Shooting victim sues ex-officer 
HOLYOKE - A man who Chicopee police said was shot in that city on New Year’s Eve during a struggle with a former Holyoke police officer, has filed a civil lawsuit against her seeking unspecified monetary damages for physical and emotional suffering.

Pat and Kristen Parman-Bethard 
Pat and Kristen Parman-Bethard Kent Then: Pat, 61, a social worker, and Kristen, 54, a nurse, partners for 20 years, faced the “gay penalty,”…

Baby or bust 
There is a tender moment in the epilogue of St. Louis Park native Peggy Orenstein’s new memoir, when she is gazing at her daughter, the beautiful result of her six-year struggle to have a child, and asks her husband, “Aren’t you glad it all worked out?”Don’t go getting all revisionist on me,” he tells her. “I don’t want you to forget what actually happened and start thinking it was all worth it.” …

Homebuyers stretched in ‘06, survey shows 
Share of first-time buyers declined, while buying without a down payment rose, Realtors’ survey shows.

A money pit? Maybe it’s more like a pendulum / As housing affordability keeps shrinking, communities can change … 
Take a look at today’s Bay Area housing market. Prices are flat, more houses are for sale, and interest rates are near 25-year lows. It’s a buyer’s market. So why then, according to a research report prepared last year by the California Association of…

Behind on Debt Payments? You Have Options 
(ARA) - A good majority of Americans have some amount of debt these days. And attitudes toward being in debt have changed quite a bit over the years. But many don’t even know that they have options that will help them get out of debt.