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A whimsical student address, forgetting the national anthem – then remembering it after the commencement began -- and a stellar list of honorary degrees recipients were part of Amherst College’s 191st graduation ceremony Sunday. San Francisco native Elias R. Johansson-Miller, summa com laude with a bachelor of arts double major in English, and Theater and Dance was selected by his peers to speak for the senior class. His thesis is “Creating and Believing in Going Public.” Though he had some serious things to say at the tail end of his speech, Johansson-Miller spent most of it making jokes, talking about...

Former Vice president Al Gore on Friday refuted claims that global warning is a myth, saying that 97 to 98 percent of the worlds’ scientists attest to its veracity. Gore was the keynote speaker at the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash Friday. The theme of Lash’s inauguration was “Educating for Change: critical thinking in a critical time.” “Now there are some talk radio show hosts, they say that (global warming is) not (real)," Gore said. "It’s up to you; my point is we must respond. What the scientists tell us is going to take place if we do...

FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 10 AM EDT SUNDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A FREEZE WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 10 AM EDT SUNDAY. THE FREEZE WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * LOCATIONS... NORTHERN CONNECTICUT... NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND AND MUCH OF MASSACHUSETTS. * HAZARDS... FREEZING TEMPERATURES. * TEMPERATURES... RANGING FROM THE MID 20S TO THE LOW 30S. * TIMING... AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH 10 AM. * IMPACTS... FREEZING CONDITIONS COULD KILL ANY CROPS OR OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION.

Former Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to speak at the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash, which is set to start at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Gore served as Bill Clinton's vice president from 1993 to 2001, lost his bid for the presidency in 2000 and won a Nobel Peace Prize with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. You can watch a live stream of the event put together by Hampshire College below or follow along on Twitter by searching the hashtag #jlash.

Former Vice President Al Gore will be in town Friday as the keynote speaker at the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash. Gore, who served as vice president under President Clinton for two-terms, ran unsuccessfully for president in 2000. In 2007, Gore won the Nobel Prize with the U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “An Inconvenient Truth,” a film about his campaign to educate people about global warming, won two Oscars in 2006. In 2005, he co-founded Current TV. Lash has been serving at the college's sixth president since July. ... The theme of the inaugural is “Educating for...

(Image: Everett Collection/Rex Features) A document has just gone on display at Mount Vernon, Virginia - the museum in the former home of George Washington, first US President. It is an order dated 1777 and signed by Washington himself to send troops that had not been vaccinated for smallpox - or survived it - to Philadelphia to be vaccinated. These troops were then to join up with the main army, where the disease was raging. It sounds like amazing foresight for its day. "Washington's careful handling of the smallpox epidemic at the beginning of the war was a significant...

The various "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations around the country declared Thursday to be a "day of action" in the ongoing protest of big banks and Wall Street policies that they blame for a sagging economy. While thousands protested in Manhattan, Los Angeles and other cities, several hundred people took to the streets of downtown Amherst. According to video supplied to The Republican by Julie Varney of Amherstwire.com, demonstrators assembled in front of Bank of New England branch at South Pleasant and Amity Streets. At one point, the footage shows demonstrators storming into the bank lobby to disrupt business. After several...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain fears that Sharia law could permeate the U.S Court system “if we allow it." In Oklahoma, the 10th Circuit court is examining the constitutionality of a 2010 law banning Oklahoma courts from citing, or using, Sharia law. But Sharia law, law based on Islam and its central religious text the Quran, could not be imposed in this country, says Dr. Mohammad Ali Hazratji. Hazratji is hoping to address some of the “disinformation” he sees out there about the law Wednesday at the South Congregational Church as part of the Hampshire Mosque lecture series “Understanding Islam.”...

More than 200 students gathered outside the University of Massachusetts Student Union to continue their call for economic justice as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which enters its 26th day. ... Student after student on Wednesday told stories of parents losing jobs and health care, or of having mounting student debt caused by what they say is Wall Street greed. Some bore signs reading “1 percent stop bogarting your stash.” There were chants of “one solution, revolution,” and a call to spread the word about Occupy UMass so there would be enough students and others to occupy a...

A feud between two Transit Road neighbors -- a homeowner and a mosque -- turned ugly this weekend when the homeowner staked a sign on his front lawn insinuating that the new 11,600-square-foot Islamic worship site is home to a "bomb making" operation. Michael Heick, who lives next door to the Jaffarya Islamic Center of Niagara Frontier, put a small sign that reads "Bomb Making Next Driveway" to northbound traffic on Transit Road. The next driveway on the same side of the road as Heick's home heading north is the Jaffarya Center, at 10300 Transit. Mosque members and other area...

AMHERST – Organizers of the 20th annual Extravaganja on the Town Common admitted Tuesday that they were wrong when they told the public police had agreed not to cite anyone caught smoking marijuana. Emily Butler, a spokesperson for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Cannabis Reform Coalition, said there had been “a simple miscommunication with the police” and “we didn’t mean to mislead anybody.” “We should not have led them to believe that smoking would be tolerated,” Butler said in an email. “The current (coalition) officers will make sure that this miscommunication does not occur in future years.” In the...

AMHERST – Rocker Steve Miller is a self-declared “midnight toker,” but he’s got nothing on hundreds of people on the Amherst town commons Sunday who sparked up at noon. The 20th annual Extravaganja festival, put on by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Cannabis Reform Coalition, kicked off Saturday and continued for two days, the first time it has lasted more than one day since its inception. The event was chock-full of speakers, vendors and bands and was meant to raise awareness of the pro-marijuana legalization movement. This year was also the first time participants were allowed to smoke marijuana...

When I saw that Coons spent time in Yale, and was a two-time National Debate Champion, I had to look him up.The name wasn't familiar to me at first. While the Yale debate team was good, they weren't tops when I was involved. First, I saw Coons' age ... 47. That means we attended college at the same time, and then I saw that he did his bachelors' work not at Yale, but at Amherst. Then everything clicked. I don't have television, and I tend not to view much video on the Internet for news. I remembered the Amherst team....

President Barack Obama misses his own deadline for closing Guantánamo on Friday, amid difficulties in relocating inmates overseas and delays in putting dozens on trial. But a university town in Massachusetts is doing its utmost to encourage his effort, having become the first in the country to pass a resolution welcoming detainees from the prison on the US naval base on Cuba. Amherst remains a liberal hot spot in a state that until the shock election of Republican Scott Brown to succeed Edward Kennedy in the Senate was regarded as reliably Democratic. Unlike Thomson, Illinois, where residents expect a jobs...

Amherst Sees 7m Foreclosures Poised to Distress House Prices By DIANA GOLOBAY September 24, 2009 10:34 AM CST Advertisements Recent analysis by the Amherst Securities Group indicates the housing industry will not only worsen as a delayed pipeline of foreclosed loans begins to liquidate, but that the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) will have no lasting effect on keeping delinquent loans current. The early signs of stabilization seen among housing industry observers may soon recede as an overhang of the shadow inventory of foreclosures waits to enter the market. The general outlook that the housing market has bottomed...

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries the amazing story of a small Texas brokerage that pulled a fast one on some of the biggest banks in the world. The short version goes like this. Amherst, the Texas brokerage, and others sold hundreds of millions of dollars of credit default swaps on bonds back by $29 million of subprime mortgages to JP Morgan, Goldman, UBS RBS and other banking giants. The banks paid steeply for the swaps—up to 90 cents for every dollar of insurance—but thought it was easy money. After all, these were Lehman packaged California subprime loans made in 2005,...

<p>WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.</p>

<p>University of Massachusetts officials yesterday quashed efforts by an Amherst campus chaplain to offer two college credits to any student willing to campaign in New Hampshire this fall for Democrat Barack Obama.</p> <p>Chaplain Ken Higgins told students in a Sept. 18 e-mail, “If you’re scared about the prospects for this election, you’re not alone. The most important way to make a difference in the outcome is to activate yourself. It would be just fine with McCain if Obama supporters just think about helping, then sleep in and stay home between now and Election Day.”</p>

AMHERST - Investigators have determined the Friday morning death of a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts student was a suicide. Liam O'Donnelly of Hingham died of multiple trauma, Terrel W. Harris, communications director for the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said of the autopsy finding. UMass Amherst Police responded to a report of someone jumping from the 17th floor of the John Quincy Adams residence hall around 3:30 a.m. that day O'Donnelly was a sophomore studying resource economics at UMass. Campus spokesman Edward F. Blaguszewski said O'Donnelly lived in a single-person room. The case was investigated by campus...

AMHERST - In the fall, Select Board Chairman Gerald S. Weiss read a story about an Amherst restaurant worker who was deported to her native El Salvador after being involved in a Northampton accident. He doesn't want that to happen here and wants the town to adopt a bylaw that would protect non-U.S. citizens. Weiss presented the proposal to the Select Board Monday night and the board will discuss whether to support it at a future meeting. Town Meeting would ultimately decide whether to adopt the change. The bylaw proposal follows a Town Meeting resolution adopted in 2002 that asked...

AMHERST - University of Massachusetts student Brian C. Marquis may have to settle for the "C" he received in a philosophy course. A judge in U.S. District Court, Springfield, has determined Marquis failed in his effort to prove grounds for a civil rights case against the university over the letter grade he contended didn't match the numerical rating he'd received. Marquis sued the university last winter, claiming UMass officials violated his rights. The lawsuit was dismissed recently by Judge Michael A. Ponsor, but Marquis says he might not be finished. "Grades are very serious, and they should be taken seriously...

Why Granting Socioeconomic Preferences in College Admissions Is Wrong I believe Amherst College’s policy of granting admissions preferences based on socioeconomic status is wrong. It is wrong because it is inefficient, wasteful, and pointless; but I begin with a discussion of why it is morally and ethically wrong, because these considerations are paramount. Moral Issues The history of discrimination against the bourgeoisie has been as pernicious as discrimination against any group in history. The “wealthy” have been exiled to gulags in the Soviet Union, suppressed and brainwashed during the Cultural Revolution in Communist China, and murdered by the millions in...

The FBI says it's all part of an ongoing investigation into a group of Sri Lankans with terrorist plans. The FBI says there were no plans to attack Americans, but that the group, known as the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" was targeting their home country of Sri Lanka. Officials say that terror group is responsible for assassinating a former prime minister of India. The Joint Terrorism Task Force raided the Amherst home. Neighbors say three men were taken out in handcuffs. They say the task force also removed files, a computer and suitcases. While it's not clear what role...

Amherst, NY (WBEN) - Federal agents raided a home in Amherst, and arrested three people they say are linked to an overseas terror cell. The FBI raided a home on Shetland Drive over the weekend, and the three unidentified suspects were charged with raising and laundering money for the Tamil Tigers terror group in Sri Lanka. WBEN's Tom Puckett has more in the audio link above, including assurances from police that the local community was apparently not a target.

The removal of the Confederate flag from Amherst County's official seal has upset Southern heritage groups, who contend residents weren't told of the change. County officials acknowledge the image was quietly removed in August 2004 to avoid an uproar.

AMHERST - Two A-10 fighter jets tore across the Amherst sky just as the Independence Day parade came to a close Monday afternoon. Below, a crowd of July Fourth revelers, and a much smaller group of peace and anti-war activists, lifted their heads from the streets and took a pause as the Warthogs flew overhead. Loud as thunder, the military jets were a late addition to an otherwise festive and peaceful Fourth of July parade that brought thousands to Amherst's downtown on a beautiful summer day. The parade was Amherst's fourth since a group of volunteers revived the Independence Day...

AMHERST - Are the images that now cover the walls outside Hampden Gallery at the University of Massachusetts campus obscene, thought-provoking, crude or ingenious? Some people cannot get past the naked forms in various acts of sex and violence. For others, the drawings in black marker by Austrian artist Heimo Wallner tell a story of society, filled with everything from violence, love, weapons and fame to pop music, torture, virtue and drugs. And for some, it's hard to understand or process the hundreds of figures and their actions.

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=110900952004 AMHERST - The Puerto Rican flag is flying in front of Town Hall again, two days after a woman mistook it for the flag of Texas and removed it from the flagpole. Patricia Church, of South Prospect Street, was attending a peace vigil on the town common Sunday when she noticed a new flag flying under the usual United Nations flag. Someone at the vigil said it was the flag of Texas, she said. Church, still upset over the re-election of President Bush last week, said she thought someone had raised the Texas flag as a prank to taunt...

A day late, but... Last night's news carried this item. Some residents in Amherst, MA (Amherst College, Univ. of Massachusetts) are "furious" that the US flag has remained up after Labor Day. They consider the US flag a symbol of racism, imperialism, and evil, and have demanded that it be taken down. The matter has reached the selectmen and town manager for action. In light of today's events, I think this item is particularly relevant, and says volumes about Amherst, MA, and the surrounding area.

Here is an account of September 10, 2001, 12 hours before the first plane hit. I was at a rally to support the flying of the American Flag from the telephone poles down Main Street in Amhert Mass. What happened that night was quite profound!~

In response to yesterday's student takeover of the Goodell Building at the University of Massachusetts, the Amherst College Student Policy Committee voted unanimously to support the demonstration by issuing a letter of solidarity to the student protesters. The motion to support the student takeover arose at last night's monthly meeting of the SPC. Representatives from the University's African, Latino, Asian, and Native American organization (ALANA) were invited to the meeting to inform SPC members about th e ongoing student protest and give a summary of the students' demands. According to these representatives, the impetus behind the student protest was the...

FOCUS: HEROISM IN IRAQ 'Like flying through hell' The pilot of a military helicopter, an Amherst native, tells of terror and triumph in the heroic rescue of two wounded soldiers in Iraq By CHARITY VOGEL News Staff Reporter5/1/2004 Maj. Steven R. White, left, on flying into danger: "You train forever for the Super Bowl, so when the Super Bowl comes up, you don't want to sit on the bench."   Click to view larger picture Maj. Steven R. White, first row, second from right, piloted a Pave Hawk helicopter through a blinding sandstorm into a volatile area near Baghdad to...

The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee banned "West Side Story" because its members said it stereotyped Puerto Ricans. They banned "Peter Pan" because it stereotyped Native Americans. Yet they want the play the "Vagina Monologues" performed even though it stereotypes males and Christians -- not to mention the fact that it's crude and arguably pro-pedophilia.Most disturbing about the play is the fact that it features the seduction of a female minor by an adult woman, legitimizing predatory sexual behavior before an audience of minors. It seems the Amherst School Committee is indoctrinating rather than educating. The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee approved the performance of...

AMHERST - Support for next month's student production of ''The Vagina Monologues'' outweighed dissent among members of the community at Tuesday's Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee meeting. About 40 residents, parents and faculty members from the high school attended the public comment portion of the meeting. Faculty supporters of the student production advised students to avoid the meeting because of its potential for controversy. Written by Eve Ensler, ''The Vagina Monologues'' is a series of short scenes based on her interviews with more than 200 women around the globe. The play, to be performed Feb. 13 at the high school, will...

"V-Day" in Amherst December 28, 2003 by Isabel Lyman Sexualizing minors, in the name of art, has found a niche in Amherst, Massachusetts. Last week the college town was abuzz after learning that The Vagina Monologues will be performed at the Amherst Regional High School in February with the approval of the school committee and the superintendent, Jere Hochman. According to the Amherst Bulletin, Hochman chirped, "We hope that there are ways for our students to find their voice in their years with us."As part of a global campaign, students and staff at the school will stage the work of...

Amherst man gears up to defeat Bush in '04 By NICK GRABBE, Staff Writer Friday, July 18, 2003 -- AMHERST - Alan Kanner, who wants to mobilize local support for defeating George Bush in 2004, is undeterred by the president's plan to raise $200 million for his re-election campaign. "I hope he raises a billion," Kanner said. "In those terms, the role of money, greed and corruption in the Bush administration will become so obvious that people will know exactly the kinds of interests they're representing." Kanner has formed a group called Anybody but Bush - Anybody! and has scheduled...

An end-of-the semester celebration at UMass/Amherst morphed into a violent mob scene over the weekend. The Chief the Amherst Police Department said yesterday that a pre-graduation party, hosted near the University of Massachusetts and which attracted over 1,500 students, became a "riotous situation." "What began as a series of parties developed into a full-fledged riot," said Scherpa. Captain Mike Kent, a 22-year veteran of the Amherst police department, agreed. Kent described the melee as "the worst disturbance I have ever seen and the most violent." The so-called Hobart Hoedown, held on Hobart Lane, began to spin wildly out-of-control late Saturday...

Monday, May 5, 2003 -- AMHERST - University of Massachusetts and town officials said today they will take steps to prevent a recurrence of Saturday's "full-fledged riot" that resulted in more than a dozen injuries and 45 arrests after several thousand college-age revelers gathered for the annual Hobart Hoedown in North Amherst. During a press conference this morning, Police Chief Charles Scherpa said, "What began as a series of parties developed into a full-fledged riot." Scherpa said town and UMass officials are assessing how to prevent such problems in the future. Also at today's press conference, UMass Police Chief Barbara...

An anti-abortion display outside the Student Union at the University of Massachusetts was destroyed by vandals Wednesday night, police said. The display of 160 white crosses, representing the number of abortions every hour in the United States, had previously been the site of vandalism and an alleged assault. It had been up for three days. UMass police received a call reporting the incident at 11:10 p.m. Wednesday, said Deputy Patrick Archbald. When officers arrived at the south side of the Student Union, they found the crosses broken and strewn around the area, with some in a nearby garbage can, he...

Violent Reactions to Pro-Life Exhibit at UMass/Amherst By Izzy Lyman April 18, 2003 The "tolerant" types at UMass/Amherst have protested a pro-life exhibit this week by taking crosses off dead babies in a mythical graveyard, throwing them in a pond and breaking them in half. One UMass/Amherst undergraduate was assaulted while manning the exhibit that was displayed next to the Student Union. > Taking a stand: Kiera Manikoff, a UMass Junior, is proud of her pro-life and pro-child views. Kiera Manikoff, a political science major and a junior, scuffled with a female who verbally harassed her and held a hammer...

It had to happen sooner or later. There, on the first Sunday of April 2003 in historic, downtown Amherst, forty activists gathered with signs, "No blood for oil" and "No more wars." Directly across the street, another forty activists took their places, signs saying, "Support Our Soldiers." For nearly twenty-five years, a weekly peace demonstration has been held on the Amherst common at this time and place. Was this a challenge? Those supporting the U.S. military appeared to keep to themselves - waving Old Glory and receiving the lion's share of approving honks from motorists. Then the peace protestors tried...

Students stage rally to support troops 04/03/2003 By PATRICK JOHNSON Staff writer AMHERST - Amid flags and yellow ribbons, students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst yesterday staged a rally on the steps of the Student Union to urge support of American troops fighting in Iraq. From Our Advertisers More than 75 people stood quietly, while speakers urged support for the troops, President Bush and overthrowing Saddam Hussein. The rally came on the same steps where a week ago opponents of the war staged an anti-war vigil. The latest event was sponsored by the UMass Republican Club and a...

<p>In a show of defiance to a statewide election, bilingual education proponents in Amherst and neighboring towns are seeking to exempt their schools from a voter-passed initiative replacing bilingual education with English immersion.</p> <p>After receiving more than 600 signatures on a petition, the Amherst Board of Selectmen will call a special Town Meeting to consider asking the Legislature to exempt Amherst and the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District from the mandates of Question 2. Only 200 signatures were needed to call a special Town Meeting, and the town clerk certified them yesterday.</p>

These days, defining diversity seems to be the big issue on campus.But at Amherst College in Mass. they are doing more than just talking about it.They're adding 'diversity seats' to the 32 member Student Senate for groups that have been 'historically silenced.'Five candidates representing different minority groups applied for the seats, including an international student, a homosexual, a Conservative (!!), a Latino, and an Asian.All but one were chosen-the Conservative candidate.Ted Hertzberg the conservative student says he deserved the seat for the same reasons the others did.

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advertisement home > this article Dinesh comes to Amherst By Isabel Lymanweb posted April 29, 2002Multiculturalists, wearing hijabs and keffiyehs, in earnest anxiety, attended Dinesh D'Souza's speech on "The Superiority of Western Civilization" at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on April 24.So, if you thought that a topic like this would be a d'snooza on a campus where bored students elevator surf for fun, you would be wrong.The multicultis showed up - not to listen and learn - but to protest. A South Asian (anti-) American named Sonny Suchev said he came "to show my resistance to this bigoted...

Pushy feminists, who want to remake competitive boys into cooperative girls, run rampant in my neck of western Massachusetts. There are five colleges in the area, including two for women - Smith and Mount Holyoke - that aid and abet this old girls network through their respective (but not respectable) women's studies departments. These academic gulags are typically run by masculinity-and-make-up-hating harpies.If you are a guy who digs NASCAR, shingles roofs for a living, and was moved by We Were Soldiers, this place is an estrogen chamber of horrors. In fact, when someone sneezes, the politically correct say, "Goddess, bless...

MASS AND CONN FREEPERS: DAVID HOROWITZ APPEARING TOMORROW NIGHT IN AMHERST!! Speaking time is 7:30 in Amherst at the Johnson Chapel of Amherst College. Leftists will be in attendance!!!