Elections
Easthampton mayor faces challengers, but they don't seem to be running hard to defeat her
The mayor of Easthampton, Massachusetts, has two people running against her in November. But they are hardly pulling out all the stops to take the job.
REGIONAL NEWS
Afghan arrivals enroll in English classes as they settle in western Massachusetts
Afghan evacuees now entering western Massachusetts are starting to enroll in local English classes.
Health
Marijuana vaping among teens has more than doubled since 2013
Teen vaping of marijuana doubled between 2013 and 2020, indicating that young people may be swapping out joints, pipes or bongs for vape pens, according to a new study. Researchers also found that adolescents who say they vaped cannabis within the last 30 days increased 7-fold — from 1.6% to 8.4% — during the same period. The report was published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday by researchers who analyzed 17 studies involving nearly 200,000 adolescents in the U.S. and Canada. Overall, they say,...
Connecting Point
Inequity
Black and Latino families continue to bear pandemic's great economic toll in U.S.
Jonathan Eta had managed to keep his head above water after he lost his job as an auto detailer in Southern California at the start of the pandemic. But last month, the emergency unemployment benefits he relied on expired. "Basically, now we're just out on our own, you know?" he says. Eta, who was born in Honduras, lives in the San Fernando Valley, where he's a single father to his three school-aged children. The financial strain he'd staved off for 17 months has arrived. He's now three...
Organization Announcement
More News
Hiring crisis in child care: 'We're stuck in a market that's broken'
In western Massachusetts, the cost and availability of child care can be a major barrier to employment for some parents. During the pandemic, it has become an even bigger problem, in part because day care providers themselves are having a harder time recruiting employees.
