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By JOHANNA NEUMANN

 Holiday time is nearly here. I’m so excited about filling my home with the smell of balsam fir and baking cookies and the sounds of my boys singing along to Chipmunks Christmas carols.I am not, however, looking forward to the crescendo of holiday...

I was pleased and relieved to hear the news that a bid for the Jones Library renovation project has come in within the budget. Libraries are important to our democracy, and the proposed renovations will protect and expand this precious resource so it...

I found it ironic that on his way out the door, longtime Gazette columnist John Shreirer bemoaned that he wasn’t able to convince the “cultists” not to vote for Trump [“I’m Done,” Nov. 11]. For the past eight years or so, the writer has consistently...

I was interested to see that UMass is apparently planning to build an expanded child care facility [“Child care lack leaves hundreds waiting on list,” Gazette, Nov. 9]. I question if the plans are “expansive” enough.It is distressing that UMass finds...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

The election of Donald Trump is catastrophic in so many ways. It will mean untold suffering for many people and for our country as a whole. It also will be disastrous for the global climate crisis.We are at a moment in history when the entire world...

By TIM NIXON

If Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election, the next months would have been filled with a cycle of headlines about voter fraud. They would have stemmed from complaints from Republican leadership and lawsuits backed by powerful donors (along with a...

By HENRY LAPPEN

 How many trees grow along the streets of Amherst? What’s the most common species? Are our street trees healthy, and how does the climate crisis affect them?The town of Amherst recently attempted to answer these questions and more. With funding from...

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

For the past two decades, America has accomplished a minor miracle. Despite a growing population, ballooning home sizes, a spike in the number of electronic devices we own, and more, electricity demand has remained largely stable. That’s a testament...

We wholeheartedly support Amherst-Pelham Regional School District Superintendent Xiamara Herman’s proposal to close the middle school and have the district’s seventh and eighth graders taught in the high school building.We have it on excellent...

The Quabbin Reservoir was built from decisions in Boston that led to the literal destruction of four western Massachusetts towns. The benefit to thirsty eastern Massachusetts was at the expense of those western Mass. communities.Today Massachusetts is...

The Amherst Committee for A Better Chance (ABC) would like to express profound gratitude to the community for their overwhelming support of our traditional annual fundraising event, the Fall Foliage & Cider Run, held on Oct. 19. With almost 500...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

When we think about the climate crisis our minds often, quite rightly, go to how greenhouse gas emissions are causing the global temperature to rise, causing catastrophic storms, floods, fires, and hunger. What we sometimes forget is that burning...

Gov. Maura Healey publicly opposes Ballot Question 2, and we are asking: Why? Her stance aligns with the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, which also opposes the question. But why does she believe their perspective outweighs that of...

I work as a server at Notch 8 in Northampton, and I, like all of the servers I know, oppose Question 5.When you walk into a restaurant, you’re greeted by the host. This is typically a young person working their first restaurant job. Hosts make minimum...

I watched the “Back to the Future” movies with my son many times because he really liked them. For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, “Doc” Brown has made a DeLorean car into a time machine.In “Back to the Future II,” we go to a future America where...

Project 2025 provides a detailed description of what a Donald Trump presidency would mean for environmental concerns. Although not yet official policy, Project 2025, put together by the right-wing Heritage Foundation with authors including former...

By MATTEO PANGALLO

 It is difficult to imagine a more condescending and erroneous take on Question 2 than the one Ed Lambert of the Boston-based pro-business group Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education attempts to articulate in his Oct. 5 letter [“Weakening...

By JOSEPH LEVINE

 After a year of a genocidal campaign in Gaza in response to the Al Aqsa Flood attacks of Oct. 7 and the recent escalation in Lebanon and beyond, it’s a good time to assess where we’re at, how we got here, and where we’re going.Immediately before the...

By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN

 Imagine this: a high-paid, Ivy League-educated lawyer and nonprofit executive from Los Angeles shows up in Massachusetts and claims that our restaurant workers are being paid a “sub-minimum wage” that’s below the state minimum wage. To solve this...

J.D. Vance and Donald Trump have been traveling the United States attacking Haitian American immigrants with disinformation and racist fantasies. According to the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, a grassroots immigrant advocacy group that has filed...