Midday Magazine on WAMC

Several environmental nonprofits in the Berkshires have been awarded funds to encourage outdoor and environmental education. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports….

The Berkshire Environmental Endowment Fund recently announced over fifteen thousand dollars in grants that will benefit seven nonprofit organizations in the Berkshires. The fund, managed by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, is focusing on expanding youth environmental education on land and water conservation.

The mayor of  Holyoke Massachusetts earlier this week, shockingly, opened the door to a casino development in his city.  Now a plan to build a resort casino on a golf course is being revived.  But is Holyoke too late in the casino game in western Massachusetts?     WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

It is astonishing to see Ban-ki-Moon and Hillary Clinton, among others clamoring for a truce between Israel and Hams-led terrorists.  One wonders where these diplomats were when more than a thousand missiles rained over Israel without retaliation.

The great Ancient Greek philosopher/poet Dionysius has written:  “Let they speech be better than silence, or be silent.”  There is a new sort of silence now being ordained in this land, where speaking truth to power was once finally given voice --- it was thought, forever.  But those ordaining this silence believe theirs is a much more effective gag; tied more tightly and held in place by fear.  All the more compelling reason, to speak out against it.

The Mid-Hudson Regional Sustainability Plan's second round of public meetings kick-off this evening in Orange County - Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.

The interactive forums will take place tonight at SUNY Orange in Newburgh; and Thursday at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.  In both sessions, a presentation of the draft plan will be followed by a question/ answer session and open discussion. Organizers would like to see more local residents at the gatherings.

An invasive forest pest commonly found in New York and Southern New England was recently discovered in New Hampshire, and now it’s prompting state officials there to clear hundreds of acres of forest land to prevent the spread of the insect. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Sometimes "who says it" is just as important as "what they say." So it is with Warren Buffett's op-ed in today's New York Times about taxes and the fiscal realities of our budget. 

At this moment in time, so many Americans seem to have overdosed on presidential politics and, in particular, the wave of negative advertising that dominated the recently concluded election. Nevertheless, as the year nears its close, two new films spotlight certain aspects of the lives and personalities of revered American presidents. They are Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, and Roger Michell’s HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, which features Bill Murray as Franklin Roosevelt. 

A Pennsylvania-based energy firm has unveiled plans to add yet another gas pipeline in Broome County. As Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas explains, the news comes as energy companies and anti-fracking activists continue their vigil to see if hydraulic fracturing will be allowed in New York State.


Erie, Pennsylvania's EmKey Gathering LLC  this month gained the rights to a 75-mile right-of-way through three New York counties - and revealed plans to transport natural gas from locally-drilled wells to major energy markets, by connecting with the Millenium Pipeline.

We are now almost three weeks past the November 6th elections, and there's still no resolution in sight to the leadership crisis in the state Senate.

All eyes today are on Ulster County - the fifth and final county in the new 46th Senatorial District to count its paper ballots. After Montgomery County completed its count this weekend, Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk trailed Republican Assemblyman George Amedore by 920 votes. The outcome of this race could very well decide who controls the upper chamber.