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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 10/30/26: Mishandled vaccines, town consolidation, and scary movies

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Sam Dingman
Published October 30, 2026 at 4:54 PM EDT
Dave Galletly
A flyer for last year's Pumpkin Patrol

There are two New Paltzes in New York - a town and a village. As they debate whether to consolidate, it's bringing up thorny questions of jurisdiction and identity.

Also this hour...

  • New York Attorney General Letitia James' social media posts are being scrutinized by a state Supreme Court judge. In September, James tweeted a message of support for Jane Doe, the victim in an alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell University. An attorney for one of the accused perpetrators wants James removed from her role as special prosecutor. WAMC's Elias Guerra was in the courtroom yesterday as a judge considered the request.
  • Vermont death care facilities are being bought up by private equity firms.
  • A messy harassment scandal complicates the final days of the town supervisor race in Clifton Park.
  • And we meet a member of upstate New York's Pumpkin Patrol, who will spend Halloween patrolling overpasses around the region. The Patrol's mission is simple: stop people from throwing pumpkins at passing cars.

All that and more on this October 30th edition of "Northeast Notebook."
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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