■Unless there is a strong demonstration of community support in the next two weeks for the plan to renovate the stage of the Academy of Music on Main Street and bring live theater back to Northampton, the plan may fail, Mayor Sean M. Dunphy said yesterday. The trustees of the Academy are attempting to raise $30,000 to repair the stage.
■Recreation Commission Director Patrick Goggins said yesterday that he was “tremendously discouraged” by the City Council’s refusal Thursday night to vote funds to start work on a project to construct athletic fields on 15 acres of land on Burts Pit Road. The council voted 5-4 not to spend $3,900 to make an engineering study of the area.
■Twenty-five years after the passage of legislation that paved the way for the creation of special education services around the state, programs helping the neediest students face new obstacles, school leaders said Friday. Officials from area schools say they see a steady and alarming increase in the number of severe behavioral problems among the regional’s youngest children.
■A new device that “sees” heat will help city firefighters find a fire amid the thick smoke of a burning building — and the people who may be trapped inside. Called a Thermal-Imaging device, the unit will soon be added to the Fire Department’s arsenal following a $25,000 donation from Smith College.
■Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Charles Krauthammer won another honor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Wednesday Ð he became the first speaker for the school’s Republican Club in recent memory who did not inspire protests or booing. The audience of a few hundred at the Fine Arts Center gave Krauthammer a standing ovation when he was first introduced, causing him to say he should quit while he was ahead.
■A popular Route 9 Korean restaurant that features rooms for karaoke-style singing and a market selling authentic Korean products is back in business. Gohyang Restaurant recently returned under Hoony Song of Amherst, who with his wife Aeran, saw an opportunity to run his own business.