■McCallum’s department store, a Northampton Main Street institution for 102 years, will close its doors for good early next year. Employees at McCallum’s apparently learned about the plans to cease operations only this morning. Employees were told that there would be placement in other Forbes and Wallace stores for those who want it.
■Capt. Allan J. O’Brien, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, has retired after 31 years of service. Capt. O’Brien, a lifelong resident of Northampton, is a former teacher of chemistry and physics at Northampton High School.
■More than 8,000 teachers across the state of Massachusetts have not renewed their low-cost internet accounts with MassEd.Net, a program launched this year to motivate teachers to use the internet.
■Twenty years of wheeling and dealing, munching on popcorn, meeting up with regulars, and endlessly browsing ended Sunday at the area’s most successful flea market location, in the Mountain Farms Mall. The market is being evicted to make way for a Wal-Mart store.
■The Trustees of the Reservation have teamed up with the Old Creamery Co-op in Cummington to open a new café at the Notchview Reservation in Windsor in the new year. Kitchen manager Emmy Howard said Old Creamery cooks will prepare soup, a meaty chili, sandwiches, and hot beverages for the café.
■After a season of struggles on the field and controversy off it, the University of Massachusetts fired head football coach Charley Molnar Thursday. UMass athletic director John McCutcheon said he and Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy made the decision to dismiss Molnar earlier but chose to wait until after Christmas.