Dusty Christensen

3 weeks ago | theshoestring.org | Dusty Christensen

It was a case that police billed as one of the region's biggest-ever drug busts. The year was 2020, and officers had pulled over Cory Taylor in the town of Pelham, where they said they seized 138 pounds of cannabis from the van the 41-year-old was driving. Taylor made bail and disappeared. Two months later, his dead body was discovered in a vacant building in Holyoke.

1 month ago | theshoestring.org | Dusty Christensen |Shelby Lee

Hundreds outside the post office in downtown Springfield on thursday, holding signs with slogans like "No Kings, No Fascists" and "Capitalism grooms us to accept unequal rights." Some were wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestine, others were decked out in bright, monochromic t-shirts announcing what union they belonged to. "Hey hey, ho ho, fascism has got to go!" the crowd chanted as they moved down the sidewalk toward City Hall.

2 months ago | theshoestring.org | Shelby Lee |Dusty Christensen

In city centers across the region, people showed up in protest, crowding sidewalks and spilling into the street to oppose the Trump administration's assault on the federal government, immigrants, free speech, and much more.

2 months ago | theshoestring.org | Dusty Christensen

When Northampton settled a civil rights lawsuit against its police department earlier this month, it was unclear how much the city paid out. Like many municipalities, Northampton's insurance company handles such lawsuits, and officials hadn't yet learned how much the firm had settled the case for. But now, the city has released the amount it paid out to Eric Matlock, who police pepper-sprayed and arrested on the steps of City Hall in 2017. That settlement came to a total of $100,000.

2 months ago | theshoestring.org | Dusty Christensen

Earlier this month, when Massachusetts released its latest drought map, the picture was one that has become familiar over the last half year: swaths of the state, including the Connecticut River Valley, colored ominously in dark orange. The region is again facing a critical drought as spring approaches, the map warned. That, in turn, raises the risk of wildfires.