Here are today's headlines:

NORTHAMPTON - The city recorded an average of 22 cases of COVID-19 per day and totaled 311 cases in the two weeks prior to Dec. 28, according to the latest data released by the Health Department on Thursday.Also on Thursday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported another record-break...

Coronavirus in 2021: Just a variant on 2020

NORTHAMPTON - It's a little hard to remember, but I have a vague sense that 2021 opened with guarded optimism - that, with highly touted vaccines just over the horizon, it would bring a steadily growing freedom from the coronavirus pandemic.It was possible to hang onto this springtime promise for a...

'We had to help this man': Community rallies to help Hatfield vet stay in his home

HATFIELD - For nearly two months George Emeny, 86, slept in his car outside his home after the Board of Health condemned it last January."These premises unfit for human habitation," reads one of the posted signs that Emeny showed Gazette photographer Carol Lollis for a story in early March.Since the...

Aging With Adventure with Eric Weld: Adventure in the dark

For us adventure-minded people here in the Northeast, this time of year can be killer. It's cold, for one thing, although that doesn't necessarily preclude adventure. It just makes it harder and requires more planning and gear.More importantly, it's dark. A lot. We just passed by the darkest day of...

Boys basketball: Balanced Amherst locks down Pittsfield

AMHERST - Scoring enough to keep up with Pittsfield on Thursday didn't trouble the Amherst Regional boys basketball team.But to defeat the Generals, the Hurricanes needed to defend as well as – or better than – they attacked.They ripped off a 13-3 run late in the second quarter to pull ahead and use...

Guest Column: Biden should keep campaign promises about asylum, immigration processes

We of Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice (JAIJ) agree with columnist Richard Fein ("A letter to President Biden: Migration crisis on our southern border," Dec. 20) that President Joe Biden needs to do a lot more work on immigration but we deeply disagree with his description of the problem an...

It was another good year to read a book: Steve Pfarrer's favorite reads of 2021

It's that time of year again: naming my favorite books of the year. Like last year, I did a lot of reading in 2021, at least in part because of a highly contagious virus that shut down so many things - and whose newly minted variant now threatens to shut down things again.These books, listed in no...

COVID-19 protocols at Union postpone UMass hockey's return to the ice

UMass will have to wait another week to return to the ice.The Minutemen's hockey series against Union scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Schenectady, N.Y., has been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within Union's program. A makeup date hasn't been set yet.No. 12 UMass (9-4-2) hasn't played sinc...