News
US weather in 2016: Near record heat, costly disasters
By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON — With steamy nights, sticky days and torrential downpours, last year went down as one of the warmest and wildest weather years on record in the United States.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that 2016...
Senators gird for confirmation battles
By BRIDGET BOWMAN
WASHINGTON — The Senate is moving full steam ahead on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, and Democrats are clamoring for a fight. Senate Democrats led by Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer have been calling for ample time...
Airport shooting suspect assigned defender
By CURT ANDERSON
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Iraq war veteran held in the fatal shooting of five people inside Fort Lauderdale’s airport was appointed a federal public defender on Monday after telling a judge that he has no job and only $5 or $10 in the bank.Esteban...
Wine country hit hard by storms in California
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and JOCELYN GECKER
FORESTVILLE, Calif. — Emergency crews in rescue boats and helicopters rushed to take advantage of a one-day break between storms Monday to rescue stranded people and assess damage after the heaviest rain in a decade overwhelmed parts of California and...
Amherst forum to focus on school, town affairsA forum featuring School Superintendent Michael Morris and Town Manager Paul Bockelman, which will provide an overview of school and town affairs, will be held Wednesday morning.“The State of the Town,”...
Bail set at $25,000 for South Hadley home invasion suspect
By MICHAEL MAJCHROWICZ
NORTHAMPTON — The attorney for one of the three men accused in carrying out a South Hadley home invasion last November in which one person was shot in the stomach told a judge on Friday that his client didn’t know one of his alleged co-assailants was...
Fisher Home ready to reopen after fire
By STEPHANIE MURRAY
AMHERST — The Hospice of the Fisher Home is nearly ready to reopen after a devastating July fire that destroyed much of the building’s roof and displaced six patients.The reopening will return a rare resource to Hampshire County. According to...
Goldstein-Rose sets office hours
By SCOTT MERZBACH
As the new state representative for the 3rd Hampshire District, Solomon Goldstein-Rose plans to make himself available to residents in Amherst, Pelham and Precinct 1 in Granby on a regular basis.Goldstein-Rose, who dropped by the Bangs Community...
Murder suspect in Amherst shooting case pleads not guilty in Superior Court
By MICHAEL MAJCHROWICZ
NORTHAMPTON — Soknang Chham, the New Salem man prosecutors say shot and killed a 31-year-old Amherst man in October, pleaded not guilty Friday to a slew of charges he is now facing in Hampshire Superior Court.Police say Chham, 33, and his brother,...
Easthampton Planning Board gives nod to Cumberland Farms planned off Route 10
By CAITLIN ASHWORTH
EASTHAMPTON — Cumberland Farms is coming to Northampton Street.The gas station and convenience store chain is planning to build a facility on property located at 221 Northampton St. off Route 10 in Easthampton.A section of the nearly 2-acre lot is...
Jones Library expansion plan on track, will head to state this month
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A proposal to expand and renovate the Jones Library will be submitted to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners in less than three weeks, even as issues with preliminary plans continue to be addressed.But Austin Sarat, president of...
Higher wages push stocks to records, but Dow misses 20,000
By MARLEY JAY
NEW YORK — So close! The Dow Jones industrial average missed the 20,000 mark by a fraction of a point Friday as U.S. stock indexes rose after the government said wages jumped in December. Two other major indexes set records.Stocks wavered between...
Feds find $20M cash hidden in Massachusetts box spring
WESTBOROUGH — About $20 million in cash that was hidden inside a box spring in a Massachusetts apartment has been seized as part of a wide-ranging investigation into an internet telecom company that was actually a massive international pyramid scheme,...
Judge rebukes suspects in beating of disabled man in Chicago
By DON BABWIN
CHICAGO — A judge rebuked four black people accused of beating a mentally disabled white man and broadcasting the attack on Facebook, sternly asking, “Where was your sense of decency?” before denying their attorneys’ pleas to set bail so they might be...
Hearts, intestines ripped out inBrazil prison killing spree
By PETER PRENGAMAN and MAURICIO SAVARESE
RIO DE JANEIRO — Thirty-one inmates were slain Friday in northern Brazil, some with their hearts and intestines ripped out, during a prison killing spree led by the country’s largest gang, authorities said.The bloodshed comes just days after 60...
US report: Putin ordered effort to help Trump, hurt Clinton
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEB RIECHMANN
WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hidden campaign to influence America’s presidential election in favor of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, U.S. intelligence agencies declared Friday in the government’s first formal allegation...
Will Trump’s promised wall become taxpayer-funded fence?
By ERICA WERNER and JILL COLVIN
WASHINGTON — It was the signature promise of his campaign: Donald Trump vowed to build an impenetrable, concrete wall along the southern border. And Mexico was going to pay for it.Now as he nears inauguration, that wall is sounding increasingly like...
Rep. McGovern protests formal certification of presidential election
By GAZETTE STAFF
Citing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, formally protested during a Joint Session of Congress certifying its results.“Today I was the first member of Congress to rise and formally object...
Northampton police: heroin overdoses nearly triple in city
By EMILY CUTTS
NORTHAMPTON — The number of heroin overdoses in the city has nearly tripled in the last year, according to data released Wednesday by the Northampton Police Department .“We are indeed in the midst of a terrible epidemic,” the department wrote in a...
Sea turtles rescued off Cape moved to Keys
MARATHON, Fla. (AP) — Fifteen critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are warming up at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital after being rescued from cold waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.The juvenile turtles have pneumonia as a result of...
