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Progressive Dems Push the State Party
The most progressive elements of the Massachusetts Democratic party chalked up some satisfying victories at the recent state party convention. Among the items added to the party’s “action agenda”—which the party calls its “road map to...Imperium Watch: Now Weiner, Already
So Anthony Weiner becomes the latest politico to jeopardize his career by making a fool of himself on the sexual front. A man with an informed, detailed familiarity with issues surrounding health care reform, who so humanely advocated for medical aid for the 9/11...
Joining the Freedom Flotilla
In May of 2010, six ships carrying humanitarian aid left port in Turkey and sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to the Gaza Strip. Organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights, Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, the “Gaza...Between the Lines: Egg on Their Faces
This spring Tim Purington, city councilor for Holyoke’s Ward 4, raised the idea of allowing city residents to keep a small number of chickens in their yards, with an OK from the Board of Health. The idea would have put Holyoke smack in the middle of a trend;...Between the Lines: Obama's Missed Opportunity
The man who electrified the nation with his speech at the Democratic National Convention of 2004 put it to sleep the other night. President Obama’s June 15th address to the nation from the Oval Office was, to be frank, vapid. If you watched with the sound off...Imperium Watch: Americans and Magical Thinking
Communications technology keeps us in touch. Medical technology saves our lives. Other forms of technology do our math and accounting for us, support our welfare on nearly every front. But technology also puts us at risk, and never more than when we extrapolate from...Mothers Behind Bars
Laura Adkins still remembers the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. For the seven months she spent incarcerated, one month in Greenfield at the Franklin County House of Corrections and six at the Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, the absence of her...Letters: What Do You Think?
The Big Spill: Obama Could Do More In the June 21 issue of the Greenfield Recorder, the newspaper’s editor writes of President Obama and the BP oil spill, “…I just can’t see how he could be doing any more than he’s doing.” First,...Letters: What Do You Think?
Rape and the Soldier: The Right to Heal Bravo to the Advocate for the article “Of Rank and Rape” [May 26, 2011], about the epidemic of military sexual trauma (MST). We are familiar with Panayiota Bertzikis and the work of the Military Rape Crisis Center,...
No Debate: Stein Excluded
The old stereotype has hardly changed. It wasn’t three white men in front of the microphones during the gubernatorial debate at WRKO in Boston last week. It was two white men, Tim Cahill and Charlie Baker, and one black man—Gov. Deval Patrick—in the...Jail Fees Defeated–for Now
An effort to allow county sheriffs to charge fees to inmates has failed, after fierce opposition from critics who say the policy would end up hurting inmates’ families and make it that much harder for people to re-enter society after their sentences end. In...
Beware the Bottle
If you happened to notice a 20-foot-tall baby bottle hanging around the streets of Northampton last week, don’t panic—the city has not been overtaken by a band of giant marauding infants. The oversized, inflatable bottle was brought to the city by...Between the Lines: The Fall of Stanley McChrystal
General Stanley McChrystal deserved to be fired as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan because he and his staff were openly contemptuous of their civilian superiors. It’s a popular attitude among the dimmer sort of military officers, but for a theater commander to...Letters: What Do You Think?
Dog’s Life—or Death In a town populated by people as supposedly progressive and well educated as Northampton’s, I’m daily shocked to see the treatment meted out to Northampton’s dogs! Tied to parking meters on Main Street, unattended, in...
From Shop Floor to Statehouse
Ron Patenaude wears his heart not on his sleeve, but just below it. On his left arm is a tattoo reading “UAW Local 2322,” the labor union to which Patenaude has belonged for the past 12 years, the last six as president. On his right arm is another tattoo,...Mayors Join Fight to Shift Trash Burden
Political support continues to grow for “enhanced producer responsibility”—a rather grand-sounding term for the notion of making corporations deal with the fallout from the products and packaging they send out into the marketplace, and, eventually,...Imperium Watch: Faces of Facebook
Last year Facebook got some new faces—faces that everyone on the ubiquitous social network should know about because their influence on it has been growing. One is the face of Yuri Milner, a Russian with an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s...Letters: What Do You Think?
Lion and Tiger Meat, Oh, My I was shocked to hear that lion burgers are being served at a restaurant in Arizona. I was even more upset to hear that this isn’t something new or out of the ordinary. That this meat is considered game meat and is so easily...Imperium Watch: Are the Unemployed Pawns?
With more and more people facing destitution as their unemployment benefits run out, the reasons Republicans have given for not extending those benefits in a timely way suggest that another set of reasons underlies the ones loudly voiced. Extending unemployment...Between the Lines: No Time to (E)Waste
With the state budget now signed off on, and casino legislation flying, undeservedly, through the Legislature (its progress unimpeded by any substantial public debate or objective analysis), the clock is now ticking for any number of pet proposals that lawmakers and...
Union Poster Art: Surviving Work
In 2008, 5,071 people in the U.S. died from injuries sustained in the workplace, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 3.7 million cases of non-fatal, workplace-related injuries and illnesses among private-industry workers, and 940,000 cases...Beyond Chicken Soup
Backyard chickens are all the rage in the Valley these days (well, except in Holyoke, where the City Council appears convinced that homey little chicken coops are dens of poultry iniquity, breeding grounds for cock-fighting and horrid disease). And with that...Rosenberg, Casinos Win
Stan Rosenberg a key architect of legislation enabling casino gambling in Massachusetts? That’s how news accounts last week described the veteran Amherst lawmaker, a Democrat, in the wake of a 25-15 state Senate vote to license three resort-style casinos in the...Letters: What Do You Think?
Change of Command If, as you say, Obama must withdraw the troops, “declare a victory and leave,” fine (see “the Fall of Stanley McChrystal,” July 1, 2010). But do it now. General McChrystal understands something you do not, namely, that every...Imperium Watch: Greensburg Rules
Who are our leaders? Where do we find them? So many times the real leaders aren’t in Washington, New York or Los Angeles; often they’re people we don’t even know by name. To the Leadership Hall of Fame let’s nominate the residents of...Between the Lines: Springfield's Budget Blues
The new Springfield city budget has been finalized for a couple of weeks now—but don’t expect the political aftershocks it created to die down any time soon. The municipal budget process has never exactly been smooth sailing for the Sarno administration....Support Your Local Peaceniks
Franklin County peace activists are expecting some unwelcome guests at their weekly vigil this Saturday: local Tea Partiers. The peace vigil, which has been held regularly on the Greenfield Common since 2003, has been selected as the site of a competing rally on July...Northampton Nixes Landfill Expansion
After years of controversy and mounting public opposition to a proposed expansion of the city’s municipal landfill, Northampton city councilors last week approved an ordinance banning the development or expansion of landfills over aquifers and water supply...Looking Forward in Mason Square
It’s been almost a year since the Springfield City Council voted to take the former Mason Square Library building at 765 State Street by eminent domain and restore it to its original purpose. And the Springfield Urban League—which bought the building, in a...Imperium Watch: “Do No Harm”
The ancient oath of Hippocrates, which underpins medical ethics, has a long reach. In the wake of the debate about torture that grew out of the Bush administration’s management of Guantanamo and the war in Iraq, the spirit of that oath is stirring up controversy...Between the Lines: The Too Big Get Bigger
President Obama pronounced on June 15 that “because of this [financial reform] bill the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.” As if to prove him wrong, Goldman Sachs simultaneously announced it had...
A Failure to Communicate
In the city of Springfield, one out of every five residents speaks a language other than English at home, according to federal Census figures from 2003. Forty-one percent of them report that they do not speak English “very well.” The majority of city...Letters: What Do You Think?
Water Conservation: Get Used to It On behalf of local water utilities throughout Massachusetts, I urge the public to use water wisely, especially during the remaining summer season. Despite abundant precipitation earlier this year, minimal rainfall in recent weeks,...
Easthampton: Agreement Reached for Asbestos Cleanup
A historically polluted site in Easthampton just got a big boost in its quest for remediation. A 2.3-acre parcel on Wemelco Way, owned by Oldon Limited Partnership and confirmed by the Environmental Protection Agency to have been contaminated with asbestos, will...Getting Green for Going Green
Gov. Deval Patrick announced last week grants to the 35 municipalities that have qualified for “Green Community” status, under a program through the state Department of Energy Resources. (See “Green Rush,” April 29, 2010,...Guest Column: GOP Giving Away U.S.
Thanks to Barack Obama, conservatives now hate Chicago. “Today I’m inviting you to the exciting premiere of a new channel. It’s called Obama’s Chicago Network, and is the best place on the Web for viewers to learn more about President...Arts Grants Come to Valley Institutions
Arts initiatives in the Pioneer Valley have been bolstered by two substantial grants awarded to the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and the Enchanted Circle Theater of Northampton. Both institutions focus on learning about and learning through the arts. With $150,000...Get the Lead Out (and the Mercury, and the Hormone Disruptors…)
Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey and two colleagues last week filed a bill designed to get harmful chemicals out of personal care products. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 would tighten up standards for ingredient safety, which, in their current form, are shamefully...Letters: What do you think?
Tug of War As the Tea Party descended on Greenfield on July 17, members of the Greenfield and Northampton vigils to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan continued their silent protest in Greenfield. Meanwhile, members of the Alliance for Peace and Justice...Between the Lines: Short-Term Jobs vs. Open Land
The energy crisis and climate change combine to make the problem of achieving a sustainable way of life more pressing every day. That problem generates volumes of stories in the press. But one story that shows how painful it is to do the work of changing expectations,...ImperiumWatch: Leave the Keys by the Jacuzzi
The New York Times recently pointed out that owners of houses valued at a million dollars or more are defaulting on their mortgages at a higher rate than owners of less expensive homes. One out of 12 owners of homes worth under $1 million are behind with their...Is Northampton Next?
Should Northampton join the growing list of communities that are boycotting Arizona? That’s the question that will be the table this Thursday, at forum hosted by the American Friends Service Committee of Western Mass. While the AFSC supports a boycott in protest...Between the Lines: Sooner or Later
America’s nuclear power plants are more incontinent than a nonagenarian with an enlarged prostate. Given the industry’s long record of leaks, fires, rust-outs and lax oversight, catastrophic failure at one of the aging nuclear power plants is a real...ImperiumWatch: Why, Charlie, Why?
God, don’t you wish some liberal Democrat would check in with a vice that isn’t commonplace, trite and predictable? Money and women. Women and money. People who have the opportunity to influence history, to boost the welfare of millions, will put it all on...Letters: What Do You Think?
Construction Unions Don’t Jump at Every Building Project The presumption in “Short-Term Jobs vs. Open Land” [July 29, 2010] is that building trade unions blindly support any project regardless of the consequences for the environment. Nothing could be...
Zippity-Do-Car
I don’t know many people who would opt to be carless in Northampton. As one friend so eloquently put it upon my move back to Northampton from acceptable-to-be-carless San Francisco, “You aren’t gonna buy a car? I’d kill myself if I didn’t...A Sticky Subject
Almost a year after Springfield voters approved a ballot question to extend that city’s mayoral term from two years to four, city councilors are bracing themselves to take up an assuredly more contentious follow-up issue: whether the mayor’s salary should...
Some Victories in Criminal Justice Reform
Last Friday, Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill that will bring long-awaited reforms to the criminal justice system in Massachusetts, including significant changes to the Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, system. At the signing, Patrick was surrounded by...Focus on Food
There’s a long list of departments within the Massachusetts state government that deal with food in one way or another—those concerned with agricultural policy, environmental protection, business and commerce, public health, social service programs for the...
Beyond BP: Michael Klare on US Energy Policy
The disaster engendered by the explosion and subsequent hemorrhaging of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has thrust energy costs—economic and environmental—back into the public discourse in a way not seen since...Imperium Watch: No Suspicion Needed
It’s official: the FBI can exercise surveillance over people even when there is no evidence or particular suspicion that a crime has been, is being or will be committed. This came recently from the top cop himself: FBI director Robert Mueller. Mueller was...
Letters: What Do You Think?
Raw Milk Conversion Thank you for your recent coverage of the raw milk issue. I grew up reading about the horrors of bacteria in milk through advertisements akin to the “Reefer Madness” videos of the ’60s. However, I am now a firm believer in raw...Stein's in the Race
Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow party’s candidate for governor, held a press conference last week to announce that she’d gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Too bad the press barely paid attention. Stein—who ran for the same...Between the Lines: Ready for Prime Time
If Beacon Hill existed only in a TV sitcom and the politicians working there were an ensemble of actors hired to spoof the machinations of a blue-state legislature, the recent wrangling over a casino bill would be just another hilarious turn in an amusing but very...Grateful for Obama
“The amount of disrespect being shown to Barack Obama is beyond belief,” offers Lenny Kates, a retired social worker from Pittsfield, who is countering the negativity with a message of his own. Once a week, Kates spends his day in the middle of a busy...Speak Freely, If You Dare
Two months ago, long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas got fired by her employer, the Hearst newspaper conglomerate, in response to her off-the-cuff slam at Israel. I criticized the firing on free speech grounds. “Free speech must be defended no matter...Between the Lines: Confessions of a Class Worrier
The decline of America’s middle class can be charted directly. In the three decades after World War II, the median wage (smack in the middle) grew rapidly, right along with productivity gains. Even as late as 1980, the richest 1 percent of Americans received...State Bans Wholesale Evictions
The typical victims of the foreclosure crisis are homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments. But another face of that crisis is that of the tenant who pays the rent and doesn’t violate the lease, but is being evicted from an apartment because the lender...Imperium Watch: Card Sharks
To understand the true character of many of our corporations, you have to look at what they do in other countries—not here, where regulations, public opinion and a government that hasn’t yet lost its last vestige of political sensitivity exercise some...E-Edition
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