New York’s Constitutional Convention offers chance for sweeping reform
If the risks of a constitutional convention are high, so is the prize: real reform of Albany’s notoriously corrupt system.
Columns
The Eagle’s View: Saugerties county legislature candidates
Saugerties’ political columnist weighs in an uncontested race, knowing where your district is, odd ballot positions and an electric car charging station.
Perils of the Pleiades
Seven+ sinister sisters watch over our Halloween rituals. Halloween’s date actually revolved around the Pleiades.
On monsters
They’ll have a costume parade through town. Hundreds of kids, all brave and silly and hepped up on Twizzlers, with fangs and wings and claws. I wonder, I always wonder, how many of them have already had to contend with real monsters.
A better way to tax carbon
If a carbon tax of $40 a ton were levied, and every red cent of it turned over directly to every American with a valid Social Security number, the resulting incentive to lower carbon emissions would probably spur more clever efforts by power companies to green the grid than even the most stringent EPA regulations.
Tacky alt-right intrusion
A couple of weeks ago, somebody started duct-taping creepy white supremacist flyers over my wife’s campaign signs. “You will not replace us,” the flyers blared, over a photo of a white couple with a baby.
Methane: Blue flames and the green planet
When the universe’s first- and fourth-most-abundant elements combine, the result is often a gas that, surprisingly, has recently cleaned up our air. It’s methane. Most folks call it natural gas. It’s also known as marsh gas and swamp gas, since it’s released by decomposing plants.
The Eagle’s View: Saugerties election rundown
A spurned candidate, cross-endorsements, appointment speculation… We’re five weeks away from the election and things are finally coming into focus in the races for town supervisor and town board.
Art in Action in Saugerties
Political anxiety in the large and lively arts community in Saugerties gave rise to the wonderful idea of an October festival to celebrate the importance of the arts in our everyday lives.
The late, great Catskills cauliflower
Just about everything you can buy at the annual Cauliflower Festival in Margaretville is local, except the cauliflower.