■Preceded by the Veterans of Foreign Wars honor guard, a dozen entrants in the Gazette-Kiwanis Soap Box Derby marched down Elm Street on their way to a small ceremony on the steps of City Hall yesterday evening. The annual derby will be held Sunday.
■A bill that would link the University of Massachusetts with other colleges throughout the state via closed circuit television received House approval Friday and will now go to the Senate. If approved and appropriated, the bill will provide setting up an educational television network in Massachusetts.
■The long-empty National Felt Co. building on West Street has a new tenant — and he’ll be making a new beer. Charles Devereux, of Bates Street in Northampton, predicts that his Paradise Brewing Co. could produce its first batch of Paradise Pale Ale in three months.
■Citing growing space needs, Van Cort Instruments Ltd. is leaving Northampton for a larger workspace in South Deerfield. Lyn Doran, special projects director for Van Cort, said today that the company plans to move into the building off Routes 5 and 10 that formerly housed Deerfield Urethane.
■Soap box racer Dana Kellogg, 12, of Chesterfield, slipped across the finish line only 0.004 seconds ahead of the second place finisher in the Masters race at the Capital District Soap Box Derby in Albany, N.Y., June 9. But that fraction of a second was good enough, guaranteeing him a spot on the starting line at the World Championship in Akron, Ohio, in July.
■Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs for teens are disappearing. Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16- to 19-year-olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.