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By STEVE PFARRER

NORTHAMPTON — After a delay caused in part by the pandemic, the city has a new poet laureate.Franny Choi, who was nominated last year for a Massachusetts Book Award, has written for the New York Times and the Atlantic, and been interviewed on NPR, has...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — A flyer since her teens, Fly Lugu flight school founder Fredrika Ballard was remembered this week as a consummate professional who worked hard to support opportunities for women in aviation.Ballard, 53, of Southwick, was killed Sunday...

By BILL NEWMAN

This is scary. The number of books being banned in school libraries is spiraling upwards. Nationwide, for the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America substantiated 3,362 school book bans that targeted 1,557 unique titles. That’s a 33 percent increase from...

By CLAUDIA LEFKO

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a statement on grave violations of children’s rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on Oct. 13. “We reiterate that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — A local lawyer who is now director of the Student Legal Services Office at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been nominated to be a judge in Probate and Family Court.Gov. Maura Healey nominated Bernadette Stark and two other...

By SUSAN WOZNIAK

As summer was winding down, I had a conversation with a young woman. Something she said, led me to answer, “That’s out of my bailiwick.” She looked puzzled and asked, “What’s a bailiwick?” I chuckled a bit and said, “Your generation uses the word...

By CARRIE N. BAKER

Over 60 percent of Americans support abortion rights, but last year Roe was overturned and 14 states now ban abortions in most circumstances. A president who lost the popular vote by millions appointed three staunch opponents of abortion to the...

By DOMENIC POLI

The backlog plaguing courthouses across much of the state seems to have spared Franklin and Hampshire counties, where the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office reportedly put many cases to bed while in-person jury trials were suspended during the...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Sonya Epstein was crystal clear before a Hampshire District Court judge Thursday afternoon when explaining why she took part in a protest outside the Northampton facility of defense contractor L3Harris that led to her arrest two months...

What with global warming, it seems unlikely that hell will freeze over anytime soon. But the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) order last week that Massachusetts move away from fossil gas makes one wonder! [“State to curtail natural gas expansion,”...

Nearly 40 years ago, I entered a college classroom as the instructor for the first time. I was a 23-year-old graduate teaching assistant, charged with my very own section of English composition. Twenty-five students silently inspected me as I placed...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Continuing their high-profile involvement in state Republican politics, city physician Jay Fleitman and his wife, Mary Lou Stuart, are heading up the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign for Massachusetts.The two have co-chaired the...

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

As everyone knows, the Christmas season can be perpetually chaotic and stressful. Between shopping, get-togethers with family and friends, cooking, baking and putting up decorations, it’s a holiday that brings out the perfectionists in all of us....

By DICK EVANS

Today, Dec. 5, 2023, is the 90th anniversary of a remarkable — and rarely remarked upon — episode in American history, having enormous consequences in law, in commerce, in families and in culture. More remarkable was its path, perhaps the best-kept...

Two events occurred this past week that reminded me of where I was when they happened.Nov. 22, 1963, the day JFK was assassinated, my husband Jim and I were in Lugano, working at the American School in Switzerland. It was already evening there when we...

By BILL NEWMAN

In November, the United States Supreme Court adopted a Code of Conduct. It’s a list of suggested, not required, ethical dos and don’ts for the Justices.The justices issued this document because they want the klieg lights that the news media has been...

By MADDIE FABIAN

NORTHAMPTON — This year was a tough run for Massachusetts farmers, with more than $42 million and 13,000 acres of crop losses reported due to extreme weather during the spring and summer.Despite the Feb. 4 freeze, May 18 frost and July 10 flooding...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons and ban anything associated with their development and manufacture has been ratified by 69 countries, with an additional 28 countries in the process of ratification, since the international agreement...

This November, the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report, came out and warned that even as climate pollution is decreasing, heat-trapping emissions are not falling as rapidly as they need to to effectively mitigate the...

By CHRIS MATERA

Can we try to be honest with ourselves? Most scientists say we currently live in the middle of growing climate and biodiversity calamities.Massachusetts has an excellent opportunity to help mitigate these existential threats by ending the senseless...