■As a youngster flying with his parents as passengers on commercial planes, William (Terry) E. Dwyer Jr. wanted to know what was going on up front in the cockpit. Now the Hopkins Academy senior knows, for he started flying lessons in May last year when he became 16, and last week received his private pilot’s license.
■The Gazette begins another new feature today on its comics page. Beginning today you can follow the trials and tribulations of a little Englishman named Andy Capp. Andy Capp is one of the most widely read strips in the country.
■Chartpak has added 16 employees over the summer after it bought out a California competitor, bucking a long-standing trend of manufacturing plants moving south. The River Road company, which manufactures graphic arts and engineering supplies, also consolidated with a sister company in Tucson, Ariz., that was making engineering templates, according to Robert Rodak, Chartpak’s vice president of finance.
■Peggy Collins, a former director of homeless shelters, has been named the new director of Starpoint, a membership organization for people who have a mental illness. Collins, a Greenfield native, replaces Robert Veronelli, who resigned in June.
■Consumer advocate and Democrat Elizabeth Warren will enter the Massachusetts Senate primary for a shot at challenging incumbent Republican Scott Brown for his seat. Warren will formally declare she’s running today, Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman, said.
■As co-founder of Country Comfort, the women’s clothing and accessories store at 153 Main St., Eva Trager kick-started a business-centered movement that transformed a city and ushered in the arts wave that followed, say those who knew her. Trager died Wednesday morning at Cooley Dickinson Hospital after a long battle with kidney disease. She was 65.