Northampton football coach Ken O'Brien expected to resign

NORTHAMPTON - After 40 years, including 12 as the head coach, Ken O'Brien has decided to end his run on the Northampton football team's sidelines.

Athletic director Jim Miller confirmed Wednesday that O'Brien has informed the school's administration of his decision to resign and will do so officially when he returns from vacationing with his family next week.

VA increasing staff for mental health services; 34 new jobs in New England

NORTHAMPTON - Almost 2,000 new mental health clinicians and support staff will join the ranks of the Department of Veterans Affairs nationwide over the next year. Of those, 34 will head to positions throughout New England, according to administration officials. Dr. Dana Weaver, chief of mental health services at the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System in Leeds, said that's a reflection of the changing needs of today's veterans. She said combat-related post-traumatic stress disorders are common among veterans who have served combat tours over the last decade, and can manifest mental and physical symptoms, both of which need to be treated.

Beach weather comes early with summer-like heat on Patriots' Day

NORTHAMPTON - It may appear that local schoolchildren had a hand in choosing the weather over this school year, with snow days in October and early November, and April vacation looking more like the first day of summer vacation. While Monday's early glimpse of beach weather may have been welcome to many, the high-pressure system that ushered in the August-like warmth in April posed serious hazards. The National Weather Service issued a "red flag" warning for all of Massachusetts, with Cape Cod and the islands being the lone exceptions.

Easthampton therapist loses bid to get license back

NORTHAMPTON - A Northampton man who practiced psychology in Easthampton remains unable to renew his license since it was revoked in 2009 after he admitted to having an "inappropriate sexual relationship" with a patient in the 1990s.

Service medals for Korean War veteran Robert Perkins returned after loss

NORTHAMPTON - Robert Perkins remembers Sept. 20, 1950, like it was yesterday. That was the day when, under intense enemy fire on a Korean battlefield, the 20-year-old Connecticut native who had never been away from home before he joined the Marine Corps, assisted one of his comrades in launching rocket attacks at the Russian tanks that had their battalion pinned down. While Perkins, now 82, survived, his Silver Star and other service medals awarded to him during his military service did not.