William Hamer: Let’s make Massachusetts energy competitive

Governor Maura Healey, who has announced that she will be seeking reelection in 2026, recently signed the Affordable Homes Act, planning to build or preserve 65,000 homes in Massachusetts over the next five years. A lack of affordable housing is certainly a problem, and the reasons for the dearth of housing are numerous, but the increasing cost of living in Massachusetts is also a major problem.

My Turn: The opposite of Christian

By EDWARD M. DOWD

Phil Gilfeather-Girton: State and local eyes on FirstLight erosion control

The state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) 401 Water Quality Certification (WQC) for FirstLight needs to require input and oversight by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) and conservation commissions in Erving, Gill, Montague and Northfield over the erosion control plan. Special Condition No. 25 requiriesFirstLight to work with MassDEP to repair and stabilize existing erosion, develop a Monitoring Plan, report on the plan, stabilize new erosion and create a Barton Cove no-wake zone.

Carol Wrobleski: Booing fellow citizens during McGovern's coffee hour

While I appreciated U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern's time and many thoughtful responses to questions from constituents inside the First Churches of Northampton on Saturday, I was disappointed that he did not call out the crowd members who booed the man who exercised his First Amendment right to free speech and spoke his mind about Obamacare and the Inflation Reduction Act.

My Turn: Solidarity is how movements win out

By PATRICK MCGREEVY

Pushback: A BAD mandate and the smell of sausage

By AL NORMAN

Franklin County towns are scrambling to write updated accessory dwelling unit (ADU) zoning bylaws. Actually, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has written our bylaws for us, based on stifling state mandates.

My Turn: The day democracy began to die

By ROBERT W. KUBACKI

Harry Heiss: Liberal reaction to cuts sad

I have been listening and watching the liberal meltdown. Some comments, if I may. The obsessive nature being displayed by officials and the news media would be funny if it was not so sad — crying about Elon Musk not being elected — how many government workers there are and how many of them are not elected, yet control and spend as if it were their money and right.

Danielle Miller: The left can’t handle the truth

In his Feb. 15 column, Allen Woods says he’s “baffled” that “young Black voters, young Latinos, low-income voters, and women of any age” voted for Donald Trump. But he need not be baffled.

My Turn: Stop calling it ‘DOGE’

By SUSANAE GLOVACKI

My Turn: Eye doc retiring — Here’s looking at you, patients

By BRIAN W. WADMAN

My Turn: Are we getting stupider as our reading declines?

By MARIETTA PRITCHARD

Maria Danielson: Strength in numbers

On Presidents Day, countrywide protests were spearheaded by fiftyfifty.one against immoral executive overreach, unjust and unconstitutional executive orders, outsize power over everyday citizens’ lives by unelected billionaires, inhumane treatment of immigrants, reckless fiscal and foreign policy, outlandish, murderous imperialist ideas, heartless treatment of trans people, harmful disinformation and erosion of trust in truth, ignorant attempts to destroy public education — the list goes on and on.

Karl Meyer: It’s our duty to defend our freedoms

Presidents Day was set aside to honor leaders who have bravely and honestly steered our nation through crises and troubled times, helping cement the links that bind us. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt top that list.

My Turn: Why is MassWildlife stocking fish over wild brown trout?

By KEVIN D. PARSONS

Columnist Daniel Cantor Yalowitz: What in the world are we witnessing?

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

These are simply and profoundly crazy times, well beyond the pale of what we have seen before concerning the leadership of our federal government. Whatever other words we may use, I imagine that terms like chaos, terror, fear, intimidation, lies out of control, unrepentant anger, petulance, and obfuscation might be among them (at least, those are some of my more polite ones).

David Goldstein: A glorious year for Republicans

“Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ends now,” reads a statement on whitehouse.gov.

Emmett Barcalow: Acting like America’s Mussolini

Given his actions, there can be no doubt that Donald Trump is bent on increasing the power and authority of the president well beyond the limits set by the Constitution. Virtually no Republican office-holder is courageous enough to resist this usurpation of power, despite their oath to “support and defend” the Constitution.

My Turn: Rodenticides are killing wildlife up the food chain

By MARTHA RULLMAN

Elsie K. Gilman: Mailbox damage an ‘act of God?’

The other night after a snowstorm, the Montague Department of Public Works plowed my street. The next morning, I noticed my mailbox on its side. The wooden pole holding it was broken off at ground level.