'History grows here': Tradition on display at 177th Franklin County Fair

Shutesbury Selectboard votes to accept bequest of local home

The Shutesbury Selectboard voted unanimously to accept a bequest of a 1,400-square-foot home from deceased resident David Rogers Ulen, hoping its future sale will provide between $100,000 and $150,000 for town capital projects.

Montague and Erving Notebook: Sept. 9, 2026

Tech Talk series starting Thursday TURNERS FALLS — A three-week speaker series discussing digital legacy, podcasting and internet safety will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 10, with additional events slated for Sept. 17 and Sept. 24, at the Gill-Montague Senior Center, 65 Fifth St. All programs are scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. On Sept. […]

Judge denies defense's bid to independently examine Hotel UMass murder suspect’s phone

A judge in Hampshire County Superior Court denied a defense attorney's motion to allow an independent examination of murder suspect Jeffrey MacDonald's cellphone, ruling that the existing search warrant remained valid despite claims of potential inaccuracy.

Speaking of Nature: An unbeatable record — this time it’s serious

Today’s story starts on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 29. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, but every fiber of my being thought that it was quite reasonable for me to sleep late. However, the habit of waking up at dawn has become so ingrained in me that logic and reason had no say in the fact that I was awake. The real question was, should I go back to sleep. To answer that question I turned on BirdCast. In the darkness of my bedroom, looking at my phone with only one half-opened eye, the BirdCast map indicated that during the […]

On the Run with John Stifler: From the village green…

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease, Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, How often have I loitered o’er thy green, Where humble happiness endeared each scene! Readers of 18th century English poetry may recognize those lines from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem “The Deserted Village.” If words like “o’er” and “bowers” don’t suit […]