Romney given broader budget cutting power
Lawmakers voted last week to expand Gov. Mitt Romney's authority to make emergency cuts in the areas of local aid and higher education to close a $450 million to $600 million gap in the current state budget.

21 alumni serve as legislators
With the opening of a new legislative session, the number of Amherst campus alumni serving in the state House of Representatives and Senate has dropped from 24 last year to 21 this year.

Travaglini names leadership team
Newly installed Senate President Robert E. Travaglini (D-East Boston) named his leadership team Jan. 8, tapping Frederick Berry as majority leader and Therese Murray of Plymouth as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

UMass license plate in the works
Alumni and other campus supporters could be sporting UMass license plates on their cars in the near future, under recently enacted legislation.

Molecular helpers play key role in protein folding
It is a dance as old as life itself, the intricate folding of proteins into three-dimensional functional structures within cells.

Sullivan named Lottery head
One of the campus's most steady alumni supporters in the Legislature, Rep. Joseph C. Sullivan (D-Braintree), has been chosen to be the new executive director of the state Lottery.

Volunteers needed for inaugural events
Organizers of next month's inauguration of Chancellor John V. Lombardi are seeking volunteers from the campus community to assist with planned activities, including the ceremony and associated academic symposia.

State protects UMass forests, farmland
A bill signed into law Jan. 1 by Acting Gov. Jane Swift will conserve more than 1,900 acres of UMass forest lands in four area towns and places a University-owned parcel in South Deerfield under the state's Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program.

Mail & Distribution manager starts job
It's all in the delivery for Mail and Distribution Services, which have been united under new manager Charles Apicella.

Chemistry Dept. regains a trace of its history
Some of the Chemistry Department's lost heritage came home recently as a former campus employee returned a cache of old photographs he found in a trash heap a few years back.