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By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — Homelessness and substance abuse are often two sides of the same coin — and a grant distribution of $150,000, matched by three municipalities, signals a focused effort to combat both in 14 Hampshire County communities.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

GOSHEN — Winds of 20 mph fanned a brush fire that spread across 4 acres Friday that was ignited after illegal burning by the property’s owners.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

WILLIAMSBURG — The snooze button has been repeatedly pressed on repairs to the town’s offices over the years — but the building is finally waking up.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

WILLIAMSBURG — Town employees should expect to pay about $38 more a month for health insurance beginning July 1, as the town contends with an expected increase in premiums in fiscal year 2026.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HADLEY — Irate farmers, waving signs and pitchforks, gathered in front Town Hall on Sunday afternoon as tractors rolled in and the Expandable Brass Band played at the start of a “Attack on Small Farms” protest.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

AMHERST — U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern continues to tour the state, holding town halls across his district, and will again appear in Hadley on Sunday to rally farmers facing losses of federal aid as grants are put on hold or canceled by by the Trump administration. But his stop Friday brought him to the Applewood Retirement Living community in Amherst, where residents were especially concerned about President Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s unpredictable, potentially disastrous tinkering with Social Security.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

GOSHEN – Retired nurse Marie Calderone has spent her life witnessing falls and seeing the impacts – events that for those over 55 can be fatal. But this phase of her life is about balance.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — The city’s population this weekend is expected to go from 50,000 to half a million, as the Irish, and those who are Irish for the weekend, get ready to run, march, and drink in honor of Ireland’s patron saint.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — Some 16% of the city’s properties are exempt from paying property taxes — a potential source of revenue Mayor Joshua Garcia is looking to tap into next fiscal year via a new payment in lieu of taxes policy.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — The first signs of green this spring were seen Monday at the Hotel Northampton for the annual Northampton St. Patrick’s Association’s Breakfast, where green sweaters, scarves, and shamrocks dominated ahead of next weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade festivities in Holyoke.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

CUMMINGTON — Rural towns are analogous to Ginger Rogers trying to keep up with Fred Astaire.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — “Nobody knows how to start a revolution better than us” said U.S. Sen. Ed Markey Sunday afternoon at Pulaski Park, where more than 800 came to collectively ignite the sparks of revolution against what they described as President Donald Trump’s “technocratic dictatorship.”

By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — Half is better than none.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

PLAINFIELD — Whether it’s for a meal, gathering after a Memorial Day service, a concert or town meetings, village greens have long served as a magnet for community life in New England towns.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — While Casa del Pollo just opened last month, its soul food menu has been developing for generations — a business built to model the childhood dinner table, and revive expressions of comfort, joy and community that comes from cuisine.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

AMHERST — When the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report landed on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s desk in June 1981, he had no idea it would be the start of a “dark” period of his career.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the University of Massachusetts Amherst does not have racially restricted covenants in Northampton.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — As Smithies made their way around campus at lunch hour on Thursday, 20 or so protesters stood in numbingly cold rain, lining the sidewalk along Elm Street to decry what they allege is the school’s “complicity with genocide,” and voiced three demands.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

CUMMINGTON — Last week Nancy Cole found herself in “crisis mode.” But she entered this week “crying and laughing,” in awe of what she called the “magic” of her community that rallied to buy the Cummington resident a boiler — raising $21,555 in less than 24 hours.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

SPRINGFIELD — The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts committed this month to a three-year, $200,000-a-year partnership with the Secure Community Network (SCN) to strengthen and enhance security measures at congregations, schools and organizations throughout the region.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

CHESTERFIELD — Kate Reid, formerly the assistant director of the town’s Council on Aging (COA), will be stepping in as interim leader and says she will use the time to “hold place.”