On April 5, there will be a march near Greenfield to protest a proposed pipeline that would carry fracked gas from near Albany, New York to near Boston. March organizers say the public is invited to join. Fracked gas is a fossil fuel; it causes climate change. The world's leading scientists say climate change is a serious threat to earth's ability to support human life.

The five mile march will be from Deerfield, Massachusetts to Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. The start time and the exact starting point will be announced soon at www.PipelinePilgrimage.org, organizers say.

Four New Hampshire towns near Keene are opposing plans to build a fracked gas pipeline through their towns. The towns border Massachusetts. At annual town meeting day votes on March 10 and March 11, residents of Fitzwilliam, Rindge, Troy and Winchester voted to direct their towns' select boards to lobby state and federal regulators to fight the proposal by Texas-based Kinder Morgan Corporation. The pipeline would carry gas that is mined using a process called “fracking,” which poisons drinking water.

About 100 supporters of a proposed bicycle-pedestrian bridge over the Connecticut river in Northfield, Massachusetts attended a meeting with state officials. Northfield borders Vermont and is near Greenfield. No one opposed the bridge at the meeting. State senator Stan Rosenberg was at the October 30 meeting in Northfield.

This photo shows some of the people who are marching from the New York border in Richmond, Massachusetts to Boston to protest a proposed pipeline that would carry fracked gas. On July 13, the march will be near Greenfield. The public is invited to take part in any or all of the march. More information is at:

www.NoFrackedGasInMass.org/rolling-march

The march started on July 6.

photo by Rose Wessel of www.NoFrackedGasInMass.org

To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image."

Around the nation and around the world, former sand and gravel pits have been restored to wilderness wildlife habitat. In Greenfield, Wal-Mart wants to pave a former sand and gravel pit on French King Highway near Route 2. Wal-Mart wants to build a giant “big box” store and acres of parking lots at the site.

Wal-Mart is owned by the world's richest family, the Waltons. They pay at or barely above the minimum wage in the United States, and among the world's lowest wages at their factories in China.

Two new books contain new information about the biggest and third biggest corporations in the world. Both companies have retail stores throughout the Valley. Wal-Mart is the world's biggest company; Exxon Mobil is the third biggest. (Shell is second.) The companies are ranked by size at:

www.money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2011

On December 12 in Brattleboro, protesters occupied a nuclear corporation’s board room. Meanwhile, activists seeking to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are gearing up for a vote next month in the Vermont senate on whether the state’s top nuclear regulator – who many say has been too friendly to the industry – will get to keep his job.

Vermont Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire.

Wal-Mart wants to build a massive new store and parking lot, destroying open space in Greenfield. The town Planning Board will hold a meeting about Wal-Mart's scheme on May 5. “Please save the date, and encourage your friends to come and show their opposition to this environmentally and economically valueless plan,” said Greenfield resident Al Norman.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at 114 Main Street.

In Greenfield, Wal-Mart lost a vote by the people 18 years ago. The company wanted to build in town; it was rejected by a vote of the people.

On April 4, the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., there will be rallies for workers' rights in Springfield, Greenfield, and Keene. The award-winning documentary film "At the River I Stand" shows King's last days in Memphis, in which he spoke to big crowds and marched, in support of striking garbage workers. Information on the film is at:

www.newsreel.org/video/AT-THE-RIVER-I-STAND

The DVD is available by inter-library loan from your local public library.

The time, location, and organizers' contact info for the rallies in Springfield, Greenfield, and Keene are at:

More than 600 people attended a protest vigil at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant near Brattleboro and Greenfield on March 20. The action was organized by www.NukeBusters.org "NRC" usually stands for Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that has more than 1,000 employees and gets 98 percent of its money from the industry it regulates. There are 104 reactors at 65 locations in the U.S. Closing one of them would result in lay-offs at the NRC. More information on Vermont Yankee is at http://valleypost.org/node/536