■Men born on July 9, 1951, will be the first called for the draft in 1971, under a national lottery conducted today. The lottery provided for pulling red and green capsules from two rotating drums. One contained the birthdays of men born in 1951. These were matched with numbers from one to 365, taken from the other drum.
■The two half pillars removed from either side of the entrance to Northampton’s City Hall were restored yesterday through the cooperation of the City Property Committee, Smith’s Vocational High School and members of the Northampton Historical Society. Removal of the pillars had caused concern among those who proposed preservation of the current flavor of Northampton’s Main Street.
■A year-old state drunken-driving law, heralded as a tough crackdown but bogged down by a layer of bureaucracy, is being overhauled. Soon, police will be able to suspend a driver’s license at the time of arrest and avoid what Registry of Motor Vehicles spokesman Aubrey Haznar called the “paperwork maze” that currently exists.
■Some 30 trained medical interpreters capable of speaking Polish, Russian, Spanish, Khmer or Vietnamese are now on call for Cooley Dickinson Hospital and non-English speaking patients. The new program started June 12.
■After a 30-year association with Nonotuck Community School, including nine as director, Margery Heyl steps down today. The new director is Julie Guazzo, hired after a three-month search by a committee made up of teachers, board member and parents.
■Opponents of landfill expansion in Northampton used a public forum Thursday night to send the City Council a message they’ve reiterated many times in the past: It’s time for the city to walk away from the landfill business and never look back.