Here are today's headlines:

Northampton first responders take icy challenge for charity

NORTHAMPTON - A friendly rivalry among Northampton first responders to see who could raise the most money for research into Lou Gehrig's disease culminated Sunday in an ice bucket challenge, drawing dozens of cheering spectators to the parking lot of Miss Florence Diner and JJ's Tavern as police of...

Poetry in the streets: Florence carnival pays tribute to literary art

NORTHAMPTON - Flabbergasted. Brick. Stripes. With a single word at a time and 5-minute sessions, Adam Grabowski created poems one after another, on-demand, for lovers of language from the front porch of the Florence Civic Center on Saturday afternoon. The cacophony of clickety-clack from the Holyoke...

Legal opinion could thwart CPA funding for Girls Inc. project in Holyoke

HOLYOKE - Community Preservation Act funds that a majority of the Holyoke City Council hoped to give to the nonprofit Girls Inc. are now in jeopardy due to an opinion from the city's legal department.Earlier this month, the City Council voted to give $150,000 to Girls Inc. to do preservation work on...

Childhood as a 'state of being': Carle museum exhibit revisits American modernist 'Nura'

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has featured the work of a wide range of artists over the years, some better known than others.Nura Woodson Ulreich is likely one of the lesser-known ones. As Ellen Keiter, the Carle's chief curator, notes, Ulreich "pretty much fell off the map" after she di...

Saint Joe's thwarts UMass in A-10 women's lacrosse title game

AMHERST – For two years now, Saint Joseph's has been the underdog that managed to pull off the impossible. Last year, it knocked off nationally-ranked Richmond, a No. 1 seed, in the Atlantic-10 Conference tournament before falling to the Minutewomen in the A-10 title game. This year, the Hawks defea...

Guest columnist Kim Callinan: Reinforcing the importance of end-of-life care planning

Nearly half of all older adults now die with a dementia diagnosis, up more than one-third (36%) in just the past two decades, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.While these findings are disheartening, they also serve to underscore the importance of...

Aging with Adventure with Eric Weld: Women in the woods

Women love adventure too.OK, that might seem like a pain-fully obvious statement, or even a little cringe-worthy and ill-informed here well into the 21st century. Of course women love adventure, no less than men or anyone else.Still, it's a point that bears repeating because, for a range of reasons...

High schools: Northampton girls capture Steele Relays title

Several local track and field teams took part in the George Steele Relays at West Springfield High School on Sunday, an annual meet that forgoes the typical order of events for an entirely relay-based competition. The Northampton girls took first overall in the team competition with 69 points, follo...