Lucas Willard

As the midterm elections approach, President Donald Trump has made speeches and issued executive orders about the security of U.S. elections.

Governor Kathy Hochul is opting New York into a federal school choice tax credit. It's a program favored by private and religious schools. But teachers unions aren't fans of the program created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Northeast Notebook features in-depth regional reporting, bringing you the context behind what everybody’s talking about. Ten minutes a day, every weekday, ready by 5 p.m., just in time for your commute. You can subscribe to Northeast Notebook on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Some local school districts barely have enough football players to make an 11-man team. And schools are working hard to ensure student athletes have the ability to play football, even if it means changing the size of the team and finding new teams to compete against. While some parents and students may have concerns over injuries and concussions, those aren't the only reasons why interest is waning. Northeast Notebook features in-depth regional reporting, bringing you the context behind what everybody’s talking about. Ten minutes a day, every weekday, ready by 5 p.m., just in time for your commute. You can subscribe to Northeast Notebook on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

It was the first arrest under a 2023 New York law that bans the transport of horses for slaughter. But an investigative report by the Times Union finds there are some hurdles for attorneys prosecuting the case.

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York led a new series of studies that examine how ecological inequalities are influenced by historic — and ongoing — racial and class-based segregation.

Mitch Smith, owner and designer at Albany-based Hemstitch Mill, has produced the unofficial, quintessential catalog of … Stewart's Shops ice cream flavors — all 480 of them, past and present. It's called the "Stewart's Frozen Dessert Flavor Index."

Earlier this year, as the spring semester at Bard was winding down, a petition circulated among the members of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra. The petition was ultimately presented to the administration of the College.

Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday lives. We ask it for advice, use it to plan our days, and use it to craft our emails. But when we talk about education, there’s worry about students using it to cheat on assignments or avoid doing meaningful work. So, some educators are actually turning away from AI and requiring students to show their understanding of subject material in other ways. On today’s show, we’ll learn how teachers and students are using – or not using – artificial intelligence. You can subscribe to Northeast Notebook on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

In June, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced opioid overdose-related deaths in the Commonwealth had fallen below 1,000 for the first time since 2013. Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an annual death toll that had risen to almost 2,400 in 2022 was tallied at 978 in 2025. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes visited a Pittsfield support center recently and found a more complicated picture of how addiction is impacting Massachusetts.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed eliminating the so-called "pay to play" rule. The anti-corruption rule prevents private equity firms from buying access to multi-billion-dollar public pension funds. The rule, which has been in place since 2010, was created after a series of political scandals — including in New York.To explain the proposed change and how corruption in the Empire State led to the creation of the rule in the first place, Lucas Willard spoke with Hannah Levintova, a reporter for Mother Jones.