Bank robber had helper, police allege

NORTHAMPTON - Police say a series of text messages helped link a Holyoke woman to the suspect in Friday's robbery of the Florence Savings Bank branch on King Street.

Inside PVIAC Indoor Track Championship

The team and individual contender list at the PVIAC Indoor Track Championship is a long one.

The meet begins at 6 p.m. at Smith College Friday.

The four-time champion Northampton boys might have gone 6-3 during the season but never count out a champion.

Cross purposes: Proposed Westover cutbacks highlight competing interests in state's defense ties

CHICOPEE - Last week's announcement by Air Force officials that they intend to halve the number of cargo jets stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base served to highlight Massachusetts' heavy reliance on federal defense spending, according local lawmakers and analysts. The announcement also demonstrates Congress' sometimes conflicting goals of austerity and job creation, they said. The Bay State receives billions of dollars annually in defense contracts while its six military installations serve as a static but steady source of employment, they noted. "Do we want to start these budget cuts at a time when the economy is really struggling?" asked Robert Nakosteen, a professor at the Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Easthampton High students head to national civics competition

EASTHAMPTON - There came a moment when Easthampton High School history teacher Kelley Brown knew something big was about to happen.

She was at a statewide civics competition last month where 10 of her students were competing.

Editorial: Slow fight for rights

When California voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008, it became government policy in the nation's largest state to discriminate against people who want to marry others of the same sex. On Tuesday, that retrograde law was struck down by a federal appeals court's 2-1 ruling. It said passage of Proposition 8, by 52 percent of the vote, served no purpose other than to "lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians ... and to reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples."

Ralean Bridgman, Smith Vocational graduate

TUCSON, Ariz. - Ralean Bridgman, 88, passed away in Tucson, Ariz., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012.

Born Dec. 16, 1923, in West Chesterfield, she was the daughter of the late Elmer L. and Alta (Cressy) Todd.

New folk opera about Sojourner Truth ready for premiere

It began with a dream. While trying to imagine how she could follow Old Deerfield Productions' original opera "The Captivation of Eunice Williams" with another success, artistic director Linda McInerney dreamed she was sitting in Northampton's Academy of Music with composer Paula Kimper. They were watching singer Evelyn Harris, who was onstage, wearing a mid-19th century costume and about to sing.