Film Festival Fundraiser for Ukraine
There will be a screening of an award-winning Ukrainian film in Great Barrington on May 21. Image from IMDB
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Kent School softball hosts Housatonic
Riley Klein
Apr 08, 2026
Nora Lennon (left) and Makenzie Lidstone (right)
Photo by Riley Klein
KENT – Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s softball team traveled to Kent School for a scrimmage Wednesday, April 1.
The non-league game gave players an opportunity to dust off their cleats, though they quickly became muddy when it started to rain in the third inning.
Autumn McKonePhoto by Riley Klein
Team captain Madeline Mechare was the lone senior in HVRHS’s lineup, which included three juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen. Coach Kayleigh Selino shuffled defensive positions between innings as she evaluated her young roster.
Sophomore Payton Wagner started the game pitching for HVRHS and freshman Kendall Koerner was the starting pitcher for Kent. Junior Kensi Watson also spent time on the mound for HVRHS.
Madeline MecherePhoto by Riley Klein
It was Kent’s second scrimmage against a Berkshire League team after playing Lakeview High School the previous day. Kent looked ready for another spring in the Founder’s League with the regular season scheduled to begin Saturday, April 4, at Hopkins School in New Haven.
HVRHS’s regular season is scheduled to begin Wednesday, April 8, at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury.
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Track is back
Riley Klein
Apr 08, 2026
A rainy first track meet.
Riley Klein
Lakeview High School hosted a preseason track meet Thursday, April 2, in Litchfield. It was a chilly start to the season with intermittent rain and temperatures hovering around 38 degrees. Lakeview invited Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Wolcott Technical High School, Gilbert School, Nonnewaug High School, Northwestern Regional High School, Kaynor Technical High School and Thomaston High School to participate in the scrimmage. Berkshire League competition begins April 21 at HVRHS.
Simon MarkowPhoto by Riley Klein
Music and more at 12 Moons
Alec Linden
Apr 08, 2026
Joel Blumert, left, and Bob Hennessy, right, captivate the audience with folk renditions of songs across genres.
Alec Linden
FALLS VILLAGE – Nearly 30 creatives from the Northwest Corner and beyond gathered under the high ceilings of Falls Village’s Center on Main on Saturday night to bask in the breadth of performance artists the region has to offer.
Held on the first Saturday of each month, the 12 Moons Coffeehouse — an event organized by husband-and-wife duo John and Nancy Nowak — has brought local artists together with near-uninterrupted regularity since 2012.
The April 4 program followed the standard 12 Moons format, kicking off with an open mic session before a featured act took the stage.This month’s headliners were Salisbury-based guitarist and vocalist Joel Blumert, accompanied by harmonica player Bob Hennessey of Cromwell.
The evening began with a slate of open mic performers, who shared their work with a respectful yet lively audience. Some attendees sipped coffee or tea and enjoyed donation-based treats provided by 12 Moons, while others brought their own snacks and wine, adding to the bohemian coffeehouse atmosphere.
John Nowak led the open session with his rendition of “The Ones I Love” by contemporary folk artist Robby Hecht. With performers limited to 10 minutes each, the program moved quickly.
Among the varied offerings were piano and vocal performances by Amy Olitsky, blues guitar from John Sprague, and original instrumental guitar pieces by Danny Peelish. Sandro LaRosa shared songs from Italy, while Betsy Glassman and Frank Derwitsch performed with their folk-rock band, The Greys. Mary Ellen Braun offered traditional tunes a cappella, David Capellaro recited his original poetry, and another performer combined vocals with African drumming.
Renowned fingerstyle guitarist and 12 Moons fixture – as well as next month’s featured performer – Stephen Bennett closed out the open session with two tracks demonstrating his agile style: a lilting, decades-old original called “Most Beautiful Sky” and a bouncy instrumental version of The Beatles’ classic “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Even without words, his lively interpretation of the song had audience members humming and singing gently along within seconds of opening the first verse.
After a short break, Blumert and Hennessy launched into an hour of folk interpretations of source material ranging from traditional folk tunes to 1960’s jazz standards and even the 1981 hit “Tempted” by British band Squeeze.
“It’s weird playing at night,” Blumert said as he tuned up one of his two custom-finish jade green instruments from Irish manufacturer Emerald Guitars. “I mostly play at nursing homes, and I’m usually playing at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” he continued, getting a warm laugh from the crowd.
Between covers of classics like Johnny Mathis’ “When Sunny Gets Blue” and Paul Craft’s bluegrass staple “Raised by the Railroad Line,” Blumert played one of his own songs, a seasonally-appropriate number called “Bloodroots in Blossom” that he said was inspired by the sight of a great blue heron from the Dover Plains train station twenty years ago.
“Ideas for songs come from really weird places,” he said.
He closed the night out with an energetic call-and-response performance of Preston “Red” Foster’s 1956 blues tune “Got My Mojo Working,” made famous by Muddy Waters’ recording the next year.
While breaking down after the show, Nowak reflected on the long-running, donation-only event. “It promotes community, live music and poetry,” he said. “And we’re going to keep doing it.”
12 Moons will return to the Center on Main the first Saturday in May for Stephen Bennett’s feature performance and, as always, plenty of additional talent to enjoy.
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Letters to the Editor - April 9, 2026
Lakeville Journal
Apr 08, 2026
In appreciation of Larry Power
Larry worked endlessly to build the Sharon Land Trust and saved so many beautiful acres that we all enjoy seeing everyday-The Twin Oaks being the centerpiece. He even found replacements for the original trees when these died.
The SLT would not be the wonderful organization that it is without his far reaching leadership getting it accredited and widely supported.
Anne Hepner
Sharon
Inhumanity has become endemic
The latest aggressions in both Iran and Lebanon demonstrate a lack of humanity.The opening salvo in the Iran war was the incineration of 175 girls at an elementary school in Teheran.This was followed by massive destruction of infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, police stations, bridges, and energy, electric and water facilities serving the general population.All of these are war crimes and result in the death and suffering of civilians.Think about how to preserve milk for babies without refrigeration.Or how to care for sick ones with a bombed hospital.
If that isn’t bad enough, we have to endure watching the self-styled Secretary of War spend day after day thumping his chest in bellicose ways about the annihilation of Iran, with no mercy, as if that’s a new military paradigm to be proud about.And of course, Trump has been doing the same, using hyperbole in everything he utters to scare Iran into risking total obliteration, a word he loves to use.Is total obliteration and destruction of a country what the good guys are supposed to do these days?
Israel is equally inhumane.They ordered one million Lebanese, 17% of the country’s population, to leave their homes within hours, and they were told that they may not return for “security” purposes.Now the Israelis are systematically blowing up their homes and villages so they have nothing to go back to even if they could return.These are not Hezbollah fighters’ lairs, but the homes and villages of ordinary Lebanese, including many Christians.
Seventeen percent of the US would be as if 59 million Americans were immediately told to leave their homes - forever.Those displaced people are like you and me, with elderly parents, children and grandchildren who now have nowhere to go but into the streets of other parts of their country.I have a friend who is lamenting that not only will he never be able to visit his family home and village again, but he will never be able to visit his parents’ graves, if they even continue to exist.
The latest demonstration of disregard for human life was the recent law passed by the Israeli Knesset calling for the hanging of any Palestinian convicted of terrorism.Note that almost 100% of Palestinians accused of this are found guilty, which indicates an absence of adequate due process by the military courts used in such cases.The Israelis are known to torture Palestinians to elicit a “confession” from them.Some Palestinians end up actually preferring death to continued torture, since there is no hope for them to receive relief from the pain and agony.
The inhumanity is bad enough.But the silence and apathy from most of the world is equally shocking.This is where we have arrived as a society.My fellow citizens, what do you have to say about it, and what are you going to do about it?
Lloyd Baroody
Lakeville
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Why the SAVE Act must not pass Congress
William Moroz
Apr 08, 2026
The right to vote in the United States has never come easily. For much of the nation’s history, large groups of Americans were denied access to the ballot box.
Women were not guaranteed the right to vote until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, and many Black Americans continued to face discriminatory barriers until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Over time, the country has worked to remove obstacles that prevented citizens from participating in democracy. That history is why proposals like the SAVE Act deserve scrutiny. While the proposal is presented as a measure to protect election integrity, requiring proof of citizenship to vote risks creating new barriers for eligible voters.
Debates about election integrity have become a defining feature of American politics since the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that widespread fraud occurred when he lost to Joe Biden. However, numerous investigations and court rulings found little evidence that the 2020 election was compromised.
Despite those findings, a new proposal known as the SAVE Act has emerged. The SAVE Act, short for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require Americans to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote in federal elections.
At first glance, the proposals sound reasonable. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections. However, the SAVE Act attempts to solve a problem that little evidence suggests actually exists, which will make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.
For college students who register to vote on campus, obtaining official citizenship documents may not be simple. Many students do not carry birth certificates or passports with them at school, which will create unnecessary barriers to participation.
Another consequence of the SAVE Act involves Americans who have legally changed their names. Millions of married women in the United States take their spouse’s last name, meaning the name on their birth certificate no longer matches the name on their driver’s license or voter registration. If proof of citizenship is tied strictly to documents like birth certificates, many of these voters could face additional bureaucratic hurdles when registering to vote. Policies intending to protect elections should not make it harder for eligible citizens to exercise their right to vote.
Another issue with the SAVE Act is the assumption that most Americans already possess documents proving citizenship. Millions of Americans do not have ready access to identifying documentation. Obtaining these documents requires time, fees, and dealing with slow and often outdated bureaucratic processes. For individuals working multiple jobs, caring for families, or living far from government offices, these requirements will discourage participation in elections even more than there already is by creating more red tape.
There is also the broader constitutional question regarding federal authority. Historically, states have played the primary role in administering elections and managing voter registration systems. A sweeping federal mandate dictating documentation requirements risks overriding systems that states have developed since the country’s conception. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all rule from Washington, policymakers should work with states to strengthen election administration without creating unnecessary barriers.
It is also important to remember that non-citizen voting is already illegal and carries serious penalties.Individuals who attempt to vote unlawfully can face fines, imprisonment, and deportation. Election officials across the country already verify voter registration information and maintain voter rolls to prevent ineligible voting. Creating sweeping new documentation requirements for every voter is not the most effective way to address a problem that existing laws already prohibit.
In Connecticut, where many college students register to vote on campus and where voter participation is often encouraged through civic engagement programs, policies like the SAVE Act will create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters.
The SAVE Act is being promoted as a safeguard for elections, but in practice it will move the country in the wrong direction. Throughout American history, progress in democracy has meant removing barriers to voting, not creating new ones. From the expansion of voting rights in the nineteenth century, to the Nineteenth Amendment, to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation has gradually worked to make participation in democracy more accessible.
Policies promoted during the Trump administration, such as the SAVE Act, threaten to reverse the progress that civil rights advocates have fought so hard for. If enacted, it would introduce new bureaucratic obstacles for millions of eligible voters.
At a moment when our democracy is at risk, the SAVE Act must not pass.
William Moroz is a political science student at Southern Connecticut State University and president of the Student Government Association.
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