■A screening of the film “Tevya,” the story on which the Broadway musical, “Fiddler on the Roof” is based, will open the third annual series of Yiddish film classics at Smith College. The series is being sponsored by the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations at Smith and Amherst College.
■Garbage was the subject of two hours of discussion by the City Council last night although no decision was made on the proposal to discontinue garbage collections at the end of the year. Of the 8,500 dwelling units in Northampton, 5,680 are now served by private refuse collectors and an average of 750 private vehicles drive to the sanitary landfill dump each week.
■The leader of the group opposing the domestic partnership ordinance plans to run a write-in campaign for mayor, offering a conservative challenge to Mary L. Ford, who had faced no opponent in her bid for reelection. Richard P. Connly, 56, of Pomeroy Terrace, plans to announce his strategy later this week, said Christopher Aquadro, an official with Northampton for Traditional Values and a friend on Connly’s.
■By next year, Shawmut Bank branches in Northampton, Amherst and Hadley will be part of a new financial institution based in Worcester, to be called the First Massachusetts Bank. Banknorth Group Inc., of Burlington, Vt., will buy 13 Shawmut branches in central and western Massachusetts as part of the merger agreement between Shawmut and Fleet Bank.
■The new director of public safety for Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges says he wants to hear from officers, students and others as he completes the consolidation of the three departments. Robert Smith, 53, of Arlington, assumes the job Oct. 13.
■Amid all the talk this election year of the Tea Party’s rising influence and a possible Republican takeover of Congress, U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards has some advice for Democrats: keep fighting, and make your voice heard. Edwards, from Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, will speak Sunday at Smith College.