News
by Don Ogden, Wendell State Forest Alliance | Apr 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The road into Wendell State Forest was frozen solid with six-inch ruts formed the week before by vehicles navigating what must have been a muddy slog caused by yet another change in the weather. It’s said if you don’t like the weather in New England just wait a...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The first time Carmen Allison’s things were taken from a storage unit at Stuff-It Storage in Hadley was in the summer of 2015. She had recently lost her job as a caretaker in Amherst and was away for a few months to look for work in New Jersey. She reported the items...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 10, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Although the future of Hampshire College still remains uncertain, there’s a lot to be said for the strong level of support for the experimental 1960s-established college among Valley residents, alumni, students, faculty, and staff in advocating for an independent...
by Our Readers | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Non-violence belongs in schools more than the military In response to “Is High School Too Young for Military Recruitment?” published March 28 – April 3, 2019: The Soviet Union had its Young Pioneers, Hitler’s Germany had its Hitler’s Youth, the U.S. has JrROTC....
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
For the love of Debbie A man from Elmira, N.Y., has been charged with a felony crime after stealing a Little Debbie snack cakes delivery truck. Did he do it for the sweet, sweet chocolate cakes? No. He wanted to visit his friends. Twenty-minutes after allegedly...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Last week, 14 Springfield police officers were indicted by a Worcester-based grand jury. It was in connection with a 2015 alleged assault on four people following a disagreement at a city bar. Some are charged with assault and battery, and others for covering it up....
by From Our Readers | Mar 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Welcome Back, Valley Advocate In response to “An Advocate History” and “Still at it After 45 Years,” published March 21 – 27, 2019: Thank you so much for becoming the Valley Advocate again. I had about given up on you as there was little of interest left, just...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Each year, high school students across the country see uniformed members of the armed forces within school walls offering information on how to join up. But a local organization asks the question whether these soldiers are overselling a dangerous career path to an...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Following the Parkland shooting last year, I was inspired by the activism of many of the student survivors, who marched to their state capital and lobbied Washington for gun control. The Advocate did a story about how those students were inspiring students in our own...
by From Our Readers | Mar 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Hampshire College price tag comparable to most private institutions In response to: “Letters to the Editor: What’s missing from the Hampshire College discussion” (March 14-20, 2019): Hampshire College gives deep discounts and takes in diverse student pop. Hampshire...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The first edition of the Valley Advocate was published on Sept. 19, 1973, with a cover story titled, “Prophet & Profit — ‘Spirit’ Dies,” about a large hippie commune in Leyden called “The Brotherhood of the Spirit,” which became defunct when more than half of them...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A new meaning for phone shield A 43-year-old Australian man may have his phone to thank for the fact that he was left with only a small cut on his chin after he came under attack by a man wielding a bow and arrow in rural New South Wales. Confronted with the bow and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Astute readers will no doubt observe the “plus” sign after the number 45 on this week’s cover. That is us coming clean that, no, this is not exactly our 45th anniversary issue. We wanted to bring you something like Chris Goudreau’s vast history of the Advocate...
by From Our Readers | Mar 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
What we are not talking about when we struggle over the possible loss of Hampshire College Everything I have read in the papers about the possible loss of Hampshire College has centered on the value of its creative approach to higher education, the progressive social...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
“One of my first memories of discrimination was when I was 10 or so,” said Gloria Graves Holmes, one of two co-facilitators of the Bridge 4 Unity project. “When I was standing on a corner, getting ready to cross the street, a white man drove by me and screamed ‘Go...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, Music, News
Last Saturday night after returning home from The Big Surf Dance, an indoor, 12-hour winter music fest supporting veterans transitioning into housing, at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield, I heard the sad news that Sam’s Pizzeria in Northampton was closing after 12 years...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A year of free Taco Bell We have an update regarding the man and his dog featured in last week’s Bizarro Briefs who survived five days in a car in the snow on nothing but Taco Bell Fire Sauce packets. Taco Bell this week released an odd statement, both announcing that...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 7, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
One undocumented woman’s husband was pulled over by a police officer and was asked to present his license. Even though he was obeying the rules of the road, he was arrested for not having a driver’s license. This was one common story from a group of local undocumented...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The Daily Hampshire Gazette, one of the oldest newspapers in America, printed its first pages in the summer of 1786. From the start, things were tense in the Western Mass communities it covered. The front page of the earliest surviving issue of the Gazette reports...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 6, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
This past week, the state Legislature’s Harm Reduction Commission — the advisory group looking at solutions to the drug epidemic — released its report. As expected, the commission, which is made up of current and former drug users as well as doctors, government...
by Dave Eisenstadter and Chris Goudreau | Mar 6, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Polly wants a hit of opium The farmers who grow fields of poppies in India to produce opium, which is sold on the medical market, often have to contend with seasons of uneven rainfall — but there’s another unpredictable factor that has been wreaking havoc on the crop...
by From Our Readers | Mar 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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?...
by Sarah Heinonen | Feb 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
On a cold night in the middle of February, lights are glowing in the windows of Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ, a small brick church on Alden Street in Springfield. Inside, the pews are about three-quarters full, and the attendees are listening to a different...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 27, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
It was, to put it mildly, an act of moral turpitude and callous disregard for the suffering of separated families and victims of violence when President Donald Trump announced he would be circumventing Congress to declare a national emergency that, by his own...
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
No bananas stolen Police in Sulphur, Louisiana, arrested a man wearing a gorilla suit, who allegedly broke into a home and hid underneath a mattress before his arrest. According to local news outlets in Louisiana, officers saw the costumed man walking through yards...
by From our Readers | Feb 26, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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 Andy Castillo | Feb 18, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Wellness
It’s a month and a half into 2019, and what may have seemed like an easily obtainable fitness resolution on New Year’s Day might not seem that way anymore. To encourage those who may need a boost, we asked readers and fitness experts to share their best fitness...
by From our Readers | Feb 18, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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 Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 15, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Nazi art not a winner Adolf Hitler can’t seem to catch a break. First, his quest for world domination hit a snag in the 1940s when the Allies defeated him in World War II, and now, no one wants watercolor paintings attributed to him. None of the five paintings...
by Fran Ryan | Feb 14, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
Eight billion metric tons. According to Industrial Ecologist Roland Geyer of the University of California, Santa Barbara, that is the amount of plastic that has been produced since the 1950s, and almost half of that, was created after the year 2000, causing plastic...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 14, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Excitement. Elation. Eagerness. Those were the emotions that bubbled up when I got the news that the Advocate would be returning to a weekly schedule, and that after six months performing other roles in the company I was being asked to return as its editor. What you...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 11, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News
An opera about locusts in the Rocky Mountains? You bet. Locust: The Opera premiered on Sept. 28 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. The piece tells the tale of the lost Rocky Mountain locust through arias and recitatives. Locusts disappeared in...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 9, 2018 | Featured, News
Every Tuesday during open mic night at Bishop’s Lounge in Northampton, Longmeadow artist Max Rudolph rolls out dozens of pages of artwork—each spanning more than 10 feet long—across the tables in back and asks people to pick up a crayon or marker and draw whatever...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 9, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News
A hotel in Japan has a very weird and niche schtick, and that’s saying a lot considering Japan is known for many things wonderfully weird. This hotel has a reception desk manned by robot dinosaurs. Whether you speak Japanese, English, Chinese or Korean, the pair of...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 31, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News
If you suddenly came into possession of a bag of woolly mammoth hair, the first thing to come to mind likely wouldn’t be a hat. A man in Yakutsk, the capital of one of Russia’s eastern provinces, created a traditional style hat, usually reserved for horse hair, from...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 31, 2018 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
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. Vote for Eric Nakajima on Sept....
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 29, 2018 | Columns, Featured, News, Valley Show Girl
On a stormy Wednesday afternoon, I huddled in my car, pushed the driver’s seat back to get comfy and opened up my Wonder Woman notebook, clicked my pen and put my phone on ‘do not disturb.’ After a failed attempt to reach her, she called me back two minutes later and...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 29, 2018 | Featured, News
For the past four years, students at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst have been bringing alternative DIY local and regional music to the college through a student organization called Students For Alternative Music (SALT). Whether it’s heady math rock,...
by Steve Pfarrer | Aug 21, 2018 | Featured, News
There was a time earlier in her career, Andrea Dezsö recalls, when people told her that if she wanted to succeed as an artist, she needed to find something to specialize in — and to stick with it. That idea never appealed to her, though. As Dezsö puts it, “I like a...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2018 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
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. Reactions to the Advocate’s...
by Gina Beavers and Chris Goudreau | Aug 21, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News
A usually calm herd of cows became vigilantes when they began chasing a fleeing suspect in Sanford, Florida. The Sanford Police Department said officers attempted to make a traffic stop on a stolen vehicle. The driver took off and crashed into a ditch. The passenger...
by Daily Hampshire Gazette Editorial Board | Aug 16, 2018 | Articles, News
Despite unprecedented attacks on the press by the president of the United States, journalists across the country — including here at the Daily Hampshire Gazette — continue our mission of informing a responsible citizenry and holding public officials and institutions...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 29, 2018 | Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
So often with candidates running for public office, one must rest the decision to vote for them primarily on their words. In her short political career as a candidate for state Senate, however, Chelsea Kline has amassed some impressive actions. Kline is running in the...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 26, 2018 | Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
The Great New England Marijuana Accessories Swap Meet will be “like an Antique’s Roadshow for bongs.” According to Jeff Bianchine, director of the Holyoke Creative Arts Center, which will benefit from the fundraiser event, potentially hundreds of...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 24, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
For Ben Hellerstein, state director of advocacy organization Environment Massachusetts, the state is moving in a good direction with regard to renewable energy, but it needs to do more. “Even being number one is not enough,” he said, adding that Massachusetts is...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 24, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
You can pretty much get any hair cut or styling that you could think of from around the world at Global Cuts International World of Barber Styling in Amherst, whether that’s highly stylized facial or hair cuts or something out of the ordinary. Khayyam Mahdi, owner of...
by Gina Beavers | Jul 24, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
Summer vacation is a much needed break for both kids and parents and often serves as a respite from rigorous schedules that might include music lessons, team sports, and other extracurriculars. But while many parents concern themselves with summer learning loss, or...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 23, 2018 | Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter, Podcast
Kathy Harrison doesn’t believe the zombies are coming to get us. But she does believe in being prepared for the worst. Harrison, of Cummington, just wrote her fifth book, called Prepping 101: 40 steps you can take to be prepared. Stocking up on necessities might...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 20, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Two days after the state Legislature removed a set of provisions in its budget that would have protected immigrants in Massachusetts, a group of activists met in front of an immigrant detainment center in Greenfield to sing songs and demand an end to cruel treatment...
by Sarah Heinonen | Jul 20, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
It’s warm — very warm. I’m sitting on a wooden bench leaning against an ergonomic backrest. The small room within a room is lined on three sides by cedar paneling with a glass door looking out into a small dim entryway where towels had been provided to wrap myself in....
by Sarah Heinonen | Jul 20, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
Think of a gym. Muscle-bound men do tricep curls while women in spandex pedal endless miles on exercise bikes. Now forget all that. Those things may still happen, but you’re more likely to see it with people over 50. Those in their 20s and 30s, known as millennials,...
by Sarah Heinonen | Jul 19, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
A big yellow lab named Jack laid down on the couch while his black litter-mate, Sophie, slept stretched out on the floor. At 11 years old, both dogs are old for their breed but aside for some arthritis in Jack’s hips and a diagnosis of Lyme disease for Sophie, they...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 17, 2018 | Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Author’s note: This article discusses sexual assault and trauma and includes personal stories from victims of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. The Pioneer Valley is unique for its thriving and diverse music scene with dozens of venues and hundreds of local...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 17, 2018 | Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Sometimes living in deep blue Massachusetts can feel comforting when observing the daily horror show that now passes for our federal government. A case in point: as the U.S. Senate edges toward nominating President Donald Trump’s second arch-conservative Supreme Court...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 16, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Podcast
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Ashfield inventor Tom Leue. When making his own brand of biodiesel, an alternative fuel made from plant matter, he accidentally set fire to his workshop and burned it to the ground (hear about the fireball that ensued at...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 13, 2018 | Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News, Newsletter
A waking nightmare Don’t you hate it when you wake up to find a six-foot-long snake has fallen from the ceiling into your bed? An Albany-area man certainly did. He called the police in a panicked state after finding himself next to a red-tailed boa constrictor. The...
by From Our Readers | Jul 12, 2018 | Featured, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
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 | Jul 11, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
A memorial to first responders who gave their lives saving others on Sept. 11, 2001, that includes a large section of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center in New York City will be a installed at the soon to be renovated Riverfront Park on West Columbus Avenue in...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 10, 2018 | Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
For more than two decades medieval folk rock duo Blackmore’s Night has been performing its unique blend of rock meets medieval folk on authentic period instruments. The band is led by husband and wife duo Ritchie Blackmore (formerly of Deep Purple and Rainbow), who...
by Gina Beavers | Jul 5, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Raven Books in Northampton is the quintessential New England used bookstore. Winding stacks of books create a delightful maze that loops in and out of corners. There doesn’t seem to be a square inch of wall that remains unoccupied, and tables of books, live plants,...
