Here are today's headlines:

Williamsburg veteran's service continues through American Legion

WILLIAMSBURG – For Jim Hall, a Navy veteran, being a part of the American Legion has great meaning."It's not just a place to go and drink," said Hall, 64.Hall is a member of the board and vice commander of the Haydenville American Legion Post 236, and is a retired general contractor. Hall is also ke...

Amherst College graduates 460 at indoor ceremony

AMHERST - Amherst College's bicentennial commencement, which took place on Sunday morning, had one major theme: Perseverance.One after another, faculty and student speakers congratulated graduating class members on their grit and tenacity over their college careers. After a year marked by racial inj...

Amherst town manager unveils plans to meet Community Safety Working Group's goals

AMHERST - A better than threefold increase in funding for recommendations from the Community Safety Working Group, including creating new departments to provide policing alternatives and to promote anti-racism efforts in town government, were unveiled by the town manager Thursday.After releasing a...

Art on her own terms: Holyoke gallery showcases work of the late Avital Sagalyn of Amherst

She had to flee from the Nazis when she was just 15. She won a Fulbright scholarship to study painting in France at a time when few women were recognized with that award. She befriended Pablo Picasso, and her work won praise from several other prominent artists in the late 1940s and early 1950s; she...

Kouji Ishida's HR lifts Hopkins Academy past Belchertown, 9-5

BELCHERTOWN – Kouji Ishida stopped at second base and asked Belchertown shortstop Eli Sayball-Wimmer. He'd never hit a home run over the fence before - not just in high school, in his whole life - and the Hopkins Academy senior wanted to be sure it went over the fence."I got a first-pitch fastball...

Guest columnist S.A. Morse: 'Carmina Buranna' and the cat

So on the car radio not long ago I heard the end of a performance of Carl Orff's "Carmina Buranna" and wondered where our recording of that glorious piece of noise was hiding. Turns out: nowhere, not even the one Dorothy sang in, years ago. So off goes the request for the latest terrific performan...

Guest columnist David Murphy: Council is undoing 20 years of PD progress

In 2002 the Northampton Police Department became accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. At the time there were only about a half-dozen Police Departments in Massachusetts that were accredited, today only about 100 of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts have accredited...

Book Bag: 'Teaching English to Refugees' by Robert Radin; 'Out of Order' by Howard Faerstein

Teaching English to Refugees by Robert Radin; Ibidem Press Robert Radin, the director of citizenship and immigration services for Jewish Family Service in Springfield, has worked with immigrants and refugees from some of the most troubled places in the world: Somalia, The Democratic Republic of Cong...

Earth Matters: Hummingbirds part of intricate web of relationships

Many of the 349 glistening species of hummingbirds have gemological labels, with amethyst, emerald, garnet, jewel, gem, ruby, sapphire and topaz mounted in their English names. These gems are alive, the names reflecting their iridescent colors, and they provide illustration of biological principles....