James Paleologopoulos

It's been over a month since the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office closed the book on an out-of-state company that once had a stake in dozens of Springfield properties - many the subject of thousands of complaints.Following a settlement, several owners involved with "Springfield Gardens" won’t be owning any building in the City of Homes again anytime soon. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and her staff stopped in Springfield Tuesday to meet with former tenants who could possibly see some restitution down the road.

For the past year-and-a-half, residents at a mobile home park in Ludlow, Mass. have been fighting for what they consider to be a fairer rent. The battle began soon after the park's current owner purchased the property and raised monthly rent payments by around 150 percent. Tenants have since scored some legal wins, but the latest hurdle now rests in the hands of the town's rent control board.

Over the past week, SNAP benefits have returned for millions of Americans, after leaving households and food providers in a precarious situation amid the government shutdown.Massachusetts was no different, where a million residents and hundreds of food pantries waited with bated breath for two weeks. Various food banks and other organizations would step up amid the SNAP cutoff, and on Monday, Governor Maura Healey journeyed to western Massachusetts to commend those who did.

Years in the making, one of the longest-running childcare providers in western Massachusetts has returned to a familiar spot, over a decade after a tornado decimated their hub in Springfield’s South End neighborhood.

For at least a decade, millions in grant dollars have gone out to Massachusetts communities that either host a casino or are next to a community that does. Funding from the Community Mitigation Fund has meant money for projects, initiatives and other local efforts – but due to decisions by lawmakers on Beacon Hill, the funding is running dry. Officials in Springfield have been making their case for keeping the fund going - going as far as to lay out what the city's been doing with its grant money during a state gaming commission meeting held at city hall.

A decade ago, Springfield Public Schools began to roll out one of the largest “Breakfast in the Classroom” programs in Massachusetts – tackling food insecurity with the most important meal of the day. Ten years later, the program’s only grown in popularity, with proponents calling it a “national model.”

The biggest city in western Massachusetts is the latest to get an alternative electricity supply option. Come December, much of Springfield will be in the program – one that community members and officials have spent years advocating for.

At a time when getting healthy food to those who need it most is critical, a farm-focused non-profit in western Massachusetts has been firing on all cylinders.

Tuesday’s elections featured plenty of incumbent mayors sticking around in western Massachusetts – though just barely in Northampton. And in Easthampton, with no incumbent on the ballot, voters picked the city’s 4th mayor in 30 years.

With the federal government committing to funding only half of this month’s SNAP benefits, states across the country, including in the Northeast, are continuing to pick a path forward with less federal food assistance funding now on the table. Massachusetts is home to at least a million people who rely on the program, with many in the state’s Gateway cities. However, as Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester State Senator Jo Comerford tells WAMC, food insecurity is just as present in one of the state’s most rural corners.