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By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Supporters of enhanced passenger rail service in western Massachusetts packed the Senior Center Tuesday to testify before the legislative commission studying the project’s governance and funding.From as far afield as Greenfield, Palmer...

By MADDIE FABIAN

AMHERST — Growing up, Holyoke resident Carolyn Diaz Rodriguez preferred helping her grandfather with building projects in lieu of doing chores. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she has always loved using a hammer and working with her hands.Now...

By ERIN TIERNAN

BOSTON — New polling suggests statewide support for another minimum wage hike and as lawmakers weigh a push to raise the wage floor, an advocacy coalition is now actively pondering a ballot question to “force the issue.”The Change Research survey...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

AMHERST — Educational issues pertaining to schools across western Massachusetts — including transportation, rural inequities and a lack of sufficient state aid — peppered the discussion of a Joint Ways and Means Committee hearing at the University of...

By ALANIS BROUSSARD

Even though child care is an essential need for families in the United States, a history of limited government support prevents many families every day from getting the adequate child care they need.For years, the American child care system has...

By JUSTIN SILVERMAN

During the early months of COVID-19, governors in New England states issued executive orders allowing municipalities to meet online so long as the public could attend remotely. The democratic benefits of this arrangement quickly became evident....

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — What’s the first step in dealing with an overflowing bathtub? That’s the question MASSPIRG Legislative Director Deirdre Cummings asks to make her pitch for a sweeping new bill aimed at wrangling the presence of PFAS chemicals in food...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue, who’s been arrested and jailed multiple times for his activism, is coming to the Valley for a series of talks and to introduce his newest collection of poetry.Tsundue was born in 1975 in India to...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SPRINGFIELD — After 30 years under the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts’ umbrella, the food rescue nonprofit Rachel’s Table will become its own standalone organization this summer.The separation will give Rachel’s Table full fiscal,...

By CHRIS LARABEE

BOSTON — With a background in showing cattle at fairs and working on the family farm in South Deerfield, the state’s new agriculture commissioner has a Franklin County flair to her.South Deerfield native Ashley Randle has been tapped by the...

By STEVE PFARRER

The idea first came to Elijah Bynum about four years ago when he was exercising in a California gym and noticed an ultra-serious bodybuilder, a guy who was “radiating intensity” as he went through his paces.“There was this really intense energy about...

By JAY ASH, ED LAMBERT and CHERYL STANLEY

Children from every community across our commonwealth possess limitless potential, but that potential can fizzle quickly if it is not nourished and supported as they develop into adults. Most begin elementary school confident that their futures hold...

By SYDNEY KO

BOSTON — Fifteen years ago, Bev Baccelli was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. After treatment at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center and Tufts Medical Center, Baccelli continues with her day-to-day life. Yet, over that...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

School districts could be facing a fiscal cliff when pandemic-era federal funds run out and “are either going to need to develop those wings or prepare for a pretty significant fiscal crash,” former Education Secretary James Peyser said last week.The...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Moments after a unanimous vote Thursday morning by the University of Massachusetts board of trustees naming him the chancellor-elect for the flagship campus, Javier Reyes offered his appreciation for being selected in both English and then...

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — Astronomers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst played a key role in revealing the latest deep-field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, including some of the universe’s most distant galaxies. “With these pictures, we’re...

By STEVEN C. SHAREK

It’s no longer a secret that Massachusetts vocational-technical and agricultural high schools are a great option for students of all backgrounds who want to learn a trade and pursue a career. Unfortunately, there simply isn’t enough space in these...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Residents all over Massachusetts are scheduled to absorb a significant decrease in food assistance aid in just over two weeks, with more than 630,000 households facing a loss of about a third of what they have received in SNAP benefits over...

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — Thanks to $30,000 from the federal Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program, the Franklin County Community Development Corporation will provide microloans and trainings to business startups, federal officials announced...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The $15 minimum wage that kicked into effect Jan. 1 was years in the making and took more than five more years to be implemented. Now, with the new rate just setting in, key power players have set their sights on making Massachusetts the first state...