Valley Bounty: Beauty in every season: Family-run farm in Erving offers fresh produce and maple syrup

Let the church bell ring, Williamsburg residents tell Select Board

WILLIAMSBURG — Two weeks after a resident asked that the Haydenville Congregational Church bell to fall silent overnight — a request that garnered significant attention in the community and on social media — the Select Board heard an overwhelming response Tuesday: Let the bell keep ringing. The Select Board took no action on High Street […]

Columnist Carrie N. Baker: A groundbreaking UN resolution calls forced pregnancy what it is: reproductive violence

It took until July 7, 2026, for the world’s leading human rights body to call forcing someone to be pregnant — or forcing them not to be — what it is: reproductive violence. In a landmark resolution adopted unanimously, the UN Human Rights Council formally recognized “reproductive violence” as a specific, systemic form of gender-based […]

A Look Back, July 23

50 Years Ago 25 Years Ago 10 Years Ago

Pool event in Amherst spotlights accessibility, Paralympic pride

AMHERST — At the 1988 Paralympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, Tory Dixon took 30 seconds off her best 400-meter freestyle time, claiming one of her two bronze medals at that year’s swimming competitions. Dixon still vividly remembers standing on the podium as the British national anthem played for the gold medalist, taking pride in her accomplishments. “Sports did so much for me,” says Dixon, speaking during a Disability Pride Month presentation at Mill River Recreation Area Monday afternoon. “It was a lot of work, but it was fun.” Her husband, Juan Dixon, is a similarly successful Paralympian, earning medals in […]

Award-winning play, 'Unreconciled,' comes to the Academy this weekend, tackles clergy sexual abuse with conviction and compassion

Date: April 13, 2007 To: Jaybird <Jay Sefton> From: Dad <Joe Sefton> Subject: the bastard. Link: Priest Defrocked Over Abuse Cases Jaybird, just saw this in the Inquirer. Please call me. Love, Dad “Holy s—,” Jay Sefton thought. His father — a lifelong Havertown boy, a diehard Catholic and Philadelphia Phillies fan, a chain-smoking Army vet and a veteran claims adjuster — knew how to email a link to an article. But besides that: No one had ever called what happened to him abuse. After growing up in a working-class, hard-drinking town where feelings were expressed with four-letter words, Sefton, the [&hellip;]