Here are today's headlines:

Northampton mainstay Sylvester's restaurant will soon be history

NORTHAMPTON - Pleasant Street mainstay Sylvester's Restaurant will close next weekend after 39 years in business.Sylvester's, which offers breakfast, brunch and lunch five days a week, is owned by the same family that owns Roberto's Restaurant, also on Pleasant Street. The owners have offered jobs...

Northampton voters can weigh in on $126M budget

NORTHAMPTON - The public will get several chances to weigh in on Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra's first budget proposal, a $126 million package that boosts spending on schools and public health while raising property taxes 2.5% and projecting lower revenues for parking and marijuana.The City Council's Fi...

Book Bag: 'The Trouble with Happiness' by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Michael Favala Goldman; 'Small Sovereign: Poems' by Michael Favala Goldman

The Trouble with Happinessby Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Michael Favala Goldman; Farrar, Straus and Giroux "Jack of all trades" is a bit of a cliche, but in the case of Michael Favala Goldman, it might be a fitting handle - or perhaps it could be modified to "Jack of many trades."Goldman, of Flore...

A burst of arts activity: Easthampton to host two arts festivals over Memorial Day weekend

Easthampton's busy arts scene has gotten even busier over the last few months, as the city's monthly Art Walk returned after a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Marigold Theater opened in a space that had most recently housed a tattoo parlor, and work began on turning the upper floor of Old Town Hall in...

Leeds' Dallas Elliott sticking close to the home he loves with UMass football commitment

Dallas Elliott came to Williston as a quarterback in seventh grade.He played the position for Northampton's suburban team as a sixth grader and stayed behind center through eighth grade. The Leeds native expected to take snaps for the Wildcats once incumbent Henri Bourque (who now plays at Merrimack...

Guest columnist Breanne D. Schwartz: A call for optional masking in schools

My children are too young now to remember life before the COVID-19 pandemic, but every day that they attend school in Northampton amid a sea of masked faces, my heart breaks for them. It breaks for all that has been lost over the last two years, and now, especially for everything my kids will los...

Best Bites with Robin Goldstein: Gone to hot dog heaven

If there's anything more American than the hot dog, it's Little League baseball. My 7-year-old nephew Azai just started playing Little League, as I did around his age.He's still learning the fundamentals, but it's already easy to tell that Azai (unlike me) has got a rocket for a bat and a laser for...

D1 PVIAC Track and Field Championships: Northampton's Riley Cole doubles up distance victories

HOLYOKE - Northampton senior Riley Cole stuck to the plan when Longmeadow's Will Cowley passed him on the third lap of the mile. He didn't respond immediately but instead bided his time at Fridays' Division 1 PVIAC Track and Field championships. "I'm not feeling too tired right now. I mean, defini...