Wayne Johnson won Bell's Cafe's pancake eating contest at the Catskill Farmer's Market today eating 4.5 pancakes in four minutes.

New York State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro (R,C,I-Red Hook) joins Deputy Mayor of the Village of Red Hook Ed Blundell for an Independence Day celebration in Rhinebeck with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, a reading of the Declaration of Independence by Molinaro and Blundell, and fireworks. The event begins at 4 p.m. at the Rhinebeck Fairgrounds, 6550 Spring Brook Avenue, Rhinebeck.

State Senator James L. Seward (R/C/I-Oneonta) march in the 15th Annual Independence Day Parade in East Durham on Saturday, July 3. The East Durham parade begins at 11 a.m. on Route 145 in East Durham.

From Sam Truitt:

Soldier Mountain Workshops announces the July launch of writing groups for Mid-Hudson Valley veterans. Meeting for 12 weeks into September, the writing groups in Catskill and Hudson are free and open to all veterans. The aim of the Soldier Mountain writing groups is to provide veterans an opportunity to give voice to their lived experiences through poetry and writing. Here veterans in collaborative settings will impart and bear witness to their unique lives as well as their visions of service and country. While seeking to foster living connections and personal exploration, the writing groups will explore the craft of poetry making and provide tools for building a sustainable writing practice. Handouts, notebooks and other necessary writing group materials will be provided. The writing groups may include guest presentations from local veteran writers. While veteran participants can choose to share their writing only within the groups, there may also be opportunities for reading their work to a broader audience. The writing groups will be facilitated by Sam Truitt, founder of the Solider Mountain Workshops. Sam Truitt is the author of Vertical Elegies: Three Works, Vertical Elegies 5: The Section, Anamorphosis Eisenhower, and the forthcoming Vertical Elegies 6: Street Mete. He is the recipient of a 2010-2011 George A. and Eliza Howard Fellowship, Fund for Poetry grants, and the 2002 Contemporary Poetry Series Award from the University of Georgia, among other professional acknowledgements. Sam Truitt holds an MFA from Brown University, and a PhD from SUNY-Albany, where he teaches, as well as at Bard College. For more, see www.samtruitt.org

Columbia County Writing Group
Location: VFW Post 1314, 544 Union St., Hudson, NY
Days and Time: Thursdays, 7-8:30 p.m.
Dates: July 22 –September 16
Open enrollment: New members are welcome to join at any time.

Greene County Writing Group
Location: Greene County Council on the Arts, 398 Main St. Catskill, NY
Days and Time: Wednesdays, 7-8:30 p.m.
Dates: July 28 – September 22
Open enrollment: New members are welcome to join at any time.

From Peter Aaron in Chronogram:

Bryan Zimmerman
July 3. Spotty Dog Books & Ale has become one of the area’s most promising small venues as of late, and this WGXC-co-sponsored show by Brooklyn’s Bryan Zimmerman fits well with the shop’s overriding low-key coolness. Zimmerman, an interdisciplinary artist/photographer perhaps best known for his work with skewed underground Americana unit the Dust Dive, here celebrates the release of "Corpse of Discovery" (2010, free103point9 Records), a collaborative effort that also features Jason Lowenstein (Sebadoh, Fiery Furnaces). With Jeremy Kelly. 8 p.m. $5. Hudson. (518) 671-6006; www.thespottydog.com.

The campaign between incumbent Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican candidate Chris Gibson for New York's 20th Congressional seat (which represents Columbia and Greene counties) heated up today, on the eve of the second quarter contribution reporting deadline. Gibson lagged far behind Murphy in fundraising in the first quarter of the year, and today is the last day of the second quarter, and I'm sure the Gibson campaign and Republican organizers would like to announce a large contribution figure in the next few days. The Albany Times-Union's excellent blog Capitol Confidential reported today that, "A column penned by Brian Walsh, political director of the National Republican Campaign Committee, listed the race as a “toss-up” according to Cook Political, in an article that was promptly posted on Gibson’s website and included in [a] fundraising e-mail he blasted to his supporters." Actually, Cook, fivethirtyeight.com, and most other respected polling organizations have called the district leaning Democrat this fall. Capitol Confidential:

"David Wasserman, the [NRCC]’s House editor, said he has “no idea” why the NRCC cited the race as a toss-up. I called John Randall to ask, and the NRCC spokesman said “that was an oversight on our part and it’s in the process of being fixed.” Indeed, when I looked at Walsh’s column today it had already been updated. As of 4 p.m. it still listed Murphy as having voted for the stimulus bill, which passed before he was a member of the House. (Murphy said during his campaign he would have voted for the measure, and has been full-throated in declaring his support of it.) Rob Clark, a spokesman for Gibson’s campaign, did not immediately offer a comment on why it was included in the e-mail."

Murphy did vote today for the Wall Street Reform conference report, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives today and is expected to clear the Senate and get a signature from President Obama. "I came to Congress a year ago as a small businessman to solve problems, and one of the critical problems facing the United States right now is how to regulate our financial industry," Murphy said in a statement today. "That is why I am proud to have taken this critical step to ensure that never again can Wall Street melt down and leave Main Street to pay the price. By ending taxpayer bailouts for big banks and creating strong consumer protections, we will not only strengthen our economy, but hold Wall Street accountable." Gibson, meanwhile, announced today his July 4 weekend schedule, and it includes one local stop, at Kinderhook's annual People's Day Parade. Gibson and his family will be marching in the parade, then the candidate will address the crowd from the bandstand in the Village Square. The parade begins at 11 a.m. at Rothermel Park, Gibson speaks around 11:30 a.m.

This September, Prometheus Radio Project and WGXC will hold Prometheus's 12th community radio barnraising. Radio barnraisings are weekend-long radio and movement-building events. Individuals from the local community, participatory media advocates, and artists from around the country will converge in Hudson, NY to share ideas, experiences, and skills in the launching of WGXC's full power community radio station.


"For the past ten years, we've been fighting to take the airwaves out of the hands of the powerful few and place them in the hands of communities. We've supported many groups in starting low-power and full-power FM radio stations that serve as tools for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression," says Andalusia Knoll, Community Radio Coordinator with the Prometheus Radio Project.

The Prometheus Radio Project has helped many groups, including farmworker unions, civil rights groups, and rural arts organizations build their stations while training a new generation of radio organizers across the country. The collaboration with WGXC, which will broadcast at 3,300 watts as opposed to the 100 watts of low power stations, will be Prometheus's first full-power barnraising. This new station will be uniquely decentralized with three main studios spread out across the listening range, allowing broader participation from residents of New York’s Greene and Columbia counties. Partnerships are already forming with schools, music venues, and town halls to create live feeds from various locations, furthering the scope of the station.

WGXC: Hands-On Radio will be much more than just a radio station, with regular exhibitions and events, ongoing media trainings, a news blog, and community meetings. “We are all aware of the urgent importance of protecting and supporting our local resources, food system, watersheds, farmland, and local arts and cultures,” explains Kaya Weidman, a member of WGXC's Radio Council and co-founder of Germantown Community Farm. "WGXC is simply local media, a key tool for all these crucial issues."

The WGXC Prometheus Barnraising will take place in Hudson, NY with workshops and events from September 24-26. To register for the Barnraising go to http://www.prometheusradio.org/WGXC_barnraising

Registration is now open!

* LOCAL REGISTRATION: Local registration is open for folks attending the WGXC barnraising who live in Greene, Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster, Albany, Rensselaer, or Delaware counties in New York or Berkshire County in Massachusetts.

* GENERAL REGISTRATION: If you do not live in one of the above counties, please go the general registration page.

Catskill Farmer's Market, Saturday on Main St. 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
FARMERS
Don Baker Farm (Hudson)
Berkshire View Farm (Hannacroix)
Bulichs’ Creekside Farm (Leeds)
Catskill Orchids (Catskill)
Eck’s Produce (Coeymans)
Eight Mile Creek Farm (Westerlo)
Elderberry Mary (Berne)
Greenpoint Farm (Catskill)
Hudson-Chatham Winery (Chatham)
Meacher’s Farm (Germantown)
Mountainside Products (Athens)

ARTISANS
Don Boutin
Eileen Bump
Adrian Forester
Itoko Kobayashi
Jennifer Madlem
Victor Miller
Mark Sonzogni
Kipp Yost

NON-PROFITS
Thomas Cole National Historic Site
WGXC: Hands-on Radio

Local folk musician Abby Lappen appears on WRIP 97.9-FM's "Local Licks" radio show from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday. Lappen, a Columbia County-based musician, will play live and recorded songs from her CD "Soul Reasons" on the Windham station's weekly local music show hosted by Sonny Rock. As usual, there will be an after-party at the Horton Smith House in Hensonville. All are welcome to bring their voice or instrument and sit in. (518) 734-9510.

Terry Doyle at WIOX says the new Roxbury full-power community radio station at 91.3-FM goes on air August 27, 2010.

From Mike Lynch in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

Biologists like [Peter] Nye [the endangered species unit leader with the state Department of Environmental Conservation], and those who assist him around the state, have found themselves busy in recent years because the eagle population has been increasing at a steady rate, especially in the last decade. The number of bald eagles in the state climbed from 43 breeding eagles in 2000 to 158 last year, according to the DEC's 2009 bald eagle report. The report also states that in 2000, there were 71 eagles fledged. By last year that number grew to 223.... A big reason for the increase in eagles is that in the 1970s and early '80s, New York took the lead in reintroducing bald eagles into the wild. Nye was part of a team that went to Alaska and brought back eagles that were housed, and then released, in hacking towers stragetically placed throughout the state. The first was at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in central New York. Later, Nye traveled to other northeastern states to train biologists in reintroduction methods. Those states then followed New York and introduced eagles from other environs. "So now the population in the greater Northeast area - outside of Chesapeake Bay and Maine - is a result of all these eagles that were brought in, essentially recreating the population," Nye said. Read the entire story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

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Running From from xanny man on Vimeo.

Closing track from Hudson-based Alexander Turnquist's forthcoming album "Perplexity in the Hallway of Mirrors."

The Department of Homeland Security and the New York State Bridge Authority will pay $1,200,000 for video surveillance equipment on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, Mid-Hudson News reports.

From Matthew Lasar in Radio Survivor:

The Prometheus Radio Project will run its 12th community radio barn raising by launching a new station: WGXC in Hudson, New York on September 24-26. This is the first such event, however, that will involve setting up a full-power station—3,300 watts as opposed to the usual 100 watts of low-power FM. “This new station will be uniquely decentralized with three main studios spread out across the listening range, allowing broader participation from residents of New York’s Greene and Columbia counties,” says Prometheus. “Partnerships are already forming with schools, music venues, and town halls to create live feeds from various locations, furthering the scope of the station. WGXC: Hands-On Radio will be much more than just a radio station, with regular exhibitions and events, ongoing media trainings, a news blog, and community meetings.” The station already streams at www.wgxc.org. We tuned in and, no big surprise, got a Gamelan tune from the composer Pauline Oliveros and the Berkeley Gamelan Ensemble. If you want to help out and live in Greene, Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster, Albany, Rensselaer, or Delaware counties in New York or Berkshire counties in Massachusetts, click here to register. Otherwise click here.

Carole Osterink and her "The Gossips of Rivertown" blog's coverage of the city of Hudson waterfront development LWRP battle currently raging between environmental and business interests has been the best in town. Osterink's latest entry, covers Thursday's symposium sponsored by the Hudson River Environmental Society and organized by Scenic Hudson took place at Space 360:

The symposium was entitled "The Ecology of Hudson South Bay: Understanding the Past, Looking to the Future." The presenters were from the NYS DEC Hudson River Estuary Program, the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Hudsonia, and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies. Gathered around the table were a group of people with disparate hopes and plans for the South Bay. Mayor Scalera was there, with City Attorney Cheryl Roberts. Common Council President Don Moore was there, along with Aldermen Ellen Thurston (Third Ward), Sarah Sterling (First Ward), and Geeta Cheddie (First Ward). George Super from the Greenport Planning Board was there. Kenneth Faroni, Director of Planning and Permits for O&G Industries was there, with Holcim attorney Donald Stever. Linda Mussmann, former chair of the Waterfront Advisory Steering Committee was there, and so was Bonnie Devine, the Department of State staff member who worked with the WASC to develop the 2009 draft LWRP. Participants also included Peter Paden and Ellen Jouret-Epstein from the Columbia Land Conservancy; Sam Pratt and Peter Jung from The Valley Alliance; all the members of a citizens' research group calling themselves the LWRP Task Force (Patrick Doyle, Chris Reed, Meg Carlon, Timothy O'Connor); Susan Falzon from Friends of Hudson; Michael O'Hara from Sustainable Hudson Valley, as well as several staff members from Scenic Hudson: Seth McKee, Jeff Anzevino, and Mark Wildonger. There was also a representative from Congressman Scott Murphy's office, who stayed for only part of the two-and-a-half hour meeting.

The sixth issue of the Greenville Mountain View weekly newspaper's "The Hilltown's" spread on page 10 and 11 is easily the best reason to pick up the paper. Renssselaerville, Westerlo and environs are rarely covered by any print media, so news of the Hilltown Farmer's Market 4-7 p.m. Fridays at Jimmy Walker's Greenhouse on Route 145 in Preston Hollow, and publisher Andrea Macko's take on Rensselaerville's highway budget are welcome. No website.

NRG People performed "You Are Not My Lover" at Germantown Community Farm's "Feed the Radio" Benefit party for WGXC Community Radio, 15-May-2010.

From Leigh Hornbeck in Capitol Confidential:

When Congressional candidate Chris Gibson held a fundraiser with Rep. Tom Price after Price said the creation of a $20 million BP-funded escrow account illustrated that the Obama Administration “is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics,” the DCCC called foul. Yesterday, Gibson [from Kinderhook] struck back and said his opponent, Rep. Scott Murphy, accepted money from BP – $1,000 in November, 2009. That’s true, but according to Murphy’s office, the congressman donated the money to the National Wildlife Federation June 9. Campaign spokesperson Mitch Wallace released this statement: “Congressman Murphy donated that money to the National Wildlife Federation weeks ago to go towards cleaning up the gulf. Actions speak louder than words. If Chris Gibson is going to talk about personal responsibility he should demonstrate some and give back the money he raised with British Petroleum’s defender Rep. Price at his high-priced Washington, DC fundraiser.” Read the entire story in Capitol Confidential.

2010 NYS Attorney General Candidates Discussion from Dutchess Dems on Vimeo.

From the Dutchess County Democratic Committee website:

Four candidates running in the Democratic primary this fall for NYS Attorney General appeared last Saturday at Tymor Park in a debate organized by the Dutchess County Democratic Committee. Click here to see their Vimeo page (apparently the Democrats are not sharing) and watch the debate.
Overview
0:00:00 – Introduction by Dutchess County Chair Elisa Sumner
0:01:30 – Mark Hoops on the History and Role of the Attorney General
0:06:45 – Gary Levine introduces AG Candidates (Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, Sean Coffey, Eric Dinallo, State Senator Eric Schneiderman)
0:10:00 – Q: Opening statements and introductions.
0:23:15 – Q: What is your vision for the AG Office?
0:32:35 – Q: How would you propose using the AG Office to affect public policy (supporting initiatives, reform, etc)?
0:42:00 – Q: Opportunity to respond to any prior comments.
0:52:00 – Q: A question regarding a change to the Organ Donation Law and presumed consent.
0:55:30 – Q: Should we have a Constitutional Convention for New York State?
1:01:15 – Q: Can we use the Investor Protection Bureau and how it could be used to protect individual investors from smaller scale fraud?
1:10:50 – Q: What role would the AG office play in the marcellus shale hydrofracking issue?
1:19:00 – Q: Is there any way for the AG’s office to foster additional independent media voices?
1:24:10 – Q: Does the AG have any impact on the cost of higher education?
1:30:55 – Q: Will you support the primary winner?
1:31:25 – Q: Closing Statements
Video Credits
Videography: Kristofer Munn
Editing and Post-Production: Barbara Hugo

From Julia Reischel in Watershed Post:

The Vermont-based Center for Biological Diversity informed Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar yesterday that they are suing the government on behalf of two bat species that have been decimated by a mysterious fungus. From the press release:

“Bat numbers are plummeting, bat biologists across the country have been urgently sounding the extinction alarm, and yet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is silent,” said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate at the Center. The Interior Department missed an April deadline for responding to the endangered species petition and has given no indication of when and how it intends to answer the call for stronger protections for the two species. Both bat species were thought to be uncommon to rare prior to the appearance of white-nose syndrome in the northeast United States in 2006. Since then, the disease has spread into 14 states and two Canadian provinces, taking a harsh toll on the two species as well as seven others. In Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, the states where the disease has been present for the longest, the eastern small-footed bat population has decreased by nearly 80 percent over the past two years, and the northern long-eared bat population has shrunk by 93 percent.

New York has been the epicenter of the bat catastrophe, as one of the places where White-nose Syndrome, a cold-tolerant fungus that kills hibernating bats by forcing them to wake up and starve to death, emerged. Read the entire story in Watershed Post.