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By SCOTT MERZBACH

HATFIELD – Luke Longstreeth, who runs a Hadley landscaping and property management business and offered to bring the perspective of a younger generation to town politics, narrowly earned a seat on the Select Board in a contest with six-year incumbent Diana Szynal, according to unofficial town election results Tuesday night.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY – Incumbent Select Board members Molly A. Keegan and Randall E. Izer turned back a challenge from political newcomer Philip W. Shumway at town election Tuesday, according to unofficial results.

By DOMENIC POLI

WENDELL — Residents voiced concerns about recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehensions and deportations, and support for a Medicare-for-All system and land conservation, during a town hall-style meeting with the Democrat representing the 7th Hampden District on Monday afternoon.

By RYAN AMES

SOUTH DEERFIELD — It all came down to one match.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — An ongoing effort to modify town zoning, possibly along a section of Route 9, to encourage more affordable housing and possible mixed-use developments, will be the subject of a community forum Thursday.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ $37.08 million budget for fiscal year 2026, recommended by the Amherst Regional School Committee, won final approval Monday, with the Amherst Town Council unanimously agreeing to the town’s $19.74 million assessment.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra has officially debuted her $145 million fiscal year 2026 budget for the city, continuing to defend her plan for the school district while warning of possible instability from federal cuts.

By SAM DRYSDALE

Career technical schools in Massachusetts will use a lottery system to admit students when there are more applicants than available seats, an approach that supporters say will ensure fairness and critics warn will water down education standards.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Voters in Monday’s town election narrowly selected incumbent Jennifer Turner and former Finance Committee member Jonathan Ritter to serve three-year terms on the Select Board.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Musician Evelyn Harris has relinquished an honorary degree after it was discovered that parts of her speech given at Smith College’s commencement on Sunday were plagiarized, according to letter sent to the campus community by Smith College President Sarah Willie-LeBreton.

By BILL DANIELSON

Last Saturday was a bit of a milestone for me. It might easily have come and gone without me realizing it, but thanks to my obsessive record keeping I happened to see a notation in the pages of my 2025 field diary and avoided an embarrassing oversight. Last Saturday marked the 28th anniversary of Speaking of Nature, an event that I don’t think I could have ever imagined back in 1997 when I sent in my first column.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The defense and commonwealth have rested in the case of Edward Kostek, a former physical therapist from South Hadley facing two counts of rape of a former patient, but not before Kostek himself took the stand in Hampshire Superior Court in his own defense.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

GREENFIELD — Baystate Franklin Medical Center went on lockdown for roughly an hour Tuesday morning after a switchboard operator received numerous calls from a former patient warning that “the hospital’s going to blow up,” according to Police Chief Todd Dodge.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — With markers in their hands, students and staff from both Fort River and Wildwood schools throughout the day on Monday inscribed their names on a beam that will become part of the entrance canopy at the town’s first new elementary school building in more than 50 years.

By SAM DRYSDALE

The state will close its remaining motel and hotel shelters this summer, Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday, as the governor and lawmakers have imposed restrictions on the emergency housing system over the past year and family enrollment has declined.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — Teams of emergency personnel were scouring the Connecticut River Tuesday in search of 27-year-old Niklas Delisle, who was carried away by the current Monday night after his kayak capsized.

By NANCY E. GROSSMAN

In the end, the dispute came down to about 15 tents and a fence loosely constructed of wooden pallets that had collectively been up for less than a day. But this small encampment was enough to trigger an ill-considered decision by first-year UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes that cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars and drove a likely permanent wedge between the administration and some of the UMass community.

By THOMAS JOHNSTON

SOUTH DEERFIELD — The current No. 2 and No. 3 ranked softball teams in the Western Mass. Class B tournament met at Zabek Field on Monday to close out the regular season.

By RYAN AMES

AMHERST — The Amherst girls tennis team outlasted Ludlow, 4-1, in a marathon match on Monday at the Amherst Middle School Courts during the Class A semifinals of the girls tennis Western Mass. Tournament. The second-seeded Hurricanes took two pivotal points against the No. 3 Lions with match wins in second singles and first doubles — matches that took about two hours — to advance to the Class A championship against top-seeded Longmeadow.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — An inexpensive way to turn disposable forks, knives and spoons used in the school cafeteria and other recycled plastics into filament for the school’s three-dimensional printer is the purpose of a prototype machine being built by Amherst Regional High School students.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

HOLYOKE — For decades, millions of gallons of the city’s sewage have flowed into the Connecticut River on a regular basis during periods of heavy rain.