With help from touring Occupy Wall Street activists, local protestors disrupted a City Council meeting with chants and demands for “conversation” — then seemed confused when Council President Bill Dwight asked them to set a date to meet. By MARY SERREZE NORTHAMPTON — The Occupy Wall Street Northeast Road Trip rolled into town Wednesday on [...]

The 22-year-old mayor moved quickly to replace The Paper City’s top lawyer and personnel director, and has set his sites on rebranding Holyoke as The Digital City. By MARY SERREZE HOLYOKE — Alex Morse — 22, openly gay, and new to elected office — was sworn in as the 37th mayor of this post-industrial city [...]

Florence businesswoman Nancy Gehrung denies charges she robbed a Massasoit Street home on Christmas night, using a gun police say was stolen from a Connecticut cop. She was detained after returning to the scene two hours later. By MARY SERREZE NORTHAMPTON — A 48-year old Florence woman with a history of run-ins with the law [...]

By MARY SERREZE NORTHAMPTON — Police were called to 73 Massasoit St. at around 8:30 last night for a report of an armed home invasion. This morning at Northampton Police Dept. headquarters on Center Street, Nancy R. Gehrung, 48, of 56 Matthew Drive in Florence, was arrested in relation to the incident. She was charged [...]

By MARY SERREZE BOSTON – Christopher Hoffman, 39, former acting Chief Probation Officer of the Hampshire Superior Court, was charged today in federal court with intimidating and harassing a witness in an alleged attempt to obstruct a federal investigation into hiring practices in the office of former Commissioner of Probation John O’Brien. Hoffman, a Hatfield [...]

By MARY SERREZE NORTHAMPTON — Hampshire Superior Court Justice Cornelius J. Moriarty ruled on Thursday that city economic development director Teri Anderson is not exempt from public records law when it comes to her communication with the Three County Fairgrounds Redevelopment Corporation. Anderson was until recently a voting member of the corporation’s board of directors. [...]

NORTHAMPTON — Al Williams, director of Northampton Community Television, plans on putting dozens of flip cameras — that is, cheap, easy-to-use video recorders — into the hands of ordinary people next year, and teaching them the basic arts of citizen journalism and storytelling. The citizen journalism project is just one of the goals set by [...]

Teri Anderson, after 25 years in the public sector, eleven working for the City of Northampton, has accepted a position with Common Capital, a regional non-profit economic development organization. NORTHAMPTON — City Economic Development Director Teri Anderson will leave her post in mid-January to take the newly-created position of Business Development Director at Common Capital, [...]

NORTHAMPTON — A proposal to build a 3,600 square-foot Cumberland Farms convenience store and gas station in the heart of Florence Center was rejected 9-0 by the Planning Board Thursday night, only hours after the Zoning Board declined to close a special hearing on whether strip-mall parking was a grandfathered use at the site. The [...]

NORTHAMPTON, WED. DEC. 7 — The city’s License Commission ruled today that Eclipse Restaurant at 186 Main St. must surrender its liquor license for three days, lending approval to an agreement reached between Police Chief Russell Sienkiewicz and the establishment’s management. The suspension was related to the charge that four underage Smith College students were [...]

NORTHAMPTON — Democratic United States Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren spent an hour touring downtown Northampton yesterday afternoon before heading over to the Hotel Northampton for a gala fundraiser. Warren and acting mayor David Narkewicz, accompanied by a press contingent and Business Improvement District director Dan Yacuzzo, stopped in at Ode and Cathy Cross, both high-end [...]

HOLYOKE — Governor Deval Patrick said Tuesday that Massachusetts shouldn’t sit back and wait for conditions to improve, but make bold moves now to create the 21st-century economy. “We have to be about building our own future — inventing our own destiny — not sitting around waiting and whining about how tough it is!” proclaimed [...]

NORTHAMPTON — Should the city clerk be elected or appointed? Should elected officials be subject to term limits? Are the two-year terms for mayor and city council too short? Should city councilors be paid more than the $5,000 yearly stipend they now receive? These are some of the questions addressed at a public forum held [...]

NORTHAMPTON — It’s official — City Council President David Narkewicz will be the city’s 44th mayor. The 45-year-old former congressional aide and at-home dad defeated opponent Michael Bardsley, 62, a retired guidance councilor, by a 70% – 30% margin. Narkewicz has been serving as acting mayor since Sept. 9, when six-term mayor Clare Higgins stepped [...]

NORTHAMPTON — Four pols, two seats. An hour and 15 minutes allotted. Questions answered in two-minute soundbites, in serial rotation. The mayoral hopefuls waiting in the wings, preparing to take the stage. It ain’t easy being an at-large candidate for City Council this year. Last Wednesday night, at the Bridge Street Elementary School, the Ward [...]