National rural-issues website The Daily Yonder ran an article yesterday exhorting rural businesses to form “clusters” if they want to thrive. The thrust of the story is counter-intuitive — the author, Stuart Rosenfeld, argues that rather than competing for customers, similar small businesses operating near each other seem to attract more business for all. He cites Vermont’s booming sustainable agriculture economy as an example:

Though the second smallest state in population, Vermont stands head and shoulders above every other state based on its per capita concentrations of local farms, CSAs (community supported agriculture), organic farms, and farmers markets. This is important because groups of related businesses — clusters — are now thought to be essential for economic growth. Businesses are more efficient when they are clustered. Workers generally earn more. Related business clusters can feed off each other.

The last section of the article has tips for how to build a cluster. Food for thought for the Catskills, perhaps?

Agriculture is no longer just crops and animals in Vermont. Except for the largest dairy farms, economic survival and growth depend on rural families finding ways to supplement their income from the food they produce though other innovative market opportunities. They may offer weekend farm stays, start catering services, process their own foods, direct sales to local markets, create artisan products and brands or produce renewable energy by selling biomass, wind power, or operating methane digesters.

Read the entire story at Watershed Post.

Dutchess County resident Susan Tooker threw her hat into the ring at the annual Columbia County Democratic Committee dinner Sunday night, announcing her decision to run against Marc Molinaro (R) in the 103rd Assembly District. A working mother, registered nurse, nurse practitioner and union member, who is pro-choice and in favor of marriage equality, Ms. Tooker was introduced as the Democrats’ choice of an opponent to challenge the two-term GOP incumbent at the Democrats’ third annual Martin Van Buren Testimonial Dinner June 6 at the Columbia Golf and Country Club in Claverack. Read the entire story in The Columbia Paper.

The scene at the East Durham Irish Festival last weekend. Photo by Tony Fallon.

Click on this sentence to hear an interview with East Durham Irish Festival Director Tom McGoldrick or paste this url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/WGXCsTonyFalloninterviewsTomMcGoldrick.wav

All shades of green.

Click on this sentence to hear an interview with young performer Sheena Mullin, or paste this url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/TonyFalloninterviewsSheenaMullin.mp3

Click on this sentence to hear an interview with Frankie Curran, or paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/WGXCsTonyFalloninterviewsFrankieCurran.wav

Three generations of Irish at the Festival.

Click on this sentence to hear an interview with Sgt. Michael Roy, one of the soldier’s memorialized with bricks at the festival. Or paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/WGXCsTonyFalloninterviewsfriendofSgtMichaelRoy.mp3

Click on this sentence to hear an mp3 recording of an interview with http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06 Shioban at the East Durham Irish Festival, or paste the following url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/WGXCsTonyFalloninterviewsShioban.wav

Tony Fallon interviews Debbie Jones of Irish Village USA, about the memorial bricks, at the festival, click here to listen or paste this url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/WGXCsTonyFalloninterviewsIrishFest.mp3

Cruudeuces from North Adams, MA performed first at ASC.

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/Cruudeuces_ASC_WGXC_052910.mp3

Jefferson Pitcher performed second at ASC.

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/JeffersonPitcher_ASC_WGXC_052910.mp3

Matt from Pine Smoke Lodge.

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/PineSmokeLodge_ASC_WGXC_052910.mp3

Albany's Grab Ass Cowboys finished the night.

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/GrabAssComboys_ASC_WGXC_052910.mp3

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06

/poetry_AthensCulturalCenter_051510.mp3

Claude Haton and Harry Gottlieb at the Cairo Open Mic, May 28, 2010 at Gallagher's.

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/06/

CairoOpenMic_052810.mp3

His top contributors:
ActBlue $307,407
Advantage Capital Partners $40,750
JStreetPAC $39,598
Goldman Sachs $34,150
JPMorgan Chase & Co $26,550
AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America $25,500
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $25,000
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $20,410
American Federation of Teachers $20,250
BRIDGE PAC $20,000
New Democrat Coalition $20,000
Impact $20,000
PAC to the Future $20,000
National Venture Capital Assn $20,000
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $20,000
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $20,000
IntercontinentalExchange Inc $17,100
DE Shaw & Co $15,400
Service Employees International Union $15,000
American Resort Development Assn $15,000
Teamsters Union $15,000
Blue Dog PAC $15,000 $0 $15,000
United Food & Commercial Workers Union $15,000
American Crystal Sugar $15,000
Metalmark Capital $15,000

Attacks on Murphy from the right may begin again, as on Friday, he voted to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which passed the House, 234-194.

WGXC checked in with the staff of Murphy’s Republican opponent this fall, and Chris Gibson opposes net neutrality and the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

THU-SAT
Upstate II at Nicole Fiacco Gallery. Melora Kuhn, Catherine Mosley, Erik Schoonebeek, and Allyson Strafella. Tue-Sat, noon-6 p.m.

Dots, Lines and Figures at Carrie Haddad Gallery. Michael McLaighlin, Ben Shecter, Donise English, and Jeff Briggs.

“Maii:” The Wonder of Water by Diata Diata International Folkloric Theatre with the Hudson Opera House, an original play by Pamela Badila at 7 p.m. at Hudson Intermediate School.

FRIDAY
Cairo Open Mic sponsored by WGXC and Cairo Library. 7-9 p.m., with jam until 9:30 p.m. at Gallagher’s, 513 Main St. in Cairo.

FODfest jam honoring Daniel Pearl at 8 p.m. Club Helsinki, Hudson.

SAT-SUN
33rd Annual East Durham Irish Festival includes the Elders from Kansas City; Black 47 and Shillelagh Law from New York City; Barleyjuice from Philadelphia; and Hair of the Dog from Albany, N.Y.; Contemporary Irish Music featuring The Andy Cooney Band; the New York Showband with Tommy Flynn and Jameson’s Revenge from New York City; Searson from Ontario, Canada and the Kitty Kelly Band from Albany, N.Y. are just a few of the bands that will be performing. Pipe Bands and Irish Step Dancing Schools are an added feature each day.

SATURDAY
Tannersville Rubber Duck Race, Crazy Boat Race & Festival 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., Gooseberry Creek in the Village of Tannersville ending by the Rip Van Winkle Lake. Free admission.

Pine Smoke Lodge/Cruudeuces/Fossils From the Sun/Jefferson Pitcher at Upstate Artists Guild, Albany.

Just Wear White Memorial Day party from Trixie with DJ Gio at Red Dot, Hudson. 10 p.m. – 2 a.m., $10 includes free drink.

SUNDAY
Memorial Day Parade, 2 p.m., Main St., Catskill.

Music From China, a New York-based ensemble that specializes in both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. 2 p.m. at Hudson Opera House. $7 per person or $20 for the entire family!

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at 8 p.m. at Club Helsinki, Hudson.

Bella’s Bartok performs at Blue Plate Restaurant in Chatham at 9:30 p.m., $5.

MONDAY
Cairo Memorial Day Observance
Sponsored by American Legion Post #983, Town of Cairo, and WGXC.
9 a.m.: WWI Monument Wreath-Laying, Main St. Fountain.
9:15 a.m.: WWII Monument Wreath-Laying on Library Lawn.
9:30 a.m.: Doughnuts and coffee at Cairo Fire House.
11 a.m.: Parade steps off near Great American.
Noon: Memorial Service in Angelo Canna Park.
12:30: Refreshments and music at Pavillion.
WGXC will provide sound system.

Garth Slocum via City of Hudson.

“Section C2-4 of Hudson’s Charter says that to “be eligible to any City office under this Charter,” a person must be an elector of the City. Or, if the person is not a Hudson voter but wishes to serve in an appointed position, then s/he must meet two requirements:
1. The appointee must live “within 15 road miles” of Hudson; and
2. “Be a taxpayer on the real property assessment rolls of the City of Hudson.”

Then Pratt looks at Slocum’s particulars:

“Slocum lives in Chatham, well within the 15 ‘road miles’ of Hudson…. But Slocum’s name does not seem to show up in the Hudson 2010 tentative roll as a local taxpayer. The question, then, is: Does he own some property through a corporate name? And if so, would that qualify?”

And then he wonders how many other officers of Hudson do not qualify. Read the entire story at Sam Pratt.

Anthony Graves, an artist and writer based in Ithaca and Brooklyn and visiting lecturer at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning, contributes the current Incident Report: Thinker in the Marketplace contains a silkscreen of excerpted text from Hannah Arendt’s Life of the Mind, and a copy of Richard S. Sloma’s No-Nonsense Planning (1984), two instances of ‘thinking in the marketplace.’ 1989 refers to publication date of Deborah Hoover’s Supporting Yourself as an Artist, as well as a decisive year in the attacks on the NEA. (This was the year the Mapplethorpe exhibition was cancelled at the Corcoran.) The Bad Comrade is a reference to Russian Constructivists’ notion of socialist commodities or objects-as-comrades, ascribed to Aleksandr Rodchenko.

Now, with confidant Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) hanging on to his seat by a thread, the Brooklynite is nearing the goal line of his long game. Succeeding Reid would make Schumer the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history and, more important for the uber-competitive politician, the first among peers. The senator has thrust himself into the center of issues including jobs, immigration and Supreme Court hearings, but as that momentum has carried him into a more intimate arena where popularity matters, the grating architect of the current Democratic majority has become noticeably more collegial. Perhaps not coincidentally, his colleagues see him as the front-runner to be their leader. “It’s very much within the realm of possibility,” said Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who lost a race for minority leader to South Dakota’s Tom Daschle by a vote in 1994. “He’s always moving and always talking to people and he has a very good feel for what other people have to put up with. And that’s a critical point of that job, understanding the environment your colleague has to operate in.” Read the entire story in The Washington Post.

* There is a lot of great stuff on Albany reform. Cuomo is promising to veto any gerrymandered redistricting and also a reform of campaign finance. I hope he sticks to his guns when the pressure mounts on this, as the Legislature is not going to accept this without being dragged kicking and screaming.

* There are some things in here that are going to not please the public employee unions, like a wage freeze for all state workers. The public employee unions are going to have to make sacrifices along with everyone else in the state in these dire economic times, but they aren’t going to take it easily. Although I applaud Cuomo’s willingness to ask for sacrifices from his own base, I personally disagree with a wage freeze and a new pension tier. A smarter move would be to to pay state employees more upfront and not give any kind of pension. Public employees can contribute to their own retirement accounts out of their paychecks like private sector workers, and in compensation for the removal of pensions, those paychecks should be substantially increased. There’s a reason why NY is going bankrupt and that reason is pensions. And pensions also contribute to lower up-front pay, which discourages attracting young talent and discourages mobility in the public sector labor market. Need evidence? Only 14 percent of the state’s workers are under 35.

* Cuomo is also calling for a constitutional convention to fix a lot of the structural problems with the way the state operates. This is a good idea.

* I’m very glad that Cuomo is running on municipal consolidation. Everybody agrees that the vast number of local government bodies are the driving force behind the inexorable rise in property taxes, and it would be good to build upon last year’s municipal consolidation statute. Cuomo also wants to clean house with the redundant state agencies and authorities, and more power to him.

* I would have liked some more specifics on the environmental agenda, but I doubt Cuomo could be worse than Paterson in this regard.

In the next few years, dairy farmers are likely to see big changes in the safety net that protects them from crashing milk prices — including a first-ever comprehensive system to limit milk production, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said. Rep. Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., said he believes the past year’s deep decline in milk prices will result in momentum for fundamental changes in dairy policy when Congress considers the five-year farm bill in 2012, as long as farm groups can find common ground and opposition from milk processors can be kept to a minimum. Mr. Peterson outlined his expectations in an interview at his Capitol Hill office in which he also disputed widespread criticism that the dairy industry is plagued by price manipulation and discussed the role Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, may play on the committee, to which he was named two weeks ago. Mr. Peterson’s committee already has begun weekly field hearings on the farm bill, which have generated hundreds of comments from farmers around the country. The farm bill sets farm, food and nutrition programs, as well as rural development initiatives. Read the entire story in the Watertown Daily Times.

Click here to listen to an mp3 sound recording of the “Amphibian Adventure” or paste this url into your computer’s media player:

http://archive.free103point9.org/2010/05

/AmphibianAdventure_AcraSoundWalk_WGXC_AgroforestryCenter.mp3

Siuslaw Model Forest.