MCLA Green Living Lecture: Framing Messages to Make Them Appealing

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nell Putnam-Farr, assistant professor of marketing at Rice University, will give a talk titled "Framing Messages to Make Them Appealing" as part of MCLA's Green Living Seminar Series at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. 
 
Green Living Seminar Series webinars are free and open to the public; community members can register for each lecture at mcla.edu/greenliving. All seminars take place weekly on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. through April 14. 
 
Dr. Putnam-Farr is an assistant professor at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business. 
 
According to a press release, her research focuses primarily on how framing and contextual cues impact decision making and satisfaction. Within this domain, she considers how framing might have different effects on immediate decisions versus long term satisfaction and persistence, how contextual clues impact expectations and satisfaction, and how intercepting people at the "right" point in the decision process can impact attention and behavior. She works with company partners in the consumer packaged goods, wellness, and financial services sectors, focusing on how to improve financial and physical well-being. She relies on a combination of lab and field experiments—usually testing in the field with a corporate or nonprofit partners and then working to determine a mechanism and/or boundary conditions in the lab. 
 
Before coming to the Jones School, Nell spent three years doing research with company partners at the Yale Center for Customer Insights. She received her MBA and PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA with Honors in Economics from Williams College. Before coming to academia, she spent eight years working in the financial services industry being fascinated and frustrated by the psychology of investing behavior. 
 

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North Adams Man Arrested Following String of Vehicle Break-ins

Staff Reports

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A local man, Brian Dillard Sr., was arrested on Sept. 20 following a string of vehicle break-ins throughout the city.

According to a report published by the North Adams Police Department, officers have investigated numerous motor vehicle break-ins across the city over the past two weeks. During the course of the investigation, Dillard was identified as a suspect.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, Dillard was charged with two counts of Breaking and Entering into a Motor Vehicle in the Nighttime with Intent to Commit a Felony, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

On Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, police received reports regarding additional overnight motor vehicle break-ins, as well as a garage break-in where items were stolen.

Later that day, officers and a member of the Detective Unit went to 212 Eagle Street to locate Dillard.

Police reported that after they knocked on the door, Dillard opened a curtain, looked at officers, and ran back into the apartment. Officers forced entry after no one answered further knocks.

According to police, Dillard was found on the living room couch smoking heroin. He was taken into custody without further incident on his outstanding arrest warrant.

On Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, Dillard was arraigned in Northern Berkshire District Court on eight counts of breaking and entering into a motor vehicle in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, and one count of breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony. He was held on $5,000 cash bail.

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