WAMC Northeast Report on WAMC

Educators, business leaders, and philanthropists are backing an initiative in Springfield Massachusetts to combat a problem that confounds many urban schools: a  low high school graduation rate.

Newschannel 13's Meteorologist Paul Caiano gives the WAMC evening forecast.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in to cases involving gay marriage. The nation’s highest court will hear the cases tomorrow and Wednesday. Mary Bonauto is the civil right project director at the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. She tells WAMC’S Brian Shields that the cases are monumental.
 

This past weekend marked the third anniversary of passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.”  This is the ACA’s big year; this Fall Americans will be allowed to start enrolling in health insurance plans.  Starting on January 1, 2014, virtually all Americans will be required to have health insurance – either from the government, their employer, or through a health exchange.  Yet, even at this late date, many Americans are still unsure of its impact.

The 2013-14 budget agreement between Governor Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders includes increased funding for the Environmental Protection Fund.  The move is being praised by a coalition of environmental, public health and other stakeholder groups.

An anti-crime task force was  launched on Friday to help almost 50 mostly small towns in western Massachusetts combat drugs, guns and gangs. 

   The members of the task force, most of whom will be working undercover, were sworn in Friday at the Northampton office of the Northwestern District Attorney.  The top priority is to disrupt the distribution of drugs, which District Attorney David Sullivan said is at the root of most crime in Hampshire and Franklin Counties.

"Kicking the can down the road" is an idiom that means to defer something crucial in hopes that the problem will become someone else's responsibility. The other day it occurred to me that "kicking the can down the road" has become a trademark of contemporary governments worldwide -- from the European debt crisis, to the so-called sequester, to the decision to defer changing the tax on New York's wealthy until a non-election year.

Your afternoon regional weather summary with meteorologist Garett Argianas.

A Congressman from the Hudson Valley streamed a town-hall forum Wednesday evening, on Facebook. It was his first town hall via social media, and it’s a trend that one political onlooker says is on the rise.