■Retired Hampshire County District Court Justice Charles J. O’Connor was feted last night at a testimonial in his honor at the Wyckoff Country Club in Holyoke. Chairman of the event and acting as toastmaster for the nearly 300 in attendance was John O’Donnell. Judge O’Connor was presented with an inscribed silver bowl and an air-conditioner.
■Dense, acrid smoke overcame three Northampton firefighters, sending one to the hospital, as fire ripped through the basement of Andy’s Pizza in a Florence business block late last night. Fire Chief James Murray said today the fire, which caused heavy smoke damage to three stores in the Florence Shopping Center block at 92 Maple St., apparently started in the basement of the pizza shop.
■Using a $7,400 state education grant, Northampton teachers are developing new curriculum materials for elementary schools aimed at helping end discrimination against gays and lesbians. Staff have been reviewing materials for incorporation into the curriculum at the city’s four elementary school and some 100 teachers have attended anti-bias sessions.
■The form of the post-Calipari Minutemen coaching staff continues to take shape with the naming of John Robic to the post of associate coach. Robic, 32, who came to UMass in 1988 after serving on the staff of Kansas’ national championship team, has been an assistant coach for the Minutemen for the past eight years.
■A mistaken report about a gun led police and school officials to place Leeds School under lockdown for about 30 minutes Tuesday. Police said a student reported about noon seeing someone with a gun in the yard of a home on nearby Villone Drive. Officers went to the home and found a resident preparing to mail a large package that could have been mistaken for a long gun.
■The Northampton School Committee voted unanimously to offer the job of city school superintendent to Brian Salzer, business manager and acting superintendent of the Marblehead public schools. The committee cited Salzer, one of four finalists selected from a pool of 23 applicants in a second search round, as the best fit for the job of city schools chief.