A major step forward has been taken in a long-gestating transportation project in Western Massachusetts. The Berkshire Flyer is beginning pilot rail service between Pittsfield and New York City this week. The four-hour Amtrak ride is the culmination of years of planning. A key figure in all of that is Massachusetts State Senator Adam Hinds of Pittsfield, a Democrat.

In May, a portrait of a late World War II soldier was returned to its family after it was unknowingly stored for decades in an upstate New York home. We bring you this unusual and touching story.

With the start of summer, the New York State Department of Health is shutting down some mass COVID-19 vaccination sites. At the same time, Albany County is reporting its lowest number of COVID cases and hospitalizations since April, following a severe uptick earlier this spring. The good news locally also comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced young children can begin to receive a COVID vaccine. For an update, we speak with Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen.

According to a new nationwide poll, more than three-quarters of adults have been personally affected by extreme weather in the past five years — and that experience makes them more likely to call climate change a crisis than those who haven’t experienced a heat wave, hurricane, flooding or the like. The poll is from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR and Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and also measures attitudes about health and economic impacts of extreme weather. We speak with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Chief Science Officer Alonzo Plough.

We speak with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat helming rare talks over new Congressional gun control measures. Murphy calls it a 10-year priority.

Let’s say you’ve been arrested for a white collar crime and prison is looking inevitable. Whatever emotional rollercoaster awaits, there are resources available — and they don’t come from the state. That’s the subject of Jack Hitt’s new piece in the New York Times magazine, called “Want to do less time? A prison consultant might be able to help.” Hitt is a familiar voice on WAMC as an influential This American Life contributor, and his decades of journalism also include the podcast Uncivil.

We speak with a local leader, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, about national calls for gun reform, and Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy, who says three-quarters of Americans now want to raise the age to buy a firearm.

Kingston Mayor Steve Noble is urging the Common Council to opt into a housing emergency declaration following the completion of a new rental vacancy study.

Democratic Assemblyman Gottfried is wrapping up 52 years in the New York state legislature, ending his run as the longest-serving lawmaker in state history. To put in all in perspective, Gottfried was elected at age 23 and just marked his 75th birthday. He represents the 75th district.

Now that a judge has finalized new House maps drawn by a special master in New York state, we’re meeting some candidates for Congress who are racing to meet voters ahead of the August primary. Attorney Josh Riley of Ithaca is running in the new 19th district, which stretches  from the Finger Lakes to the Southern Tier, from parts of the lower Hudson Valley to Greene and Columbia County.