Area Briefs: GCC event offers quick look at ballot questions

$375K grant to fund Amherst health improvement plan centered on immigrant, marginalized groups

AMHERST — Food security and mental health, especially among immigrant families and other marginalized groups, will be a focus of a new community-wide health plan. The three-year initiative, known as the Amherst Wellbeing Alliance, will bring together community members, organizations and town leaders to complete the Community Health Improvement Plan. The effort is supported by […]

Hopkins Academy heating, cooling fix to wait until spring Town Meeting

HADLEY — Three options for improving the heating and cooling system at Hopkins Academy, each of which would cost the town at least $6 million, will not be considered by voters until annual Town Meeting next spring. At a joint meeting with the Finance Committee, the Capital Planning Committee voted in late September not to […]

Speaking of Nature: The common raven: the great scrounger

It was a gorgeous Sunday morning, and I was sitting at the edge of my meadow, slightly questioning my own sanity. The sun had not yet made an appearance, the temperature was only 41 degrees Fahrenheit, and my feet were damp after walking through the dew-covered grass. Up the hill the house was warm, but […]

Interpol crackdown on illegal mining, logging and wildlife trafficking leads to 233 arrests

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — An international crackdown on environmental crime across Latin America and the Caribbean led to 233 arrests and uncovered links between large-scale Amazon deforestation and companies across several continents, the international police organization Interpol said Wednesday. The two-month operation targeted illegal logging, gold mining and wildlife trafficking across nine countries, identifying some […]

Frank R. Hugus II

<html><head></head><body>Frank R. Hugus II<br /><br />Amherst, MA - Frank Richard Hugus II passed away on September 21, 2026. He was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania to Dorothy A. Kelsey and Frank R. Hugus I in 1941.<br /><br />He earned his doctorate i ...