[caption id="attachment_1817" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Trixie Starr hosted the Hudson Pride event June 19, 2010. Photo by Tom Roe."][/caption]A Starr is born
Dan Shaw in Rural Intelligence has twenty questions for Trixie Starr, who helped put on Hudson's first Pride parade this summer (pictured), and is hosting "Christmas with Tom & Trixie: Is That All There Is?" Dec. 23 at the Hudson Opera House. Hudson gets the Starr treatment with a virtual tour of favorite wine shops (Hudson Wine Merchants), book stores (Hudson City Books), and clothing shops (Five and Diamond). Starr will also host a party New Year's Eve at Red Dot in Hudson, the story says.


More Zip on Hunter Mountain
Dick May in Seeing Greene jumps the gun a bit writing, "GreeneLand now is home to North America’s biggest zipline. That’s the claim, at any rate, that is voiced by Bradd [sic] Morse of NY Zipline Adventures, which is the company that opened two zipline courses last spring at Hunter Mountain, and is about to open the third, the longest, the hairiest: SkyRider, which will enable riders to, uh, zip downward from platform to platform for as long as 3000 feet, over terrain that is as much as 600 feet below." The company's website says the new line is opening by Christmas.


Rabid skunks in Hudson?
Carole Osterink in The Gossips of Rivertown is a little short on details, but reports without sourcing that two possibly rabid skunks have been found this weekend in Hudson. "This morning, another skunk in similar condition was reported in the backyard of a house on the 700 block of Union St. In this case, the homeowner called the police," Osterink writes. "An officer arrived, confirmed the homeowner's opinion that the skunk was rabid, and shot the skunk."


Town meetings tonight
ATHENS Regular Town Board meetings held first and third Mondays of each Month at 6:45 p.m., at Town Clerk's Office, 2 First St., unless otherwise advertised. Register-Star story about the meeting here.
CANAAN Canaan Town Board will hold a special meeting on December 6, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Canaan Town Hall, 1647 County Route 5, Canaan, New York 12029, to address Local Law #5 of 2010 (Adopting a revised Zoning Law to provide for the administration and enforcement of the NYS Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and Zoning Law) and consider extending the bid opening for the Highway sand/salt shed.
TAGHKANIC Regular Town Board meetings are held the first Monday of each month in the Town Hall on Route 82 in West Taghkanic. Phone 528-851-7638. Agenda here.


Local traffic
511ny.org reports roadwork on US 9 in both directions between NY 9H and 23; NY 82 (Livingston) and Town of Greenport; Town of Livingston Line (Livingston) all lanes closed. The Stone Mill Road Bridge is closed until further notice. Use posted detour.


Birthdays
Dec. 6 birthdays include Dion Fortune, Agnes Moorehead, and Henryk Gorecki.

HUDSON – Mid Hudson News Network reports today that Columbia County Sheriff David Harrison, Jr. is redoubling efforts to enforce handicapped parking regulations this week. "The sheriff’s office will patrol parking lots checking to ensure adequate handicapped parking spots and will provide awareness training to any group or community organization requesting it," the story goes. "Persons with disabilities have a difficult time finding available handicapped accessible parking spaces and when parking laws are violated, they make it even more difficult to find parking for those with disabilities." All law enforcement agencies in Columbia County have been asked to participate in targeting handicapped parking violations.

KINGSTON - Ira Fusfeld, publisher of the Daily Freeman in Kingston, has penned a heartfelt summary of where newspapers stand these days, along with an announcement that starting this Tuesday, December 7, the peper will be printed on the presses of the Freeman's sister newspaper in Troy. "Closing the pressroom and mailroom in Kingston, as well as changing the manner in which the newspapers are delivered," Fusfeld writes, "will result in the elimination of 58 full- and part-time, union and non-union jobs." Consolidation will also mean that the paper will be printed about three hours earlier each evening, thus pushing more breaking stories to the newspaper's website.

"When news breaks, you’ll see it first on one of our many Twitter feeds and on our Facebook page. Then it will show up on our website, initially as a short story, which will expand throughout the day until press time for the print edition," writes Fusfeld, publisher since 1987 and with the Freeman since 1970. "We currently offer links to a variety of local bloggers on our website, with more to come. A Community Media Lab is planned. We’ll be doing more of what’s become known in the business as 'crowd sourcing.'”

Sounds like what we're doing here at WGXC, without the radio component we'll have on air come next month. Our hats off to all in this field working to stay afloat, and keep the news we read pertinent and truly spin-free.

For Fusfeld's full Publisher's Note, click HERE...

CATSKILL - Not to be outdone by their neighboring city across the river, Catskill held its first-ever village-wide holiday celebration on Saturday, December 5. "A Day in December," the Daily Mail reported today, featured activities, shopping and entertainment for all ages, including a performance by the Zucchini Brothers and a showing of The Grinch That Stole Christmas at the Community Theater on Main Street.

"Parents brought their children downtown to take pictures with Santa and for sleigh rides down Main Street," writes Doron Tyler Antrim. "The day also featured bicycle and sled giveaways at the Catskill Village Police headquarters, sponsored by Sawyer Chevrolet... Many of the vacant storefronts on Main Street were put to good use as housing for the day’s vendors, which were selling holiday ornaments and goods, as well as specialty products."

For full story click HERE...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Fireworks over Winter Walk 2010. Photo by John Lopez."][/caption]
Joan Geitz, John Lopez, and Al Davis took the following photos for WGXC during Winter Walk in Hudson tonight. Richard Roth made audio recordings that will be posted soon.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Chatham High School String Quartet performs at City Hall during Winter Walk 2010 in Hudson. Photo by Joan Geitz."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Carlos Osorio leads Cumbia and Merengue Participatory Dance at Sorted at the 2010 Winter Walk in Hudson. Photo by Joan Geitz."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Capital Area Flute Club at the 2010 Winter Walk in Hudson. Photo by Joan Geitz."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Dreaming Tree Farm horse and buggy at Winter Walk 2010 in Hudson. Photo by John Lopez. "][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Pamela Badila, at left, and Diata Diata International Folkloric Theater performs at Winter Walk 2010 in Hudson. Photo by Al Davis."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Jeremy Insull plays bagpipes at Winter Walk 2010 in Hudson. Photo by Al Davis. "][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Strolling Victorian Carolers from Upstage Productions at Winter Walk 2010 in Hudson. Photo by Al Davis."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Fireworks over Hudson Opera House during Winter Walk 2010. Photo by Al Davis."][/caption]

Nick Reisman in LoHud.com's Politics on the Hudson blog reports Nassau County Justice Ira Warshawsky Saturday denied Democrats a hand recount in a too-close-to-call state Senate race. “The Johnson-Martins race is certified,” Justice Ira Warshawsky ruled in the case between Republican Jack Martin and incumbent Democrat Sen. Craig Johnson. Currently the New York State Senate is tied at 30 with two election winners still undetermined. Johnson went into the weekend trailing Martins by 451 votes, and plans to file the appeal Monday, Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran told Reisman. “The judge’s decision to deny a recount is wrong on the letter and spirit of the law,” Shafran in the story. “In a race where the margin is less than half of one percent, the failure to count every vote is a disservice to every voter.” Democrats want a hand recount and have alleged malfunctions with the new optical voting machines mandate such a count. Republicans have argued a hand recount is a delaying tactic. In the other race, Westchester Democrat Suzi Oppenheimer is up about 300 votes over Republican Bob Cohen at this time. A tied assembly would probably favor the Democrats, although Republicans plan a court challenge to the Lt. Gov.’s tie-breaking vote. Our area Assembly representatives are Republican (Marc Molinaro, Pete Lopez, and Steve McLaughlin), so there could be more local pork if the GOP takes over.

WASHINGTON/ALBANY - On the same day that the Daily Mail and Register Star are running versions of a story (more conservatively for Catskill) about the current Bush Tax Bill extension fight in Washington, pitting incoming Congressman Chris Gibson, Republican, against the man he defeated, Democrat Scott Murphy, after Murphy voted along with the rest of the current House Democratic majority for limiting tax extensions to the middle class, the Times Union has a fascinating story about the amounts of outside money that came into the 20th Congressional District this past electoral cycle, and how they helped Gibson ride the underlying voter registration demographics of Upstate, briefly overturned by Kristin Gillibrand a few years back when she defeated John Sweeney, and barely maintained in Murphy's special election 800-vote win last year.

"U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy raised and spent more money than his opponent, but it couldn't save his job," reporter Jordan Carleo-Evangelist writes, pulling from newly-released Federal Election Commission reports and records. "But the numbers fail to tell the whole story.... While Gibson, a retired Army colonel from Kinderhook, lagged Murphy in personal fundraising, he benefited greatly from spending by outside organizations, much of it from conservative-leaning groups opposing Murphy for his votes on controversial issues such as the health care reform bill. More than $1.7 million was spent to oppose Murphy in 2010, compared to just $696,000 to oppose Gibson."

Carleo-Evangelist ties the Gibson outside money to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the spending of unlimited amounts of cash on election advertising. Among actual amounts charted in our region were $447,366 from American Crossroads, a group backed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, and $498,950 from the conservative-leaning 60 Plus Association.

Read the full story here.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Hudson Area Library manager Rhiannon Leo, photo from Register-Star"][/caption]It's not a great distance to move, and certainly a step up for Hudson Area Library manager Rhiannon Leo, who is departing after five years of service to serve as director of the Northeast-Millerton Library in Millerton, Dutchess County. But it still had an element of the deeply emotional to it when library users, and board members, gathered Friday night on State Street to show Leo how much she's been appreciated after starting out as a helper in the Children's Library. Folks of all ages noted all they'd gained from Leo and she responded by not only declaring all she'd gained from Hudson's diversity and depths of talent and caring, but how she'll be returning with regularity... and welcoming everyone to come visit her whenever possible. The Register-Star has a fine story on the party HERE.

Cartoon by Gus Murphy.

COXSACKIE — Melanie Lekocevic reports in the Daily Mail today that the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District is mulling a set of recommendations and an action plan aimed at improving communications in the district proposed at a recent school board meeting. The district’s task force charged with looking into communication failures within the district was comprised of members from various facets of the community – parents, district staff members, business leaders and local residents. The idea was to develop a plan that would increase the district’s ability to communicate with both the school community and the public at large. Among recommendations now on the table are the creation of a permanent communications committee and annual plans, to be made-up-to-date with current technological advances, daily updates to staff in each school building and the fostering of a more “welcoming atmosphere” between staff and the board of education,the establishment of an events calendar for the district’s website, as well as an updated and redesigned website, perhaps with a new logo, and use of popular technologies such as Twitter and Facebook with an opt-in email alert system to keep parents and students informed. The board will also look into making its meetings more conducive to public input, with a possible web section for comments, as well as ways of better publicizing school events in the local media.

For the full story, click HERE. And keep an eye on these pages, and listen to WGXC-FM when it goes on the air next month, for more on Coxsackie Athens...

POUGHKEEPSIE — Bill Kemble of the Daily Freeman has a report this morning on a new wrinkle in the close-as-skin state 100th District Assembly race now focused on Dutchess County where Democratic Elections Commissioner Fran Knapp says complaints have been filed that allege private investigator Bill Paroli Jr. intimidated senior citizens on behalf of the GOP during an investigation of signatures on absentee ballots in the 100th Assembly District race. Paroli denies any wrongdoing. The complaints were lodged in connection with 150 absentee ballots from Dutchess County that have been set aside by Republicans, who are seeking to keep an 89-vote margin favoring former state Assemblyman Thomas Kirwan, R-Newburgh, over incumbent Assemblyman Frank Skartados, D-Marlborough. Kirwan currently leads Skartados, 15,033-14,944, in the district, which also includes parts of Ulster and Orange counties... and which Skartados won from long-term incumbent Kirwan by a thin margin two years ago. The only outstanding ballots in the race are 266 absentees that have been contested by one side or the other in the three counties and now are in the hands of a state Supreme Court justice. And this in the legislative chamber NOT threatening to end up tied 31-31 between the parties, with Republicans now talking up a lawsuit to keep the state Lt. Governor, Democrat Robert Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, from casting tie-breaking votes or serving as the body's President.

For the full story, including how Paroli allegedly worked over the largely senior female voters, click HERE.

By Gus Murphy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Manna Jo Greene Environmental Action Director from Hudson River Sloop Clearwater interviewed about PCBs. "][/caption]Tune in to recent radio made for WGXC. Click on the titles to listen to an mp3, or copy and paste the code after each item into your computer's media player.



"Manna Jo Greene, Enivironmental Action Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater interviewed"

Interview on "Tell It Like It Is" on WGXC 120210. Hosts include Christina Malisoff, Sam Sebren, and Richard Roth.

http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2010/12/MannaJoGreene_Clearwater_WGXCTellItLikeItIs_120210_20101204_0106.mp3



Special Hudson School Board Meeting

Alan Skerrett recorded the special Hudson School Board meeting Mon. Nov. 29 at John L. Edwards School, to discuss recent student
violence, and problems among assistant principals at a recent board meeting.

http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/11/HudsonSpecialSchoolBoardmtg.mp3



"Quinn Gunter recipe"

Thanksgiving Day recipe from 10-year-old Quinn Gunter. Recipe for Apple Crumb for "Tell It Like It Is" WGXC radio show.

http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/11/QuinnGunter_Thanksgivingrecipe_WGXC_112510.mp3



[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="From Facebook page for Vanessa Baehr's Ouroborus Hoops."][/caption]"Vanessa Baehr from Ouroborus Hoops gets interviewed by Christina Malisoff and Sam Sebren about hula hoops"

For "Tell It Like It Is" program during WGXC morning show 10-11 a.m. Interviewed by Christina Malisoff and Sam Sebren.

http://www.wgxc.org/media/uploaded_files/2010/12/VanessaBaehr_OuroborusHoops_WGXCTellItLikeItIs_111810_20101204_0137.mp3



"Tell It Like It Is" weekly show on WGXC part of Morning Show at 10 a.m. Thursdays, 120210 edition.
Guests include Ellen Thurston about Columbia County events and Winter Walk; Katrin Hecker from Animalkind; and Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Action Director
for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/11/TellItLikeItIs_WGXC_120210.mp3

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Anthony German and Army National Guard Chaplain (Capt.) Glen Lightfoot salute the grave site of Pres. Martin Van Buren during a Dec. 3 ceremony. Image from New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs."][/caption]

Good and not-so-good news on the health front today. Starting with the latter, it seems that a new study by the University of Warwick in Britain and the Institute of Cancer, published in this month's British Journal of Cancer, has found that there is a correspondence between mens finger lengths and their chances of eventually coming down with prostate cancer. Seems the same gene connected to one's likelihood of having one is the same as that which shows up in men whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers. On the good news front, it appears that brisk walking, for at least five miles a week, is the best exercise one can get for not only increasing one's longevity after the age of 60, but also for avoiding Alzheimer's and keeping one's mind at peak level. The kicker is that the new study out of the University of Pittsburgh, published in Happy Healthy Longer Life, indicates that it takes a year of walking to show positive effects. So forget all the moaning about no sidewalks and the cold weather. Hoof it, folks!

Kevin Schwebke, 26, of First Street in Catskill, a corrections officer and part-time Cairo police officer, was arrested Wednesday for fraudulently accepting $34,000 in workers' compensation benefits, according to the New York State Insurance Department. Schwebke started collecting workers' compensation benefits in 2009 after suffering job-related ankle injuries while working as a corrections officer at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility, officials maintain. During the same time period, he was employed as a part-time police officer with the Town of Cairo Police Department. Schwebke is accused of accepting workers' compensation lost wage benefits and falsely stating that his physical condition left him unable to work while at the same time collecting a salary as a police officer. The police department was unaware he was collecting the benefits. If he is convicted, Schwebke could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison, according to the NYSID. He was released pending action in Albany County Court.

POUGHKEEPSIE – Mid Hudson News Network is reporting that the regional environmental organization Scenic Hudson has received a $60,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to develop strategies to increase funding for its agricultural land preservation efforts, with the organization's president, Ned Sullivan, saying he will work with partner organizations to protect 25,000 agricultural acres in Dutchess and Columbia counties.

“Hudson Valley has a thriving agricultural economy worth $530 million a year and it supplies fresh produce to the region and also to New York City, but those farms are being lost,” he said. “Before the economic downturn, some 50 acres a day were being lost to sprawling development.”

Sullivan said state funding for farm preservation has virtually dried up because of the economy, but he hopes to work with Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo next year to develop preservation strategies.

HUDSON - Andrew Amelinckx of the Register-Star has another of his well-written and researched crime stories in this morning's paper all about how the former president of the Hudson Little League was arrested by the New York State Police Thursday for allegedly embezzling close to $10,000 from the non-profit organization. According to the story, Gerald L. Smith, 46, of Greenport turned himself in to the State Police at Livingston around 3 p.m. Wednesday — his birthday — was arrested and charged with one count of third degree grand larceny, a class D felony. According to Inv. Marcus Walthour of the State Police, Smith stole the money, more than $9,000 — during the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 of this year. Smith was the president and treasurer of the Hudson Little League during the majority of that time, according to Walthour. Holding both positions was against the by-laws of the organization, said the investigator, so they voted in a new president, on November 1. For the full story, click here. What is it about our fire departments, youth programs, and other such public positions that tempt so many in such ways, anyway? Look for future coverage of these issues when WGXC-FM goes on the air in the new year.

HUDSON - Talk about a holiday season story to grab eyes: The Register-Star reports this morning that a 65-year-old Hudson man as won a $1 million scratch-off game and that Robert Robinson, born in Jamaica but living in Hudson for 50 years, is the first person in New York to win the $1 million prize on the new $1 million Cash Bingo instant game which became available in stores on Nov. 2. A retired machine operator with MTA Metro North who has been playing the Lottery for 30 years, Robinson purchased his winning ticket on Friday, Nov. 19 at Tams on Fairview Avenue in Greenport and was presented an oversized check at a special ceremony at the Crossgates Mall in Albany Thursday morning, December 2.

ALBANY - There's blowback starting against all the proposed cuts already happening, or being proposed, to public services... both around the country and right here in New York State. The new Alliance for New York State Parks, which lists recently-resigned NYS Parks Commissioner Carol Ash as a key adviser, joined Parks & Trails New York on Thursday, Dec. 2 to release a report calling for a halt to staff and funding cuts that, they argue, have once again placed certain state parks at risk of closure... possibly including some in our immediate area. They are saying they want enhanced capital spending for facilities, to the tune of $1 billion over the next decade, and a dedicated funding stream to protect that support from the shifting winds of politics, as has happened in a number of other states. The NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, according to a story in today's Times Union, has lost as many as 1,500 employees over the past two years, or 21 percent of the agency’s permanent staff. The full story can be found here.

Meanwhile, Laura Northrup is also reporting in her column on state workers in today's Times Union that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO) has launched a campaign called “Stop the Lies” that aims to defend the good name of civil servants, and stop the past year's screaming diatribes against state and federal workers, who as they say, "work hard for their money." The AFSCME has issued an open letter to “state worker haters,” and a video explaining their new campaign that comes in both an easily digestible 1-minute version and a nearly six-minute-long extended remix. See both HERE. This is on top of ongoing outcry against state cuts to Belleayre Mountain Ski Center workers in the Shandaken/Margaretville area of the central Catskills, in Ulster and Delaware counties, caught HERE by the Watershed Post, pulling from stories in The Daily Freeman out of Kingston and Daily Star out of Oneonta.. Expect much more of these sorts of battles over the coming year as the axe falls, or gets waved in the direction, of other key public programs... and then our basic public benefits. Some are already starting to say that what we're seeing now is the start of the same wave of protests now rocking Europe... whether we like to think ourselves in the same world as them or not.