Midday Magazine on WAMC

State lawmakers in Berkshire County are asking Massachusetts to hold onto its recently announced fiscal surplus, to use only in case of emergency. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

State financial officials announced last week that the Commonwealth is facing a $116 million surplus in last year’s FY 2012 budget. When desposited into the state’s so-called “Rainy Day Fund”, it brings that amount to over 1.6 billion dollars. That makes Massachusetts a state with one of the largest cash reserves in the country, only behind Texas and Alaska.

In so many Hollywood films of yesteryear, American soldiers and war veterans-- particularly those of the World War II era-- are depicted as valiant, well-adjusted warriors who have fought for their country. They smile, even if they are wounded. Upon coming home, they are ever-willing to be embraced by their loved ones while disappearing into the mainstream and getting on with their lives.

A large employer in Berkshire County has recently announced they are expanding and planning to bring more jobs to the area, with an agreement to purchase a stationery company based in Southern Maine. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Anyone who's jumped off a haystack or played on a trampoline, knows the pleasurable feeling of weightlessness, wherein there are, for a fleeting moment, no more sagging body parts.

Felix Baumgartner, a 43-year old Austrian military parachutist, intentionally jumped from a capsule 24 miles up, on Oct 14, thus certainly knowing weightlessness for a decent amount of time. And what a fascinating lot of physics the man who fell from space experienced!

Kudos for crank radios, jeers for the two-party system and some ideas about fracking - they're all included in this week's highlights from the WAMC Listener Comment Line. 

The monumental effort to restore power and rail service to counties north of New York City continues, but as we hear in this report from Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas, communities are struggling with a variety of other challenges... Most of the electricity is back on, the MTA and CSX have crews working on railroad services, but there's still a lot of debris that needs clean-up and still a lot of problems with landline and cellular telephone service.

The two candidates competing for a seat in the Massachusetts legislature’s 4th Berkshire District squared off in a debate Wednesday evening. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard attended the event and filed a report…

Last night, the Berkshire Beacon sponsored a debate between current  4th Berkshire District Representative democrat William “Smitty” Pignatelli and Green-Rainbow party challenger L. Scott Laugenour at the Lenox Town Library. The candidates discussed environmental policy, taxation, health care, education, and more.

Some commuters were able to board Metro-North trains this morning and more households and businesses have the lights back on - Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas has more on the Hurricane Recovery effort.
 

Late last month, renowned cyclist and cancer activist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from competitive sport. Mr. Armstrong has repeatedly denied the allegations, and has only tested positive once for a banned substance -- cortisone -- for which he provided a prescription. The prohibited steroid was in a doctor-provided cream used by many riders to treat saddle sores.