Jim Levulis

The Federal Reserve is holding its latest policy meeting Wednesday amid concerns over inflation and employment figures missing expectations. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors in Albany, about what he’s expecting from the meeting.

President Joe Biden is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as part of Biden’s first foreign trip since taking office in January. The meeting comes amid tensions between the nations over a variety of issues including cybersecurity and global influence.

M&T Bank is creating a new community markets team designed to better integrate its branches with the communities they’re located in. The team’s leader is Mike Keegan, the long-time area executive for Upstate New York and New England.

If you’ve traveled along Route 9 in Latham and Loudonville over the past several summers, you may have noticed a stretch of American flags flying on utility poles. While many communities display the red, white and blue along their main thoroughfares, these flags represent something more for the Capital Region. 

As the weather warms and more COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, tourism officials are preparing for the summer. In Greene County, officials are reminding potential visitors of parking and trail regulations meant to prevent overcrowding at a popular waterfall.

New York State is offering a new incentive to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19, free passes to state parks this Memorial Day weekend. 

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Greenland and met with members of the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, based in Schenectady. The unit – stationed at Stratton Air National Guard Base – flies ski-equipped C-130s designed for landing on snow and ice-covered landscapes in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Solar is a key piece of New York’s goal of reaching 70% renewable energy generation by 2030 under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. With farmland seen by solar companies as prime real estate for their arrays, new research from Cornell University considers how to best balance solar development with the state’s agricultural sector and food production needs. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Max Zhang, the study’s senior author and professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell.

Newsweek has named Saratoga Hospital one of “The World’s Best Hospitals” in its ranking of 2,000 facilities across more than 25 countries. The 171-bed hospital ranked 162nd in the U.S. with a score of 66.7 percent. Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts and St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut also made the cut.

Like most large gatherings over the past year-plus, the 30th anniversary version of the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure this June will again be virtual. In upstate New York, four markets – Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo – are joining forces for the annual bike race.

Siena College President Chris Gibson is calling on New York state to revise its rules for in-person graduation ceremonies. The private college in Loudonville plans to hold commencement at the Times Union Center in Albany May 30th with the arena’s capacity capped at 10 percent. But if it was a sporting event, the downtown venue would be allowed to fill 25 percent of its seats. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Gibson, a former Capital Region Republican Congressman, about the college’s plans.

New York state has announced a targeted effort to vaccinate farmworkers and employees of food production facilities against COVID-19. The state says it will work with local health departments and Federally Qualified Health Centers to bring pop-up vaccination sites to work locations.

The Board of Directors at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority or NYSERDA has appointed its acting CEO to the role on a permanent basis. Doreen Harris – who has spent more than a decade with NYSERDA – has been leading the agency since June 2020 following the departure of Alicia Barton.