APRIL 2014 
NEWS ARCHIVE
Region’s railroads become pipelines for crude oil
While environmental groups have made opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline in the Midwest a cause célèbre over the past five years, freight trains have become rolling pipelines for oil in a lot of communities closer to home.
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For a locally grown Passover
'Vermatzah' links ancient traditions, contemorary tastes read more
Massachusetts debates driver’s licenses for immigrants
It may seem counterintuitive for an undocumented immigrant to be eager to have a government-issued ID through which his whereabouts might be traced. But many immigrants in western Massachusetts seem more than willing to take their chances. read more
A new model for saving farmland
A large tract of open land in the Columbia County town of Copake, once the
proposed site of a controversial affordable-housing development, has now been earmarked for preservation as working farmland through a system supporters hope can be replicated elsewhere in the region. read more
In lieu of plastic, packaging material from mushrooms
Sue Van Hook is convinced that fungi hold one of the keys to saving the planet from choking on plastic. A professional mycologist who has retired from a teaching position at Skidmore College, Van Hook has a new career with a green company that produced packing biodegradable packing materials.
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Rediscovering a Latin American epic
An independent press in the Berkshires is preparing to publish the first English translation in more than 20 years of Pablo Neruda’s epic “Canto General.”
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Fringe festival goes urban
After nine years of producing cutting-edge summer theater in Great Barrington,
The Berkshire Fringe will celebrate its 10th anniversary in August at a new
home in Pittsfield’s Upstreet arts district. read more
