■Daniel R. Shermeta, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley R. Shermeta of Franklin Street, has been accepted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona, Fla. Because of extra effort to build up flying time this summer, he earned a commercial pilot’s license on his 18th birthday, Dec. 4.
■A total of 25 Northampton area residents are each about $2,000 richer after the investment corporation to which they belong won $50,000 in the Massachusetts State Lottery. Calling themselves Pleasant Investment Corporation, the group pooled $25 each and tried their luck in the lottery on a group basis.
■The Academy of Music and the Northampton Arts Council are broadening a winter arts series to include “Two Sundays in January,” a film and live entertainment program for the entire family. Each program will feature a classic cartoon, a short film and live entertainment on stage.
■The number of new AIDS cases in Massachusetts declined for the second straight year in 1997, according to state health officials monitoring the epidemic. But the improvement is more pronounced in Boston than in the state’s other cities.
■Eric A. Grinnell, founder of the Academy at Charlemont, died Tuesday, but his legacy will live on, say those who knew him. Grinnell founded the academy in 1981, and served as headmaster for 20 years, retiring in 2002.
■Domestic disputes, a road-rage incident, and a collision between two town police cruisers have marked Christmas week in Amherst. The most serious incident was on Christmas Day when a man allegedly used a table leg to strike another member of his family.