News
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 7, 2010 | News
It wouldn’t have been surprising to see Dinesh D’Souza’s article “How Obama Thinks” on a far-right-wing blog. But it’s worth noticing when such a transparent attempt to discredit the president of the United States turns up in a...
by Our Readers | Oct 7, 2010 | News
Higher Taxes Don’t Hurt According to that left-leaning, liberal rag “Forbes,” the following are the 10 happiest countries in the world: Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway and Belgium. One thing...
by Our Readers | Oct 7, 2010 | News
Facebook: Good or Bad? Isn’t it funny (and a little hypocritical) that the Valley Advocate publishes an op-ed piece titled “Facebook Is Not Your Friend” in the September 23, 2010 edition and then in the classifieds section of the same edition runs an...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 14, 2010 | News
Just as we stepped onto my colleague’s front porch last weekend, ready to rush off to an event in Chicopee, a neatly but casually dressed middle-aged man carrying a clipboard climbed the stairs to meet us. I did my best to brush him off. “So sorry…...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 14, 2010 | News
Activists who abandon normal lives to serve political and social causes suffer in many ways. They may lose their lives; they may go to prison; they may have trouble making ends meet and keeping their families together. Their suffering is the stuff books are made of....
by Our Readers | Oct 14, 2010 | News
DA Race: A Descent From Standards? I enjoyed Tom Vannah’s article on “A Decade with Buoniconti” and his run for Hampden County District Attorney (October 7, 2010). “A lightweight lawyer and heavyweight pol” is a good description of...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 14, 2010 | News
A nationwide financial disaster almost as farreaching as the foreclosure crisis is occurring quietly all around us. It has already turned hundreds of thousands if not millions of college-educated people into indentured servants, trapped in debt. The effects on their...
by Bill Dusty | Oct 14, 2010 | News
When Mike Manzi selected pieces of his artwork for a weekend showing at the Kimball Towers condominiums (the former Kimball Hotel, located on Chestnut Street in Springfield), he never thought he’d be creating problems for anyone else. Manzi, a Springfield artist...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 19, 2010 | News
It’s no surprise that a tsunami of corporate and union money is splashing into media coffers this election season. According to a study by the Center for Public Integrity, independent groups—organizations not officially affiliated with political...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 19, 2010 | News
To look at the Big Party campaigns this election season, you’d think reforming drug policies is a non-issue. But just below the stultifying surface of Republicratism, there’s plenty of activity, thanks to the efforts of reform activists. On November 2,...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 21, 2010 | News
Election Day is supposed to be a chance to make your political and social priorities heard, loud and clear. So for voters concerned about reducing your carbon footprint, why not start with making your trip to the polls a little more earth-friendly? Just in time for...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 21, 2010 | News
Route 2 is an abomination. Please let me qualify that statement: part of Route 2, the section from the rotary in Greenfield just off Interstate 91 heading west to the New York border, is a lovely old road, winding through beautiful country and wonderful towns such as...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 21, 2010 | News
Back in March, more than 200 elected officials from around the upper Valley gathered in Northampton for the annual Hampshire/Franklin Municipal Conference. Uppermost on the minds of many of the city councilors and school committee members, selectmen and town meeting...
by Our Readers | Oct 21, 2010 | News
Student Lenders “Ruthless” I appreciated your article “Killer Loans: Student loan borrowers drown in debt as lenders make billions” in the October 14, 2010 edition of the Advocate. Being the first person in my immediate family to attend...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 21, 2010 | News
Imagine a Congress in which all the Tea Party candidates have won seats. Sharron Angle, now Senator from Nevada, is concerned that Sharia law prevails in Dearborn, Mich. and the now-nonexistent town of Frankford, Texas. “It seems to me,” Angle has said,...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 26, 2010 | News
Under attack in Ballot Question 2 this election year in Massachusetts is the state’s affordable housing law, known informally as 40B or the “anti-snob” law. Passed in 1969, 40B requires that 10 percent o year-around housing in all towns be...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 26, 2010 | News
At a campaign stop in Springfield last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker was joined by at least one unexpected supporter: City Councilor Tim Rooke, a long-time Democrat. “What I like about Baker is, he has a proven track record in private...
by Tom Sturm | Oct 26, 2010 | News
In an age of media consolidation and general trends toward privatizing everything from trash pickup to Social Security, it’s refreshing to get news about something that’s actually going into public ownership. This week, the Amherst-based WFCR Foundation...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 28, 2010 | News
Being outside the political mainstream is nothing new to Paki Wieland; the veteran Valley activist’s work has pretty reliably found her on the farthest left of the political spectrum. But these days, Wieland finds herself at odds with some of her most kindred...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 28, 2010 | News
When you hear the words “local and sustainable,” that giant Wal-Mart down the road is probably not the first image to pop into your mind: the company boasts 8,300 stores worldwide (more than half in the U.S.), employs 1.4 million workers here (and another...
by Stephanie Kraft | Oct 28, 2010 | News
This election season has seen voters bombarded with corporate-sponsored ads courtesy of the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case, which eased restrictions on corporate political advertising. Much of this electioneering has...
by Our Readers | Oct 28, 2010 | News
Beware of Baker Victory While the theoretical issure of Stein vs. Patrick is interesting, the reality is much harsher. In fact, a vote for Stein in this election will turn out to be a vote for Charlie Baker. Unfortunately, Stein is running so badly in the polls and in...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 28, 2010 | News
On an August Saturday in 1994, a 17-year-old Chicopee teen named Christopher McGrory showed up at the Milton Bradley headquarters in East Longmeadow for what he thought was going to be a job interview. But the interview was just a ruse; waiting for him, instead, was...
by Maureen Turner | Oct 28, 2010 | News
No one culture has cornered the market on discrimination and prejudice—although some certainly have embraced it more heartily than others. Over the next few weeks, an exhibit at Holyoke Heritage State Park’s Visitor Center offers a look at efforts from...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 4, 2010 | News
In the early 20th century, the American public was seized by fear of the seemingly unstoppable polio epidemic. At its peak, in 1916, more than 27,000 cases, and 3,000 deaths, were reported in the U.S., the majority of victims children. By the early 1950s, the disease...
by Stephanie Kraft | Nov 4, 2010 | News
You don’t know whether to laugh or cry when you read about the 2007 Amherst College graduate who moved to New York, where, according to Laura Vanderkam on the City Journal Web magazine, she “recently beat out 500 other applicants for a part-time job...
by Robert B. Reich | Nov 4, 2010 | News
After the 1994 midterm, when Dems lost the House and Senate, Bill Clinton was told to “move to the center.” He obliged by hiring the pollster Dick Morris, declaring the “era of big government is over,” abandoning much of his original agenda,...
by Tom Vannah | Nov 4, 2010 | News
Jim Madigan had the job I wanted last month: the dean of public TV in the Valley got to tell this year’s candidates for governor when to shut the hell up. As moderator of the penultimate gubernatorial debate, held in Chicopee and sponsored by an ad hoc Western...
by Our Readers | Nov 4, 2010 | News
Dems Too Moderate It has become very common, especially among conservatives, to say that the Democrats have lost popularity because their policies have gone too far to the left. In fact, I believe the opposite is true: the Democrats lost millions of votes and...
by Stephanie Kraft | Nov 4, 2010 | News
When the deregulation of power plant development in Massachusetts opened the field to merchant plants, a new generation of entrepreneurs swarmed in to replace the old regional utility operators. Into Agawam in 1994 came a newcomer, Michael Armitage, who jingled with...
by Tom Vannah | Nov 4, 2010 | News
Stephen Buoniconti’s upper lip tightened, his smile faded, his eyes glowered. Just moments before, he’d seemed like his usual upbeat, friendly but formal self; now his face was fixed in a mask of suppressed frustration bordering on rage. If you’ve...
by Mark Roessler | Nov 11, 2010 | News
Spying on the citizenry used to be a lot harder. Sifting through the patriots to find the radicals required elbow grease and Senate subcommittee hearings. Sometimes you actually had to have personal contact with the suspect and do some legwork. Put a tail on the...
by Mark Roessler | Nov 11, 2010 | News
Sitting at a large table in the front hall of her well-preserved Victorian home in Northampton, Lilly Lombard faces a sea of pamphlets, maps and illustrations. They all depict an empty stretch of floodplain land across town that is fertile with possibility. Lombard is...
by Tom Vannah | Nov 11, 2010 | News
For much of the year, Deval Patrick’s chances at re-election looked iffy at best. For one thing, Patrick had suffered a number of obvious political setbacks almost from the very instant he was sworn in as governor in 2007. For another, he was facing some tall,...
by Steve Kramer | Nov 11, 2010 | News
My father’s war diary is a faded blue booklet of approximately 30 pages. I did not know it even existed until the day he died, when I found myself looking through one of his old filing cabinets. My father, Harvey B. Kramer, had been a lawyer and a judge in...
by Stephanie Kraft | Nov 11, 2010 | News
The excitement of election night may wear off, but the new political alignments now create their own hustle and bustle. Republicans win the House; Democrats hold the Senate. House Speaker-presumptive John Boehner wipes tears of joy from his eyes and gets ready to plan...
by Mark Roessler | Nov 11, 2010 | News
Ted White met me at the Simple Gifts farm in North Amherst on a gray morning last week, just after a torrential downpour. It turned out we’d both been worried about how photogenic the farm would be, but in the bursts of light now breaking through the clouds, the...
by Mark Roessler | Nov 11, 2010 | News
When the Advocate finally caught up with future Northampton farmers Jen Smith and Nate Frigard last week, they didn’t have long to talk. They had just gotten home from their day jobs and had half an hour before a meeting with a representative from Grow Food...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 11, 2010 | News
Eleven years after his quixotic campaign for mayor of Springfield, Simon Powell has died. Simon’s 1999 bid wasn’t successful, but it certainly caught plenty of attention in political circles. After all, it’s not every day a dog runs for mayor....
by Advocate Staff | Nov 16, 2010 | News
Voting Guide Not Nonpartisan Now that the shouting has died down, my wife and I would like to publicly thank Bishop McDonnell for making sure that the “nonpartisan” 2010 Massachusetts General Election Voter Guide from the Massachusetts Family Institute was...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 18, 2010 | News
The city of Springfield’s trash-pickup fee might be roundly despised by the city’s residents, but it’s certainly proven useful to its politicians. In 2006, the Finance Control Board imposed a $90 annual trash fee, in an attempt to plug up shortfalls...
by Tom Vannah | Nov 18, 2010 | News
The morning starts out fine: up before the sun, get breakfast going, feed the cats, take a breath of air with a cup of coffee, watch the birds, think about how nice it is not to have to think about anything for another 20 minutes or so. I could have easily prolonged...
by Our Readers | Nov 18, 2010 | News
Prostate Cancer: Alternatives Nice to read a cautionary piece on surgery for prostate cancer [“In Defense of Waiting,” November 4, 2010] and nicer yet to read a few dietary tips for promoting prostate health. But it would have been an even greater service...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 18, 2010 | News
Years in the making, the federal Paycheck Fairness Act—which would address gender-based pay inequities—is expected to finally have its day at the Capitol. As the Advocate went to press, the U.S. Senate was expected to take up the bill for a vote sometime...
by Robert B. Reich | Nov 18, 2010 | News
Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the “American economy” is doing these days, watch your wallet. There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart. The one that’s mending is...
by Stephanie Kraft | Nov 23, 2010 | News
The Obama administration is moving to crack down on the mining industry for safety and environmental violations. For the first time in its history, the Department of Labor is suing to close a mine for safety reasons: Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 23, 2010 | News
Last week, the U.S. Senate killed the Paycheck Fairness Act, a proposed law that would have taken on salary imbalances between men and women in the U.S. While a companion version of the bill passed in the House last year, Senate Republicans had filibustered the bill...
by Tom Vannah | Nov 25, 2010 | News
I saw the police video. It didn’t tell me much I hadn’t gleaned from the initial newspaper reports. Without audio, it’s impossible to know what the police officer and the former judge were saying to one another—although maybe it wouldn’t...
by Our Readers | Nov 25, 2010 | News
What Could Be How sad! Senator Mitch McConnell’s stated priority is to make Obama’s administration a one-term presidency. Not get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not create jobs. Not provide all Americans with adequate health care—none of those are...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 25, 2010 | News
Last week, residents of Springfield’s Mason Square neighborhood were treated to a long-overdue, and much welcomed, sight: a moving truck parked outside of 765 State St. The truck was there to move the Springfield Urban League from the building, which it bought...
by Maureen Turner | Nov 25, 2010 | News
With the coming of the cold weather, Springfield’s “Art & Soles” public art project has moved indoors. Last week, all of the 19 giant fiberglass sneakers, personalized by Valley artists, were gathered in a temporary gallery at 1391 Main St....
by Mark Roessler | Nov 25, 2010 | News
Paul Krassner had a front row seat to the 1960s, and he was arguably the era’s loudest and most influential heckler. He reported on events from outside the mainstream, preferring to work with fringe and underground sources to tell stories no one else would...
by Stephanie Kraft | Nov 30, 2010 | News
If politicians don’t downsize banks and financial firms that are “too big to fail,” the American people could bring powers of their own into play that they haven’t yet exploited. Consumers in the U.S. haven’t come of age in their...
by Norman Solomon | Dec 2, 2010 | News
In his first term, President Franklin Roosevelt denounced “the economic royalists.” He drew the line against the heartless rich: “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.” What a different Democratic president...
by Our Readers | Dec 2, 2010 | News
War Stories I have been doing research on my father’s service in World War II. He, like Steve Kramer’s father (“Lessons From a War Diary,” Nov. 11, 2010), was a POW in Germany. I had compiled a list of 27 men in Dad’s barracks in Stalag...
by Mark Roessler | Dec 2, 2010 | News
DISCLAIMER AND WARNING: During the reporting of this article, I was coerced with fine beer and good conversation by Will and Dan Shelton to adopt a certain editorial slant favorable to their products. They intimidated me with tales of their harrowing adventures across...
by Steve Weinberg | Dec 2, 2010 | News
In the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Kansas v. March, Justice David Souter and Justice Antonin Scalia conducted a public debate within their opposing written opinions. Discussing the fates of death row prisoners, Souter opined that in such high stakes cases, innocent...
by Stephanie Kraft | Dec 2, 2010 | News
BerkShares are an alternative currency used in Berkshire County under a program initiated by the E. F. Schumacher Society in 2006 (see last week’s Imperium Watch). Since BerkShares debuted, 2.7 million have been put in circulation in the state’s...
by Norman Solomon | Dec 2, 2010 | News
Compared to the kind of secret cables that WikiLeaks has just shared with the world, everyday public statements from government officials are exercises in make-believe. In a democracy, people have a right to know what their government is actually doing. In a...
by Our Readers | Dec 9, 2010 | News
Put the Planet First In early November a delivery of nuclear waste en route to a “disposal site” in northern Germany met with some unanticipated obstacles. Dozens of farmers lined the route, blocking roadways with their tractors. Trees and stumps cut down...
