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By CHRIS LARABEE

Farming is already a tough field to make one’s living. Throw in three consecutive years of extreme weather and personal burnout and you’ve got a recipe for what is shaping up to another difficult year for valley farmers, as they prepare their fields...

By DOMENIC POLI

By DOMENIC POLIStaff WriterResidents have until Friday to submit their input regarding the process by which clean energy projects are permitted in Massachusetts.An online survey is soliciting public comment on how the state should protect health,...

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — UMass plans to triple early college enrollment over the next five years, giving 2,000 high school students a head start on their college education, university President Marty Meehan said Tuesday in his annual “state of the university”...

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 CHRIS LARABEE

SPRINGFIELD — More than 2,400 current and former Yankee Candle employees are eligible to split $1.2 million from a class action lawsuit brought forward by an employee alleging the company failed to pay workers for “thousands of hours of work” due to...

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Before acclaimed environmental activist Catherine Coleman Flowers said one word about herself at the outset of a talk at UMass on Thursday night, she expressed gratitude to marginalized communities across the country who trusted her to share...

By CHRIS LARABEE

GREENFIELD – At the Joint Committee on Ways and Means’ fiscal year 2025 state budget hearing, held Friday at Greenfield Community College, the focus was on statewide education and local aid.At the regional level, though, legislators, school officials...

BY BELLA LEVAVI

GREENFIELD — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has accepted the relicensing application for FirstLight’s hydroelectric dam in Turners Falls and pump storage facility in Northfield and area residents now have 60 days to submit comments on the...

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...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

SPRINGFIELD — Local activists, organizations and representatives from western Massachusetts’s congressional delegation are urging the U.S. federal government to extend a pandemic-era program that covers internet costs for more than 55,000 low-income...

By EMILEE KLEIN

With the state dealing with catastrophic consequences of climate change, the debate around forest management continues to make headlines as Massachusetts policymakers discuss the best way to maximize carbon sequestration in forests.Trees and other...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

ERVING — Athol Community Elementary School Principal Shannon White-Cleveland is being tapped as the next School Union 28 superintendent, overseeing four K-6 elementary schools attended by children in Shutesbury, Leverett, Erving, Wendell and New...

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — Almost a third of Republicans say they agree with former President Donald Trump’s claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country,” a recent University of Massachusetts poll has found.The poll, which also questioned respondents...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

Tourism contributes more than $1 billion in annual economic impact across Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties, according to a recent study released by the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.The study was the first of its kind...

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — UMass Amherst will lead a new $11.9 million center on offshore wind education, research and outreach to expedite development of offshore wind energy and train a national workforce to install and maintain the clean energy...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A call for an increase in federal money to support homeless services and programs related to substance use disorders, and for keeping unhoused individuals from being targeted by federal law enforcement agencies, is coming from the House...

By EMILEE KLEIN

The influential lobby group Mothers Out Front took aim at the natural gas industry this week, using its monthly climate action call to encourage people to push for a future without gas.Each month, the statewide group with local chapters in Pioneer...

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE – Newcomer Julie Davis will join the re-elected Andrew Smith on the Orange Selectboard following Monday’s Town Election.Davis was the contest’s top vote-getter, with 384, and Smith accumulated 304. The two competed against Sandra Fawn Weinstein...

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE – It seems Billy Goat Boats isn’t going anywhere, as the town’s Selectboard opted this week to award a request for proposal to the family-run watercraft rental business following a public and contentious leasing fiasco.The company owned and...

By CHRIS LARABEE

As money from the nationwide opioid settlement continues to be disbursed to Franklin County towns, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), in partnership with local boards of health, is inviting residents to share their input on how this...