The Rogovoy Report 9.25.23

From around the corner to around the globe...

Sep 24, 2023

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REQUIRED READING

Trump’s Menacing Rosh Hashanah Message to American Jews

(The Atlantic) - Like most politicians, former President Donald Trump marked the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, by passing along holiday greetings to American Jews. Unlike most politicians, Trump used the opportunity to threaten them. On Sunday evening, just as Rosh Hashanah was coming to a close, Trump posted a meme on his social-media platform, Truth Social, excoriating “liberal Jews” who had “voted to destroy America.” “Let’s hope you learned from your mistake,” the caption continued, “and make better choices going forward!” Trump’s Rosh Hashanah broadside was particularly ugly in the way it deliberately singled out a specific constituency during that constituency’s holiest season.

READ MORE:

GOP seeks to legalize animal torture (The Guardian)

Clarence Thomas is a paid spokesman for the Koch network (ProPublica)

The Replacements are still a puzzle (New Yorker)

FOOD & DINING

As Bondhu Celebrates Its First Anniversary, Chef Farah Momen Is Leaning into Weekly Brunches and Dinners

(Berkshire Eagle) NEW ASHFORD, Mass. - Farah Momen is changing her plan. The tea eggs meant to accompany biryani at tonight’s dinner service are not coming out of their shells easily, and the egg whites just fall apart in a shell crackle-studded slurry. But this is hardly the first problem that Momen, 31, has had to solve in her first year running her culinary community space, Bondhu. When she got here, she had no idea how her own desire for spontaneous programming would meet locals’ wanting regularity. So figuring out how to deal with some unruly tea eggs? That’s nothing.

Where to Drink Wine in Hudson

(NYT) HUDSON, N.Y. - In the last 15 years or so, a growing number of people have come to see the Hudson Valley as more than a beautiful place to visit. They have moved there full time, joining those who have long made it their home. The population grows even more on weekends, and the influx becomes especially heavy in the autumn when visitors flock to see the verdant hillsides turn a riot of fall colors. A host of new cafes, coffee shops, boutiques and restaurants -- including Rivertown Tavern, Cafe Mutton, Feast and Floret, Swoon, and Lil’ Deb’s Oasis -- cater to this rising population tide. Farms and farm stands provide great local ingredients, as do local cheese producers and bakers. It’s become a great place to eat and to drink good wine.

READ MORE:

Pittsfield ice cream shop King Kone is closing for the season and will be sold (Berkshire Eagle)

Mint has classic Indian food with a beautiful view (Berkshires Week)

Where to find real rotisserie chicken in the Hudson Valley, including Kitty's in Hudson (ATU)

Hudson’s Cafe Mutton makes Top 10 list of ‘restaurants worth traveling for’ (Full-Time Travel)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

WAM’s Kristen van Ginhoven Looks Back

(Nippertown) - Kristen van Ginhoven, founder and artistic director of WAM Theatre, is stepping down after 13 years of running this innovative organization, which donates a portion of its profits to local charitable organizations with every show it produces. WAM led a peripatetic life, producing on stages throughout the Capital Region and the Berkshires. How fitting that Kristen’s last directing project with WAM is Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me,” with Kim Stauffer playing Heidi, which is opening theREP’s season running through October 8. WAM co-produced it earlier this summer with Berkshire Theatre Group, starring Kate Baldwin, at their Unicorn Theatre. The play is about teenage Heidi earning tuition money by competing in Constitutional debates at VFWs across the Northwest and how the Constitution has impacted her and her family’s lives. It is certainly a play that embodies WAM’s motto of “Where Arts and Activism Meet.”

READ MORE:

Emerson String Quartet bids farewell in Berkshires concert, by Jeremy Yudkin (Boston Globe)

Author Simon Winchester feels threatened by AI (Berkshire Eagle)

Reed Birney stepped away from stage work. Then Shakespeare & Company called with an opportunity to star in Donald Margulies’ ‘Lunar Eclipse’ with Karen Allen (B Eagle)

'What the Constitution Means to Me' at the Capital Rep is compelling theater (WAMC)

Albany’s Egg performance complex gets new director (ATU)

Ryan Salame leaves court on September 7 after his guilty plea in the FTX case.

An FTX Executive Who Broke With the Others

(The Atlantic) LENOX, Mass. - Ryan Salame last week became the fourth top FTX executive to plead guilty, including to a charge of violating campaign-finance law. Prosecutors alleged that he made millions of dollars of political donations — many to Republicans. Salame was public about his Republican affiliations. While Sam Bankman-Fried hobnobbed on the left, Salame leaned into his identity as a “budding Republican mega-donor.” He donated millions of dollars under his own name, and even helped his girlfriend run as a Republican for a congressional seat on Long Island (she lost in the primary). It’s not totally clear whether Salame is truly passionate about Republican political causes or if he was simply emerging as a Republican donor out of loyalty to his boss (and his girlfriend). In contrast to his compatriots, who claimed to be getting rich in order to give back and who were involved with effective altruism, Salame reportedly spoke about working in crypto simply to get rich. Read also, The public deserves to know just how good Salame's plea deal is (B Eagle)

READ MORE:

Great Barrington's oldest Main Street business Gorham & Norton is for sale (Berkshire Eagle)

Lee votes to leave Rest of River Municipal Committee in protest against toxic waste dump (Berkshire Edge)

Stockbridge Select Board hears presentation to consider real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing (B Edge)

Williams College to demolish field house, study admissions policies (B Eagle)

The push for Northern Tier rail expansion has found an ally in Williams College (B Eagle)

Rising level of violent interactions leads Berkshire Health Systems to adopt a community code of conduct that might result in a patient or visitor being asked to leave (B Eagle)

NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY

Kitty’s, left, and The Caboose, right, are mere steps from Hudson’s Amtrak station, the third-busiest train station in New York.

Meet the Developer Transforming Hudson’s Waterfront

(ATU) HUDSON, N.Y. - When people disembark from the train in Hudson, they typically leave the waterfront as soon as they arrive. Ben Fain has spent several years trying to get them to stay. The Hudson Amtrak station is the third-busiest station in New York, with approximately 220,000 people arriving or departing. “Every 45 minutes, it’s like a faucet of people coming off the train,” said Fain, who owns Kitty’s and Grapefruit Wines. Despite this potential, the area was underused. Fain thought, “I can’t make it worse.” So he opened Kitty’s Market Cafe in the fall of 2020, then began serving breakfast and lunch from the adjoining space as Kitty’s Restaurant last spring. Next month, the restaurant will reopen for dinner five nights a week. Now Fain is adding to Kitty’s South Front Street “campus” with The Caboose, a 3,500-square-foot carbon-neutral private event space in a revitalized 19th-century coal barn.

READ MORE:

Details of proposed replacement of Hudson’s public housing complex come into focus (GoR)

Parade and festival celebrate Latinx community in Hudson (HV360)

Probe sought in alleged chokehold attack by state trooper in Claverack (HV360)

Ghent gun shop owners challenge new background checks in US Supreme Court (HV360)

Hudson officials seek to expand public imbibing of alcoholic drinks (HV360)

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