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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst could become the first Massachusetts community to define student homes, giving the town some control over who will live in what are expected to be a growing number of accessory dwelling units.With the state adopting a new law...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — An average homeowner will have a higher-than-usual $272 increase in property taxes next year, due in part to the costs for renovating the locker rooms at Hopkins Academy.The Select Board approved a series of recommendations from the Board of...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The Board of Health has approved regulations prohibiting the sale of nicotine products within the town’s limits to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2004, making Belchertown the first municipality in western Massachusetts and the 11th in the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A 100-student enrollment increase at the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley is being opposed by the Town Council, which has adopted a resolution similar to ones passed by the Amherst, Amherst-Pelham Regional and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Kestrel Land Trust is permanently protecting a forest featuring more than 200 acres of white pine and mixed hardwoods on Montague Road, where a centuries-old dam was removed over the summer.A $327,000 grant from the Executive Office of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Having the Amherst Regional Middle School roof placed on the accelerated repair program by the Massachusetts School Building Authority is prompting a possible delay in considering whether seventh and eighth graders should move to the high...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Town officials will have until the end of March to hire a general contractor to handle the $46.1 million expansion and renovation of the Jones Library.The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners voted unanimously on Dec. 5 to approve a...

By ANDY MORRIS-FRIEDMAN

My sincere apologies to my liberal friends, our once great country and the world. I really thought that my last satire was going to keep Donald Trump (sic) from winning re-election. Instead, reality has become a satire of itself and things are so...

I am writing to support the Jones Library building project. Though I am a resident of South Hadley, I work in Amherst and am a regular user of the Jones Library. As a librarian myself, I am deeply concerned by the attempts to block this project when...

A Dec. 9 letter writer (“From UFC to NFL, everybody’s happy again”) bizarrely proposes that “people seem to be happy again” simply because she has seen some professional athletes dancing like Trump. No doubt some millionaires are dancing at the...

I want to correct a letter that was published in the Nov. 30 edition under the title “Spreading disinformation about the Jones Library.”First, the writers misquoted the sign near the Amherst Farmer’s Market, making it seem slightly more provocative...

The Nov. 27 letter in the Gazette in support of The Jones Library demolition-expansion project appears to be unfamiliar with the interior of the Jones Library and reasonable alternatives to tearing down the Jones’ 31-year-old brick addition. The...

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

Taylor Swift’s song “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” has turned me into a full-on Swiftie. Yes, you read that right: This 60-something widow is now belting out lyrics about pain and power with a vigor that could rival any teenage girl wrapped in...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

Tucked behind the large former factory building that makes up the Eastworks retail complex lies the entrance to Prodigy, signs indicating that only those ages 13 and up may enter, with those under 17 requiring adult supervision. After going through...

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — The past few weeks have been tough for climate activism, and longtime climate activist Bill McKibben, who makes his home in Vermont, is feeling the heat.This year will be the hottest year on record, breaking the record-setting temperatures...

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — With folks confined to their homes in the early days of the pandemic, but still looking for local produce, Julia Coffey and her team at Mycoterra Farm branched out to bring products to their doors in the form of Mass Food Delivery.While...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — For one patient, the question centered on whether it would be appropriate to stockpile medicines, such as hormones, before Inauguration Day. For another patient, the question focused on getting a hysterectomy scheduled before Jan. 20,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Leverett residents are asking town officials to be skeptical of plans for turning the sprawling, 60-acre estate of Yankee Candle founder Michael J. Kittredge II into a 400-home development reserved for people 55-and-over, even if a portion...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — On the cusp of celebrating his 100th birthday in January, Edwin D. Driver, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts and one of the first two African Americans ever hired to the faculty at a flagship state...

By BRUCE M. PENNIMAN

Let’s move on from Jones Library divisions