In a bit of wild speculation, two Times-Union writers are passing around a story that President Barack Obama might visit Earlton in Greene County. Steve Barnes says Damon Baehrel the owner of The Basement Bistro in Earlton called the paper reporting that the White House staff called him to ask if he would be interested in hosting the First Couple. “Of course I said yes — and they’re going to give me some possible dates,” Baehrel said. He hopes to be able to host the first couple in the summer, when his gardens are at their peak.

From John in Gawker:

"Political genius and shadow Senate candidate Harold Ford has called on New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to release her tax returns, but says he doesn't have to do the same because he hasn't "announced" his candidacy yet. It's the rule!"

From Jimmy Vielkind in Capitol Confidential:

After meeting yesterday at the Desmond, the 10 Republican county leaders in the 20th District have set up a a time line to endorse a candidate against Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls. Prospective candidates should announce their intention to run by March 7, according to Warren County Republican Chairman Mike Grasso, and make their rounds to the individual county committees before March 31. The 10 chairs will then meet in Albany to ballot toward an endorsement, which will be determined based on the weighted vote of the counties. “We intend to have a candidate probably ready to go the first week of April. That’s our plan,” Grasso told me by phone this morning. “It’s very difficult for committees to interview a couple of people who have announced and then have other people come forward. It’s very difficult to ascertain…We’re going to ask everybody’s who’s interested to come to us by March 7, so we can then arrange during a three-week period of orderly interviews with them.” Of course, this doesn’t guarantee a candidate will get on the ballot. Unlike a statewide race, the party’s endorsement is just that: an endorsement. Any prospective candidate – irrespective of whether they’ve been endorsed by some, all, or none of the Republican leadership–can get on the ballot by securing the valid signatures of 1,250 enrolled party members in the district. Republicans who have expressed interest in challenging Murphy are John Faso, David Harper, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, Queensbury Supervisor Dan Stec and Patrick Ziegler. Christopher Gibson, an Army Colonel from Columbia County, is also considering a run, according to several Republican leaders in the district.

WGXC Online Radio will air a live conference call with Congressman Scott Murphy (NY-20) answering questions from members of the media Thursday, Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. Tune in at www.wgxc.org.

Rep. Murphy is returning from a Congressional Delegation (CODEL) trip to Afghanistan where, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he met with troops and generals, "to assess the current situation on the ground," according to his office's press release. Click here to listen to an mp3 audio recording of the conference call or paste the following into your default media player:
http://data.wavefarm.org/2010/02/ScottMurphy_mediaconferencecall_021810.mp3

(Murphy at town hall meeting in Valatie, Aug. 2009.)

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Paul Riismandel in Radio Survivor reports Great Barrington's low-power WBCR (97.7-FM) has been granted an upgrade to full-power by the Federal Communications Commission.

Columbia County ranks 45th, and Greene County ranks 59th among 62 New York counties in overall health. Nearby Putnam County ranked first in the state, Dutchess ranked 11th, Ulster County 33rd, Albany County 27th, and Rensselear County 35th. The study was by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation using data from 2000 to 2006.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Kyle Wind in The Daily Freeman reports that the state Commission on Judicial Conduct unanimously decided to admonish state Supreme Court Justice Patrick J. McGrath, "for misrepresenting his jurisdiction over pistol permits and making “improper pledges and promises” in a letter to 7,000 pistol permit holders during his 2008 election campaign," wrote Wind. McGrath serves in the state’s Third Judicial District, which includes Ulster and Greene counties. He has 30 days to appeal the decision to the state Court of Appeals.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Mike McCagg in ccScoop exposes two proposals for hydroelectric plants in Columbia County, in Stottville and Stuyvesant Falls. The Stottville plan proposed by Claverack Creek LLC is along Claverack Creek in the Stockport hamlet of Stottville, and would produce 450 kilowatt hours over an unreported amount of time. Albany Engineering Corporation plans, "a power plant at Stuyvesant Falls, from the Kinderhook Creek to produce 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity —- enough to power about 2,000 homes," according to the story.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

One of the best results from the recent redesign of the web sites of The Daily Mail and The Register-Star has been the increase in reader participation through online comments. Lately, the politicians and officials at the heart of many stories on the paper's web sites are writing their own comments. Or are being carefully impersonated in the largely unregulated world of online comments. First, Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera, or someone posing as the mayor, responded to a Feb. 11 Register-Star "My View" opinion column by Taghkanic-based activist Sam Pratt. Three days later, State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, or an online simulacrum, commented on a Register-Star article about his recent vote against making it easier to cast an absentee ballot. Bob Sacks, or someone claiming the identity of the Copake Town Councilman, also commented on that article. And if The Daily Mail mentions the Cairo Planning Board, you can bet board Chairman Dan Benoit will comment. In a Feb. 11 "My View" column by Leeds-based businessman Bob Nappa, Benoit pipes in once the chatter in the comments section gets around to Cairo. In each case, officials leave e-mail addresses and phone numbers for constituents to get in touch about whatever issue getting is being discussed. Bravo!

Help WGXC get on the air. Currently, WGXC is attempting to raise $71,000 for a matching grant from the U.S. Commerce Department for most of the major equipment to get WGXC on the air including the antenna, transmitter, and studio consoles for spaces in Cairo, Catskill, and Hudson. You can help us get on the air by:
*Stopping by Swallow on Mondays in February, and buying a Machiatto, with all proceeds going to community radio.
*Buy a $5 raffle ticket at Musica in Hudson to win a Gibson Les Paul guitar in a March 17 drawing. You can buy raffle tickets online here, and see a photo of the guitar here.


Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Bunnybrains "Let the Smog Out" video filmed in Hudson.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k-OavA5WJY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
From www.HVscan.com, a short clip just north of the Metro-North Train Station in Poughkeepsie, NY, at about 11:30 p.m., on 02.03.10.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

From The 12534 via Frantik magazine:

Rasputina has announced the June release of their seventh full length album, Sister Kinderhook, recorded in Hudson, NY

....produced by band founder Melora Creager and mixed by Creager and Brian Kehew. The album was recorded at Filthy Bonnet studios in Hudson NY by Melora (lead vocals, cello), Daniel deJesus (cello) and Catie D’Amica (percussion). The band will be touring North America this July.

(Photo by David Lee/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers)
From The Register-Star:

Propreitor of Kling Magnetics and Solaqua [and Sun Dog Solar] in Chatham and also masterful banjo player Jody Rael entertains the audience assembled at the Nicole Fiacco Gallery on Warren St. Saturday evening with some of the better known protest songs, as part of an all-star program that included writers, poets and visual artists as well as musicians. Organized by Paul Smart and Max Goldfarb, the event was for the benefit of the nascent WGXC FM — free103point9 — community radio. [Google images of Hudson were projected on the wall.]

The Magic Stranger, Tony Fletcher, DJ John Deux, The NRG People/Male Room, DJ Sam, DJ Dizzy, and more, 9 p.m. Feb. 27 in Catskill, in the empty storefront where the Muddy Cup coffee house used to be on Main St.

The Magic Stranger is John Cleater, an artist/ architect who lives in Columbia County. He shows his work at Nicole Fiacco Gallery in Hudson and is on the advisory committee of the architecture program at Art OMI. http://www.cleater.com/

Tony Fletcher (born April 27, 1964) is a music journalist best known for his biographies of drummer Keith Moon and the band R.E.M.. Born in Yorkshire, England, Fletcher was inspired by the London punk rock movement and started a fanzine as a thirteen-year-old schoolboy which he named Jamming!. The magazine developed over the next eight years into an independent alternative to more established music magazines of the day such as the NME and Melody Maker. This led to Fletcher presenting TV programmes and networking with numerous post-punk figures including Paul Weller and Echo & the Bunnymen, the latter of which were the subject of his first book published in 1987. He has two children and is married to Posie. Fletcher then juggled band and record label management before moving to New York in the late 80s, where he also became involved with DJing, club promotion and music industry consultant. His first novel, Hedonism, was published in 2003. http://www.ijamming.net/

The NRG People/Male Room first performed at WGXC's New Year's Masquerade Ball, and are led by Giorgio.

DJ Jean Deux is Dan Seward, of John Deux Books & Records in Hudson, the band Bunnybrains, and the host of "Battlefield Earth" on free103point9 Online Radio.

DJ Dizzy is Tom Roe, who regularly hosted DJ nights in NYC at Diner in Williamsburg, and Angel in Manhattan, and performed at many underground Brooklyn venues such as Rubulad.

DJ Sam is Sam Sebren.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Assemblyman Marc Molinaro (R,C,I- Red Hook) will, "host a roundtable discussion with local business leaders to address economic development issues and the state budget" at 1 p.m., Thursday, February 18 at the Pleasant Valley Firehouse, 1619 Main St., Pleasant Valley.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Francesca Olsen in The Register-Star reports that State Assemblymen Marcus Molinaro, R,C,I-Red Hook, and Peter Lopez, R,C,I -Schoharie, who reprsent Columbia and Greene counties respectively, voted “no” on a proposed bill designed to “simplify the absentee ballot process.” Five assembly members voted against the bill: Molinaro, Lopez, George Amedore, R,C-Rotterdam, James Tedisco, R,C,I-Schenectady-Saratoga, and David R. Townsend, Jr., R,C,I,WF-Kirkland. Recently in Columbia County, and Taghkanic in particular, Republicans have challenged absentee votes, targeting second-home owners. "The bill would also amend Section 8-400 of state election law so that voters would be able to vote by absentee ballot if they are absent from their residence on Election Day, unable to personally appear at their polling place because of illness or disability or because they are taking care of someone with an illness or disability, an inmate or patient at a V.A. hospital, or detained in jail for anything other than a felony," Olsen wrote.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

Colin DeVries in The Daily Mail reports on on the 3-3 vote Tuesday by the Catskill Planning Board against the 33-unit "Moonlight Ridge" senior housing development proposed for 49 Vedder Road. Members Dan Howard, Larry Federman and Jack Rivitusovoted “no;” Chairman Joseph Izzo, Vice-Chairman Harry Sacco and member Allen Uhler who voted “yes” for the special use permit. A tie vote goes to the neighbors who were vocal in their opposition to the project's manufactured home units over 18 acres, and unique wastewater treatment system.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

The Daily Freeman reports that State Assemblyman Marc Molinaro (R-Red Hook) decided not to challenge incumbent Democrat Scott Murphy for New York’s 20th Congressional District seat, which represents Greene and Columbia counties.

Click on WGXC or WGXC Newsroom for more information. Send news, tips, etc. to news@wgxc.org.

The Register-Star reports that the Columbia County Board of Supervisors voted for a two percent pay raise for county employees Wednesday night. Supervisors voting “yes” on the pay raise were: Chairman Roy Brown, R-Germantown; Jeffrey Braley, R-Austerlitz; Reggie Crowley, R-Copake; Deputy Chairman Larry Andrews, R-Ghent; Art Baer, R-Hillsdale; Ed Cross, D-Hudson2; William Hallenbeck Jr., R-Hudson3; Deputy Chairman Bart Delaney, R-Hudson5; Pat Grattan, R-Kinderhook; Kevin McDonald, R-Livingston; Leo Pulcher, R-Stockport; and Valerie Bertram, R-Stuyvesant. Voting against: Art Bassin, D-Ancram; Robin Andrews, D-Claverack; Ray Staats, D-Clermont; Minority Leader Jesse DeGroodt, D-Chatham; Lynda Scheer, R-Gallatin; Ed Nabozny, I-Greenport; John Musall, D-Hudson1; William Hughes, D-Hudson4; and Margaret Robertson, D-New Lebanon.