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By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Anne Magill Diaz is starting her tenure as the new principal at Shutesbury Elementary School on Monday.“I am thrilled to become the new principal of Shutesbury Elementary School,” Magill Diaz wrote in a June 3 letter to the school...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A retired University of Massachusetts economics professor from the School of Public Policy is being awarded $20 million from Melinda French Gates’ philanthropic foundation, money that will go toward advancing women’s power on a global...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — With the interim Leverett Elementary School principal on a leave that began in March after being criticized for a lack of transparency, representatives of the teachers union are seeing the leadership situation as contributing to a “very...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Nearly 500 members of the faculty and librarians are expressing no confidence in the leadership of University of Massachusetts Chancellor Javier Reyes stemming from the breakup of a pro-Palestinian encampment on May 7 that led to the arrests...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A Walk for Peace in Gaza, bringing participants from Town Hall to the New England Peace Pagoda, takes place Saturday, an event that organizers view as a way to stand with those experiencing loss and grief.Sponsored by the Village of Light...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Disturbed by the arrests of 132 protesters on the University of Massachusetts campus this week during a pro-Palestinian encampment, Colson Whitehead, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Responsible for $135,000 in student debt, Amherst resident Ian Rhodewalt observes that during the yearslong federal pause in making loan repayments during the pandemic, he and his family were able to get a vehicle, replace a broken-down car...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Bylaws to regulate large-scale battery storage, limit outdoor light pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions in new housing construction and control door-to-door solicitors will be considered by residents at Annual Town Meeting on...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Money for continued restoration of the North Leverett Sawmill, a citizen’s petition calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, and a $7.56 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which adds a fourth police officer to the Police Department,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — After 10 years as principal at Shutesbury Elementary School, Jacqueline Mendonsa is leaving the position at the end of June to relocate to the Boston area.“It is very hard for me to put into words my true love and appreciation for our...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — As a University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral student in physics, Mark Murdy has seen his wages as a graduate employee decline relative to inflation, meaning he, like others who work on campus, is taking home less money.Amid these...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Climate change’s impact on farming, as well as emerging areas like urban agriculture, soil health and pollinators, are a focus for the University of Massachusetts Extension Agriculture Program, which continues to help farmers adapt and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — During a summer in which area farms dealt with significant rainfall and flooded fields, keeping agricultural drainage ditches cleared became essential to protecting crops by ensuring excess water could be removed.Often, though, farmers found...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — The owners of a Shelburne farm have permanently protected 100 acres through the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, ensuring that the fertile land won’t be turned into a large, upscale housing estate or put to other uses.“That’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — A project to improve accessibility for patrons at the current Shutesbury library and the new library building that will break ground in June is being supported by a $10,000 grant from the American Library Association.Library Director Mary...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — In film, literature, paintings and other forms of art, palm trees and warm climates are almost always the settings depicted for slavery in North America, from the plantations of the American South to the transatlantic ships transporting...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — At one time, the U.S. post office in town center doubled as a general store, a place where adults picked up and sent their mail or filled their gas tanks and children could choose from a wide variety of penny candy on their way to and from...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A large commemorative wooden cake in the field between the Leverett Library and Leverett Elementary School will be lit up in Leverett for the first time as night falls on March 5, exactly 250 years after the town officially separated from...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

All Leverett and Shutesbury residents have access to high-speed Internet connections, following the municipal build-out of broadband over the last decade or so, but a small portion of households continue to opt against becoming subscribers.In...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A continued challenge for some prospective students and their families in accessing federal financial aid applications, and a corresponding delay in relaying the information from these forms to colleges and universities, is raising...