Photos: Heavenly touch-up in Haydenville

WMass boys soccer: Will Senn-McNally stars for Northampton in 1-0 win over Agawam for Class A crown

SPRINGFIELD — After his team raised the Western Mass. championship plaque, Northampton boys soccer senior Will Senn-McNally summed up the team’s season with a declaration on the sideline. “It’s been a long time coming.” One year after losing the Western Mass. Class A title in a shootout to Longmeadow, followed by a 1-0 loss to […]

UMass student accused of choking woman at Theta Chi fraternity party

AMHERST — A 19-year-old member of the unregistered University of Massachusetts Amherst Theta Chi fraternity is facing a felony charge of strangulation and a misdemeanor assault and battery charge after he allegedly placed a woman in a chokehold at an Oct. 23 party. Grady Culhane, of Bedford, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Eastern […]

Judge reduces bail for Ware man in rape, animal sexual abuse case

NORTHAMPTON — Hampshire Superior Court Judge Tracy Duncan reduced bail for Michael Stanikmas, a Ware man accused of raping his ex-wife and sexually abusing the couple’s dogs, from $50,000 to $2,500 after the defense argued that newly surfaced evidence undermines the alleged victim’s credibility. Michael Stanikmas, 36, was arrested in 2025 on charges including kidnapping, […]

Speaking of Nature: Daredevils: The blue jays are all grown up

At the end of August, I wrote a column about the developmental progress of the blue jays that live in and around my yard. It was just as school was starting up for the year and the baby blue jays had entered a ridiculous stage in their maturation in which they had lost the feathers on their heads. This “ugly duckling” phase is something that can be seen in young birds every year, but the blue jays traveled in large numbers and their gruesome appearance was actually adorable. Back then, just two months ago, there were also some very interesting behavioral […]

State education board visits Anne T. Dunphy School to learn how it slashed chronic absenteeism

WILLIAMSBURG — Nearly 21% of students at Williamsburg’s elementary school were chronically absent in 2023-2024, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days. Last school year, that figure fell to just over 5%. Chronic absenteeism has plagued schools nationally and in Massachusetts since the pandemic. So the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education […]