As I and the Reminder Publishing team have been intimately involved in the historic Springfield election season while watching legal battles regarding alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 ...
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As I write this column, my family and I are in the final days of preparation for our trip to Walt Disney World.

In the interest of full disclosure, we are “those people” –...
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By now we’ve all seen the Saturday Night Live bit.

We’ve seen the national news article shared on social media forums for the 100th time.

We know – the lights at Min...
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A few years ago, there was a brief period of time during which I left journalism as a full-time vocation. While I still dabbled in freelance, the economic landscape was untennable for a soon-to-be ...
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It’s been about a decade of work with Reminder Publishing and I now find myself in a position that is familiar and new all at the same time.

Recently, I began the transition f...
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I didn’t cry on my daughter’s first day of school, but I cried today. I walked her to the door and I hugged her and was so shaken the words “I love you” could only come out ...
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The concept that change is inevitable is not a new one.

But since March 10, 2020, when Gov. Charlie Baker signed a declaration of a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, change has ne...
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I believe in vaccines. That includes the COVID-19 vaccine.

I believe it significantly reduces the chances of severe illness, hospitalizations and death. I believe it reduces the chance of sp...
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In my younger days, I was the coach of a high school swim team in Western Massachusetts.

We were a small team made up of a wide range of skill groups. We weren’t competing for champion...
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When the Northampton Police Review Commission released its report, the message was that there was “a common ground” that everyone in Northampton wants to ...
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I’ve been watching the discussion regarding mass transit, specifically with regard to east-west rail and the recent announcement of a pilot express service between Northampton, Holyoke and Sp...
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Unprecedented.

Uncertain.

Tumultuous.

Challenging.

There have been many adjectives used to describe 2020, including some that cannot be repeated in the pages of these ne...
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I love baseball.

To me, there are few things more enjoyable than being at Fenway Park, crammed into a seat in the bleachers that is too small with the sun in my face, a scorecard on my lap, ...
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I wish I could say the past few days have been hard for me to get my head around. Unfortunately, it’s about what I expected.

Last month, I urged caution regarding prematurely optimisti...
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I sat down prepared to write a scathing editorial on the so-called federal stimulus package as well as Gov. Charlie Baker's latest round of ill-conceived and poorly developed plans to fight coronav...
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I’ve been accused many times in my life of being a Grinch or a Scrooge.

It’s simply not true.

Sure, I absolutely believe, as my colleague Payton North brought to the publi...
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It’s Thanksgiving and with that comes an expectation of uplifting editorials reminding us that we should be grateful for what we have.

Well, this isn’t one of them.

To be ...
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When I went to bed on Oct. 22, I knew there was one thing I was guaranteed to wake up to – a deluge of social media posts about the final presidential debate.

It’s always an...
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An interesting piece of news slid across my consciousness last week that may not mean a lot to the vast majority of people, but to thousands of children in foster care and the families that care fo...
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One of the things I have heard over and over again during the current pandemic and accompanying social distancing guidance and restrictions is how much people are looking forward to “getting ...
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Where were you and what were you doing when the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, occurred?

It’s something we probably all think about every year. It’s only natural.

At 8:...
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At 3:22 p.m. on Aug. 21, a Friday, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) saw fit to release a fair amount of “guidance” on a number of subjects.

 Those...
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As a matter of editorial practice, Reminder Publishing does not issue endorsements of candidates for any race. The race for the 1st Congressional District seat is no different. I gave seri...
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Check back soon.

No doubt, if you read Reminder Publishing papers last week, you are well-acquainted with the Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley’s guidance on returning to school in the fall....
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Some time ago, my wife and I were foster parents to a black baby boy.

Even when we welcomed him to our home at 11 days old, he already had a huge mop of curly black hair – big, soft, f...
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Two weeks ago, I experienced something that I hadn’t since Reminder Publishing began our new normal of working from home: time off.

While not scheduled or by choice, a week of no work ...
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As the days of social distancing have turned into weeks and the Reminder Publishing staff has transitioned to working from home, I find myself in a familiar and foreign position at the sam...
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Every so often, I am reminded how many people close to me are convinced that as a member of the press, I am part of some sort of cohesive global conspiracy to spread fear and panic.

Of cours...
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I’ve never been great with introductions, especially in the professional world.

I have always felt who I was did not matter nearly as much as what I did and how well I did it. The byli...
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