■Nippy morning air and heavy valley fog foretell of autumn, as do ripe pumpkins and trussed corn stalks. And for summer die-hards who are still unconvinced, September if but one week away.
■Racing is on for the Three County Fair Labor Day week. In a statement issued today, President John Osley Jr. said the future of the fair was the overriding consideration in the decision to continue racing despite a certain loss.
■In a disturbing sign of the growing danger of drug-resistant microbes, a study has found that 25 percent of people sampled had pneumococcal infections resistant to penicillin, which was once nearly infallible in killing bugs. That figure is 1,000 times greater than estimates made only a decade ago, indicating that the germs have spread quickly and are now more common than researchers believed.
■The Northampton Police Department took another step forward in its commitment to developing a different relationship with city residents by naming three new community police officers. Officers Stephen R. Superba, Pablo Rodriguez and Mitchell S. Cichy Jr. will take over their new assignments in January. Community policing calls for officers to interact more with residents and work to solve problems, instead of solely waiting for emergency calls.
■Machine operator, mechanic and product-line technician are the kinds of jobs Coca-Cola Co. plans to fill next spring as it expands its bottling plant on Industrial Drive. Construction is already under way and expected to put 60 people to work in Northampton before another 40 permanent employees are hired by the company over the next several years.
■Some Massachusetts towns have given up enforcing a law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, saying the law is written with too many loopholes to be effective. The law established a civil fine of $100 for those caught with an ounce or less of marijuana.