Whistle Stops is an occasional series of shorter hits from the legislative campaign trail. by Michael Lachenmeyer Correspondent-Intern For the past four months, a pandemic has ravaged the country leaving more than 100,000 Americans dead and plunging the economy into depths unseen since the Great
UPDATED 4:50PM: To include comments from Mayor Ludwick of Enfield. ENFIELD—In the retail flats of this Constitution State border town, life has begun to come back. Two months after he closed stores and restaurants to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, Connecticut Governor Ned
WESTFIELD—For a few hours in the western Pioneer Valley Tuesday, humans walked the earth much like they did only a few months ago. Polling places throughout the region seemed almost normal, save the masked sign-holders. Voters—or their mailed ballots—were there too, selecting the region’s next
SPRINGFIELD—On Wednesday, United States Representative and House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal spoke at the Federal Courthouse to extol the virtues of the $3 trillion COVID-19 package House Democrats expect to pass this week. However, with COVID-19 more transmissible indoors and federal buildings less
SPRINGFIELD—With flickers of hope that the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak may be passing here and throughout Western Massachusetts, local officials and hospital administrators laid out some changes due in the coming weeks. First among these is implementing Governor Charlie Baker’s mandate for residents to
SPRINGFIELD—As the commonwealth continues to ramp up its COVID-19 testing infrastructure, city officials here appear poised to finally begin testing one of Springfield’s most vulnerable populations. Plans to test the homeless fell through last week and a launch set for Wednesday was delayed. Still, the
UPDATED 4/21/20 3:46PM: A prior version of this post, and others, had misspelled the Police Commissioner’s name. It is Clapprood, not Claprood. SPRINGFIELD—While the final decisions will be left to Governor Charlie Baker, it does appear that Western Massachusetts and its largest city are setting
Via his regular updates in his not-quite dulcet tones, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has become the central figure in the commonwealth’s response to the novel coronavirus ravaging public health and the economy. This has been the case with governors across the country, especially given the
There are countless things this country needs as it grapples with its greatest crisis in living memory. The outbreak of COVID-19 has laid waste to the economy and our social fabric, but there is one thing it need not destroy—the government itself. Specifically, we speak
UPDATED 3/20/20 7:22PM: To include note of Cain’s comments to The Republican. UPDATED 3/25/20 7:29PM: On March 23, the Senate moved the special election to May 19. Just a few days after Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin stopped short of calling for a