Lucas Willard

Groups in Massachusetts are praising the Federal government’s announcement last week to enhance suicide prevention efforts. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Roberta Hurtig, Executive director of Boston-based Samaritans, is an advocate for suicide prevention. Part of the work that Samaritans does, which has eight-community based prevention centers in Southern New England, is provide hotline support for at risk individuals. Hurtig says prevention hotlines have demonstrated the importance of intervention.

A special committee has been selected to review Pittsfield’s city charter, and the process of updating the document will begin later this week. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Pittsfield’s city charter has remained nearly unchanged since 1932, and now, 80 years later,  city officials say that the antiquated governing document requires some modern updates. Pittsfield mayor Dan Bianchi proposed an update in April of this year, 3 months after he took office.

Connecticut’s Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the recent repeal of the state’s death penalty applies only to future defendants.

The state's highest court granted a request on Thursday by Eduardo Santiago to challenge the repeal's impact on those who committed capital crimes before the law was passed. He was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot that promised him a broken snowmobile.

The death penalty was repealed in April, but it was preserved for 11 inmates on death row and for pending cases.

The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld the dismissal of lawsuits filed by seven Massachusetts hospitals and a managed healthcare organization that claimed they were shortchanged by the state's 2006 health care law. 

In two separate lawsuits, Boston Medical Center and the other hospitals claimed that the state had violated its obligation to reimburse them for the reasonable costs incurred in providing medical services to MassHealth enrollees.

Volunteers in North Adams, Massachusetts, have begun a new program to offer help for the family members of service members suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Rebecca Litchfield is a volunteer at North Adams’ veterans service office, and through her work, she says she’s  noticed a lack of support for the families of returning veterans.

State health officials are confirming a fourth case of Eastern equine encephalitis in Massachusetts.

The Department of Health said Thursday the Plymouth County man in his 60s is hospitalized.

Officials also announced a 14th case of West Nile virus, in a Hampden County man in his 50s who has been discharged from a hospital.

Both illnesses are carried by mosquitoes.

A Worcester County man in his 70s died of EEE last month.

A Massachusetts woman says her brother was among the Americans killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

Kate Quigley said in a statement Thursday that Glen Doherty "lived his life to the fullest." Quigley spoke outside her mother's home in Woburn, north of Boston. She asked for privacy while the family grieved "our American hero."

Three Americans were killed at the consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday along with U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The State Department has not publicly released all their names.

A coalition of elected officials, business owners, and associations in Massachusetts is pushing for online retailers to begin paying the state’s sales tax before the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012 begins. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

The Vermont Veterans Home located in Bennington is facing millions of dollars in federal funding cuts if changes are not made to remedy certain deficiencies. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Connecticut agriculture officials have reported the year's first domestic animal cases of West Nile virus. WAMC’s Lucas Willard reports…

The Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that a 4-year-old horse from Southbury showed symptoms of lethargy and stumbling on its front feet in late August. The horse developed a fever and became progressively more depressed and uncoordinated.

A blood sample was found positive for the virus. The horse was treated and is recovering.