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By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Annual Town Meeting voters on Tuesday must decide how to balance the budget after rejecting a Proposition 2½ override at the polls on Monday.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Voters flocked to the polls at 62 Cheney St. on Monday to have their say on a Proposition 2½ override.

By MARYJANE WILLIAMS

PITTSFIELD — When U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked the crowd at the Colonial Theatre whether they or someone they love relies on Medicaid, nearly every hand in the packed audience went up.

By LUKE MACANNUCO

GREENFIELD — Though Japanese knotweed towers over Greenfield resident Wisty Rorabacher at the Green River Swimming and Recreation Area, the scale of the invasive plant species is not a source of intimidation for Rorabacher and her group, the Floodplain Forest Restoration Project.

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Local scientists warn that the proposed federal cuts to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Ecosystem Mission Area — a federal research program that studies the country’s natural resources — that are 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 MADISON SCHOFIELD

The towns of Shelburne and Ashfield have been awarded a total of $30,000 in Municipal Energy Technical Assistance (META) grants from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to support clean energy project planning.

7:16 a.m. — Reporting party on Third Street states there are six turkey vultures living in the vacant third-floor apartment. She can see them flying in and out of the open window. Reports her cat was killed by one and there are a lot of other animals in the area and she is worried about them. Reporting party was advised the animal control officer would be made aware, however, it might be a wildlife matter.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I can’t resist another strawberry dish. I thought because of all the rain we have had, our local strawberries might be short on flavor. So far, the berries I have eaten seem to be chock full of it. I’m savoring them.

By JUDY WAGNER

June first, it snowed. The cottonwood trees were sending their white fluffy seed puffs down like large, slow-drifting snowflakes. In places they settled on puddles or coated newly raked garden beds with a light covering that did not melt.

By ROB MOIR

In 1638, it was clear to the people of Plymouth, Massachusetts, that there were fewer cod and striped bass in their coastal waters because they knew what we were capable of. They did not blame divine intervention or the biblical call to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

What a great piece of reporting on the UMass Minutemen visiting a local potato farm as a group [“Minutemen grow together,” Recorder, June 20]. There were multiple lessons in that article. Thanks for some good news.

On June 18, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Skrmetti, one of the most important transgender rights cases to be heard by the court. The court ultimately decided to uphold a decision by the Sixth Circuit banning gender-affirming care (GAC) for minors, regardless of parental consent. Of great consequence was the court’s finding that Tennessee’s law (SB1) does not discriminate on the basis of sex and thus necessitates only a rational basis test (as opposed to heightened or strict scrutiny). The court thereby rejected the Equal Protection argument to protect access to GAC.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

ERVING — Residents will be asked to vote on nine articles during this week’s Special Town Meeting, including funding requests for the Farley Bridge repair project and replacement of the Church Street Bridge.

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

Every positive change — every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness — involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception. ~ Dan Millman

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

GREENFIELD — The Green River Festival returned to the Franklin County Fairgrounds for the 39th year, kicking off the summer and showcasing improvements from last year by emphasizing all the Pioneer Valley has to offer in talent — and beer.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

BUCKLAND — Community members are invited to learn about river corridor mapping and work being done along the Clesson Brook Watershed during an open house on Saturday, June 28.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

CHARLEMONT — The Charlemont Forum’s 2025 speaker series will continue Thursday, June 26, with a presentation by David S. Tatel, a former U.S. Court of Appeals judge.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

ASHFIELD — The organizers of the 17th annual Ashfield FilmFest have a new challenge for filmmakers in western Massachusetts, and a $1,000 prize for the filmmaker who best meets it.