News
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Seal Researchers in Scotland have taught three gray seals to sing songs like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and the theme to “Star Wars.” Scientists at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland raised the trio of seals from birth in order to...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
Dave and Trumpy talk about this week’s weird news — stories about disembodied toes, Bill Cosby’s prison lecture series, bringing your daughter to a crime spree, and multiple stories about poop. Listen here: You can hear previous episodes of the...
by Connolly Ryan | Jun 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Poetry by Connolly Ryan To an Unidentified Sunset Soloist I can’t see who it is singing her little heart out, perseverating her sweet head off, up in the attic of a red maple tree, but whoever it is belting it out like that, like there is no known limit to the...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Dori Digenti does not know the criminal histories of her yoga students at the Hampden County Pre-Release Center. “To me, they’re participants in a yoga class,” said the founder and owner of Breathing Space Yoga & Mindfulness Studio in Holyoke. “They’re just who...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured
I was on a hike with a friend and former colleague in 2012 when I first seriously considered the idea the Advocate is now undertaking. As we talked, it didn’t take us long to get to our frustrations that so many journalistic organizations were on shaky financial...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Definitely not “Saved by the Bell” A man from Vermont learned that looking up clips from 1990s sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and driving on the open road don’t exactly mix. The man sideswiped a police car while trying to find an episode of the TV show on the internet....
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Since the retirement of longtime “News of the Weird” columnist Chuck Shepherd, the Advocate has done “Bizarro Briefs,” our own collection of weekly weird news we find. Thanks to a partnership with Trumpy from Hits 94.3, with a similar...
by Our Readers | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Burn biomass for the sake of the forest In response to “‘Biomass Isn’t Clean Energy’: Springfield activists blast state plan at hearing,” published June 6 at valleyadvocate.com (see page 6). I’m Mike Leonard, Consulting Forester, North Quabbin Forestry. I have a BS...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
The month of June means that it’s officially LGBTQ+ Pride Season, with pride marches moving across the country from the east to the west coasts of the U.S. Here in our humble rainbow Valley, we got started early with Northampton’s pride march and event on May 4,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Often this space is used to chide lawmakers for cowardice, stupidity, greed, or cruelty … and rightly so. But every so often, politicians get it right, and it’s important that we celebrate those times as well as bring attention to when our leaders fall short. So below...
by Chris Goudreau and Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A cervine intruder It was a tense moment for an eastern Texas woman. She realized that her Lufkin home had been illegally entered when she heard glass breaking, so she went to hide in a closet and called police. Police decided to surround the house after learning the...
by Our Readers | Jun 7, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
‘Everyone should march for climate, for justice, and for women’s rights’ In response to “Between the Lines: Looking to the Unexpected on Climate Change Solutions,” published May 30 – June 5, 2019. Here on the eve of my 65th birthday it seemed appropriate to send...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Activists, elected officials, and concerned residents packed a June 5 Department of Energy Resources (DOER) hearing in Springfield on a state plan to open up state renewable energy subsidies to plants that burn biomass — mostly wood chips, wood pellets, and other wood...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, News, The Beerhunter
In the Advocate’s monthly craft beer column The Beerhunter, I keep my finger on the pulse of local craft beer business. The column began in 2014. From day one, I had plenty of little dramas and lucky breaks to cover, from small-business zoning woes to creative...
by Dave Eisenstadter and Chris Goudreau | Jun 5, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Swooping to the rescue The robot-controlled cameras that film us at all times waiting for us to mess up so we can be fined or arrested have spawned a new genre of Bizarro Brief: the bird photobomb as savior. One such 1984-like surveillance device in western Germany...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Around 2009, Palmer Renewable Energy planned to create a $150 million 42-megawatt biomass energy plant in East Springfield at 1000 Page Blvd., a project that local environmental activists thought was scrapped two years ago. Now, a decade since the plant was proposed,...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 3, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
We’re relaunching the Valley Advocate Podcast! Last year, we had a good run partnering with Amherst Media to produce video podcasts. Now we’re back both with audio-only and video versions! Up first is guest Maureen O’Reilly, who talks about her...
by Advocate Readers | May 31, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Abortion Should Not Be Law of the Land In response to “If It’s Not Your Body, It’s Not Your Business,” published May 23-29, 2019. I have never responded to any of the numerous far left pieces I read in the Advocate but this one demands a rebuttal. Ms. Levesque states...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 30, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Honestly, I was not among those who thought the Mueller report would ignite impeachment proceedings to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. I did follow along with sickening dismay at news reports of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, but I doubted...
by Maureen O’Reilly | May 29, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Julisa DeLeón, 26, has a love of learning and a long-term goal of becoming a therapist, but she’s faced obstacles. A lifelong Holyoke resident, she graduated Holyoke High School in the spring of 2010 and later that fall began as a 17-year-old freshman at Newbury...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 29, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Last week an item in the Advocate’s calendar was a “climate crisis grief-sharing gathering” in Northampton. The description read as follows: “Home gathering to share grief, fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate crisis.” Participants were encouraged to...
by Chris Goudreau | May 29, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Woody, is That You? The New York City Police Department recently used a photo of actor Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, HBO’s first season of True Detectives, Natural Born Killers) to catch a beer thief who happened to look a lot like the well-known actor. The police...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Activists with PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts), accused Massachusetts Speaker Robert DeLeo of “name calling and spreading misinformation” following a tweet from DeLeo stating that the activists had used “Trumpian...
by From Our Readers | May 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Support Refugee Resettlement Efforts in the Pioneer Valley In 2017 there were 68.5 million people that were forcibly displaced and since then that number has only been growing, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). Of that number of...
by Chris Goudreau | May 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In future Northampton municipal elections anyone 16 years or older might be able to cast a vote for their top candidate and also rank their second or third choices, too. At its May 21 meeting, the city’s Charter Review Commission voted in favor of moving forward four...
by Miasha S. Lee | May 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Dallas Anderson, 14, rides his bike about six hours a day, mostly through the streets of his hometown of Springfield. He has fun doing it, and has met friends while riding in groups downtown, but he does worry about his safety, and he said he doesn’t get support from...
by Jennifer Levesque | May 22, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
I was 17 when I had my first abortion. I was not ready to become a mother. I was still in high school, no money in the bank, and admittedly still a child myself. I know if I didn’t have that choice, my life would be 100 percent different than it is today. Sometimes I...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
It was near the end of a Northampton rally in support of abortion rights on Tuesday that Shirley Jackson Whitaker took the stage. She spoke to more than 200 people who had gathered at Pulaski Park following the passage of restrictive abortion laws in states including...
by Chris Goudreau | May 21, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
RIP Grumpy Cat A generational meme icon is no more. At the age of seven, the beloved feline known to the internet as “Grumpy Cat” has been taken from us, but left us with her always grumpy face, which will surely delight generations of internet browsers in the years...
by Letters from readers | May 17, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Forget the Wall; Plant a Hedge I think that instead of building a wall along our southern border, we should plant a hedge. And granted the cooperation of the Mexican people, finance the planting of food trees and vegetable gardens that will provide some respite to...
by Chris Goudreau | May 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The Pioneer Valley Workers Center (PVWC) plans on breaking ground this week on its planned four-acre worker-run cooperative farm on the border of Hatfield and Northampton. Lorena Moreno, a member of the PVWC and the seven-member farm cooperative, said the hope is that...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 15, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Earlier this week, both Holyoke and South Hadley overwhelmingly passed municipal resolutions in support of Medicare for All legislation. A few weeks earlier, Boston’s City Council did the same. They join Northampton, Cambridge, Williamsburg, and assorted other...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 15, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A daring escape In what could easily be a scene from an action movie (starring an elderly woman and her cat), a Massachusetts woman managed to save herself and her feline companion from drowning when the car they were driving crashed into a river and sank. The woman,...
by Chris Goudreau | May 14, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
The 2018 film, Rafiki, by co-writer/director Wanuri Kahiu, follows Kena and Ziki, two friends who encourage one another to follow their dreams by going to college and starting careers as young women in Kenya. Their friendship blossoms into love, but in their home city...
by From Our Readers | May 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
It’s Time to Demand Cruelty-Free Circuses Shame on MGM. I was very dismayed and disappointed to see that MassMutual, now run by MGM, recently hosted Garden Bros. Circus, one of the most inhumane and dangerous circuses in the country. When MassMutual Center hosted it...
by Chris Goudreau | May 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
This summer at the Pines Theater at Look Memorial Park in Northampton is shaping up to an eventful one with half a dozen shows featuring big name acts such as grungey alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. with indie folk-rocker Kurt Vile as well as jam rock acts Moe. and...
by Andy Castillo | May 8, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Last year, Northampton City Councilor Marianne LaBarge cared for a dear friend as she died from esophageal cancer. Near the end, LaBarge says she couldn’t breathe well, even on oxygen, and was in tremendous pain, even on pain medications. “She was begging to breathe,”...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 8, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
With the constant hum of negative political news at the national and international level, it’s easy to miss the fact that we may be on the verge of something very positive on the local and state level with regard to food and hunger. The centerpiece has been a...
by Chris Goudreau | May 8, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
The ‘Pooperintendent’ Returns Previously on Bizarro Briefs: a mysterious serial track field defecator was revealed to be a rival school’s superintendent. He was fired. But wait folks, that’s not all! Now, the former New Jersey ‘pooperintendent’ has sued a police...
by David Daley | May 6, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
This is a story about what happens behind closed doors in Washington, how politicians quietly sell out the public interest to lobbyists and campaign donors, and how both groups then manipulate the truth to get away with it. Our main characters: The powerful tax prep...
by From our Readers | May 3, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
by Chris Goudreau | May 1, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Dino Schnelle, a 66-year-old resident of Heath, was diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 1996. An openly gay man, he contracted HIV through unprotected sex sometime in the early- to mid-1980s. He waited about a decade before getting tested due to fear...
by Chris Goudreau | May 1, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A Dream Fake-cation To Nebraska You’re down on your luck and feeling the blues. It happens to everyone. Maybe you need a trip to Disneyland to lift your spirits … or Nebraska? You don’t have to actually go to Nebraska to go on vacation because a Nebraska-based...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 1, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Last week, a Facebook comment thread on a Valley Advocate parenting column about dealing with tantrums went in an unexpected direction. Despite the article having nothing to do with vaccines, a reader took the opportunity to rail against them and espouse conspiracy...
by Laurie Loisel | Apr 30, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Wellness
As co-founder of the Kentucky-based Voices of Hope, a nonprofit that promotes and supports lifelong recovery, Alex Elswick, a former heroin user who now says he is “recovering out loud,” knows the hard way about substance misuse, addiction, sobriety and recovery. At...
by Laurie Loisel | Apr 25, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In months to come, this may become a point of dispute in the history of the national RX & Heroin Drug Summit: The 2016 appearance by President Barack Obama drew a larger audience than did President Trump’s keynote in 2019. And Sean Spicer won’t be there to settle...
by Maureen O'Reilly | Apr 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
A stream runs adjacent to a package store in Agawam. John Coughlin isn’t sure it’s legal for us to be there, but he wants to show me something. “Look at the nip bottles. Look at them. They’re everywhere,” Coughlin says. Small, smashed plastic bottles are mixed into...
by David Daley | Apr 24, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Three weeks after U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, won his 16th term in Congress last November, he threw himself a giant weekend celebration. You probably didn’t get an invitation. Instead, according to the narrative that emerges from Neal’s Federal Election...
by Laurie Loisel | Apr 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Bumped to the early hour of 7 a.m. because of scheduling rearrangements forced by President Trump’s mid-day keynote at the RX Drug & Heroin Summit, Hampshire HOPE’s Michele Farry’s presentation nevertheless drew a crowd of 75 people eager to hear about the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The former director of the Amherst office of for-profit organization Grassroots Campaigns Inc., which raises money for progressive nonprofit organizations, says her employment was terminated earlier this month after she instituted policies she believed supported her...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 24, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Police in Dunedin, Florida, are looking for a man who stole $250 from a Little League concession stand who was wearing nothing but a ballcap and gloves when he was captured on video. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says the naked burglar also caused more than...
by Laurie Loisel | Apr 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
At the opening plenary on the first day of the RX Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Hampshire County’s Drug Addiction Response Team program was among nine initiatives around the country spotlighted as promising community responses in the fight against...
by Laurie Loisel | Apr 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The first time Northampton Police Officer Adam Van Buskirk participated in the RX Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit two years ago, he returned to NPD and kicked the city’s Drug Addiction and Recovery Team into high gear. Known as the DART program — and now replicated in...
by Our Readers | Apr 19, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Support Forestry in Massachusetts In response to “Hey! DCR! Leave Those Trees Alone,” published April 11-17. The extent of exaggeration and distortion by the anti-forestry protesters in Wendell is truly astounding. I have a degree in Forestry from UMass and over 30...
by Lauren Simonds | Apr 17, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, News
I’m not sure I’m ready for modern cannabis. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for legal weed — for medical purposes and for grown-ass adult consumption (stay in school, kids, and just say no). As a young adult in my 20s and 30s, I indulged regularly. I inhaled frequently....
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 17, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Since Thursday, April 11, Stop & Shop workers have been on strike, picketing what their union says is an unfair contract deal with owners of the grocery store chain. Hanging in the background of this dispute is one of the great demons of employment today — robots....
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 17, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A man from Florida (yes, it’s one of those Bizarro Briefs) who calls himself “the saint” threatened to unleash the potent power of his turtle army to destroy people in the town of Indialantic, according to the town’s police department. The 61-year-old Florida...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 15, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
After a forced move from the Amherst Common to Northampton in 2016, this could be the last year that political rally/festival Extravaganja will be held at the Three County Fairgrounds. The reason: the student-led University of Massachusetts Amherst Cannabis Reform...
by Dave Eisenstadter and Chris Goudreau | Apr 11, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Don’t rob cars in jail parking lots After spending time in jail on grand theft charges, a Florida man found himself again in lockup only 15 minutes after being released. The 37-year-old man was seen “acting suspicious and checking vehicle doors” in the parking lot of...
by From Our Readers | Apr 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A message best received through music “The Okee Dokee Brothers” wrote and perform the song: Somos Amigos (we’re friends). The video accompanying the tune showcases the duo joined by four other Mexican musicians standing on a bridge in which one might assume that...
