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By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Though Massachusetts is not one of at least six states that will lose out on $500 million in food deliveries promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the leader of the region’s largest food bank remains concerned about future cuts.

EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — Cities and towns in Hampshire County are facing spikes in health insurance costs between 10% and 20% for fiscal year 2026, an increase in a normally stable cost that promises to eat into bottom lines during an already tight budget season.

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 CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — As protests against the Trump administration proliferate across the U.S., a new group of voices is rising in South Deerfield, on the corner of Route 116 and Sugarloaf Street.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — More than a half-dozen restaurants in Hampshire County are partnering with survival centers in Northampton and Amherst to provide free meals to those facing food insecurity in the region as part of a larger initiative taking place statewide.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Best-case scenarios for the Amherst elementary and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools, in which the budgets are around $2 million short of providing level services for the 2025-2026 school year, are leading a member of Amherst’s Town Council to suggest town officials find a way to get more money to local public education.

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 COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — About 3.1 million people in Massachusetts already have a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or identification card and demand for the Registry of Motor Vehicles appointment required to get one is high ahead of a long-awaited May deadline.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — On an early March weekend, as numerous musicians took the stage at venues across the city for the Back Porch Music Festival, some spent a portion of their downtime at Mill River Music and Guitars, relaxing on the store’s couches, surrounded by hundreds of acoustic and electric guitars displayed on the walls.

AMHERST

By DR. JULIA FISCHER

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

GREENFIELD — The more than 700 people who attended a town hall event with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern on Tuesday relayed an expansive mandate for him to take back to Congress: Defend federal institutions, create a stronger coalition of Democrats and be a voice of resistance to the Trump administration.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — A Northampton woman was ordered held in jail without bail on Wednesday after allegedly killing her dog in what a judge described as a “savage beating” and the city’s animal control officer called “the worst case I’ve seen.”

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON – Five activists with the group Demilitarize Western Mass were arrested Wednesday morning after occupying the lobby of the L3Harris building on Prince Street in Northampton.

By CAROLYN BROWN

By the pricking of my thumbs, “Macbeth” to Franklin County comes!

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board is reluctantly supporting a $58 million budget that will be presented at annual Town Meeting this spring, with members acknowledging that the spending plan for next fiscal year does not meet the needs of residents.

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 SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Money for projects to improve access to buildings and ensure more public amenities for residents with disabilities could be directed by a new Commission for Persons with Disabilities, which will begin meeting monthly in April.

Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence will host a screening of the silent film “The Ancient Law” (“Das alte Gesetz”) with live musical accompaniment on Saturday, March 22, at 7 p.m.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — When Town Manager Steve Williams goes on the road to advertise Belchertown as a viable, business-friendly community, business owners admit to him that they never considered the town as a potential home for their company.