The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) will be the lead sponsor for the fifth consecutive year of the Star Spangled Springfield fireworks scheduled on July 4.

Joseph Carvalho III, who recently retired as longtime head of the Springfield Museums, is a bit of a Renaissance man who enjoys playing in a band, creating historical dioramas and writing books of historical interest.

The state recognizes the problem and tries to help. Last week, Gov. Deval L. Patrick announced that $20 million from the Essential Community Providers Trust will go to 39 community hospitals and health centers in Massachusetts, including $2 million for Holyoke Medical Center.

The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences study shows burning trees and other biomass for heating would reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to oil.

Economics writer Stephen Moore spoke to a crowd of 170 people at the annual meeting of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.

The grant was awarded to Santore, Rebecca Spencer, an assistant professor of psychology, and Barbara Pearson of the UMass Research Development Office.

The Patrick administration on Wednesday awarded $20 million in grants to 39 financially struggling hospitals and community health centers, including about $8 million to health care facilities in Western Massachusetts.

Since opening in 2006, The Renaissance School has prided itself on sending a high percentage of graduates to college. Now, the school itself could be bound for a college campus under a plan to relocate the combination middle and high school to the Springfield Technical Community College’s Technology Park.

Nineteen bus-tour promoters visiting Springfield for three days of business meetings also got an eyeful of the Pioneer Valley's attractions with help from the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo toured the headquarters of Friendly Ice Cream Corporation to learn how the 75-year-company continues to thrive and learn more about how the legislature can help mid-sized businesses grow.

TSM Design talks with John Majercak, Director of Springfield’s ReStore Home Improvement Center.

In the Pioneer Valley, that $1 billion might mean an additional 500 summer jobs for needy young people in Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke, said J. William Ward, executive director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County.

Three family housing projects managed by the Springfield Housing Authority will get a $15 million makeover to prepare for new ownership by the federal government

I have lived on State Street for 20 years. I am especially proud to live on State Street now. Kudos to U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, et al, for putting dollars to good use.

City councilors have referred to the Zoning Committee a request for the extension of a special permit for the $28 million Cabotville Industrial condominium project through 2011.

Chamber President Russell F. Denver said he first heard Moore speak at an event in Hartford two years ago and found him to be intellectually challenging. He describes Moore as a conservative who speaks from a free-market perspective. "We believe it is important to keep our members informed about what is going on nationally," Denver said.

The city could get a big boost from the state toward replacing an aged wastewater pump if the local Coca Cola bottler gets the go-ahead from corporate headquarters to expand its operations. According to Northampton Economic and Community Development Coordinator Teri A. Anderson, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development has offered to pay 75 percent of the cost of replacing the pumping station on Bradford Street that serves the Industrial Park and some neighboring residential streets. Department of Public Works director Edward S. Huntley said the 30-year-old pump is nearing the end of its useful life and ...

State Street has a dignity to it again.

“This is our largest class in three decades,” STCC President Ira H. Rubenzahl said. He urged the graduates to acknowledge their parents, spouses, relatives and friends who supported them as well as the faculty and staff of STCC.

Talk about redesigning the traffic flow at Atkins Corner began sometime in the last century. Since then, there have been hundreds of hours spent on designs, meetings, discussions and negotiations about land takings and land swaps for the South Amherst project, and now the preliminary work has begun.

Officials, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Raymond H. LaHood, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, took part in a bus tour and walking tour of the 3.2-mile corridor that stretches from the riverfront to St. Michael Cemetery.

Once a mansion, the century-old building has been medical offices but had been vacant for a decade and was in rough shape when the Western Massachusetts Development Collaborative bought the property, said Donald A. Mitchell, executive director for the nonprofit development corporation.

John W. Coull, chairman of the newly reconstituted authority, said UMass would like to convey the approximate 2-acre North Pleasant Street parcel, and the town would act as a kind of “middleman.”

The Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board has been awarded a $100,000 incentive grant after meeting a series of benchmarks and being named a High Performance Workforce Investment Board by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.