Josh Landes

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has signed the state legislature’s $63.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 into law. WAMC spoke with lawmakers about what the spending means for Western Massachusetts.

On Saturday, singer-songwriter Buck Meek takes his solo act and new band Kisser to the stage at Assembly in Kingston. It’s the first of two opportunities to catch the Big Thief guitarist in the WAMC listening area this summer.

Officials say the drought affecting every region of Massachusetts has been elevated to a higher severity in Berkshire County.

An interview with Berkshire Community College President Dr. Hara Charlier.

An emergency medical services nonprofit in the rural southwestern corner of Massachusetts has struck a forward-looking budget deal with the largest community in its coverage area.

Last month, the Supreme Court backed state-level bans on trans athletes participating in women’s sports. As WAMC reports, the issue is a flashpoint in this year’s Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary.

Connecticut-based Daigle Law Group has laid out a timeline for its taxpayer-funded audit of the Hinsdale, Massachusetts, police department following a controversial killing in January.

While the city of Pittsfield won’t be getting a fireworks show on July 4, a make-up date has been set for the following week.

On June 1, rumors of an alleged homicide in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, spread across Berkshire County social media. More information emerged the next day when the Berkshire County district attorney’s office confirmed that local contractor Cole Bushnell had been arraigned on a murder charge, and detailed a grisly crime scene at his home where a body had been recovered. The victim, Michael Moore of Winstead, Connecticut, was his longtime friend and occasional business partner. On June 17, Christian Murray of The Lakeville Journal published a deep dive into the situation aimed at dispelling misinformation and expanding beyond official press releases. As he told WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes, the investigation into what happened in Ashley Falls that June day faced opposition from the very start.

The next Massachusetts state budget will include a provision to close an age-of-consent loophole that leaves students vulnerable to sexual abuse by teachers. As WAMC reports, recent efforts to address the longstanding protection gap were driven by a rape case at a Pittsfield boarding school.