Students on the Simon's Rock campus gather at the library in preparation for the Bard Queer Leadership Project. Press photo courtesy of Bard College at Simon's Rock

News

Here are the Hill Country Observer’s news articles, listed from newest to oldest. The Hill Country Observer covers town events, local government, community stories and more — from public health to housing to education and freedom of mind in New York, Vermont and Western Massachusetts.

  • Issue:

    Saving a planet, one step at a time

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    Pair from Berkshires join cross-country trek for climate-change action By ALEX ELVINContributing writer WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.   Shira Wohlberg has walked more than 1,000 miles since March, when she set out from Los Angeles as part of a coast-to-coast march aimed at spurring action to combat climate change.By late May, the group had made its way read more

    Saving a planet, one step at a time
  • Issue:

    County shifts course on nursing home

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    Supervisors explore privatization rather than new facility By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer PHILMONT, N.Y. After several years of pursuing plans to build a new $32 million replacement for the county-owned Pine Haven nursing home, Columbia County supervisors began moving instead in late May to solicit bids from private companies interested in buying the current home. The read more

    County shifts course on nursing home
  • Issue:

    In defense of love

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    By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer SALEM, N.Y.   The black-and-white photographs could be of almost any happy, affectionate family from the mid-1960s. They show a husband and wife sharing a conversation or tender moment, playing with their three children on the living room couch, working with a friend on a car in the back yard, the read more

    In defense of love
  • Issue:

    Study backs passenger rail for southwestern Vermont

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    By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   Carrie Snyder photo   NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt.A study released earlier this year by the Vermont and New York transportation departments concludes that passenger train service should be restored to southwestern Vermont after an absence of more than 60 years. Consultant Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., in a study paid for by read more

    Study backs passenger rail for southwestern Vermont
  • Issue:

    Taking a stand for unadulterated food

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    May 24 festival is local observance of global anti-GMO event By STACEY MORRISContributing writer   Joan K. Lentini photo   GLENS FALLS, N.Y. When Sue Duncan decided to spearhead this year’s March Against Monsanto in Glens Falls, she decided to fight the infamous corporate agribusiness giant not with a line of protesters, but with good read more

    Taking a stand for unadulterated food
  • Issue:

    Oil pipelines on wheels — Risks increase on region’s rail lines

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    Risks increase on region’s rail lines as traffic through Albany port grows By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer   While environmental groups have made opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline in the Midwest a cause célèbre over the past five years, rolling pipelines of oil have quietly been established in a lot of communities closer to home. read more

    Oil pipelines on wheels — Risks increase on region’s rail lines
  • Issue:

    Mass. weighs immigrant driver’s licenses

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    Backers say change would boost safety, help foreign workers By DAVID SCRIBNERContributing writer   Nestor Vazquez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived in the United States for seven years, would love to have a Massachusetts driver’s license. But Vazquez, who lives in Springfield and works for a company in Connecticut, can’t get a read more

    Mass. weighs immigrant driver’s licenses
  • Issue:

    A new model for saving farmland

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    Investor group plans agricultural center in Columbia County By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer   COPAKE, N.Y.A large tract of open land in the central hamlet of Copake, once the proposed site of a controversial affordable-housing development, has now been earmarked for preservation as working farmland. The 122-acre property, a short distance off Route 22 and just read more

    A new model for saving farmland
  • Issue:

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms

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    Cambridge mycologist helps company develop fungi-based products By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.Sue Van Hook is convinced that fungi hold one of the keys to saving the planet from choking on plastic. A professional mycologist and a retired Skidmore College senior teaching associate, Van Hook has embarked on a new career as chief mycologist read more

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms
  • Issue:

    Planning for our car-free youth

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    As a generation shuns driving, towns push for better transit options By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer When Massachusetts legislators were debating an ambitious multi-year transportation funding bill last year, longtime state Rep. William F. “Smitty” Pignatelli was asked whether he supported a push by Gov. Deval Patrick and others to restore passenger rail service between read more

    Planning for our car-free youth