■It was a big day for the Irish from Northampton at Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade yesterday. Although the city contingent brought up the rear, the city float won the John T. Sheehan award for an entry with an Irish theme, proving that while Northampton might be last, it wasn’t least.
■A bomb scare and a false alarm failed to close Easthampton High School today, as administrators followed a new policy of allowing Superintendent of Schools Neil Pepin to determine whether or not the school would remain in session. The school has received 14 bomb threats since September.
■From now on, lighting up in state courthouses will be a crime. John J. Irwin, chief administrative judge for the state’s court system, has eliminated cigarettes from offices and jury pool rooms where smoking previously had been allowed.
■Fewer jobs for high-level mathematicians and scientists, coupled with the immigration of foreign-born talent, has made times tough for native-born Americans with doctorates in science and math. High-level scientists have experienced double-digit unemployment while the overall rate in the country has dropped to about 5%, The Boston Globe said today.
■The Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, rector at Grace Episcopal Church, is a finalist to succeed the first openly gay bishop to lead an Episcopal diocese. The Bishop Search and Nomination Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire announced this week that Hirschfeld, 51, is one of three finalists for bishop co-adjutor to take over for Bishop V. Gene Robinson when he retires next January.
■U.S. Rep. John Olver, of Amherst, actor George Clooney, and Clooney’s father were arrested Friday during a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy, and the actor said he has asked President Barack Obama to engage China on stopping a humanitarian crisis in northern Africa. The protesters accuse Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains in the country’s border region with South Sudan.