It’s not every day that the world’s most famous newspaper publishes an article about South Hadley, Massachusetts. But that’s what The New York Times did on March 30. It took the disturbing death of a school girl to make that happen.

Phoebe Prince was a 15 year-old student at South Hadley High School (near Northampton) when she hung herself in January. On March 29, several students at the school were charged by District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel with the felony crime of bullying Prince so severely that she killed herself.

Hundreds of people in Northampton marched for peace on March 20. The march and a rally were organized by the western Massachusetts chapter of the women's group Code Pink, and other groups. More information is available at www.codepink4peace.org

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Every year on tax day, April 15, activists around the Valley hand out fliers at post offices showing people how much of their taxes go to war. To join the local actions, contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee www.nwtrcc.org and/or the War Resisters' League www.WarResisters.org

Out of a federal budget of about $2,900,000,000,000 about half goes to war. Details are at:

www.warresisters.org/files/FY2011piechart.pdf

Traffic congestion on the main route between UMass Amherst and downtown Northampton is often so bad that it’s faster to ride a bicycle than to drive the nine-mile trip. Soon, public transportation will also be faster than driving.

“Later this year, technology will be in place so that buses on Route 9 will be more likely to get green lights than cars -- similar to the technology that allows ambulances to always get green lights,” David Elvin told the Valley Post. He’s senior transit planner at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

New Englanders who refuse to pay taxes that fund war will speak at a free public event Oct. 9 near Brattleboro. More than half of the $2.7 trillion federal budget was spent on the military in the most recent fiscal year, according to the War Resisters League:

www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

The Oct. 9 discussion starts at 7:30 p.m. and will include time for questions from the public. It’s part of a three-day conference Oct. 9-11, in Williamsville, Vermont. The event is the 24th Annual New England Regional Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters.

Musician and peace activist Michael Franti of San Francisco www.spearheadvibrations.com will play with his band at the Green River Festival www.greenriverfestival.com on July 18 at Greenfield Community College.

Franti performed live in the studio at Brattleboro Community Radio as a benefit for the station. www.wvew.org

Here are some of the lyrics to Franti’s song, “Bomb the World to Pieces.”

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We can chase down all our enemies,
bring them to their knees.

We can bomb the world to pieces
but we can’t bomb it into peace

Violence brings one thing:

On May 13 in Brattleboro, students at the Austine School for the Deaf (ASD) were joined by students from half a dozen other local schools as they made a giant peace sign that was clearly visible from Interstate 91. Austine teacher Brittainy Brougham helped the students plan the action. photo by ASD.

A major water main broke at around 3 a.m. on May 8 in downtown Keene leaving residents with no water or low water pressure. Water and Sewer Superintendent Joseph W. Tonweber told the Keene Sentinel that the collapse “blew a big hole in the street." The crater reached from a sidewalk fence to the middle of the road, he said.

Steve Chase lives in Keene, where he is director of Antioch University’s program in Environmental Advocacy.