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Editorials

A perfect storm

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It’s easy for long-time Catskill residents to remember the old town motto that travelers enter and leave seeing junkyards. The Post Bros. junkyard appears on the southern side of the village and the old Ferro junkyard meets the eye on Route 23.

When does a Stewart’s not look like a Stewart’s

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In the 1980s and 1990s, the idea of the viewshed emerged as a governing principle for environmentally conscious construction. When buildings went up, the concept of aesthetics ran hand in hand with the notion of functionality.

An option for prison closings

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Most of the concern over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed plan to close of five prisons across the state, announced in address about the 2024 state budget, is the immediate lack of detailed information. The governor did not provide any methodolog…

Money alone can’t fix a broken system

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We’ve become fluent in immigration-speak. “Asylum seekers,” “migrants,” “undocumented” and “sanctuary” — are familiar terms that polarize the Republican and Democratic parties and the opinions of the public at large. Now, Gov. Kathy Hochul ho…

Reassessment of Shepherd’s Run will determine its fate

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For some, the Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm proposed for Copake is a symbol of a green energy future in Columbia County. But for others, Shepherd’s Run is synonymous with progress encroaching on the basics of a quality life.

The work of restoring the Furgary must go on

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In 2020, the Downtown Revitalization Initiative Committee discussed the future of the historic Furgary Fishing Village and a draft Request for Proposals. “As part of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the city will preserve and redesign the Furgary Fishing Village as a public park,” the…

Stopping animal abuse means tougher laws

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On Wednesday, a pair of horrific crimes of animal abuse was reported in these pages. From Catskill, a man is searching for answers after his dog was shot and nearly killed in a cowardly act on his property on New Year’s Day — cowardly because, police surmise, the dog was targeted as it ran a…

Democratizing green energy

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In April 2020, the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act was passed as part of the State’s 2020-21 budget. It created the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, ORES, or Siting Board and replaced the siting and certification procedures set forth for renewable energy projects.

Affordable housing is not a minor issue

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Housing progress is a key source of economic growth, but it is not the only one. Education, the environment and that old trope “quality of life” factor in, as well.

NYS should pay its share of community college support

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Dividing support for Columbia-Greene Community College in three ways — host county, state aid, tuition — should be so simple and foolproof a formula that even New York state lawmakers couldn’t foul it up. Apparently that is not the case as fu…

Finding common ground

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How do we learn something unfamiliar to us, something we know nothing about?

Supreme Court looks over its shoulder

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During the previous 12 months, a maelstrom of controversy engulfed the Supreme Court this year, prompting it to create of code of ethics for the first time. Scandals included Justice Clarence Thomas’ failure to disclose decades of gifts and t…

A matter of trust

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It’s infuriating when journalists hear newspapers are dying from the internet, scores of social media platforms and public mistrust of the press, and another presumed nail in the coffin is placing newspapers under siege.

Happy New Year to all

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Although Christmas is past, Thanksgiving feels like it was two months ago and Halloween is only a memory, we’re just two days away from ringing in the new year. New Year’s Eve parties are ahead. Families and friends will be getting together t…

The bakery connection

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In 2020, Breadfolks opened at 324 Warren St. In a short time, customers were lining up to buy the shop’s gourmet baked goods. A little more than two years later, in September 2022, Breadfolks closed, sending a seismic wave through Hudson’s downtown.

Give attention to unasked questions

If you ever followed the history of referendums on capital projects in local school districts, you know how successful they have been. More often than not, they are approved by wide margins.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become…

C-A voters tread carefully

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As just about anyone who lives in Athens or Coxsackie will illustrate, taxpayers living in the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District have a near-perfect, or outright flawless, record of supporting their schools. The civic pride in the C-A …

The new McCarthyism

The new McCarthyism

Are you now, or have you even been, an antisemite? Give me a moment to remember what decade I’m living in because what’s going on now is reminiscent of the 1950s, when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was hellbent on rooting communism from our shores.