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By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Local leaders are reacting favorably to legislation filed this week by Gov. Maura Healey that would give municipalities the authority to increase local option taxes on meals, lodging and motor vehicles.The state’s Democratic legislative...

Staff Report

NORTHAMPTON — State grants totaling $10 million for communities hit by last year’s flooding have been announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration. The neighboring Franklin County towns of Deerfield and Conway topped the money list, with awards of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — The chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission has stepped down, a decision she said stems from alleged personal attacks and interference by elected and appointed officials at Town Hall.Miriam DeFant’s decision comes on the eve of a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Two LGBTQ+-owned businesses are the first recipients of the city’s new vacant storefront tax credit program, an initiative established in autumn 2022 in an effort to fill empty spaces downtown.The two businesses are Many Graces Farm &...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Four new councilors will join nine holdovers when Amherst’s third Town Council convenes its first meeting Tuesday evening, with the only decisions on the agenda being a vote on who will serve as the council’s president and vice president...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A revised club alcohol license for the Young Men’s Club that offers more flexibility for where members and their guests can be served and consume alcohol at the 138 East St. property, including on an outside deck, has been approved by the...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Treasurer Deborah Goldberg can go ahead with the meeting that could lead to the firing of suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien and also cautioned the parties that “political...

By EVAN HALPER

The Biden administration raised the stakes on its politically fraught bet on massive subsidies for nascent clean-energy technologies Friday, rolling out a plan for awarding billions of dollars in tax credits to the makers of ultrapowerful “green”...

By STELLA TANNENBAUM

BOSTON — Massachusetts would become the second state in the nation to ban discrimination based on body size under a proposal aired at a recent hearing of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.During a seven-hour hearing in which over 230 people...

By MARTIN MILLER

The Amherst Town Council will be making a very important decision at an upcoming December meeting. I, along with a likely majority of voters (based on the results of the town vote in 2021), are asking that the council vote in favor of amending the...

By JEFF LEE

Next week the Amherst Town Council will be deciding whether to add $9,860,100 to the $35.3 million borrowing authorization it approved in 2021 to pay for a renovation and expansion of the Jones Library that has been years in planning. Given Amherst’s...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Leaders of at least a half-dozen initiative petition campaigns working toward the November 2024 ballot said Wednesday they had collected at least enough signatures to meet an end-of-the-day deadline and to put their policy ideas in front of the...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Auditor Diana DiZoglio and her hodgepodge of political allies took a major step toward asking voters for the authority to probe the Legislature, announcing that they gathered enough signatures to remain on track for a 2024 ballot question.The ballot...

By Bob Katzen

THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ votes from the week of Nov. 6-10. There were no roll calls in the Senate last week.FREE PHONE CALLS FOR PRISONERS (H 4051): House 132-26, (Senate on a voice vote without a...

By JAMES PENTLAND

WILLIAMSBURG — It’s not quite in shape to host emergency services yet, but the town’s gleaming new Public Safety Complex is ready for its close-up with the public.A guided tour of the $5.3 million, 8,000-square-foot building is being offered Saturday,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Even as policies, programs and spending included in Gov. Maura Healey’s $4 billion Affordable Homes Act are being strongly supported by Amherst officials as a means of ramping up housing production, the governor is being advised that...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — With supporters describing it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, voters at Monday’s special Town Meeting approved the acquisition of the old St. James Church at 85 North Main St. The purchase of the property for $420,000 with...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Shutesbury’s Conservation Commission, bringing a series of new and revised wetlands regulations forward for public review, is continuing a hearing on the proposal Wednesday night, after being forced to delay taking input when the virtual...

By SOPHIE HAUCK

HOLYOKE — Three candidates for the open Holyoke Ward 7 City Council seat will compete in a preliminary election Tuesday to determine which two contenders advance to the November general election.Eileen Brady Leahy, Meagan Magrath-Smith and Steve N....

By SAM DORAN

Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday swore in the members of a new state board set to help get state benefits flowing to veterans who were denied an honorable discharge because of the U.S. military’s former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.The reception in...