A stormy season for short-term rentals on Nantucket
Town Meeting, lawsuits, and pending seasonal community changes create an unpredictable environment for the island.
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Prime Day: The Final Segmentation
“No, Amazon Prime Day is not a religious holiday. It’s an annual sales event created by Amazon for its Prime members. While it’s become a major shopping event, it doesn’t have any religious significance.”—Google Gemini A.I., in response to the question, “Is Amazon Prime Day
The Uncertainty Machine
Concerned about PCB exposure and cancer, in January 2021, 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. But when results are finally released, will they even matter?
Argus acquired for $1 billion in stunning all-cash deal
From scrappy little newsletter producing in-depth journalism to something ... different.
Taking a stand for free expression and the free press
No one should be arrested or deported for publishing an op-ed.
NOTED: Advancing storm clouds darken ‘Sunshine Week’
With government transparency and press freedom under attack in Washington, a timely look at a little-known Great Barrington story from the nineteen thirties.
Will Trump’s January 6ᵗʰ pardons absolve a pipe bomber?
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?
NOTED: Lee activists take their fight against a PCB dump to Boston
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.
At the Pentagon, reality likely to trump rhetoric on climate change 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.
NOTED: A few words from an 'enemy of the people'
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.
A nonprofit newsmagazine for the Berkshires
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.”
EXCLUSIVE: MassDEP fines Housatonic Water Works $10,205 for withholding test results
A previously unreported penalty-assessment notice sent to the company in November called the facts “undisputed” and the company’s violations “willful.” The penalty was revealed in a response to a public-records request filed by The Argus.
In race for state rep, Mitts and Davis navigate choppy waters of ‘Rest of River’ debate
As developments in a major Housatonic River remediation project accelerate, two candidates for state representative confront a challenging issue—and its sticky politics.
MassDEP cites Housatonic Water Works for withholding poor test results
The company withheld results from July that showed manganese levels at more than double the regulatory limit and a health risk to infants.