Jesse King
Hudson Valley Bureau Chief/Host, 51%Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%" and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
A graduate of SUNY Oneonta, King first joined the WAMC newsroom as an intern in September 2018. She grew up an avid writer and radio-nerd in Apalachin, New York, and spent much of her college years managing WONY 90.9 FM, contributing to the student-run podcast, "Oneonta Voices," and interning with Phoenix FM in Dublin, Ireland. She holds a B.A. in Music Industry and Mass Communications, and plays the fiddle in her free time.
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The group behind a petition to create a county executive position in Columbia County has taken legal action after many of its signatures were thrown out last week, blocking it from the November ballot. -
On this week’s 51%, we speak with journalism Becky Aikman about her new book, Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II. Desperate for pilots in 1942, Great Britain recruited 25 American women to ferry bombers, fighter planes, and damaged craft between air bases. Drawing from diaries, letters, and personal interviews, Aikman tells the story of the first American women to ever command military aircraft, and how they still struggled to find piloting work in the U.S. after the war. We also speak with former CIA intelligence officer Christina Hillsberg about her book, Agents of Change, and why she feels women make better spies. -
President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is headed back to the House, after the Senate passed a different version Tuesday. For those who oppose the bill, the passage creates a greater sense of urgency, and local groups in New York are pleading for their representatives to kill it. -
Roughly five years after Dutchess County announced plans to replace the old YMCA in Poughkeepsie, the project has stalled without shovels ever hitting the ground. A new report from the county comptroller details how it broke down. -
You may want to think twice before you light that campfire this summer. A growing initiative by Bard College to track air quality in the Hudson Valley finds woodburning continues to be the biggest source of air pollution in and around Kingston. -
More than 100 Catskill residents turned out for a “visioning workshop” to discuss their goals for the village’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative award. The village is holding an open call for project proposals through August 18. -
On this week’s 51%, we speak with Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson about how President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill in Congress would impact the organization’s clinics. Johnson warns Medicaid restrictions proposed in the bill could put nearly 200 Planned Parenthood clinics at risk of closing, even in states where abortion is legal. -
An interview with Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. Planned Parenthood says Medicaid restrictions in President Trump's "Big, Beautiful" budget bill in Congress could cause nearly 200 of its clinics to close, even in states where abortion is legal. -
Woodstock Councilmember Anula Courtis won a three-way Democratic Primary for town supervisor Tuesday night. -
The Kingston Rent Guidelines Board is expected to vote Thursday on whether to continue a rate freeze for rent-stabilized units next year.
