Here are today's headlines:

PETA renews campaign against monkey research at UMass

AMHERST - An animal rights organization is continuing its campaign to end research on marmoset monkeys at the University of Massachusetts.This week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced that it would be taking a series of steps, including running print advertisements that depict the...

Funding for full-time police chief, zoning change on Worthington TM agenda

WORTHINGTON - Residents will decide at Annual Town Meeting on Saturday if they want a full-time police chief and whether to decrease the street frontage required to build a house, along with voting on a bevy of routine budgetary items.The meeting will take place outside the R.H. Conwell School start...

One contest in Saturday's election in Worthington

WORTHINGTON - The only contested race in Saturday's annual town election is for School Committee.In-person voting at Town Hall will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and mailed ballots must be returned to Town Hall by 12:30 p.m.Two seats on the Worthington School Committee are up for election...

Bringing food to life: Grow Food's free cooking class for kids going strong, albeit on a screen

Back before the plague, I used to volunteer in my son's first-grade class at Leeds Elementary School on Fridays. This was a strenuous proposition - a roomful of high-spirited 6- and 7-year-olds bursting with end-of-the-week energy meant that I often went home and had to lie down for a while in a dar...

Fate of Russell School holds up proposal to create Hadley historic district

HADLEY - A proposal to create a small local historic district encompassing town and nonresidential buildings in Hadley center will not move forward until decisions are made on the future of the Russell School building.Even though Select Board members appeared supportive of the Historical Commission'...

Fatherhood Journey with John Engel: Nothing old school about return trip to normalcy

School is more popular than ever. Old school, that is - when kids, staff and teachers inhabited the same building.Each day was a buzz of activity where students navigated hallways, traveled up and down stairs, ran about in gymnasiums and on playgrounds, ate and laughed in loud cacophonous lunchrooms...

Columnist Tolley Jones: Breathless

Have you felt breathless these many months and years? Have you felt your lungs burn and your vision narrow as you wait and wait and wait for the freedom to breathe unrestricted? Have you tallied up the houses in your town festooned with bastardized blue and black police flags that threaten "We sup...

'I'm hoping it will have a life of its own':Village Neighbors restarts Small Repairs Program

If you want an in-law suite built or a swimming pool installed, don't bother calling Village Neighbors. Those types of projects require permits and, sometimes, contractors. But if all you need is a sturdy handrail or new batteries in a smoke alarm, the nonprofit that helps senior citizens in Wendell...

A new stage: After taking over Iconica Social Club during pandemic, actors have high hopes for future

NORTHAMPTON - Over the summer, Will Swyers and Ximena Salmerón, both actors, were looking for a new project. Something bold, they said. But it wasn't an acting endeavor they turned to.They ended up taking over downtown cafe Iconica Social Club, "which was a lot more bold than anything we had in mind...