A lively New England city is split over a proposed downtown redesign that would add protected bike lanes—but could take five years to complete. Local business owners worry the prolonged construction may keep customers away.

The debate is unfolding in Northampton, Massachusetts, a city of roughly 31,000 people known as the “Paradise City.” Northampton is located about 100 miles west of Boston.

The $43.3 million proposal would transform Northampton’s Main Street with separated bicycle lanes, fewer parking spaces and a narrower roadway. In some sections, the street would shrink from approximately 90 feet wide.

Construction on the first phase of the project is expected to begin in 2028. The full downtown redevelopment, known as Picture Main Street, could take five years to complete, according to the Boston Globe.

Robert McGovern, the 81-year-old owner of Packard’s bar, said the plan could seriously damage downtown businesses. “People are not going to bicycle in town to go shopping,” he said, describing the proposal as a “kiss of death for downtown.”

“Grandma is not going to be sitting in a … basket while you pedal her to Packard’s for a beer,” McGovern told the outlet. “It’s not going to happen.”

Still, the proposed Main Street redesign has attracted strong support from residents who believe the project should go even further in prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists.

“I would love to do away with all parking on Main Street,” Jennifer Nery, a local acupuncturist, told the outlet.

Nery said she would prefer to see “an even stronger version of a public square” incorporated into the Northampton downtown plan.

McGovern, however, argued that years of construction could make downtown Northampton even less appealing to visitors and shoppers.

“The big crowds of people we had in the 80s and 90s, they’ve gone away,” McGovern said. “And they’re not coming back.”

Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra is among Picture Main Street’s most prominent supporters. She has called the proposal a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to redesign downtown Northampton.”

Sciarra said the city should create “all available opportunities to minimize our reliance on motorized vehicles for trips that can be completed by other means.”

“Some people need to roll, walk, or bike,” she said.

Anna Bowen, who owns Strada Shoes on Main Street, said the proposed construction has left her “very nervous.”

“I’ve survived online shopping,” Bowen told the outlet. “I’ve survived Trump twice now. I’ve survived COVID.”

Even so, Bowen acknowledged that she was “not 100 percent sure” her store could survive the disruption caused by the Main Street redesign.

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Wayne Feiden, who previously led Northampton’s planning department for 25 years, said Main Street was built in the 19th century.

People had to visit downtown to shop then, but ‘they have other options’ now.

‘It has to be a different kind of place,’ Feiden told the Boston Globe.

Northampton resident Liza Styles said she was excited about the bike lanes, though she noted that other locals might have a difficult time adjusting to the redesign.

‘It is a huge change, and change is hard,’ Styles said.

Elizabeth Sharpe, the co-director of the Historic Northampton museum, said Main Street was ‘an idea’ that some locals might feel nostalgic for.

‘It represents order, your values, responsibility, civic virtues,’ Sharpe told the outlet. ‘It’s a place where people come together.’

Northampton’s website for the proposal said the dedicated bike lanes would be ‘great for everyone.’

‘They result in fewer injuries, improved traffic flow, safer sidewalks, they’re better for the environment, and they make people healthier,’ the plan said.

Of the redesign’s projected $43.3 million cost, only $11.8 million is expected to be paid by the city.

The rest of the $31.5 million will come from state and federal funds for construction.

Though Northampton is known as ‘Paradise City,’ it has struggled with affordable housing and traffic accidents.

There were 497 accidents investigated in 2025, according to the Northampton Police Department.

Of those, 421 involved personal injury or property damage exceeding more than $1,000.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Northampton Mayor’s office for further comment.

For 13 years, Adriana Aviles, a passionate education advocate and former NYPD officer, was deeply connected to New York City’s school system. As a prominent member of the Citywide Council on High Schools, she proudly represented Queens District 26, which she considered one of the city’s strongest districts. She knew the principals, trusted the teachers and believed her son was thriving. Throughout his K-8 education, he earned consistently strong grades, particularly in math. But two weeks ago, Aviles sat down with her 14-year-old son to prepare for his second math exam. The experience left her shaken and her high school freshman overwhelmed — and led her to challenge Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels publicly at a town hall last week. She described her family’s ordeal to The Post’s David Spector.

On paper, my son had always been a math standout in middle school. His report cards were filled with A’s, and his lowest grade was a B-plus. But after he scored a 78 on his first exam at a prestigious Queens high school this fall, I sat down with him to prepare for the next test.

I will never forget watching tears gather in my son’s eyes as he struggled to answer more than the first few questions on his math review sheet.

He could not solve basic algebra problems. Geometry confused him. Even elementary-school fractions were beyond his grasp.

That was a shocking contrast to his years at PS 221Q, North Hills Elementary School, where he routinely earned the top math grade. At MS 67Q Louis Pasteur Middle School in Little Neck, his lowest math mark on an end-of-term report card was an 89 in seventh grade. He earned a 92 in sixth grade and a 93 in eighth grade — grades equivalent to A’s.

After he was accepted to his first-choice high school, one of New York’s highest-rated schools, we had every reason to expect that his academic success would continue.

But sitting beside my son as he studied revealed a reality that shocked me to my core.

He looked at the page without understanding it, completely lost in the material. Equations involving fractions left him especially confused.

The shock quickly turned into heartbreak — and then anger.

My son is mature, intelligent and hardworking. He even runs his own online apparel business. He usually keeps his struggles to himself, so seeing tears in his eyes broke my heart. I told him none of this was his fault. The system had failed him, I said, and we would do whatever was necessary to help him catch up.

That night, I did not tell anyone what had happened — not even my husband.

After my son took the test, his teacher called me. I told her I already knew why she was reaching out.

She said he had answered only two of the 10 multipart questions correctly and received a score of 10 out of 100.

Now his high school must provide the math instruction he should have received during elementary and middle school.

I have started buying math workbooks designed for first- through fourth-graders so I can determine what he truly understands — and identify the point at which he stopped learning.

My son now gives up his lunch period every Tuesday through Friday for tutoring. Once baseball season ends, he will also receive tutoring on Saturdays.

I am the daughter of immigrants. My parents came to the United States from Colombia, and my mother instilled in my sisters and me a deep respect for education. She closely monitored our schoolwork and made sure we understood how important earning a high school diploma would be.

The discipline and work ethic she taught me helped me become an NYPD officer. When I became a parent, I passed those same values on to my son.

When I married my husband, who was also an NYPD officer, in 2005, I insisted that we move to District 26 in Douglaston because it is regarded as one of the best school districts in New York City.

If my son’s teachers had told me he was struggling, we could have secured help much earlier. He would have put in the work. But no one alerted us, and his grades gave us no indication that he was falling behind.

I know now that teachers grade according to a rubric — and that DOE fudges the numbers. The NYC education system had betrayed my son to make itself look better.

What made this betrayal worse is I’ve worked with the teachers and administrators at my son’s schools for years.

I’m a longtime parent leader, I’ve served as PTA president, CEC president, and I now sit on the Citywide Council on High Schools. I’ve formed close relationships with educators at every stop.

I became active in my children’s education because I knew that the only way to be truly informed was to be involved. I thought I was fully aware of how my son was doing in school.

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I was so wrong.

My son wasn’t in advanced classes, he was in general education, he didn’t take the Regents in middle school. I relied on his teachers to tell me the truth about how he was doing.

I failed too. I didn’t scrutinize his work closely or check his performance on state test scores because I figured if his report cards were good then everything was fine.

It was only recently, after I realized how far behind he is, that I looked back and discovered he was deemed “not proficient” in math on a seventh-grade state exam.

How can he not be proficient in math but was receiving As?

Why didn’t his middle school ever give him additional resources?

I feel deceived.

Looking back, there were warning signs. The teachers barely gave homework. He was allowed to revise his answers on tests after they were graded — and get a new grade. Teachers had a surprisingly laid-back attitude about missed assignments.

There are so many working-class parents in the NYC school system who don’t have the time to closely monitor their kids’ schoolwork and rely on their teachers — and the grading rubrics — to be honest. The lack of rigor in city schools and the inflation of grades are dishonest.

This is one of the reasons so many families are leaving the school system.

The DOE enables failure in minority communities by constantly lowering their standards instead of grading our children accurately and failing to collaborate with families to address issues they may be having. They don’t even police chronic absenteeism. How can our kids get jobs if they can’t read or do math, or are even taught the value of showing up?

I soon found out my family was not alone in feeling cheated.

Shortly after my son’s October test, I reached out to other parents in his school to ask if their kids were also struggling in algebra. The responses were overwhelming; so many said that they were and asked what tutoring options were available.

I spoke to a mother of an eighth-grade girl who was apoplectic about her daughter’s math curriculum. She said her daughter, who is also in District 26, was only getting one page of homework a day and she’s urgently trying to get her into Catholic school.

That’s when I knew I had to use my position in the public school system to speak out for all of the families who have been failed by the system.

I decided to confront Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels about it a Community Council on High Schools town hall on Monday, Oct. 26.

The DOE is ending the Regents requirement to graduate and moving to the “Portrait of a Graduate” model, which is supposed to grade students in a “holistic” manner that is even more dependent on subjective teacher evaluation. All of these problems will just get worse as we abandon more objective metrics.

I was already planning on asking Samuels about this at the town hall, but after seeing what happened to my son, I knew I had to share what my family had been through.

“This school system is failing our children. . . . I equate this to the childhood game ‘Kick the Can.’ My my son is the can. Where did he land?” I tearfully said as I sat on the dais in the Art and Design High School Auditorium.

As I choked back tears, I made clear to the chancellor that the system’s failure would be felt by my family for years to come.

“In high school, where they are expected to help him graduate with the necessary tools to succeed, will they continue to kick the can all the way to college, where I will be expected to pay for a remedial class that does not count toward a degree?” I asked.

Finally, I pressed Samuels on the upcoming Portrait of a Graduate changes. How could we not expect to see what happened to my son happen to thousands of more students if grades are now even more dependent on the subjective judgments of biased teachers and principals?

Samuels seemed taken off guard by my comments. And his response disgusted me. He didn’t even acknowledge my question. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He was stammering and didn’t know what to say. It just sounded like mumbo jumbo. As a parent, and a longtime parent leader, I was entitled to a real response. I would have preferred a slick non-answer that politicians give, but he didn’t even give me that.

I had to walk off stage after that. Usually, after these events I stick around and pose for pictures with the DOE officials in attendance, but I went straight home that night.

I couldn’t pose for pictures with Samuels. If he can’t answer how we’re going to educate our children, who can?

Private jets, superyachts, mansions and access to wealthy and influential figures helped the Alexander brothers draw women into their social world while cultivating an “aura” that left alleged victims worried they would not be believed, an attorney representing three women with civil claims against the convicted sex traffickers told News Media.

Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander were each sentenced Tuesday in New York to 30 years in federal prison for a yearslong sex-trafficking scheme. Prosecutors said the brothers used their wealth, social standing and luxury lifestyle to attract women before drugging and sexually assaulting them.

However, the sentences concluding the federal case do not end the legal challenges facing the brothers.

Michael J. Willemin, a partner at Wigdor LLP, told News Media that his firm represents three women pursuing civil claims against the brothers. He said evidence uncovered during the federal prosecution could strengthen allegations in those separate cases.

Willemin said the brothers used their connections to wealthy and powerful people, along with an extravagant lifestyle, to attract women and create an image that made alleged victims afraid to speak out.

“They used things like luxury trips and parties and introductions to celebrities and powerful individuals and private jets and super yachts, mansions and estates,” Willemin said.

Those displays of privilege, he said, complemented the drugs and alcohol allegedly used to impair victims’ memories, ultimately helping the brothers continue the conduct for years.

Prosecutors alleged that the brothers leveraged their wealth and prominence to create opportunities to sexually assault women from at least 2008 through 2021.

Women were allegedly identified through social media, dating apps, personal encounters and party promoters, then offered luxury travel, experiences and accommodations. Prosecutors said that in multiple instances, the women were drugged and forcibly raped or sexually assaulted, sometimes by more than one man.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones characterized the alleged pattern during closing arguments as a “consistent playbook to lure, isolate and rape their victims.”

Willemin said the brothers’ wealth and influence not only helped bring women into their circles but also intensified fears about the consequences of accusing them publicly.

“There’s an added layer of concern that the women who come forward are going to be retaliated against,” Willemin said.

Those concerns may include being excluded from social circles, monitored or subjected to other potentially violent conduct, he said.

“That’s something that is a very real fear for women that is exacerbated when someone can use wealth and power to help secure silence,” Willemin said.

Willemin represents Angelica Parker, who sued all three brothers in 2024, as well as Samantha Fields and a Jane Doe, who have filed separate civil claims.

Parker alleges that Oren invited her and a friend to the New York City apartment he shared with Tal and Alon in 2012. She says Oren and Alon offered the women ecstasy, which they refused.

After Parker’s friend left the apartment, Parker alleges that Alon and Tal sexually assaulted her together while Oren watched.

The allegations in Parker’s lawsuit are separate civil claims and were not adjudicated by the federal jury that convicted the brothers.

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Willemin said evidence that emerged during the criminal prosecution nevertheless supports Parker’s contention that what allegedly happened to her was planned rather than spontaneous.

“There was a whole host of evidence with respect to text messages and videos and other behaviors that suggested that these sexual assaults were not the random acts of spontaneity, but were, in fact, planned, which help also support the allegation made by Ms. Parker,” Willemin said.

The federal prosecution may now also change the landscape for the remaining civil cases.

Willemin said Parker’s case has progressed further than the other two his firm is handling and is moving through an appeals process involving whether older sexual assault claims can proceed.

An argument is scheduled in January before the New York Court of Appeals over legal issues Willemin said could determine the outcome of numerous civil cases against the brothers.

“The civil cases are moving forward now,” Willemin said. “And one of the sort of roadblocks to that was to have the criminal case completed. That’s now obviously completed to a degree and now the civil cases should be able to move forward.”

When asked whether additional women may have been victimized but never publicly came forward, Willemin said, “I wouldn’t doubt that at all.”

“It would be, you know, frankly, pretty surprising if every woman who had been the victim of a sexual assault by the Alexander brothers has come forward, given the evidence that we have as far as how widespread this occurred,” Willemin said.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, the brothers continued to deny drugging, raping or trafficking women while acknowledging and expressing regret for past attitudes and comments about women.

Federal prosecutors had sought life sentences, while defense attorneys asked for the mandatory minimum of 15 years.

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni ultimately sentenced each brother to 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. Alon and Oren were each fined $300,000, while Tal was fined $350,000.

For Willemin’s clients, the federal sentences represent only one part of what they are seeking.

His firm hopes to move its three civil cases through discovery and ultimately to trial, where Willemin said his clients want juries to recognize that they were wronged and provide a remedy through the civil justice system.

“The criminal convictions were welcome for sure, and the sentence, although it could have been longer, it could have been life, was also significantly longer than the minimum sentence that could have been given,” Willemin said.

Asked whether he believed 30 years was a just sentence, Willemin pointed to the brothers’ continued denials and said he believes accountability remains lacking.

“At this point in time, life really seems like the only fair sentence,” Willemin said.

News Media reached out to the Alexanders’ attorneys for comment.

Investigators have traveled from Arizona to Florida to consult with laboratory scientists as the search for Nancy Guthrie continues, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.

In an update issued Friday evening, the department said officials met with the scientists “to see what more could be done to advance the case.”

Nancy, the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing for nearly nine months. She disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home under circumstances that remain unexplained.

“A number of ideas were discussed, and we continue to work with all of our partners to solve this case,” the sheriff’s department said, urging anyone with information to come forward as the investigation remains active.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos stressed that even a seemingly insignificant detail could help investigators. “Even the smallest piece of information could be critical to the investigation,” he said.

Nancy visited the home of her other daughter, Annie, on January 31, arriving at about 5.30pm. She returned to her own house at approximately 9.45pm.

Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni, drove Nancy home and is believed to be the last person to see her. He told police that he watched her enter the house through the garage door.

At around 1.45am on February 1, Nancy’s doorbell camera was disconnected from the front of her home. Minutes later, the device detected a person, but that footage is no longer available.

Police previously said another video showed a masked figure tampering with the camera. At about 2.30am, Nancy’s pacemaker also became disconnected from her phone and Apple Watch.

Friends became concerned later that morning when Nancy failed to attend church, something they described as highly unusual for her.

Roughly an hour later, relatives went to her house and discovered that she was missing. They called 911 to report her disappearance.

The investigation has since included multiple news conferences held by the sheriff’s office, along with emotional public appeals from Nancy’s family.

Savannah traveled to Arizona to support her siblings before eventually addressing her mother’s disappearance in an Instagram post.

In the video, a visibly upset Savannah sat alongside her sister Annie and brother Camron as they pleaded for their mother to come home safely.

She also addressed those who may be holding Nancy, saying, “We are ready to talk.” However, she insisted the family would need genuine proof that her mother was alive and would not accept AI-generated images or videos as evidence.

Savannah has since returned to New York City, where she has resumed her role on the show.

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In early April, FBI agents found what they described as “potentially critical” new DNA at Nancy’s home.

Agents sent the sample to a private Florida lab, sources previously told ABC News.

Pieces of hair found inside Nancy’s property are among the new evidence being tested, NewsNation previously reported.

A series of ransom notes have also come into play during the investigation, including one that claimed to have video of Nancy’s killers. 

The clip, which was mentioned by an anonymous man in the correspondence, is believed to have been captured on the same day she disappeared. 

The writer claimed there were two kidnappers, and he had video of ‘the main guy’ with Guthrie, stashed on a hidden phone. Nanos has dismissed the note. 

‘I think the FBI has done a number of arrests for false or fake ransom notes. It’s a shame that that happens, but I think we’re looking at another one of those today,’ Nanos said during an interview with local radio station KVOI AM 1030. 

‘It is a shame that these types of events occur; people have great interest… that’s good because it helps us, but then it gets really abused. 

‘People who call in fake ransom notes, people who claim for the sake of media and the family, they get out and disturb, in this case, an entire neighborhood,’ he continued. 

In June, a massive search was launched for Nancy in Mexico. 

After a local search group received an anonymous tip claiming her alleged grave had been found, a report said.

The leader of the local Buscando Corazones collective in the city of Nogales said the information came in regarding Nancy, according to local outlet El Imparcial.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office said the agency is aware of the reports, but they have not been contacted by Mexican authorities. 

‘The investigation remains active and ongoing, and we will continue to follow up on credible information,’ the office added.  

The Buscando Corazones collective has previously discovered more than 25 unmarked graves in that area, the report stated.