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On Dec. 3, 1860, President James Buchanan delivered his State of the Union address justifying the fugitive slave laws, denying the right of the territory of Kansas to abolish slavery, and blaming Northern abolitionist agitators for inciting slave...

By MICHAEL CAROLAN

Richard McCarthy’s column “Tortured artists’ deaths no blaze of glory” (Gazette, Nov. 2) concerns the self-destructive lives of two writers, both of whom I taught for a decade at Clark University. Unlike them, I escaped my tortured-artist days, so...

By CAROLYN BROWN

Decades ago, it was common for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be kept in inhumane conditions inside horrific institutions. With the release of his new book, “Becoming Darlene: The Story of Belchertown Patient #4952,”...

Before entering the Mos Eisley spaceport seeking an interplanetary Uber to Alderaan, Obi-Wan Kenobi cautioned Luke Skywalker, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Evidently, Mr. Kenobi had never been to Washington, D.C.,...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The town’s Board of Health will vote to draft a generational nicotine sales ban on Wednesday, preventing anyone born after Jan 1, 2004 from ever purchasing tobacco products in town.Board members, along with Director of Public Health...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Pedestrian safety and utility infrastructure improvements totaling $4.4 million for an affordable housing development in Easthampton, $1.94 million to build a new roundabout in Amherst at the edge of the University of Massachusetts...

By Melissa Karen Sances

“And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” — Friedrich NietzscheI have never liked ghost stories. But when I heard about Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley, I was spellbound. Not that long ago, and not that far from here, a...

The writer Alice Roosevelt Longworth once quipped, “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.” Could she be Donald Trump’s muse? Seeing that he is a Juilliard-trained narcissistic prevaricator discharging daily geysers of...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Police Chief Kevin Pacunas is appealing an Eastern Hampshire District Court judge’s ruling that reversed his decision to deny a resident’s application for a gun license.In his appeal to Hampshire Superior Court, filed Sept. 23, Pacunas...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — A Belchertown restaurant is facing charges for allegedly serving 22 shots of liquor to three underage employees over a six-hour period in early August, one of whom got into a car crash while driving under the influence in Ludlow a short...

By JACOB NELSON

When Heather McCann founded her farm, Rustic Outlook, in 2020, she picked a niche that few local farmers have chosen. She decided to make beans her thing.Dry beans, specifically. They’re a pantry staple that lasts for years and a delicious part of...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Starbucks continued its expansion in the Pioneer Valley on Wednesday with the opening of a cafe in Belchertown on North Main Street, just in time for pumpkin spice latte season.The franchise’s newest Hampshire County location now serves...

By EMILEE KLEIN

As the last notes of the 165th Belchertown Fair’s annual parade drifts off into the autumn air — quickly replaced by the joyous screams of children on carnival rides and the soft coos of barn animals — babies from around western Massachusetts take...

A matter of record(s)NORTHAMPTON — If you like shopping for vinyl records, this news will be music to your ears: the Downtown Market Vinyl & Vintage Fair will have thousands of records (and other vintage goods from local and regional sellers, of...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The Belchertown Fair returns to the Commons this weekend for the 165th annual celebration with a packed schedule of free competitions, demonstrations and entertainment for all ages.This year’s theme, “Barn in the USA,” pays tribute to...

In his 1775 “Common Sense” pamphlet, Thomas Paine observed, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government in its best state is but a necessary evil.” While society propels collaboration toward goal achievement, government is the unfortunate...

With all the things to be unhappy about these days, I am happy to report my experience as a cyclist in the Belchertown-Granby-Amherst area this summer.I have found drivers almost uniformly courteous, giving me a wide berth, slowing and even sometimes...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — When a Belchertown teenager faced a sudden cancer diagnosis at the beginning of the summer before her senior year, the community at large came out to support her by raising $40,000 through GoFundMe to support her medical treatments and...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Saying that Police Chief Kevin Pacunas’ decision to deny a firearms license to a resident earlier this year was “overly broad, vague and therefore arbitrary and capricious,” a judge last month ordered the town to grant the license.In...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Speed limits on town-controlled roads in thickly settled areas or business zones might see a decrease by five miles per hour, dropping from 30 mph to 25 mph, if approved at the annual Town Meeting.Police Chief Kevin Pacunas and...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — After years of rubber-stamping capital projects as funds become available, leaving critical infrastructure work to pile up and deteriorating buildings to wait for repairs, Belchertown this week adopted the town’s first capital planning...