News
by James Heflin | Feb 9, 2010 | News
A recent UMass Daily Collegian piece pointed out to students that one-third of Amherst's Town Meeting seats will be up for grabs in March, an especially important fact in light of the severe underrepresentation of student-age (18-24) Amherst residents. The piece...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 9, 2010 | News
On Jan. 25, the executive director of MassPIRG (the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group), Janet Domenitz, announced a new campaign to demand that banks that were assisted by government bailouts a little over a year ago pay taxpayers back before paying bonuses...
by Tom Sturm | Feb 9, 2010 | News
Stockbridge's Norman Rockwell Museum experienced an unexpected temporary crash of its website last Wednesday, Feb. 3 due to a surge in Internet traffic brought on by a Google tribute to the artist on his 116th birthday. Google, as it has been known to do for...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 11, 2010 | News
Did anyone else get the feeling that the speedy response of countless countries and organizations to the earthquake in Haiti showed the eagerness human beings exude when they think they see a chance to make up for something? (This doesn't apply to individuals,...
by Our Readers | Feb 11, 2010 | News
Religious Freedom—Really?I am writing in response to the January 28 story (News and Commentary, "Church Historic District Challenged in Court") about the Roman Catholic Diocese suit over the creation of the Our Lady of Hope Local Historic District. The...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 11, 2010 | News
It's been more than five months since the Springfield City Council voted to take the Urban League building at 765 State Street and return it to its previous use, as a branch library for the Mason Square neighborhood. So why is the Urban League still in the...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 11, 2010 | News
The Massachusetts Broadband Initiative (MBI) made the glum announcement on Jan. 26 that its application for federal stimulus funds had been taken out of the running for the first funding phase. MBI would receive none of the $100 million the group hoped would help...
by Jillian Fink | Feb 11, 2010 | News
In the fall of 2008, Williams College announced the replacement of student loans with grants and direct scholarships, a program designed to help students to prevent an excessive accumulation of debt while pursuing higher education. Now, however, it appears that the...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 16, 2010 | News
In 2006, Massachusetts legislators passed a law that prohibited the sale of thermostats that contain mercury. They weren't alone; over the past decade, 15 states have passed similar laws, in response to increasing concerns about the serious public health risks...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 16, 2010 | News
On the morning of February 9, the Holyoke Fire Department responded to reports of a fire in the octagonal house on the corner of Hampden and Parker streets. The fire broke out in the attic, and destroyed much of that and the second floor. Owner David Casali had been...
by Our Readers | Feb 18, 2010 | News
Keep Nuke RunningSo the owners and managers of Vermont Yankee cover up problems and downplay risks—this is my surprised face. The solution, however, is not shutting the plant down. What would take its place? A coal plant? Even so-called clean coal is far dirtier...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 18, 2010 | News
As the Vermont Department of Health and the operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant agree that tritium-contaminated water from the plant is moving toward the Connecticut River, a plan to bundle a relicensed Vermont Yankee with five other plants owned by...
by Tom Sturm | Feb 18, 2010 | News
Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield is clobbering every Ivy League school in at least one area: next fall, it's going solar. A $3.5 million project is already out to bid to install more than 1,800 solar panels on six of the campus's newly renovated...
by James Heflin | Feb 18, 2010 | News
When Amherst Town Meeting voted last November to invite two released Guantanamo inmates to settle in town, it made national news, reinforcing Amherst's ultra-liberal reputation among skeptical conservatives. Recent goings-on at UMass-Amherst Veteran Services...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 23, 2010 | News
The Hampden County Bar Association’s Foreclosure Task Force, whose staff is still busy answering calls from people threatened with foreclosure (dial 413-322-7404), is rooting for a proposed new state law that may offer relief to more than one homeowner at a...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 23, 2010 | News
Help wanted: chief executive to run large 374-year-old organization. Oversee 6,700 employees and a $530 million budget. Responsibilities include public safety, economic development and public education. Fundraising ability essential; a thick skin a plus. Benefits...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 23, 2010 | News
As Amherst residents brace for a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote next month, many eyes, naturally, turn to how the town is spending the money it already has. Among those budget matters to get closer inspection are the very generous benefits included in Superintendent...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 25, 2010 | News
While Springfield residents and officials continue to grapple with the seemingly irresolvable issue of how to police the city’s police, there has been a resolution in one recent high-profile case of alleged police misconduct. Last week, a settlement was...
by Our Readers | Feb 25, 2010 | News
The Health Care Americans Need I am flabbergasted by the letters appearing in the Advocate and other newspapers celebrating Scott Brown’s victory as a repudiation of “a government takeover of healthcare.” Do the writers of these letters really think...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 25, 2010 | News
The federal indictment last week of reputed local mob leader Anthony Arillotta in connection with the murder of his predecessor, Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, has added another layer of intrigue to that still unresolved case. Arillotta was described in the...
by James Heflin | Feb 25, 2010 | News
Hadley, long known as a community that welcomes big box retailers, hasn’t been so hospitable to Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer. Starting in 2003, the town voted down—three times—requests to rezone agricultural land (the Long Hollow Bison...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 2, 2010 | News
President Barack Obama announced last week that he would offer $8 billion in loan guarantees for two new nuclear reactors and that more guarantees for nuclear power will be in the pipeline (the industry is pushing for $100 billion worth). The plan is to back nuclear...
by Tom Sturm | Mar 2, 2010 | News
The Green Communities Act of 2008 is starting to see some of its grants, loans and other clean energy incentives come to fruition, and Western Mass. is leading the way. Western Mass. Electric Company (WMECo) has announced development of the first of its proposed...
by Our Readers | Mar 4, 2010 | News
Back to Candles and Sing-Alongs? The letters from Seth Tuler and Amelia Shaw that you published on February 11 are representative of the views of many opponents of nuclear power. They describe supposedly inevitable dangers that most of us non-scientists cannot...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 4, 2010 | News
National polls conducted in December and January found that Americans named the Public Broadcasting System the most trusted, least biased nationally known institution in the U.S.; it won that accolade from respondents of all ages, ethnicities and income and education...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 4, 2010 | News
Another meeting, another round of questions, some familiar answers—and Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke remains frustrated in his efforts to stop the School Department from moving to the old federal building on Main Street. But Rooke is not ready to give up....
by Maureen Turner | Mar 4, 2010 | News
The four-year financial projection released last week by Springfield’s new chief financial officer was not a pretty picture. Using “conservative” estimates that include level funding for city departments, the report projects that the city faces a...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 4, 2010 | News
Tom Rooke was in the race early, announcing a year ago that he planned to run for Hampden County District Attorney regardless of whether incumbent Bill Bennett planned to stay in the race. But now the Springfield attorney has changed course, announcing that he’s...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 9, 2010 | News
The final chapter may be opening in dealings between the state of Vermont and Entergy, the company that in 2002 bought the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at Vernon, near Brattleboro. In an era when aging American nukes were being bought up at fire sale prices,...
by Tom Sturm | Mar 9, 2010 | News
After a long, drawn-out back-and-forth battle with Vermont Yankee nuclear plant owner Entergy, the Vermont State Senate voted Feb. 24 not to extend the facility’s license to operate beyond March of 2012. The 26 to 4 vote marks the first action of its kind in...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 9, 2010 | News
Since 2007, Entergy, the New Orleans-based company that owns the beleaguered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, has been planning to spin off its six northeastern facilities into an independent company, Enexus Energy Corp. On February 24, after evidence of leaking...
by Tom Vannah and Mark Roessler | Mar 9, 2010 | News
On March 1, Hospital Hill Development, LLC, submitted a “Notice of Project Change” to the state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, asking OEEA Secretary Ian Bowles to find that the recent changes made to the Village Hill development plans outlined...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 11, 2010 | News
Springfield has joined Holyoke in signaling its support of a new approach to trash management, one that shifts the burden of dealing with hard-to-recycle trash from municipalities (and taxpayers) to the manufacturers that make the products and packaging in the first...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 11, 2010 | News
If you grew up during the Cold War, you notice a disconnect in public debate these days that’s monumental, like an elephant in the room. Why do those who shout “socialist” at the Obama administration—who are either so genuinely frightened or...
by James Heflin | Mar 11, 2010 | News
Amherst artist Matthew Mitchell’s project to document those whose lives have been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 100 Faces of War Experience, just got a big boost. (The project was the subject of a cover story, “The Emotional Awareness of...
by Our Readers | Mar 11, 2010 | News
Celebrating Vote on Nuclear Plant On February 24, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 not to renew the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after 2012: a powerful and exhilarating “No!” to years of mismanagement and neglect. Unless the Senate reverses...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 11, 2010 | News
Last week, a bill sponsored by Keene Democrat Steven Lindsey proposing some measures to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana reached the floor of the New Hampshire House, seven months after Governor John Lynch vetoed a bill legalizing the medical use of the plant....
by Maureen Turner | Mar 16, 2010 | News
For years, American farmers have relied on the herbicide atrazine to control weeds. The chemical is used on 75 percent of cornfields in the U.S., the Washington Post recently reported. From there, it washes into nearby streams and rivers, traveling throughout the...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 16, 2010 | News
In the months after the collapse of the World Trade Center, longtime Manhattan resident Ann Jones found herself experiencing a strange form of disorientation. “I’d turn a corner and draw a blank,” Jones, a veteran journalist and human rights...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 18, 2010 | News
Since its founding in 2000, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has taken on some formidable foes, with impressive results. The Boston-based nonprofit, which works to counter the ill effects of consumer culture on kids, has pressured Scholastic Books to stop...
by Our Readers | Mar 18, 2010 | News
Who Made America Prosper? As the Republicans beat the drum against “socialism” and faux-Populists like Sarah Palin and the “Tea Party” claim that “smaller” government will return us to a vaguely-recalled time of “good...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 18, 2010 | News
Yes, I acknowledged for the umpteenth time in the last week, I saw the pictures of Ian Bowles holding two very cute bear cubs during a recent visit to Conway. “When I saw it, I thought of you instantly,” my friend and former colleague said, with the same...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 18, 2010 | News
Late last week, in advance of the release of proposed 2011 fiscal budgets by the state House and Senate, Massachusetts legislative leaders sent a message to local governments across the Commonwealth: prepare for another round of cuts in local aid. The anticipated drop...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 18, 2010 | News
Houses first began to be built in the “Highlands” east of downtown Springfield in 1870, and by 1881 the area became the first planned residential neighborhood in the region. Today the area is known as the McKnight Neighborhood after the brothers who...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 23, 2010 | News
Prosecutors in Brooklyn have said there are no grounds to bring charges against ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) after conservative activist James O’Keefe used a hidden camera to make videos purporting to show its staff colluding...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 25, 2010 | News
Regular readers of the Advocate may be familiar with the work of the winners of this year’s ADDY Award competition Best in Show award. Rob and Damia Stewart of Rob & Damia Design won for their Transit Authority Figures Posters, earning both the gold in the...
by Matthew Dube | Mar 25, 2010 | News
It’s a few days before Christmas and I’m avoiding the elements and the holiday crush by hiding out in one of my favorite refuges, Easthampton’s Cherry Picked Books. “Is this one for you?” asks Michael Engel, the shop’s mild-mannered...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 25, 2010 | News
On a mission to rein in a Wall Street that’s become a casino is U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has promised to go to bat to improve the financial industry reform legislation that was announced last week. The legislation, captained by Senate Banking...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 25, 2010 | News
Why is the passage of health care reform a victory for Americans? One woman’s name sums up the reason: Nikki White. Nikki White’s story is told in one of the best books going about the subject of fairness and fiscal realism in health care: T.R....
by Our Readers | Mar 25, 2010 | News
Not Funny Enough Your new cartoon Mild Abandon lives up to its name: it is mildly amusing. However, it is a poor replacement for the brilliant and biting This Modern World. The Valley Advocate is much diminished as a result. David CoxAmherst It is really, really hard...
by Tom Vannah and Mark Roessler | Mar 25, 2010 | News
A public comment period is open now–until March 30–for those interested in responding to proposed changes made to the master plan for the development on Northampton’s Hospital Hill. The public comment period follows the filing of a Notice of Project...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 26, 2010 | News
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated as of March 25. Please be certain to check the author’s comment at the bottom of the page. Malalai Joya was one of 160 women chosen to participate in the 2003 Afghan Loya Jirga, a national council assembled to...
by Norman Solomon | Mar 26, 2010 | News
Like every other president since the 1940s, Barack Obama has promoted nuclear power. Now, with reactors melting down in Japan, the official stance is more disconnected from reality than ever. Political elites are still clinging to the oxymoron of “safe nuclear...
by Our Readers | Mar 26, 2010 | News
Transit: Small Improvements Needed Thanks to Mark Roessler for an insightful piece on high-speed rail. His recommendation is spot on— rebuilding our local bus routes will provide the supporting infrastructure needed to make high-speed rail a viable form of mass...
by Andrew Potter | Mar 26, 2010 | News
There’s a great scene at the beginning of Doctor Zhivago when the Bolsheviks are marching through town in peaceful protest, singing songs of freedom and brotherhood while the aristocrats dance and drink in a ballroom that overlooks the street. The party goes...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 26, 2010 | News
The Springfield Public Health Council’s job is to advise the mayor on matters that could have detrimental effects on the health and well-being of city residents. And that, say a group of local activists, is why the Council should weigh in on the wood-burning...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 26, 2010 | News
There’s a family resemblance between the disaster-ridden Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and some nuclear plants close to us in here New England. The Fukushima plant is a General Electric Mark I (a design term for the plant’s containment structure)....
by Maureen Turner | Mar 26, 2010 | News
Cynthia Anzalotti makes a persuasive case for all that the Springfield Performing Arts Development Corp. and the two venues it runs—CityStage and Symphony Hall—contribute to the city, starting with some hard figures: over the course a year, the two...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2010 | News
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes … here comes Chris Asselin again? When the email showed up in my inbox—a quick note alerting me to a story on MassLive.com—I wondered for a moment if it were an early April Fool’s gag: fresh off a stint in...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2010 | News
Add Springfield to the list of communities pig-piling on the Republican newspaper for its infamous little purple bags. At issue is the Republican’s “Extra” publication, a weekly supplement that the newspaper delivers free to homes once a week....
