■In anticipation of urban renewal efforts in the downtown area, two private city groups yesterday announced plans to construct 100 to 150 units of high-rise housing off Pleasant Street. The proposed housing would be located on a 3.4-acre parcels, including the building at 315 Pleasant St. — now the location of Hugo’s Restaurant — and the lot to the rear of the building.
■The second retail fabric outlet in two months to occupy quarters at 23 Pleasant St. will open around Jan. 20 — despite what the former soft goods store manager said was a lack of business at that address. Knits Galore will replace Fabric World as Pleasant Street’s newest fabric business.
■Vendors slit the throats of their chickens and ducks today, and government teams gassed flocks on farms in Hong Kong in a mass slaughter designed to eradicate a mysterious flu that has killed four people. Family flocks as well as commercial farms were targeted in the massive, 24-hour drive to kill Hong Kong’s estimated 1.2 million chickens.
■It has been two years since the Family Planning Council of Western Massachusetts quietly opened a program for intravenous drug users to exchange their dirty needles for clean ones in an effort to reduce the spread of the HIV virus. In that time the program has received accolades from state public health officials.
■Police officers sat in cruisers in the parking lots of all Amherst Schools last week during the times when students were entering and leaving the buildings. Superintendent Maria Geryk said she asked for the police presence to reassure parents and students following the Dec. 14 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
■With just days before Massachusetts’ medical marijuana law goes into effect, significant questions remain on how the voter-approved ballot question will be regulated. How much marijuana will patients be allowed? Will there be a registry of marijuana patients and prescribing doctors? How will marijuana providers be certified by the state?