News
by Tom Vannah | Apr 23, 2013 | News
When I ran my first Boston Marathon in 1986, I’d already run another marathon to qualify for the great race. Athletically speaking, I pretty much knew what to expect. Still, as I piled into a station wagon with a bunch of my running buddies and headed out...
by Kathleen Broadhurst | Apr 23, 2013 | News
From humble origins in Tasmania to the front lawn of the White House, permaculture is a rising star in the field of sustainability. Practitioners believe that its simple tenets offer important tools for adaptation in the face of climate change. Over the past 12 years,...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 23, 2013 | News
Farm shares we’re familiar with: you pay in advance and get a portion of your farmer’s crops all season. More novel is the idea of marketing art that way—in prepaid shares. That’s the mission of Spark! Art Share, the Valley’s art share...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 23, 2013 | News
“If babies had guns they wouldn’t be aborted,” reads a bumper sticker created by U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, a Republican who represents southeast Texas’ 36th District. Shock value is the Texas Congressman’s stock-in-trade, as in this...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 23, 2013 | News
The “permissible” levels of radiation in soil and drinking water after nuclear accidents will be raised under guidelines recently approved by the White House. Nuclear accidents include spills or releases of radioactive material, power plant malfunctions,...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 23, 2013 | News
The closing of the Northampton landfill April 15 was the final signal for changes in the handling of solid waste in the Valley. The consequences of that closing are by no means limited to Northampton; at peak operation, the 52-acre facility, located on Glendale Road...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 23, 2013 | News
Most parents, we can assume, would not let their four-year-old watch a movie about (to quote the Internet Movie Database) “a homicide detective … pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled serial killer...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 23, 2013 | News
May Day isn’t just about wrapping ribbons around May poles; it’s also International Workers Day, a celebration of the history and achievements of the worldwide labor movement. Western Mass. Jobs With Justice marks the day with its annual “Voices of...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 23, 2013 | News
In 1994, a group called TV-Free America organized the first TV Turnoff Week, which called on families and individuals to “re-think the role of television, why we use it and how and what for.” Nineteen years later, the campaign seems almost quaintly...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 23, 2013 | News
A week after incumbent Ward 3 Northampton City Councilor Owen Freeman-Daniels announced that he won’t seek re-election this fall, a new candidate has stepped up. Political activist Ryan O’Donnell announced his candidacy last week on the steps of...
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
Springfield city officials have until next week to come up with a plan to address the long-broken public elevator on West Columbus Avenue that’s supposed to provide access to the city’s riverfront. The elevator, along with a pedestrian bridge, was built in...
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
The boss makes more money than the worker bees; we all know that. But a new report underscores just how big that gap can be. According to Executive PayWatch 2013, CEOs at the biggest American corporations are paid 354 times what the average rank-and-file worker makes....
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
The Mass. Department of Corrections is considering a new policy that would subject prison visitors to searches by drug-sniffing dogs. “There’s always a problem with people trying to bring things into prisons that shouldn’t be there,”...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 3, 2013 | News
Glenn Greenwald, columnist for the American edition of The Guardian and author of With Liberty and Justice for Some (2011), had this to say about the Boston Marathon bombing: “The widespread compassion for yesterday’s victims and the intense anger over the...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 3, 2013 | News
In a move that could change the character of several major American newspapers, Charles and David Koch are said to be considering a purchase of the Tribune media company, which would give them the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 3, 2013 | News
New England is full of evocative oddities that are clues to an older time: fragments of stone walls, metal objects poking up from the ground—cryptic but eloquent remains of history. South Hawley, a Franklin County village long forgotten along with the stagecoach...
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
Maybe there’s a raccoon in your attic, or an injured rabbit under your porch. Or there’s a baby skunk in your garden that you think might be orphaned. What do you do? One good idea: call Urban Wildlife Rehabilitation (413-788-7888 or 781-1505) for advice,...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 3, 2013 | News
Amherst, the quintessential college town, is a place where architecture and open space meld in a charming landscape, services are, by and large, excellent, and behavior is generally civil. But Amherst has a growing problem: unsightly and sometimes unsafe rental...
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
Americans are much less likely to get health insurance coverage through their jobs than they were just 11 years ago, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2011, 59.5 percent of Americans—159 million people—received health...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 3, 2013 | News
Two days after the Boston Marathon bombing, a fertilizer plant in the small town of West, Texas went up in an horrendous explosion, killing 14, injuring 200, destroying dozens of buildings and creating a crater 90 feet wide. On the air and in the papers, the Texas...
by Maureen Turner | May 3, 2013 | News
Well, this could be a little awkward: the principals in a company with a pending lawsuit against the city of Springfield are, at the same time, involved in a casino proposal that needs the approval of city officials. As first reported by Ryan Walsh of Channel...
by Gary Carra | May 3, 2013 | Blogs, News, Nightcrawler
We all knew the Midwest Rock ’n’ Roll Express had passenger cars. In fact, that tour is responsible for transporting three of the larger names in classic rock—Styx, REO Speedwagon and Ted Nugent—to various venues the country over, including...
by Pete Redington | May 3, 2013 | News
As the hacker group Anonymous called for an Internet blackout reminiscent of the online protest held last year against the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the House of...
by Pete Redington | May 3, 2013 | News
At the conclusion of the pre-game ceremonies before the Boston Red Sox took the field at Fenway Park for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent detention of the suspects, David “Big Papi” Ortiz addressed the crowd, and all those...
by Pete Redington | May 3, 2013 | News
Better than Romania, but not quite as good as Bulgaria. That’s where the U.S. ranks on childhood poverty, according to a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “More than one in five American children fall below a relative poverty...
by Pete Redington | May 3, 2013 | News
Over the past couple of years, Holyoke native and NFL hopeful Harry Melendez has been organizing two to three mile runs in the Paper City to share his training regimen and inspire “community unity through individual improvement,” he says. The group started...
by Pete Redington | May 3, 2013 | News
“You’ve heard of the golden rule, haven’t you?” a disguised Jafar asks in the popular Disney film Aladdin. “Whoever has the gold makes the rules.” This weekend, participants at the “Rules Change: Resetting the Playing Field...
by Maureen Turner | May 6, 2013 | News
Next week, a federal judge in Boston will take up the ongoing legal dispute over the fate of Springfield’s former Our Lady of Hope church. But attorneys for the Roman Catholic diocese say there’s another crucial matter at stake: the church’s freedom...
by Maureen Turner | May 7, 2013 | News
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno would prefer residents not think about the casino battle in his city in terms of “winners” and “losers.” Last week, when Sarno announced that MGM, but not rival developer Penn National, would proceed to the next...
by Advocate readers | May 7, 2013 | News
MGM “Speaks From the Heart” As a Main Street business owner in the South End, I have seen too many companies come and go in the city of Springfield. Watching local businesses be torn down by hard times and forces of nature, I realize that rebuilding would...
by James Heflin | May 7, 2013 | News
There’s an issue at the core of Boston musician/artist/writer Amanda Palmer’s work, most especially her writing, that provides a bright dividing line, a love-or-hate point of departure that rules out a measured take. She seems to believe that the heat of...
by Maureen Turner | May 7, 2013 | News
Andrea Cousins, a clinical psychologist in Northampton, was appalled to learn a few years ago that some in her profession had been involved in developing “enhanced interrogation techniques” used against suspects at Guantanamo Bay and other detention...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 8, 2013 | News
“Perhaps the most important or notable finding of this panel is that it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” That’s the key statement in the opening of a report recently released by the Constitution...
by Maureen Turner | May 8, 2013 | News
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a new policy statement that, in part, called on members to “provide supportive, informed counsel to women considering home birth.” That might not seem like a particularly bold position. But to Kristen...
by Stephanie Kraft, Pete Redington, and Maureen Turner | May 8, 2013 | News
Rooke Fined for Campaign Finance Violations By Maureen Turner Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke has been hit with a $5,000 penalty by the state’s campaign finance agency over some questionable uses of his campaign funds. Last week, the Mass. Office of...
by Maureen Turner | May 14, 2013 | News
Last year’s Senate race between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown was the most expensive in U.S. history. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the two candidates raised a jaw-dropping $76 million, combined, and spent an even more jaw-dropping $82...
by Pete Redington | May 14, 2013 | News
At a national conference focusing on the New Agenda for Women in Sport, held in Washington, D.C. in 1981, Pat Griffin, a speaker from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, took the opportunity to discuss her experience confronting homophobia as a lesbian athlete...
by Stephanie Kraft | May 14, 2013 | News
“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work. This is the voice of Rush Limbaugh, host of the most popular talk radio program in America. Limbaugh, whose palm closes over $50 a...
by Advocate staff | May 14, 2013 | News
Rooke Fined for Campaign Finance Violations By Maureen Turner Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke has been hit with a $5,000 penalty by the state’s campaign finance agency over some questionable uses of his campaign funds. Last week, the Mass....
by Advocate readers | May 15, 2013 | News
Rally Against Monsanto On May 25, people in cities around the world will be gathering in rallies to send a loud and clear message to the Monsanto Corporation: “We do not want your genetically modified foods (GMOs)!” In fact, at this writing, 290 rallies...
by Advocate staff | May 15, 2013 | News
As the Trash Piles Up, Will Incinerators Come Back? by Advocate Staff The state’s new Solid Waste Master Plan has a lot of important ideas for reducing waste and promoting recycling, but the part of the plan drawing the most heat deals with burning trash.The...
by by Stephanie Kraft | May 15, 2013 | News
There is a lot of talk, pro and con, about Pioneer Valley Energy Center, a natural gas-fired power plant proposed for Westfield. For the chosen host city, the project offers some attractive features.The 400 megawatts the plant would generate could power 430,000 homes,...
by Advocate staff | May 15, 2013 | News
The state’s top teacher is inspiring Springfield Central High School’s ninth graders.Anne Marie Bettencourt, 31, of Hatfield is the Massachusetts 2013 Teacher of the Year, which makes her eligible for the National Teacher of the Year Program.In an...
by by Pete Redington | May 15, 2013 | News
Last month, the National Hockey League (NHL) took an unprecedented step on behalf of the athletic equality movement by announcing its partnership with the You Can Play Project, an organization dedicated to confronting and challenging homophobia in sports.“The...
by Advocate staff | May 21, 2013 | News
Wayne Shorter Quartet Without A Net (Blue Note) For over a decade, Wayne Shorter’s acoustic quartet has been the most exciting working band in jazz. Unfortunately, there’s been too little recorded evidence of their telepathic ability to erase the...
by Norman Solomon | May 21, 2013 | News
The president’s new choices for Commerce secretary and FCC chair underscore how far down the rabbit hole his populist conceits have tumbled. Yet the Obama rhetoric about standing up for working people against “special interests” is as profuse as...
by Advocate readers | May 21, 2013 | News
EOPSS Spin Fails Sniff Test The spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s claim that “the department has received no public feedback about the plan” to start dog sniff searches in Massachusetts prison waiting rooms...
by by Pete Redington | May 21, 2013 | News
Sports equality history was made recently when twelve-year NBA veteran Jason Collins became the first openly gay male athlete to come out while still playing a major American sport.Collins played center for the Boston Celtics this past season before being traded to...
by Maureen Turner | May 24, 2013 | News
Over the past several weeks, Town Meetings in nine Franklin County communities have passed non-binding resolutions expressing concern about changes at Baystate Franklin Medical Center—the county’s sole hospital—that supporters say have reduced...
by Julia Pergolini | May 29, 2013 | News
The American idiom “Don’t take any wooden nickels!” predates the 1930s, but that era’s bank crises did lead to the actual use of wooden currency. When local banks failed or were inaccessible, some merchants and towns issued wooden money as a...
by Advocate staff | May 29, 2013 | News
Springfield Casino Plan Now Goes Before the Voters It was touch and go for awhile, but the Springfield City Council has signed off on an agreement with MGM to develop a casino in the city’s South End. The proposal will now go before residents, who will vote on...
by Advocate readers | May 29, 2013 | News
Pledged to Death The sub-headline in Maureen Turner’s piece, “A Report Finds the Warren/Brown ‘People’s Pledge’ Worked,” (May 14) was incomplete. It should have continued, “…for Elizabeth Warren.” I’ll bet...
by Advocate staff | May 29, 2013 | News
Slow It Down By Maureen Turner Next week, proponents of “slow living” will gather in Brattleboro to talk about their vision for a “a more reflective approach to answering how we live, work and play as human beings on a fragile Earth.” This is...
by Maureen Turner | Jun 4, 2013 | News
With a new-found desire to become a mother and her 41st birthday approaching, Miriam Zoll and her husband did what many older would-be parents do: they made an appointment at a fertility clinic. Almost a year earlier, on that most emblematically charged of...
by Advocate staff | Jun 4, 2013 | News
Noho: Round One Goes to the Benches Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz sidestepped what was shaping up to be a real donnybrook last week, when he undid his earlier decision to remove a half dozen benches from the sidewalks in his city’s downtown. Narkewicz...
by Advocate readers | Jun 4, 2013 | News
Why Alternative Currencies Work In regard to Julia Pergolini’s May 30 Between the Lines column (“Reinventing Money: Alternative currencies like Ithaca Hours and BerkShares boost local economies”), I think it is important to note the real power behind...
by Maureen Turner | Jun 4, 2013 | News
Earlier this year, state education officials began discussions with a non-profit organization whose mission is to create “personalized learning” technology for use in classrooms. “Every student is an individual, with unique knowledge, abilities and...
by Shikha Dalmia | Jun 11, 2013 | News
Conservative Ann Coulter has made a career out of bad manners, so it was no surprise when she slammed her libertarian hosts at the annual International Students for Liberty confab in February as “pussies.” That was almost a compliment compared to...
by Maureen Turner | Jun 11, 2013 | News
The Springfield City Council has spent years considering the prospect of allowing electronic billboards in the city. It’s held numerous meetings on the matter and heard from residents and billboard owners as well as the professionals in the city’s Planning...
by Tom Sturm | Jun 18, 2013 | News
While the bright new greens of spring are a welcome reminder that life is renewed every year, it’s really the summer that brings a full-on assault of color and a maturing of that renewed life in ways that infuse our perception with something like magic. Over the...
