The Berkshire Argus

10/21/2025

This Thursday: An in-person conversation with investigative journalist Mariah Blake about her new book, "They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals"

This Thursday at the American Museum of Tort Law, a conversation with investigative journalist Mariah Blake about her gripping new book, “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals”

09/15/2025

Nearly five years after it was requested by Pittsfield City Councilors, the state's Department of Public Health released its "screening-level review" of cancer data in Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington.

PCBs may play a role, the agency says, but the mix of diffuse exposures, data limitations, and many other cancer risk factors leaves no clear culprit.

09/02/2025

In this week's Argus Eye, some background on a Democratic primary challenger for longtime Rep. Richard Neal, info on new "junk fees" regulation, and The Argus on WAMC to discuss reporting on Berkshire Health Systems.

In this edition of The Argus Eye, news of what may be an interesting race for Congress in western Massachusetts next year.

08/22/2025

In the latest Argus Eye newsletter, a look at documents acquired this week by The Argus that provide new details -- and raise many questions -- about a data breach at Berkshire Health Systems.

Even as it acknowledged a decade of improper access to patient data by a “rogue employee,” the largest employer in Berkshire County—and provider of health care to most residents—claimed a full audit would be an “undue burden.”

08/09/2025

From the latest Argus Eye newsletter: A Massachusetts Department of Public Health study of PCBs and cancer in Pittsfield and the Housatonic River region that began in 2021 has been delayed again. Promised last fall, then last winter, then this spring, the final report remains "under review," according to D.P.H.

The state’s Department of Public Health has again pushed off release of a Housatonic Region cancer study it began in 2021.

07/11/2025

07/11/2025

Something is coming soon to Great Barrington…

07/08/2025

Is Amazon Prime Day a religious holiday?

As the skies darkened with drones and carts overflowed, the people awaited judgment—not by faith, nor deed, nor heart, but by purchase history.

06/18/2025

In January 2021, concerned about links between PCB exposure and cancer, members of the Pittsfield City Council asked the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for an updated cancer-incidence study. After more than four years, they're still waiting. Read the Argus's in-depth story, "The Uncertainty Machine," about PCBs, cancer-cluster investigations, and the sometimes-maddening limits of science. The story includes an accompanying video timeline chronicling the wait for D.P.H.'s "screening-level review" of cancer in Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington. Full story: https://www.berkshireargus.com/the-uncertainty-machine/

Concerned about links between PCB exposure and cancer, in January 2021 members of the Pittsfield City Council asked the Massachusetts Department of Public He...

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.