• 'Always a good place to shop'
The second installment of the thrice-yearly Brimfield Outdoor Antique Shows begins Tuesday, transforming the fields along the mile-long stretch of Route 20 into a giant antique shop.

• Beneath surface, Americans ambivalent about diversity
WASHINGTON - Diversity is strength.

• Bill offers health plan to cut municipal costs
BOSTON - A bill on Beacon Hill is being promoted as an antidote to escalating municipal health-care costs, but it's unlikely to be a financial cure for many cities and towns.

• Bruno upset mafia, club owners
Editor's note: In the months leading up to his death in November 2003, mobster Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno's control of organized crime in Western Massachusetts was falling apart. With the pressure on him and monitoring by members of the New York-based Genovese crime family who traveled to Springfield, Bruno faced a coup by an up-and-comer in his organization. This is the first of a two-part series tracing what unfolded in Bruno's final months.

• Jazz-art festival proves big pull
SPRINGFIELD - Organizers of the first Hoop City Jazz and Art Festival staged yesterday at the city's Riverfront Park hope it will become an annual affair lasting several days.

• Teenager drowns on church trip
SPRINGFIELD - A teenager spending the afternoon at Five-Mile Pond with a church group drowned yesterday afternoon, police said.