This Month’s Featured Articles…

After almost a decade in New York State’s Assembly representing District 106, which includes parts of Dutchess and Columbia Counties, it’s easy for residents to feel as though Didi Barrett has been present for most of their lives – and in a way she has. Barrett was elected to the State Assembly after a special election in March 2012 and her following four terms, has become one of the most recognizable names in local government. Despite a recent penchant for many a lawn sign adorning [...]

I’m the Coordinator of the Career Experience Program at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) in Falls Village, CT. This initiative helps students become more career aware and expose them to opportunities to gain that awareness. In this Covid year, it’s been a challenge to create opportunities for worthwhile career-related interactions in the absence of in-person job shadows, internships, and career fairs. I’ve been calling it a building year, thinking about big-picture priorities and strategies. One way I’m doing this is through my participation on [...]

Thom Reed There are times when the universe thrusts a moment upon us that possesses the capability of forever altering the course of our lives. As if thrown by some cosmic legionary, fate’s javelin can pierce a quiet life, leaving difficult choices, harsh lessons and unknown paths in its wake. What these moments – often traumatic – do offer us are choices. Choices that are not always clear, but ever-present. Some choose acceptance, others denial – there is no right or wrong, only [...]

I recently read a book called The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream, by Heather Cabot. Essentially, the book challenges the conception by people of my age and generation, who may have experimented with marijuana and other drugs in their 20s but have been wine drinkers since “growing up,” that pot is a mind-altering gateway drug whose only long-term effect is, well, dead brain cells. Getting stoned was for drop-outs. It may have been fun, but it was inherently dangerous, which [...]

As May floods into the Hudson Valley and winter’s levee breaks, its cold, barren seams burst giving way to an overflow of boundless greens and fertile earth. As it is each year, residents of rural upstate New York begin to fantasize of warmer temps, the scent of a freshly mowed lawn, lazy days and neighborly chats. Spring in the Hudson River Valley, as it does in most places around the nation, brings with it a sense of rebirth. For the better part of a decade, [...]