■Laboratory technicians at Cooley Dickinson Hospital reported at 9 a.m. that the pollen count for the past 24-hour period was 25. This count is an all-time high for the past three years during hay fever season, which runs from mid-August to Oct. 1.
■East Coast and Midwestern cities beset by a sweltering heat wave today face water shortages and continuing electric power problems. The National Weather Service forecasts no relief from the heat until after the Labor Day weekend.
■A Boston-based nonprofit real estate company specializing in mixed-income housing projects and urban neighborhood development is the state’s choice to develop 134 acres at the core of the former Northampton State Hospital. The state has provisionally agreed to accept an offer by The Community Builders Inc., of $2.4 million — twice what a competing Canadian firm bid — for land and scores of former institutional buildings.
■Bruce Penniman, chair of the English department at Amherst Regional High School, has been named the 1998-1999 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year by the state Department of Education. School Superintendent Gus Sayer announced the award at a districtwide faculty meeting this morning.
■Fairgoers were transported back to the 15th century when a jousting match took place at the Three County Fair on Sunday. At Sunday’s noon show — the first jousting event of the fair — visitors packed the stands and lined the gate of the Arena Building as riders in knightly armor faced off.
■Smith College is working with the country’s largest Spanish-language TV network to launch a leadership development program for women. The program for Univision Communications Inc. will work with female programming managers, producers, news anchors and correspondents in the company’s Miami operation.