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By ALLEN WOODS

It’s near the end of pandering season in my home state of Iowa — a political season rather than a meteorological one, also occurring in New Hampshire and other states every four years. Suddenly, for a short period, a few states are awash in...

By SUSAN AVERY

Dear Son: My December birthday came and went last week. I thought I might’ve heard from you, but I did not. And then came Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and as family and friends gathered at home to celebrate, there was something missing; I didn’t...

By GENE STAMELL

One morning, a number of years ago, I found myself standing in line at a Starbucks counter.The woman in front of me was screaming into her phone, arguing about what seemed to be a rent dispute. Obviously irate, she was completely unaware of her impact...

By KATHERINE GOLUB and STACEY SEXTON

As elected officials representing the people of Greenfield, we face the very real needs of our community every day.Fourteen percent of Greenfielders live below the poverty line. Our schools face an untenable fiscal situation leading to cuts in...

By DANIEL A. BROWN

In 2017, in reaction to the revelations about the sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein that led to the creation of the #MeToo movement, feminist activist Eve Ensler (“The Vagina Monologues”) wrote the following: “I’m over the passivity of good men....

By H. PATRICIA HYNES

Dear President Joe Biden: I would wish you a Happy New Year but it seems trite, given all the challenges and troubles you and our country face in 2024 — some inherited from previous administrations, others of your making.Americans are 10 times more...

By SARA SCHLEY

If the blood spilled on Kibbutz Be’eri, where hundreds were massacred on Oct 7 could speak, would it cry out in Hebrew for vengeance? Would the children crushed by concrete in Gaza demand retaliation in Arabic? Both screaming from their graves for...

As of 2023, there were 31.2 million elders enrolled in private Medicare plans, known as “Medicare Advantage.” For the first time, that’s more enrollees than in the “Traditional” Medicare program. Seniors choose these private companies because they see...

By AL NORMAN

Property tax relief for senior citizens in Massachusetts has never been better. In early October, Governor Maura Healey signed into law a wide-ranging tax relief bill, including a provision more than doubling the refundable property tax credit known...

By David Gottsegen

With the approaching anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked onslaught on Ukraine, I think back to the Dec 5 column in the Gazette by the Rev. Peter Kakos on “defusing Ukraine.” He wrote of his hopes for an “irenic” peace, a hope that “both warring...

By KATE LINDROOS CONLIN

The Massachusetts-based Partnership for Policy Integrity has been a vocal opponent of wood harvesting on public lands. They believe that ceasing to harvest wood would “expand our natural forests’ ability to store carbon.” This, of course, assumes that...

On Nov. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which gives a preference for Native American people to foster and adopt Native American children. The lead...

By AL NORMAN

Tonight, the Greenfield City Council may take the first step towards ending an unconstitutional state law that has come to be known as “home equity theft.”Massachusetts is one of only 13 states that allows home equity theft. In Alabama, Arizona,...

By DEVLIN SELMAN

Not all industrial solar arrays are a “sunny” great thing. Large solar companies such as Nexamp offer “too good to be true” incentives for landowners to lease their land and build a solar “farm” to capture the sun’s energy so they can do “good!” We...

Our most recent large weather event created different conditions depending on exactly where you happen to live. Some got rain, some got sleet and a few folks who lived in the highest elevations may even have had some snow. For me, the storm brought an...