UPDATED 5:30PM: For grammar and clarity. Six years ago US Representative Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, narrowly overcame his colleague Richard Neal’s bid to be Democratic party’s ranking member on the powerful Ways & Means Committee. Levin said Tuesday he was stepping aside, but Neal is
The wreckage of this month’s national election has had a number of effects across the country. Given the continued down ballot troubles of Democrats, one immediate consequence has been pushing forward a younger generation of figures in the party. In the Pioneer Valley, this has
The operation of the Springfield Police Department is perhaps the civil rights issue of the moment in the City of Homes. The reporting on the actions of Detective Gregg Bigda had already shaken City Hall, the Hampden County Hall of Justice and Pearl Street, the
An article I recently read in The New York Times Magazine profiled Miri Regev, the Israeli Minister of Culture & Sport. It described her attempts to direct cultural spending away from the traditional artistic elite—principally based in Tel Aviv—in the context of both her right-wing
Election Day brings a regular swig of direct democracy here in Massachusetts. Four ballot questions are on the statewide ballot with an additional question in cities like Holyoke and Springfield. Below, we offer our view on a few of the referenda this year. Question 1:
AGAWAM—Nobody doubted that Rosemary Sandlin could get the 150 votes she needed in the Democratic primary to write herself onto the general election ballot. A competitive primary for sheriff assured voters in the 3rd Hampden House district would be at the polls. But experts scoffed
It is arguably the most competitive election in the Pioneer Valley, but it has not been like the national election. Apocalyptic, dark ads are not carpet-bombing television. Debates are not soaked in tension and wrath and indeed, are a bit dry. The 1st Hampden &
SPRINGFIELD—It is not exactly an open secret that Massachusetts’s third largest city has a number of unmet needs both small and large. Because of any number of disparities, there are few tools Springfield can apply that its neighbors can: except one. Virtually all of Springfield
There are, on our regional ballots this year a number of competitive races. Not all are created equally. Some of these races include candidates of third parties and in still-quite Democratic Hampden County others are not such that fuller, separate explanations of our opinions are