A Look Back, May 8

50 Years Ago

• Shana Alexander, journalist and television commentator, will be the speaker at Smith College’s 98th commencement on May 23. Ms. Alexander, whose commentary is featured regularly on the Columbia Broadcasting System’s television program, “60 Minutes,” contributed a biweekly column to Newsweek Magazine from 1972 to 1975.
• Northampton Post Office officials refused to comment today on a grievance filed this week by postal clerks alleging that there are crowded working conditions and insufficient fire precautions at the city’s new Post Office on Bridge Street. Postal clerks complain that there are no fire extinguishers in the building. They also say that there are no doors or other means of exit in the east half of the building where most employees work.

25 Years Ago

• A $40,000 grant from the United States Institute of Peace will allow the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding to continue its efforts to bring people together in war-torn Bosnia. The two-year grant will provide training this summer and next for six Bosnians, six Serbians and 20 school directors in peacebuilding workshops.
• Two men who believe digital versatile disks will supplant video cassettes plan to open a store that rents primarily DVDs. Luke Bittel and Jeff Ostresh said they expect to open DVDen in Amherst in May. “This is the way of the future,” Bittell said. “DVDs will replace traditional videos.”

10 Years Ago

• At-large City Councilor Jesse M. Adams resigned Friday after six-plus years in office, stating he can no longer serve on the council and meet the demands of his law practice. “I put a tremendous amount of time, effort and hard work into each, and can no longer do both at the same time,” Adams wrote in his resignation letter.
• The next hearing on the rattlesnake island plan in the Quabbin Reservoir will be held Tuesday. The plan has proved contentious. Some residents fear snakebites, or that the presence of an endangered species will affect recreational access to the reservoir. Others support the plan on environmental grounds.