WAMC Northeast Report on WAMC

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch was at the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation - known as VSAC - this morning to announce new legislation intended to ease and simplify the college financial aid application process.

Advocates for low-income families in Massachusetts are calling on the state and federal governments to increase funding for fuel assistance programs in the shadow of sequestration.

In a few short days, members of Congress must vote to avoid the series of across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, but if not; many programs that benefit the neediest families will have their budgets slashed mid-year.

A long shot bid by the city of Chicopee to get into the casino competition in Massachusetts has failed. But, the city’s mayor says Chicopee does not need casino money to survive

It’s been the best of times, and the worst of times for the University of Miami athletics. On the one hand, the Hurricanes have the number two men’s basketball team in the country, which is quite something for a school that usually sees basketball as simply a bridge between bowl season and spring football.

Vermont  lawmakers are considering dropping the state's traditional maple syrup-labeling system in favor of an international one.

The Vermont Senate has passed and sent to the House a resolution that supports the Agency of Agriculture’s proposal to adopt an administrative rule to implement international maple grading standards. Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Board Chair Jacques Couture explains that the international grading system is brand new.

A gun buyback program in western Massachusetts has received a boost from some people who are almost daily witnesses to the problem of gun violence.  

Trauma surgeons, other doctors, and staff at Baystate Medical Center, as well as the hospital itself are helping to fund  the gun buyback program that will be held March 2nd at the Springfield Police Dept Headquarters. Dr. Ronald Gross, the chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the hospital spearheaded the effort that resulted in a contribution of $2,450 to buyback guns.

An outside review of New York's $150 billion pension fund for public workers shows it fixed ethical problems that led to a "pay-for-play" scandal.  

The three-year review by Michigan-based Funston Advisory Services says the Common Retirement Fund's 2009 decision to ban paid placement agents used by other pension funds does not appear to have kept it from accessing qualified outside investment managers.

In prior commentaries I have spoken about the moral and constitutional issues in targeting people for assassination, by drones or otherwise. Today I’d like to look at the problem coldly, and try to assess whether and when those moral arguments have consequences on our effort to end terrorism. In particular, what should we make of the Obama Administration’s use of drones abroad to kill those it labels enemies. Plainly al-Qaeda has few scruples; why should we? Should we “fight fire with fire” or “sink to their level” to use two common expressions?

The Vermont Senate has passed a physician-assisted suicide bill and moved it to the House chamber.  But the amended bill is substantially different than the original bill presented to lawmakers.

The Vermont Senate passed the “Patient Choice and Control at End of Life” bill late Thursday. It grants immunity from criminal or civil liability to health care professionals and family members when treating or helping a terminally ill patient who decides to end their own life.

In recognition of African American History Month, students at one high school in the Berkshires participated in a day of presentations from local African American role models, who shared their own stories with students and reflected on their heritage.

Multicultural BRIDGE – a non-profit organization with a mission to promote diversity understanding and acceptance in area communities, held their first Living African-American History Month Project, through a partnership with Pittsfield High School.