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By JAMES PENTLAND

WILLIAMSBURG — Scott Hodges and Jack Slowik were watching the swollen East Branch of the Mill River slowly subside as the rain ceased Monday morning when the police came calling.Everyone living on Ashfield Road along the river would have to evacuate...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — A former physical therapist from South Hadley pleaded not guilty Monday in Superior Court to two counts of rape following indictments by a grand jury.Edward Kostek, 42, worked at Cooley Dickinson Hospital Rehabilitation Services for many...

By JAMES PENTLAND

SOUTH HADLEY — Town officials are encouraging residents to submit comments on a new five-year housing plan that was the subject of a public forum late last month.Known as a housing production plan, the process began last summer with the formation of a...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Water levels were receding Friday after a rainy stretch to start the month, but many boaters and fishermen were still cautious about going out on the region’s rivers.“This is exceptional, what’s going on,” said Ken Salem, a Northampton...

By JAMES PENTLAND

EASTHAMPTON — A city family was displaced by a fire that broke out Wednesday morning at their Everett Street home, the Fire Department reported.The fire was called in at 8:37 a.m. by the sole occupant who was safely outside when crews arrived. They...

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — What if all you needed to generate electricity was thin film material, microscopic fibers and air?Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have proved it can be done, and now they’re showing that many different kinds of materials can...

By JAMES PENTLAND

WILLIAMSBURG — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio knows she’s going up against some powerful interests with her push to audit the Massachusetts Legislature, but she’s forging ahead regardless.“We’ll be preparing a report,” she told an audience of 30 at the...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — A lawyer for a Southampton man facing numerous charges including rape, strangulation, assault with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping in cases involving three women is asking a judge to lift or modify the curfew restrictions on her...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Eliza Lake remembers the first time she needed the services of Hilltown Community Health Center.It was before her family moved to Massachusetts and her parents had just bought a house in Worthington.“I was 11. I got bitten by a dog, and...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — An independent journalist is suing Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan’s office under the state public records law for withholding names of police officers accused of crimes and other misconduct.Andrew Quemere, author of “The...

By JAMES PENTLAND

GOSHEN — Write-ins helped to fill out the slate of elected positions in uncontested town elections Saturday, though two posts remain vacant, Town Clerk Kristen Estelle reported.Turnout was 75 out of an electorate of 761, or 10%. Estelle said her...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Friends and family members joined the celebration Thursday evening as 126 seniors graduated under sunny skies from Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.Thanking his parents, family, friends “and my cat, Elvis,” salutatorian Seth...

By JAMES PENTLAND

GRANBY — Town and school budgets and other major expenditures will be presented to voters for approval when the second half of the annual Town Meeting gets underway Monday, June 5.What isn’t on the warrant this year but could be in the near future...

By JAMES PENTLAND

Fire towers have been a feature of the Massachusetts landscape for close to 150 years, and they’re still using the same technology they always did.One of the first formal fire tower efforts in the country began with construction of a tower in Plymouth...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Fruit farmers across the region are assessing damage to their crops in the wake of a hard frost May 18 that has affected many, including grape, apple and blueberry growers.Ian Modestow, co-owner of Hatfield’s Black Birch Vineyard with...

By JAMES PENTLAND

GRANBY — Town and school budgets and other major expenditures will be presented to voters for approval when the second half of the annual Town Meeting gets underway Monday, June 5.What isn’t on the warrant this year but could be in the near future...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — When Nona Hatay approached Tina Turner’s manager, Roger Davies, about photographing the singer’s May 1, 1982, appearance at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, he was not encouraging.Hatay, who had been photographing singers and musicians on...

By JAMES PENTLAND

WESTHAMPTON — Budgets and a new dump truck for the Highway Department were approved along with other spending items in a three-hour Town Meeting earlier this month.A quorum of 63 voters at the May 13 meeting OK’d a municipal budget that was up by...

By JAMES PENTLAND

Fire towers have been a feature of the Massachusetts landscape for close to 150 years, and they’re still using the same technology they always did.One of the first formal fire tower efforts in the country began with construction of a tower in Plymouth...

By JAMES PENTLAND

GOSHEN — Seventy feet off the ground, looking out over the treetops of the DAR State Forest, gusty winds were keeping Sean Cadigan and John Celona inside the fire tower.The two men, who are the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s tower repair...