Local banking leaders
In the competition for local deposits this year, four very different Ulster County banks stood out for their success: Ulster Savings Bank, Key Bank, Bank of Greene County and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Voices
Is the universe conscious?
How can such an intangible thing as the fact of awareness, such as experiencing the smell of buttered corn, arise from the insentient atoms and molecules that fashion our bodies?
Brett Kavanaugh shouldn’t be a Supreme Court justice
It comes down to empathy. To grope, try to undress and then cover the mouth of someone else to prevent that person from screaming for help indicates to me a dramatic lack of perception of the fear that person is feeling in that moment. That’s an empathy deficit of profound depth. While we all can grow out of many things, I don’t know if anyone can go from being like that to being able to get over the extraordinarily high bar to be on the Supreme Court.
Kids’ Almanac (9/27-10/4)
A family paradise: Do you avoid public spaces because you have active (read: loud) little ones? Curious where the heck the hamlet of Milton is? Then go to Frida’s Bakery & Cafe.
The law is a blunt instrument
For those who believe in the noble ideals underlying the brand called America, it’s tempting to think of Kavanaugh’s probable confirmation to the highest court in the land as a tumble from grace. But let’s be real: The courts have never done their job on rape. Right now, all over this country, children — boys as well as girls — are confronting their own mortality in bedrooms and back alleys, at the hands of people they can’t physically or socially escape. And SCOTUS will never hear them.
New York sinking
The news coming out of Florence country right now, especially the little neglected rural towns, is heartbreaking. It’s a wonder that people choose to live in some of these places at all. But even with climate change and communal fragility eroding the very ground out from under our feet, most of us are stubborn. We’re going to rebuild. I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of, but it’s what we’ve got.
Letter: Can John Faso count on racism?
John Faso is making his congressional race about skin color rather than issues that affect our lives, like education, and health care, and the environment, writes a reader from Ulster Park.
Talking about MeToo in Kingston
This year, the MeToo movement has liberated Hudson Valley women from feeling alone.
Freshening up the census
Federal census data for small cities and villages is both out-of-date and woefully unreliable.
Kids’ Almanac (9/20-9/27)
Sail to the Rondout Lighthouse, visit the Trevor Zoo and catch a film at the Four Brothers Drive-In