New England News

Governor Peter Shumlin is announcing nearly $2 million in Vermont Community Development Program grants.

Of the total, $600,000 will go toward renovation of a landmark building in the center of Morristown, the former Arthur's department store. Shumlin says that project will also create 18 units of affordable housing.

Other grants announced Friday include $325,000 to the Town of Brattleboro for a loan to Carbon Harvest, $500,000 to the Town of Ludlow and Housing Trust of Rutland County for infrastructure improvements to the Tuckerville Mobile Home Park.

The Massachusetts  Department of Public Health confirmed Friday that they discovered evidence of more mosquitos carrying infectious disease in Pittsfield. 

State health officials announced that Equine Encephalitis virus was detected in a specimen sampled from the Williams Street area of Pittsfield. The city has announced that they will treat the area with insecticide.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is warning that those under 15 and over 50 are at the greatest risk for serious illness.

Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray toured Western Massachusetts yesterday, stopping in Springfield and Pittsfield to highlight the creative economy. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

A six-figure settlement has been reached in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit against two former Bishops of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Springfield Massachusetts.  WAMC’s Paul Tuthill reports

      Environmental and consumer rights activists are hopeful of  getting a  bill that would update the Massachusetts bottle deposit law through the legislature after 14 years of frustration.  Opponents are pushing a  new  argument, claiming an expanded bottle deposit is a tax.   WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.