■The coveted “Silver Snoopy,” awarded by astronauts in recognition of contributions to the Apollo space program, has been awarded to Albert H. LaRiviere of Florence by Alan B. Shepard Jr. LaRiviere, an engineer with the Defense Contracts Administration Services Office, Hamilton Standard, was presented the pin and personal letter from the commander of Apollo 14 flight at ceremonies last week.
■Reports are that a site near the Colonial Hilton is being prepared for a shopping mall to include such stores as Sears, Roebuck and Forbes and Wallace, but none of the stores allegedly involved will confirm that they intend to be in such a mall. The site of the long-rumored 45-acre shopping mall is the former Atwood Airport off Route 5.
■Realizing that time is running out, Forbes Library patrons all week have been flocking to the facility for a final round of borrowing books. The library will be shuttered to the public for the next six months after today to undergo a massive renovation.
■Opponents of casino gambling in the Bay State have a long, tough battle ahead of them, a University of Massachusetts professor said. Professor Robert Goodman, author of “The Luck Game,” told a crowd of 100 anti-casino activities rallying at the Statehouse on Monday that the gambling industry would keep fighting to expand in Massachusetts.
■Surreal was the word repeatedly uttered by residents and politicians Thursday, as western Massachusetts took stock of the wreckage wrought by a series of deadly tornadoes that cut a swath through the region, causing millions of dollars in damage and killed at least three people. Emergency responders were trying to account for people by going from house to house in Monson, where the tornado wrecked church steeples, blew out school windows and reduced whole residential blocks to heaps of debris.
■Acclaimed actor, director and writer Alan Alda shed the role of a celebrity Saturday when he addressed the 120 graduating students at the Williston Northampton School to assume a much more ordinary role: that of a grandfather. Alda addressed personal and heartfelt remarks to his granddaughter, Emilia Alda Caliguiri, and the other students in the class of 2011 who were graduating.