On June 25 a group that is fighting planned logging on publicly owned land near Greenfield said the logging will likely start soon. “On June 24, the loggers began installing gates on Carlton Road and Dirth Road in Wendell (Massachusetts) State Forest. Installing the gates definitely means the beginning of logging,” said James Thornley, a spokesperson for the group. “Gates are not an independent, unrelated factor. The loggers are paying to have these gates installed — they would not spend this money if they were not about to commence cutting.”

Included in the logging plans is 88 acres of 110-year-old oak trees. In December 2018, the group trained people on how to use non-violent civil disobedience. Michael Kellett told the Valley Post, "We strongly oppose logging the oak stand in Wendell State Forest." According to the Lowell Sun daily newspaper, Kellett was a “key player” in the creation by President Obama of the 87,400 acre Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine. Logging is banned in national monuments. Kellett runs a group that has web site at www.restore.org.

Thornley asked people to contact state Senator Jo Comerford and state Rep. Susannah Whipps and ask them to stop the logging.

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A group is fighting a proposed fossil fuel pipeline in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Longmeadow borders Springfield, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The group organized a rally on June 11. “In May we had a town meeting vote to try to stop the pipeline. It passed by a vote of about 300 to six,” Michele Marantz told the Valley Post in a phone interview on June 23. “The pipeline would be in Springfield too. We printed 1,000 fliers and went door to door. We want the town of Longmeadow to stop the pipeline by buying the land where it would go. The select board has until July to decide.”

The group has a web page at:

www.facebook.com/LongmeadowPipelineAwarenessGroup

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On June 22, CNN reported that a 16th woman has said Trump sexually assaulted her. Elizabeth Jean Carroll has written a column for Elle magazine since 1993. She still writes the column. In Brattleboro, the Women's Freedom Center works to end domestic and sexual violence. Shari, a spokesperson for the group, asked the Valley Post not to publish her last name out of safety concerns. “Survivors usually don't make the news this way,” she said in a phone interview on June 25. Carroll's announcement “shows how far we still have to go in dismantling rape culture,” Shari said. “One in five women, and one in 71 men, will be raped at some point in their lives. The vast majority of sexual violence victims are female. The vast majority of perpetrators are male.”

According to www.WomensFreedomCenter.net the Brattleboro-based group is “a feminist organization committed to offering support and advocacy to survivors of violence, as well as prevention and educational activities to help create a community in which violence is not tolerated.”

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Earlier this month, officials with the state of Vermont announced they will send more of the state's prisoners to a prison in Mississippi because the officials believe this will save money. A group that's fighting the plan has a web site at www.vcjr.org.

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In Keene on June 23, people attended a celebration of the opening of the freshly renovated and expanded public library. The project cost $5 million.