News
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,...
by From our Readers | Jul 4, 2018 | Articles, Featured, 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 Advocate Staff | Jul 2, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Podcast
Dara Herman Zierlein made a choice to have an affect on the planet by eliminating plastic from her life. Even despite that decision, she sometimes does use plastic. But she holds onto it rather than throwing it away or recycling. She says that only about 9 percent of...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 29, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
In the midst of the season of high school graduations, a group of dedicated students who had failed to get through high school the first time around earned recognition for passing their high school equivalency test, known as the HiSET, at the Springfield Technical...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 28, 2018 | Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
They say that elections have consequences. This is one of the terrible ones. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement on Wednesday, June 27, effective the end of July. With Donald Trump in the Oval Office, and control of the Senate in the hands...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 28, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
In an effort to combat families being torn apart through American immigration policy, activists with the Pioneer Valley activist network supporting undocumented immigrants called Sanctuary in the Streets came with their children to a small rally at the Immigration and...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 27, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
A partnership between grassroots activism group, the Pioneer Valley Project, and UFCW Local 1459, a union that represents workers with regional grocery chain Stop & Shop, yielded potential job opportunities for local Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 25, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter, Podcast
Eduardo Samaniego is an undocumented Hampshire College student turned immigrant rights activist at the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. Having arrived in Georgia at the age of 16, he graduated high school as student president, but was precluded from attending the...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 22, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, who is running for his seventh term in office after serving in the position for more than two decades, is facing a challenge from Boston City Councilor and Democratic opponent Josh Zakim, pushed back on the notion that...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 22, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Congressman James McGovern, D-Worcester, and undocumented immigrant Lucio Perez, who is taking sanctuary at the First Congressional Church in Amherst, will make a joint call to end inhumane practices at the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday. “President Trump’s...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 21, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
While the Legislature was debating raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour in a ‘grand bargain’ bill passed by the House and Senate on Wednesday, Haymarket Cafe owner Peter Simpson was increasing his lowest paid workers wages to $15.50....
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 20, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
The Massachusetts House has unveiled and quickly passed a long-awaited “grand bargain” bill aimed at keeping citizen petitions off the ballot this year, including measures supporting a $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, and sales tax adjustments. Later...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 20, 2018 | Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News, Newsletter
Keep your eyes off the road A county coroner in Kentucky has been accused of working with at least two others — a retired police colonel and a current state police trooper — of illegally transporting a number of items. The most serious appeared to be $40,000 worth of...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 19, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Josh Zakim, a Boston City Councilor and a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of State, visited the Northampton farmers’ market this afternoon alongside Mayor David Narkewicz, speaking with customers and vendors about how he plans to implement...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 19, 2018 | Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
The state’s Supreme Judicial Court did an extreme disservice to voters this week, taking away the potential to vote on the popular “Fair Share Amendment,” which would have created a 4 percent tax on the wealthy and used the money for education and transportation...
by Dave Eisenstadter and Chris Goudreau | Jun 19, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
The long-awaited moment is nearly here: marijuana will be legal to sell in the state of Massachusetts as of July 1 — with a license. But a question that has arisen for many long-term users of marijuana is: what is going to happen to the unlicensed, illegal marijuana...
by Readers of the Advocate | Jun 19, 2018 | Articles, 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 Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 19, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
I’m angry these days. I try to hide it as best I can, but the piling up of atrocities committed by the Trump administration is taking its toll, and I doubt I’m the only one concealing a bubbling rage as I go about my day. But the recently-implemented “zero tolerance”...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 15, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
By the summer of 2019, Amherst will have a new mixed-use development of 130 low to moderate income apartments and eight to 10 new spaces for businesses at North Square in the community’s Mill District. A groundbreaking ceremony for the development took place with...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 14, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Some sad community and activism news — longtime political activist Rose “Arky” Markham passed away earlier this week. Sad in that she passed away, but among the things she has left behind are the results of a life well-spent, as can be seen in her...
by Isabel Darmon-Weiss | Jun 14, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
“I am consistently inspired by the youth activists in this community,” said Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton in front of a room full of students, teachers, parents, and community members at the Northampton High School auditorium on June 13. Sabadosa, a candidate for...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 13, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Tuesday afternoon at Union Station in Springfield, Gov. Charlie Baker announced increased rail connectivity in the city’s future. Going north and south, there will be a pilot program beginning in 2019 for passenger rail service that would run twice a day from...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 12, 2018 | Articles, News
Tuesday afternoon at Union Station in Springfield, Gov. Charlie Baker announced a pilot program beginning in 2019 for north to south passenger rail service that would run twice a day from Greenfield and make stops in Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 12, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
Local marijuana businesses — and federal legislators — are supporting bipartisan legislation that would leave marijuana regulation up to the states, a change from the blanket federal prohibition now in place. That’s a positive sign for Easthampton resident Karima...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 11, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter, Wellness
When Lisa Zarcone was 11 or 12 years old, she came home to find her home a hot 90 degrees and her mother smoking on the sofa. She turned down the thermostat and her mother attacked her with a meat tenderizer, violently hitting her more than 20 times. She had bruises...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 8, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
In a statement released on Facebook on Friday morning, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper wrote that the suspect arrested at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton after allegedly bringing two pellet guns onto the campus said he was there to pick up a friend...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 7, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
In a show of bipartisan support for clarity around marijuana laws, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado held a joint press conference about a bill they are sponsoring to allow states to make their own decisions...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
A group of more than 30 activists affiliated with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and Mass Jobs with Justice protested outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office at 1550 Main St. in Springfield on June 6 in response to children being separated...
by Meg Bantle | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
If you think that tiny house movement is just a passing fad for young people, think again. Lisa Kuneman, 53, of Brattleboro, said that tiny houses are definitely more than just a trend, and that many tiny house enthusiasts are retirement-aged. “Other options aren’t...
by Isabel Darmon-Weiss | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Over 15 boxes of Pez candy and accessories were shipped to the Children’s Museum at Holyoke just weeks ago. Susan Kelley, executive director of the museum, mounted a third of them onto the wall in the middle of the bustling chaos. She said she is glad the museum can...
by Isabel Darmon-Weiss | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Northampton High School are organizing an event to put questions to students local candidates running for 1st Hampshire County state Representative and Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester state Senator. It will take place at the school’s auditorium at 380 Elm St. in...
by From our Readers | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, 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 Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 5, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
The five write-in candidates in the race to replace longtime state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, of Amherst, are coming under scrutiny for their late entry into the race, with some calling their challenge to progressive Chelsea Kline — the only candidate to have her name on...
by Gina Beavers. Chris Goudreau. | Jun 5, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News, Newsletter
Taking a break from posting about the volcanic doom on Hawaii, The U.S. Geological Survey’s Twitter account fielded this question: “Is it safe to roast marshmallows over volcanic vents? Assuming you had a long enough stick, that is? Or would the resulting marshmallows...
by Isabel Darmon-Weiss | Jun 4, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Historic Court Square was filled with almost 200 people on Monday, June 4, in downtown Springfield, where one of many rallies for the Poor People’s Campaign was launched. The campaign is doing a six-week launch which they’ve titled “A National Call for Moral Revival,”...
by Isabel Darmon-Weiss | Jun 4, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Lucio Perez, an undocumented immigrant and a native of Guatemala who has been taking sanctuary in the First Church of Amherst since October, wants to personally show his gratitude towards the community through a potluck dinner on June 18 at 6 p.m. The dinner, which...
by Chris Goudreau | May 31, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
A new start-up cannabis business called Treeworks is taking a grassroots approach to the burgeoning legalized marijuana industry in Massachusetts by working out of a home kitchen to develop a line of locally sourced products, including cannabis oils, edibles such as...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 30, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
A growing national activist movement called the Poor People’s Campaign will host its first rally in Springfield on Monday, June 4, around environmental issues. Michaelann Bewsee, executive director of Arise for Social Justice in Springfield and one of the chairs of...
by Hunter Styles | May 30, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
Raise a glass across the Valley (and throughout the Berkshires, too!) as the third annual Western Mass Beer Week rolls in this month. The eight-day celebration of local craft beer — which runs June 9 to 16 — is jam-packed with limited releases, special collaborations,...
by Chris Goudreau | May 29, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Springfield-based nonprofit, Gardening the Community, which practices urban gardening in the Mason Square neighborhood and hosts programs teaching youth about urban agriculture, will host a grand opening for its first ever farm stand at 200 Walnut Street this...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 29, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Have you dreamed of travelling through space? UMass Amherst Post Doctoral Research Associate William Daniels is doing the next best thing this month and next — spending 45 days cooped up in a tiny space with three other people. Daniels, 33, of Hadley entered what he...
by Chris Goudreau | May 25, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
A nonprofit art space called Looky Here at 28 Chapman St. in Greenfield will feature everything from tarot card readings to instrument building classes as well as a thrift shop for art supplies. Looky Here is slated to have its grand opening on June 24 at 9 a.m....
by From Our Readers | May 25, 2018 | Articles, 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 Gina Beavers | May 24, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter, Stage
“A dirty vanilla box” is how Pam Victor lovingly describes the new location of Happier Valley Comedy. The 1,300 square foot room at the end of a strip of shops on Route 9, is the culmination of years of comedic toil. “It’s the first ever improv theater and training...
by Advocate Staff | May 23, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
I remember the Columbine shooting like it was yesterday. It was a rainy April afternoon in 1999, very bleak but mild. When I turned on the television, I was hardly prepared for what I saw and what I heard. Two boys had committed what was, at the time, a shocking crime...
by Chris Goudreau | May 23, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Jasper Gardner, a 35-year-old Cummington resident who has worked as a farmer and carpenter in the Pioneer Valley, was recently awarded the 2018 Valley Advocate scholarship to the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for his...
by Sharon Dunn with John J. Clayton | May 22, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
“It’s like you’re going to a foreign country… Do you need a passport?” Letha Dollarhyde of Letcher County, Kentucky, said this — partly in jest, partly not — about coming to Leverett, Massachusetts, when she visited here last fall. Our Hands Across the Hills project...
by Gina Beavers and Chris Goudreau | May 22, 2018 | Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News, Newsletter
Guns aren’t fool proof, or dog proof Everyone knows that dogs are goofballs. They eat things they shouldn’t. They dig up things they shouldn’t. And sometimes they shoot things they shouldn’t. One man in Iowa found out the hard way that the safety on his gun...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 21, 2018 | Articles, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Known as a big-hearted guy, a talented musician, and, sometimes, a gruff-but-lovable curmudgeon, Joe Magrone, bassist for Problem with Dragons, died on May 18 at the age of 38, two weeks shy of his 39th birthday. Dave Fournier first met Magrone in 1985, when he went...
by Meg Bantle | May 18, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
The big scissors were out in Amherst this week as the CEO of the national company Green Thumb Industries (GTI) cut the ribbon in front of the town’s first medical marijuana dispensary, called RISE Amherst. Despite being based in Chicago, Pete Kadens, director and CEO...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 17, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Lucio Pérez, a Guatemalan father of four who has been living in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church in Amherst since October 2017, left the church to be treated at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton for a life-threatening condition, according to a...
by Chris Goudreau | May 17, 2018 | Featured, News, Newsletter
The Pioneer Valley Workers Center, Jobs with Justice, and RaiseUp Massachusetts will host Thirsty for Fair Wages on Thursday, May 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 20 Hampton Ave. #200 in Northampton, with a tagline of “all work and no play can make the fun of activism...
by Chris Goudreau | May 16, 2018 | Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Maple Local Granola, a Holyoke-based granola business that uses locally-sourced ingredients, has released different blends of granola inspired by local bands such as indie pop group, And the Kids, as well as bluesy Amherst-based art rock band Old Flame. Tony...
by Meg Bantle | May 16, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Despite the violent rain and thunderstorms, about 50 activists, including some from the group Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass, gathered on May 15th in Northampton to commemorate the exile of Palestinians 70 years ago and to bring attention to the Palestinian...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 16, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
A reader came in with an unusual request earlier this week: she had a piece of art work she bought at an auction in Greenfield nearly a decade ago and wanted to see if we could identify the artist. Arts and Culture Editor Gina Beavers, herself a local artist, looked...
by Chris Goudreau | May 15, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
A new state-of-the-art hydroponic nonprofit 15,120-square-foot urban greenhouse called Wellspring Harvest at 121 Pinevale Street in Indian Orchard aims to offer fresh produce at wholesale prices year round. Fred Rose, co-director of Wellspring Cooperative Corporation,...
by Chris Goudreau | May 11, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
The Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley will be hosting a discussion between Deborah Levenson from Western Mass Medicare for All and State Rep. John Scibak (D-South Hadley) on May 22 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. about the prospects of creating a single payer health care system...
by Chris Goudreau | May 11, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Northampton City Councilors Alisa Klein and Maureen Carney released a joint statement on May 9 that’s critical of Mayor David Narkewicz’s Panhandling Work Group for the lack of representative from panhandlers in the group and a recent online study regarding...
