More News From Amherst and Adjacent Communities. Also, Stories About COVID, Fascism.

Spring is a busy news season and we have several articles to recommend, including stories from our neighboring communities. So here are some links worth checking out.  We’re posting “From Other Sources” early in the week and we’ll add some additional recommendations on  Friday evening, so please come back to check out what we’ve added.

Have you read something that you think is worth sharing? Share the link in the comments section below and tell us why you are sharing it.

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Here at the Indy we support several other publications and we encourage our readers to do the same as they are able.  And for this feature, we try to post articles that are not hiding behind a paywall.  But sometimes an article worth reading is hiding behind a paywall, and subscription to the source is just not feasible.  For such instances there are workarounds. Check out some possibilities here and here and here.  

NEWS FROM AMHERST
Amherst Town Officials: Be Careful At Puffers Pond As Weather Warms Up by Scott Merzbach (4/23/23). Unseasonably warm weather for mid-April brought hundreds of college-age people to Puffer’s Pond, creating a concern about individuals venturing into the still frigid water, as well as trespassing by climbing onto the nearby cliff and dam.There was also alcohol being consumed by some on shore, even though both alcohol and tobacco are prohibited from the recreational site. With the spring semester at the University of Massachusetts extended this year due to an extended winter session, and the possibility that students will be in town during more periods conducive to using Puffer’s Pond as a place to cool off, Town Manager Paul Bockelman said that he gets nervous about such activity happening before summer. “My biggest fear is people trying to swim when it’s very hot out and the water is still very cold,” Bockelman said. He reflects on the May 2018 drowning of a 21-year-old UMass student, also taking place at a time before the water had a chance to warm up. The pond has no lifeguards, but there are caretakers from the town’s conservation staff. (Daily Hampshire Gazette).

Amherst Regional Schools Losing 14 Positions by Scott Merzbach (4/21/23). An operating budget that will cause the elimination of more than 14 positions at the Amherst-Pelham Regional public schools is being recommended by the Amherst Finance Committee, even with worry from some town officials that revenues are being lost due to the manner in which the four member towns make their annual payments. The committee voted 4-0 this week to endorse the $33.7 million budget for the schools that is 2.19%, or $722,176, higher than this year’s $32.98 million budget, but falls $1.16 million short of the $34.86 million necessary to sustain existing services. Even with use of about $1 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money, the regional schools will lose five paraeductaors, two teachers and two student support educators as part of 14.44 full-time equivalents being cut.“There are fewer people working for us than there now as a result of this,” Douglas Slaughter, the school’s finance chief, told the Finance Committee on Tuesday. “It’s not level services.” (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Celebrating The Life Of US Representative John Olver by Bob Flaherty (4/17/23). It’s fitting that those who knew John Olver and worked with him and for him during his 40 years of public service would gather to honor the late congressman’s memory at a place named for him. The John W. Olver Design Center sits on the very UMass campus where he first taught chemistry decades ago. Olver died in February at 86. Former Northampton mayor David Narkewicz was blown away by the number of Olver’s former staffers who showed up to honor Olver, among the estimated 1,000 people in attendance Sunday. “This fraternity that worked for him — he made such an impact on us. So many of us went on to higher positions,” Narkewicz said. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

UMASS Tuition Rising This Fall After Two Year Freeze by Chris Lisinski (4/14/23). Tuition across all University of Massachusetts campuses will increase this fall for the first time in three years, ending a pandemic-era freeze as the higher education system’s leaders grapple with dark financial clouds on the horizon. UMass overseers voted 12-2 on Wednesday to approve a package of tuition and fee hikes first proposed at a committee meeting last week. Two student trustees, Derek Houle of UMass Lowell and Narcisse Kunda of UMass Dartmouth, cast the only dissenting votes.Tens of thousands of in-state undergraduate UMass students face a 2.5% jump in tuition in the 2022-2023 academic year, representing between $346 and $395 more per year, as well as increases in room and board costs ranging from 1.9% to 3.9%. Out-of-state undergraduates face roughly similar tuition increases next year, as do all graduate students at the Amherst, Boston and Lowell campuses (WBUR)

Major Grant Boosts Jones Library Humanities Center, Five Colleges Museum Data Base by Scott Merzbach (4/21/23). Renovation and construction of a humanities center at the Jones Library and a project to improve the accessibility of thousands of paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and cultural artifacts held at the region’s higher education museums and Historic Deerfield are being supported through grants provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The independent federal agency this week announced grants totaling $35.63 million, both outright and matching, that will support 258 humanities projects across the country. Of that amount, $7.1 million is going to Massachusetts projects. Locally, the Jones Library is earning a $1 million matching grant for the humanities center that will be part of the expanded Jones Library. That money is on top of a $1.1 million federal earmark U.S. Rep. James McGovern announced last December. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

NEWS FROM ADJACENT COMMUNITIES
Easthampton School Committee Hits Pause On Superintendent Search by Emily Thurlow (4/27/23).
After a tumultuous month in which the search for a new school superintendent made national news, the School Committee on Tuesday agreed to put the search on hold and seek an interim leader for next school year. In a 5-1 vote, the committee chose to contact the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to see what candidates are available for an interim role. The committee also had the option to offer the job to superintendent finalist Jonathan Bruno, but decided against it after several members again felt that he was “not ready” for Easthampton. “I really think it’s time to put this particular search away and start fresh,” member Ben Hersey said. “We get an interim in the meantime and, hopefully, begin the process of healing. I think that our community does need to, hopefully, put this away and find a way forward. And I think that someone, hopefully someone could come in and set up shop for a little while and help us get started on the new era in Easthampton.”  School Committee member Shannon Dunham dissented, and member Laurie Garcia abstained. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Easthampton Grapples With Deluge Of Public Records Requests About Superintendent Search by Emily Thurlow (4/23/23).The deluge of public records requests during the continued saga in the city’s search for a new superintendent had grown so large in recent weeks that it often crashed a software system that handles such queries — a problem city officials hope to avoid in the future by buying a new tracking system. “When all of this focus came upon the city for the superintendent search … the way we were trying to handle the data, the system would crash. It wouldn’t compress files,” Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said. “We were putting our head up against the wall, because we’ve never gotten that many requests so fast with such long search strings.” The requests began pouring in after finalist Vito Perrone said the School Committee rescinded his job offer because he used “Ladies” in an email correspondence. In the weeks that have followed, interest in the matter has also amassed into public records requests for any and all correspondence and discussions concerning Perrone. As municipal employees searched through city records, they found that their digital system could not handle all of the requests and data being queried. LaChapelle said that the IT Department has recently created a tool to prevent the computer programs from crashing, and they’ve also created a link on the municipal website highlighting information collected from the numerous requests and the public records retrieved from those requests. (Daily Hampshire Gazette).

Students Alleged Online ‘Transphobic Rhetoric’ By Easthampton Superintendent Finalist by Emily Thurlow (4/19/23).  Just as the School Committee was getting ready to select Erica Faginski-Stark as its new superintendent on the evening of April 10, a member of the high school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club reached out to the mayor’s office with “extreme concerns” about the Ludlow educator. In an email sent at about 9 that night and obtained by the Gazette on Tuesday, the student flagged a Facebook account with Faginski-Stark’s name that contained posts they described as “conservative transphobic rhetoric a multitude of times.” The student — whose name and information city officials redacted in the email in “an effort to protect the identity of a minor for ongoing security concerns” — provided screenshots of two Facebook posts and links to a Facebook page that allegedly belonged to Faginski-Stark. The page appears to have since been removed. In a Jan. 23, 2021, post made by Erica Faginski, she puts a call out for female athletes to speak up. The post includes a link to a video posted from PragerU, a conservative nonprofit organization “focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.” The video link speaks to the “end of women’s sports” and includes a speech from Selina Soule, who says she was one of the top five female high school sprinters in Connecticut until “competing against biological boys changed the game.” (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Leverett Village Coop On The Brink? by Scott Merzbach (4/20/23). A.J. Hastings stationery and newsstand helped to anchor downtown Amherst for 108 years before closing last year. Wilson’s department store was a centerpiece of Greenfield’s retail scene for 137 years until it shuttered in early 2020. While only dating to the 1980s, when formed out of a buying club that began in the late 1970s, the Leverett Village Co-op has become a mainstay in the community. Whether this will remain the case, or whether the co-op will follow Hastings and Wilson’s into the history books, is uncertain for co-op board member Don Southwick.“I’ve seen many businesses come and go through the years and I’ve seen how much we miss these places when they’re gone,” Southwick, a 30-year resident of Leverett who grew up in Amherst, said at a community forum at Leverett Town Hall last week. “There is nothing else in Leverett that brings people together like the co-op. It would be a shame to lose this.”Southwick spoke at a community gathering that brought about 50 people to address an emergency situation the co-op finds itself in for the first time since the fall of 2019, when it was at risk of dissolving in facing a $200,000 debt and owing money to  vendors. (Amherst Bulletin)

Leverett Indigenous History, Culture and Land Acknowledgment Warrant Article 2023 by The Leverett Native Land Committee (4/26/23). On the Leverett Town Meeting Warrant this year, there is a Leverett Indigenous History, Culture and Land Acknowledgment proposal, drafted by On Native Land: Leverett Advocacy and Education, a group of Leverett citizens. This video is from a Zoom meeting on April 24, which discuss the article and explain the process by which the group came to this warrant article. (YouTube)

COVID
COVID Response Exposed “Collective National Incompetence” Commission Says by Arielle Dreher (4/24/23). A group of crisis experts and federal advisers conclude in a report out today that a lack of disaster preparedness and coordination led to an unraveling of the nation’s pandemic response, and that the crisis exposed a “collective national incompetence in governance.” Why it matters: The 34-member group, dubbed the COVID Crisis Group, was convened by four foundations in 2021 to lay the groundwork for a 9/11 commission-style assessment. But the Biden administration didn’t formally establish the panel, and the bill to formalize the commission and report never made it out of the Senate. What they found: The group praised certain aspects of the response like Operation Warp Speed, but questioned why a similar effort wasn’t launched to produce protective gear or antivirals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has no enforcement authority over public health in the country and can’t, for example, obtain data about a threat like COVID-19 without signed agreements with local jurisdictions, due to state and local-level powers granted in the late 1800s.Even if the U.S. had gotten access to or produced thousands of COVID tests early on in the pandemic, there was no system or design in place to distribute and use those tests nationwide. The U.S. was building a screening system and a strategy to deploy testing at the time when it should have been distributing them. (Axios)

How American Lost The COVID-19 War by Phillip Zelikow (4/24/23). It is best to think of COVID as a war, the most expansive global struggle since the Second World War. The U.S. fought the COVID war without an army or a battle plan. We met a 21st century global emergency with structures fundamentally designed for 19th century problems, and it showed. Our scientific knowledge was unsurpassed. Thousands of people and organizations made heartrending, life-saving efforts. Americans spent more public money on the crisis than anyone. Yet the U.S. suffered many more casualties than any other affluent country, despite having the best access to remarkable vaccines.The COVID war shows how our wondrous scientific knowledge has run far, far ahead of the organized human ability to apply that knowledge in practice. If we want to avoid a repetition of the catastrophe of 2020-22, we cannot ignore that the COVID war revealed a collective national incompetence in governance.There is a common view that politics—a ‘Red response’ and a ‘Blue response’—were the main obstacle to protecting citizens, not competence and policy failures. It was more the other way around. Incompetence and policy failures, including the failure of federal executive leadership, produced bad outcomes, flying blind, and resorting to blunt instruments. Those failures and tensions fed the toxic politics that further divided the country in a crisis rather than bringing it together. Poor communication aggravated the breakdown of public trust and confidence and undermined efforts to combat misinformation. (Time)

US Authorizes New Round of COVID Boosters by Apoorva Mandavilli (4/19/23). In a nod to the ongoing risk the coronavirus poses to millions of Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Wednesday that adults 65 and older and those with weakened immune systems receive another dose of the reformulated booster that debuted last fall.The endorsement followed a daylong discussion by the C.D.C.’s expert advisers. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the booster plan on Tuesday, and the C.D.C.’s recommendation was the final administrative step. Eligible Americans will be able to receive booster doses immediately. Federal health officials are also phasing out the original vaccine formulas created by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, revoking their authorizations in the United States. And instead of needing an initial series of two shots, unvaccinated people will now require just a single dose of the reformulated, or “bivalent,” Covid shot to be considered vaccinated.

Severe COVID-19 Linked To 16-Fold Increase In Risk Of Heart Rhythm Disorder by Jerusalem Post Staff (4/23/23). Patients who suffered from severe cases of COVID-19 and required ventilation  are 16 times more likely to develop a heart rhythm disorderknown as ventricular tachycardia within six months, according to a new study by the European Heart Rhythm Association.The study, presented at the EHRA 2023 scientific congress, additionally found an increased risk of other heart rhythm disorders (arrhythmias), such as atrial fibrillation, other tachyarrhythmias and bradycardia/pacemaker implantation, in patients who suffered from severe cases of COVID-19. (Jerusalem Post)

DEMOCRACY / FASCISM
Tennessee Bill That Allows Students To Report Professors Who Teach ‘Divisive Concepts’ Passes House And Senate by WBIR Staff (4/17/23).The bill restricts universities from using state funds for meetings or activities of an organization that “endorses or promotes a divisive concept.” It also requires employees who support diversity initiatives to “increase intellectual diversity” and support students through mentoring, career readiness and workforce development initiatives. Employees would be exempt from the requirement if the new duties conflict with other laws, such as Title IX officers.  It also allows students and employees who believe that the school violated last year’s law a chance to file a report with the school. The school would then need to annually report violations to the comptroller of the treasury, redacting them as needed to stay in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. (WBIR)

A New Movement of Anti-Authoritarian Resistance Is Gathering Strength In America by Ruth Ben-Gihat (4/11/23). A great multi-front war is being waged against the American people. We face a legal and legislative war that aims to take away our democratic rights and intellectual freedoms and turn the bedrocks of civil society, like schools and places of worship, into targets of terror. We face a psychological war that seeks to convince Americans that Democrats pose an existential threat to them and promotes violence as a legitimate response to that situation. And we face a political war about the meaning and value of freedom in America. The Republican-Fox-Christian nationalist rewriting of the Jan. 6 coup attempt as a patriotic act against Democratic tyranny (a narrative recently enshrined at former president Donald Trump’s Waco, TX rally) is a case in point. As with past assaults on liberty around the globe, this one is meeting with resistance. After the 2017 Womens’ March and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, each of which were the largest protest in American history at that time, a new wave of anti-authoritarian action is gaining momentum on the streets and in courts and statehouses around the country. It will not be stopped. (Lucid)

Child Labor Laws Are Under Attack In States Across The Country by  Jennifer Sherer and Nina Mast  (3/14/2023). At a time when serious child labor violations are on the rise in hazardous meatpacking and manufacturing jobs, several state legislatures are weakening—or threatening to weaken—child labor protections. The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections, in pursuit of longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country. Children of families in poverty, and especially Black, brown, and immigrant youth, stand to suffer the most harm from such changes. (Economic Policy Institute)

As Advocates Push For Child Marriage Bans, Some States Resist by Kimberly Kindy (3/17/23).When a proposed child marriage ban in West Virginia was voted down last week in a Senate committee, state Sen. Mike Stuart (R) noted that his mother was married when she was 16, and “six months later I came along. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” With abortion now virtually outlawed across much of the nation, some lawmakers also argue that marriage should remain an option for pregnant teens. The bans could also run afoul of religious beliefs, they say. “It’s not just emancipated children who will be unable to marry under this bill,” said Connecticut state Rep. Melissa Osborne (D), speaking against a marriage ban bill law last month. “It would be pregnant 17-year-olds who have strong religious beliefs that having a child out of wedlock would be worse than the predicament that they’re already in.” In other states, lawmakers are simply unaware that marriages of people younger than 18 years old still exist in the United States, especially instances in which children are unwillingly coerced into the unions. (Washington Post)