As protesters at UMass Amherst call for severing the school's ties with weapons makers, I wanted to re-up my 2020 investigation into corporate research at the school. It sheds light on which weapons makers partner with UMass & how opaque that research is: web.archive.org/web/2020111912…

Feels like I've never been part of an institution that wasn't in decline

i just feel like everything should be easier. like every single thing

With energy companies once again eyeing cheap land in western Mass — this time for battery facilities — some communities and regulators are finding themselves at odds with the state's climate goals. By Sarah Robertson with Montague Reporter: theshoestring.org/2024/05/24/bat…

⚖️ U.S. EPA sued over its failure to prevent toxic PFAS contamination. Today, we filed the lawsuit on behalf of farmers & ranchers whose livelihoods & health were hit hard after PFAS-laden biosolids from neighboring properties leached onto their land. ow.ly/5ySp50Sb5Ue

Living in Massachusetts is embarrassing

Isn't it cool how we're this far into the internet revolution or whatever and nowhere on the horizon is single innovation that will make you and the people you love retire a day earlier

The state auditor found that the UMass Amherst violated state law when it eliminated over 100 unionized positions from the university’s fundraising office & offered the workers jobs at the private UMass Amherst Foundation. Sarah Robertson has the latest: theshoestring.org/2024/06/17/aud…

Years' worth of old articles have disappeared from the Daily Hampshire Gazette's website. The paper's publisher says the problem will be fixed, but as more media moves online, our collective vulnerability to "digital decay" grows. Melanie Duronio reports: theshoestring.org/2024/07/15/mis…

‘A dog pound would be better.’ Inside one of the most-fined nursing homes in Mass. “People need to know what’s going on with that place,” said a Springfield woman who left Highview of Northampton this spring. My latest investigation: masslive.com/westernmass/20…

Mobile home parks are among the only kinds of residences in Massachusetts where towns can regulate rent prices. But across western Mass, their affordability is under threat from landlords seeking massive rent hikes. By Sarah Robertson with Montague Reporter: theshoestring.org/2024/09/23/at-…

People in Conyers, GA are being told to shelter in place with windows and doors closed, and AC units off. No one is telling them what chemicals in the BioLab are burning. When are we going to STOP letting industry run our country???

The thing about the trolley problem is I'm just on the trolley. I don't get to use the lever.

The kids in the school I’m beside in Beirut have been encouraged to clap and cheer when air strikes hit so they don’t become frightened. A loud one hit not too far away just now & I watched them all do this after they heard the explosion. #lebanon

Dems’ failures were really in the works years ago when they undermined all of this. Biden and Harris are barely even visible on this map.

ExxonMobil urges Trump to stay in the Paris climate accord -- while meanwhile the main oil industry trade group asks him to gut every major climate regulation. insideclimatenews.org/news/13112024/…

The state estimates a cost of half a billion dollars to connect the communities of the Quabbin watershed to the eastern Mass-serving reservoir. But residents and officials say that's not the only way the state could recognize those communities' sacrifices: theshoestring.org/2024/11/22/qua…

Hard to square the breathless enthusiasm from pundit types about the inevitable need for fleets of data centers for AI with the fact that its main use case so far seems to be making growing numbers of people unable to read, write, think critically and relate to other human beings

Everytime I eavesdrop on college students at cafes they're discussing international travel

We could stop inventing new things and just fix what's broken