News
by Advocate readers | Mar 12, 2014 | News
Conspiracies and Actual Conspiracies In Charlotte Burns’ letter “Skeptical of Case Against Tsarnaev” [February 27, 2014] she writes, “Having lived through the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War and 9/11, I am totally...
by Advocate readers | Feb 12, 2014 | News
Ensnared By Goddess Hillary At any moment, America will experience the start of a modern-day phenomenon known as the Bandwagon Mentality. We have seen this time and again, but this time the creation of the bandwagon mentality will feature Hillary Clinton and her run...
by Norman Solomon | Mar 12, 2014 | News
International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is...
by Advocate staff | Feb 12, 2014 | News
Police Commission Scramble City councilors race mayor on issue of police oversight. By Maureen Turner The Springfield City Council is just two meetings into its new term, but it’s already taken on one of the thorniest issues in city government: a proposal to...
by Ellen Moyer, Ph.D., P.E. | Mar 12, 2014 | News
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is reopening public land to commercial logging, despite public comments overwhelmingly opposing this move. Loggers are preparing to clear-cut intact forests in the Quabbin Reservation, the largest tract of...
by Tom Vannah | Feb 12, 2014 | News
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a visceral reaction to the idea of capital punishment. The notion of a government—any government—executing its citizens makes me feel weak. It makes me feel the extent of my own vulnerability and potential...
by Advocate staff | Mar 12, 2014 | News
Gas Company Explores Right-of-Way in Valley By Stephanie Kraft “I don’t want any part of it. I never would give up our land for it.” That’s the way Laura Chapdelaine of Montague feels about the pipeline Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. wants...
by Advocate staff | Feb 19, 2014 | News
Don’t Just Sit There—Read! South Hadley’s Odyssey Bookshop hosts a number of book discussion groups: for young adult readers, crime aficionados, Shakespeare lovers, fans of fiction. But its newest book group is especially near and dear to co-owner...
by Advocate staff | Mar 12, 2014 | News
Lively Protest Activists gathered last week outside the Holy Grounds Coffee House on Main Street in Springfield, to protest the harsh anti-homosexuality bill recently passed in Uganda. Holy Grounds was started by the Rev. Scott Lively, an evangelical minister (and...
by Advocate staff | Feb 19, 2014 | News
UMass Students Find GMOs in “GMO-Free” Foods By Maureen Turner Last fall, Rick Pilsner, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at UMass Amherst, gave his students a challenge that would be of interest to many consumers: to determine...
by Advocate staff | Mar 19, 2014 | News
Worth Quoting “[In the 1960s], American students sought to wrest themselves entirely from the disciplinary control of their colleges and universities, institutions that had historically operated in loco parentis, carefully monitoring the private...
by Pete Redington | Feb 19, 2014 | News
This weekend’s NFL Scouting Combine, in which 300 top draft prospects will be evaluated by coaches and scouts, will have its first high-profile openly gay attendee in University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, who turned the page on a new chapter in NFL...
by Advocate readers | Mar 19, 2014 | News
What Has Noho Done for Springfield? It is unclear why the Valley Advocate chose to run a recent cover story describing economic threats to Northampton posed by casino development in Springfield (“Can Noho Survive a Springfield Casino?”, March 6,...
by by Advocate readers | Feb 19, 2014 | News
Showing the Abuses of Empire Bravo to Charlotte Burns for her excellent guest column on our free Friday night films in the Valley Advocate (“Friday Nights with Frances,” Letters, February 6, 2014). I would like to add to the column: it is not a...
by Advocate staff | Mar 19, 2014 | News
The First Churches of Northampton is exploring the sale of its Tiffany window, Rev. Todd Weir confirmed in an interview last week with the Valley Advocate. The church will propose the details of its plan in a letter to the Massachusetts Historical Commission....
by Lisa Gosselin | Feb 19, 2014 | News
“I’d love to move to Vermont and start a company here,” the snowboarder from Saratoga, N.Y. sighed as we shared a chairlift in Stowe. That was nine years ago. Chris Kaiser, who went on to found Vermont Peanut Butter, moved to Stowe in 2005, started...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 19, 2014 | News
Northampton? Progressive? Chris Matera mocks the idea, at least when it comes to the environment and the city’s stewardship of public lands, including its water supply and the watershed that feeds it. “How can a ‘progressive,’ relatively...
by Pete Redington | Feb 19, 2014 | News
Greg Saulmon walks past his pickup truck, and I follow. Down from the Route 116 bridge, back behind Levreault’s Garage and its big, barking, Rottweiler-looking dog, past the sound of an engine that gets louder and louder and louder until we can no longer talk...
by Douglas Amy | Mar 19, 2014 | News
Poverty is again on the political agenda in America. And one of the most persistent myths surrounding this issue is that the best way to reduce poverty is to increase equal opportunity. Many liberals and conservatives believe, for instance, that if the poor had much...
by Michael Carolan | Feb 19, 2014 | News
Like many who saw him perform, I won’t soon forget Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not because I saw him on Broadway in a performance that drove me to tears. Nor because I show one of his movies to my students at the university where I teach....
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 19, 2014 | News
When the Saturday a week before St. Patrick’s Day is also the first mild day after weeks of freezing cold, what do you get in a college town like Amherst? Some call it a party. Some call it a riot. In the sunny mid-afternoon, the Advocate observed that the...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 19, 2014 | News
Even more than racism, sexism—men’s and women’s—is hard to identify in ourselves. It’s conditioned into us even earlier than racism and class prejudices; it’s woven more tightly into our egos; and our first consciousness that...
by Advocate staff | Mar 26, 2014 | News
Water, Water, Everywhere March 22 was World Water Day, an international day of activism to promote water safety and sanitation. This week, the citizens’ sustainability group Greening Greenfield hosts a Water Weekend’s worth of films focused on threats to...
by Advocate staff | Feb 26, 2014 | News
Efforts to Limit Restraints on Pregnant Inmates Move Forward By Maureen Turner A proposal that would ban the use of shackles on pregnant prisoners in Massachusetts took an important step toward becoming law last week, when the legislative Joint Committee on Public...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 26, 2014 | News
Last year, two powerful men left lasting marks on public higher education in Massachusetts, and the events that pitted them against each other are still playing out. Evan Dobelle, who left his post as president of Westfield State University after running up hundreds...
by Tom Vannah | Feb 26, 2014 | News
The hacks have spoken. Northampton will get no casino mitigation money, and neither will Hampden—no chance for appeal. I am hardly surprised by this recent decision by the state Gaming Commission. Now that we’re down to the final stages of its selection of...
by Advocate staff | Mar 26, 2014 | News
After Eight Years, GMO Labeling Bill Makes Headway By Stephanie Kraft A GMO labeling bill first filed by state representative Ellen Story (D-Amherst) eight years ago, and co-sponsored by Rep. John Scibak (D-South Hadley), has been reported out of the state...
by by Advocate readers | Feb 26, 2014 | News
Skeptical of Case Against Tsarnaev In regard to letters in support of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to seek the death penalty in the case against alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, I have an idea: How about skipping a trial and just...
by Advocate readers | Mar 26, 2014 | News
Who’s Delusional, Gannon? Joe Gannon’s confused and pejorative attack (Letters: “Conspiracies and Actual Conspiracies,” March 13, 2014) on the skepticism of letter writer Charlotte Burns with regard to the government’s Boston Marathon...
by Ted Rall | Feb 26, 2014 | News
Politicians get called to account for their broken promises. So, too, should their celebrity supporters. When boldface names convince the hoi polloi to punch the chads that put their favorite candidates into positions of power, they must assume responsibility when...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 26, 2014 | News
The protracted battle between Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and a group of city councilors over the leadership of the Springfield Police Department came to an end last week—or, at least, a temporary halt. On March 19, Sarno announced that he had selected SPD...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 26, 2014 | News
Massachusetts’ top court last week ruled against Springfield resident Bill Pepin, the vice president and general manager at WWLP, in a case that pitted property rights against environmental protections. Pepin and his wife, Marlene, filed the lawsuit against the...
by Lois Ahrens | Mar 26, 2014 | News
In Massachusetts, more than 5,000 women and men are jailed pretrial because they can’t make bail. They have been convicted of nothing. In February, at Framingham prison, 43 percent of women incarcerated there were awating trial. In October, 2013 at the Chicopee...
by Ed Collins | Feb 26, 2014 | News
The time is long overdue to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts. The state Senate last year passed a bill that would increase the minimum wage over time from the current $8 per hour up to $11 per hour. It would also increase the minimum wage for so...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 26, 2014 | News
Late last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont set progressive hearts fluttering when he floated the idea that he might run for president (see “Bernie in 2016?”, Dec. 17, 2013, www.valleyadvocate.com). In a number of recent interviews, Sanders—a...
by Advocate staff | Feb 26, 2014 | News
Mass. Low Wage Workers Take a Hit The recession and its aftermath were especially rough on low-wage workers—and in Massachusetts, they’ve fared particularly poorly, according to figures recently released by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C....
by Brooke Norton | Mar 26, 2014 | News
Whether they have a television or not, I encourage parents to discuss fact versus fiction in the media with their kids. Billboards, advertisements, photographs, blogs, magazines, video clips, and pornography are all accessible forms of media that kids can see without...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 4, 2014 | News
Will he or won’t he? Our governor likes to keep us guessing. And we media wags are only too happy to help him keep the question in the news: will Deval Patrick run for president? “Maybe, maybe,” he told reporters last week, when asked if he could...
by Advocate staff | Apr 2, 2014 | News
Not Your Mother’s Bartok The musicians of Bella’s Bartok are purveyors of a highly danceable brand of pop that borrows from many a direction and incorporates everything from mandolin and horns to accordion and unhinged facial hair. Theirs is a...
by Advocate staff | Mar 4, 2014 | News
The Casino Question: Round and Round She Goes By Maureen Turner The people of Revere have spoken—again. And yes, they really do want a casino. Last week, voters in that North Shore community approved Mohegan Sun’s $1.3 billion casino proposal for Suffolk...
by Advocate readers | Apr 2, 2014 | News
Blarney Blowout Underscores Bad Policing Regarding Stephanie Kraft’s article “The Blowout and the Blarney” (March 20, 2014), I only know what I have read about [the Blowout], but it looks like the mainstream media have blamed UMass for it simply...
by Tom Vannah | Apr 2, 2014 | News
Spring, I am sure, will be extra sweet this year. When it finally comes, that is—when the valleys here slowly turn from dull grays and browns to vibrant greens and yellows dabbed with every color in the rainbow, and the rivers turn from slate to sparkling blue....
by Maureen Turner | Apr 2, 2014 | News
Last week—St. Patrick’s Day, specifically—marked the seventh anniversary of the day Larry Kelley launched his blog, Only in the Republic of Amherst. Over those seven years, Kelley has become a force to be reckoned with, thanks to his mix of...
by Advocate staff | Apr 2, 2014 | News
By the Numbers 103: The number of megawatts of wind power now installed in Massachusetts, up from 3 megawatts in 2007. Last month, the state approved 12 new contracts for on-shore wind power from Maine and New Hampshire that will add a total of 409 megawatts to the...
by Advocate staff | Apr 2, 2014 | News
Nuke Workers Didn’t Wait for Bomb Squad By Stephanie Kraft In November, workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant came across an unidentified object in the shipping and receiving area called the South Forty: a short length of pipe capped at both ends....
by Mark Roessler | Apr 9, 2014 | News
When documentary filmmaker Larry Hott asked me if he might borrow some of my Frederick Law Olmsted books, I was both honored and a bit protective. I’ve known and enjoyed the many documentaries Hott and his partner Diane Garey—also his co-producer, editor...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 9, 2014 | News
In February, the Federal Communications Commission put into effect new regulations limiting how much prisoners can be charged for phone calls. Under the new rules, interstate phone calls by prisoners are capped at 21 cents for debit calls and 25 cents per minute for...
by Advocate staff | Apr 9, 2014 | News
What’s a “GMO,” Anyway? It’s one of the greatest difficulties for consumers these days: basic elements in our lives, from cars to computers to food, require more and more technical, highly specialized knowledge to understand. As controversy...
by Advocate staff | Apr 9, 2014 | News
Fisher Fights to Get on GOP Gubernatorial Ballot By Maureen Turner While a field of five Democrats continues to battle to become their party’s gubernatorial nominee this fall, Charlie Baker has enjoyed the certainty of being the sole name on the Republican...
by Maureen Turner | Apr 9, 2014 | News
Several years ago, faced with the imminent closing of their town’s elementary school, a group of Worthington families took a bold step: they formed their own independent school. Now they’ve launched a major fundraising campaign, seeking to raise $300,000...
by Ted Rall | Apr 9, 2014 | News
As I waited for the body of a man who jumped in front of my train to be cleared from the tracks—less than a week before another train I was riding struck a suicide victim—it occurred to me that (a) I should check whether suicide rates are increasing due to...
by James Heflin | Apr 9, 2014 | News
It’s A Girl (Spirithouse) Lux Deluxe used to be known primarily for their unusual combination of youth and ability to play. The band formed in 2009, so its members have hardly become elder statesmen—they’ve still got the same lean energy and earnest...
by by Kitty Callaghan | Apr 9, 2014 | News
As a housing attorney in a legal aid program, I have represented many low-wage workers on the brink of being evicted because they could not pay their rent. To stop the eviction, tenants usually had to pay their current rent plus a monthly payment on the back rent....
by Advocate readers | Apr 9, 2014 | News
Black and White Call the Kettle Gray Elliot Tarry would like me to seem the bullying, deluded one (“Who’s Delusional, Gannon?”, Letters, March 27, 2014) while he should appear part of the skeptical cognoscenti, the wise shepherds who would lead sheep...
by Advocate staff | Apr 16, 2014 | News
By the Numbers 35 percent: The amount by which spending per student-athlete rose at community colleges between academic years 2003-2004 and 2010-2011, while per capita spending on other students declined 25 percent: The amount by which spending per student-athlete...
by by Advocate readers | Apr 30, 2014 | News
Sidewalks? No! I was furious to hear about new sidewalks along Route 9. I’m tired of the “Commonwealth” wasting my hard earned tax money on things that I don’t use. Why should I have to pay for sidewalks that are only going to be used nine...
by Stephanie Kraft | Apr 16, 2014 | News
To some, it’s a piece of decaying infrastructure that’s probably not worth the cost of repair and maintenance. Or they may not be aware of it at all. To others, it’s the linchpin of a small environmental paradise: a winding 70-acre lake under a...
by Ethan Gilsdorf | Apr 30, 2014 | News
2014 has already given us three momentous milestones in technology. There was the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh personal computer back in January. Then came the 10th birthday of Facebook in February. March celebrated 25 years since the beginning of the World Wide...
by Mark Roessler | Apr 16, 2014 | News
To the casual customer it might not seem likely, but a copy shop can be one of the most intense places to work. Early in my career, I spent several years as a budding graphic designer working in a series of New England copy shops. While I did my desktop publishing...
by Advocate staff | Apr 30, 2014 | News
Amid Calls for More Gas Pipeline, Activists Dig In By Stephanie Kraft Conflict is brewing between opponents of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. project planned for Western Massachusetts and state and federal officials who want to see more natural gas infrastructure in...
