Today's audio daily news update.

Brian Hubert reports for the Daily Freeman that Rep. Marc Molinaro discussed potential cuts or changes to Social Security and Medicare and the debt ceiling at a town hall-style forum March 15 in Saugerties. Two dozen people held signs of protest at the meeting at the Cedar Grove Firehouse on state Route 32, with messages such as, “Keep Medicare and Social Security Corporate Free, no Reach,” “I want my traditional government-run Medicare and Social Security” and “Tax the Rich, Save Social Security.” Molinaro said that “Medicare and Social Security should be removed from budget conversations.... I do not believe, nor could I support Congress nickeling and diming our way to diminish the value of the programs.” Molinaro said he supports a bipartisan bicameral commission to assure the long-term solvency of Social Security. Molinaro would not say directly if he would vote for raising the country's debt limit, but said, “I want to make sure America doesn’t default on its debt.... I don’t want to devastate services that our most vulnerable rely on. I don’t want to undermine those sacred trusts, Medicare and Social Security, that we rely on.” The possibility of a Hudson Valley train derailment with hazardous material was raised by one citizen after the Ohio train accident in February, and Molinaro said, “We’ve demanded Norfolk has to identify all the failings that may or may have not led to this and that the EPA and the Federal Department of Transportation need to identify lack of enforcement, meaning there are regulations that should’ve been enforced but weren’t that resulted in this.... Let’s understand the disease so we can determine the medicine.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that the Greene County Legislature this week appointed Breanna Lennon as one of the county’s four coroners. Lennon was already running as a Republican for the seat in November. Lennon is a licensed funeral director with Millspaugh Camerato Funeral Home in Catskill, and take the place of Edward Brandt, who was elected last November, but is now bowing out of the coroner job. Hassan J. Basagic III of Hunter, Daniel Gulino of Windham, and Gerard Buckley of Cairo are the other current Greene County coroners. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

Nancy Kern reports in Columbia-Greene Media that Catskill’s Recycling Center has seen increased use lately, and on March 13 the Greene County Legislature voted to spend money on new equipment to help with the increased work there. The Highway and Solid Waste departments will now get to purchase of two tilting utility trailers and one new 2023 excavator for the recycling operations. Greene County Superintendent of Highways and Solid Waste Scott Templeton said the the increased recycling, “It’s surprising how quickly we can fill a building.... It’s in constant production.” Templeton guessed that rising costs for hauling away garbage is the reason behind the busy recycling center. “Recycling is free,” Templeton said. “It not only reduces the amount you need to pay for, it’s cheaper.” Read the full story at HudsonValley360.com.

WGXC has a new call-in phone number for anyone to leave a three-minute message that we will play back on the air. Listeners can leave as many three-minute audio letters to the editor at 518-212-7509 as they want, and WGXC will let your voice be heard on the local airwaves. That number again, to call in and record a three-minute message that will be played back on 90.7-FM, is 518-212-7509.

Today's daily news audio update.

Click above to download or play the "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

Roger Hannigan Gilson reports for the Times Union that the local nonprofit Spark of Hudson has started a new initiative called HudsonDots, which "aims to ensure warm and welcoming homes for our community, stabilize rents, and create additional affordable housing." The group is not yet adding to the local housing stock in Hudson, but is improving current conditions. The organization has bought several properties of a major Hudson landlord and is renovating the units. Tenants are relocated to other newly renovated apartments, with the option of returning to the original units once work is completed. Landlord Phil Gellert sold Spark of Hudson seven buildings, with an eighth under contract. Gellert says he has sold 36 buildings over the years, and all but one buyer before this demanded that all tenants be evicted before the sale. Gellert said, "Buyers would insist that I would sell (the apartments) vacant and they would upgrade them, (but) then they would not rent to the same kind of working-class tenant that had been there.... This was the first time I ever sold a building of mine to somebody that made a serious effort to improve the lives of the people who lived there." Michelle Tullo, Hudson's housing justice director, said the initiative was "offering our residents housing stability while improving housing quality.... Over the past few years we've seen a lot of rental housing flipped and converted into vacation rentals or luxury apartments.... Not only is HudsonDots preventing displacement of residents, but it's upgrading the quality and gently increasing the rental housing supply." Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Andrea Macko reports in Porcupine Soup that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has declared bankruptcy. Of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses it is the fifth to declare bankruptcy. The action puts any Child Victims Act sexual abuse lawsuits against the diocese on pause. The Albany diocese includes Greene County and thirteen other upstate counties. Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger blamed the bankruptcy on all the sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the church. Scharfenberger said, “As more Child Victims Act cases reached large settlements, our limited self-insurance funds which have been paying those settlements, have been depleted. The Chapter 11 filing is the best way, at this point, to ensure that all victim/survivors with pending CVA litigation will receive some compensation." Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.

Nick Reisman reports in New York State of Politics that Democrats in the New York legislature want some sort of minimum wage increase in the state. budget this year. They just have not agreed on the size and scale of the increase. Currently, the minimum wage is $15 an hour in the New York City area and $14.20 north of Westchester County. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, "We didn't say a specific rate... But we do know we need to raise the wages of the lowest paid New Yorkers and then begin the indexing. So we'll be discussing what that is, but I think it's very, very important." Indexing means automatically increasing the minimum wage when inflation rises. Ultimately, representatives from the state Senate and Assembly will negotiate the increase with Gov. Kathy Hochul. The state budget is due April 1. Read the full story in New York State of Politics.

Today's audio daily news update.

Jammel Cutler reports in Columbia-Greene Media that Kevron Trone Lee is running in Hudson's 2nd Ward as a Democrat this year. He is talking about police reform and affordable housing. Lee said, “Minorities are getting pushed out and it’s very important to keep native Hudson residents here, people that have been here all their lives, instead of them getting pushed out of their homes. Housing, along with gentrification, is very important in Hudson. Landlords come in and make the rent over $2,500, and if you add in an electric bill that’s another $500. How can someone afford that?” Lee is being backed by the HCHC Collective, part of the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Nancy Kern Columbia-Greene Media that cancel culture has come to Greenville, with one citizen, Amanda Calvo, demanding the banning of George M. Johnson’s 2020 memoir, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” from the school library. But Calvo and Kellie Wolf said at a recent school board meeting that there were other books that needed removing from the school library. Greenville Board of education members did not respond to their comments during the meeting. Greenville School District Superintendent Michael Bennett later said, “[The school’s] responsibility isn’t to ban books but to offer books.... If we bring our personal opinions into [book selection] we negate others. My personal opinion does not play into public education. I think the unfortunate thing is that there’s much more to that book and a lot more in the set-up of that passage.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Today's daily news audio update.

Click above to download or play the "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

Jammel Cutler at Columbia-Greene Media reports that the Hudson Housing Authority has a proposal to replace the Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments with new housing on three city-owned locations. The new housing would be built on Warren and Front streets; at the northeast corner of Columbia and Second streets; and adjacent to the north side of State Street. While it would not add needed affordable housing to the city, it would upgrade the apartments. Jeffrey Dodson, executive director of the Hudson Housing Authority, that no one currently living in the buildings will go without a home. “That is not the plan, for residents to be displaced,” Dodson said. “The plan is to relocate properly before any movement starts; that’s a priority. It all depends on the plan start and what the phases of construction will be. It’s not planned for anyone to be displaced.” Dodson also said, "“What we’re offering is to demolish each of those Columbia and Bliss Towers because they’re 50 years old this year.... They’re not susstainable structures. We want to give residents something new and fresh, with the appearance of something that fits this community.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Patricia R. Doxsey reports in the Daily Freeman that Ulster County has a proposal to better the affordable housing situation locally with a public hearing at 7:15 p.m. March 21 on a proposed local law defining affordable housing as a “county purpose,” and a vital function of the county’s services. Approval of that law would give the county broad powers to develop, manage, and maintain affordable housing projects in the county. Currently, they can regulate and incentivize others building housing but need a new law to create new affordable housing. The public hearing was originally scheduled for March 14, but the snow storm postponed the meeting a week. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

On March 14 as the snow storm continued in the Hudson Valley, Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of gusty winds up to 45 mph possible on Wednesday. "As forecasted, several regions experienced between a foot and two feet of snow overnight and conditions will continue to be hazardous for travel," Hochul said. "My team is in constant contact with local officials and the National Guard is at the ready to assist with any necessary emergency response over the next two days as power outages remain a concern." More than 80,000 New Yorkers were without power in the afternoon on March 14. The New York State Thruway Authority, New York State Police and New York State Department of Transportation lifted all previous restrictions on tandem and empty tractor-trailers at 2 p.m. on March 14.

Here is this week's WGXC Congressional Report, tracking the votes, statements, positions, and campaigns of the representatives and candidates for the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Congressional seats in New York. Democrat Pat Ryan is representing the 18th Congressional District, Republican Marc Molinaro represents the 19th Congressional District, Democrat Rep. Paul Tonko represents the 20th District, and Republican Elise Stefanik represents the 21st District. Click here to listen to this report.

WWNY reports that Rep. Elise Stefanik endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024 March 4 at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Stefanik said, “We see past the left’s politics of personal destruction, we have exposed the corrupt and complicit mainstream media, and we must take our country back in 2024 by re-electing President Donald J. Trump." On the night after a riotous mob attempted to overthrow the U.S. government, Stefanik voted against certifying the fair election results of the 2020 election, attempting to make Trump president against the will of the electorate. Stefanik represents the 21st Congressional District in New York, which now includes Rensselaer County. Read more about this story at the WWNY website.

Emily Russell reports for North Country Public Radio that Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik spoke last week at the Conservative Political Action Convention, and attacked law enforcement, making three false claims about the FBI and the Department of Justice. Stefanik said, “America is seeing Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ and FBI fully weaponized as they label parents domestic terrorists," even though the Justice Department said it’s never used that term to describe parents. In reality, the term ‘domestic terrorists’ was used in a letter written by the nonprofit National School Board Association to the DOJ, but federal officials did not use that term. Stefanik also falsely claimed that the DOJ and FBI, "conducted an unprecedented and illegal raid on President [Donald] Trump’s home." In fact, the search of Trump's Florida resort was legally authorized by a federal judge. Finally, Stefanik also falsely claimed that the FBI, "illegally paid Twitter $3 million to suppress stories, such as the Hunter Biden laptop story, all for the political benefit and purpose of electing Democrats.” USA Today reported that the FBI did pay Twitter $3.4 million, but it was for records requests, not to suppress stories on the social media site. Read the full story at the North Country Public Radio website.

On Wed., March 15 Rep. Marc Molinaro holds a town hall-type meeting in Ulster County at 11 a.m. at the Cedar Grove Fire House, at 4 Mower Mill Rd., in Saugerties. WGXC should be there with a live webstream at wgxc.org/listen. Molinaro has also recently held town hall-type meetings in Greene and Columbia counties, though with little advance notice, and no live webstreams. Molinaro, a Republican, began representing the 19th Congressional District in January.

Today's audio daily news update.