WAMC Northeast Report on WAMC

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced a new grant program designed to mitigate the effects of acid rain in Adirondack water bodies.

The 400-thousand dollar Adirondack Acid Rain Recovery grant program has been created as part of a multi-state legal settlement with Cinergy, formerly Duke Energy, over Clean Air Act violations.  Jeremy Magliaro,  an environmental policy analyst with the New York Attorney General’s office, says the funds are intended to hasten lake and stream recovery from acid rain deposition.

State Senator Tony Avella of Queens and two newly-elected colleagues joined New Yorkers Against Fracking at a press conference in Albany re-affirming their commitment to banning the practice in New York State.

Your afternoon regional weather summary with meteorologist Garett Argianas.

Education and Medicaid comprise 50-percent of the state budget.  Governor Cuomo’s proposed education budget will continue several of the funding programs that were enacted in the last budget appropriation.

NYS School Boards Association Executive Director Timothy Kremer says he is favorably impressed with the Governor’s plan.

 The suicide of Aaron Swartz made me focus on what he’d been fighting for – free access to knowledge on the internet. Swartz’s methods were misguided and illegal but his purposes are nevertheless worth thinking about. He was part of a movement devoted to giving us all free access to government documents, research papers and much else, believing that it should all be available on the internet at no charge.

As President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term today, the nation celebrated the life of civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  And January First marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing hundreds of thousands of slaves.  

An annual day of service was held in the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in North Adams. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard spent time with volunteers in the community and filed a report…

The 20th Annual Martin Luther King Day of Service was celebrated by a small army of volunteers and community organizations that came together in North Adams. Alex Daugherty, chair of the Northern Berkshire’s Martin Luther King Day Committee, said that volunteers came from all corners of the community to celebrate “a day on, not a day off"

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A touring exhibition celebrating the world’s most recognizable and influential musical instrument, the guitar, opened today in Springfield Massachusetts.

The exhibit at the Springfield Museums is a mix of art, history, science and pop culture. It shows the evolution of  string instruments from the guitar’s early ancestors,  the first appearance of  the now familiar guitar curve shape in the 1400s ,and the best selling modern designs by American  guitar makers, Martin, Fender and Gibson. 

Two organizations in Western Massachusetts have joined to create a support group for those suffering from brain injury, hoping to provide a needed service in Northern Berkshire County.

Scott Doane, a case manager with Berkshire Family and Individual Resources, or BFAIR, said that he didn’t see his own need for a support group for those living with acquired or traumatic brain injury, until long after he realized he was affected himself.

A national watchdog group that espouses the importance of the separation of church and state is calling upon the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to stop including prayers during official events. In response, a Chaplain Alliance is asking West Point officials to allow such prayers to continue.