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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A request for nearly $1 million more from the four member towns of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District to support a $35.75 million fiscal year 2025 budget for the regional schools is being met with a lukewarm response and skepticism...

By STEVE PFARRER

The assignment is pretty straightforward: Tell a concise story about your life, in no more than five minutes, that reflects a certain theme.The challenge is in telling that story with enough heart, spirit, verve, humor or whatever else you can conjure...

Staff Report

 BELCHERTOWN — Local and state police are investigating bullets striking two homes on Mountain View Drive within the past year and shattering glass doors, including one incident last week, according to the Northwestern district attorney’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — As a proposed energy storage bylaw continues to be refined by the Planning Board in advance of annual Town Meeting next month, some residents are questioning whether it’s appropriate to allow such systems in Hadley.“Sometimes we have to stand...

HADLEY — A three-way race for two seats on the Select Board is the lone contest anticipated at the May 21 town election.Amy Parsons, who currently chairs the board, is running for a second three-year term and will face former board member David J....

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Hadley water rates could go up 10%, with an average household paying about $8 more per quarterly billing cycle, under an initial plan to cover the $9 million cost of replacing the Mount Warner and Mount Holyoke water tanks.The Select Board on...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A special education teacher who previously led the teachers union has filed a federal discrimination and defamation lawsuit against the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, its current interim superintendent and its former leaders.An...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SUNDERLAND — With Stantec consultants back in town to gather feedback on potential changes to downtown Sunderland, streetscape improvements, traffic-calming measures, multi-use paths and other similar infrastructure were at the top of residents’ minds...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Special programs and projects outside of school budget funding are being supported with $24,594 in grants from the Amherst Education Foundation, which is in its 30th year of helping educators at the four Amherst and Pelham elementary schools...

Reminder: Monday, April 16 is Patriot’s Day, a state holiday. Town offices are closed but the post office will be open.Reminder: Because of the holiday, the deadline to file state and federal income taxes is Tuesday, April 17.The check(s) will be in...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Mount Pollux in Amherst and The History of Women Mural in Northampton are among area locations visible in a trailer released for “Janet Planet,” the feature film directorial debut by playwright Annie Baker that is expected to hit theaters on...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL and EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Residents across the Pioneer Valley turned out in force to witness a rare solar eclipse on Monday, with western Massachusetts witnessing a 95% coverage of the sun by the passing moon.Despite being outside the path of full totality, which...

By STEVE PFARRER

As part of a funding program for municipal and nonprofit performing arts centers, the Massachusetts Cultural Council is awarding over $150,000 to 10 arts organizations and centers in the Valley.The awards — part of $3.66 million in funding the MCC is...

By Emilee Klein

BELCHERTOWN — After nearly a year of waiting, Belchertown finally has a town manager.On March 8, Gov. Maura Healey signed legislation to create the first-ever town manager, replacing the long-used town administrator form of government. The change,...

By STEVE PFARRER

April is shaping up to be a busy month for the University of Massachusetts Theater Department, beginning with a symposium that honors Latinx theater and closing with a fresh interpretation of a classic Shakespeare comedy.On April 8-9, theater...

When Congress returns next week, funding for military aid to Ukraine will be on the table in the House. However, if Speaker Mike Johnson brings Ukraine aid up for a vote which will pass, the MAGA Republicans have threatened his tenure as...

The fact that the former superintendent and medical director of the Soldier’s Home in Holyoke got off with mere $90 fines is not merely “disgusting,” as the woman who lost her father to COVID told the Gazette, but also a major statewide scandal that...

I continue to be consumed by the Israel-Hamas war. I read, watch, write, pray, dream, agonize, and do my best to engage in intentional and nuanced conversations about it. And yet there remain things I have not said.Or things I have said by omission.Or...

By RICHARD S. BOGARTZ I had intended to continue my four-part series on President Joe Biden, but I must interrupt that project even though Part 2 is almost complete because, even though I don’t believe in ghosts, I keep encountering ghosts who insist...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON – The University of Massachusetts has taken a step toward hiking tuition and room and board charges for the next academic year, but some trustees said Wednesday the proposed increases are not high enough and one said the status quo would be...