Congressman Scott Murphy will be at Space360 in Hudson Friday, Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. to help constituents accessing assistance from the federal government through federal programs including Medicare, veterans benefits, Social Security. Anyone with that sort of problem is welcome to come and ask the Congressman for help at Space360, 360 Warren St., Hudson.

William J. Kemble in The Daily Freeman reports:

"A state Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Monday said reviews of about 2,000 comments on proposed rules governing outdoor wood-burning boilers could mean the issue remains unsettled through April 2011. Spokeswoman Lori Severino during a telephone interview noted there was no shortage of concern on both sides.... Severino said another round of public hearings could be set if significant changes are made in the proposed rules.... Under the proposal there boiler stacks would have to be a minimum of 2 feet above the peak of any roof of a structure located within 150 feet of the boiler. Regulations would prohibit use of boilers between April 15 to Sept. 30 in the Hudson Valley." Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.

Richard Dunham at New York on the Potomac reports that:

"Josh Kraushaar of the Hotline has an interesting investigative tweet today. HotlineJosh points out that the National Republican Congressional Committee has announced plans to reserve advertising air time in the race to defeat Capital Region Democratic Rep. Scott Murphy, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee “hasn’t yet” done the same, he writes. But Murphy’s not waiting for help from Democrats in Washington. He’s already airing a TV commercial featuring his 59 family members who regularly get together for Sunday dinner." Read the entire story in New York on the Potomac, or watch the video below.

By 5 p.m., the Gibson staff released a statement in response to the ad: “In his new ad, Scott Murphy acts as though he is not part of the problem in Washington, yet the facts indicate otherwise. He supported the failed stimulus bill, voted for a government take-over of healthcare against the will of the voters, co-sponsored card-check to eliminate the secret ballot in union votes, voted for Cap and Trade and then voted for a second $26 billion stimulus bill just last week. His votes helped increase the debt and deficit, yet did nothing to increase private sector jobs. On the contrary, his voting record added more impediments to job creation. I realize these facts do not make for a good ad, but we need to check the rhetoric against his voting record," said Gibson.

Aug. 23, 2010: 6 p.m. – Aug. 30, 2010: 8 p.m
at Cairo Library at the Cairo Town Hall, 512 Main St., Cairo, NY
518-622-9864

Teens (13 - 19) interested in making radio are invited for this two-part, free, workshop at the Cairo Public Library, 512 Main Street, Cairo, NY. The workshops will take place Mondays, August 23 and 30 from 6-8 p.m. Bring out your creative mind, find your hidden voice, make radio for your community! For more information, contact emily [at] wgxc.org or phone (518) 291-WGXC.

Eugene Keeler and Donna Morgan host a fundraiser for the campaigns of Peter Donahoe for Columbia County Clerk, and Roberta Davis, for County Coroner, both Democrats, Friday, August 27 from 5-7 p.m. with food from Mexican Radio. The couple's Kost VerLoren house boasts four fireplaces and was a small tavern and way station before Route 23B was built. It was also home to John Ten Broeck, former Supervisor for the City of Hudson prior to the formation of the Town of Greenport. He is buried in the small cemetery on Spook Rock Road. The event is at 75 Spook Rock Road, in Hudson. Tickets to this event are $25 ($20 for Seniors and Young Democrats). RSVP Cyndy Hall at 518-851-7980.

New York State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro and New York State Senator Stephen Saland on Aug. 20 join the New York State Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; Assemblyman Joel Miller; Assemblyman Steve Englebright; and Lucy Waletsky of the State Council of Parks, Taconic State Park Commission for a tour of Walkway Over the Hudson (10 a.m.), Harlem Valley Rail Trail (11:45 a.m.), Taconic State Park (12:15 p.m.), Rudd Pond 1:10 p.m.), Copake Falls (2:15 p.m.), and Olana 4 p.m.).

Elena Mosely gets participants into costumes Saturday at the Hudson Black Arts and Cultural Festival and Parade, which started at 7th St Park. Incumbent New York State Senator Stephen Saland and Democratic challenger Didi Barrett both joined the parade, as did New York State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro.

There promises to be a lively discussion at the legislature's meeting this Monday about the $175,000 bonuses for Greene County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director Sandy Mathes. This morning Ariel Zangla-Girard in The Daily Freeman has a story about the issue:

Legislator Karen Deyo, R-Catskill, said she planned to include an item on her committee’s agenda to address constituent concerns over the bonuses to... Mathes, and discuss what authority the Legislature has over the agency. “We need to address this recurring problem,” Deyo said. She said she plans to have the county attorney present at Monday’s meeting. Mathes received $175,000 in performance bonuses in 2009, on top of his regular salary of $131,325. The bonuses were made public after state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Elmsford, made an inquiry into state authority employee bonuses. Paul Slutzky, chairman of the board of directors of the Greene County Industrial Development Agency, has said the bonuses for Mathes were performance-based. He said a compensation committee sets criteria at the beginning of each year for any incentive payments the staff receives. The bonuses come from business fees generated by the agency, according to a previous press release from the agency. Deyo said the issue of Mathes’ bonuses was most recently raised by lawmakers following committee meetings on Aug. 9, and led to a shouting match.

At that meeting, Colin DeVries in The Daily Mail reported that legislator Joseph Izzo, R-Catskill, shouted an expletive at James Van Slyke, D-New Baltimore, about the lack of development in Catskill. At that meeting Deyo wrote a letter to Brodsky, and asked her fellow legislators to sign it, with only Izzo, Chris Pfister, D-Athens, and William Lawrence, R-Cairo, joining in. Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.

Someone has been posting audio of local town meetings, including these links to mp3s from the August, 2010 Stuyvesant town board meeting. Click here for a complete menu, as the mp3s are each short clips of different subjects at the meeting. If the person responsible would like to get in touch with WGXC, we would love them to be one of our Town Recorders, gathering audio from local meetings, and sharing it with the community on the internet and FM dial.

Michael Ryan in The Daily Mail reports Windham Republican will hold their caucus on Friday, Aug. 20, at the Centre Church, to fill a vacant seat on the town board and choose a town supervisor candidate. From the story:

Four individuals, Karl Gonzalez, Bill Lonecke, Michael McCarthy and Rick Rasmussen, have tossed their respective hats into the ring for the council chair left empty after Stephen Walker was picked to replace town supervisor T. Patrick Meehan, who passed away last November. Meehan’s spot was temporarily taken by former councilman and deputy supervisor James Miltenberger, who is no longer on the board. Walker had been on the town board for six years and the planning board for nearly 20 years before taking the reins in January, 2010. Walker is running unopposed for the supervisor’s job, fulfilling Meehan’s unexpired term which ends on Dec. 31, 2011, and if Walker is successful in his bid this November he would then need to run again in November, 2011, for a fresh two-year term. The local Democratic Party has not yet scheduled its caucus, planning to do so before the Sept. 14 deadline. Read the entire story in The Daily Mail.

Dave Woodin, candidate for Greene County Judge, holds fundraisers in Tannersville and Athens this month. Tuesday, August 17 from 6-9 p.m. Lynn and Greg Lubow will host an event at their home at 70 Brookside Drive, Tannersville (RSVP 518-589-5593), and Athens Town Supervisor Lee Palmateer hosts a light brunch 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Aug. 29. Questions/interest: contact Brud Miller (518) 945-2969 or brud@mhcable.com for information on the Athens event. Woodin faces Republican Charles M. “Chip” Tailleur in November for a 10-year term.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Poster by Jess Puglisi."][/caption]
Vetiver and DJ Lunar Moss perform at a WGXC fundraiser at Cannonball Factory in Hudson Aug. 22.

WGXC held an audio workshop with fifth and sixth graders from the Catskill Community Center's summer program. Audio workshop run by Dharma Dailey, Emily Benison, Sara Kendall, Meghan Baxter, and Michael Davis. Students choose their own topics, and made radio about them. Sorry about the slight buzz. Click here to listen to an mp3 audio recording of the workshop, or paste the following url into your computer's media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/08/CCC_audioworkshop_WGXC_080910.mp3

The Hudson Pride Foundation, the organizers of the Hudson Pride parade, honor parade Grand Marshals Charlie Ferrusi and Timothy Howard with the first HPF Scholarships at 2 p.m. Aug. 21 at American Glory (second floor) in Hudson. Ferrusi and Howard made headlines around the country just before the Hudson Pride parade, as they were named King and Queen of the Hudson High prom. Organizers are asking anyone wishing to attend to RSVP trixie@gayhudson.com.

Republican Congressional candidate Chris Gibson will be at MTTS Graphics/Mountain T-Shirts, 8 West Bridge St., Catskill on August 24, in a town-hall style event, according to his campaign. They do not say what time.

The Times-Union's excellent Capitol Confidential blog has a link to a chart from New York Public Interest Research Group, tracking the amount of money New York candidates are raising outside of their districts. Democratic challenger Didi Barrett has raised the most money from outside the counties in the district she is running for, with only 25 percent coming from Dutchess and Columbia counties. On the other hand, Marc Molinaro, challenged by Democrat Susan Tooker for his Columbia County and Dutchess County Assembly seat, got 88 percent from the counties in his district.

TEAM GORDON FOR ASSEMBLY; Assemblyman Tim Gordon of District 108, 39.44 percent from within counties in his district. $5,209 total raised.

FRIENDS OF DIDI BARRETT, candidate Didi Barrett for Senate District 41, 25.16 percent from within counties in her district; $150,361 total raised.

SALAND FOR SENATE '94'; Senator Steve Saland of Senate District 41; 50.12 percent from within counties in his district; $61,850 total raised.

FRIENDS OF SENATOR SEWARD; Senator James Seward, of Senate District 51; 75.42 percent from within counties in his district; $23,169 total raised.

MJM 4 NY; Assemblyman Marc Molinaro of District 103, 88.36 percent from within counties in his district; $20,195 total raised.

No results for Assemblyman Pete Lopez of District 127.

From Ariel Zangla-Girard in The Daily Freeman yesterday:

Community radio station WGXC will “go live” Sept. 26, but whether it will broadcast on the FM dial depends on whether it can raise the remaining funds it needs to match a $71,486 grant. To date, the station has raised about 65 percent of the funds needed to match the grant, said staff volunteer Sara Kendall. She said the station also needs to raise an additional $20,000 for other start-up costs, including labor and supplies. Kendall said WGXC is working hard to raise money and is focusing on selling underwriting to local businesses. The $71,486 grant was given to the station by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration through their Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. The grant will fund half of the equipment needed to put the station on air on 90.7 FM. WGXC will be a 3,300-watt non-commercial community radio station with shows about local issues such as agriculture, history, the arts and education. It will reach most of Greene and Columbia counties. In addition to fund raising, the station is gearing up for a planned “Radio Barnraising.” In collaboration with Prometheus Radio Project, the barn raising will bring experts from around the country to train area residents in all aspects of radio production, according to a press release from WGXC.... The barn raising will take place from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 in Hudson. Galen Joseph-Hunter, executive director of free103point9, said Sept. 26 is the date WGXC will go live with a full program schedule. She said whether the station is on the FM dial or online will depend on fund raising. If WGXC, which is a project of free103point9, raises the needed funds it will go live on the FM dial, Joseph-Hunter said. To register for the barn raising go to www.prometheusradio.org/WGXC_barnraising. For more information about WGXC and its fund raising, visit www.wgxc.org. Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.

Vetiver & Fruit Bats from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Vetiver performs at a benefit fundraiser Aug. 22 at Cannonball Factory in Hudson, for WGXC.

Lissa Harris in Watershed Post reports the Environmental Protection Agency first moved a public hearing about hydraulic fracturing from Binghamton to Syracuse three days before the a was scheduled, and now has postponed the meeting. The Binghamton Press & Sun reports:

"We have a beautiful convention center here that can easily accommodate 1,000 or 1,200 people, but in the last day we continued to get calls about additional people, and that number is easily growing to more than 5,000,” [Sandy] Baker, [the vice president of sales and marketing at the Oncenter, the proposed venue] said. “In order to accommodate all of the safety issues, we need more time to plan this.”

New York Senator Charles Schumer will be visiting B and B Wood Products on Route 145 in Cairo for a press conference Tuesday at 2:45 p.m. to discuss the impact of the the Chinese Emerald Ash Borer. The bug has recently been discoverd in Saugerties and Greene County. Senator Schumer is here to discuss federal efforts to support the NYS DEC and enhance public awareness, about the pest that some estimate will wipe out seven percent of New York forests (the entire population of ash trees).