News
by Pete Redington | Mar 4, 2013 | News
Backcountry skiers heading to Vermont can leave the $500 for their impending fine at home, at least for now. A Vermont bill proposing a $500 fine for any skiers needing rescue after venturing into the back country from a lift-served resort has been dismissed by the...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 11, 2013 | News
Not long ago, Springfield’s historic W.H. Allis mansion had an impending date with a wrecking ball. Now, the 1867 building has received a reprieve—but only if a prospective owner steps up in the next few weeks to save it. The Victorian mansion was first...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 18, 2013 | News
Last week saw newly minted Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) taking a lick at corrupt financial bigwigs once again, this time by shaking an angry finger at Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation (HSBC) for involvement with money tainted by narco deals and murder....
by Maureen Turner | Mar 25, 2013 | News
There’s still much to be done, but the oldest extant school building in Springfield—77 Maple St., originally the home of the Springfield Female Seminary—has come a long way since long years of neglect left it all but lost. Since buying it in 2009,...
by Terry Allen | Mar 11, 2013 | News
Safely buried since the Pleistocene age, danger is stirring. Driven by unbridled lust for energy and wealth, small men with giant tools are unleashing a lethal demon on villages and farms across America’s upper Midwest. Now that I have your attention,...
by Norman Solomon | Mar 25, 2013 | News
On a plane circling Baghdad in gray dawn light, a little Iraqi girl quietly sang to herself in the next row. “When I start to wonder why I’m making this trip,” Sean Penn murmured to me, “I see that child and I remember what it’s...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 11, 2013 | News
After months of meetings and planning, early last May, Kerry Brown and 15 others—a majority of his fellow baristas—were ready to confront Bob Lowry and Ken Majka, owners of Rao’s Coffee Cafés in Amherst and Northampton. “[W]e would like...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Civil libertarians are elated in the wake of a federal court ruling declaring it unconstitutional for the government to issue so-called national security letters (NSLs), demands for internal information that prohibit companies or other organizations that receive them...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 11, 2013 | News
In January, the Amherst-based nonprofit Free Speech for People launched a petition drive on a White House website urging President Barack Obama to use his State of the Union address to call for a Constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s...
by James Heflin | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Once you’ve done stand-up comedy, passing yourself off as a right-winger when you are in fact a citizen of the left must be child’s play. And Steven Brykman has done stand-up comedy. Naked. When questioned about that, the former Valley resident offers an...
by Harvey Silvergate | Mar 11, 2013 | News
I was considerably more pessimistic about the impact of the War on American liberty before I read Jess Bravin’s The Terror Courts: Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay. It’s not that the author is an optimist—far from it. Bravin, The Wall Street...
by Pete Redington | Mar 25, 2013 | News
The H.M.S. Titanic was back in the news this week, as British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son announced its intent to sell the violin of Wallace Hartley, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Hartley led the liner’s legendary deck band, and his...
by Pete Redington | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Is access to a safe, clean environment a basic human right? According to Jim Boyce, professor of economics at UMass Amherst and director of the university’s Political Economy and Research Institute (PERI), it is indeed. In his new book, Economics, the...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 25, 2013 | News
When the news broke last week that the Boston Phoenix was about to publish its final issue, shutting down after 47 years, the Valley Advocate heard from journalists from all over the state. Along with many poignant observations about the passing of this important and...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 25, 2013 | News
According to the White House, children will be the big losers as the federal budget sequester—a set of automatic cuts—hits Massachusetts this year. If money for these key programs isn’t restored, here’s a rough guide to what will happen: *$13.9...
by Pete Redington | Mar 25, 2013 | News
The Occupy Movement may have been driven from New York’s Zuccotti Park months ago, but its advocates are still engaged in efforts to promote economic justice. Occupy the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), “a group of concerned citizens, activists...
by Pete Redington | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Amherst restaurateurs are concerned that UMass is promoting its own Auxiliary Services, which operates UMass’ food and hotel services, and impeding the ability of the local businesses to compete on a level playing field within the regional economy. Due to its...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Aggressive regulations passed by the Springfield City Council to address that city’s significant foreclosure problem have survived an effort to water them down. Councilors passed the pair of ordinances in 2011 in response to concern over the effects of...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 26, 2013 | News
If this keeps happening, we may add a department called Leak of the Week. Saturday, March 16—the day before St. Patrick’s Day—13 houses on Union and George streets in West Springfield had to be evacuated because of a gas leak. A worker from Columbia...
by Pete Redington | Apr 1, 2013 | News
A petition submitted by the anti-nuke group New England Coalition (NEC) to shut down Vermont Yankee was denied by the Vermont Supreme Court on March 25, according to the Brattleboro Reformer. The petition contends that by continuing to operate the plant past March 21,...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2013 | News
State lawmakers were scheduled to hear testimony this week on a bill that would make major changes to Massachusetts’ election laws. The bill, filed by Sen. Barry Finegold (D-Andover), includes a range of proposals, among them early voting, starting seven days...
by Our Readers | Apr 1, 2013 | News
Dan Winslow a Constitutionalist On March 17, Senator [Elizabeth] Warren advised “everyone to pay very close attention to Dan Winslow’s platform. He has a 100 percent ranking from the gun lobby and he’s for the legalization of marijuana.”...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2013 | News
How do stress and trauma affect our physical health? Quite a lot, according to long-term research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente. The Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACE, study surveyed more than 17,000 people, asking them...
by Pete Redington | Apr 1, 2013 | News
“Nazis are not fucking welcome at a Dropkick Murphys show.” That was the message shouted into the microphone during the recent St. Patrick’s Day concert in New York City by the Boston Irish punk band’s bass player and singer Ken Casey, after he...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 1, 2013 | News
Western Mass. Jobs With Justice is celebrating. It will hold a recognition ceremony at River Valley Market in Northampton on Saturday, April 6 at 9 a.m. to honor 17 Northampton employers who have pledged not to interfere with their employees’ right to organize...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2013 | News
Is the FBI once again sniffing around Springfield City Hall? Sadly, yes, at least according to a recent article by the Republican’s Stephanie Barry, who cited unnamed sources in reporting that federal agents “have been conducting interviews with a small...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2013 | News
It’s spring, when a young, or not-so-young, politician’s fancy turns to the November election. Around the state and the Valley, nomination papers to run for municipal office are ready, or will be soon; let the races begin. In Springfield, the election...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 1, 2013 | News
Stephen D’Angelo has spent his adult life fighting to reform marijuana policy, runs the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the nation, and has a distinctive look, to boot (he favors natty suits and ties and wears his gray hair in two long braids, invariably...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 2, 2013 | News
Don’t make money by trashing the climate: that’s what students are telling their colleges and universities. Across the country, fossil fuel divestment campaigns—movements supporting requests that the institutions pull their investments from fossil...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Massachusetts politicians are generally considered to lean far left. But does reality match that reputation? A new legislative scorecard offers some answers. The report, put together by the group Progressive Massachusetts, looks at roll-call votes taken in the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Fukushima: the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. A meltdown that made a part of the Japanese coast uninhabitable, leaving tens of thousands in shelters with no prospect of returning to their homes. After the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, the U.S.’s...
by Pete Redington | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Schools in Brattleboro recently made a commitment to solar power, when the town school board voted to “take part in a community … project that will provide renewable solar energy for all of the district’s buildings,” the Brattleboro Reformer...
by Our Readers | Apr 8, 2013 | News
National Sales Tax: Another Look The letter in the Advocate from Irving B. Welchons, III [“In Support of a National Sales Tax,” March 28, 2013] promotes elimination of all income, Medicare and Social Security tax, replacing them with a national sales tax...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Wondering what will happen with those taxes you just paid (or are about to pay, if you’re the procrastinating type)? As it does every year, the Northampton-based National Priorities Project has the answer—as well as a tool that gives users a chance to map...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 8, 2013 | News
If you’re like a lot of Americans, you may consider paying your taxes to be a thankless task. Maybe you feel that you pay too much and get too little in return. Maybe you object to some of the programs your tax money supports. Perhaps you have a gnawing feeling...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Reversing previous statements about its intention to step away from the massive effort of organizing Northampton’s annual First Night extravaganza, the Northampton Center for the Arts has just announced that the show will go on on December 31, 2013, and that the...
by Pete Redington | Apr 8, 2013 | News
Apparently, it is possible to pay workers a living wage and post strong quarterly earnings as well, at least if wholesale company Costco’s success is any indication. Barely a week after Costco president and CEO Craig Jelinek publicly supported the Fair Minimum...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 8, 2013 | News
It’s off with the mortarboard and straight into depression as people come out of college and graduate school loaded with debt, often unable to buy cars or houses for years. Even worse, they’re finding themselves locked in by clauses requiring them to go...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 8, 2013 | News
In the runup to the 2012 presidential election, pollsters were quarreling over whether Americans thought the income gap was a big problem or not; wanted the government to do something about it or not; wanted less money for the rich, or simply more for themselves. A...
by Pete Redington | Apr 8, 2013 | News
One hundred years ago, Jack Johnson, the world’s first black heavyweight boxing champion, was arrested in violation of the Mann Act, a law designed to prevent the transporting of women for prostitution and other immoral acts across state lines. Johnson was...
by Pete Redington | Apr 8, 2013 | News
After more than 20 years in the outdoor clothing and equipment business, the Mountain Goat in downtown Northampton has closed. The store’s current co-owners, AJ LaFleur and Mary Colwell, are also shutting their second location in Hanover, N.H. “Colwell...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 8, 2013 | News
There appears to be a new casualty in the war over the sole casino license to be awarded in Western Mass. CasinoWhispers.com, the anonymous website that’s been tracking the casino issue for the past several months, vanished into thin cyber air late last month....
by Maureen Turner | Apr 8, 2013 | News
There’s plenty to celebrate in a recently released report on 2010 birth statistics in the state, compiled by the Mass. Department of Public Health. The headline news: the 2010 teen birth rate in the commonwealth was the lowest ever recorded, with 17.1 births to...
by Pete Redington | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Governor Deval Patrick has declared this April “Swift River Valley Communities Month,” in remembrance of the four Valley hilltowns (Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott) that were flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir 75 years ago this month....
by Maureen Turner | Apr 15, 2013 | News
In 1912, the city of Springfield celebrated the opening of its new public library, which was built with money donated by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born industrialist who funded thousands of libraries around the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Last month, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill addressing the recycling of old thermostats that contain mercury. Environmental groups say the bill doesn’t go far enough and are urging legislators instead to adopt a model that they say has worked well in...
by Our Readers | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Anti-Global Warming Project Needs Support In recognition of Earth Month, we here at IMAGES Inc. are sending our project, the pilot for the television series The Harmony of Being, to Kickstarter.com for crowdfunding. The purpose of our series is to attract attention...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 15, 2013 | News
The drawn-out and highly political fight over access to emergency contraception took another turn earlier this month, when a federal court shot down the Obama administration’s ban on over-the-counter sales of the drug to teenagers, calling it a “bad...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Connecticut has passed a gun law that bans over 100 more assault weapons than before, requires background checks for all weapons transfers—including private sales—and limits clips to 10 rounds (those who already own large clips will have to register them...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Remember when Sarah Palin was leading the chant “Drill, baby, drill”? In those days, during and after the Republican convention of 2008, the issue was oil. Now it’s oil and natural gas, and not just low prices and energy independence. In March, the...
by Pete Redington | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders recently proposed legislation to break up financial institutions that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder deems “too big to fail.” “Laws should apply to Wall Street as well as everybody else,” Sanders...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 15, 2013 | News
The Mass. Department of Public Health has released a draft set of regulations for the medical use of marijuana in the state. Sixty-three percent of voters approved the new law on a November ballot question. That ballot question included a provision that DPH come up...
by Pete Redington | Apr 15, 2013 | News
King Street/Route 10 in Northampton, Triangle Street near the UMass campus in Amherst, and the intersection of Routes 9 and 202 are all in need of infrastructural development in order to make Hampshire County even more bikeable than it currently is, says a new report...
by Pete Redington | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Boston-based comedian Jimmy Tingle once joked that he keeps an offshore account “on Nantucket.” But according to Picking Up the Tab, a new report by U.S. PIRG, the anti-tax tactic is no laughing matter, as “average citizens and small business pay the...
by Pete Redington | Apr 15, 2013 | News
Stephen Lynch is supportive of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and Thomas Steyer is not happy about that. Lynch is the Bay State representative running against fellow Democrat Ed Markey in the upcoming primary election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Secretary of...
by Pete Redington | Apr 16, 2013 | News
This past year, CEO pay averaged 24 times the presidential pay rate [of $400,000] and 300 times the average worker salary, notes Sam Pizzigati at Too Much: An Online Weekly on Excess and Inequality. But this hasn’t always been the case. “In fact, from the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 16, 2013 | News
All right, so it was the runup to Easter, and you wouldn’t expect much from the Legislature, especially on Good Friday. Still, this glimpse of the work culture in the Statehouse is an eye-opener. After all, the rest of us work during Easter Week....
by Pete Redington | Apr 23, 2013 | News
How much is a library worth? In the case of the Occupy Movement’s “People’s Library,” the answer is tens of thousands of dollars. Earlier this month, New York City agreed to pay a settlement fee of $47,000 for the destruction of 5,500 books...
by Pete Redington | Apr 23, 2013 | News
Major construction work at the state university’s flagship campus commences when the University of Massachusetts begins its renovation of McGuirk Stadium this Friday, April 26 by breaking ground for the multi-million-dollar UMass Performance Center. The...
by Our Readers | Apr 23, 2013 | News
Bugged by Gardening Column I am generally a proponent of multiple perspectives, but the Talk Dirt gardening column in the April 11 issue approaches the complex and devastating issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) with a casualness that is disturbing. I am...
