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NewsChannel 13 Meteorologist Paul Caiano delivers the Midday Weather Summary for November 18, 2018.

City Councilors in Springfield are scheduled to vote Monday to approve funding for several projects under the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act.

This week, Bob Berman discusses what he is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

We take friends for walks in our woods all the time, though less so during hunting season, and one of the highlights of the excursion – actually the highlight of the excursion – is a giant, ancient sycamore tree.

Warning signs about ticks will be installed at all New York state managed parks and campgrounds.

Senator GOP Leader John Flanagan was re-elected as the leader of the Republicans in that chamber on Friday afternoon, surviving a challenge to his leadership from upstate Senator Cathy Young of Olean. But, come January, he’ll be in charge of the minority party, after Democrats took control of the Senate for only the third time in the last century.

The landmark former bus terminal on Main Street in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts is scheduled to be torn down beginning Monday. 

The Legislative Gazette is a weekly program about New York State Government and politics. On this week’s Gazette: one of the first items the state legislature is expected to vote on in January is the Reproductive Health Act, our political observer Alan Chartock shares his thoughts on Amazon’s new headquarters coming to Queens, and we mark Veterans day by speaking with a NY Veteran helping to prevent veteran suicides.

Snow was expected in the Hudson Valley Thursday afternoon, but it came in surprising amounts and intensity. Many roads were at a standstill, others closed, and several not yet plowed or sanded when commuters hit the streets earlier than usual for the evening commute. Some officials say the state needs a better response to such storms while others admit they can do a better job of coordinating response at the local level.

Continuing a series of conversations with top law enforcement officials in Berkshire County, WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes sat down with Sheriff Thomas Bowler for an extended interview this week.

Meteorologist Garett Argianas delivers the evening weather forecast for Friday, November 16, 2018.

The 2019 Tanglewood schedule is out. 

The worker killed on the Mass Pike Thursday was a Berkshire County resident.

   A new report says progress is being made on reducing homelessness in the four counties of western Massachusetts.

Residents of one Albany neighborhood are trying to scuttle plans to build a bioswale on their street.

For many Thanksgiving is the biggest cooking day of the year, so appropriately we are bringing in the all-stars. Food writer, cook and baker Deanna Fox is joined by Chef Ric Orlando to answer your Thanksgiving cooking and baking questions. WAMC's Ray Graf hosts.

Alright, let's roll back the tape!  Here are this week's highlights from the WAMC Listener Comment Line. 

A miniseries based on the 2015 escape by Richard Matt and David Sweat from the Clinton Correctional Facility will debut on Showtime this weekend.  In advance, its producers and director Ben Stiller has held several premieres of the first episode including in Cannes, New York City and last night in Plattsburgh.

Newschannel 13 meteorologist Paul Caiano delivers the Midday Weather Summary for Friday, November 16, 2018.

People in the Northeast are digging out from a rare November snowstorm that triggered a multitude of closings, delays and commuter woes.

The new book, "Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food" is the story of an immigrant spoken through food, photography, and flavors from Nik Sharma's two worlds India and America. There are few books that provide home cooks a new way to cook and think about flavor, but even fewer that do it with the clarity and charm of Nik Sharma.

"Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food" offers 100 delicious and intriguing new recipes, plus 270 beautiful pictures of food. Nik is the beloved curator of award-winning food blog, "A Brown Table." 

      The largest city in western Massachusetts is again considering a ban on single use plastic bags by retailers.   This as a growing number of cities and towns in Massachusetts have enacted plastic bag regulations, but movement toward a statewide ban stalled.

In this week’s Classical Music According to Yehuda, we continue to learn about Rossini - who died 150 years ago this year.

Yehuda Hanani’s Close Encounters with Music series presents a program Mozart & Schubert Marzipan & The Trout on Saturday December 8 at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA.

In “The Band’s Visit,” The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra is traveling from Egypt to play a concert in Petah Tikva, Israel but after language confusion at the border end up in Beit Hatikva - a small city where civic pride is low. Without a means of transportation out of town until the morning, the band is taken in by the locals.

With music and lyrics by David Yazbek, a book by Itamar Moses, and directed by David Cromer, "The Band's Visit" won 10 Tony Awards last June.

The show is at once charming and uplifting, humorous and moving, global and deeply personal. The band, who you see on stage as they are characters in the show - is out of this world and the music is lively and inviting.

Tony Shaloub originated the lead role of Tewfiq on Broadway - winning a Tony Award. Succeeding him is Sasson Gabay, the Israeli actor who played Tewfiq in the award winning 2007 film that the musical is based on. Gabay has been an actor for more than 40 years and has been a member of the Beit Lessin Theatre in Tel Aviv for 20.

How will Jeff Sessions’ ouster as attorney general impact the Russia probe?
In today’s Congressional Corner, Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal of the first district finishes his conversation with WAMC’s Alan Chartock.

In 2012 Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Max Ritvo was a student in her play writing class at Yale University. He was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet. He was also in remission from pediatric cancer. Over the next four years in which Ritvo's illness returned and his health declined, even as his productivity bloomed, the two exchanged letters that spoke with urgency, humor, and the desire for connection. They talked about everything reincarnation, the afterlife, an Amtrak quiet car, good soup. All of it in the letters. The letters have now been published in a book titled, "Letters From Max: A Book Of Friendship".

Joining us today is Sarah Ruhl.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called into WAMC's Roundtable program on Friday and spoke with Dr. Alan Chartock about a variety of issues, including: Amazon, the snowstorm, presidential politics, pay raises for the legislature, single-payer health care and more.

  The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.

Today's panelists: WAMC's Alan Chartock, Albany County District Attorney David Soares, and communications consultant Joe Bonilla.

For the last half hour of The Panel - Alan speaks with New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.

WAMC's Dr. Alan Chartock discusses Julian Assange, Donald Trump and the Mueller report, Saudi Arabia's public prosectuor seeking the death penalty for against five suspects for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the shocking number of people missing in California due to the Camp Fire, and a man interrupting a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" to yell "Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!"

Here's NewsChannel 13 Meteorologist Paul Caiano's WAMC Regional Forecast:

Steady snow ending during the morning from west to east.  Still a few rain or snow showers or areas of drizzle during the day.  Highs in the upper 30s.  

Mostly cloudy with a few snow showers tonight.  Lows in the lower 30s.

Partly sunny tomorrow.  Highs in the lower 40s.