As 2016 slips into 2017, here are four major stories from the past year that will continue to have a big impact in the new year.

TRUMP PRESIDENCY: Uncertainty is an apt term to describe the lead-up to Donald Trump’s presidency which starts Jan. 20. Following the Nov. 8 election, we joined other Americans in hoping Trump adopts a temperament and tone far more presidential than what he showed during the campaign when he denigrated women, ethnic and racial minorities and disabled people.

In the nearly two months since the election, Trump has done little to ease our concerns. About 20 million Americans who have health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act are uncertain about its future amid threats by Trump and other Republicans to dismantle it. Undocumented immigrants are concerned about Trump’s pledge to deport between two and three million who entered the country illegally and have criminal records, and then “make a determination” about noncriminal violators of immigration laws.

Some of Trump’s cabinet appointees have unsettling histories which seem at odds with the mission of the agencies they are to lead. For example, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, is a skeptic about climate science and repeatedly has sued the EPA, seeking to overturn its regulations.

Trump’s heavy-handed, shoot-from-the-hip approach to foreign policy is also troublesome. His tweet before Christmas calling on the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability,” combined with similar comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, raises the specter of a renewed arms race.

We renew our call for Trump to prove that his call to unify the country is more than just words that sounded good in the immediate aftermath of his victory.

LEGAL MARIJUANA: Possession and use of recreational marijuana has been legal in Massachusetts since Dec. 15 after 53.7 percent of the voters approved Question 4 on Nov. 8.

However, the sale of recreational marijuana will not be legal here until 2018, and legislators, including state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst, have vowed to adjust how it is regulated and taxed by changing some details of the measure voters approved.

While we support Rosenberg’s goal of implementing “the will of the voters while also protecting public health and public safety,” the Legislature used terrible judgment this week in its first pass at amending the law. According to the Boston Globe, only a handful of legislators, Rosenberg among them, were present when the Senate and the House, with no advance warning, quickly and quietly approved a six-month delay in key provisions, including the opening date for recreational marijuana stores.

From now on the Legislature must be transparent in further amending the marijuana law to restore its credibility with the majority of voters who support it.

NATURAL GAS MORATORIUM: The controversial Northeast Energy Direct pipeline that would have crossed Plainfield and eight Franklin County towns was canceled last spring in the face of intense opposition by residents, environmental activists and public officials.

However, the Berkshire Gas Co. moratorium on new customers and expanded service in Hampshire and Franklin counties imposed in 2014 by remains in place. That has been a barrier to economic development for more than two years in Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Greenfield and Montague.

Berkshire Gas inexplicably put all its eggs in the basket offered by the Northeast Energy Direct project. The utility now must quickly decide on another option to increase its natural gas supply and lift the moratorium early in 2017.

AMHERST SCHOOL PROJECT: Acting on a citizen petition, the Select Board on Wednesday scheduled a special Town Meeting on Jan. 30 to reconsider last month’s rejection of a proposal to build two co-located elementary schools at the Wildwood School site on Strong Street.

The $67.2 million project would replace the outdated Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools. If approved by the end of March, it would qualify for $34 million from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Voters Nov. 8 narrowly approved a Proposition 2½ tax-cap override, but Town Meeting rejected borrowing for the project by a 108-106 tally, failing by 37 votes to reach the needed two-thirds margin. We urge Town Meeting members who opposed the project to reconsider so Amherst can move ahead without further delay on a 21st-century school paid for with the help of significant state aid.

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