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Elizabeth Warren to Host 30th Town Hall in Great Barrington

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be holding a town hall on Sunday, July 22, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. 
 
This will be the senator's 30th town hall event since taking office in 2013.
 
The state's senior senator said she will take questions from the audience and discuss her work standing up for working families of Massachusetts against powerful corporate interests. 
 
The event is free and open to the public and admission is first come, first served. No signs or posters will be allowed into the theater. The website for the event is here where those planning to attend can sign up or not, or comment. 
 
Registering ahead is a good idea because the senator's events tend to draw large crowds. Her town hall last July at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield drew more than 800 people
 
The doors open at 1:30 p.m. and the event begins at 2:30 p.m. The Mahaiwe is located at 14 Castle St. The theater does not have a parking lot but there is public parking available on surrounding streets; a parking map in pdf format is available at this link.

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Dalton Man Accused of Kidnapping, Shooting Pittsfield Man

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A Dalton man was arrested on Thursday evening after allegedly kidnapping and shooting another man.

Nicholas Lighten, 35, was arraigned in Central Berkshire District Court on Friday on multiple charges including kidnapping with a firearm and armed assault with intent to murder. He was booked in Dalton around 11:45 p.m. the previous night.

There was heavy police presence Thursday night in the area of Lighten's East Housatonic Street home before his arrest.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Dalton dispatch received a call from the Pittsfield Police Department requesting that an officer respond to Berkshire Medical Center. Adrian Mclaughlin of Pittsfield claimed that he was shot in the leg by Lighten after an altercation at the defendants home. Mclaughlin drove himself to the hospital and was treated and released with non-life-threatening injuries. 

"We were told that Lighten told Adrian to go down to his basement, where he told Adrian to get down on his knees and pulled out a chain," the police report reads.

"We were told that throughout the struggle with Lighten, Adrian recalls three gunshots."

Dalton PD was advised that Pittsfield had swabbed Mclaughlin for DNA because he reported biting Lighten. A bite mark was later found on Lighten's shoulder. 

Later that night, the victim reportedly was "certain, very certain" that Lighten was his assailant when shown a photo array at the hospital.

According to Dalton Police, an officer was stationed near Lighten's house in an unmarked vehicle and instructed to call over the radio if he left the residence. The Berkshire County Special Response Team was also contacted.

Lighten was under surveillance at his home from about 7:50 p.m. to about 8:40 p.m. when he left the property in a vehicle with Massachusetts plates. Another officer initiated a high-risk motor vehicle stop with the sergeant and response team just past Mill Street on West Housatonic Street, police said, and traffic was stopped on both sides of the road.

Lighten and a passenger were removed from the vehicle and detained. Police reported finding items including a brass knuckle knife, three shell casings wrapped in a rubber glove, and a pair of rubber gloves on him.

The response team entered Lighten's home at 43 East Housatonic before 9:30 p.m. for a protective sweep and cleared the residence before 9:50 p.m., police said. The residence was secured for crime scene investigators.

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