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By MADISON SCHOFIELD

BOSTON — State legislators are considering the value of school resource officers and whether to create a grant fund to support their training.

By SAM FERLAND

EASTHAMPTON — Mayor Nicole LaChapelle announced Wednesday she will step down next week after Gov. Maura Healey appointed her commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

By CHRIS LARABEE

Local advocates are urging the Legislature to remove a specific provision in Gov. Maura Healey’s Energy Affordability, Independence & Innovation Act that would repeal a 1982 referendum requiring voters at a statewide election to approve any new nuclear facilities in Massachusetts.

By EMILEE KLEIN

The Trump administration rescinded a $25 million grant awarded to Mass Audubon — the largest federal grant the nonprofit had received in its 123-year history — to protect 10,000 acres of land along the Connecticut River and restore 100 acres of damaged habitat.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE - A local woman is the only Franklin County resident to have been named to the Class of 2025 Commonwealth Heroines, a distinction bestowed upon women who make outstanding contributions to their organizations and communities.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Concerns over possible cuts in federal financial support to the University of Massachusetts, and tax legislation being considered by Congress, is leading campus officials to call for various belt-tightening measures, including spending reductions of 3% and 5% in all academic and administrative departments.

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Local scientists warn that the proposed federal cuts to the United States Geological Survey’s Ecosystem Mission Area — a federal research program that studies the country’s natural resources — outlined in the White House’s fiscal year 2026 budget could not only degrade national ecosystems, but the industries and people that rely on them.

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Graduate student Josie Pilchik’s career plans dissolved with just one email.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — The town now owns the 1.06 acres at 16-36 West River St., the former site of an old cereal factory that three juveniles destroyed by arson three years ago.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — A suggestion to postpone a budget vote at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting until after a scheduled Proposition 2½ override vote at the ballot box caused some to speak against the idea, arguing that it was taking the decision out of voters’ hands.

By DOMENIC POLI

SPRINGFIELD — A U.S. Marine Corps veteran was sentenced on Tuesday to 24 months of supervised release for stealing benefit payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and submitting a false Purple Heart application through his congressional representative.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — An Orange man is being held without bail after allegedly confessing to stabbing his girlfriend during an argument.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE – The town administrator plans to suggest that voters at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting table a warrant article pertaining to the budget and revisit the matter after a scheduled Proposition 2½ override vote.

By DOMENIC POLI

ATHOL – A lifelong resident has invented a new shoe insert to help improve the lives of people like him, those with debilitating foot pain.

By ALEXA LEWIS

HOLYOKE — Standing before more than 150 elected officials, housing advocates and other western Massachusetts leaders, Gerry McCafferty shared some shocking statistics.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Who better to give a graduation pep talk than a former NFL cheerleader?

By ALEXA LEWIS

The Hampshire-Franklin County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls has a unique mission: identifying issues impacting women in their communities and advocating for legislation that could change their lives for the better.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

TURNERS FALLS — On a warm and partly sunny Thursday evening at Franklin County Technical School graduation, Superintendent Richard Martin reminded the Class of 2025 when they kayaked on a pond that formed on the lawn of the school on a cold and icy New England morning.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — The Sewer Commission voted unanimously this week to raise the sewer rate by 22.32% to adequately operate the wastewater treatment facility at 295 West Main St.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE – An arrest has been made in connection with the fraudulent invoices that drained $338,000 from the town’s coffers in the summer of 2023.

By DOMENIC POLI

WENDELL — The citizens group that formed in 2023 in opposition to a since-withdrawn proposal for a battery storage facility has filed a motion asking the Land Court to overturn the state Attorney General’s rejection of the group’s proposed bylaw.