BERKSHIRE COUNTY

The four candidates on the ballot in the mayoral preliminary election in North Adams, Massachusetts, have been winnowed down to two.

Lynette Bond and Jennifer Macksey agree on a few priorities: the need to improve old infrastructure, especially the public safety building, and increasing affordable housing.

Michael Sullivan will face Joshua Garcia in November's general election for mayor in Holyoke, Massachusetts. They were the top two finishers in Tuesday’s preliminary.

A legal challenge against an agreement to dispose toxic waste in Lee, Massachusetts, has been dismissed. That's the ruling of Berkshire Superior Court judge Michael K. Callan.

In Berkshire County, at least 13 incarcerated people have tested positive for COVID-19 since late last month.

Six staff members have also tested positive. About half of those who tested positive for COVID in Berkshire County correctional facilities are vaccinated, according to the sheriff's office.

Opponents of a waste dump containing PCB sediment planned for Lee, Massachusetts, took their case before the federal Environmental Appeals Board on Thursday.

The decades-long battle to remove PCBs from the Housatonic River continues later this week, when the EPA's appeals board hears oral arguments against the agency's cleanup plan. 

While the numbers of COVID-19 patients are creeping up, western Massachusetts hospitals have not yet had to limit elective care.

The latest U.S. census data shows the population is continuing to decline in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in Berkshire County overall. But the decline is slowing — and diversity is increasing.

Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said action needs to be taken to grow the population of the western part of the state. He made his comments Wednesday during a visit to Springfield.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans wrapped up their second archeological dig in the Berkshires this summer with a discovery that could shift thinking about the tribe's history in the region.

Many western Massachusetts colleges and universities are requiring students be vaccinated against COVID-19 when they return to campus, but they are offering exemptions.

New figures from the U.S. Census show the four counties of western Massachusetts ranked at the bottom in the state for percentage population growth over the past 10 years.

The headlines in the Sept. 17, 1974 edition of the Berkshire Eagle brought news of a delay in the Greylock Glen project in Adams, Massachusetts. The timeline, according to Sen. Adam Hinds, had been pushed back two years to 1976.

Now free of government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions, most movie theaters in New England have reopened in full. But after months of streaming movies and selling tickets in a limited capacity, several area arthouse cinemas are choosing to stay half-empty.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican community is conducting two archaeological digs in western Massachusetts this summer.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is launching a study to determine cancer incidence in five cities and towns on the Housatonic River.

Updated at 4:09 p.m. 

The Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts, has expanded a list of clergy and lay employees credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor while serving in the diocese. Some of the findings date back decades, as the diocese has expanded its criteria for disclosure.

Updated at 5:33 p.m. 

A 964-acre brush fire in western Massachusetts is now 90% contained, according to the state.

General Electric and the EPA have responded to an appeal of the agency's plan to clean up the rest of the Housatonic River.

Springfield, Massachusetts, officials continue to field suggestions on reopening many of the city's basketball courts. They were closed at the beginning of the pandemic last year to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

Employees at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams have voted overwhelmingly to unionize.

With states around Massachusetts beginning to loosen some of their personal and economic COVID-19 restrictions, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that the state's vaccination program remains his top priority. But he said he'll likely have more to say about reopening by the end of the month.

A Pittsfield, Massachusetts, school committee member resigned during a meeting Wednesday night when the committee cast their votes on candidates for a new superintendent. Dennis Powell, who is also the president of the Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP, said his voice is not being heard.