Wall Street investment banker Mark Wittman talked at length, but in layman's terms, with Beyond the Brink podcast host Rosemary Armao this week about all those egg-heady issues like investing in gold and politics within the Fed and the national debt that can affect your life. You can listen to him in full on YouTube or Apple, or wherever you like to get podcasts. Wittman describes how President Trump has an uncanny ability to show our enemies what their superpower is. Will he be doing that in this week's trip to China?

On Tuesday May 12, Formerly incarcerated moms, moms of incarcerated children and dozens of lawmakers held a Mother’s Day rally at the State Capitol to call for the passage of sentencing reform legislation to reunite families, including the Second Look Act, the Earned Time Act and the Marvin Mayfield Act. We hear from Senator April Baskin, Assemblymember Anna Kelles, Senator Robert Jackson, Dr Franchesca Capellan and Assemblymember Jessica Gonzales Rojas.

Today, on the Hudson Mohawk Magazine,

First, Mark Dunlea talks with NYPRIG Blair Horner to give an update on the budget.

Then, Ren Lee gets an update from Humanities NY, a year after they lost much of their funding due to DOGE cuts.

Later on, we hear from Sarah Abrahams who tells us all about pet therapy.

After that, Craig Neslor of Albany Comedy Corner has an interview about Laughing Out Loud, an elevated comedy experience show with Duncan Harris and Roger Harris.

Finally, this week, Thom Francis welcomes poet, artist, and musician Matthew Klane to the mic.

Hosts: Caelan McPherson and Richard Sleeper

Engineer: Henry VanHaverbeke

On Monday May 11, several hundred people attended Beyond Plastic’s lobby day and rally. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act – known as PRRIA - would require producers of single use packaging to reduce the amount by 30% over 12 years and ban 13 toxic chemicals from packaging. The bill has twice passed the Senate but the Assembly Speaker has refused to let it come up for a vote despite having a majority of members as co-sponsors. The sponsors recently did an additional 38 amendments to the bill to help with its passage. In part one of our coverage, we hear from Senator Rachel May; Kurt Kruperman of Capital District Zero Waste; Yvonne Taylor of Seneca Lake Guardian; singer Taina Asili; Assemblymember Chris Eachus; and Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger. By Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Humanities NY suddenly lost much of their funding due to DOGE cuts in 2025. One year later, we get an update on the state of their organization and hear from HNY Executive Director Sara Ogger who spoke with Sanctuary Executive Director Ren Lee who relates to this story from personal experience.

This week, Thom Francis welcomes poet, artist, and musician Matthew Klane to the mic. Matthew read poems at the first Year in Review spoken word event at The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, on December 17, 2021.

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At the end of 2021, coming out of the pandemic, there were a lot of stories to tell. Albany Poets (soon to be merged with the Hudson Valley Writers Guild) invited eight local poets to perform on The Linda stage in front of their first live poetry show in over a year. The Year in Review was an incredible evening of poetry, art, and community.

Matthew Klane was one of the poets who read his work at the event. Matthew is co-editor at Flim Forum Press. His books include Canyons (w/ James Belflower, Flimb Press 2016), Che (Stockport Flats 2013) and B (Stockport Flats 2008). An e-chapbook from Of the Day is online at Delete Press, an e-book My is online at Fence Digital, and a chapbook Poetical Sketches is available from The Magnificent Field.

He currently lives and writes in Albany, NY. You can find out more about Matthew at his website matthewklane.com.

First, Elizabeth EP Press brings us coverage of Troy City Council’s meeting where local law #3 was discussed. The law is meant to regulate the use of automatic license plate readers in Troy.

Then, NATURE Lab Co-Director Ellie Irons tells us about this year’s media lab component to the youth Water Justice Lab fellowship.

Later on, retired national weather service Hugh Johnson joins us to discuss the weather in this week's weather segment.

After that, we hear Conner Lee talking with Gaheul Yi as he shares his parents’ migration story from Korea to the Capital District.

Finally, this week we have the annual Collard City Growers plant swap, so we hear from Azuré and Christian.

Co-Hosts: Sean Bernyk and Lennox Apudo

Engineer: Kalix Sausville

This year, Water Justice Lab will also include a Media Lab fellowship, an opportunity for youth to get trained in and create short media to document the summer Water Justice Lab fellowship and specifically the Source to Estuary program. NATURE Lab Co-Director Ellie Irons spoke with the Sanctuary's Programming Manager Sina Basila Hickey about this opportunity. Learn more here: https://www.mediasanctuary.org/project/water-justice-lab/

The City of Troy currently has 26 working Flock Safety ALPR cameras with no public rules and regulations on the books. The Troy City Council is proposing a new Local Law 3 “Establishing Standards Governing the City’s Use of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) Systems.” This piece by Elizabeth Press highlights the debate over the possible legislation.

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The Council is hoping to get input from law enforcement before the legislation is finalized. You can also check out the draft legislation here: here:https://www.troyny.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05072026-1823?html=true

New York's budget is now six weeks late, though Governor Hochul claims the numeruos policy issues she has inserted into the budget are now largely agreed to. Blair Horner of NYPIRG talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about how the budget undercuts the concept of democracy, particularly in how the climate issue has been handled.