Area Briefs: Cooley Dickinson to mark overdose day by planting 978 flags

McGovern visits Mapleline Farm, touts support for local agriculture

HADLEY — Past the woods surrounding Mapleline Farm, where 150 Jersey cows enter the milking parlor a little before 5 a.m. each day, the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus is visible. As the new school year begins, Mapleline’s busy season will also begin, with the farm producing, processing and bottling milk that will be served […]

New Easthampton app, alert system aim to make city government more responsive

EASTHAMPTON — Residents can now download the city of Easthampton’s new cellphone app, which offers features such as reporting a pothole by taking a photo, emergency notifications, closure alerts and more. While the app, MyEasthampton, is now available on Apple and Android cellphones, Mayor Salem Derby said the official launch will be next week. As […]

Guest columnist Mary Hurley: I held this seat. The council owes voters an explanation

I am not a candidate for anything and I do not intend to be. I left the Governor’s Council in January 2023 after three terms, by my own choice. I have no race to win here, which is exactly why I am going to be direct rather than diplomatic. I do not believe the current […]

Columnist Carrie N. Baker: Massachusetts finally decriminalizes abortion

For the first time, a woman in Massachusetts can choose to end her pregnancy at any point, without a prosecutor looking over her doctor’s shoulder. On Aug. 10, Gov. Maura Healey signed the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, decriminalizing abortion. By this Act, the commonwealth joins nine other states that trust patients and medical […]

Tim Curry, iconic character actor and 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' star, dies at 80

Tim Curry, a character actor who created a gallery of delicious, very loony villains for stage and screen, including Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and the smug concierge in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” has died. He was 80. Curry, who suffered a stroke in 2012 that put him in a wheelchair, died Wednesday […]