News

Massachusetts has approved 14 new projects under its Economic Development Incentive Program. 

Now wrapping up its 85th season, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts had a banner year.

Police in Burlington, Vermont, say a man has been arrested after he pulled a large knife during a fight in City Hall Park.

The Westchester County executive Wednesday issued an executive order on immigration, calling it a compromise after vetoing immigrant protection legislation passed by the Board of Legislators. A supporter of the bill says the order may not protect immigrants as intended.

Vermont officials are scheduling a tour of the state to conduct hearings on public safety and law enforcement.

A leading environmental advocacy organization has released a report outlining measures the country could take to increase renewable energy generation and cut greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050.

In May, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo requested a review of colleges’ compliance with the 2015 “Enough is Enough” sexual assault law. The results are in.

A sidewalk was being completed outside a Saratoga Springs elementary school this afternoon. WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports the project — part of a national program — will complement a planned bicycle path. 

Federal authorities in western New York say they've captured a man wanted for a fatal Father's Day shooting in Albany.

Meteorologist Garett Argianas delivers the evening weather forecast for Thursday, September 21, 2017.

Westfield State University has opened an investigation after a racial slur was written on student’s door on the Massachusetts college campus.

    A change in leadership is coming at a nonprofit economic development corporation in western Massachusetts.

(Airs 9/21/17 @ 3 p.m.) WAMC's Alan Chartock speaks with newly re-elected New York State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox.

The Westchester health department has issued a rabies alert after a rabid fox was captured recently in the northern part of the county.

Joining us today to answer your automotive questions is Gordon Fricke – owner and operator of Barber and Fricke Automotive Inc. – an independent repair, auto body, towing and used car facility in Hoosick Falls, New York. WAMC's Ray Graf hosts.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in Kingston Wednesday, announcing that the city is a winner of the second round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The award of $10 million in funding and investments will go toward invigorating the city’s Stockade District.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stopped by Catskill Wednesday afternoon to tour the Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts Center. Schumer predicts the Center will be a major hub for world-class theater.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is calling for additional removal of toxic chemicals from a contaminated landfill site in Rensselaer County.

The only Republican running in the special State Representative election in Berkshire County claims she was silenced at a Democratic candidate forum in Lanesborough Monday night. 

Newschannel 13 meteorologist Paul Caiano delivers the Midday Weather Summary for Thursday, September 21, 2017.

Saratoga Springs voters will decide this Election Day if they want to adopt a new city charter. The commission tasked with designing the new governing document has released a financial review of the plan.

A week after school came to an abrupt halt in Burlington, both sides ratified a tentative contract Wednesday formally ending a four-day teachers’ strike in Vermont’s largest city.

The story begins in 2007 when Deborah Campbell travels undercover to Damascus to report on the exodus of Iraqis into Syria following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. There she meets and hires Ahlam, a refugee working as a “fixer”—providing Western media with trustworthy information and contacts to help get the news out. Ahlam, who fled her home in Iraq after being kidnapped while running a humanitarian centre, not only supports her husband and two children through her work with foreign journalists but is setting up a makeshift school for displaced girls. She has become a charismatic, unofficial leader of the refugee community in Damascus, and Campbell is inspired by her determination to create something good amid so much suffering. Ahlam soon becomes her friend as well as her guide. But one morning Ahlam is seized from her home in front of Campbell’s eyes. Haunted by the prospect that their work together has led to her friend’s arrest, Campbell spends the months that follow desperately trying to find her—all the while fearing she could be next.

Deborah Campbell is an award-winning writer known for combining culturally immersive fieldwork with literary journalism in places such as Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Israel, Palestine, Cuba, Mexico and Russia. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, the Economist, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, New Scientist, Ms., and other publications.

Her new book is A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War.

Our tech guru Jesse Feiler joins us this morning to set us straight on the ins and outs of coding.

Jesse Feiler spends his time writing, consulting, and building apps — sometimes at the same time. With Gail Nayowith, he’s finishing The Nonprofit Risk Book due out in October from De|G Press (DeGruyter), and The Nonprofit Risk App currently in beta test.

Begun by Diane Reiner of Latham, Jajja’s Kids houses, feeds, schools, and nurtures nineteen former street children in Uganda and serves as a community center for children and families in the surrounding area. Its program director is Ronnie Sseruyange, also a former street child, who lives in Kampala, Uganda. 

Currently, Jajja’s Kids has outgrown the house they rent in Kampala. Their numbers have increased and as the children have gotten older, their needs have changed. Thus, the time has come to take a much needed leap toward establishing a permanent residence.

On Sunday, September 24th, Jajja’s Kids is hosting a Gala at Revolution Hall in Troy to launch a fundraising campaign to purchase land in or near Kampala. The funds will be used to begin the process of building a home and developing a small farm to provide food for the children and staff as well as being a source of income to support Jajja’s Kids operations. 

In this sweeping history of popular music in the United States, NPR’s acclaimed music critic examines how popular music shapes fundamental American ideas and beliefs, allowing us to communicate difficult emotions and truths about our most fraught social issues, most notably sex and race.

In Good Booty, Ann Powers explores how popular music became America’s primary erotic art form. Powers takes us from nineteenth-century New Orleans through dance-crazed Jazz Age New York to the teen scream years of mid-twentieth century rock-and-roll to the cutting-edge adventures of today’s web-based pop stars. Drawing on her deep knowledge and insights on gender and sexuality, Powers recounts stories of forbidden lovers, wild shimmy-shakers, orgasmic gospel singers, countercultural perverts, soft-rock sensitivos, punk Puritans, and the cyborg known as Britney Spears to illuminate how eroticism—not merely sex, but love, bodily freedom, and liberating joy—became entwined within the rhythms and melodies of American song. This cohesion, she reveals, touches the heart of America's anxieties and hopes about race, feminism, marriage, youth, and freedom.

Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.

Shawn Stone joins us to talk about what he's seen lately and what cultural events are coming up this week in our region.

Seen: California Typewriter

The High Kings
The Egg, Albany, Thursday 9/21, 7:30 PM

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Madison Theater, Albany, Thursday 9/21-Sunday 9/24, various times

Yarn/Wire perform The Music of Enno Poppe
EMPAC Concert Hall, Troy, Friday 9/22, 7:30 PM

Sex With Strangers
Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany, Friday 9/22 at 8 PM through October 15

Lark Fest featuring Cloud Nothings, Jackal Onasis, Jouska, more on 2 stages
Lark Street, Albany, Saturday 9/23, 10 AM-6 PM

Abstract Expressions: A Musical Exhibit in Four Parts featuring International Contemporary Ensemble, Conor Hanick, Abstract for Winds, Ensemble Connect
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., Saturday 9/23 beginning at 1 PM

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Mass., Saturday 9/23, 7 PM

Cheryl Wheeler
The 8th Step at Proctors, Schenectady, Saturday 9/23, 7:30 PM

The Young Dubliners
Palace Theatre, Albany, Saturday 9/23, 8 PM

Rodriguez
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, Monday 9/25, 7:30 PM

Upcoming movies: Brad’s Status, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rebel in the Rye, The LEGO Ninjago Movie

The Massachusetts Cultural Council is the latest group to urge the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield to halt its planned sale of art.