WAMC Northeast Report on WAMC

Democrats in western Massachusetts have mixed opinions on which candidate running in the primary to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat left by Secretary of State John Kerry they’ll support. 

While Fourth Berkshire District State Representative William “Smitty” Pignatelli may not be able to decide to support either Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, Congressmen Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch, he knows what he wants to see in Washington.

Concerned members of the Northern Berkshire community gathered in North Adams Friday to participate in an open discussion on their current and future public transportation needs.

People shopping for a bargain typically turn to the internet and the same is true for at least one cash strapped city in western Massachusetts. 

   The city of Springfield is projected to save more than $2.6 million dollars on its electric bill in the next fiscal year after participating in an online auction to purchase electricity. Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno announced the new energy contract on Friday. He said it was an impressive accomplishment that comes as the city is facing potentially deep budget cuts.

Due to the discovery of the invasive emerald ash borer in Dalton last summer, Berkshire County is now under strict orders to contain the movement of ash lumber and all hardwood firewood from outside of its borders.

Dicken Crane sells ash lumber from his Holiday Brook Farm in Dalton. He said that if the quarantine zone were not confined to Berkshire County only, he’d have an easier time getting his lumber or firewood processed, which often must be done in other parts of the state.

More than two dozen Vermont communities passed resolutions on town meeting day expressing opposition to transporting tar sands oil through a pipeline in the state.

New York Democrats are calling on their Republican colleagues in Congress to work with the president to find a solution to the budget cuts that took effect last Friday.

Capital District-area Congressman Paul Tonko  was joined by Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, the state party co-chair, on a conference call today to discuss the effects of sequestration.  Mayor Miner says that the sequester is hitting Syracuse hard.  Tonko labeled sequestration as "mindless.” He says he been against the process from the beginning.

During its first weeks of formation, a chick is provided with all the nutrition it requires inside its shell. As it develops, though, the chick eventually exhausts its supply of fuel and begins pecking around in search for more, thus creating an opening in the shell and giving birth to itself. This is what Buckminster Fuller describes as “precession” when animals, seemingly inadvertently, but by nature’s design, are led to the next stage in their evolution.

State budget negotiations are continuing in Albany this week in the run-up to the self-imposed March 21st deadline set by state legislators and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Democrat of Manhattan’s 75th district, spoke with WAMC's Patrick Donges for an update on budget negotiations and the prospects for medical marijuana in the Empire State, a cause he has long championed.

A federal investigation is reportedly underway involving a long-standing toy fund in the Berkshire town of Lee.