■The county jail on Union Street fails to meet state requirements for space and sanitation, the County Commissioners learned Friday. Meeting in executive session, the commission voted to ask Sheriff John Boyle to make recommendations on what steps the county can take to correct violations of state standards for human habitation and food service.
■George D. McGovern, D-South Dakota, was elected president of the United States during a faculty-student mock election held this week at St. Michael’s High School. He received 127 votes. Wilber Mills gathered the next highest number with 67 supporters. Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey received eight votes each.
■The next parking garage in the city could well be at Smith College. While Smith administrators say there are no set plans to build a parking garage on the campus, it’s a legitimate idea, and one the college is considering.
■The siphoning of state aid from public schools to charter schools is “depriving our children of their birthright” to a quality public education, the Northampton School Committee’s vice chairman, Lawrence A. Fink, said last night. The situation is pressuring educators to reconsider the city’s stance on school choice.
■Plots at the new Florence Organic Community Garden off Spring Street will become available Saturday morning after volunteers worked the land to prepare last weekend. The group laid out 100 plots on the south side of Meadow Street. Registration for the plots will be held Saturday at the Florence Community Center.
■MGM Resorts International is abandoning a plan to build a resort-style casino in Brimfield and will seek an alternative location in western Massachusetts. The Las Vegas casino company indicated that there were too many complications to pursuing the project in the small, largely rural community.