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By MITCHELL FINK

LEVERETT — Two years after a Leverett family released videos of motorists whizzing past their children’s stopped school bus, the Legislature has passed a bill allowing video monitoring to catch violators.

By JACOB NELSON

Spring is here, and with it are signs of new life on farms around the Valley. Leaves are beginning to bud on fruit trees, farmers are preparing soil for the coming growing season, and at Little Brook Farm in Sunderland, day-old baby lambs are bounding around the lambing barn.

By NANCY PICK

Asparagus, strawberries and sunflowers are, to my mind, three of the best reasons to live in western Massachusetts.

By BILL DANIELSON

The plan was simple. Make a quick stop at a geologic feature that would provide a real-world example of topics that were being discussed in my biology classes. The topic was evolution and I was specifically looking for an example of rock formations that were being reshaped by the elements. It really couldn’t be any more straightforward, right? Well, perhaps a little background would help.

By MOLLY PARR

Today’s recipe comes double recommended. The moms I did a meal train for wrote to ask me for the recipe. That same week, my husband asked what was in the noodles that made them so good.

By GABRIEL O’HARA SALINI

The Massachusetts cannabis industry is a billion-dollar enterprise, with over 700 retailers operating across the state. Yet stores are closing, companies are firing their workers and retail and non-retail licenses are being surrendered by former operators as business owners clamor for regulatory changes to transform an industry they see as unsustainable.

By TED WATT

It was January, with two feet of cold crisp powder on the ground. The day was bright and sunny. The 5th and 6th grades at our small rural, hill-town school had been studying life sciences. Educators and students were focusing on animals and the many varied ways they are adapted, both physically and behaviorally, to living in their environment. We decided to take advantage of the perfect winter day and headed out to see what we could learn about how animals live in winter from the signs and tracks they left behind.

By BILL DANIELSON

As I write this column I am feeling quite under the weather. The flu has come to town and it has me in its grip. I haven’t left the house in days and all I want to do is sleep. That being said, I am also stuck on “teacher time” and I can’t seem to sleep past 5 a.m. With the recent changing of the clocks this puts me in the unhappy position of being awake while it is still dark outside; annoying on a work day, positively miserable when not going to work.

By MARY-KATE WILSON, FRANCESCO BUCELLIand ABIGAIL HALPIN

NORTHAMPTON — It’s been a year since the Universal Free School Meals Act passed in Massachusetts, making lunch and breakfast free across the state for K-12 students.

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

Nan Bernstein lives in Tyringham, a town in the Berkshires, 29 miles west of the Gazette offices as the crow flies. She grew up in York, Pennsylvania, in the 1950s and ‘60s. Her grandfather was a tailor and her father owned and operated a small clothing factory.

By ROSEMARY CAINE

A few decades ago, we would have been grateful for any kind of pub gig or a hospitable venue that would allow us to play any day, but especially Saint Patrick’s Day.

By BILL DANIELSON

The first week of March came with a roller coaster of emotions. Saturday, March 1 was absolutely amazing. For the first time in months the weather seemed to be warming and there was a moment when I actually considered cleaning off the table on my deck and sitting outside in the sunshine. A large flock of red-winged blackbirds and common grackles arrived that morning and suddenly the yard was full of songs and the murmur of hundreds of birds talking about their plans for the day. It was joyous, it was refreshing, and it was short-lived.

By MITCH FINK

BOSTON — In his 14 years as an officer with the Hadley Police Department, David Bertera never had to worry about his heart health coverage. Massachusetts’ Heart Law guaranteed it.

By MELISSA KAREN SANCES

Her phone pinged and a grey bubble rose to the surface: “Are you ready to come back?”

By LISA GOODRICH

“When people think of farms, they tend to think of the summer, abundance, corn fields, and flowers. What people don’t realize is that farms function year-round, and there are many business models that allow farmers to grow products year-round or have products year-round to sell,” says Hannah Logan, Market Manager of the Greenfield Winter Farmers’ Market.

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

I was taking a shower, basking in the scent of my green tea shampoo when — poof! — a phrase popped into my mind like a gift from the muses. “Words, like pixie dust, falling down.”

By BILL DANIELSON

Last week I regaled you with a story about a red-tailed hawk. This bird kept showing up in my yard and forlornly staring out across my back yard in the hopes of finding something to eat. At the time, the problem was one of precipitation, or, rather, the precise combination of temperature and precipitation. Snow, followed by rain, followed by prolonged temperatures below freezing had resulted in a landscape that was covered by a thick shell of ice.

By GEORGE MILLER

NORTHAMPTON – A rockfight of a ballgame saw Northampton and Reading combine for only 55 points through the first three quarters Friday night, and then the teams promptly erupted for 43 total points in the fourth quarter alone.

By ERIC WELD

I made a mistake.

By LISA GOODRICH

For local farmers, winter is a time for planning the next growing season, catching up on small business tasks, and maintaining structures and equipment. For the local community, winter is the time to lock in prices on produce for the growing season by signing up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

I received the announcement of the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (WMMGA)’s spring symposiums earlier this month, when the wind was whipping the falling snow into spiraling towers of white. In early February, it’s hard for the imagination to break through the winter doldrums. Will we ever feel the touch of soft spring breezes or enjoy the sight of green shoots pushing through the cold dark soil? The WMMGA symposiums help us to jostle our gardening passions out of hibernation and into activity, even if only mental.