■A fire which began in a tobacco barn on the Meyer-Mendelsohn Inc. farm in North Hatfield at about 10 this morning razed the barn and spread to adjacent tobacco fields, raging beyond control of outnumbered firefighters. Burning out the barn in the span of less than an hour, the fire set ablaze the netting on a shade tobacco field only yards away and spread through acres of ripening tobacco.
■FBI agents arrested fugitive the Rev. Daniel Berrigan at the Block Island, N.Y., summer home of former Northampton resident William Stringfellow. Stringfellow is a practicing attorney and author and is best known as an Episcopal lay theologian. He is a graduate of Northampton High School and in 1967 delivered the graduation address there.
■A slightly longer school day for the 1995-96 academic year was approved last night by the Northampton School Committee. The high school will run 15 minutes longer, until 2:15. Five minutes will be tacked onto the JFK day and 10 minutes to the elementary schools. The longer day is necessary for meeting state standards.
■Deerfield police are investigating the source of 14 marijuana plants found growing behind a local business. The management of the business found the 3-foot-high plants growing in a wooded patch behind the building on Wednesday afternoon.
■For much of the spring, most professional scouts predicted Kevin Ziomek was leaning toward choosing college. That became official Tuesday, as the Amherst Regional standout pitcher is putting off a potential professional career to enroll at Vanderbilt University.
■About 35 volunteers plan to put up a new playground at Crocker Farm School in just nine hours on Friday. The new play area will accommodate the increased number of children attending Crocker Farm for the first time on Sept. 2, because Amherst has redrawn the district lines to equalize the percentage of low-income families in the three elementary schools.