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Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins confirms he will not leave for Ann Arbor post

Jobs Bill Awaits Governor Patrick's Signature

WAMC file photo

A bill designed to spur economic development in Massachusetts is on Governor Deval Patrick’s desk.   WAMC”s Paul Tuthill reports

   The 115 page jobs bill given final approval by the state legislature on the final day of  its session establishes a $50 mllion dollar research fund for the state’s universities.  UMass Amherst spokesman Ed Blaguszewski says the fund will be a source for researchers to compete for matching grants.

   Supporters of the jobs bill say research is the foundation of the state’s innovation economy.The bill also includes $5 million dollars to help un employed workers learn new skills. There are a  variety of tax breaks and other incentives to spur economic activity…

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.