■Pollution from the University of Massachusetts power plant smokestacks could cause emphysema among employees and frequent users of the nearby University Library now under construction, a UMass graduate student study claims. Richard Calabrese of Amherst indicated that the results of his study will be presented to the Pioneer Valley Air Pollution Control Commission for consideration.
■After squelching the controversial proposal for open campus at its last regular meeting, the Northampton School Committee last night gave its unanimous approval to a program of senior-junior privileges. The program allows seniors and 16-year-old second semester juniors to leave the high school for “personal reasons” during one study period during the school day.
■It wasn’t Mark Hoffmann’s renowned penmanship but his poetry that helped reveal the legendary forger as the author of a fake Emily Dickinson poem. Manuscript collector Brent Ashworth, who tipped the Jones Library of his suspicions, remembers thinking after first reading the 15-line poem, “Man, this has to be the worst poem she never wrote.”
■The 74-year-old Whale Inn, a restaurant and banquet hall known throughout western Massachusetts, will close Oct. 18, with no prospect of reopening under new ownership. Members of the Walden family, who have owned the Goshen inn since 1960, say they are closing for personal reasons.
■New attractions at the Three County Fair this weekend include an alligator show and a local beer and wine tasting, but organizers are licking their lips in anticipation of one new feature they say has never been seen — or tasted — on the fairgrounds in the event’s 195-year history. The “Moo-nut,” a doughnut filled with soft-serve ice cream, topped with chocolate and sprinkles, was created by Moolicious Farm of Southwick.
■As Greenfield’s cyber school, the Massachusetts Virtual Academy, begins its third year of operation, administrators are preparing for another year of growth. The virtual school — a Greenfield public school that uses the Internet to instruct about 460 students from 415 different districts across the state — is the only one of its kind in Massachusetts.