■Northampton and Hadley police and fire officials combined with state police yesterday afternoon in a three-hour attempt to determine if a “body” spotted on the Connecticut River ice was, in fact, a body. Three Smith College students were bicycling across the Coolidge Bridge when they spotted an apparent body some 150 feet below.
■Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new 72-capacity rest-retirement home at Laurel Park were held Sunday afternoon. When the time comes for occupancy, residents will be accepted irrespective of race, color or creed, though first preference will be given to Baptists and Methodists in western Massachusetts.
■Making good on a two-year-old promise to bring world-class art to the Pioneer Valley, the Massachusetts International Festival for the Arts will feature an Irish theater company, a Sundance Film Festival winner and assorted music and theater this spring. The festival events will be held in April and May at the Academy of Music in Northampton and Springfield’s First Church.
■A proposed state law that would allow parents to pull their children from school when teachers are to present “morally or religiously sensitive” topics is receiving mixed reviews from local lawmakers and school officials. Public schools would have to give parents at least 10 days’ notice before controversial lessons.
■Northampton Building Inspector Anthony Patillo is set to retire later this month after 14 year on the job. When Mayor Clare Higgins announced his pending retirement at the last council meeting, she summed up what most thought: “That will be a big loss for us.”
■The clash over casino gambling in Massachusetts is drawing a torrent of lobbying dollars to beacon Hill. The amount spent by firms, unions and interest groups hoping to influence the gambling debate has grown from just more than $800,000 in 2006 to more than $2 million in 2009.