■Lauren D. (Deac) Lyman, a retired vice president of United Aircraft Corp. and a Pulitzer Prize winner, died today in Bridgeport, Conn. Lyman was born in Easthampton and attended Williston Academy. He worked for a short time at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1936 while a reporter for the New York Times for a story he did on the move of the Charles A. Lindbergh family to England to escape the notoriety that followed the kidnapping and killing of the Lindberghs’ infant son.
■A crop of about 300 marijuana plants was harvested here last Wednesday, Northampton police disclosed. The weeds, which are used to make narcotic materials, were discovered growing in a 10-by 10-foot patch off Route 66, according to Police Detective Richard Ryan.
■Valuable Families, the gay, lesbian and bisexual family organization, announced yesterday at a rally and press conference that McDonald’s Corp. has agreed to let the group hold a fund-raiser at the King Street restaurant. The press conference initially was called by Valuable Families to condemn the corporation’s decision three weeks ago to withdraw an invitation to the group.
■Two families who have long competed to sell food from vending machines across the region may soon be rivals no longer. Classic Foods of Greenfield, a division of A.L. Griggs Industries Inc. of Northampton, says it plans to acquire Trico Services of Northampton by Aug. 1.
■About 120 acres of forestland near Plainfield Pond, purchased by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation for $2 million, will keep the land in its pristine state. The parcel of land on Stetson Avenue sits between Plainfield Pond and Crooked Pond and abuts both of them.
■Donna Moyer, who was named the interim Hadley school superintendent in May, has been holding a series of marathon meetings with school administrators and staff since officially assuming her position on Thursday. The meetings are the first step in plotting the course of the Hadley schools in the coming year, Moyer said.