Relief in sight for Amherst’s aging DPW ‘Barn’

With local efforts underway, Massachusetts begins kratom crackdown

Deerfield joined other Massachusetts municipalities in banning kratom products, just days before an emergency order came from the state's Department of Public Health.

Healey wades into Quabbin community water issues

Quabbin watershed towns that have long pressed eastern Massachusetts for funding and a seat at the table for reservoir decisions just got a major ally — Gov. Maura Healey.  A drought this year has exposed the reservoir’s shoreline, and residents of the western Massachusetts towns that surround and protect the Quabbin are experiencing their own […]

Northampton schools adopt ICE 'safe zone' policy

NORTHAMPTON — The School Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from all six Northampton Public Schools, declaring them “safe zones” amid what members called real fear in the district’s immigrant community. The School Committee unanimously approved a resolution, titled “Ensuring Northampton Public Schools as Safe Zones Free from Immigration Enforcement,” […]

Guest columnist Karl Meyer: Trump’s attack on voting rights — A path to dictatorship

Donald Trump is looking a bit desperate. He’s now zeroed in on the Constitution’s voting rights with his Save America Act. He’s again calling into question our record of free and fair elections — long the envy of the world. Yet his rumor-laced lies seem to have a nation of would-be voters where he wants them to stay until this November: everyone, everywhere, divided, fraught and worried. Congressman Jim McGovern is among the officials repeating fears Trump will use ICE, the National Guard and his Capitol-attacking thugs to commandeer elections and outcomes. Yet none offer up bold plans to stop him. […]

Guest columnists Daisy Broudy and Elly Donkin: To the woods!

“We hold these truths to be self-evident… ” On a glorious summer afternoon, once again, Elly and I mumble and grumble our way through our crumpets and tea. We talk about the damage caused by our shambling, rambling leader and his corrupt supporters. They are termites eating away at the foundations of our government. But Elly and I are not total curmudgeons. Elly puts on her glasses, peers at me, and says, “Now is the time to remember.” We talk about Ray Bradbury’s novel of 1953, “Fahrenheit 451” which then became a movie in 1966, with, for those of you who […]