Here are today's headlines:

'No one is surprised here': Former UMass researcher details experience in western Ukraine

Normally, Ukrainian linguist Khrystyna Kunets spends her workday like many academics do, teaching and researching topics to which she's devoted her professional career, such as semantics, syntax and translation studies.Nowadays, however, the Ukrainian university where Kunets teaches has been closed...

Veterans oral history project coming to Wistariahurst Museum

HOLYOKE - Wistariahurst Museum is collaborating with Holyoke Veterans' Services in an upcoming Veterans Uniform Exhibit. The exhibit will feature a collection of oral histories from Holyoke veterans, along with some preservation projects.The museum was awarded a Heritage Preservation grant of $15,00...

Holyoke, South Hadley approve lifting mask mandates

Health boards in both South Hadley and Holyoke rescinded their municipal-wide mask mandates on Tuesday evening.The decisions were the latest in a flurry of action as municipalities decide whether to lift or modify their mask mandates. Holyoke's citywide mask requirement was lifted effective immediat...

Around and About with Richard McCarthy: A golden ring's not everything

The bio notes from the first column I wrote for this newspaper a few months back said I'd written in one form or another for much of my life. What follows are three tales from that writing life, each having to do with someone grasping at the golden ring of glory.The first story takes place during a...

Div. 4 girls basketball: Frontier holds off Easthampton, punches Sweet 16 ticket (PHOTOS)

EASTHAMPTON - The third meeting of the season between the Frontier and Easthampton girls basketball teams came right down to the wire on Thursday. The No. 20 Redhawks led the MIAA Div. 4 Round of 32 contest 43-35 with two minutes to play, but the No. 13 Eagles stormed back, cutting the lead to 45-43...

Columnist Rutherford Platt: Ukraine: A test for world peace advocates

The Ukraine crisis evokes frightening parallels to the wars of the past century, especially the images of young soldiers and helpless civilians doomed to die or be maimed in a conflict that never needed to happen. Perhaps no one has expressed the tragedy of war better than America's great humanitar...

Book Bag: 'My Father's Wife and my Daughter's Emu' by Nina Dabek; 'Chaotic Freedom in Civil War Louisiana' by Bruce Laurie

My Father's Wife and My Daughter's EmuBy Nina Dabek; Atmosphere Press While growing up in the Bronx, Naomi, the narrator of the stories in "My Father's Wife and My Daughter's Emu," recalls how her mother often confided in her that the two of them shared a lot since they were both middle children: "B...

Div. 4 boys basketball: Amesbury pulls away from South Hadley in Round of 32

SOUTH HADLEY - The South Hadley High School gymnasium was a very intimidating place for an opposing team to play on Thursday night. Tigers starters were introduced to The Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius" - the same song used to introduce the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls. The student section was...