■Announcement was made today of the signing of three principal tenants for the Mountain Farms Mall which will be built on 40 acres of land in Hadley. An Almy’s department store will be at one end of the mall and a Woolco will be at the other end. A Food Mart grocery store has announced the signing of a lease for a supermarket in a separate building within the Mountain Farms Mall complex.
■Calling the recent invasion of Laos “the spread of a blood-stain across the map,” Dwight MacDonald, listed as a political columnist, told 150 persons gathered on the Amherst Common yesterday afternoon, that total withdrawal of American troops could set the stage for the immediate release of prisoners of war.
■Members of the First Churches, the combined Baptist and United Church of Christ congregations, quietly took a vote Saturday to welcome gay men and lesbians into their midst. The vote was the culmination of about two years of groundwork, when congregation members were invited to discussions, classes, Bible study and other sessions designed to air the issues involved in the vote.
■A trial under way in Northampton that is attracting nationwide attention raises a chilling question: Can a patient get AIDS in the dentist’s office. Safety is the central issue in a trial in the Hampshire Superior Court, where a Northampton man claims he became infected with the HIV virus when a Springfield dentist extracted three teeth in 1989.
■State lotteries across the country are increasingly turning to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to connect with customers, a trend that Massachusetts Treasurer Steven Grossman said is one of his top priorities as he looks to boost sales in coming years. Massachusetts may have one of the oldest and most successful lotteries in the country, but other states are well ahead when it comes to embracing social media sites to stay connected with longtime customers and reaching out to new players.
■Almost two months into a winter of record-setting snowfall, families came in droves to celebrate the white fluffy stuff at the fourth annual Amherst Winterfest on Saturday. Children and adults alike were bundled up to enjoy all the sledding, entertainment, competitions and food that they could find at Cherry Hill Golf Course.