■The battle of the birds is shaping up once again for Northampton’s Three County Fair. Specifically, the battle will be competition among poultry and waterfowl in the Poultry Department of the fair. Thus far more than 400 entries have been received by Superintendent Edward C. Peters of Greenfield, promising to nearly fill the poultry barn.
■Several Northampton businesses have raised a sum of $200, which the city of Northampton matched in order to retain the services of Mayor Sean M. Dunphy’s summer intern, Tim Brennan, until he goes back to school at the University of Massachusetts in mid-September.
■Friday, the day before the Three County Fair opened, the grounds off Bridge Street were alive with the hustle of people preparing plants, animals and machines in anticipation of crowds in the thousands. Bruce Shallcross, the fair’s president, indicated that moving up the date of the fair by a week hardly affects what needs to be done.
■Robin Barber, a technology teacher at Northampton High School, and Gwenn Dzierzanowski, a fifth-grade teacher at the Robert K. Finn Ryan Road School, participated in the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s emerging leaders program at its summer conference at Williams College this month. The program introduces potential leaders to MTA and provides experiences and skill development workshops.
■The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from Georgia to Maine on Tuesday. In the Pioneer Valley, buildings swayed just before 2 p.m. as tremors from the earthquake centered in Virginia came through New England.
■Among the initiatives being launched this fall in Northampton schools are a new “Living History” course, a program for students with autism, and a series that aims to strengthen relationships between Northampton High School students and staff.