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By BRUCE COLDHAM

Many North Amherst residents are grieving the loss of our local community farmers — Simple Gifts. As folks drive by the farm, they may wonder what happened and what’s going on now. There is activity which you can see from Pine Street, as a local Hadley farmer is growing organic squash this summer. But the farm store and former-CSA pick up remain closed. The Simple Gifts organic vegetable farm, which worked in partnership with the land trust, the North Amherst Community Farm for 18 years, is no longer in business.

Testimony I submitted to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary, June 3, 2025 in support of H.2052/S.1178: An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, when I began the Real Cost of Prisons Project, I naively thought if people understood the real costs of mass incarceration to people imprisoned, their loved ones and their communities and the hundreds of millions of dollars we pay yearly to keep people caged, they would see that this state-run, outrageously costly system harms, not helps, everyone involved.

A good-sized group of people attended the informational session on Mount Holyoke College’s proposed Geothermal Hub/Energy Center/Power Plant, held June 5 at Gamble Auditorium, though the college did not appear to engage in widespread publicity. Citizens from the community used other methods to alert the public to this meeting. Except for one speaker, all attendees who either ventured to the microphone or spoke from their seats, praised the concept of geothermal energy, and requested that MHC relocate its Energy Center elsewhere on their vast campus. Speaker after speaker raised the following concerns: noise from this “electric power plant” with air handlers outside the building and on the roof would disturb abutters, neighbors, and patrons of nearby restaurants; air pollution from the gasoline still compacted into the soil beneath the site, which had long ago been a gasoline station, would damage the health of abutters and neighbors.

By Staff Report

HADLEY — The New England Public Media Asparagus Festival will not reschedule its event this year after weather forced organizers to cancel the popular event last Saturday.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — After five months of weighing more expensive and expansive options to turn the West Street Building into town offices and a new Council on Aging, residents at Monday’s special Town Meeting returned to a $5.6 million project to move all town offices under one roof in part of the old elementary school building.

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — The town’s zoning bylaw is clear: a special permit is required for any use that creates noise perceptible more than 200 feet from the property line.

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — For many Bikes Fight Cancer cyclists, they are riding in honor of friends or family members who have battled the disease that has touched the lives of so many people.

Are you ready for the ultimate experience? If the answer is yes, plan on joining the Summer Ultimate League of Amherst (SULA) for another exciting summer of ultimate frisbee. SULA, which started in 1995, is celebrating its 30th season and has another year of fun in store over the next couple of months.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

EASTHAMPTON — Recalling an incident in the city’s public schools in which a Jewish child was targeted with Nazi salutes and taunts and opted to remove the Star of David on his person out of fear for his well-being, a former Easthampton city councilor told a legislative panel that the strategy school officials used in response was to “delay, deflect, deny and delegitimize.”

By RYAN AMES

Andrew Tuetken is a proud UMass alum.

By MAYA MITCHELL

Teachers and state educators are grappling with suspended statewide high school graduation requirements and what it means for the future of Massachusetts high school diplomas.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A used car business that can display up to 10 vehicles for sale at a time will be allowed to set up at a 1.4-acre parcel at the corner of Route 9 and Goffe Street.

By KAREN GARDNER

2,400,000,000,000! In case all those zeroes makes your head spin, that’s 2.4 trillion dollars or you could say 2,400 billion dollars or 2,400,000 million dollars. My goodness, that’s a lot of dollars! And that, though the number might turn out to be even greater, is what the president, the recurrent guy, wants badly to add to our national debt according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It should be said that this increase to the debt has little to do with improving the lives of regular Americans.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Black military service, music, education, artistry, entrepreneurship and civil rights will be part of the fifth annual Ancestral Bridges’ Juneteenth Legacy Celebration on Saturday.

I cannot believe it. They want to make the church into housing. A disgrace. It mean more traffic. This should be stopped.

Why are there Palestinians in Gaza, which is to say, why are there Palestinians still in Gaza? Why were they not removed, in the weeks and months following the Oct. 7 attack, to camps in the Sinai, where their food, shelter, and medical needs could have been taken care of easily and safely? Presumably Egypt was opposed, though we have heard very little about Egypt. Was the request made of Egypt by the Biden administration? Was diplomatic pressure brought to bear against Egypt? Uncertain. One thing we do know is that Egypt was never called out as one of the parties responsible for civilian casualties in Gaza, neither by the Biden nor the Trump administrations.

It appears the beginning of July will mark the end of Beaver Brook Golf Course. It will be purchased by a nonprofit land trust and rewilded into a park.

Why does it seem that Republicans are unconcerned about their growing unpopularity for all the evil and rotten things they are doing? Might this be due to the belief that there will not be a midterm election next year? As Trump continues to disempower the constitutional checks and balances of government the possibility of a fair election, or any election at all, has become more than just some paranoid conspiracy dream. Our country is savaged while too much of news media and our Democratic politicians have their heads in the sand. Without an election the great democratic experiment that has been America will be no more.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — With the Finance Committee advising the “worst is yet to come” for the town’s aging sewer system, members are unanimously supporting steep increases to the town’s proposed sewer and water rates.

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

We all learn at some point in life that nothing is permanent, all is transient. This is a powerful and poignant life lesson when it comes to us, usually through some major loss or transition. Growing up, I always thought that what I had and who I had around me would always be there. As I grow into my late 60s, I find that I’ve had to relearn and reframe that thinking — loss and change are a daily occurrence that somehow I must adjust to. It is a way of life for all of us.