Western Mass Politics & Insight

During Town Meeting Tuesday night with just under 650 voters, Longmeadow rejected a $8.6 million debt exclusion that would have financed the build out of a municipally-owned Internet provider. At the meeting, backers, which included the Select Board, mostly jousted with the Finance Committee. The Committee, a volunteer advisory panel, had given the project a thumbs-down.

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By Matt Chilliak

“Have you ever killed someone?” isn’t the type of question you would normally need to ask someone running for public office.

It’s probably the most important question no one is asking Massachusetts Republican candidate John Deaton, who’s running for U.S. Senate again.

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For some in Longmeadow, it may seem like there has been somebody—or some thing—new in town for the better part of the last two years. As the town has moved toward developing its own municipal fiber, that is local Internet service, a nebulous and shadowy

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A federal judge in Springfield has agreed to dissolve the consent decree that the city of Springfield and the federal government had agreed to in 2022. On Thursday, Judge Michael Ponsor granted the joint motion to end the agreement, which the parties had filed about 10 days ago. The ruling was not a surprise.

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Seven years after New England Public Radio and WGBY merged to become New England Public Media, the nonprofit media landscape is shifting again. Last Friday, the GBH Foundation, which oversees NEPM now, announced that it would formally absorb the 413’s largest public broadcaster.

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