■Mrs. Esther Boyle, Northampton school nurse, has been credited with saving the life of James M. Duffy, 12, a sixth grade student at the Vernon Street School after he choked on a piece of hard “hot” candy yesterday. Mrs. Boyle rushed to the scene and turned the youth upside down, striking him on the back. She then placed her finger in his throat, which allowed the candy to pass into his stomach.
■Nearly 3,000 University of Massachusetts students will receive degrees tomorrow morning at the Amherst campus’s 100th commencement. The ceremony in Alumni Stadium also is expected to be the site of a large peace symbol, and many graduates are expected to carry placards or display strike symbols on their gowns.
■Great Barrington was digging out today from the first deadly tornado in the region in 22 years, which killed three people and injured at least two dozen. The deadly tornado left a long trail of debris in its wake — some of which apparently landed in Northampton and Hadley.
■Plans are in the works to expand the Forbes Library parking lot by the end of the summer — a project that will add about 30 more spaces. Expanding the 48-space parking lot will coincide with the $1.8 million renovation of the building, said Forbes Library Director Blaise Bisaillon.
■Charles “Chip” Kaufman, assistant principal at Northampton High School, will leave the district at the end of the school year to head to Great Britain. Kaufman has been at Northampton High School for four years, all of it as director of the Florence Learning Center, and alternative high school.
■A new leak of radioactive material has been found and fixed at the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, officials said Saturday. Vapor and water containing 13 different radioactive substances was found late Friday coming from a pipe in a hole workers dug to find the source of an earlier leak.