■Negotiations were completed this morning for the sale of the United Elastic dyehouse in Easthampton to a new company headed by three former employees of the dyehouse. The three men are: J. Russell Adams, president; Joseph R. Maziarz, treasurer; and Manuel L. Gross, executive vice president. The facility is part of the United Elastic Glendale Division operation that was due to be shut down this month because of a business slowdown.
■James LaMacchia, sophomore English major at the University of Massachusetts who was running for Queen of UMass Winter Carnival, has withdrawn from the election. He feels that he has demonstrated the nature of sexism on campus especially through the Student Court decision last weekend, which ruled student government selection rules had been violated when write-in votes had not been counted.
■Old newspaper clippings, photographs and a scrapbook from Forbes Library will all be on display today, helping tell the history of the Betty Allen Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR is celebrating the local chapter’s 100th anniversary.
■There will be no second chance for University of Massachusetts students to hold private parties at Club Metro. After two fights at the Pleasant Street bar Friday morning led to a battalion of police officers being called to keep the peace, the manager of Club Metro said he does not want to hear from UMass students trying to book private parties.
■In a major policy reversal, the Obama administration announced Wednesday that the government would no longer defend in court a federal law that defines marriages as between a man and a woman, saying the law was unconstitutional.
■Northampton hopes to move forward in the next year or two with plans to convert excess pavement in front of City Hall, including a portion of Main Street and Crafts Avenue, into a small park with a streetscape, trees and benches. The proposed “pocket park,” dubbed City Hall Square, would only be about 200 square feet in size.