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By ALEXA LEWIS

Western Massachusetts stands to “greatly benefit” from a $1.33 billion spending plan for education and transportation adopted by the state Senate last Thursday, thanks in part to lengthy debates leading up to a vote on the package that sought to reverse an initial proposal that Sen. Jo Comerford called “skewed” and “wildly unfair” to this region.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Department heads voiced frustration last week about potentially having to sustain 15% budget cuts as Orange once again grapples with financial woes.

By CHRIS LARABEE

With its regional agreement sent off to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for a technical review, the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board is expecting to bring its new school district proposal to voters in the fall.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HOLYOKE — With family roots in the newspaper industry and many years serving as chairman of Newspapers of New England, Holyoke native Donald R. Dwight, who died at the age of 94 on Sunday, is being recalled for a life lived by the same principles that guided his commitment to locally owned, independent journalism.

By ALEXA LEWIS

As the cardinals in Vatican City prepare to begin a conclave to select a new pope on Wednesday, Bishop William Byrne of the Diocese of Springfield said that local Catholics are in a period of prayer as they eagerly await the election of “a joyful shepherd who will lead the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.”

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Local gender-affirming care clinic Transhealth is condemning a recent review put out by the federal Department of Health and Human Services that recommends against the use of medical treatment for gender dysphoria in youth.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A restructuring of the progressive New College of Florida by that state’s Republican leadership in 2023 prompted Hampshire College to offer students there a respite and opportunity to continue their studies in Amherst.

By ALEXA LEWIS

The Trump administration has eliminated roughly $1 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to the state Department of Public Health intended specifically to address asthma in western Massachusetts, according to Gov. Maura Healey’s office. This termination comes shortly after the American Lung Association reported a decline in air quality across the state and region.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

The Massachusetts congressional delegation is demanding answers from the federal government after hundreds of arts grants under the National Endowment for the Humanities, including dozens earmarked for institutions in the Pioneer Valley, were canceled on the seeming recommendation of billionaire Elon Musk.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Molly McGovern, the daughter of U.S. Rep. James McGovern and Lisa McGovern and sister to Patrick McGovern, died unexpectedly in Italy while visiting a good friend and his family, according to a statement the congressman’s family issued Thursday morning.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

BOSTON — Eight months after she started working in a Holyoke marijuana cultivation facility in 2021, 27-year-old Lorna McMurrey died from an asthma attack after inhaling ground cannabis dust while on the job — a death that drew national attention as it was the first to be traced to dust and mold deposits found within marijuana workspaces.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

SPRINGFIELD — Bishop William Byrne not only introduced the Diocese of Springfield’s new executive director for its Catholic Charities Agency this week but also laid out the evolution that the agency will see now that protection of immigrants is no longer part of its agenda in the wake of federal cuts.

By CHRIS LARABEE

Beginning more than a decade ago and wrapping up in 2016, a wide-ranging coalition in western Massachusetts banded together to resist Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s Northeast Energy Direct project, which proposed a pipeline running through eight Franklin County towns.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Farms across western Massachusetts losing important grants, such as those that support produce getting from fields to schools and those that help protect the environment. The University of Massachusetts having National Institutes of Health grants stripped, as colleges and universities see their academic freedom impeded.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Accusing his Republican colleagues in Congress of being “too scared to stand up to their leadership,” namely, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern is co-sponsoring a new bill designed to block “backdoor” cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

BOSTON — At least one in every four girls and one in every 20 boys will experience childhood sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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 pupils at risk of not being able to continue their studies on the Amherst campus.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — University of Massachusetts officials are offering a series of rapid responses to help six international students continue their studies on the Amherst campus, even as their visas are revoked and their student statuses are terminated by the Trump administration.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — The Selectboard voted unanimously this week to offer its part-time community development director job to Tracy Murphy, the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission’s senior planner.

By ALEXA LEWIS

A bill allowing for medical aid in dying once again made it to a hearing before the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health on Wednesday morning. While versions of this bill have reached this stage before, local proponents of the measure are feeling hopeful as this is the earliest in a legislative session it has been brought to this committee’s hearing. 

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Potential layoffs of educators at K-12 schools across the state next fiscal year, which Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page said could be catastrophic, is prompting his organization to ask the Legislature to take a three-pronged approach to addressing the problem — use Fair Share Amendment surpluses, find ways to increase corporate tax revenues and dip into the state’s reserves.