The Local Edition

Authorities in Sullivan County say a major cache of illegal weapons, including multiple “ghost guns,” was recovered during a multi-agency investigation that led to the arrest of two Liberty residents.

At a press conference Monday, District Attorney Brian Conaty announced felony weapons possession charges against Darrin McCosco, 39, and Kimberly Murran, 33, following a joint effort by law enforcement in Fallsburg, Liberty, Monticello, and the DA’s office.

The case began with a stolen property complaint in Fallsburg, but escalated quickly when a police drone and social media posts revealed suspected illegal firearms. Investigators secured a search warrant, leading to the recovery of a stockpile of weapons from a home on North Main Street and a vehicle under the suspects’ control.

Seized items included:

Ghost guns, which lack serial numbers and are difficult to trace, are illegal under New York State law. DA Conaty warned that these weapons “pose a very real threat to our community” and said his office will prosecute the case to the fullest extent of the law.

No imminent threat to the public was identified, though the investigation remains ongoing. Both McCosco and Murran are being held at Sullivan County Jail.

July is Disability Pride Month—a time to not only celebrate the contributions of disabled individuals, but also to examine the systemic challenges they continue to face.

As Congress debates sweeping changes to Medicare under “One Big Beautiful Bill,” advocates are raising the alarm about exactly what these cuts could mean for the people that rely on it

Radio Catskill’s Jamie Case sat down with Patrick Cokley, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to talk about how these proposed cuts could disproportionately impact disabled Americans and how impacted individuals can understand how cuts may impact them.

Governor Hochul announced on June 30th that $75 million will be put into New York's dairy factories. Walton's branch of "Lactalis" is receiving $15 million from that fund. Lactalis, the world's largest dairy company, is giving the money for construction improvements to increase production. In exchange, the state is offering tax incentives through the Excelsior program, which provides write-offs for job creation. The $15 million will create 20 more jobs and increase factory output by 30%. 

Allison Stark, the Senior Director of Industry Development for Empire State Development, said "Dairy is absolutely booming right now in New York. We're really excited that the dairy industry has taken off the way that it has. So this is not just a win for the communities... but for the farmers as well. The farmers that are providing this milk to these companies, they're all gonna be able to expand and get additional sales."

Listen to hear how the state says Delaware County will benefit and how environmental sustainability is taken into account.

The Woodstock Library may have expanded into a bigger building, but they’re facing big cuts as part of the Trump Administration’s broader cuts to public services. The impact of funding for public libraries would not only be a loss for intellectual curiosity, it would be especially devastating for rural communities. 

Radio Catskill’s Genevieve Hartnett spoke with Ivy Gocker of the Woodstock Public Library District and Jen Park and Grace Riario of the Ramapo Catskill Library System about how libraries in New York are funded, why federal support is so important, and all the services libraries offer that you may not have known about.

Is the U.S. president above the law?

That’s what Radio Catskill’s Patricio Robayo wanted to find out when he spoke to Michael Kirk, an award-winning filmmaker and founding producer of FRONTLINE.

Kirk’s latest documentary, Trump’s Power & the Rule of Law, explores how the foundational idea that no one is above the law is being tested like never before—in the courts, in Congress, and in the Oval Office itself.

The film tracks the expansion of presidential power from the Nixon era to the Trump administration, and examines the legal battles that have reshaped the limits of executive authority. It explores the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity and what it means for future presidencies. Through interviews with Trump allies, critics, and legal scholars, the documentary illustrates how unchecked power can erode democratic institutions and weaken the rule of law.

Michael Kirk discusses how Trump’s presidency redefined the boundaries of presidential conduct, what separates this moment from past political crises, and why the stakes for American democracy are so high.

Watch the full documentary on PBS FRONTLINE: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-power-the-rule-of-law/

The Wurtsboro Founder’s Day Street Fair was held last Saturday, July 12th on Sullivan Street in Wurtsboro, NY. The annual celebration saw one of its biggest years yet with the 200th Anniversary of the village’s naming by William and Maurice Wurts.

The street fair included over 100 vendors and featured live music, face painting, a birds of prey exhibit, an antique car show, and five new murals painted by New York-based artists.  

But among the visitors to Wurtsboro on Saturday were also some very special guests - the descendants of George Wurts, the brother of the town’s namesake. 

Two branches of the same family, currently located in Massachusetts and California, were specially invited by the Wurtsboro Board of Trade and welcomed by Mayor Frank Sisco to enjoy the street fair and a weekend of activities honoring their lineage.

Radio Catskill's Genevieve Hartnett went to the festival for the first time and got to learn more about Wurtsboro's culture, art scene, and unique history through a conversation with the Wurts families.

Votebeat PA reports that the U.S. Justice Department is asking Pennsylvania how it manages voter rolls. Several other states are also facing new scrutiny as the Trump administration refocuses election-law enforcement.

Carter Walker explains that some elections officials and observers are wary because of the larger context in which this effort is occurring, although the commonwealth has not yet responded to these requests.

New York is staring down billions in lost federal funding for Medicaid and food assistance over the next decade

The public now has access to crucial data about air quality around Hudson Valley. Bard College has partnered with an environmental justice group, “JustAir,” to install sensors and publish the data in real time. Before this initiative, only government agencies could view the data without a formal request and it was being measured from farther away. Citizens have to file using the Freedom of Information Act to access EPA statistics, explains Eli Dueker. 

Dueker is the Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities at Bard College. He told WJFF, “We are the first publicly accessible air quality network in the Hudson Valley. The nearest ‘official’ Department of Environmental Conservation station is in Newburgh and not publicly accessible.” 

The program is a huge step for environmental justice and democratizing information, says Desirée Lyle, the manager of Bard’s Community Sciences Lab. The program is a “resource for the community” that isn’t vulnerable to the politicization of climate science. Lyle explains that Hudson Valley was previously part of an “air quality monitoring desert,” in which fifty million Americans still currently live. Now, however, residents are empowered to use data to investigate potential health hazards to the community: 

“If you have something that just happened in your neighborhood, let’s say there was a fire, and you’ve been coughing a lot for the last two weeks, and you’re wondering if that fire in your neighborhood is the cause of that, then you can go back three months ago and see what the air quality was like before you had your cough, and see if it was the same or if it was different. So that’s another way that data are helpful to individual community members, not just municipalities or hospitals or larger organizations. It could be just, you know, a person who’s sick and wanting to get more information about why they might be not feeling well.”

Lyle and Dueker hope to grow the program even further by installing sensors on-the-ground. These are more accurate than those on top of roofs because gravity moves a lot of harmful particles down to where people are actually breathing. They encourage people to limit burning firewood and partaking in other activities that can hurt the air quality. Dueker says:

“We as a community, we have control over our air quality… in this era of living, there’s a lot that we can’t do anything about… Our point is that air quality is not one of them. We can make decisions that affect our air quality immediately." He continued, "We also aren’t into in the business of using guilt as a way to achieve environmental excellence. We actually believe that there are a lot of decisions that everyone has to make on a daily basis and we have no business judging that. But we can, as a community, make some decisions that can help guide people around that.”

Listen to the audio here for more and visit https://hvaq.wordpress.com/ to sponsor a sensor, volunteer for the program, or learn more.

Radio Catskill's Jaime Case explores the intersection of biodiversity, conservation, and native plants with environmentalist and landscape designer Carolyn Summers.
 
In this conversation, Summers shares insights from her ambitious 20-year project, Flying Trillium, located on a 100-acre property in Sullivan County. The project serves as both a living laboratory and a sanctuary—where native plants are not only cultivated but allowed to flourish alongside local wildlife.