News
by by Advocate readers | Jul 9, 2014 | News
Sleazy Pols Push Casinos Thanks for the article on Steve Abdow and casinos (“Casino Thrills and Chills,” June 26, 2014). I hope voters in Massachusetts will see through the millions of dollars of glossy ads bought by the casino industry and send it...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2014 | News
Speaking Up for Caldieri Having multiple sclerosis myself, I feel outraged by the treatment Debra Caldieri has received (“Bad Times for a Good Teacher,” July 31, 2014). Furthermore, her compassion and mindfulness about Phoebe Prince’s suicide should...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jul 9, 2014 | News
The Valley is accustomed to seeing Springfield social services kingpin Heriberto Flores carry out his plans—including plans to buy Springfield’s Paramount Theater and the building that houses the legendary Student Prince/Fort Restaurant, extraordinary...
by Tom Vannah | Aug 14, 2014 | News
Windsor Mallett leads the way to the highest point of the former Belchertown State School campus. As he steps carefully to avoid the abundant poison ivy in his path, he describes his vision: an inclusive community filled with artisans and entrepreneurs and...
by Tom Vannah | Jul 9, 2014 | News
Most evenings in the summer, I spend the last half hour or so before dark in my vegetable garden. I wouldn’t call what I do work, exactly, but by my getting out there for a little while every night, stuff gets done. Weeds get pulled, plants get watered and fed....
by Tom Vannah | Aug 21, 2014 | News
At my house, the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance has some very tough decisions to make this fall, the most vexing of which involves the two old maple trees in the front yard. It may have been an apocryphal tale, but the home inspector we hired to...
by Tom Vannah | Jul 9, 2014 | News
On my first day at the Valley Advocate— June 12, 1995—the erstwhile managing editor Tom Mudd gave me a parting tip. “Dunno if you’re into such things,” he said, suspiciously eying my slender frame, gaunt cheeks and 1993 World Track and...
by by Advocate readers | Aug 21, 2014 | News
Casino Opposition “Selfish” Charlotte Burns’ and other anti-casino writers’ tirades are an attack on the voice of the people of Springfield, who voted in favor of a casino in their city. These writers are not residents of Springfield. While I...
by Michael P. Carney | Jul 16, 2014 | News
As this year’s Pride parade season comes to a close, we have much to celebrate. The biggest cause for celebration may be the Windsor decision handed down by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013. Because of that decision, judges across the nation have ruled that...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 21, 2014 | News
Another piece of heavy artillery was moved into place in the legal fight between the state of Massachusetts and Evan Dobelle, the former president of Westfield State University, when state Attorney General Martha Coakley filed suit against Dobelle on August 7....
by Stephanie Kraft | Jul 16, 2014 | News
A mass of broken glass and rubble covered whole blocks between Worthington and Chestnut streets in Springfield on Black Friday in 2012—the worst disaster since a tornado had leveled parts of the city in the spring of 2011. The Scores strip club was totally...
by Stephanie Kraft | Aug 21, 2014 | News
It’s a driver’s dream: a car you don’t have to own, insure, park every night, fill with gas at your own expense, or even clean. That’s the Zipcar, a car you can drive on an as-needed basis if you pay the fee, usually $6 a month but discounts...
by by Advocate readers | Jul 16, 2014 | News
Agent Orange Déjà Vu Vietnam veterans fought an uphill battle to win “presumed exposure” to Agent Orange; and not until 1991 did they gain disability, medical and survivor benefits that the Veterans Administration had denied them for 20...
by Tom Vannah | Aug 21, 2014 | News
If you don’t know who Charlie Baker is, you probably don’t follow politics. I can’t say I blame you; I often get the impulse to tune it out myself. But before you turn your attention to something more appetizing, please indulge this wee prediction:...
by Maureen Turner | Jul 16, 2014 | News
When Melvin Edwards was a student at Springfield’s Cathedral Grammar School, he recalls, the institutions near the school—the Central Library, the Quadrangle, the Springfield Armory—“were essentially my playground.” He and his friends...
by Tom Vannah | Aug 27, 2014 | News
I wish I’d said something like, “You can have my hundred bucks when you take it from my cold, dead hands.” I know I’d have gotten a laugh. Instead, I asked the police officer if he’d take a check. I was sitting in the police station in...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 16, 2014 | News
It’s not for want of a “proper” venue that Old Deerfield Productions’ re-exploration of Frankenstein is being performed in an abandoned building. The reason is twofold, the most important being that the skeletal, echoing marble-and-iron...
by Advocate readers | Aug 27, 2014 | News
Baker: More of the Same Regarding Tom Vannah’s recent column about Charlie Baker (“A Republican to the Rescue,” Aug. 14): how about Don Berwick to the rescue? Why do media outlets act as if Democratic candidate Don Berwick doesn’t exist?...
by by Advocate readers | Jul 23, 2014 | News
Help Blue Water Navy Vets To amplify points made by Pat Hynes in her letter last week (“Agent Orange Deja Vu,” July 17, 2014): Exposure to Agent Orange has been linked to numerous health problems, including non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostate cancer, type 2...
by John O?Neil | Aug 27, 2014 | News
Jason Burns, a history teacher at Hopkins Academy in Hadley for nine years, says it’s becoming more difficult to get students interested in the workings of the American government, but there is hope. Seven years ago, Burns said in a recent interview, Hopkins...
by Stephanie Kraft | Jul 23, 2014 | News
While representatives of Kinder Morgan are pitching a 129-mile gas pipeline through northern Massachusetts, opponents of the pipeline are on the march. The so-called “Rolling March/Statewide Pipeline Resistance Relay Walk” started July 6 near...
by Terry Allen | Sep 3, 2014 | News
Well, maybe the trip is more phlegmatic Fred Thompson than gonzo Hunter S. And maybe we scarf grilled veggies and espresso instead of cocaine and booze (although rum will enter the picture), but we do cop drugs. The adventure began with a rant: “The last time I...
by Tom Vannah | Jul 23, 2014 | News
It was still too dark outside to see very well, but I heard the rain on the gutters. On the way through shed, I grabbed the first rain coat I could find and called the dog. As we stepped outside, I threw the coat over my head. That’s when I realized it was my...
by Advocate readers | Sep 3, 2014 | News
Gun Control Compromise I want to hunt. I attended my state-mandated hunter education course on April 16, over four months ago, and still haven’t received my license to purchase a firearm. Depending on when it finally arrives, I might miss goose hunting...
by John O?Neil | Jul 30, 2014 | News
WARE — Early on a sunny Tuesday morning at the Stanley Koziol Elementary School, kids file out of school vans and line up at the cafeteria doors with their teachers, waiting to go inside and enjoy breakfast. This morning’s meal of cereal and fruit is not...
by Mikhail Lyubansky | Sep 3, 2014 | News
Robin Williams, who took his own life on Aug. 10, was so multi-talented and so brilliantly funny that it is hard for most of us to imagine him sad, much less depressed. Part of it, of course, is that he was a movie star, far removed from our “normal”...
by Tom Vannah | Jul 30, 2014 | News
Thankfully, Chicopee—the second most populated city in Western Mass.—is one of the easiest places in the Valley to find parking. Sure enough, I found several open spaces across from City Hall. And no meters! I walked into the mayor’s office right on...
by Ted Rall | Sep 3, 2014 | News
Forty years ago this month, President Richard M. Nixon resigned his office. At the time, aside from a tiny minority of dead-enders and a few desultory Congressional Republicans, an exhausted nation had arrived at a consensus that Nixon had to go. Politics...
by Eric Goldscheider | Sep 10, 2014 | News
Robert MacWright brings an enthusiasm for the nexus between gee whiz technology, legal logic, and the history of American entrepreneurship to his job as director of commercial ventures and intellectual property at UMass-Amherst. Yes, his office works hard to make...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 10, 2014 | News
If anyone has the stomach for covering a major news story in a place where not even journalists are safe, it’s Joe Gannon. Gannon worked as a freelance journalist in Nicaragua and El Salvador from 1984 until 1990. He wrote for the Christian Science Monitor and...
by John O?Neil | Sep 10, 2014 | News
Last month, the University of Massachusetts put out a press release touting an anonymous donation of $10.3 million to the school’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “This transformative gift is among the largest in UMass history,” said...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 10, 2014 | News
In the moonlight, the pond shimmered. A soft breeze showed on the surface, fleeting patterns of disturbance appearing and disappearing like the passing shadows of cumulus clouds on a windy day. I stood in the deep shade of the hardwoods that line the pond’s...
by Rob Weir | Sep 17, 2014 | News
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a spybot! The cops! A package from Amazon! Or one of a growing number of uses for nonmilitary drones, those small, remote-controlled flying machines increasingly hovering overhead. How do you feel about eyes in...
by Amanda Drane | Sep 17, 2014 | News
The day after the primary, progressives are licking their wounds. One recurring word rolls again and again off the tongues of Berwick supporters: they were “struck” by him. From support of single-payer healthcare systems to ardent objection to casino and...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 17, 2014 | News
I felt sorry for Martha Coakley last Tuesday night. Her speech after winning the Democratic primary for governor was one of the most painful political performances I’ve seen this year. It left me feeling uncomfortable. But her acceptance speech also left me...
by Advocate readers | Sep 17, 2014 | News
Gun License Mathematics V alley Advocate editor Tom Vannah complains about having to pay $16.67 a year for a gun license that he needs to renew once in 6 years (“A Gun Owner’s Resentment,” Aug. 28). Here’s why that’s cheap: Guns...
by Tom Vannah | Sep 24, 2014 | News
I have a recurring dream that’s haunted my sleep since I graduated high school: I show up to math class wholly unprepared for the day’s exam. Apparently, I’ve managed to go an entire semester without cracking a book; I haven’t attended class,...
by Advocate readers | Sep 24, 2014 | News
Coakley Malaise? Regarding Amanda Drane’s story “Berwick-Stricken (Sept. 18): Yes, I was also “struck” by Berwick. His authentic, passionate speech at the Democratic Convention was thrilling to experience. I want to be struck by our...
by Pete Redington | Sep 24, 2014 | News
This Saturday, Sept. 27, the UMass football team returns to play a home game at McGuirk Stadium for the first time in three years, since making the jump to upper-division college football—a move that necessitated an upgrade to its on-campus facilities. All home...
by Amanda Drane | Sep 24, 2014 | News
Early afternoon on Saturday, Sept. 20, the scene at the Amherst Town Houses was foreboding. Music blasted into the streets as a crowd of UMass students gathered and Amherst Police cruisers pulled in and out of the neighboring parking lots. By 2 p.m., there was a fresh...
by James Heflin | Sep 24, 2014 | News
Japanese scholar and performer Yuko Eguchi visits the Valley this week to illustrate the arts of the geisha, the traditional entertainers of Japan. She performs kouta, short songs delivered with accompaniment by shamisen (a stringed instrument), and koutaburi, a dance...
by Advocate readers | Sep 24, 2014 | News
Casinos Need Problem Gamblers The casino industry says 1 percent of the population are problem gamblers. Many scholars have criticized the 1 percent figure as being misleading, as it is based on a survey of the adult population, most of whom don’t gamble....
by Advocate readers | Oct 1, 2014 | News
Take a Number Thanks for Tom Vannah’s article about how tough it was to understand a math textbook statement about the relationship between an independent change and a dependent variable change (“A Textbook Case of Math Disability,” Sept. 25)....
by James Heflin | Oct 1, 2014 | News
The place was jammed to capacity. The Iron Horse crowd was restless, energetic. I looked over toward the stairs coming from the basement, and a slight, messy-haired guy came up, turned the corner, and slipped through the crowd toward the stage. Beck had booked a...
by John O?Neil | Oct 1, 2014 | News
On a humid, rainy Sunday morning, eight buses ringed the Haigis Mall on the UMass-Amherst campus, idling before the sun rose. This wasn’t the PVTA. Instead, these charter buses had arrived to carry more than 1,000 Valley residents to New York City for the...
by Amanda Drane | Oct 1, 2014 | News
Three male 20-somethings walk into a CVS. All three immediately double back and walk out, murmuring about what this country is coming to and who CVS thinks they are. Why? In a sudden move, CVS stopped selling tobacco products at the beginning of September—a...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 8, 2014 | News
On the day Ben Glushein opened Port MA, his new Main Street clothing store, he received a small potted cactus. The cactus came from the home goods store Kestrel on Masonic Street, owned and run by Eliza Jane Bradley, where it was bought by Kristin Kelly, the owner of...
by Jeff Jackson | Oct 8, 2014 | News
Love Is Here To Stay (Subliminal Sounds) In recent years, a treasure trove of previously unheard electronic music from the 1960s and ’70s has been newly released. The latest discovery is Love Is Here To Stay by Swedish instrumentalist Bo Anders Persson....
by Tom Vannah | Oct 8, 2014 | News
At first, I was just irritated. Traffic happens. It’s a bummer, but what are you going do? Just take a deep breath, turn up the stereo, try to think about something pleasant. After more than four months, my patience is worn thin. By my rough calculations,...
by Amanda Drane | Oct 8, 2014 | News
The Massachusetts Land Court recently reinstated Palmer Renewable Energy’s permit to construct a wood-burning power plant on the existing Palmer Paving Corporation property in East Springfield—the latest move in a seven-year chess game between the...
by John O?Neil | Oct 15, 2014 | News
There’s a new kind of money. It’s in the air, its electrical impulses flowing from your smartphone or your laptop to other smartphones or laptops. There are no fees, no banks, no regulators. To an outsider or newbie, Bitcoin can sound shady and hard to...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 15, 2014 | News
Spensley Rickert helps a customer mash two bales of straw into the back of an economy-sized hatchback and turns to greet me. “Top o’ the mornin’ to you,” Rickert says, spreading his arms as if to present me with the spectacular day it’s...
by James Heflin | Oct 15, 2014 | News
It’s one of those days that only happens in the fall—clouds tumble over each other, the first colonies of fallen leaves edge the road, and the sun breaks through now and then to gild the farm fields. It’s surprisingly warm, and the road stretching...
by Advocate Readers | Oct 15, 2014 | News
Trees for the Future Regarding your coverage of Palmer Renewable Energy’s plan to build a biomass plant in Springfield (“The Burning Question,” Oct. 9): John Bos, a “climate change columnist” needs to do his homework. Any true...
by Advocate Readers | Oct 15, 2014 | News
Thanks for Sharing A sincere thanks to all those who took the trouble to screw the cap tightly onto their soda/water/liquor bottle before tossing it aside or leaving it upon the bank as you drove/biked/walked/boated along the shores and waters of the Connecticut, the...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 22, 2014 | News
By the time Bill Clinton rolled into Worcester last week to stump for Martha Coakley, the 2014 gubernatorial race was already a dull affair. While polls since Labor Day show it to be very close—a real nail-biter if seen solely as a horse race—the contest...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 22, 2014 | News
Clancy Kaye spent the past 32 years working as a mechanic at the Mt. Tom coal plant. On June 2, he and his 27 coworkers heard the news: the plant would close on Oct. 1. Kaye, 53, lives on a quiet cul-de-sac in Holyoke. He’s the kind of guy who can strike up a...
by Amanda Drane | Oct 22, 2014 | News
In a pre-calculus class that began at 7:35 a.m., honors students at Springfield’s Renaissance School were learning how to find the periods, phase shifts, and amplitudes on a graphed equation. But first, they needed to peel their eyes open. Teacher Rebecca...
by Jeffrey Good | Oct 22, 2014 | News
In Ferguson, protesters rise up over allegations of police brutality and the ravages of American racism. In Keene last weekend, rioters rose up over their right to be … stupid. In a beer-soaked contretemps to the New Hampshire city’s family-oriented...
by John O?Neil | Oct 22, 2014 | News
Walk into Diemand Farm, a collection of buildings sitting atop one of Wendell’s green, rolling hills, and an Open sign greets you from the front window of the farm’s small diner. The smell of brewing coffee and freshly baked scones fills the air. The food...
