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Keyword search: Amherst MA

By ALEXANDER EWING

 Just over a 100 years ago, in the presidential election of 1920, nearly a million people (3.4% of the popular vote) voted for a man in federal prison who eight years earlier had managed to attract 6% of the popular vote, although in number this was...

By SAM FERLAND

CONWAY — Taking pointers from the communities of Greenfield, Amherst and Dalton, Conway is in the early stages of developing a tax work-off program for low-income seniors and veterans.Tax work-off programs place residents in a part-time position in a...

By DAVID M. KOTZ

 Most of the reporting about the Ukraine war in the American mass media paints Russia as the aggressor and Ukraine as the victim. The war is characterized as one between democracy and dictatorship, between rule of law and rule by the strongest.That is...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

It knocked Netia McCray out of work for two years, and it took all of that time for doctors to give her an official diagnosis — she was suffering from long COVID.McCray, the director of Mbadika, a Boston nonprofit that provides resources for students...

By STEVE PFARRER

After generating some local news in 2022 when scenes were filmed in a number of locations around the Valley, “Janet Planet,” the debut film by celebrated playwright Annie Baker, is set to make its debut in Amherst and Greenfield on June 27.The movie,...

STEVE PFARRER

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has displayed the work of dozens and dozens — or more likely hundreds — of illustrators and writers over the years, in solo exhibits and group shows.Among them have been a fair number of artists from other...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

Will we be able to pass a livable world on to future generations? Given the climate emergency, is there hope for the future? Whether we want to think about climate change or not, most of us care about the answers to these questions. New polling data...

By RAZVAN SIBII

Earlier this month, the White House put out a “Fact Sheet” meant to explain President Biden’s latest immigration-related executive action, which orders American authorities to drastically limit many immigrants’ ability to make their case for asylum...

According to polls, the majority of Americans believe we are in a deep recession. Huh? What are they seeing?Do they personally know many people actively seeking employment and coming up empty? Do they see long lines at hiring events? Are they looking...

By JANINE ROBERTS

 There were rumors that my Roberts great-grandparents were enslavers in Culpeper County, Virginia. I began researching them before a 2023 southern road trip with a friend of 50 years, Delores Brown. Exploring Georgia, where she lived as a child with...

As summer approaches and young people increasingly rely on social media and phones to stay in touch, we’d like to ask parents and guardians to discuss digital dating boundaries with teens and preteens. A good way to start these conversations is by...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A retired University of Massachusetts economics professor from the School of Public Policy is being awarded $20 million from Melinda French Gates’ philanthropic foundation, money that will go toward advancing women’s power on a global...

By ALEXANDER TAYLOR

‘If you build it, they will come,” comes the now famous line from the heartwarming baseball movie, “Field of Dreams.” UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes is no Kevin Costner, not just because only Kevin Costner can be Kevin Costner, but also because Reyes...

By KARI BLOOD

One of the reasons many of us love living in the Valley is being able to see wildlife around us. But those sightings will become increasingly rare if humans don’t take bold steps to slow the loss of species around the world. Scientists are sounding...

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

MONTAGUE — The Selectboard voted unanimously this week to select Greenfield resident Athena O’Keeffe as its next assistant town administrator, taking over for Walter Ramsey when he assumes sitting Town Administrator Steve Ellis’ position on July 1.The...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Nearly 500 members of the faculty and librarians are expressing no confidence in the leadership of University of Massachusetts Chancellor Javier Reyes stemming from the breakup of a pro-Palestinian encampment on May 7 that led to the arrests...

By RAZVAN SIBII

A little more than a year ago, after I published a column about the most toxic myths surrounding the issue of immigration, I received an email from a reader that took me to task about my use of the word “America” to refer to the United States of...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

There has been some discussion of carrots and sticks in our nation’s climate policy. Why? What’s at stake here and why does it matter?The metaphor apparently goes back more than a century to a cartoon that portrayed a race between two donkey riders —...

By STEVE PFARRER

Not long after 20 years of war finally ended in Vietnam in 1975, another wave of horrendous violence erupted just to the west.The Khmer Rouge, the Communist party of Cambodia, seized control of the country and began a brutal “reeducation” campaign...

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest whale species in the world. Will we drive them to extinction or save them?Those of us lucky enough to have taken a whale-watching trip in the Gulf of Maine may have glimpsed the majesty of humpback...