Local activists are praising a proposal by a state senator to create a passenger train line between Greenfield and Boston. “It would parallel Route 2,” Jared Freedman told the Valley Post in a phone interview on January 28. He is a spokesman for Senator Jo Comerford, who made the proposal.

Critical Mass bicycle rides started in 1992 in California and have since spread around the world. Hundreds of people ride together in a group on roads, forcing cars to go at bicycle speed. They often chant, “Critical Mass, don't use gas!”

In the past 17 years, Brattleboro police shot and killed two men in the town. During that time in Brattleboro, five other people were killed by people who were not police. So 29 percent of these people were killed by police.

In 2015, the most recent year for which data was available, in the USA there were 15,696 or so murders. That year, police killed 1,186 people in the USA. So 8 percent of these people were killed by police.

These photos were taken on June 16 in Keene. The first photo shows a footpath through a forest that was protected on June 4 when a judge ruled in favor of activists who said the city could not clearcut a 12 acre forest that it owns. The second photo shows part of a five mile long bicycle path, the Cheshire Rail Trail, that passes through downtown and goes to Stonewall Farm. That's an organic dairy and vegetable farm that is open to the public. In the photo a man rides past the food co-op. The third photo shows birch trees alongside the rail trail.

In Keene, activists marched to stop a proposed fracked gas pipeline. They won last year when the pipeline was canceled. Now the activists are fighting a plan by the corporation that holds the city monopoly for gas used for heating buildings to switch from propane to fracked gas. Both are fossil fuels that cause climate change. “But fracked gas is full of chemicals that are even worse for people's health,” Terry Clark told the Valley Post in a telephone interview on November 25, 2017. He is a member of the Keene city council.

Activists are working to improve passenger train service in the Valley. “Our two main goals are more frequent train service between Greenfield and Springfield, and faster and more frequent trains between Springfield and Boston,” Ben Heckscher, Jr. of TrainsInTheValley.org told the Valley Post in a November 7 telephone interview.

Traveling by train rather than by car is better for the environment, and safer.

Ten people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience in the Connecticut river valley town of Sandisfield, Massachusetts on September 13. The activists blocked construction of a fracked gas pipeline. Fracked gas causes climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life.

Dennis Carr was arrested at the protest. He lives in Cummington, Massachusetts. Carr told the Valley Post, “It went well. We intend to continue to resist." The activists have a web site at www.SugarShackAlliance.org.

Twenty-two people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience in the Connecticut river valley town of Sandisfield, Massachusetts on July 29. They were protesting the construction of a fracked gas pipeline. Fracked gas causes climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life. Almost all the protesters are from the Pioneer Valley. The action was organized by the Sugar Shack Alliance, which has a web site at www.SugarShackAlliance.org.

On July 8 in Northampton, there will be a march and rally against sexual harassment. President Trump has boasted of sexually assaulting women. Earlier this year, Trump defended a male Fox News employee who sexually harassed five women so severely that Fox paid the women $13 million to get them to agree to not take Fox to court.

The march will start at noon at 2 Parsons Street and will end at Pulaski Park, where there will be a rally. More information is at www.facebook.com/events/1168327906646279.

On May 19 in Keene, there will be a celebration of the opening of a pedestrian/bicycle bridge that activists have worked for two decades to make happen. The bridge crosses Route 101, about 500 feet southeast of the Walmart. It's known as South Bridge. The below photos show another pedestrian/bicycle bridge in Keene – North Bridge – that looks almost exactly like the new one.

“South Bridge is a great addition to the city's trail system,” Phil Jones told the Valley Post. He is on the board of the group Pathways for Keene.