Longmeadow Daze is an occasional series reporting on and analyzing Longmeadow government and politics. Retiring School Committee member Michael Clark may be leaving town office, but he has not left the Longmeadow’s political scene. In a statement last week, the 27 year-old outgoing town official
SPRINGFIELD—In a historic vote Monday night, the City Council voted to approve a collective bargaining contract with one of the city’s major public safety bargaining units that includes operative language on residency. The pact requires firefighters hired after July 8, 2017 to live in the
Scripture says God gave humanity dominion over the Earth, but not license to irresponsibly exploit it. Quite the opposite, as Pope Francis observed in his encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si. “Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for
The investigation into Russian interference with the United States presidential election last year picked up speed after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel. Nonetheless, “Russiagate” has contaminated an increasing number of Donald Trump’s confidantes. The extent of his own relationship with Russia
NEWTON—Along a hilly street, one of many here, a crowd of all ages scarfed down ice cream and waited. It was a warm spring day, but a canopy of tree shaded much of the block party below. Perched on the undulating landscape was a podium
After weeks of speculation, former Springfield City Councilor Timothy Ryan announced in a press release this week he would seek an at-large Council seat this Fall. As the city heads into only its second “midterm” Council election since voters extended the mayor’s term to four
UPDATED 9:04PM: The Massachusetts Senate adopted Sen. Lesser’s amendment. The rail study will go to the House-Senate conference committee. State Senator Eric Lesser’s East-West rail study appeared ready to leave the station last year. It survived House-Senate negotiations and passed both chambers. But then, in
SPRINGFIELD—The mobile food truck ordinance swerved around an unexpected obstacle that appeared in its path at the last moment. Abutting property and business owners attended Monday’s Council meeting with the hopes of slowing down the ordinance’s momentum. Despite sympathetic councilors’s efforts, it passed with a rare
WEST SPRINGFIELD—Although the campaign war chest of Governor Charlie Baker bursts with cash, the Republican is not the first major party candidate to declare his candidate for 2018. That title goes to Jay Gonzalez, a former Deval Patrick cabinet secretary who launched his campaign in
NORTHAMPTON—More than thirteen months after Bernie Sanders effectively battled Hillary Clinton to a draw in Massachusetts, his efforts continue. His supporters hope to transform Sanders’s campaign’s legacy, now called Our Revolution, into something concrete. Indeed, Donald Trump’s election has presented both opportunity and new imperatives