Lucas Willard

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick today toured an elementary school in one the state’s Gateway Cities, where he also highlighted his plan to make significant investments in public education.

Governor Patrick was led by students through the Silvio Conte Community School in Pittsfield, where he met students, teachers, and administrators.

Massachusetts Interim Commissioner of the state Department of Transitional Assistance visited Pittsfield last night as part of a statewide campaign seeking public input on how to improve integrity and client services in the Commonwealth.

In the wake of a report released earlier this year by the Massachusetts Inspector General suggesting that $25 million may be wasted in the welfare system annually, and following the resignation of former Commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance Daniel Curley, recently-appointed Interim Commissioner Stacey Monahan is touring the Bay State holding a series of listening sessions to hear feedback and suggestions from the public on how to improve the DTA system.

The meeting will be held this evening beginning at 6 pm at the Pittsfield Public Library.

A large tree in a small Berkshire town may hold the key to finding the cure to a disease that has deforested suburban landscapes for decades.

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Daniel Winslow is defending past donations to Democratic candidates, including a $500 contribution to Attorney General Martha Coakley.

A Marine from Connecticut who was killed in a training exercise explosion in Nevada will be laid to rest later this week in western Massachusetts.

Patient advocates and representatives of the medical community in Massachusetts are submitting comments to the state Board of Public Health to address regulations that aim to curb prescription drug abuse.

On Monday, a new initiative to bring together the public and private sectors was announced to help foster small business development in the Berkshires.

The Berkshire Enterprises program, part of Berkshire Community College’s Office for Workforce Development, was presented with new collaborative space at the 1 Berkshire Strategic Alliance in Downtown Pittsfield.

A Western Massachusetts school committee has voted to keep the state’s only operation virtual school open next year.

Recently the Greenfield Public Schools Committee voted to reverse an earlier decision that would have discontinued the operation of the district’s Massachusetts Virtual Academy in the 2013-2014 school year.

Some committee members had felt that ceding control of the Virtual Academy to the state’s new Commonwealth Virtual School program would be too similar to creating a charter school.

On Friday, actors from the Royal Berkshire Improve Troupe portraying real-life mental health crisis situations helped train law enforcement officers from across Western Massachusetts.

Organized by the Berkshire County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the unscripted role-playing designed to increase an officer’s confidence in handling a call involving individuals with mental illness, comes after a 40 hr training course the officers participated in to recognize and deal with mental health crises.