Area Briefs: South Hadley to hold conversation about new school project

Guest columnist John Paradis: Hegseth unfit to lead and must go

By Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s definition, I’m a weirdo. I have Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, I dance to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” and I embrace and openly celebrate my LGBTQ+ family members and dear friends.  I’m often eccentric, quirky, and can be unconventional at times.  I also wear dog tags that indicate my Unitarian […]

Speaking of Nature: A bitter rivalry: American vs. Asiatic Bittersweet

As the deciduous trees slowly lose their leaves, they start to reveal long-held secrets. At first the most obvious secrets are the nests of birds that you may have spent the summer looking for. Skillfully placed in areas that are thick with summer foliage, the nests become obvious once the veil is dropped, and it […]

Clean power won. Now comes the hard part

Sometimes, change comes at you so fast that you forget to congratulate yourself on what you’ve achieved. Take the switch of the world’s electricity grids from fossil fuels to clean power. The transition to renewables will “require generations of perseverance” and be harder than previous shifts between wood, coal, oil and gas, which took half […]

A Look Back, Nov. 10

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Voters demand transparency, but lawmakers may limit reach of Question 1

There was no mistaking the will of the people on Question 1. Voters overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure on Election Day, with more than 86% backing an expansion of Massachusetts’ public records law to include the Legislature and the governor’s office. It was the widest margin of any of the nine ballot questions in an election in which nearly 1.17 million people had cast ballots before polls opened. Over the summer, the state Senate passed a bill promoting transparency and public access in state government. But, concerned about the separation of powers and the lengthy litigation that could follow from passing […]