■High winds that knocked over trees, telephone poles — and even the Northampton Chamber of Commerce’s snowman on Main Street — produced widespread power failures early Christmas morning. Gusts of wind reaching 50 or 60 miles per hour knocked out power in sections of Northampton, Easthampton, Amherst, Hadley, Leverett, and South Deerfield.
■Dr. Archibald Galbraith, 94, eighth headmaster of Williston Academy, died Saturday of bilateral pneumonia in Northampton. He served as headmaster of Williston, now the Williston Northampton School, for 30 years, from 1919 to 1949, longer than any other since the school was founded in 1841.
■A bomb squad was called in today when a briefcase was found in a Route 10 shopping plaza parking lot in Easthampton. But the briefcase contained only business materials — no explosives. Before the briefcase was X-rayed, workers and area residents were evacuated as a precaution.
■Bryant Mountain Dairy, one of several area farms that market their own milk, will cease its bottling operations after eight years. Bryant Mountain’s milk and cream has been sold in 40 stores and restaurants in Franklin and Hampshire County since 1988.
■Green Street Café will close its doors Jan. 21, ending two decades of culinary service that made the restaurant a city institution and concluding a long-roiling dispute between the café owners and Smith College.
■David Waskiewicz, a building inspector for the town of Amherst, will serve as acting building commissioner beginning Jan. 1. Town manager John Musante said Tuesday that Waskiewicz will be in the position until he hires a replacement for Bonnie Weeks, who announced earlier she would leave at the end of the year.