Lineup announced for sixth annual LAVA Film Festival in Greenfield

Voters defend gun law, and sponsor says it’s a model for other states

Massachusetts voters upheld a 2024 gun reform law with nearly 67% support, despite opposition in several western and central regions.

'We're in sticker shock': Towns seek state aid for Franklin Tech building project

At least five municipalities within the Franklin County Technical School district have requested supplemental state funding to mitigate the high local tax burden caused by the $236.6 million building project.

My Turn: What then must we do?

The western world seems much more troubled than it was 10 years ago. At the end of October in 2016, I took a solo trip — spending three days with my friends in Reykjavik and a week in Paris in a rented flat. Hope was in the air. Magazine covers in newsstands all over Paris featured Secretary Hillary Clinton who was presumed to be the next U.S. president. A taxi driver in Iceland conveyed he was concerned that Trump would win and that it would cause chaos around the world. I laughed it off as highly improbable, and I assured him […]

Keeping Score with Chip Ainsworth: UMass walk-on Dallas Elliott begins his toughest fight and other football notes

Good morning! There weren’t many noteworthy plays during the UMass spring game two years ago, albeit with one exception that was reported in this space. “Leeds native Dallas Elliott of the Williston Northampton School made the catch of the day, falling backwards into the end zone with a defender in his face.” Elliott used that grit and determination to make the team as a walk-on. This year he had nine catches, five for first downs but none for a touchdown. He’s saving that for another foe.   Last week UMass announced that Elliott had begun cancer treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute […]

On the Run with John Stifler: After New York, a cornucopia of local races

If you remember the 1970s, when the New York Marathon evolved from a bunch of laps around Central Park to a parade of thousands of runners through all five boroughs of the city, you may have felt an echo last Sunday. I mean the echo from 1978, when the women’s winner was a young Scandinavian […]