Midday Magazine on WAMC

The National Alliance on Mental Illness-Columbia County is sponsoring a symposium called Navigating/Advocating Within the Local Criminal Justice System at Columbia Greene Community College on September 13. The event features representatives of law enforcement, the justice system, and mental health officials.

Sheri Bolevice is spokesperson for the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Columbia County, which works to support the mentally ill through education, advocacy and support. She spoke with WAMC's Alan Chartock.

We hear what you had to say this week on the WAMC Listener Comment Line. 

The cost of running nursing homes, combined with the expensive capital costs needed to keep the facilities up to date, and cuts in Medicaid made in Washington, has prompted numerous counties across New York State to ponder closing - or selling - their facilities. Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports


Mark Levine, Deputy Director of the New York State Association of Counties, says County Leaders do not WANT to sell their Nursing Homes.
 

The Progressive Party is a major party in Vermont, and the recent gubernatorial primary has resulted in a recount request from a write-in candidate and criticism from Republicans over how the state is handling the vote count.

A Federal judge has ordered the Massachusetts Department of Correction to provide a sex change operation for a convicted murderer suffering from gender identity disorder. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Vermont officials this week announced a new round of grants that will move the state closer to a universal broadband network across the state.

Over the past two weeks, the attention of the American public has been held captive by the political circuses known as the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.  They couldn’t have been more different.

New research has found that a missing gene could be responsible for almost 28% of human breast cancer cases, that’s more than 60,000 cases a year in the U.S. and more than 383,000. The study on the NF1 gene, and its role in breast cancer, is from Cornell University. For more on the findings, WAMC’s Brian Shields spoke with the research paper’s senior author, John Schimenti, a professor of genetics at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Three Hudson Valley hospital groups are forming an alliance they say will enhance services, save money, and benefit the public... Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.

Bon Secours Charity Health System, St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital and St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers are joining forces under the moniker Hudson Health Partners LLC. The alliance entails bringing six facilities in three Hudson Valley counties together to pursue collaborations.  Larry Hughes is spokesman for Poughkeepsie-based St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers.

The debate over hydraulic fracturing in New York will take on a religious and spiritual flavor tomorrow. An event called the Blessing of the Waters will take place at noon tomorrow at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown at the shores of Otsego Lake. The organizer of the event is Reverend Craig Schwalenberg, the Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta.