HAMPDEN COUNTY

The Big E — the giant annual agricultural fair in West Springfield, Massachusetts — is canceled this year, Eastern States Exposition officials announced Monday. In recent years, more than a million people have come to the area during the fair's two-week run. 

The superintendent at the center of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home crisis is challenging an independent investigator's conclusions about his qualifications for the job and hinted at potential legal action to fight his impending termination. 

An independent investigation commissioned by the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese found allegations of sexual abuse against the late bishop Christopher J. Weldon to be credible.

Updated at 8:22 p.m.

Lawmakers, officials and others weighed in Wednesday on findings of an independent report that said leadership at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home made "substantial errors and failures" in handling a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. 

Tickets are being sold for the Eastern States Exposition — or The Big E — in West Springfield, Massachusetts, known for livestock competitions, rides and fried food. The website even has a countdown to a supposed opening day, September 18. 

A report released Wednesday into the deaths of at least 76 veterans with COVID-19 at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home flags "substantial errors" the facility's leadership team made in responding to the outbreak.

There's a change in leadership coming to the Massachusetts veterans affairs office, which oversees the soldiers’ home in Holyoke where one of the nation's deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred earlier this year.

A group calling for major renovations to the Holyoke Soldiers' Home held its first of several planned demonstrations Tuesday afternoon. Seventy-six veterans living at the state-run facility who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in recent months.

Five Springfield police officers who are currently indicted on perjury charges are once again suspended, two months after the police commissioner reinstated them. The officers are accused of trying to cover up a 2015 fight outside Nathan Bill's bar between off-duty police officers and four black men.

The Springfield City Council Tuesday will hold a special meeting to consider whether to retain outside legal counsel. This is the latest step in an ongoing dispute with the mayor over bringing back the city's police commission.

Springfield Roman Catholic Bishop Mitchell Rozanski is leaving western Massachusetts to become the Archbishop of St. Louis.  The announcement was made by the Vatican on Wednesday.

The Springfield City Council is calling for immediate changes to the police department's use-of-force policy in light of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. 

Public murals went up around Springfield, Mass., last year as a form of community building. This week, amid widespread protests of police brutality and racism, a group of cultural institutions including Art for the Soul Gallery and Common Wealth Murals is supporting a new mural in Springfield.

Just a few months ago, Massachusetts communities were anticipating new money for public schools because of the state education act signed into law last year. But the financial picture has changed significantly because of COVID-19.

Protests continued in western Massachusetts on Tuesday in response to the brutal killing of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis police. More than 1,000 protesters filled a full city block in front of Holyoke City Hall.

Health officials in Springfield say they're seeing COVID-19 related data continuing to head in the right direction.

Providence Hospital in Holyoke has responded to questions from Massachusetts state officials about its plans to close all its inpatient psychiatric units.

More than half the people who have died from COVID-19 in Massachusetts caught the virus in nursing homes, according to new data from the state.