Articles
30 pieces from the newsroom: what happened in the valley, and what we tested this month.
Local news
- Northampton pushes Armory Street garage repairs to spring The city council voted 6-3 to delay the deck work, and the two lower levels stay closed through the winter.
- Amherst school committee cuts $1.2 million before the fall term Four positions go unfilled and the middle school loses its late bus. Parents packed the hearing anyway.
- Holyoke opens the second stretch of the canal walk The new half mile runs from Appleton Street to the old mill gate, eleven years after the first section.
- Storms put the Connecticut River over its banks in Hadley Four inches of rain in two days closed River Drive and soaked about 300 acres of farmland.
- PVTA redraws six bus routes before the semester starts The B43 loses its Florence loop, the 38 runs later on weekends, and riders have until August 24 to comment.
- Greenfield hospital nurses settle after eleven months The three-year deal sets staffing floors on two floors and raises night differentials.
- Springfield keeps cooling centers open into a sixth day Six libraries and two schools are running late hours, and the city says the buses to them are free.
- Valley orchards go into apple season short on pickers Growers from Belchertown to Shelburne say visa paperwork ran late again, and the early Galas will not wait.
- Hilltown broadband build passes the halfway mark Fiber reached 1,900 of 3,500 homes across seven towns. The last stretch is the expensive one.
- Valley rents climb again as vacancy falls under two percent A one-bedroom in Northampton now lists at $1,780 on average, up 9 percent in a year.
Cars
- Ten cars ranked for a Pioneer Valley winter We weighted ground clearance, heater speed and what happens on an unplowed hill at 6 a.m.
- Subaru Outback review: the wagon that fits the valley Two weeks, 900 miles, one canoe on the roof and a trunk full of farm share.
- Ford F-150 Lightning review: three weeks of farm errands The range held up better than we expected. The charging map did not.
- Nine used cars under $15,000, ranked by how long they last here Road salt is the real test. Two of these rust out before the timing belt goes.
- Minivans ranked by what actually fits in the back We measured with a hockey bag, a dresser, four kids and a very large dog.
- Toyota Camry hybrid review: 47 miles a day on Route 9 A month of commuting from Amherst to Pittsfield, with the numbers we wrote down at every fill.
- Six cars we would not buy for a pothole spring Big wheels, thin sidewalls and soft control arms make March expensive.
Computers
- Laptops for students, ranked Eight machines, one September. We graded battery life, repairs and how they survive a full backpack.
- Dell Inspiron desktop review: $520 and no surprises A boring beige box that does the taxes, the homework and about half a video edit.
- Monitors ranked for a small apartment desk Everything here fits on a 42-inch desk without pushing the keyboard off the front.
- Framework Laptop 13 review: a Linux laptop that sleeps properly Close the lid, open it two days later, still 91 percent. That used to be a fantasy.
- Five mini PCs, ranked All of them fit behind a monitor. Only two of them stay quiet doing it.
- Keyboards ranked by how loud they are through an apartment wall We typed the same paragraph on nine keyboards with a meter in the next room.
- Reviving a nine-year-old laptop: what actually helped We tried seven fixes on a 2017 machine and timed the boot after each one.
Paint
- Apartment paint brands, ranked Seven brands on the same primed wall, judged on coverage, smell and what a magic eraser does to them.
- The best white paint for a rental you have to hand back Landlord white is a real color, and some versions of it are much easier to match later.
- Bathroom paint tested in an apartment with no fan Five paints, one windowless bathroom, four months of hot showers and a mildew count.
- Four cheap paints on the same wall Under $30 a gallon, rolled the same day by the same person, photographed at 24 and 72 hours.
- Primers ranked for painting over dark rental walls Someone painted the bedroom eggplant. Here is what covers it in two coats instead of five.
- One-coat paint claims, tested Six cans promise one coat. We rolled one coat and then stood back in daylight.