Molinaro to visit Kingston
Dutchess County executive and Republican candidate for governor Marcus Molinaro will be holding a town-hall meeting Wednesday, Aug. 22.
Politics & Government
Plastic bag ban bill pulled from Ulster County Legislature’s agenda
The County Legislature on Tuesday delayed its vote on the proposed “Bring Your Own Bag Act,” which would ban plastic shopping bags for most applications in the county.
Fresh faces give Kingston an opportunity to rethink how it does infrastructure
Mayor Steve Noble said this week that he hopes the city’s new engineer and public works superintendent will forge a close working relationship as they tackle a series of looming infrastructure projects.
New Paltz takes another look at building joint town/village hall
The long-discussed goal of creating a joint home for New Paltz’s town and village governmental agencies is back on the drawing board, literally as well as figuratively.
Auerbach wants Hein probed; Hein says it’s dirty politics
The war of words between County Executive Mike Hein and County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach escalated this week after Auerbach called on the state attorney general and the Ulster County district attorney to launch a “full-scale investigation” into the Hein administration’s handling of information stored on a county computer system.
‘Hivemind’ budgeting comes to Kingston
The city will ask residents to decide how to spend $45K in parking revenue.
Ulster County bans gay conversion ‘therapy’
Ulster County became the fourth community in New York to ban a long-discredited form of treatment that seeks to alter a youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Officials trade accusations in county government cyber-mystery
The ongoing tug-of-war between County Executive Mike Hein and County Comptroller Elliot Auerbach has taken a bizarre turn of late, with dueling allegations of surreptitious recording, secret computer servers and unauthorized hacking of sensitive files.
Veteran SUNY New Paltz administrator rapped for raising “specter of racism”
Gerald Benjamin is a long-serving assistant vice president and former dean at the university and head of his eponymous regional public policy research center at the campus. He is quoted in The New York Times saying that he did not believe rap was “real music.” He said his comments were off the mark in part because of his self-professed ignorance of the genre.
Hudson Valley cities moving toward municipal ID program
A coalition of immigration advocacy groups is spearheading a campaign to create a “municipal identification” program in Mid-Hudson cities, including Kingston.
