Roatti at The Albany Project dissects Andrew Cuomo's 250-page policy details he just released in his quest to become the next governor of New York. A few of his thoughts:

* There is a lot of great stuff on Albany reform. Cuomo is promising to veto any gerrymandered redistricting and also a reform of campaign finance. I hope he sticks to his guns when the pressure mounts on this, as the Legislature is not going to accept this without being dragged kicking and screaming.

* There are some things in here that are going to not please the public employee unions, like a wage freeze for all state workers. The public employee unions are going to have to make sacrifices along with everyone else in the state in these dire economic times, but they aren't going to take it easily. Although I applaud Cuomo's willingness to ask for sacrifices from his own base, I personally disagree with a wage freeze and a new pension tier. A smarter move would be to to pay state employees more upfront and not give any kind of pension. Public employees can contribute to their own retirement accounts out of their paychecks like private sector workers, and in compensation for the removal of pensions, those paychecks should be substantially increased. There's a reason why NY is going bankrupt and that reason is pensions. And pensions also contribute to lower up-front pay, which discourages attracting young talent and discourages mobility in the public sector labor market. Need evidence? Only 14 percent of the state's workers are under 35.

* Cuomo is also calling for a constitutional convention to fix a lot of the structural problems with the way the state operates. This is a good idea.

* I'm very glad that Cuomo is running on municipal consolidation. Everybody agrees that the vast number of local government bodies are the driving force behind the inexorable rise in property taxes, and it would be good to build upon last year's municipal consolidation statute. Cuomo also wants to clean house with the redundant state agencies and authorities, and more power to him.

* I would have liked some more specifics on the environmental agenda, but I doubt Cuomo could be worse than Paterson in this regard.

New York State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, who represents Columbia County (R,C,I-Red Hook), will host a town hall meeting in Ghent on Thursday, May 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the White Stone Café, 2337 Route 66, Ghent.

Th Hudson Valley Film Commission says a feature film looking to shoot this summer in the Hudson Valley region seeks a horse farm, "with a masculine/rustic looking home, a barn, stables/paddocks and smaller caretaker's home. The house itself should have a rustic feel. It would also help if there was some type of water on the property, such a pond, brook or stream. Inside the house, there should be a very country feel--although they are willing to production design, the director wants a cinema verite look to the film. Ideally, a lot of wood trim, a darker color palette and a less modern look with more of a country feel to it." Watershed Post says the films seems to be "Second Child," by Chilean director Sebastian Silva, who won a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2009 for "The Maid." From an interview with Silva on Ion Cinema: "The title is 'Second Child' and it's a fiction movie about an eight year-old boy who is gay and falls in love with his uncle during a family vacation. His family wants him to like his little cousin but he is more interested in his uncle." Please email photo suggestions of locations with contact info to filmcommission@me.com

Columbia County Democrats Friday endorsed Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General. Schneiderman is largely backed by upstate Dems, while NYC-area Dems (and Greene County Democrats) support Kathleen Rice. Capitol Confidential reports Columbia County Democratic Chair Christopher Nolan previously supported Eric Dinallo.

GhostWALK Hudson Ghost Story Writing Contest for youth ages 11-18, due June 1. Winning tales published in August in Register-Star and Chatham Courier newspapers, and performed live by teen actors from Walking the dog Theater’s Afterschool Drama program in November 5’s GhostWALK Hudson tour. A panel of judges will look for the best and/or scariest stories written by Columbia County youth, which young actors will then bring to life in various “haunted” buildings in Hudson as part of the GhostWALK Hudson Tour on November 5, 2010. The winning story will be told in the select locations, evoking some of the history of our community. Judges include playwright James Farrell, Register-Star reporter Andrew Amelinckx, novelist Rebecca Stowe, author David C. King, playwright Susan Willerman, columnist Kate McLeod; Emily Arnold McCully; Mike Bowman; illustrator and author Jacqeuline Rodgers; and young adult fiction writer MJ Caraway.

The Greenville Mountain View Pioneer debuted this week, and the Greene County Local Courier morphed into the Greene County News, after its recent purchase by Hudson-Catskill Newspaper Corp, and it is great to read more local newsprint. Both papers are fighting for territory best covered by The Greenville Press which closed early this year, and neither has a website. With the Pioneer focusing on Greenville and the News citing Greenville, Coxsackie, and Athens as target markets, the debut and remake make for a side-by-side comparison. The Pioneer wins the first count, as this week's issue includes results of Tuesday's school board elections, while the News does not (both papers have Thursday street dates). Both have little news -- the Pioneer reveals a new Greenville bakery, while the News covers NY State Senator James Seward's appearance at the opening of Coxsackie beverage distributor Empire Merchants North. The Pioneer has a much cleaner layout, though the News improves from its Courier days, and now looks more like its HCNC sister papers The Daily Mail and Register-Star. Both publications include lots of unnecessary filler with the News even printing a verbatim press release from WGXC about a radio station event with the Agroforestry Center twice, on pages 20 and 23 (extra thanks!). But the Pioneer has much larger problems. Thirteen by-lines include the name "Macko" (the publisher and former Daily Mail writer Andrea Macko authors most), while only six others contribute articles. Of those six, the owner of the new Greenville bakery writes about his own store, and another is a campaign donation in the form of an article by Greenville County Legislator Kevin Lewis. While the News makes a similar donation to the campaign of Seward with his "column," the Pioneer gives away advertorial disguised as editorial more often. Publisher Macko also gives a free campaign ad/column to Greenville Town Supervisor Paul Macko (she is his niece). The first issue ever also has two letters to the editor about how Peter Margoulius would make a swell County Court Judge, and on the next page there is a larger press release about how one local group endorsed his campaign. Virtually no local Democrats are mentioned anywhere in the Pioneer. Both papers print an awful lot of verbatim press releases, and the Pioneer seems one-sided so far. And the Pioneer's debut editorial makes odd boasts, saying that seeing names and pictures in a publication and an accompanying feeling of being a, "part of something bigger" is something "that you won't find on any website." That's pretty funny!

Marc Heller in the Watertown Daily Times reports:

In the next few years, dairy farmers are likely to see big changes in the safety net that protects them from crashing milk prices — including a first-ever comprehensive system to limit milk production, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said. Rep. Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., said he believes the past year's deep decline in milk prices will result in momentum for fundamental changes in dairy policy when Congress considers the five-year farm bill in 2012, as long as farm groups can find common ground and opposition from milk processors can be kept to a minimum. Mr. Peterson outlined his expectations in an interview at his Capitol Hill office in which he also disputed widespread criticism that the dairy industry is plagued by price manipulation and discussed the role Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, may play on the committee, to which he was named two weeks ago. Mr. Peterson's committee already has begun weekly field hearings on the farm bill, which have generated hundreds of comments from farmers around the country. The farm bill sets farm, food and nutrition programs, as well as rural development initiatives. Read the entire story in the Watertown Daily Times.

[caption id="attachment_1504" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Liz LoGiudice led an "Amphibian Adventure" frog walk from the Agroforestry Center to the Siuslaw Model Forest during a WGXC fundraiser May 21, 2010. Photo by Galen Joseph-Hunter."][/caption]
Liz LoGiudice, Extension Educator at Agroforestry Resource Center, led an "Amphibian Adventure" WGXC fundraiser Friday night, giving a "frog walk" across the street at the Siuslaw Model Forest. We listened to peepers, tree frogs, pond frogs, and found tadpoles and snails.

Click here to listen to an mp3 sound recording of the "Amphibian Adventure" or paste this url into your computer's media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/05
/AmphibianAdventure_AcraSoundWalk_WGXC_AgroforestryCenter.mp3

[caption id="attachment_1506" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Siuslaw Model Forest."][/caption]

WGXC volunteer Sam Sebren recorded performances from the Upstate Artist Guild show Wed. May 19, 2010 organized by Leah Rico and Alex Young:
[caption id="attachment_1488" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Prayer Town at Upstate Artists Guild 051910. Photo by Sam Sebren."][/caption]Prayer Town performed first, click here to listen to a wav file recording or paste this link into your computer's media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/05
/PrayerTown_WGXC_UAG_051910.wav

[caption id="attachment_1489" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Kier Neuringer at Upstate Artists Guild 051910. Photo by Sam Sebren."][/caption]Kier Neuring performed next, click here to listen to a wav file recording or paste this link into your computer's media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/05
/KierNeuringer_WGXC_UAG_051910.wav

[caption id="attachment_1490" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Price_Trump Duo at Upstate Artists Guild 051910. Photo by Sam Sebren."][/caption]The Price_Trump Duo finished things, click here to listen to a wav file recording or paste this link into your computer's media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/05
/PriceTrumpDuo_WGXC_UAG_051910.wav

Seeing Greene blog breaks down the Catskill school elections:

That result attests to influence exerted by local teachers. The victorious newcomers were endorsed by the Catskill Teachers Association (along with Francesca Daisernia, who finished fifth). Thus, no sitting trustee evoked CTA approval, and the CTA-endorsed candidates presented themselves as agents of “change” in board operations, change in the directions of greater “transparency and accountability” of district operations, of economizing chiefly by curbing administrative costs, and of fostering greater freedom of expression for teachers and other staff under the administration of Superintendent Kathleen Farrell. The top vote-getter, however, did not dwell on those themes. Mr Bulich presented himself as a hard-headed “very conservative” trustee, sensitive to economic “tough times,” concerned about nurturing “a healthy private sector,” skeptical of non-traditional programs, keen to imbue students with firm “discipline” along with “understanding…of the true meaning of what it is to be an American,” calling for more rigorous evaluations of district employees, and condemning contracts give employees “never-ending rise[s] of salaries and benefits.” Read the entire story in Seeing Greene.

Prometheus Radio Project teams with WGXC to hold our 12th community radio barnraising later this year! Radio barnraisings are weekend-long radio-building and movement-building events. Individuals from the local community and participatory media folks from around the country come together to share ideas, experiences, and skills in the launching of a community radio station.

The overwhelming majority of the airwaves have been reserved for a powerful few who take advantage of the complicated technical and political system of media regulation. This inequity in our media system is a reflection of larger structural inequalities in our society. Prometheus's mission is to build participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression. We work for media justice, seeking to diversify control of the media as a necessary step towards a more equitable distribution of power and resources. We value radio because it is easy to produce, free to consume, and accessible to more people across the world than any other mass media, and we work to help grassroots organizations build communications infrastructure to strengthen their communities and movements.

Prometheus has supported hundreds of community organizations to apply for non-commercial low power FM (LPFM) radio licenses, as well as full power non-commercial license (full power stations). We have also helped build stations, either through providing resources and support or through radio barnraisings, where hundreds of volunteers gather to build a radio station of the course of a few days. These radio barnraisings have helped groups build their base while training a new generation of media organizers across the country. Prometheus has held barnraisings all over the county with eleven groups over the past eight years. These stations have encompassed everything from farmworker unions to civil rights organizations to rural arts groups.

WGXC: Hands-On Radio is a community-run media project in New York’s Greene and Columbia counties. Over 78,000 potential listeners will be able to receive WGXC’s FM signal on 90.7-FM once the station gets on the air with the Prometheus Barnraising in the last week of September. WGXC will be much more than just a radio station, with regular exhibitions and events, ongoing media trainings for our community's youth and adults, a news blog, and a local calendar of events, community meetings, and resources. The station will serve a media-deprived area between Albany and New York City, a mostly rural area deeply rooted in agriculture and small industry with small urban centers, and home to a thriving music and arts community. WGXC will be the first radio station of its kind in the area created by and for people who live in the community. With local newspapers and independent media outlets rapidly disappearing from the area, this station offers a important opportunity for journalists and community members to get the training needed to produce high quality local news, as well as the outlet for that information to air.

WGXC will serve as an on-air arena where different and conflicting points of view can come together to share perspectives, acting as a local “trading post” for historic, creative, playful, and informative content. WGXC will provide the tools to make voices heard, and become a vehicle to build understanding. The station will be uniquely decentralized with three main studios spread out across the listening range, allowing broader access and participation from residents of both counties. Partnerships are already forming with schools, music venues, and town halls to live feed from various locations, furthering the scope of the station.

WGXC's mission is to cultivate and to preserve the unique character of our area, the voices, and conversations of Greene and Columbia county residents, especially those that are rarely heard. “Hands-on Radio” captures the essence of this project. WGXC’s participatory environment will bring to life the idea that media is not something that is fed to us, but something we create with our own hands, hearts, and minds.

Aspiring songwriters mix with music business pros in educational workshops, panel discussions, and song critiques. Event culminates in special evening concert featuring Ellis Paul, this Saturday, May 22, at Columbia-Greene Community College.

Assemblyman Marc Molinaro (R,C,I-Red Hook, representing much of Columbia County) will host a town hall meeting with local residents on Saturday, May 29 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Simmons Way Village Inn, 53 Main St., Millerton.

New York State Senator Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie who represents Columbia County, spoke the fourth most on the senate floor according to transcripts of floor proceedings that are now posted online and crunched by NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney. H/T Capitol Confidential. Saland spoke 9,251 words this term through April 7, while State Sen James Seward ranks 34th with 1,465 words spoken. See Capitol Confidential for complete list.

Cairo-Durham school election results: School Budget Passed 551-527; Library Appropriation Failed 477-581; Biomass heating system Failed 433-625. Board Member results: Greg Koerner-Fox - 584; Thomas Plank - 564; Beatrice Clappin - 537; Pat Ublacker - 512; Nicole Maggio - 472; Dean Pectal - 456; Sam Mozzillo - 338. The Daily Mail reports Catskill results:

Catskill Central School District’s $36.6 million budget package for 2010-11 was approved by district voters Tuesday night in a 2-1 margin of 712-375. The Catskill Public Library budget was also passed with an approximate 2-1 margin, 701-368. Elected to the Board of Education for three-year terms were incumbent Michael Bulich, who was returned to the board for his second term with 579 votes, and first-timers Christopher Van Loan and Tracy Powell, who drew 439 and 408 votes, respectively. Elected to a two-year term — the unserved balance of an existing seat from a former BOE member — was first-timer Matthew Leipman, who received 402 votes.

The 2010-2011 budget for the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District was adopted by voters by a margin of 738 votes to 521. Three Board of Education seats were also up for grabs in the vote held yesterday - incumbents Mark Gerrain, Russell Nadler and Beth Tailleur were all up for re-election. Gerrain and Tailleur had easy victories, but Nadler was unseated by opponent Stephen Oliveira, who won 575 votes to Nadler’s 404.

The Hudson City School District budget for 2010-2011 squeaked by Tuesday by a margin of a little more than 100 votes. District voters also reelected Mary Daly (663 votes) to the School Board and brought aboard Peter Merante Sr. (717), Justin Cukerstein, 593 votes. He may still may get a board seat. Patricia Abitabile, currently in the second year of her second five-year term, is resigning from the board as of June 30. There has yet to be a resolution on how Abitabile will be replaced, but a discussion at a recent BOE meeting seemed to indicate the candidate with the third highest number of votes could garner her seat. Carrie Haddad received 422 votes and Peter Rice Jr., garnered 263.

The 2010-2011 budget for the Taconic Hills Central School District passed Tuesday after polls closed, with 604 yes and 377 no votes....Joseph Costa (552), a Claverack automotive business owner who said he would encourage attendance at board meetings, and Kevin Maisenbacher (511), a branch manager at Key Corp/N.A. Licensed Investment, who hopes to involve the community more deeply in board decisions, won the district’s two open school board seats, replacing incumbent board members Scott Decker and Tom Bailey.

U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, the Democrat from Glens Falls who represents Columbia and Greene counties, ranked 370 of 435 with $6.09 million federal pork-barrel funds for local projects, according to the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste’s annual “Pig Book,” William J. Kemble reports in The Daily Freeman. In comparison, longtime U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who represents an area just south of Murphy's district, ranked 50th with $54.96 million in projects. Murphy has served less then one full term. Murphy recently posted his appropriations requests online. Murphy is facing Republican Chris Gibson this fall.

Voting for school board members and issues takes place Tuesday in both counties. From The Daily Freeman:

Greene County

Cairo-Durham
(Polls are open noon to 9 p.m.)
Cairo-Durham Middle School cafeteria.

Catskill
(Polls are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.)
Catskill High School gymnasium.

Coxsackie-Athens
(Polls are open 1 to 9 p.m.)
District elementary schools.

Hunter-Tannersville
(Polls are open 1 to 9 p.m.)
Hunter Elementary School.

Columbia County

Germantown
(Polls are open noon to 9 p.m.)
Germantown Central School office lobby on Main Street.

Jimmy Vielkind at Capitol Confidential says Tom Poelker of the Greene County Democratic Committee, and two other upstate county Democratic leaders are about to endorse Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice for the Attorney General race. Cindy Emmer, chairwoman of the Chemung County Democratic Committee, and Mike Kunzwiler of the Oswego County Democrats are also about to endorse Rice, Vielkind says, in her race against Sen. Eric Schneiderman.

Next Monday May 24 at 7 p.m. at Catskill High School the Village of Catskill holds its annual Appropriations Meeting, where voters get to speak about the village budget.

Kyle Wind in The Daily Freeman:

More than 250 jobs will be eliminated in the region if voters approve school district budgets as proposed Tuesday. All the districts in the area with except Hunter-Tannersville, in Greene County, plan to cut faculty and staff members in response to projected reductions in state aid, and, in some districts, declining enrollment.

GREENE COUNTY

Cairo-Durham school officials are planning to cut 7.2 teaching positions — half at the elementary level and half at middle and high schools — along with a psychologist and a teaching assistant. Catskill school officials are planning to cut three teachers — an art teacher, a librarian and a foreign language teacher — as well as a secondary school administrator, an assistant principal at the elementary school and 1.4 support staff positions. The district plans to reduce the assistant director of special education from a 12-month to 10-month position. In Coxsackie-Athens, planned cuts include a kindergarten class, a teacher’s aide, a high school teacher’s aide, a part-time high school Spanish teacher, an elementary special education teacher, high school academic intervention teaching assistants in science, English and the computer lab, a middle school enrichment teacher, an elementary school librarian, a middle school reading teacher, a high school special education teacher, a part-time high school math teacher, a fifth-grade section and a sixth-grade section. Hunter-Tannersville is the only district in the region not planning to cut any positions.

COLUMBIA COUNTY

In Germantown, the district is planning to cut 1.5 high school teachers, an elementary teacher, a teaching assistant, a custodian and a part-time Spanish teacher. Read the entire story in The Daily Freeman.