New England News

By Dan Bobkoff

SPRINGFIELD, MA – The troubled Pioneer Valley Transit Authority yesterday hired an interim administrator charged with leading the agency out from under major scandals. But, some say the new administrator is the wrong man for the job.

Our Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Dan Bobkoff has the story.

By Pat Bradley

Burlington, VT – Towns across Vermont held their annual Town Meeting Day gatherings yesterday to discuss local issues and vote on local budgets. WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley looks at the highlights of a Green Mountain tradition.

By Carrie Saldo

Pittsfield, MA – Pediatricians in Pittsfield, Massachusetts are calling for the shutdown of two PCB remediation and dump sites in the city. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief, Carrie Saldo spoke with one of the letter's authors;

By Carrie Saldo

Lenox, MA – A controversial Marriot hotel proposal, which some Lenox, Massachusetts residents contended would have altered the character of a nearby residential neighborhood, was defeated by the town Zoning Board of Appeals Wednesday night.

By Dan Bobkoff

AMHERST, MA – Most regional colleges and universities will continue to allow military recruiters onto campuses after this week's supreme court ruling. But some in the area are continuing to take a stand on what they say is the military's discriminatory policies.

WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Dan Bobkoff reports.

By Dan Bobkoff

Southampton, ma – A special elementary school program designed to attract girls to math and science has suffered a major setback in western Massachusetts. Some parents thought having an all-girls educational program receive school funds amounted to discrimination.

WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Dan Bobkoff has our report.

By Pat Bradley

Vernon, VT – The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant has begun the process of increasing its power output by twenty percent. It reached 105 percent and stopped on Sunday. Nuclear opponents say an evaluation indicating vibrations forced the hold, but plant officials say it's part of the plan to gradually increase power, and what's being evaluated are acoustic frequencies in the steam lines. WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley has more.

By Dan Bobkoff

SPRINGFIELD, ma – Springfield, MA is losing teachers to retirement faster than they can replace them. And, that's not what that financially troubled city needs.

WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Dan Bobkoff has the story.

By Dan Bobkoff

BOSTON, mA – Students have been getting out of school in the early afternoon since the days when most of them had to go help with the farm after classes. But is the current school schedule obsolete? Lawmakers in Boston are getting closer to passing legislation that will make it easier for school districts to expand the school day and the school year.

WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Dan Bobkoff has the story.

By Carrie Saldo

Pittsfield, MA – Massachusetts is home to the second largest number of biotechnology firms in the nation. And according to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, biotech could directly and indirectly create nearly 100,000 new in-state jobs and raise more than $1 billion in income tax revenues by 2010.
And as our Berkshire Bureau Chief, Carrie Saldo reports, with a Pittsfield, Massachusetts native opting to re-locate his biotechnology business, the city is getting in on that action;