Gazette on Free Speech: With Power Comes Responsibility

An editorial in today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette holds that the right to free speech does not insulate speakers from criticism… [Max] Karson began publishing offensive material while a student at Amherst Regional High School. In his crude publication “The Crux,” he sought to spread his insults as far and wide as possible. He got suspended […]

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Election Season Approaches for Northampton City Council

Candidates for Northampton City Council may now pick up the necessary forms from the Clerk at City Hall, 210 Main Street. The key dates and deadlines are: July 24, 2007Last day to submit nomination papers to the Registrar of Voters. You will need at least 50 voters from your ward to sign a petition to […]

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Richard Wilbur…What Love Is

We note with sadness the passing of Charlotte Wilbur, wife of Cummington poet Richard Wilbur. Today’s Gazette writes, Married for 64 years, Charlotte and her husband shared an enduring love. Richard Wilbur, 86, who called his wife “my best reader,” said he viewed her life as poetry in motion and that she was often his […]

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The Republican: “Web serves as great resource for activists”

The March 15 Republican reports on the growth of blogs and websites for local activism. Daryl LaFleur posts public documents at Paradise City Forum so people can review them and “come to their own conclusions,” without having to troop down to City Hall. Granby resident Mark Bail hosts Granby01033, a blog to bring more attention […]

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Visitors to NoPornNorthampton Website Outnumber Those of Local Newspaper Website

[Revised and updated on May 30, 2007] For the first time, an independent web measurement service estimates that NoPornNorthampton.org receives more monthly unique US visitors than GazetteNet.com, a website of Northampton’s local newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette. (The Gazette also serves some visitors as DailyHampshireGazette.com.) Quantcast estimates that NoPornNorthampton is now receiving 12,629 monthly unique […]

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Anti-Porn Legend Gloria Steinem to Give 2007 Commencement Address at Smith College

We are excited to hear that Gloria Steinem, 1956 Smith graduate and feminist legend, will return to campus on May 20 to give the commencement address. Steinem’s early freelance work includes an undercover article for Show magazine on the working conditions of Playboy bunnies. Her stance against porn is clear: If you have two groups […]

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Gazette: “Couple appeals porn shop’s building permit”

As reported in today’s Gazette, Adam Cohen and Jendi Reiter from NoPornNorthampton recently wrote to Northampton Building Commissioner Anthony Patillo, asking him to revoke the building permit issued to Capital Video for their proposed porn shop at 135 King Street. We wrote: Section 1.3 of the [Northampton zoning] ordinance includes these criteria for site plan […]

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Gazette: “60 days to porn on King? Permit in hand, shop eyes spring opening”

Today’s Gazette reports that Northampton has issued Capital Video a building permit (PDF) for a porn shop on 135 King Street [see a PDF of the floor plan]. Due to its proximity to homes, the store may have no more than 1,000 square feet of adult material on display. The Gazette notes that an appeal […]

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Victim’s “Precocious Knowledge of Sexuality” Blocks Child Rape Conviction

Northampton’s Daily Hampshire Gazette reports today that a Hampshire Superior Court jury has acquitted Hubert Jaundoo, a local man accused of raping his then-girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter in 2001, after Jaundoo’s lawyer attacked the child’s credibility on the grounds that she was too sexually experienced: His defense lawyer, David Hoose, argued the girl’s precocious knowledge of sexuality created […]

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Code of the City of Northampton Now Online and Searchable

Ward 4 City Councilor David J. Narkewicz announces that “The complete Code of the City of Northampton–which includes all of our ordinances, zoning regulations, special acts of the legislature, and the charter–is now available online via the City’s homepage or directly by going here. The up-to-date “E-Code” contains Northampton’s recently adopted adult-use zoning and signage […]

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