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By THE REV. ANDREA AYVAZIAN

OK, boomer.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — University of Massachusetts officials are dispelling unconfirmed chatter this week that federal agents affiliated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement were present on the Amherst campus.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — City Council President Alex Jarrett will not seek a fourth term representing Ward 5 this fall, one of several developments that continue to happen ahead of the deadline to file nomination papers for the upcoming municipal election in November.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

GREENFIELD — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell is promising to prioritize efforts to curb the opioid crisis in Massachusetts amid cuts and freezing of federal funding.

By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — When Kara McElhone, executive director of child welfare nonprofit Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County, searched in vain for a satellite office in Belchertown, Police Chief Kevin Pacunas personally helped her locate a place to rent.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The room on the second floor of the Northampton Music Center reached standing-room only on Monday night as the Northampton Cycling Club hosted a public forum on bringing a pump track to the city.

By BEN GROSSCUP

On April 5, people in western Massachusetts and throughout the U.S. demonstrated against the Trump Administration’s escalating attacks on what’s left of our tattered social safety net and personal rights. Rallying around the hashtag #HandsOff, the website coordinating the actions included essential demands such as “Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Personal Data.”

The silly cartoon in the April 14 Gazette might lead unwary readers to assume that it is only Democrats and “leftist judges” who are shooting down Donald Trump’s executive orders. This is not true. To their credit, a number of Republican-appointed members of the federal bench have ordered temporary halts to those decrees. Some were appointed by Ronald Reagan, some by George W. Bush, and a few by Donald Trump himself. On the same day that the cartoon appeared Trump declared that he could deport U.S. citizens without trial to the infamous prison in El Salvador, which, according to him, is beyond the reach of American courts. This is in direct defiance of the recent rulings by the Supreme Court, which, the last time I looked, is not dominated by leftist judges. Perhaps the Gazette could use a bit more sense in the choosing the cartoons it puts on its editorial page.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s complacency and inaction felt less like a personal failure and more like a symptom of the Democratic Party itself. Instead of providing clarity or hope, the recent town hall at UMass Amherst on Wednesday seemed to be just another reason to disengage from the dire state of American politics completely.

As an April 14 Gazette story stated, several members of the Northampton School Committee will be stepping down at the end of their terms, and I wish to thank all the School Committee members for their work. Special education is both a personal and professional passion, so I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be a candidate for Northampton’s Ward 6 School Committee seat.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — The 15th and final practice of the spring took place at McGuirk Alumni Stadium on Thursday morning, as for the first time in 2025, the UMass football team practiced outside of The Bubble thanks to 50 degree and sunny weather. Head coach Joe Harasymiak met with members of the media following practice and had a mix of emotions when asked about the spring.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A $23.07 million budget for fiscal year 2026 that uses more than $300,000 from the town’s stabilization account, but will likely result in the loss of several municipal positions unless voters approve a Proposition 2½ override, will be brought to annual Town Meeting on May 1.

By ALEXA LEWIS

SOUTHAMPTON — This weekend, the First Congregational Church of Southampton will celebrate Easter in a non-traditional way — by holding a standout for democracy.

By JACOB NELSON

In many ways, farming can seem like a romantic way of life. “Being outside, providing for yourself, providing for your community – and the health changes I saw in myself, eating fresh food from the land – it all resonated so deeply,” says Cara Zueger, who runs Free Living Farm in Petersham with her husband Michael.

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

Louis Armstrong knew how to turn a slow and solemn hymn into a toe-tapping, heart-thumping anthem.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Before 2,000 cases of V-One Vodka produced in a Kamień, Poland, factory can be unloaded from a cargo ship, set to arrive in Port Elizabeth, N.J., next week, company founder Paul Kozub will have to pay the U.S. government an $8,000 fee.

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — UMass men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin landed a pair of commitments on Wednesday, as forwards Dimitri Clerc and Charles Outlaw – former junior college players – transferred to UMass out of the portal. That now makes four Minutemen transfers coming in (joining K’Jei Parker and Donovan Brown), and all four have either been from JUCO or Division 2.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Three full-time positions at the Jones Library will remain vacant, as they have for the past six years, in the $3.09 million budget proposal recommended by the elected trustees.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Demolition and abatement of the environmentally-contaminated old power plant on the Belchertown State School property is underway as part of the redevelopment of the sprawling site.

By CHRIS LARABEE

WHATELY — More than 120 area residents packed into Town Hall on Wednesday for a conversation with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern to voice their ongoing concerns with the Trump administration.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Several Amherst Regional High School students recently had the opportunity to travel to the State House to offer testimony to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing, explaining to legislators why funding formulas for state aid to local school districts should be revised.