The Debrief Podcast

Josh Durso and Ted Baker discuss the Ontario County Sheriff's Office, the vacant seat on the Auburn School Board, and masks in schools.  Also with COVID numbers on the rise in the Finger Lakes region, they talk about whether it is the Finger Lakes or Rochester portion causing that.  Plus talk of a state tourism program and staffing issues in nursing homes.

This week there was some pretty significant news with New York State easing mask-restrictions in most public spaces. While there are some exceptions- the guidance, which aligns with the CDC looks like this: If you’re fully-vaccinated, you can ditch the masks in most circumstances. There are some exceptions, but the change, health experts say, is a play to get more people vaccinated. Will it work?...

On this edition of The Weekend Debrief Josh Durso and Ted Baker discuss a number of headlines from this week- including the state's decision to give out free Yankee-Mets tickets to those who get vaccinated, the vaccination rate that's fluttering all over the state, the eviction moratorium extension, as well as a series of hyper-local stories that you don't want to miss.

During the first full week of May, a group of lake health advocates will be coming together for Lake Friendly Living Awareness Week. The goal will be to educate members of the community on ways to improve the overall health of the lake- whether they live close-by, or far away from it. Maura Toole, one of the lead organizers of the program and awareness week- talks about the benefit of it, and what...

The town of Geneva was one of those communities that fared pretty well during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Today on the podcast we highlight a recent conversation between Ted Baker, the host of Finger Lakes Morning News on Finger Lakes News Radio, and Geneva Town Supervisor Mark Venuti.  Venuti is often credited with being one of the most-forward thinking supervisors in the Finger Lakes- and his...

Spring has sprung at the Montezuma Audubon Center. The calendar says April. And that means more than warm weather! Center Director Chris Lajewski talks about migration, dry weather, and the ecosystem at the wetlands complex.

The Dream-O-Vate Busienss Competition is a local effort in Livingston County to bolster downtown business. The program awards $300,000 in prizes to a total of 15 winners. Bill Bacon, who serves as Director of Economic Development for Livingston County calls it an important component to growth. “Starting a business is hard work – especially in today’s economy,” he said in an announcement in March....

Since President Joe Biden took office there has been an intense amount of talk about infrastructure. Specifically, an infrastructure deal that would pave the way for widespread investment across the country. Bill Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute at Rice University, served as the mayor of Ventura, California and led planning efforts in San Diego. Rice University is in Houston, and just a fe...

Earlier this month Bill Fulton wrote a piece featured on Medium about the challenges small cities are experiencing, as they watch professional baseball be taken from them. The city of Auburn was one such place- and that struck a chord with Fulton- as he grew up there. The Central New York native is the director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. He's served as the mayor...

We get a lot of questions- and oftentimes we answer those questions on The Weekend Debrief. In this episode, Josh Durso and Ted Baker answer the questions that were submitted over the last two weeks. They will be back in-studio later this week for another edition of The Weekend Debrief. 

Last week FingerLakes1.com reported on the stories of those at Hobart and William Smith Colleges , who felt that administrators fell short in protecting them during the pandemic. After a relatively quiet first semester in the fall- a number of issues bubbled to the surface in the first two months of 2021.  On Thursday, Robb Flowers, VP for Campus Life at HWS joined Ted Baker on Finger Lakes M...

Later this month Seneca Lake Pures Waters Association will be putting on a farming symposium. It's all about Soil Health Incentive programs for farm and vineyard owners- which are typically known as Payment for Ecosystem Services. The programs allow farmers to be paid to use agricultural practices that sequest carbon and are favorable for the environment. Jacob Fox of SLPWA joined Josh Durso to di...

Over the winter Finger Lakes Textiles celebrated its 10,000th winter hat produced for sale at its manufacturing facility in Waterloo. It was a history making milestone, and given the last year- with a global pandemic crunching Mozaic's operation- it was a necessary one. Allen Connely, who serves as CEO of Mozaic, which oversees the Finger Lakes Textiles operation, says the last 12 months has been...

Despite the spring feel that Wednesday gave us we all know winter is still here. And it will stick around for a while. That said, Chris Lajewski, Center Director for the Montezuma Audubon Center, says there are plenty of signs of spring at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and associated property. That's because nature gives us clues about the upcoming seasons before we ever see it in the forecast.&n...

What happened to the individuals who were taken into custody after the riot last winter at a handful of Cayuga Nation properties along Rt. 89 in Seneca Falls? Nation leaders claimed that arrests, charges, and legal proceedings would be coming. However, we learned this week that this was never the case. Even the alleged jail that the Nation was using in Pennsylvania to detain people was not used to...

Open enrollment is an annual event. It's the window where those who don't have insurance, or those who have lost it - can obtain it. Each year there are always a lot of questions. However, open enrollment is usually over by now. The coronavirus pandemic turned everything - including open enrollment - upside down. Today on the program, Kelly Smith of MVP Health Care, who walks us through some of th...

Heather McDaniel leads Ithaca Area Economic Development, which was previously known as TCAD or Tompkins County Area Development. In part two of our conversation with Heather, a look at the components that will be most important to succeeding in the future. She says recovery is underway, and that's what they are focused on now.

Heather McDaniel leads Ithaca Area Economic Development, which was previously known as TCAD or Tompkins County Area Development. Today in part one of our conversation with Heather, a look at what economic development was before the pandemic; and the components that made the Finger Lakes region thrive and succeed over the last two decades.

The end of 2020 was an historic one for the Montezuma Audubon Center. Director Chris Lajewski says that their fundraising effort was more successful than ever before, and was a truly inspiring conclusion to a tremendously difficult year. Now he's focused on 2021; and looking forward to what will come next. Chris says there's a lot of positive going on, and a great opportunity to get outdoors even...

What's next for journalism? What about journalists who were laid off or are underrepresented in the news business? Well, Patch Labs could be a solution to that problem. We caught up with Abe Brewster, President and CTO of Patch Labs over the weekend for our Sunday Conversation.  Today we hear one of the most-important parts of that conversation, where he walks us through the platform, and how...

Over the last several weeks we've been catching up with county leaders to talk about how they are looking at 2021. Most are expecting to see reimbursements from the state to decline by upwards of 20%, which made budgeting a challenge. That said, there have been other things that officials gained from the experience of the coronavirus pandemic. Today we talk with Doug Paddock, chair of the Yates Co...

On September 1st, Bill Hammond of the Empire Center published a piece providing an update to a FOIL request connected to New York State's response to the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes. Hammond and the Empire Center was seeking the data on the full-death toll associated with the pandemic in nursing homes. A FOIL request had been submitted in early-August. It sought a count of all nursing ho...

How is vaccine rollout going in New York State? This week we heard important updates from Governor Andrew Cuomo about the vaccination effort happening now in the state, but a lot of details are still missing. While the Cuomo Administration says that some of those are still being worked out -- as the situation remains fluid -- there have been real questions raised about the state's ability to rollo...

This week we're featuring two parts of our upcoming Sunday Conversation with Wayne County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ken Miller. He serves as Palmyra Town Supervisor as well, and spoke with us about his outlook on 2021 - addressing some of the fiscal concerns that counties like his are contending with amid the coronavirus pandemic. Visit anchor.fm/sunday-conversation this weekend to listen to o...

This week we'll be featuring two parts of our upcoming Sunday Conversation with Wayne County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ken Miller. He serves as Palmyra Town Supervisor as well, and spoke with us about the 2021 outlook - addressing some of the fiscal concerns that counties like his are contending with amid the coronavirus pandemic.  If you want to check out the Sunday Conversation podcast...