Royalston Special Town Meeting will decide on funds for new police account

Feeling the heat: As winter nears, soaring energy prices have residents bracing for bigger bills

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to notice that home heating prices are skyrocketing. Like anyone paying their bills, Deerfield resident Marc Dautreuil found that out after filling his oil tank as the winter season nears. “It’s insane,” he said on a recent weekday as he shopped in Thornes Marketplace. Before the war with Iran began […]

Voters demand transparency, but lawmakers may limit reach of Question 1

There was no mistaking the will of the people on Question 1. Voters overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure on Election Day, with more than 86% backing an expansion of Massachusetts’ public records law to include the Legislature and the governor’s office. It was the widest margin of any of the nine ballot questions in an election in which nearly 1.17 million people had cast ballots before polls opened. Over the summer, the state Senate passed a bill promoting transparency and public access in state government. But, concerned about the separation of powers and the lengthy litigation that could follow from passing […]

Athol Special Town Meeting postponed

ATHOL – Voters were still checking in for Monday’s Special Town Meeting when Select Board Chair Bill Chiasson and Town Manager Shaun Suhoski took to the podium to announce that the meeting had to be postponed. By that time, some 139 people had signed in to vote on the 10 article-warrant, well above the 102 […]

Speaking of Nature: A bitter rivalry: American vs. Asiatic Bittersweet

As the deciduous trees slowly lose their leaves, they start to reveal long-held secrets. At first the most obvious secrets are the nests of birds that you may have spent the summer looking for. Skillfully placed in areas that are thick with summer foliage, the nests become obvious once the veil is dropped, and it can be amazing to discover a nest that you may have passed dozens of times while you were completely unaware that it was there. Despite how frustrated you may feel, you really have to admire the birds that built them. Then there are other “secrets” that […]

A different kind of grilled cheese sandwich

I started looking for recipe inspiration everywhere long before I became a food writer. In my family when I was growing up, food wasn’t just something we ate for nutrition or good taste. It taught us about the world in which we lived and the people around us, in the present and in the past. […]