NORTHAMPTON—On a sun-blasted afternoon in July, a mix of celebration and mourning was afoot outside the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s building. Decked out in union red shirts, staffers demonstrated in support of their imminently unemployed colleagues. The paper was closing its press, idling 29 workers, and
A Fifth of Hampden is a series of profiles of candidates for Holyoke’s Next Rep HOLYOKE—Patrick Beaudry almost ran for office last year. A longish time at-large city councilor was bailing. Beaudry, home for three years after a career in state politics, had the cred
PITTSFIELD—While attempting to maintain social-distancing along a narrow strip of sidewalk outside the post office here, US Representative Richard Neal and local officials condemned the chicanery of Donald Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Allegedly undertaken to save money, the changes to the United States Postal
UPDATED 7/31/20 8:14PM: To note an updated counterclaim from the commonwealth which no longer say the Board did not specifically recommend Walsh. The employment status of Bennett Walsh, the Superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home (HSH) at the dawn of the facility’s COVID-19 outbreak, remains
SPRINGFIELD—Speaking at the weekly COVID-19 briefing here, Baystate Health Systems President & CEO Dr. Mark Keroack announced that an outbreak of the novel coronavirus hit a non-COVID ward at the health network’s flagship hospital. Keroack told reporters that 13 patients and 23 staff had been
The Trans-Commonwealth Railroad is a series on the challenges and efforts to connect the length of Massachusetts by rail. The $50 million Longmeadow State Senator Eric Lesser secured in the Senate Transportation bond bill for East-West rail is unlike the previous budget orders on the
UPDATED 11:32AM 7/17/20: To note Morse has now bought TV time, but not in the quarter new FEC reports cover. Nearly a year after the faceoff began between Congressman Richard Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, the money race is coming into clear relief. Last
Shutdowns much of the nation underwent—if sometimes halfheartedly—to counter the novel coronavirus punched the ailing media industry in the gut. Closed businesses do not advertise, exacerbating the preexisting online flight of ad dollars. If the industry was reeling before, a pandemic would be an awful
Whistle Stops is an occasional series of shorter hits from the legislative campaign trail. by Michael Lachenmeyer Correspondent-Intern For the past four months, a pandemic has ravaged the country leaving more than 100,000 Americans dead and plunging the economy into depths unseen since the Great
UPDATED 4:32PM: To include reaction from AG Healey’s office. SPRINGFIELD—In an abrupt reversal, Mayor Domenic Sarno apologized for the reinstatement of five cops charged with lying to investigators looking into the 2015 fracas outside Nathan Bill’s Bar & Restaurant. In a late morning press conference