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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — After a contentious debate, the Town Council agreed last week to recommend the town spend nearly $422,000 more on schools next year than originally recommended.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Several Amherst Regional High School students recently had the opportunity to travel to the State House to offer testimony to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing, explaining to legislators why funding formulas for state aid to local school districts should be revised.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Both mixed-use and apartment-style developments will be allowed along a half-mile section of University Drive, under a new zoning overlay district.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — At the John P. Musante Health Center, where health services are provided to low-income and immigrant populations and others, exam rooms feature Immigrant Legal Resource Center posters explaining the constitutional rights for everyone living in the United States.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — All stores licensed to sell tobacco in Amherst will continue to be allowed to offer oral nicotine pouches to customers, but none of these products will able to contain more than 6 milligrams of nicotine, even those for sale at the town’s lone adult-only tobacco shop.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Federal authorities are revoking the visas and terminating the student statuses of four more international students at the University of Massachusetts, increasing to 10 the number of students at risk of not being able to continue their studies on the Amherst campus.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Potentially hazardous chemicals missing or moved from a 108 Hockanum Road home, following a raid at the residence by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on April 8, has prompted the temporary detention of resident Jacob D. Miller.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Chanting “hands off our students now” and “up, up with liberation, down, down with deportation” more than 100 students, staff and faculty at the University of Massachusetts, participating in a pro-Palestinian rally and march Thursday afternoon, demanded both divestment from Israel and improved protections for international students, including those whose visas are being revoked.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Using project-based learning in the classroom, building a supportive and welcoming place and treating all students fairly and equitably are how culture is built intentionally at Wildwood School.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Money for projects to improve access to buildings and ensure more public amenities for residents with disabilities could be directed by a new Commission for Persons with Disabilities, which will begin meeting monthly in April.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A proposed donation of a 147-acre working forest in North Leverett, which would continue to be actively managed under town ownership and open for hunting, will be decided by voters at annual Town Meeting May 3.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A draft housing production plan with a series of strategies to ensure there are sufficient housing options in Amherst for people with a range of income levels is suggesting Amherst produce 265 to 715 new housing units by 2030.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst officials are extending by an additional 15 days the public comment period for the Environmental Review Record associated with the Jones Library expansion and renovation project.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A section of North Pleasant Street north of the University of Massachusetts campus, incorporating the Puffton Village, Presidential, Townehouse and Brandywine apartment complexes, will be examined by Planning Department staff as an appropriate area to significantly increase housing density.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Those attending a recent ribbon-cutting for the new UMass Downtown retail store and event space in Amherst center were invited to an afterparty at the Uptown Tap & Grille, which despite having a seemingly different geographical designation, is a neighboring business in the same building.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Amherst Global Village Festival, an event to celebrate cultural diversity and promote inclusivity in the community, will be held for the first time at the Amherst Regional Middle School, 170 Chestnut St., on Saturday.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to terminate a $3.4 million allocation to Massachusetts for purchase of 121,830 cases of food items, including eggs, chicken, milk, fruit, pasta, beans and salmon for food banks across the state is being criticized by representatives of food security organizations and the Healey-Driscoll administration.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Concerns about the possible impact to property taxes for homeowners of even a smaller Department of Public Works headquarters is giving town officials pause about bringing the full project to voters at annual Town Meeting on May 1.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Money targeted for both strategic investments and deferred maintenance on the University of Massachusetts campus is being temporarily diverted to a new account that will ensure research continues uninterrupted, should federal grants and contracts be paused or ended.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

At Ella Wang’s former middle school, a device would take regular readings of wind speed, precipitation, temperature and humidity — all information that would be useful to her and her teammates before Amherst Regional High School’s girls cross country meets.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Entirely knit with black yarn surrounding a foam interior, an enderman, the tall, thin blob seen in the Minecraft video game, is being turned into a three-dimensional form inside a classroom at Amherst Regional High School.