Here are today's headlines:

'We, if we are lucky, are always on our way': Mount Holyoke College graduates 577

SOUTH HADLEY - Mount Holyoke College's graduation was packed with distinguished speakers and honored graduates, as evidenced by the thick program informing attendees about the students' accomplishments as they prepared to receive their diplomas.But amid a heat wave expected to break high-temperature...

Shutesbury voters approve spending for new library in a landslide

SHUTESBURY – A decade after voters failed to provide support for a new library to replace the century-old M.N. Spear Memorial Library, hundreds of residents on Saturday overwhelmingly approved spending nearly $1.3 million and borrowing up to $1.17 million for a new library by a vote of 422-85.The mo...

Holyoke City Councilor Wilmer Puello-Mota extradited to Rhode Island in child porn case

HOLYOKE - City Councilor Wilmer "Will" Puello-Mota has been extradited to Rhode Island, where he faces charges of allegedly paying for nude photos of a 17-year-old girl and new allegations of counterfeiting documents to mislead investigators in that case.Puello was presented as a bail violator befor...

Trump spirit, fighting theme runs through Massachusetts GOP convention

SPRINGFIELD - Drifting from their recent moderate roots, Massachusetts Republicans on Saturday opened a new chapter in their party's history, hosting a decidedly pro-Trump nominating convention that keyed off of anger about government mandates, pledges to oppose and fight the "radical left," and cal...

Western Mass. Div. 2 Track: Clark, Vecellio shine for boys, Frontier girls earn first (PHOTOS)

BUCKLAND - You would have never known South Hadley's Jonas Clark was coming off an injury that kept him sidelined for over a month. The senior couldn't run in April due to a hamstring injury, just returning to the track last weekend. Despite that, Clark finished with a first-place finish in the 100-...

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 lose i...

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...