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By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — For the early portion of the first half, anxious murmurs spread through the Mullins Center as the UMass men’s basketball team racked up as many turnovers (6) as points nearly 10 minutes into the game. The 2,772 fans that showed up were wondering if the Minutemen would too. But as he did on Sunday against La Salle, Minutemen sophomore Jaylen Curry changed the trajectory of Wednesday night’s contest with George Washington.

It was always going to be a challenge for the Granby wrestling team against Athol on Wednesday. 

The UMass women’s basketball team lost in heartbreaking fashion to Rhode Island on a last-second layup, falling 60-58, on Wednesday at the Ryan Center.

By GARRETT COTE

It’s that time of the week again, as Wednesday evening means Hampshire County high school basketball notebook No. 3 is here. February is on the horizon, which means the eight (boys and girls combined) Western Massachusetts tournaments are as well. Teams across the valley are hoping to play their best basketball of the season over the next several weeks to be in the best position possible to compete for a sectional crown.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Though Gov. Maura Healey maintains that she is not raising taxes, the budget she rolled out Wednesday could apply existing taxes to some purchases, or decrease how much residents are able to write off on their tax returns.

By ALEXA LEWIS

Just a few days before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, more than 120 Valley residents eagerly tuned in to a virtual presentation by authors and friends — one Palestinian and the other Jewish — who for some time have sought ways to find common ground and bridge the divide between their peoples.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — More than a year and a half after it initially planned to close, the Coca-Cola bottling plant on Industrial Drive will remain open through 2025, though its future in the city remains uncertain.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

AMHERST — Yamiche Alcindor’s “ah-ha” moment came when she was in high school and heard the story of Emmett Till, a Black teen from Chicago who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey announced a plan Tuesday to pump at least $2.5 billion into facilities at the University of Massachusetts, state universities and community colleges by the middle of the 2030s.

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — The first two cases of bird flu on the University of Massachusetts campus were discovered over the weekend when two deceased Canadian geese tested positive for disease, the university announced.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — Saying that serving as mayor has been the greatest honor of his life, Joshua Garcia intends to seek a second term this fall.

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the 1888 Building project a variance Thursday evening to allow the modern addition to the structure to exceed the town’s 35-foot height limit.

By CAROLYN BROWN

Jonathan Edwards, one of Northampton’s most famous residents, was a revolutionary preacher whose legacy has endured through centuries. He was the first minister in Northampton to baptize African Americans, yet he did not free those he enslaved. He was a loving husband, yet he supported complementarianism, a theological belief that gender roles are ordained by God. And his work inspired several suicides.

The local theater company Valley Players will present a production of the play “Love Letters” on Feb. 7, 8, 14 and 15, each at 7:30 p.m., at Black Birch Vineyard in Hatfield.

By TOM LITWIN

During migration season this past fall, researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, using Nexrad weather radar, tracked approximately 4 billion birds migrating from Canada into the U.S. and 4.7 million birds leaving the U.S. for the tropics. Clearly one strategy for dealing with New England weather is to leave it behind. But other species’ strategies have traded the benefits and perils posed by thousands of miles of travel for the benefits and perils of northern winters.

The recent cabinet nominations by President Donald Trump — Kash Patel for FBI director, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary, and Pete Hegseth for secretary of Defense are not just poor choices — they are dangerous. These appointments could jeopardize our nation’s safety, health and security at a time when we need strong, competent leadership the most.

One cannot escape the irony of some of the political theater we have been subjected to lately. First Donald Trump, who proposes, on day one in office, to bring manufacturing back to America, and then peddles a Bible for $59.99 printed (where else but) in China. One would think that we have plenty of printing presses in the U.S. but I guess it would be much too expensive to have an American company take on the job.

The Amherst boys basketball team received 38 combined points from Mitchell Carey and Samuel Woodruff, but couldn’t pull out the road victory in its 61-53 loss to Longmeadow on Tuesday night.

By GARRETT COTE

BELCHERTOWN — The visiting Hampshire girls basketball team continued to hang around as it trailed Belchertown by 10 in the third quarter – looking to make a push to really put pressure on the Orioles.