Attorney General Andrea Campbell has tapped a rural litigator who previously worked for a gun control advocacy group to head up a new unit aimed at reducing gun violence.
Western Massachusetts
Posted inEconomy
Auditor Suzanne Bump chronicles dire state of infrastructure in Western Mass
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS have long bemoaned their standing in “a tale of two Commonwealths.” The urban, eastern part of the state, they say, sucks up most of the attention – and funding — on Beacon Hill, while wide swaths of Western Massachusetts, which deal with far different concerns, are often overlooked. The economic boom that […]
Posted inTransportation
Audit: Transportation a barrier to food assistance benefits
TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES are the biggest barrier Massachusetts residents face in applying for federal food assistance, according to a report released on Monday by state Auditor Suzanne Bump. Participation in the food assistance program, called the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants, and Children, has fallen from 114,419 in 2016 to 108,593 at the end of 2018, […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Western Mass. ‘Hilltowns’ look for a foothold
THE ARRIVAL OF warmer weather means visitors will be flocking to the Berkshires, where a set of towns come to life as summer homes to renowned music and dance enterprises at Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow. They add to a year-round arts economy in the region anchored by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North […]
Posted inEconomy
How now cow power?
IN A RURAL valley south of Deerfield, power lines strung on new poles run along a stretch of muddy gravel between the main road and the interior of Bar-Way Farm, where hundreds of cows provide electricity along with their milk. Manure from the cows is pumped into a massive, red, airtight tank that acts like […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Economy
The promise of MASS MoCA
Photographs by Michael Manning TWO YOUNG MEN from Brooklyn tentatively inch down the hallway, holding onto a handrail because it’s so dark. They turn a corner and the room in front of them opens up, filled with intense light of different colors. They make their way to a bench and sit down, mesmerized by a large […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
How we turn Western Mass. into a high-tech hub
THOSE OF US in Western Massachusetts watched for two generations as the Route 128 corridor boomed and greater Boston turned into one of the world’s great tech centers. Meanwhile, our largely manufacturing-based economy, once a thriving ecosystem, was unable to compete as the technology revolution took hold and policymakers focused elsewhere — leading to a […]