Patricia R. Doxsey reports in the Daily Freeman that the Hyde Park Drive-In is not closing, and the National Park Service is currently considering several proposals to keep the outdoor theater operating for the next decade. The National Park Service has owned the drive-in since 2011, buying it because it is located on lands that were once part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt farm and estate. In that purchase, the National Park Service grandfathered the lease that Scenic Hudson, the previous owner, had with the existing drive-in operator. But that lease ended last year, and now a new operator is being sought. The Park Service is not saying when they will decide on which proposal to accept. The Hyde Park Drive-In opened in 1950, and can park up to 670 cars to watch a film. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

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William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that Amtrak will discontinue stops at the 109-year-old Rhinecliff station temporarily if a new parking area can’t be found, according to Rhinebeck Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia. Amtrak is negotiating with a property owner at Orchard Drive and Lapolt Avenue for additional parking while the Rhinecliff rail station undergoes renovations. Spinzia said, “They are going to need to come up with a parking space for overflow starting this fall.... If we don’t have an alternate parking space for them this station could close down.... It could just go from Hudson to Poughkeepsie.” Amtrak officials say the work could take longer than the four years initially expected. “It could be six years,” Spinzia said. “The station could be under construction for over four years.” Amtrak is improving the signal system on sections of track, replacing crumbling concrete platforms, installing a longer upper-level platform, constructing new stairs, and upgrading the handicapped accessibility access with $28.22 million in federal funding. Currently the Rhinecliff station has about 200,000 passengers per year. Amtrak's work is part of a plan to increase the number of round trips between Albany and New York City from 13 to 17 daily. Amtrak officials did not respond to a request for comments. Spinzia said that Amtrak has, "agreed to do what I think should be a Town Board meeting where they go over their plans with us in public and we have our Historic and Archeological Preservation Committee … and Planning Board weigh in with recommendations for them to consider.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Andrea Macko in Porcupine Soup reports that even though virtually everyone in Greene County is either a migrant or descended from someone from other parts of the world, officials there released a press release May 15 saying more migrants are not welcome. The statement, which came from the Greene County government but not specific officials, said, “The arrival of increased numbers of migrants seeking shelter in the City and State of New York is expected to exacerbate an already large-scale humanitarian crisis and create a disaster emergency to which local governments are unable to adequately respond, creating a threat to health and safety, which could result in the loss of life or property.” Currently, Republican officials in Texas and Florida have been shipping migrants to New York City, where the Democrat mayor is sending some of them upstate. The anonymous press release said, "Greene County already has a housing and homeless crisis." Then officials said that if any migrants are sent to Greene County, "we would have no choice but to put asylum seekers who require significant services back on a bus to the closest sanctuary city, such as Albany, Kingston, or Hudson.” Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.

Zack Fink reports for New York State of Politics that Gov. Kathy Hochul says she may sign an executive order to create more housing in New York. Hochul and many Hudson Valley officials have said there is an affordable housing crisis in the state. Hochul proposed building 800,000 new housing units in the new state budget, but that plan was dismissed in negotiations with legislators. There are only a few weeks left in the legislature to pass new housing legislation. Now she is asking about an executive order to address the problem. “What else can we accomplish by executive order,” Hochul said. “What opportunities I have as governor to find ways to create more housing on state-owned properties, for example. Areas where I can achieve more.” Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.

The Times Union reports that the Forge Project, a Native-led art, culture, and decolonial education initiative in Columbia County, has six 2023 fellows: Margeaux Abeyta (from the Taos Pueblo and Diné tribes), Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape), Lucy Grignon (Stockbridge-Munsee/Menominee), Emily Johnson (Yup’ik), Dr. Suzanne Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) and Rachel Martin (Tlingít). Forge Project Executive Director Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation) said, “We’re excited to introduce our third annual class of Forge Fellows, whose interdisciplinary approaches as creators, innovators and organizers speak to the rich complexity of Native and Indigenous thought today.” Columbia County is part of the ancestral homeland of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, who were forced to move to Wisconsin, and the Forge program always keeps two fellowship spots for members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe. Each Fellow receives a $25,000 grant and use of the Forge Project site, libraries, and collection of contemporary art by Indigenous artists during three-week rotating residencies. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

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Rick Karlin reports in the Times Union that a labor agreement has been reached between General Electric and two major unions for facilities the company wants to build for offshore wind equipment manufacturing at the Port of Coeymans in southern Albany County. GE wants to build turbine blades and the housings that contain electric generating equipment for wind power projects off the Long Island coast. New York State has plans for 4.6 gigawatts of offshore wind projects off the Long Island coast, and GE believes they can create 870 jobs if all the proposals become reality. Now they have an agreement with the IUE-CWA unions for GE to remain neutral during the labor organizing process for the plants. GE is splitting up its company next year, and Vernova is the name of the power portion of GE. Currently about 825 of GE Vernova’s U.S. employees, including about 700 in New York, are represented by the IUE-CWA unions. “As a leader in the U.S. wind industry and the company that introduced the first 12MW + offshore wind turbine, GE Vernova is pleased to have worked with the IUE-CWA on this labor peace agreement associated with our proposal to build two, state-of-the-art offshore wind factories in New York,” officials from GE and the unions said in a joint statement. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

The Troy Record reports that Rep. Paul Tonko is crowing about the $936,414 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Substance Abuse Treatment has awarded to the University at Albany for screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment to prevent and address gambling among college students. Tonko, a Democrat representing Albany County and the 20th Congressional District, has taken up gambling as his own cause lately. Tonko is trying to ban online and television advertising of sports gambling, but his HR 967 bill has no co-sponsors. But he is happy that UAlbany is getting more than $4.8 million over the next five years to support this research. Tonko said, “This funding will help ensure that young adults who are struggling with these issues have access to the timely and responsive support they need to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Tonko serves as co-chair of the Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus, a bipartisan group of legislators committed to advancing solutions to the country’s multifaceted addiction crisis. Read more about this story in the Troy Record.

Jackson Tollerton reports for News10 in Albany that planting more trees may be one of the best ways to combat climate change, and New York has a plan to help landowners do that. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has $850,000 available through the third round of the state’s Regenerate NY Forestry Cost Share Grant Program to help plant more trees. Landowners who want to restore or establish five or more acres of forest can apply for grant awards ranging from $10,000 to a $100,000, with a required 25 percent match. DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said, “Investing in the establishment and resiliency of our forests is a critical component for ensuring the continued ecosystem services that trees provide. I encourage all interested landowners to take advantage of this funding.” Applications can be submitted through NYS Grants until 5 p.m. on October 6, or until funds are depleted. For more information, visit the DEC website, or the WGXC Newsroom has links for more information. Read more about this story at News10 in Albany.

The Daily Freeman reports that Bard College Literature Professor Hua Hsu’s memoir “Stay True” won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Hsu is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. The memoir is coming-of-age account that “considers intense, youthful friendships but also random violence that can suddenly and permanently alter the presumed logic of our personal narratives,” according to a press release. Hsu also won a 2022 National Book Critics Circle award for an autobiography. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

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Local schools elect board members and voters decide on approving, or not, school budgets at elections on May 16. Each school district has its own times and hours, so check your district for that information. Most voting is at one of the schools in the district, but sometimes are at outside locations. Several schools are closing early for students May 16, to make room for the voting. Most districts have extensive information about the proposed budgets on their websites, and the WGXC Newsroom has information about most of the candidates running for board seats. WGXC will have election results on May 17.

Kathleen Moore reports in the Times Union that Bethlehem school officials will ban cell phones for the entire school day starting in the fall, hoping it will lead to students socializing more often. Students won't even be able to use their phones at lunch, or study times. “This is when we want our students to be social and interact with one another,” Superintendent Dave Hurst said at a school board meeting last week. Previously teachers had asked students to put away their phones during class or put them in pouches hanging on a wall of the classroom. Hurst said that “to some extent has curtailed phone use in classrooms, but not entirely." Hurst cites studies showing a national increase in students feeling lonely and isolated, with higher depression and suicide rates. So the Bethlehem schools in Albany County will spend $26,773 on lockable bags that will be issued to every student this fall. Some parents are skeptical the plan will achieve the desired results. “Everyone’s going to become a natural extrovert and talk to everyone in the cafeteria? The kids I know… avoid the cafeteria,” said parent Cara Brousseau during a school board meeting. “I wish they would socialize, but you can’t just expect that to happen spontaneously by locking up their cellphone. There needs to be a path to get there.” Students, polled anonymously, have differing views. One said it would take “a weight off your shoulders,” while another asked, “What am I going to do in my free periods?... It would make my life suck.” Two students questioned worried about a lack of a phone during a school shooting. The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Green Island schools are also planning to ban phone use entirely. Psychiatrist Dr. Kevin Martin of Saratoga Springs isn’t convinced that taking away the phones will work as intended. “It’s correlation, not necessarily causation. Around 2012 when we hit about 50 percent in smartphone usage, since then, even before the pandemic, mental health issues in kids and teens really went up,” he said. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Nancy Kern reports for Columbia-Greene Media that the Athens Boat Launch is about to be renovated. The boat launch is owned and maintained by New York State, which will soon spruce things up. Athens Mayor Amy Serrago said, “It is a state park and is slated for renovation as part of the Hudson Eagles Recreation Area project.... This is the same initiative that funded the Coxsackie renovation.” The Athens Waterfront Advisory Committee has approved the renovation plans. Serrago said, “The last I heard was that our portion is next in line, with Hudson.... They are going out to bid on both at the same time. They tell me this is good news as far as the timeline goes. We are basically waiting in line.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Doug La Rocque reports in the Columbia Paper that some local volunteers are hoping to restore a New Lebanon train depot built in 1863 and last used in 1953. The now dilapidated depot was a stop on the Corkscrew Railroad, which ran from Rutland, VT, to Chatham, with a spur heading north into Canada. The Town of New Lebanon used some of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay off the back taxes on the depot, after the property was donated by an unidentified rail enthusiast. The story does not identify the volunteers asking for donations for the restoration project, but they have set up a GoFundMe page-corkscrewrailtrailassocaition/Joe Ogilvie. Checks specifying Depot Restoration can also be mailed to P.O. Box 394 Stephentown, NY 12168, or dropped off in person at the Berkshire Bank in New Lebanon. Read more about this story in the Columbia Paper.

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Mid-Hudson News reports that on May 10 Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison and Columbia-Greene Community College hosted their first commencement ceremony at the Green Haven Correctional Facility. Seven graduates earned their associate degrees in Individual Studies. Joel Jimenez, Hudson Link Program Director, said, “Green Haven has always been close to my heart because I spent eight years of my incarceration in that facility. I remember hoping to transfer to a facility like Sing Sing where Hudson Link was operating a college program, one of the few in the state. When I became Program Director at Hudson Link, I set a goal to open a college program available to an entire population, because I wanted the men at Green Haven to have the opportunity I did not have when I was there. Education is one of the great equalizers an incarcerated person could have, and so, I am super excited to attend this graduation only 18 months since we opened the program.” Jose Rodriguez was the Columbia-Greene Community College Valedictorian at Green Haven, and he said, “I want to say that I didn’t do this just for me. I did this for all those that I’ve hurt by my past actions. I did this for my family, who continue to love me unconditionally and continue to be supportive. I did this for the man I call “Dad,” even though you’re not here, I know you’re still watching. I kept my promise. I told you I’d get this. And most importantly, I did this for my boys—my sons. You are my greatest achievement and greatest inspiration. I know I’ve let you down, but I’m picking up the pieces. Your Papi is making it happen, and it doesn’t stop here.” Read more about this story at Mid-Hudson News.