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By BILL NEWMAN

Censorship functions as a deadly weapon in the arsenal of authoritarian regimes. Consider this:

By BILL NEWMAN

By BILL NEWMAN

By BILL NEWMAN

 First, they came for people they called “illegals.” There was initial resistance, but many people who were not at risk did not speak out because they felt exhausted and distraught, could barely watch or read the news, and believed nothing they said...

By BILL NEWMAN

 On the daily WHMP radio show that I co-host, the first part of the show on the first Thursday of the month is reserved for our congressman, Jim McGovern. I’d been happily anticipating this week’s scheduled post-Election Day conversation with him.For...

By BILL NEWMAN

Last week 14-year-old Colt Gray shot and killed two classmates and two teachers at his Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Colt has been charged with four counts of felony murder and will be tried as an adult.His father, Colin Gray, has been...

By BILL NEWMAN

Let me confess. Until a week ago, I knew nothing about the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. And until Kamala Harris picked him as her veep, I had no idea how to pronounce his name. You, too? Political pundits disagree about the importance of a...

By BILL NEWMAN

UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes’ decision in early May to call in the cops resulted in the arrest of 130 protesters, including 85 UMass students, six faculty and other members of the Five Colleges community. That decision was wrong — morally, ethically...

By BILL NEWMAN

This column is about my daughter Jo, her daughters Kobin and Ramona, a horse named Lady and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. And it also isn’t.Kobin is 5, almost 6. Ramona is 3, close to 4. Jo, the girls and their dad, Jo’s husband Dean, live in...

By BILL NEWMAN

Warning: The case from the Supreme Court of Alabama, discussed here, may cause severe nausea. Proceed with caution.The Supreme Court of Alabama recently decided a case about frozen embryos created, kept, and later accidentally destroyed at a fertility...

By BILL NEWMAN

This past week Alabama continued our country’s experiment with different ways to kill people. It executed Kenneth Smith.A brief history. In the American colonies, death sentences, imported from Great Britain, were by hanging. Hanging could be...

By BILL NEWMAN

This is scary. The number of books being banned in school libraries is spiraling upwards. Nationwide, for the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America substantiated 3,362 school book bans that targeted 1,557 unique titles. That’s a 33 percent increase from...