The “Blue Wave” hit the 19th District in the 2018 midterms — hard. Antonio Delgado’s victory in the midterms was helped by a surge of voter participation, with the number of voters turning out in some parts of the 19th District looking more like a presidential election. This increase in voting numbers went to the…
It has been a particularly intense midterm season. I should know, because I’ve been covering it since September 2017, before (self-props) anyone else was. Now, 13 months later, it is election day. I just left my local polling place after voting (no, I’m not going to tell you who for), and there was a 15-person…
About 150 activists braved the drizzle Friday to rage against the policies of Republicans John Faso and Donald Trump mere feet from Faso’s office. Protestors have been gathering at Rep. Faso’s offices in Kingston, Kinderhook and Delhi since Faso and Trump were elected two years ago, hoisting signs, playing music and leading chants about what…
Congressman John Faso and Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado traded barbs and attempted to call each other out for lying during NY-19’s final debate before the midterm elections next week. The debate, hosted by The Times-Herald Record and held on the SUNY Sullivan campus, was pierced by cheers, hisses, boos, clapping, derisive laughter and occasional yelling,…
Former Vice-President Joe Biden spoke about the importance of next month’s midterm elections in operatic terms and touched on the pipe bomb discovered addressed to him just the day before while endorsing Democratic congressional nominee Antonio Delgado in Kingston Friday. Delgado, running to unseat Republican John Faso, talked of hoping to bring the augustness and…
One of the “Crosswalk Four” arrested last week for allegedly spray-painting their own unsanctioned crosswalks in Hudson said the city’s system was “busted” for not addressing residents’ and politicians’ concerns about the intersection. Peter Spear, Hudson Fourth Ward Supervisor Linda Mussmann, Claudia Bruce, and Rev. Ed Cross, a former Hudson Ward Supervisor, were arrested Oct.…
Smoking isn’t really ‘in’ these days, for the same reasons that slathering one’s body with tanning oil at the beach isn’t ‘in’ — it’s smelly, it’s bad for your skin, it gives you cancer, and doctors have been making condescending remarks to us about it for decades. So less and less people are smoking, which…
A group of Hudson River enthusiasts claims Amtrak’s plan to limit access to the river through a series of fences and gates is built on false pretenses. Amtrak’s proposal is meant “to keep pedestrians and vehicles out of harm’s way,” according to the plan, but the committee said government documents reveal there have been no…
Selha “Cece” Graham turns her head to the next person strolling up Warren Street as she stands in front of the Rolling Grocer 19 trailer near the now-vacant Hudson Police Station. “Mr. Hernandez!” she calls ebulliently to the elderly man with a boom box. “How are you doin today?” Graham seems to know every single…
The trailhead to Poet’s Ledge is easier to find than you might think — just follow the highest concentration of barriers unfriendly residents have erected to make it hard to find. My friend Megan (of Nerding Out at the New York Ren Faire fame) and I drove up Route 23A in Greene County to Palenville…
Prescott Haymes pours the hemp cocktail into my waiting glass while proudly elucidating about the drink’s origins in the way only a devoted farmer can. “For this infusion, we used pineapple, cucumber, mint — all fresh — and then, obviously, cannabis,” he said. The opaque green concoction goes down smooth and balanced, the farm-fresh taste…
The four candidates battling to see who will represent the northern Hudson Valley and Catskills in Congress faced off over the economy Sept. 20 during the 19th District’s first debate at an Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Kingston. The candidates are sitting Republican Congressman John Faso; Democrat Antonio Delgado, a lawyer and former…
Audrey Brand delicately curves her paintbrush along the looping grain of the wood as a trio of European women pause on their way through Gardiner Liquid Mercantile in Ulster County. Brand greets them, stepping back from her easel as they apologize for interrupting her work. “No, you’re supposed to watch,” she says. “You can have…
“I won’t be driving to Wappingers Falls later — I’m gonna be schwasted.” The 20-something white dude wearing a baseball cap toed forward in the line entering the Hudson River Craft Beer Fest while pontificating about the various brews he would drink and how each brew would get him further schwasted. Although it was ten…
“Is that a balloon?” Lizzie Carr cranes her neck to stare at the buoyant plastic orb as it bumps the underside of the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie. “Are you serious?” She says with a touch of incredulous wonder. “That’s so apt, isn’t it?” “Maybe a happy child will find it,” I respond. “Re-purpose it.” But…
Antonio Delgado repeatedly attacked Congressman John Faso’s record to thunderous applause at a town hall event held in Cairo, Greene County Friday night. The democratic nominee flayed Faso, the Republican he is trying to unseat, for his vote to overturn Obamacare, and said Faso was not fulfilling his responsibilities as a congressman, calling him “dishonest”…
There are few things I hate in this world, but one of them is lawns. Not necessarily YOUR lawn. I respect the American ideal of property rights, and therefore believe you have the legal precedent to do whatever goddamn stupid thing you want to do with your lawn. You all seem to have the same…
Rep. John Faso has twice declined to debate democratic candidate Antonio Delgado because Green Party candidate Steve Greenfield would not be included in the debates. Faso, a first-term Republican congressman, is defending his seat from Delgado in a tight race to see who will represent the northern Hudson Valley and Catskills. Steve Greenfield has not…
I was desperately trying to snap photos from the sidelines of the Columbia County Fair Demolition Derby when a giant “OOoohh!” rippled across the crowd, a contradictory noise of concern and excitement delivered en masse by thousands of rapt spectators. “What happened?” My girlfriend pointed to the other side of the rectangular track. One of…
The comment period for a set of proposals seeking to erect storm surge defenses in New York City Harbor that environmental groups have warned could have catastrophic effects on the Hudson River has been extended by 30 days. The extension comes after a slew of Hudson Valley politicians submitted letters requesting the period be extended…
