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:

    Health care reform hits home

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    Area navigators describe progress, pitfalls in covering the uninsured By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer The rollout of new state-run health insurance exchanges in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts hasn’t been free of problems, but in the past few months thousands of people in the region have been able to use the new system to shop read more

    Health care reform hits home
  • Issue:

    Hawthorne Valley aims for sister store in Hudson

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    By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer HUDSON, N.Y. Nearly a decade of calls for re-establishing a downtown supermarket in Hudson could soon be answered, as the nonprofi t group that runs the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store considers setting up a sister store in the city.   The Hawthorne Valley Association, which operates the popular farm store read more

    Hawthorne Valley aims for sister store in Hudson
  • Issue:

    Farm to office — new destination for agricultural deliveries

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer As a teenager in the Champlain Valley of New York, Adam Hainer sold vegetables from his home garden at a farmers market.   But he didn’t imagine farming could ever provide his livelihood until he met Melody Horn, his future partner, at a now-defunct microgreens farm. They wound up starting read more

    Farm to office — new destination for agricultural deliveries
  • Issue:

    Small theaters struggle to convert before film reels disappear

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    By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer   “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” The movie industry is arguably experiencing its biggest technological revolution since Al Jolson spoke those first words, in “The Jazz Singer,” to usher in the era of the talkies in 1927. By the end this year, the major read more

    Small theaters struggle to convert before film reels disappear
  • Issue:

    Mercury threat persists, studies show

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    Health risks linger in region despite cuts in emissions By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   Despite tougher pollution standards that have led to a sharp reduction nationally in emissions of airborne mercury, several new studies suggest that high concentrations of the toxic heavy metal are persisting in the environment and continuing to pose a health read more

    Mercury threat persists, studies show
  • Issue:

    Group aims to preserve grasslands for bird habitat

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    By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer   FORT EDWARD, N.Y.After several years of raising public awareness about the birds and landscapes of the Washington County grasslands, a local conservation group says it wants to move beyond education to actually buying and preserving some of the open land. “We’re planning a fund-raising campaign to purchase land from read more

    Group aims to preserve grasslands for bird habitat
  • Issue:

    Local airwaves, local voices

    By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer   HUDSON, N.Y.The motto for WGXC-90.7 FM, the local radio station that started broadcasting to Columbia and Greene counties just over two years ago, is “hands-on radio.” The phrase sums up why WGXC stands out in the era of chain-owned commercial radio stations whose homogeneous programming typically is produced in read more

    Local airwaves, local voices
  • Issue:

    Inside tales from New York’s troubled child welfare system

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer     GLENS FALLS, N.Y.Sid, a delicate-boned young woman with a tough veneer and numerous piercings, spent most of her high school years in detention. By her own account, her trip through the nether world of New York’s child welfare system began when she was 14, after she took the read more

    Inside tales from New York’s troubled child welfare system
  • Issue:

    Right-to-die debate takes new turns in Vermont

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    By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer   The emotional questions raised by Vermont’s proposed death-with-dignity law have become somewhat familiar after a series of legislative debates over the past decade. Should the terminally ill be able to choose the time and manner of their deaths? Should they be able to request assistance from a doctor? Would read more

    Right-to-die debate takes new turns in Vermont
  • Issue:

    A schoolhouse for the creative

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    Plans advance for a visual arts school in Columbia County By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer   HARLEMVILLE, N.Y. A historic former schoolhouse in the rural hamlet of Harlemville may soon return to its roots by serving as the home of a proposed Art School of Columbia County. Planning for the new art school has been read more

    A schoolhouse for the creative