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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 10/27/26: U.S. Rep. Josh Riley, ICE in the Berkshires, and wildfires

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Sam Dingman
Published October 27, 2026 at 5:14 PM EDT
Fire crews worked overnight Monday to limit the wildfire's spread with controlled burns.
Courtesy New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Fire crews worked overnight to limit the wildfire's spread with controlled burns.

As part of our ongoing series profiling candidates running in this year's midterms, we're joined today by Democratic U.S. Rep. Josh Riley. He's defending his seat in New York's 19th Congressional District against challenger state Sen. Peter Oberacker, whom we spoke with a few weeks ago. Riley said, after two years in office, he thinks of himself as a dad first, and a congressman second.

Also this hour...

  • A wildfire is spreading from eastern Rensselaer County into Western Massachusetts. WAMC's Grant Ashley gives us the latest details on attempts to contain it.
  • We break down the early voting numbers in New York, and the reasons for both gubernatorial candidates to be optimistic.
  • Family separation policies are still part of ICE's enforcement strategy, as evidenced by a recent incident in the Berkshires.
  • And speaking of ICE, we'll hear how an upstate New York reporter is covering the agency's attempts to house women at a Buffalo detention center.

All that and more on this Oct. 27 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
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