Tuesday, November 10, 2026

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JOHN BREASTED: The Great Barrington Selectboard’s credibility gap

Transparency does not require officials to reveal legal strategy. It does require them to tell voters when the town has been sued.

Reflections on the December 2023 incident at the Du Bois Middle School over the book ‘Gender Queer’

The behaviors of our town police chief and the county district attorney on December 8 appear to have violated well established state and federal laws, the United States Constitution, and our public trust.

Removing or destroying legally permissible campaign signs is un-American and a violation of the First Amendment

Recently, there has been a rash of removal and destruction of my campaign signs, in Great Barrington and Housatonic. That behavior is reprehensible and un-American.

STEPHEN COHEN: Trump’s criminal conviction in New York and his proposals for the destruction of the rule of law

Trump has announced he will seek retribution and has repeatedly denigrated a system which has provided him and his minions with fair trials in his numerous cases.

Hunger takes no summer vacation!

Even well fed children are apt to experience some “summer slide” in learning, but poor nutrition makes this much worse.

I WITNESS: Can Joe Biden survive the Israel-Hamas War?

Joe Biden appears to be painting himself into a corner from which he may not be able to emerge to secure a second term in the White House.

LEONARD QUART: Nuyoricans and their ongoing powerful presence in New York City

Though "West Side Story" was more a poetic fantasy than an attempt to capture the texture of Nuyorican (New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent) life, it was the only widely disseminated American mass culture product of that time to conceive Puerto Ricans as a unique racial/ethnic group and culture.

CONNECTIONS: When did we become so treasonous, irrational, and biased?

The wellbeing of the state as presently constituted ensures the wellbeing of the people. To threaten one is to threaten us.

Pro-Palestinian protests are not antisemitic

To equate opposition to Israel, in whatever form it takes, as “Jew hatred” is as sensible as equating opposition to MAGA with hatred of Christians.

Misguided protests

The protests in front of a Jewish owned business were cruel and insensitive. The protests seem one-sided.

PETER MOST: How to succeed without trying

The dirty secret to running a utility is that if you can run it into the ground, greater riches will be bestowed. HWW’s managers have been running this play to the extreme, giving an absolute master class in how doing nothing can be inordinately profitable.

State legislation to ban the sale of puppies from puppy mills

It is my hope that the bill makes it out of committee and does not die there, as too many good pieces of proposed legislation often do.

Foundry supporters’ virtue-signaling at Planning Board meetings is not a good look

Amy Brentano's minions at Planning Board meetings do not seem to notice that what is being discussed in these meetings is not whether the performance venue should exist, but whether The Foundry’s permit should go from some noise controls to no noise controls.

I WITNESS: Raised by wolves

If I were a Republican raising children, I would not know where to turn for examples of moral rectitude, or kindness, or even rational thought.

STEPHEN COHEN: An appropriate sentence

Contrition on the part of the defendant should always be considered; instead, he is claiming that the justice system is illegally and corruptly picking on him and that he committed no crime.

The answer to The Foundry’s sound issue remains a simple and affordable one

We all love the notion of having a quality performance venue in our town. But the venue doesn’t work if it denies certain basic rights to its abutters.