...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 21, 2010 | News
In a video communication last October, bin Laden lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri's threats to the U.S. included a vow to drain its economy. But the economy can be drained without al-Zawahiri's help. America's own financial institutions are doing it. A...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 21, 2010 | News
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has filed a bill to force the Treasury Department to bust up banks and other financial institutions seen as "too big to fail." While consumers damn Wall Street and wait for the government to do something about the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 21, 2010 | News
Through freezing, dismal weather that had others in the region huddling in their houses, people from Vermont and Massachusetts walked 126 miles over 12 days— from Brattleboro to Montpelier, from Jan. 2 to 13—to ask the Vermont Legislature to vote against...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 21, 2010 | News
When Liz Friedman gave birth to her first child seven years ago, she experienced what she calls a "severe post-partum crisis." She felt isolated and alone, a problem exacerbated by her partner's demanding work schedule. She was mourning the loss of an...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 21, 2010 | News
Each year in Holyoke, Highland Hardware and Bike Shop and Mansir Printing collaborate on printing a calendar illustrated with a selection of the historic images from the collection of Harry Craven, the owner of Highland Hardware. Profits are donated to a local...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 22, 2010 | News
“The public has lost confidence in Parole, and I have lost confidence in Parole.” So says Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, referring to the state Parole Board. In the last few weeks, the governor has come under pressure from police groups, victim rights...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 22, 2010 | News
Earlier this year, the makers of the fruit-flavored drink SunnyD launched a national promotion called the “SunnyD Book Spree.” Schools were invited to submit UPC codes collected from SunnyD bottles to the company, which, in turn, would send the schools...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 22, 2010 | News
Their fields may be frozen, but winter is still a busy time for farmers, who use the break between last year's harvest and this year's sowing to order seeds, plot out their fields and otherwise prepare for the coming growing season.This winter, the South...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 22, 2010 | News
For the first time in two decades, Hampden County has a new top prosecutor, with the inauguration of District Attorney Mark Mastroianni earlier this month. A few days before Mastroianni’s inauguration, the Springfield Republican marked the end of the 20-year...
by Our Readers | Jan 22, 2010 | News
Foreclosure: More Consumers Should Speak Up The Massachusetts court decision [that foreclosures cannot proceed without proper documentation of ownership; see “Putting the Brake on Foreclosures,” January 13, 2011] is fantastic news because Wells Fargo in...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 22, 2010 | News
Ex-U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has been sentenced to three years in prison for money laundering and conspiracy to launder money in connection with the illegal funneling of corporate donations to candidates for the Texas state legislature in 2002. (DeLay’s own...
by Tom Sturm | Jan 26, 2010 | News
After the events of September 11, 2001, a response was unleashed wherein two wars were launched–one against a country that had no evident involvement in the terrorist attacks–that have cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, and are still going...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 26, 2010 | News
Radioactive tritium has been discovered in a well that monitors groundwater flow from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant near Brattleboro, and in a concrete trench at the plant. (Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen; it's the element that gives exit...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 26, 2010 | News
In other news about Vermont Yankee, the Vermont Citizens Action Network has struck on a rather ingenious way to raise money for its efforts to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, which sits just north of the Valley, in Vernon, Vt.: a green-tinged raffle....
by Maureen Turner | Jan 26, 2010 | News
As expected, the Diocese of Springfield has filed a lawsuit against the Springfield City Council in response to the Council's decision to create a protected historic district at the recently closed Our Lady of Hope parish on Armory Street. The lawsuit, which was...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 28, 2010 | News
If this is how it feels to live in a swing state, a colleague recently suggested, living in a swing state must be a pain in the ass.That was about the best take-away point I heard over the last few weeks as pundits near and far endeavored to explain the cataclysmic...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 28, 2010 | News
With newspapers all over the country on the brink of collapse and an epicenter shift occurring in the way people get their news, it's worth a look at the Pew Research Center's recent survey of where core news—genuinely new information—is coming...
by James Heflin | Jan 28, 2010 | News
It's a remarkable statement: "For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process," [Republican Senator Mitch] McConnell said. "With today's monumental decision, the Supreme Court took an...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 28, 2010 | News
A memo sent out last week to the Northampton State Hospital Fountain Committee by Jacky Duda, the group's chair, announced that the committee is eligible to apply for Community Preservation Funds for the planning and building of a memorial on the former property...
by Maureen Turner | Jan 29, 2010 | News
Like many Springfield residents, Walter Kroll says, when he first heard about a proposal to build a power plant in the East Springfield neighborhood, he assumed that government officials were in the best position to decide whether the project would be right for the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 29, 2010 | News
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut won’t be running for another term in Congress. Lieberman, whose political identity has morphed confusingly through the years—a Democrat who campaigned actively for a Republican presidential candidate, an...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 29, 2010 | News
As the budget process for 2012 gets underway, a new report released last week by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center gives the state high marks for “efficient” spending. The report compares the cost of services purchased by state government,...
by Our Readers | Jan 29, 2010 | News
Citizens Treated as Terrorists? In “A Double Standard in Terrorism Response?” [January 20, 2011], Tom Sturm asks us to imagine a world where everyone resembling the Tucson shooter is treated the way U.S. government has treated Muslims for a decade....
by Our Readers | Jan 29, 2010 | News
More on the BeastThank you for your recent article ("Mountain Power," Jan. 14, 2010) revealing the heart-warming history of Berkshire East. As a California native, I grew up skiing Tahoe Donner's local mountain in Truckee and have many blissful childhood...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 2, 2010 | News
An Environmental Protection Agency memo written last November goes a long way toward solving the mystery of honey bee colony collapse disorder. It also provides a snapshot of the conflict between corporate interests and the natural world that’s one of the major...
by Tom Sturm | Feb 2, 2010 | News
The year 2010 may well be a significantly cleaner one for the city of Pittsfield. The decade-long process of cleaning up the former site of General Electric's shuttered plant and its surrounding area was initially mandated by a consent decree from a U.S. district...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 2, 2010 | News
Train service will return to towns along the Connecticut River in Massachusetts within the next two years, along with three new station stops: one new and two renovated. Last week, President Obama announced $8 billion dollars in federal stimulus grants for high-speed...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 2, 2010 | News
The New Hampshire state bird is the purple finch. The official state flower is the purple lilac. Last week, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development announced the designation of the state's first official T-shirt, "Three Wolf Moon," a garment...
by James Heflin | Feb 3, 2010 | News
Something pretty important happened last week at Protein Attachment Technologies, an Amherst bio-tech firm started by UMass chemistry professors. It just wasn't initially clear what that was. The press release read like one of those weird bridge columns for card...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 4, 2010 | News
As tension builds about when the Vermont Legislature will vote to allow or deny a 20-year license extension for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, it's time to look at what's going on between the state of New York and Yankee's owners, Entergy. Wrapped...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 4, 2010 | News
Saudi Arabian billionaire Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has announced that he would support James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and reportedly an outspoken critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, for CEO of News Corporation, the Rupert Murdoch...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 4, 2010 | News
When Tim Black first met Fausto Rivera in 1990, the odds were stacked dramatically against the 15-year-old Rivera. A sophomore at Springfield's Commerce High, he could neither read nor write. He was already a father, with a daughter who had severe medical...
by Rory O'Connor | Feb 4, 2010 | News
Our country just lost one of its greatest patriots, and I lost a friend and longtime role model and inspiration, when historian and activist Howard Zinn passed away.I still remember as if it were yesterday the first time I ever saw him. It was the tumultuous year of...
by Our Readers | Feb 9, 2010 | News
Vermont Yankee Destroyed TrustIt used to really burn me up to have my trust violated by my mate when I was in an intimate relationship with her. Now I know what I deserve and if a woman violates my trust, I say goodbye. Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee just violated the...
