© 2026
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Northeast Notebook Live
WAMC’s Northeast Notebook Live brings listeners inside the conversations of the region. Each day, the hour-long show airing online and on-air will feature a deep dive into an issue that matters most, as well as analysis of the headlines and additional interviews with newsmakers and journalists to provide a broad overlook of what matters most. The show will feature reporting by WAMC journalists, and highlight the vital work local journalists do to inform their communities. Northeast Notebook Live will regularly feature reporting by the Albany Times Union, the Berkshire Eagle, and the Adirondack Explorer thanks to a formal partnership with WAMC that’s meant to explore the region’s news with breadth, depth and context.

Northeast Notebook 10/2/26: Flock cameras, Cornell case, and a nursing home closure

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Sam Dingman
Published October 2, 2026 at 5:20 PM EDT
A Flock camera in Newburgh near the corner of Broadway and Liberty St.
Elias Guerra
/
WAMC
A Flock camera near the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street in Newburgh, New York.

Can you name a Shania Twain song based on the opening three notes? I do my best in today's deep dive.

Speaking of identification: that's exactly what people in cities and towns all over the Northeast are worried about when it comes to Flock automated license plate reader cameras. The company that makes the cameras also makes software that can combine data they capture to create granular portraits of the public. The public, in response, is swarming council meetings around the Northeast to protest the technology.

Meanwhile, there are new developments in the widening scandal surrounding an alleged gang rape at Cornell University in 2024. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has stepped into the fray, appointing a special prosecutor to pursue an investigation as the outcry grows over the local district attorney's failure to prosecute the alleged perpetrators.

And after weeks of uncertainty, a nursing home in the Catskills is shutting down. What does the closure say about Sullivan County's overall quality of life?

All that and more on this Oct. 2nd edition of Northeast Notebook.
News
Sam Dingman
Sam Dingman is WAMC’s Hudson/Catskill Bureau Chief. Previously, he was co-host and reporter at “The Show” on KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR station. Prior to KJZZ, Dingman was the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast “Family Ghosts,” which has been hailed as a critic’s choice by NPR, the LA Times and the New York Times. Dingman also co-hosted the BlueWire original series “The Rumor,” which was featured in the Washington Post and New York Magazine, and was a Webby honoree for Best Podcast Writing. He was story editor for Lemonada Media’s Signal Award-winning series “Pack One Bag,” writer and showrunner for John Stamos’s Webby-winning podcast “The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra,” editor of Karina Longworth’s “You Must Remember This,” and a producer for WNYC’s Peabody-winning “On the Media.” He is a four-time winner of the Moth Grand and Story Slams, and has created, written, hosted, produced and edited podcasts for The Atlantic, Audible Originals, Gilded Audio, Gimlet Media, Lincoln Center, Panoply Media, Paramount Pictures, Pushkin Industries, Spotify, Slate, Stitcher, and Wondery.
See stories by Sam Dingman