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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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“Protect Public Participation”: Greenfield Codifies Remote Access to Meetings
January 11, 2025
With the state’s temporary remote-access provisions set to expire in less than three months, Greenfield acted to “integrate disability justice” into local governance, one city councilor said.
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At the Last Bastion of Rent Control, Requests for Big Hikes
September 23, 2024
In Ludlow, Orange, and other small towns across Massachusetts, rent control boards are arbitrating bitter struggles between landowners seeking rent increases, and residents who say they fear being priced out and losing their homes.
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Parks and Wrecked: Inside Easthampton’s Crumbling Maintenance Building
August 01, 2024
With new parks in planning stages, some question when long overdue building upgrades will be prioritized for the parks department.
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Amid A Police Corruption Scandal, One Of Massachusetts’ Smallest Towns Rebuilds Its Government
May 06, 2024
Leyden’s former police chief is now facing charges. But town residents have been working on reform for years.
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Help that Hurts: Easthampton’s Policing of an Autistic Transgender Adult
February 09, 2024
Is pairing police with mental health professionals actually improving outcomes for western Mass residents experiencing crises?
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The Forest and the Trees: Western Mass’ Solar Siting Problem
December 13, 2023
Climate activists agree forests aren’t the best place to build solar. So why is it still happening?
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The Wired, Wired West: The Collapse of Public Internet in Easthampton and the Struggle to Connect Massachusetts’s Overlooked Communities
October 04, 2023
Easthampton’s defunct efforts to create a publicly owned utility are a case study in the challenges of bringing affordable, reliable internet to the region.
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The State of the Labor Movement
September 04, 2023
As a wave of high-profile union organizing continues to sweep across the country, including in western Massachusetts, several recent nationwide polls have found that support for unions is higher than it has been in decades.
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Michaels Workers in Hadley Organize Store’s First-Ever Union
August 21, 2023
With a population of just over 5,000, Hadley is best known, perhaps, for its asparagus. But now, the town is gaining fame outside of the region for another reason: new union organizing.
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Protesters rally against police brutality in Northampton after violent arrest
August 14, 2023
The protest came after The Shoestring published video of police tackling and pepper-spraying a 60-year-old woman.
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“We’re Not in the Same Boat”: Flood Impacts Felt Unevenly Across Valley
July 14, 2023
While the true extent of the damage from this week’s floods is still emerging, it is becoming clear that socially vulnerable populations — immigrants, people of color, small-scale farmers, the unhoused — have experienced a heavy burden, mirroring longtime warnings from experts who have said that climate change will disproportionately impact those groups.
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Redacted: State Withholding Plans for New Women’s Prison
June 19, 2023
State agencies are using a controversial exemption to the public records law to redact information about the prison project.
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Proposed Law Would Aid Farms Polluted by PFAS-tainted Sludge Fertilizers
May 25, 2023
Sen. Comerford and others hope to avoid significant disruption to local agriculture and municipal wastewater management.
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State’s Food Banks Request More Emergency Aid
May 05, 2023
Food banks across the state are experiencing unprecedented levels of demand as inflation pushes the cost of food higher and emergency aid programs initiated by the pandemic come to a close.
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Growing Danger: The Dark Side of Working in the Weed Industry
May 01, 2023
In a joint investigation with The Nation magazine, The Shoestring exposes safety issues present in the booming industry after a Western Massachusetts woman working in a cannabis-processing facility died on the job.
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