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Despite light rainfall, and the low air quality, at least 10 people were milling about a public access area for the Cheshire Reservoir. Some reported having a sore throat or cough, while others said they didn't notice anything at all.
Mike Spelman of Mike's Maytag has been on the job so long he's even outlasted the Maytag Corporation
Mike Spelman, who co-owns Mike's Maytag Appliance and Repair in Pittsfield, has been in the business for 50 years.
Tony Dobrowolski
Business writer
The Holmes Road bridge, long a concern and annoyance for local residents, will shut to traffic on June 23 — kicking off two months of work. Here's how to get around the bridge while construction crews are hard at work.
Meg Britton-Mehlisch
Pittsfield Reporter
McCann Technical High School 2023 graduation was held Wednesday, June 7.
Ben Garver
Photojournalist
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Feeling isolated and seeing little responsiveness to the town’s concerns from the other members on the Housatonic Rest of River Municipal Committee, the Lee Select Board has exercised their option to add a nonvoting representative to the committee.
Jurors deliberating in the murder trial of Lance Burke were unable to come to a unanimous decision Thursday.
Brandon Navom, the owner of 28 Morgan Ave., is facing charges of arson and conspiracy related to a fire that burned the building to the ground.
“There was a rodent problem,” Health Inspector Nancy Ruderman told the Board of Health. After her first inspection, she said Dollar General took steps to clean up the stock room, where she saw the tail of a rat as the rodent slipped outside on her first inspection.
Jeffrey Cote, 55, may be armed and should be considered dangerous, according to police, who believe he may be in Savoy or Cheshire.
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The French, like their American cousins, nurture a fierce sense of exceptionalism. We both take pride in a strong national identity, which makes us... different from everybody else. And, in our minds, better.
When this economic environment squeezes out an "old-fashioned" small business — family-owned, locally operated and close to its community — we lose more than a storefront and dollars that would stay in the local economy.
Hazardous air blankets the region, and at least 15 states and parts of Canada, a pollution outbreak not seen in at least 20 years.
We certainly understand the concerns over student attention spans in the digital age, though we have doubts as to whether a statewide phone restriction policy would be the best approach.
The Massachusetts Senate unveiled a long-awaited $590 million tax relief proposal Thursday as the Democratic-led Senate and House, and Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, work to come up with a final tax-cutting plan. The Senate proposal would increase the rental deduction cap from $3,000 to $4,000, increase the child and dependent tax credit from $180 to $310 per child or dependent and bump up the earned income tax credit from 30% to 40% of the federal credit. The Senate, like the House, would also raise the state’s estate tax threshold from $1 million to $2 million. The Senate is expected to debate the bill next week.
The prosecutor in the murder trial of a man charged with killing a Massachusetts police officer and an innocent bystander nearly five years ago told jurors in opening statements that the suspect acted with deliberation when he used the officer’s own gun to shoot him multiple times. The defense, however, on Thursday described a defendant who has spent years struggling with mental illness made worse by frequent marijuana use. Emanuel Lopes faces 11 charges in all, including two counts of murder, in connection with the killings of Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna, a veteran and married father of two, and bystander Vera Adams, a 77-year-old widow, on July 15, 2018.
A growing number of states are decriminalizing fentanyl testing strips, seeking to protect people who use drugs from unwitting exposure to the highly potent synthetic opioid ravaging the U.S. with overdose deaths. The strips have the support of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a way to help prevent fentanyl overdoses. But the strips are still technically illegal in some states under drug paraphernalia laws dating back decades. Now at least 20 states, including Ohio, Mississippi and Pennsylvania just this year, have legalized the test strips in a bid to combat rising deaths from the ever-present opioid crisis.
The Senate’s budget, approved in late May, comes on the heels of the House approving a $56.2 billion 2024 state budget in late April.
The Wahconah Park Restoration Committee will be hosting a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 15, in the Berkshire Athenaeum auditorium.
Learn to Cope, a peer-led support network for families dealing with addiction and recovery, holds in-person and Zoom meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.
The Western Mass. Master Gardeners welcome visitors and questions during their work bees at Springside Park's demonstration gardens.
Berkshire Music School's string orchestra will perform its spring concert on Sunday, June 11, at the Lenox Community Center.
Small private galleries have the ability to offer up new works by contemporary artists, big and small, well-known and unknown. Here in the Berkshires, we have a vast variety of galleries offering up artists working in a multitude of mediums. Offered here is a just a sampling of shows being offered by small art galleries in June.
"Romance & Nature: Art of the Hudson River School," highlighting works from the Berkshire Museum's permanent collection, is on view through Oct. 1.
Columnist Matt Straus takes us to the National Restaurant Association show, where there was an entire section dedicated to “natural foods,” which, except for some cheese on gluten-free pasta, was virtually all vegan, and heavily focused on plant-based meat substitutes.
According to ecological gardening expert, Larry Weaner, founder of the much sought-after design and installation firm Larry Weaner Landscape Associates, green mulches may provide the same benefits as the familiar non-living mulches, with a few other dividends as well.
Business
Marguerite Bride had two successful careers before she turning a childhood interest, drawing, into a third one: professional artist.
Tony Dobrowolski
Business writer
Twenty-two seniors at Berkshire County high schools have been selected by Pittsfield Cooperative Bank to be the recipients of the 2023 Conrad Bernier Memorial Scholarship.
The Berkshire Innovation Center is organizing and hosting TEDx Berkshires 2023, which will be held for the first time at the innovation center.
The Berkshire Community Diaper Project has received a $7,000 grant from The Gilson Family Foundation of Marblehead.
Taconic got a grand slam from Nick Guachione and the Thunder cruised into the MIAA Division III Elite Eight.
Wahconah softball and Pittsfield baseball both lost in their respective MIAA State Tournament Sweet 16 matches.
Make it back-to-back victories for the Pittsfield Suns, who are now 8-7 in the Futures League.
At the all-state meet in Fitchburg, Lenox's Dennis Love and Greylock's Maggie Nichols set school records, while Nichols, Dan Warren, Alice Culver, Payton Shippee and Alex Perenick all earned top-10 finishes.
The Associated Press tracks down some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals that were shared widely on social media.