BERKSHIRE COUNTY

With virus rates rising across the state and the holidays looming, western Massachusetts residents who want to get a COVID test are often waiting in hours-long lines, if they can get one at all.

In late October, Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse was among the recipients of a prestigious MacArthur Genius Grant. Among her achievements is "The Thanksgiving Play," now on stage (so to speak) at WAM Theatre, based in Lenox, Massachusetts.

In this pandemic year, the video went live last night and is up through the weekend.

A fire destroyed an important dance performance theater at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, Tuesday morning.

When someone gets diagnosed with COVID-19, they must separate from others — maybe hole up in a room, or the basement — in order to not spread the virus to others. But for folks without homes in western Massachusetts, that's nothing like what they may have to go through this winter.

Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up a public comment period on its controversial plan to remove toxic PCBs from the Housatonic River. The agency said it hopes to issue its final plan by the end of the year.

That would be before any possible change at the White House.

Concern is growing in parts of New England about the potential for another spike in COVID-19 cases.

Great Barrington, Massachusetts, recently played host to a meeting that’s causing controversy in the scientific community and caught the attention of the White House.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial plan to build a PCB disposal site in Berkshire County is the subject of several proposals on the Town Meeting agenda in Lee, Massachusetts, on Thursday night.

Over the past two decades more than 60 dams have been torn down in Massachusetts with the goal of restoring river habitats and improving safety. One came down this year on the West Branch of the Housatonic River with yet another – more neighborhood-focused goal.

Home buying and selling slowed down in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but realtors in western Massachusetts say the market has picked up. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office announced this week awards for people who have worked to protect the environment. Three received lifetime achievement awards, including the late Barbara Cianfarini, who for decades fought to clean up PCBs in the Berkshires.

The recent primary election demanded a lot of city and town clerks across Massachusetts — not only on the election day, but the days, weeks and even months preceding it.

The 2020 Massachusetts primary on Sept. 1 will whittle down the candidates and offer a major test to the state's mail-in voting system.

For many cities and towns, Tuesday's primary is the first voting in a new coronavirus world. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is inviting the public to comment on its revised plan to cleanup PCBs from the Housatonic River. The plan calls for a toxic waste disposal site in Lee, Massachusetts.