The Berkshire Argus

04/01/2025

Our gold-plated ship has come in!

From scrappy little newsletter producing in-depth journalism to something ... different.

03/31/2025

Following the arrest of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Öztürk—apparently for co-authoring an op-ed in the student newspaper—today I joined fellow Tufts alumni journalists in signing a letter urging the university’s president to make an unequivocal statement in support of free expression and a free press. (During my time at Tufts, I was a columnist, news editor, and later opinion-page editor at The Tufts Daily.)

No one should be arrested or deported for publishing an op-ed.

03/25/2025

For those following this year's budget deliberations in Great Barrington: The GB Select Board and Finance Committee are meeting tonight at 5:00pm to consider substantial budget cuts proposed in a memo issued last Friday by the interim town manager, Chris Rembold, to avoid a Proposition 2 1/2 override. The proposed cuts include eliminating lifeguards and other youth services at Lake Mansfield and the downtown skate park this summer and eliminating nearly $45,000 in funding that has, for many years, paid for costs and lease expenses for the Housatonic VFW/American Legion and the Great Barrington VFW.

Also proposed is closing the town's Transfer Station to the public ("citizens would be required to use private haulers.")

The cuts would redirect some of the saved funds to fully meet the requested subsidy of $304,909 for the Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad.

See the links below in comments for Rembold's memo and rationale for the proposed adjustments. The meeting is being held in person at Town Hall and via Zoom (link below in comments). After tonight's deliberations and votes, there will be a public hearing on the proposed budget on April 8.

03/19/2025

With an all-out assault on transparency and independent oversight underway in Washington, a look at a little-known Berkshires story from the nineteen thirties that is again timely.

With government transparency and press freedom under attack in Washington, a timely look at a little-known Great Barrington story from the nineteen thirties.

03/02/2025

Some new reporting from The Argus on a little-discussed topic: Whether an unidentified person who placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill on the eve of the January 6, 2021, attack could benefit from President Trump's pardon.

With conspiracy-minded leadership installed at the F.B.I., and federal prosecutors now broadly applying the president’s controversial pardon, will a still-unidentified bomber escape justice?

02/28/2025

As plans for a PCB landfill in Lee, Massachusetts reach a critical stage, a group of Berkshire County residents rallied in Boston—near the headquarters of General Electric, the company responsible for dumping PCBs into the Housatonic River.

02/27/2025

Spent the day in Boston reporting on a bus trip by activists from the Berkshires asking General Electric to "do the right thing." They want a more thorough cleanup of PCBs from the Housatonic River, using remediation technologies and without creating a new PCB dump in the Town of Lee. (Link in comments to more photos/quotes from speakers.)

02/07/2025

Even as the Trump administration rolls back climate-related initiatives -- and begins to scrub the Department of Defense's website of climate-change references -- current and former Pentagon officials told The Argus that you can't separate climate and national security.

Even as the Trump administration rolls back climate-related initiatives, current and former Pentagon officials told The Argus that work related to climate and national security is likely to continue.

01/22/2025

The Argus is now on Bluesky. Follow along here:

A nonprofit digital newsmagazine featuring in-depth news, profiles, humor, and more. https://www.berkshireargus.com

01/08/2025

Organizations that protect journalists here and abroad are concerned about Trump's attacks on the press as he prepares to take office again. Labeling reporters "the enemy of the people" also recalls specific threats made against Massachusetts journalists in 2018.

12/31/2024

Some cool news: The Berkshire Argus is now a fiscally sponsored project of the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, a vital step as The Argus continues its evolution into a nonprofit newsmagazine focused on "important stories fully told" and other features that inform, enlighten, and entertain. That means all contributions to support this work are now tax-deductible (hint, hint ;) Happy New Year and onward into 2025!

The Argus is now a fiscally sponsored project of the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports independent, watchdog journalism. It will enable significantly more support for reporting that delivers “important stories fully told.”

12/12/2024

Last month, MassDEP fined the Housatonic Water Works Company for withholding July water-test results that showed manganese concentrations at nearly two-and-half-times the regulatory limit. The details were disclosed in response to a public-records request filed by The Argus.

A previously unreported penalty-assessment notice sent to the company in November called the facts “undisputed” and the company’s violations “willful.”

11/03/2024

As developments in a major Housatonic River remediation project accelerate, two candidates for state representative confront a challenging issue—and its sticky politics.

10/12/2024

The state's drinking-water regulator has issued an order requiring a timeline for water-filtration improvements after Housatonic Water Works withheld July test results that showed manganese levels at more than double the regulatory limit.

The company withheld results from July that showed manganese levels at more than double the regulatory limit