Jim Bridgman

50 Years Ago

  • An Amherst College professor has charged the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with violating his constitutional rights by intercepting his mail and keeping a file on his activities. Sociology professor Norman Birnbaum and his attorney Louis Boutin are seeking damages from the intelligence agencies in an attempt to expose what Birnbaum sees as an abridgement of academic freedom in America.
  • Tensions eased this weekend at Florence Heights, a low-income housing development off Florence Road, after threats of violence caused a police guard to be hired for two nights last week. Officials of the Northampton Housing Authority, city police and tenants involved in the dispute reported this morning that there were no incidents during the weekend related to last week’s threatened violence.

25 Years Ago

  • Three memorial books honoring the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in New York and Washington will be available for people to sign in three locations in Easthampton. “I thought this would be a good thing to do to help the healing process locally,” said Easthampton resident Robert Graham, who along with his wife, Sandy, got approval from the mayor to place the memorial books.
  • Approximately 70 Cub and Boy Scouts from Hatfield spent the weekend collecting $1,097.23 for the American Red Cross, to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After helping to organize a townwide candlelight vigil Friday, Cub Scouts from Pack 104 and Boy Scouts from Troop 104 decided to do something more.

10 Years Ago

  • Green-Rainbow Party nominee for president Jill Stein spoke at the First Churches in Northampton on Sunday night with a message: Vote for the greater good, not the lesser evil. At an event co-sponsored by the Green-Rainbow Party and the International Socialist Organization of the University of Massachusetts, nearly 400 people heard the third-party candidate’s proposal for earning their votes in the general election Nov. 8.
  • Sally Ekus, literary agent and partner at the Lisa Ekus Group LLC, has been named a 2016 Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree. Ekus joined the Lisa Ekus Group in 2009 and has since doubled the agency’s author list, brokering over 80 book deals with the country’s top publishers.