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Smith Academy pitcher Harry LaFlamme was on fire on the mound against Mahar on Monday in Hatfield. 

By GARRETT COTE

WESTHAMPTON — As is always the case when western Massachusetts heavyweights Hampshire Regional and Greenfield meet on the softball diamond, high-level pitching was on display Monday afternoon. The Green Wave rely on senior MacKenzie Paulin, a Merrimack commit, while the Raiders typically give the ball to sophomore Ryanne Dubay, who will have her fair share of college offers when the time comes.

By ALEXA LEWIS

WESTFIELD — For months, signs reading “NO Lithium Battery Storage Over Our Aquifer” have been popping up in front yards throughout Westfield. Recently, concerns have been stirring in surrounding towns as well, marked by a proliferation of those signs throughout Southampton, Easthampton and beyond.

By GARRETT COTE

Shawn Durocher spent her weekend mornings and afternoons wheeling a small gas grill behind the clubhouse at Amherst Golf Club, where she would cook hamburgers and hot dogs for those playing. She was in high school and needed a way to make some money, so Amherst’s head golf professional, Dave Twohig, hired Durocher – an Amherst native – to handle grilling duties.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Faculty at the University of Massachusetts are calling on Chancellor Javier Reyes and President Martin Meehan to form a compact with the 250 land grant and public universities across the country to fight Trump administration actions impacting academic freedom and free expression, including politically motivated detentions of students and faculty and visa revocations for some international students.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Senate Democrats announced a bill Monday morning intended to shield reproductive and transgender care in Massachusetts from out-of-state threats, saying it was part of the response effort to the Trump administration.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Responding to an online petition that collected nearly 250 signatures, officials at Amherst Regional High School have reversed a recent decision to close nearly all of the school’s bathrooms for students during lunch periods out of concern with a rising level of vaping indicated by vaping detection alarms frequently going off.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY— The town will officially welcome Tammy Martin as its new town administrator on June 2 after a long wait and search for Christopher Martin’s replacement.

HAYDENVILLE — Haydenville Congregational Church is having its annual Easter Soup & Bake Sale on April 19, the Saturday before Easter, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church.

I am writing to offer my support of Mayor Gina Louise Sciarra for a second term as Northampton’s mayor. I voiced support her first mayoral run and do so again because she shares my values, is smart and dedicated to our city. She listens to the people she represents and makes decisions, sometimes tough ones, that best maintain the services and infrastructure of our city while preserving its future. I am a retired public school teacher who believes that we should value all people and that it is our responsibility to contribute to our communities. Mayor Sciarra shows up to support people with disabilities, and on weekends has worked with volunteer crews that clean up the city’s trails. She is the real deal. Go to her website and read about her views, vision, and accomplishments and join me in supporting her for another term. 

Occasionally there is an opinion column in the Gazette that, to me, reaches a level of eloquence, thoughtfulness, creativity, honesty, collegiality, resourcefulness, and hope and guidance for a path forward that I must cut it out and hang it in my kitchen, sharing it with anyone who visits. Claudia Lefko’s recent column addressing the issue of what to do with downtown Northampton and the ongoing controversy surrounding it, “Main Street: Place-making or unmaking place?” [Gazette, March 12] is one such column.

By TOM WASKIEWICZ

Small family farms are more than businesses; they are a way of life, shaped by generations of experience, sacrifice, and resilience. Every field plowed, every seed planted, every harvest gathered carries with it the wisdom of those who came before. But there’s no handbook for passing down this knowledge. Instead, it happens in the quiet moments — side by side in the fields, in conversations at the kitchen table, in the habits formed over years of hard work.

By MARIEL E. ADDIS

As a guest columnist, the Gazette grants me one essay per month. In the current, fast-paced, news cycle since Jan. 20, 2025, every time I come up with an essay theme, or even fully write a prospective essay, some new “thing” pops up on my radar that I feel I need to address and I’m back to the drawing-board.

By JOSH SILVER

If you follow Northampton city politics, you know that hostility and acrimony dominate marathon-length City Council and School Committee meetings. This is a big reason that many of our elected officials have recently announced they will not seek reelection this year — and there are very few candidates raising their hands to run for these important positions.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Potentially hazardous chemicals missing or moved from a 108 Hockanum Road home, following a raid at the residence by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on April 8, has prompted the temporary detention of resident Jacob D. Miller.

Old school coaching tells us to leave emotion out of sport.We’ve heard it all before – Toughen up! We need you! Get it together! Stop crying!

By DR. DAVID GOTTSEGEN

RFK Jr., the former environmental champion, now head of head of the Department of Health and Human Services, declared just last year that climate change is “real, manmade, and an existential threat.” Yet in late March, all research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — part of HHS — studying the effects of climate change on human health was canceled.