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By JOHN PEPI

The June 23 guest column by Joe Curtatone of the Alliance for Climate Transition spoke clearly of the role and significance of battery energy storage systems (BESS) if Massachusetts is to green the grid with renewable but intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind. Mr. Curtatone also spoke of the advances in battery safety management which government and industry have put in place – much of these encoded in recent National Fire Protection Association regulations.

If what is transpiring in the United States was the subject of a novel or a portending thesis it would be rejected and mocked as incredible. That hundreds of legislators, the Supreme Court and the Justice Department would succumb to the Trumpian cult and ignore the Constitution, stare decisis, their oaths of office, and participate in the devolution of democracy would be out of the realm of possibility.

Yesterday we celebrated National Blueberry Day, but unfortunately the joy of blueberry picking from the cherished Gordon King Estate, donated to the town of Leverett, was lost again this year. Access to this beloved Estate has been barred due to the closure of the easement from Shutesbury Road, a situation that not only deprives us of a treasured tradition but also impacts the maintenance and upkeep of the land as the town committee struggles to mow the grass and manage the estate effectively.

As gratifying as it was to see the front-page story about the swearing in of new American citizens in the July 7 Gazette there continue to be risks and threats to newly naturalized American citizens. In a June 11 Department of Justice memo signed by the attorney general, enforcement of “denaturalization laws” has been made a priority of the Trump administration.

So, the governor in the name of “clean energy” wants to dump a 1982 referendum requiring another to approve any new nuclear facilities in the state.

By KATHY GREGG

We’re hearing a lot about the Insurrection Act these days. The idea of the president invoking it against citizens of the United States is pretty scary, so I checked a bit into its history.

By OLIN ROSE-BARDAWIL

In May of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited John Muir, one of the most revered naturalists of his time, in Yosemite, California. Muir took Roosevelt on a three-day camping excursion through the area, hoping that exposing him to Yosemite’s natural beauty would convince the president to set aside Yosemite and other wilderness areas to be designated as national parks.

There are limits to what any of us can do to help any others of us. In Plato’s “Theaetetus,” Socrates says “I am like the midwife, in that I cannot myself give birth to wisdom”; and he then says, “The many admirable truths which they bring to birth have been discovered by themselves from within.” Our law schools are supposed to base their pedagogy on the Socratic method, whose applicability to real life situations might not always appear very great. That people cannot always argue their way to the establishment of abiding truths may be seen with the great eloquence of speechifying in Congress in the years leading up to our Civil War.

By TOLLEY M. JONES

In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was amended to include the Fugitive Slave Clause. This clause made it illegal for enslaved persons to free themselves through escape, and legally required them to be returned to their enslavers. In enshrining this in the Constitution, it also nullified state laws that protected enslaved persons from being returned to their enslaver if they reached a Northern state that abolished slavery. However, as Southern enslavers were unsatisfied with the resistance they encountered when attempting to retrieve their escaped slaves, the U.S. government attempted to mollify them with a stronger law. In 1793, The Fugitive Slave Law was passed by Congress. This law declared that any escaped enslaved person must be returned to their enslaver, regardless of what state in which they were recaptured, and that anyone assisting in their escape would be fined $500 and given a year in prison.

By JENNIFER CORE and CLAIRE MORENON

Immigration crackdowns, and the resulting protests, have been at the center of the news for the past several weeks — this is a violent, divided moment centering around a highly divisive issue. It is also a sweet season in the Valley — the height of the growing season is just beginning, and farmers’ markets and farm stands are filling up. These might seem like completely unrelated realities, but they are closely connected by one thing: the deeply skilled, and largely invisible, farmworkers who plant, pick, and process the harvest — many of whom are immigrants..

By KAREN GARDNER

It’s about cruelty. The sweeping new take from the poor and give to the rich budget bill, just passed by both Houses of Congress by the slimmest of majorities and signed into law by the recurrent guy, shows us just who matters in our vanishing democracy.

As a Northampton woman living with ovarian cancer, I wasn’t fortunate enough to benefit from early detection. Years ago, my primary care doctor in Brooklyn dismissed my bloated belly as “visceral fat.” I could diet away. In truth, the swelling was ascites — fluid caused by two growing tumors. Had my doctor ordered a simple ultrasound or blood test, she might have caught what a young doctor at Cooley Dickinson finally diagnosed two years later: ovarian cancer, by then at Stage III.

A year ago, Mass Audubon began a fundraising campaign to accelerate land conservation in the commonwealth. The 30 X 30 Catalyst Fund hoped to find $75 million to protect 30 % of Massachusetts by 2030. To date, $40 million has been raised. Working with other state, regional, and local conservation groups, the fund has jump-started over 20 projects, totaling 18,000 acres. The conservation team has also been able to purchase land from owners who cannot wait for current uncertain federal funding to materialize. Eligible properties are judged by their ability to help clean air and water, provide biodiversity and wildlife corridors, and capture carbon for climate resilience. Intact forests in western Massachusetts and coastal properties are especially crucial to safeguarding these cost-effective solutions of Nature.

As a 14-year resident I am astonished that we have the highest property taxes and the worst roads. Plus our library fell into such disrepair it had to close. School buildings are in bad shape. The town manager doesn't have a clue what to do.

By GENE STAMELL

I should have known they’d get it all wrong. Oh, I’ve heard the woke socialists moaning and whining: “He doesn’t listen to people around him.” Listen? I listen. I’m the best listener who ever lived; my hearing is off the charts. But nobody listens to me! I never said I wanted a big beautiful bill, in the singularity tense. I said bills, in the plurality tense.

The Trump administration has been slashing funding for a broad array of “wasteful” government programs in the name of “efficiency.” Among the victims are funding for research grants. Science is probably “under the radar” for most people, but the irrational, destructive cuts are affecting the advancement of medicine, technology and environmental science; achievements we depend on which have been developed by private businesses applying basic research discoveries funded by taxpayer supported institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette has published several editorials about battery energy storage systems (BESS). I would like to provide additional information on the June 23 guest column by Michael DeChiara [“Somerville gets it wrong on battery storage”]. There has been great progress in improving the safety of BESS installations. Newer Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries are chemically stable, have low fire risk, contain less toxic materials, and last 2-3 times longer than traditional Lithium Ion batteries. Fires are rare, and if they occur, they are more easily suppressed with cooling agents or dry chemical sprays that fire departments use.

By H. PATRICIA HYNES

In the summer of 2023, researchers “binge-watched 250 of the most-rated movies” of the past 10 years for climate research purposes. A mere 13 percent of films made mention of climate-related disasters, some more seriously and others “offhandedly” in dialogue. In contrast, since the rise of Hollywood as the center of entertainment over a century ago, more than “2,500 war-themed movies and TV programs have been made with Pentagon assistance.” Why does the Pentagon partner with Hollywood? And why does Hollywood glamorize war at the expense of the planet?

By LINDA BUTLER

The rumor reached me via a friend who heard it at a poker game: “The city fired teachers to create CAPA,” the Climate Action and Project Administration department. Whoa — what?!

By DR. DAVID GOTTSEGEN

What I renamed “The Big Beastly Bill” passed the Senate yesterday. It signed into law dramatic cuts to our public health care system. In the meantime, over at Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. has fired all the experts of the vaccine advisory committee, threatening the supply of life-saving immunizations for millions of Americans.

By ALLEN WOODS

In the movie dramatizing the Watergate scandal, a secretive informant meets a reporter in a dark parking garage and advises him to “follow the money” in order to unravel the mystery involving a botched robbery directed by Richard Nixon’s White House. The actual events (testimony from White House lawyers, a mysterious 18-minute gap in the Oval Office tapes when the crisis was discussed) might have been even more sensational than the movie, but the movie phrase had legs. It is now a directive for understanding controversial government and business actions.