■Supporters of Sen. Edmund Muskie’s campaign for the presidency have been invited to a benefit showing of the new hit film “Cabaret,” March 27, at the Showcase Cinema in West Springfield. Similar showings will be held throughout the state to raise funds for Muskie’s bid in the April 25 presidential primary.
■The Northampton Lodge of Elks will vote Tuesday whether or not to buy a golf course. A price tag of $450,000 has been set for the purchase and renovation of the Williamsburg Golf Course. This includes $258,000 for the course itself, and then close to $200,000 for renovations to permit the clubhouse to be used as an Elks Home.
■Add another board to the list of Northampton municipal panels that James Dostal serves on. Mayor Mary L. Ford will ask the City Council this week to approve her appointment of Dostal as the newest member of the city’s Board of Public Works. That makes the fourth city board that Dostal, the recently retired superintendent of the wastewater treatment plant, is part of.
■John Hamel, the just-departed director of maintenance for the School Department, did not mince words today explaining his reasons for quitting the post after less than three years. He faulted the School Department for understaffing and underfunding maintenance of the schools.
■Hickory Ridge Country Club was sold for $1.05 million to a New Jersey golf management company at a foreclosure auction Thursday, and is expected to reopen by mid-April. Jay Craig, a partner with Appliedgolf in Millstone Township, N.J., submitted the highest bid as more than 100 people, many longtime members of the golf course, packed into the banquet facility at the 191 West Pomeroy Lane site to observe the bidding.
■In a move that could extend its reach into global women’s education, Smith College is participating in a three-year plan to create a women’s liberal arts university in Malaysia. College trustees have approved an agreement making Smith the primary U.S. academic planning partner for the Asian Women’s Leadership University in Malaysia.