Midday Magazine on WAMC

The international organization that deals with shared waterways between the U.S. and Canada is seeking public input on designing a study to mitigate future flooding on Lake Champlain and the Canadian river it flows into.

The International Joint Commission formed the International Lake Champlain - Richelieu River Plan of Study Workgroup after record spring floods in 2011 did tens of millions of dollars in damage.

The New York League of Conservation Voters has released a report card on how Congress Members representing the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley are doing when it comes to environmental, public health and energy issues.

The New York Archdiocese last month announced it would close 24 Catholic schools in a cost-saving move. Ten of these schools are in the Hudson Valley, and now, the Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese says one of the schools on the final closure list will not close.

A group opposed to Vermont’s transition to a single payer health care system released an analysis of documents that they claim prove the Shumlin administration is hiding information from the public about the cost of the plan.

The opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York SAFE Act continues to ramp up this week. One Central New York Assemblyman has proposed new legislation amending the law to change how ‘assault weapons’ banned by it are defined. WAMC’s Patrick Donges spoke recently with 118th District Assemblyman Marc Butler about his proposal.

The Masscahusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation announced today a bold step in preventing the spread of an invasive insect.  Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard has more…

At the DCR’s headquarters in Pittsfield Thursday morning, Commissioner Ed Lambert made an announcement on action that will be taken to control the serious threat of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer….

A grassroots group in the Hudson Valley organized a Town Hall Meeting in Poughkeepsie Tuesday evening, to give low-income residents the chance to hear from three elected officials who represent them. The elected officials vowed a lot of support and help, and many in attendance say they are hopeful.

The New York State United Teachers Union today filed suit in New York State Supreme Court in Albany to challenge the state's the 2% property tax cap enacted in June 2011.

WAMC's Brian Shields was joined by NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi to talk about the lawsuit.  

For most of Barack Obama’s first term as president he talked passionately, if not persuasively, about the need for national unity. Even the Stimulus Bill – largely a laundry list of pent up Congressional desires – was described as a national effort to get the economy moving. His prime legislative initiative, Obamacare, was advertised as a way to extend medical coverage for those without insurance. Of course, it nationalized one-seventh of the American economy and set the stage for unprecedented government expansion. Although it may be premature to attach historical labels to the president’s first term, I think his record displays what might be called “soft authoritarianism.”

Some residents in a western Orange County town gathered over the weekend for a rally, in protest of the ongoing construction of a natural-gas compressor station. The station is being built to increase the capacity of a natural gas pipeline heading towards New York City.