Midday Magazine on WAMC

Newschannel 13 meteorologist Paul Caiano checks in with the Midday Weather Summary for Wednesday, June 12, 2013.

Gasland, an Oscar nominated documentary, has become an often quoted and viewed source for those opposed to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New York and elsewhere, and has been soundly criticized by those who support the drilling.

The first arts awards for Ulster County are being handed out Tuesday in Kingston. And the organization behind the awards is about to change its name to reflect its reach.

The Dutchess County Arts Council has been working with Ulster County for years, and will soon change its name to better reflect that work. Linda Marston-Reid is president of the Dutchess County Arts Council. She says the name has been a barrier to having communities understand who the council serves.

Women’s groups are putting pressure on the State Senate’s ruling coalition to take up Governor Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act, which includes  an abortion rights provision.

Senator DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican and Chair of the Finance Committee, said in an interview with public radio and television that most New York women aren’t that interested in the proposal, “and would not even lose a night’s sleep about expanding abortion rights”.

As a rising tide of irritation roiled what should have been an energetic second-wind, for gaining new fruit to enrich the electoral edge that OBamians have been thirsting for, this aging veteran was stunned to hear but a single voice raised to protest the temerity of military mischief-in-the-making… and that voice of a Republican rebel, at that.  To this ‘pro forma’ civil libertarian, we seem to be on the razor’s edge of a power move, by certain commanders of our various armed forces, toward an American ‘military monopoly.’

Newschannel 13 meteorologist Paul Caiano joins us for the Midday Weather Summary for Tuesday, June 11, 2013.

The minimum wage in Massachusetts is currently $8 per hour, the rate was set in 2008 and does not adjust for inflation.

The federal rate is currently $7.75, but President Obama has requested that Congress raise the rate to $9 per hour and index the rate to inflation.

A U.S. senator and two congress people from New York say they are working to protect the Hudson Valley as well as promote tourism and recreation. And they’re hoping to garner support to study the area for the potential to be designated as a national park.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and congressional representatives Nita Lowey and Sean Patrick Maloney, all Democrats, are behind three pieces of legislation they say would continue to shine a national spotlight on the Hudson River Valley region, from Saratoga to Westchester Counties.

As another school year comes to a close, education and education funding remain among the top concerns for parents, teachers and public officials.

President Barack Obama's “Early Learning Days of Action” initiative was highlighted in New York last week as Congressman Paul Tonko read to 16 children enrolled in what's called "The Butterfly Class" at Albany Head Start. The pre-K students were delighted with Tonko's chosen work: "Welcome To Kindergarten" by Anne Rockwell.