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Good morning!The UMass Minutemen are the prodigal children of college football, returning to the Mid-American Conference from whence they came.It took nine seasons of anchoring the FBS, of winning 16 games and losing 72, of burning through millions of...

I have studied the human body for around 60 years and I am still in awe. Evolution has given us awesome bodies that move with fluidity and grace, withstand heat, cold, and altitude, and possess the ability to adapt to almost any environment. Our...

The running world barely had time to marvel at how 24-year-old Kelvin Kiptum came within sight of breaking the two-hour barrier in the marathon before what promised to be a thrilling career came to a sudden end last month in a car crash that took...

Good morning! In 1928 a hurricane with winds that reached 150 mph ripped through Palm Beach County and turned north over Lake Okeechobee. The strong winds pushed the waters north and then south over a feeble earthen dike, swamping the low-lying areas...

Good morning!The wild west of college athletics began on July 1, 2021, when pay-for-play became the law of the land. Enter Pat MacWilliams, a successful businessman and Maryland native who arrived in Amherst in 1997 to open Five College...

Right now, people from across New England are gearing up for this year’s 40th Annual Springfield Sportsmen’s Show, as OSEG’s (Outdoor Sports Expo Group) Doug Sousa again welcomes folks to the Eastern States Exposition for this week’s event being held...

Good morning!Three days before the Super Bowl, Caleb was headed for work at MGM Springfield. We didn’t have long to converse, but he said his job paid the bills and clothed his children, management was fair and how good the food was depended on the...

Taylor Swift won this year’s Super Bowl. I mean… the Kansas City Chiefs won this year’s Super Bowl. If you don’t know by now, pop star Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce are dating. The relationship caused a media stir as...

Good morning!Over the border in New Hampshire, Dave Hastings has the makings of a national champion at Keene State. The Owls are 20-2 overall, 13-0 in the Little East, ranked seventh nationally and are beating opponents by an average score of...

As I write this, we’re in February’s grip, but there’s a lot going on out there that can help keep your mind off the Arctic-like temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately.As you read this, the days are getting longer, the temperatures are climbing,...

I watched a lot of college football this year and am happy it’s over. Next year will be longer as eight teams are added to the playoffs. Baseball in November, basketball and ice hockey in June, football in February — will seasons ever...

Recreational running has been part of mainstream American culture for fifty years. Nowadays anyone wanting to run a 5-kilometer road race can find one somewhere nearby. Marathons have grown so popular they have waiting lists.Track meets are different....

Good morning!The traffic jams up early on Fridays in Lowell, and the Tsongas Center is four miles and countless stoplights off Interstate 495. It was dark, wet and cold, the canals were half frozen and railroad tracks criss-crossed through the city’s...

Good morning!The UMass men’s basketball team took it on the chin against St. Joe’s on Tuesday night, losing 78-77. Seventeen turnovers were enough for the Hawks to eke out a one point road victory despite trailing by 13 with 10 minutes left. “Once...

By CARL DOERNER

The Sept 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center echoed a devastating coup on Sept. 11, 1973 supported by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, by General Augusto Pinochet against the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. In retaliations,...

By ALLEN WOODS

“Red-baiting” — accusing someone of being “soft on communism” or having murky “connections” to communist groups or individuals — has been an effective tactic for Republicans for nearly a century. It’s a simple way to put opponents on the defensive,...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

Last month I wrote about the damage the U.S. is causing to the global climate by exporting huge amounts of oil and LNG (liquefied natural methane gas) — the most of any country in the world. I shared the information that the fossil fuel industry wants...

By JOHN VARNER

While it is true that racism has been behind some zoning restrictions, racism is not the only reason zoning restrictions exist.Is all zoning racist? This is certainly what some real estate people want you to think, based on nearly a full page of...

By GLORIA KEGELES

The flooding this past summer pulled back the curtain on the vulnerability of our local farmland resources and viability. Responding to what was deemed a crisis, the community, local lawmakers and the governor’s office swiftly responded with more than...

By AL NORMAN

On Sept. 29, 2021, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sent a letter to the town of Shutesbury disapproving one sentence from a bylaw passed at their annual Town Meeting. The Shutesbury bylaw allowed associate members of the town’s Planning...