From Other Sources: News for and About Amherst.  This Week: Local News Roundup

We have not done a “From Other Sources” in a while and there is a lot to catch up on. I have assembled some articles, mostly local (and below that from further afield) from the last few weeks that we were unable to cover in the Indy and that I think are worth reading.

Are Paywalls An Obstacle?”
Here at the Indy we support several other publications with our personal subscriptions and we encourage our readers to do the same as they are able.  And for this feature, we try to post articles that are not hiding behind a paywall.  But sometimes an article worth reading IS hiding behind a paywall, and subscription to the source is just not feasible. For such instances there are workarounds. Check out some possibilities here.

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Featured Reading
Check out this brief post from Heather Cox Richardson’s daily blog, Letters from an American, a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.  In this installment, she considers Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s speech celebrating the Knicks ‘ improbable NBA championship and Michelle Obama’s speech at the grand opening of the Obama Center in Chicago. Both celebrate the power of the people.

The Power of the People (Reflections on the Knicks victory and the opening of the Obama Center) by Heather Cox Richardson (6/18/26).  ‘You are allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you gotta go out there and do something about it.’ Jalen Brunson, NBA Championship MVP.  (Letters from an American on Substack)

Local News Roundup
After Racist Letter, Amherst Residents Discuss Community Values by Samuel Gelinas (6/21/26). Clear and concise values are a town’s best defense against racist events that may pop up locally, a pair of college professors told residents at the third of four community conversations last week. Speaking at the Bangs Community Center following the recent discovery of a racist letter last month, the educators warned that vague mission statements are no longer enough to protect targeted community members. Despite a tornado threat Thursday evening, 15 community members gathered around a table with pizza and grinders to discuss the impacts of the letter and how the town might respond to similar incidents in the future. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

The Limits of 2½: Override Requests Surge in Hampshire County Communities as Costs Rise by Sam Ferland (6/19/26). Communities across Hampshire County are asking voters to approve property tax overrides at levels not seen since the Great Recession as municipal costs outpace revenue growth, renewing debate over the 44-year-old tax-limiting law known as Proposition 2½.Residents in nearly half of the county’s 19 communities have been asked in the past year to raise their own property taxes to keep local government running, a trend local leaders say reflects growing financial pressures that are unlikely to ease anytime soon. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Know Your Ticks. Here’s How To Spot the Ones That Carry Lyme and Alpha-gal by Emily Spatz (6/19/26). For most people, a tick bite is synonymous with Lyme disease.But while the tiny creatures may look uniform to the untrained eye, there are subtle differences in shape, color, and behavior among species that hint at the level of risk they pose to humans. “Everyone should know the types of ticks that occur where they live or where they are going to be,” said Thomas Mather, professor and director of the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Vector-Borne Diseases. “You can make choices about trying to avoid the riskiest ticks.”  Identifying a tick that bit you — and where you might’ve picked it up — can help health care professionals determine next steps, experts said. (Boston Globe)

Exhibit on Amherst’s Revolutionary Past Opens June 25 by Scott Merzbach (6/19/26).  A statewide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States will begin in Amherst with the opening of a new exhibit at the Amherst History Center focused on the American Revolution. “In Defense of our Just Rights & Liberties: Amherst in the Revolution” is opening at the 45 Boltwood Walk site June 25, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit will show how the Revolutionary War played out in Amherst through the voices of residents who lived at that time, drawing from primary source documents. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

A ‘Win’ for Children: Senate Approves Child Welfare Overhaul Championed by Senator Comerford by Emilee Klein (6/18/26). It wasn’t until the Senate passed a sweeping child welfare bill Friday that Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, realized a seven-and-a-half-year effort had finally reached the finish line.The omnibus bill, titled “An Act Enhancing Child Welfare Protections” (S.148), includes a Foster Children Bill of Rights — the final piece of a trio of child welfare bills Comerford has sponsored since first taking office in 2019. The measure outlines in one place the rights, protections and resources guaranteed to every foster child in Massachusetts.“We had to broker all of those rights, which in and of itself is a win for foster children,” Comerford said. “These are among the most vulnerable children in the commonwealth. What do we owe them? These are our children.” (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Juneteenth Banner Flies in Amherst, Marking Milestone for Local Organizations by Scott Merzbach (6/17/26). A Juneteenth banner now stretches across South Pleasant Street, marking a milestone for the organizations that have helped make the holiday a fixture in town. At a ceremony Tuesday on the Town Common, members of the Black Business Association of Amherst Area and Sankofa Gumbo gathered beneath the banner, which promotes Friday’s Juneteenth Jubilee and coincides with the Black Business Association’s 10th anniversary. “It’s a very important symbol of the town to let the public know something is happening that they should be part of,” Amilcar Shabazz, who founded Sankofa Gumbo with his late wife, Demetria, said at the hourlong banner-raising ceremony. He called getting the banner in place a milestone. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Holyoke Becomes First City in State to Ban Data Centers by Samuel Gelinas (6/17/26). A proposed 20-megawatt data center along the Connecticut River has sparked weeks of opposition from residents. On Tuesday, those opponents packed City Council chambers and cheered as Holyoke became the first Massachusetts community to enact a citywide ban on artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. The ban, which will prohibit any AI data center development over 12 megawatts, passed in a 9-4 vote. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Behind Closed Doors: Two Local Killings Renew Attention on Domestic Violence and Its Warning Signs by Anthony Cammalleri (6/13/26). The deaths of Diane Opper and Emma MacDonald, two local women allegedly killed by their husbands within a month of each other this spring, have brought renewed attention to domestic violence and the warning signs that often precede it. While the circumstances of each case remain different, domestic violence experts, prosecutors and victim advocates across the Valley say fatal violence rarely emerges without warning. Instead, they describe a pattern that frequently begins with controlling behavior, isolation, intimidation or stalking before escalating into physical violence.The number of domestic violence cases have ebbed and flowed over the past decade in Massachusetts and western Massachusetts, but those who work with survivors say the dynamics behind them are often similar. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Healthcare Costs Squeeze Municipal Budgets, Prompting Exodus from Regional Insurer by Sarah Robertson (6/11/26). As rising healthcare costs bear down on local governments, teachers are losing their jobs, cities and towns are cutting services, and the cash-strapped Hampshire Group Insurance Trust, which provides health insurance to thousands of municipal employees in western Massachusetts, is trying to stay afloat. (The Shoestring).

Easthampton Voters Approve $6.9M Override by 239 Votes by Sam Ferland (6/10/26).  Voters approved a $6.9 million Proposition 2½ override by a 239-vote margin at a special election on Tuesday, preventing deep cuts to all city services and particularly the schools.The override was the only question on the ballot, passing with 3,312 “yes” votes to 3,073 “no” votes, with a total of 6,385 cast, according to unofficial results. The city proposed the override in an attempt to fill an approximate $6.5 million deficit heading into fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Meals on Wheels Providers Sounding Alarm Amid Looming Budget Deficit by  Erin-Leigh Hoffman (6/9/26). Meals on Wheels, the home delivery meal program run locally by LifePath, has delivered meals to 1,136 individuals within the 725 square miles of Franklin County and the North Quabbin since the start of 2026.Now, LifePath and other Meals on Wheels providers across the state are sounding the alarm over a nearly $6 million fiscal year 2027 budget deficit in the Senior Nutrition Program funding line that supports this service, which is struggling to meet rising demand while also grappling with rising food and delivery costs. (Greenfield Recorder)

Our Time to Inherit the World’: Amherst Regional High School Celebrates 219 Graduates at Commencement by Scott Merzbach (6/8/26). Moments into the the remarks by Amherst Regional High School’s 10 valedictorians, each of whom achieved perfect 4.0 GPAs, the group earned applause and laughter from the audience gathered for graduation by making a reference to artificial intelligence. “I know we only had two days to write this, but we can do better than ChatGPT,” said senior Aliya Nazirova. “Despite being one of the first classes to have AI readily available, we recognize the importance of original thoughts, and actual human interactions.”Speaking as part of Friday’s ceremony inside a packed Tillis Performance Hall at the Bromery Center of the Arts on the University of Massachusetts campus, the valedictorians reflected on breaking out of the digital bubbles they experienced in sixth and seventh grades, discussed the “human-generated moments” from the selections at the cafeteria to lighting up paper towels in the bathroom, as well as the continued changes to their daily class schedules. (Amherst Bulletin)

Hadley Backs $1.5M Override in Nail-biter Election by Scott Merzbach (6/3/26). Three firefighter positions lost last year will be restored and current school and town services will be maintained after voters narrowly supported the larger of two Proposition 2½ tax-cap overrides Tuesday.With just 12 votes to spare, voters approved a $1.5 million override by a 928-916 tally. A smaller $850,000 override also passed, but by a much wider margin: 1,129-716. Under state law, the larger amount will be enacted and added to the $22.37 million operating budget for fiscal year 2027, which annual Town Meeting adopted last month. Turnout was 46%, with 1,858 of 3,996 registered voters casting ballots. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Wendell Votes Down Apartheid-free Community Resolution, 13-40 by Shelby Brock (6/1/26). With the 71 voters in attendance at Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting expressing varying viewpoints, a citizen’s petition article to declare Wendell to be an apartheid-free community was defeated in a 13-40 vote. The apartheid-free community resolution, however, sparked the most debate. Wendell resident Anna Gyorgy helped obtain the signatures of 104 registered voters to get the proposal on the warrant. The citizen’s petition cited the forced displacement, movement restrictions, systematic human rights abuses and discriminatory legal regimes faced by Palestinians, and proposed affirming the town’s “commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all Palestinians and all people.”“This nonbinding measure represents the will of the residents of Wendell, who wish to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and build an apartheid-free world, starting with our own town,” the resolution noted. (The Athol Daily News)

“Loss of Local Autonomy”: With GBH, NEPM Merger Looming, What’s Next for Local Public Media? by Colin Weinstein (5/30/26). The organizations have billed their merger as building a “more sustainable future” amid federal funding cuts. But what comes next remains unclear. (The Shoestring)

Recommended Stories from Further Afield
Juneteenth (a history) by Heather Cox Richardson (6/19/26). Today is the federal holiday honoring Juneteenth, the celebration of the announcement in Texas on June 19th, 1865, that enslaved Americans were free. That announcement came as late as it did because while General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant of the U.S. Army on April 9, 1865, it was not until June 2 that General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Trans-Mississippi Department, the last major army of the Confederacy, to the United States, in Galveston, Texas. Smith then fled to Mexico. (Letters from an American on Substack)

The Growing Political Power of Anti-Data Center Activists by Andrew R. Chow (6/19/26). Anti-data center activists have been notching big victories across the country. Just this month, data center bans were passed in Holyoke, Mass., Monterey Park, Calif., and Seattle, Wash. And the prospect of upcoming elections may be helping fuel those victories. Recent polls have strongly reflected many Americans’ dislike of data centers. A Gallup poll from May found that 71% of Americans would oppose a data center in their area. Voters have sent early warning shots that they are willing to choose their local leaders based on the issue. In the small town of Festus, Missouri, residents ousted half their city council after those members approved a $6 billion data center development. (Time)

The Data Center Backlash That’s Uniting America by Nick Engelfried (6/17/26). The passage of New York’s statewide moratorium marks the speed at which the movement is growing — and winning — in both blue and red parts of the country.
(Waging Noviolence)