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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A significantly higher bid for construction of an expanded and renovated Jones Library is causing Amherst officials to scrap plans for leasing a temporary location elsewhere in town, as well as raising worries about whether the new $97.5...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — The faculty of Amherst College is joining the college’s Student Senate in asking trustees to divest from corporations supplying military equipment to Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza.The divestment appeal, made last week, came with support...

By Alexa Lewis

WESTHAMPTON — The fraught debates surrounding the Hampshire Regional Education Association’s contract have come to an official end, with the School Committee voting to ratify a new three-year contract during at its Monday meeting.The contract, already...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Just 24 hours ago, the UMass men’s basketball team hadn’t brought in a single transfer to replace the players who departed the program in the offseason. Now, after Wednesday’s signing of forward Akil Watson from Arizona State, the Minutemen have added...

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — In the town’s highest-turnout race in at least a decade, political newcomer and longtime resident Blake Gilmore defeated Deerfield political fixture Carolyn Shores Ness, 898-857, for a seat on the Select Board.Gilmore claimed victory on...

By Alexa Lewis

EASTHAMPTON — The Easthampton City Arts (ECA) Public Art Committee will host an unveiling on Saturday of its newest sculpture on the Nashawannuck Pond Promenade. The sculpture has been years in the making, with the initial idea proposed in 2019 by...

By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — Above the rows of shelves at Northampton Wools, amid all of the yarn of different colors, materials and thickness that fill every cubby in sight, sits a famous sweater worn by Charlize Theron in the Academy Award-winning film “The Cider...

By Alexa Lewis

WESTHAMPTON — At Westhampton’s annual Town Meeting this Saturday, voters will consider a $7 million budget for fiscal 2025 and decide whether to fund a solar installation project atop the new Public Safety Complex.The budget represents a modest 4.4%...

By SCOTT MERZBACH and ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

AMHERST — More than 130 people were arrested on the University of Massachusetts campus Tuesday night after those who set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on the South Lawn of the Student Union refused to dismantle tents and other parts of the site and...

By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Just days after UMass forward Matt Cross announced his transfer to SMU – one of five players to transfer away from the program this offseason – the Minutemen finally added their first piece to the 2024 roster on Tuesday night.Bryant’s Daniel Rivera...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

A plan unveiled by Senate Democrats on Monday to make community college free for all in Massachusetts starting this fall has the potential to have a big impact for prospective students across the state, including here in the Pioneer Valley.The...

By ALEXA LEWIS

EASTHAMPTON — As several other Hampshire County communities have spent the spring budget season grappling with how to overcome significant funding gaps brought on the expiration of support from pandemic funding, the city of Easthampton is sitting on...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Carefully holding and balancing his violin, 12-year-old Heedo Noh, a Fort River School sixth grader, gets a suggestion for positioning the bow so it runs straight across the strings as he practices G.F. Handel’s “Chorus from Judas...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A $97.3 million town budget for fiscal year 2025, maintaining municipal staffing and programs and promoting climate change and racial equity objectives, is being proposed by Town Manager Paul Bockelman, even as concerns are being raised that...

By ALISON KUZNITZ and SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Senate Democrats unveiled plans Monday to make community college free for all students in Massachusetts, starting in the coming fall semester.The “MassEducate” plan, which will be part of the Senate’s fiscal 2025 budget that was to be fully...

By CATHY MCNALLY

 I’ve often appreciated the measured perspective, wry humor, and rich language of Bill Dwight. In his recent column, “How to make sense of Northampton’s school budget dilemma,” however, this cool “city father” turns into a cranky municipal dad whose...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

PELHAM — An assessment for the town’s share of the fiscal year 2025 $35.27 million budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, a final step in approving a three-community plan for electricity to be supplied by green sources, and purchase of a new...

By CHRIS LARABEE

WHATELY — With contract negotiations complete, the community’s newest town administrator will be returning to the Pioneer Valley in June.Swampscott Assistant Town Administrator and Easthampton native Peter Kane will take the reins in Whately on June...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The public got an up-close look at the future Community Resilience Hub last week when officials opened the downtown building currently under renovation for public viewing. A rendering of what the exterior of the former First Baptist...

Staff Report

AMHERST — Police broke up a large party at a North Amherst apartment complex, with a few hundred college-age people in attendance, as part of a handful of alcohol-fueled incidents late Friday night into Saturday morning.Officers responded at 10:33...