Matt Haimovitz will play a concert in Amherst on Sunday, February 2 at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $15 in advance, $20 day of, and $5 for students. The venue is the Drake. His cello was made in 1710. You can see one of his concerts at:
December 20, 2024
296 Acres Saved
Shutesbury, Massachusetts borders Amherst. On December 14, Kestrel land trust posted on its Facebook page, “We're grateful that we've been awarded a $327K grant from the MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Acquisitions for Forest Reserves to protect 200 acres in Shutesbury next year.” The forest is on Montague Road. The plan is to never log the land.
December 13, 2024
Donna The Buffalo Concert is Dec. 13
Donna The Buffalo will play in Greenfield on December 13 at 8 p.m. The venue is Hawks and Reed. Tickets are about $30 including a fee, and more if you buy them at the concert. You can hear a song by the band at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=feUtGQho3oA&ab_channel=SugarHillRecords
December 13, 2024
Marchers Call for Abortion Rights
On December 10 in Amherst there was a march and rally for abortion rights, among other issues. Marisol Pierce Bonifaz was one of the organizers. She told the Valley Post that the marchers chanted, “Abortion is a civil right, war on health care, we will fight.” About 40 people were there. The organizers have a web site at:
https://generationratifyam.wixsite.com/website
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In 2014, the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor closed permanently because
thousands of people marched in Brattleboro, and because hundreds of
December 06, 2024
200 March
About 200 people marched in Amherst on December 5. They were asking the governor and legislature to pay janitors and other workers at UMass higher wages. A spokesperson for AFSCME, one of the unions that organized the march, did not immediately reply to an email from the Valley Post seeking comment for this article. A video of the march is at:
www.instagram.com/professionalstaffunion
As of last year, 22 billionaires lived in Massachusetts.
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November 29, 2024
Experts Offer Solutions to Nursing Home Challenges
Last year, the Valley Post published a special investigation into nursing homes. On November 29, 2024, the New York Times reported that, “Inspection reports continue to find homes leaving residents lying in their own feces, suffering severe bedsores and falls, contracting infections, choking on food while unattended or ending up back in a hospital for preventable reasons. Some nursing homes overuse psychotropic medications to pacify residents because they do not have enough workers to attend to them.”
November 22, 2024
Workers Win
By threatening to go on strike, about 200 workers in the Pioneer Valley won big raises. They are ambulance drivers and workers. “The people who run this company are not nice people,” Bryan Donovan, Junior told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview. He is president of Teamsters Local 404, which represents the workers. The company is American Medical Response. The strike would have started November 24. The raises will be about 28 percent. Unions are good for democracy. That's because they reduce inequality. Billionaires buy politicians.
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November 15, 2024
Two-Day March Starts in Northampton
There will be a march from Northampton to Springfield on December 7 and 8. The goal is to get congress and Biden to stop funding Israel's war on Gaza and instead spend the money on helping people in Gaza. The organizers have a web page at:
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In Brattleboro on November 16 at noon there will be a rally to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The rally will be outside the main post office. A group that's promoting the rally has a web page at:
https://grassrootsfund.org/groups/upper-valley-action-affinity-group
Gaza news is at:
November 08, 2024
Women's March is Jan. 18, 2025
Women's marches are set for January 18, 2025 in DC and everywhere. In Northampton, thousands of people attended women's marches during Trump's first term. Photos are at:
https://valleypost.org/node/1472
and
https://www.valleypost.org/2018/01/20/photos-thousands-march
Details about the 2025 marches are at:
www.facebook.com/WomensMarchOnWash
According to
November 01, 2024
Bike-Ped Victory
Thanks to the work of environmental activists, the state will plow snow off the rail trail between Amherst and Northampton. The state will put sand on ice. On average, even electric cars are worse than busses and trains for the environment. That's because cars so often have just one person in them. Electric cars still require roads. Asphalt is made from oil and gravel. Train tracks are narrower than roads and they are built on plain crushed stone. Eliminating roads could create space for forests to grow. The activists have web sites at https://walkmass.org and www.massbike.org.