News
Imperium Watch: Let Big Wheels Pull the Wagon
It’s an interesting paradox in a day when “socialism” has become a scare word: back in 1955, when Joe McCarthy, the Red Scare and blacklisting still hadn’t gone cold as news, the top 400 earners in America had to pay 51.2 percent of their...
Library Consolidation, No!
As a writer and a home-schooling parent, Liz Castro knows as well as anyone just how valuable public libraries are. Castro and her family make regular trips to tiny Belding Memorial Library, in their hometown of Ashfield; when they need a bigger selection to choose...Bailing Out Boston
Last month, as state Rep. John Scibak (D-South Hadley) fought to get included in the House budget an amendment to preserve the Western Mass. Regional Library System, he was surprised by the resistance he encountered from colleagues from the Boston area, he said. That...Who Decides What's Sustainable?
As many as one in every five new homes and a quarter of municipal buildings and office towers are expected to qualify as “green” buildings two years from now. But what does that really mean? There is no single standard. Instead, a broad array of...Imperium Watch: Not Just for Greedy Geezers
We’ve heard this too many times. Way too many times. Beginning with the first salvo of articles about President Obama’s budget, the familiar refrain was there again: “…he avoids tough choices on such big issues as Medicare, Medicaid and Social...Letters: What Do You Think?
No Give, No Take I am by no means the only reader of the Advocate who continues to regret the loss of This Modern World and its replacement with Mild Abandon, a bland, boring, and unfunny substitute. Though the Advocate has published a number of letters complaining...Wood-burning Plant Under Fire
Last week, the Patrick administration proposed strict new rules for “biomass” plants in the state, including limits on what kinds of wood could be burned in such plants. The regulations would also set high energy-efficiency thresholds that must be met for...Between the Lines: Biomass Bully Pulpit
To get a sense of the depth of frustration biomass developers are feeling toward both environmental activists (at least those activists who oppose efforts to build large wood-burning electricity plants in Massachusetts) and the Patrick Administration, all you have to...Now Don't Ruin Things by Using Too Much T.P.
When it comes to matters environmental, just how ahead of the curve is the Valley? Two words (or maybe it’s three): composting porta-potty. Sure, there are plenty of compelling reasons to attend next weekend’s Hilltown Spring Festival: live performances by...Letters: What Do You Think?
What Is a Green Building? Christine MacDonald began her editorial Who Decides What’s Sustainable? [May 13, 2010] reflecting on the expectation that many buildings nationally will be qualified as “green” in two years. Then she rhetorically asks,...
Re-Cycling
If eagles are the rulers of the sky and sharks the lords of the sea, the Pedal People are the busy bees of the Valley’s bike trails, bringing to the system the lifeblood of commerce and the virtue of conservation. An early pioneering effort that has since been...Searching for Consensus
State Rep. Ellen Story was knocked out by a nasty respiratory flu last week. But that didn’t stop her from celebrating encouraging signs that her bill to support new mothers, several years in the making, finally appears headed to become a law. Story, an Amherst...Biomass Awaits Manomet
Until the fall of last year, the biomass industry seemed to be on a fast track in Massachusetts. The Patrick administration was bullish on biomass, promoting it as one of a number of promising alternative energy sources, encouraging the development of biomass plants...Not Far Enough
When the Patrick administration earlier this year called for a state ban on the use of the controversial chemical bisphenol-A (or BPA) in certain products, environmental activists reacted with guarded praise. In early March, the governor announced that he was ordering...ImperiumWatch: Smarter Is Safer
In the security line at the airport, you whip out your liquids, laptop and keys and throw them in a plastic box. You take off your jacket and fling it and your purse into a box; you take off your shoes. You know that putting things in boxes could make it easier for...Between the Lines: The End of the Trail
While the rest of the Valley Advocate staff spent last week putting the finishing touches on the Dining and Travel section for this issue, I was out dining and traveling my way across Massachusetts and up into Maine, stopping occasionally along the way to snap photos...
All Hail the Cheese Queen
“What can I do about it?” Deep into a far-ranging discussion with Ricki Carroll, Ashfield’s internationally recognized “Cheese Queen,” she stopped upon this phrase, repeated it and declared the expression the essence of the problem the...Regional Public Broadcasting Expands Again
On the heels of its 50th birthday, Amherst’s WFCR 88.5 FM has made another move toward expansion in the region, acquiring yet another station to add to its rapidly growing public broadcasting network. CEO and General Manager Martin Miller announced this week at...Letters: What Do You Think?
A Cow’s Life In connection with the Advocate’s May 12 cover story, “All Hail the Cheese Queen,” I feel it’s important that your readers know how cheese-making and all dairy products affect cows and calves. Regardless of whether the farm...Between the Lines: BP Stands for Bad Petroleum
The White House recently warned BP that it expects the oil giant to pay all damages associated with the disastrous oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, even if the costs exceed the $75 million liability cap under federal law. BP responded by saying its public statements...
Brewer in the Basement
Taking over as head brewer for a local brewery with a passionately loyal and ever-thirsty community of beer drinkers can be a daunting task. Though he appears to have mastered the job, Chris Sellers, the brewer for the People’s Pint, admitted in an Advocate...ImperiumWatch: Whose Line Is It, Anyway?
The health care bill is not about health care. It is about protecting and increasing the profits of the insurance companies. … What the U.S. needs is a single-payer not-for-profit health system that pays doctors and nurses sufficiently. … A private health...
The People in the Pint
The chef at the People’s Pint says the reason he whips the butter every day and squirts it into small, reusable crocks individually for each customer is because his boss, the Pint’s founder and owner, Alden Booth “bristles at the word...A Library for Mason Square
Could it really be true—is the Urban League finally preparing to move out of 765 State Street, opening the way to the long-overdue restoration of full library services in Mason Square? According to a May 21 update on the status of the building—which the...Between the Lines: What Does the Science Say?
John Hagan the scientist is a bird man—a Neotropical migratory bird man, to be specific—with a doctorate in zoology and a six-year stint as editor of Ornithological Monographs for the American Ornithologists’ Union on his resume. When he talks about...Home: Top Dollar
When you sit down with a loan officer to fill out a mortgage application—maybe you’re buying a home; maybe you’re refinancing your mortgage, taking advantage of today’s historically low interest rates—you learn soon enough that loan...Letters: What Do You Think?
Save Arctic From Spills I have been watching with horror as one of the worst oil spills in American history continues unabated, and millions of gallons of crude oil now threaten our nation’s vital Gulf Coast ecosystem. This latest national environmental crisis...Face to the Wind
Even as Vermont’s two largest electric utilities, Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Company, put off signing a contract for electricity from the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, they are arranging to buy power from a...Rooke Stands His Ground
It appears safe to say that City Councilor Tim Rooke has not been intimidated into silence by the recent harsh words leveled at him by Mayor Domenic Sarno. Last week, Sarno issued a press release chastising Rooke for his ongoing criticism of the plan to move the...ImperiumWatch: Slick and Sleazy
One of the sleazy things about oil spills like the current British Petroleum mess in the Gulf of Mexico is that they’re front-loaded and back-loaded with our money. It’s what we pay that makes oil a profitable business, and, until Congress changes the laws...Massie: No to PRE Project
As the Advocate went to press this week, there was still no word on whether the Springfield City Council would revoke or amend the special permit granted to the controversial wood-burning power plant proposed for East Springfield. The Council was expected to vote on...
Your City's Front Door
These days, most cities have dozens of roads entering their limits, and every one of them leads to your home or business. When we roll the red carpet out for an old friend or distinguished guest, we tend to do so from our own front doorsteps. Occasionally, you might...Between the Lines: Of Rank and Rape
When Panayiota Bertzikis tried to tell her commanding officers that she had been raped in May 2006 by a shipmate four months into her tour at the Burlington, Vt., Coast Guard Station, they discouraged her from talking to an Equal Opportunity officer, barred her from...Letters: What Do You Think?
Another Cow’s Life In regard to “A Cow’s Life,” a letter in your May 19 issue: it is unwise to speculate about “what happens to all cows and calves in dairy production.” Here’s how it is on the small family farm where I work:...
Making Them Pay
In 2002, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson instituted what was, from his perspective at least, a successful new policy: he began charging inmates under his authority a daily fee of $5 to help cover the cost of their incarceration. The policy—called the...Imperium Watch: The Cut or Uncut Budget
US Uncut represents a new protest movement against the cutting of social programs that help the poor and the middle class while large, profitable corporations pay no taxes in the U.S. You might call it a liberal counterpart to the Tea Party—that’s a rough...How Green Is Our Valley?
Western Mass. was well represented among the 35 towns and cities named last week by the Patrick administration as “Green Communities”—a designation that will now allow them to compete for a pot of $8.1 million in funds earmarked for environmental...Letters: What Do You Think?
Audubon on Biomass, Take 2 To clarify [see letter with editor’s response, May 27, 2010], since 2005, Mass Audubon has commented publicly and repeatedly on the biomass issue. Beginning with comments to the state on the Russell Biomass Project when it was first...Between the Lines: Out of the Loop
The day after the storm, it didn’t seem all that odd to be without cable TV, without phone or Internet service. We felt lucky to have electric power, which many of our neighbors in Franklin County remain without as I write this. We awoke that first morning to...ImperiumWatch: Oil in the Marshes
Beaches uninhabitable, the sand soaked with grunge. Plants, including those that hold the marshlands together by preventing erosion, smothered. Crabs, shrimp, oysters, fish and birds facing death either because of the oil itself or because of the killoff of their...Patrick Goofs, Stein Scores
It was news late in May when Gov. Deval Patrick tried to cap off a gushing scandal about patronage in hiring at the Massachusetts Probation Department by calling the department, headed by John O’Brien, a “rogue agency.” It sounded tough, it sounded...Partial Progress on Justice Reform
Last week’s passage of a crime reform bill by the Massachusetts House is being seen by activists as an important, but not complete, step toward the reforms that need to take place. Activists have been pushing for years to change the Criminal Offender Record...Letters: What Do You Think?
Cut Subsidies for “Bioenergy” Our coalition applauds this week’s decision by the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee to slash Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) funding for 2012. The U.S. Department of...Yay or Nay on Biomass
As if last week’s meeting of the Springfield City Council to consider rescinding the permit for a controversial wood-burning power plant in the city wasn’t already heavy with import—about the public health and environmental implications, the effects...Between the Lines: Mommie Darkest
Here are some reasons you might know of Ayelet Waldman: She’s the author of a number of well-received novels, including, most recently, the absorbing Red Hook Road, about the effects on two families when a young bride and groom are killed in a wedding-day limo...
Fighting for Western Mass. Libraries
The fiscal 2011 budget passed by the state Senate last week included a provision that will help protect library services in Western Mass.—although not as completely as some had hoped. Adopted as part of the $28 billion budget was an amendment, sponsored by Sen....
Fighting Foreclosure
At 11 o’clock on a chilly, sunny March morning, Inez Williams’ house is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction. Williams and her husband, Bill, bought the house—a 1,428-square-foot, three-bedroom home on St. James Avenue in...Imperium Watch: Not Defined by Capitalism
What with the shouting about socialism during the health care debate, the caricaturing of Obama as a socialist and the shrillness of rightwingers tossing the term around like paper airplanes, you’d think socialism was still a McCarthy-era scare word in this...Fertile Soil for Local Products
There aren’t a lot of industries seeing dramatic growth in this economy—which makes the continuing expansion of the local food market even more impressive. Last week, South Deerfield’s Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA—the...Letters: What Do You Think?
It’s About the Environment Developers are currently proposing the construction of biomass plants in Greenfield, Springfield, Pittsfield, Russell, and Fitchburg that would burn more than 13 million pounds of green wood a day and would add only 1 percent to our...Between the Lines: As Goes the Middle Class
We’re falling into a double-dip recession. The Labor Department reports that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were for temporary government census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed...Fight Over Jail Fees Continues
Efforts to make inmates in county jails pay room-and-board and other fees continue to march forward in the state budget—but not without considerable resistance from activists and criticism from some Valley sheriffs. In late May, the state Senate approved a...McKnight Kids Call for a Summer of Peace
Last weekend, it was the cops who hit the streets in Springfield, as about 100 local, state and federal law enforcement officers were deployed over a period of about 12 hours in “Operation Blue Knight,” described by officials as an effort both to deter...Look Up and Drive
In recent months, both the Massachusetts House and Senate have passed bills that would ban texting while driving. Those bills, however, have languished in a conference committee ever since—prompting some communities to pass their own local texting bans,...Letters: What Do You Think?
Environmental Disasters: Following Fast and Following Faster The crisis in the Gulf shows a lack of responsibility for the?natural world?and a lack of laws in place to protect it. For 30 years BP has funded research for drilling further and deeper offshore but has not...Vassell Sentenced to Probation
The Jason Vassell case, which drew hundreds of people from Amherst and beyond to protest the actions of the Northwest District Attorney’s office (see “The Eve of Instruction,” Feb. 12, 2009), has been concluded. The black UMass student who stabbed...ImperiumWatch: To End Electoral Vote Games
Without much fanfare, a movement to keep the Electoral College from undermining the popular vote in presidential elections is gaining ground. The drive for electoral votes that gave us a president not elected by popular vote in 2000—and that has turned...
DIY Food
At Margaret Christie’s home, there are goats and sheep and chickens and, periodically, pigs. Her family raises almost all of the vegetables, and most of the fruit, that they eat over the course of the year—fresh in season, frozen or canned or otherwise...Manomet: Biomass Isn't Green
A much-anticipated study of biomass by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences has found that burning wood to make electricity is potentially worse for the environment than burning coal. The Manomet study, commissioned by the state Executive Office of Energy and...E-Edition
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