Latest news with #GloryDays
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
100 dairy farms in New York get over $21 million from state
Jun. 2—LOWVILLE — New York state is pushing more than $21 million in grant money out to over 100 dairy farms statewide, part of a long-term push to enhance and expand the state's upstate milk and milk product industry. On Monday at Glory Days dairy farm in Lowville, state Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball announced the funding through the state Dairy Modernization Grant program as the state kicked off June Dairy Month. "New York's dairy industry is the backbone of our agricultural economy, supporting thousands of jobs across our rural communities," said Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul. The Governor had successfully pushed for this program in budget negotiations last year. "With this $26 million investment through the Dairy Modernization Grant Program, we're giving hardworking dairy farmers and cooperatives the tools they need to grow, innovate and lead in a changing market. This is how we honor our agricultural legacy — by making sure it has a strong and sustainable future," Hochul said. Across the north country, 15 farms will get a combined $3.3 million in state grant money — in Central New York will get more than $3.9 million, and in the Finger Lakes, 20 farms are getting more than $4.3 million. The money can be used for projects on dairy farms to expand or improve storage, improve transportation and strengthen operations — it helps farmers buy newer, more efficient equipment and is run with an eye towards increasing environmental protection, efficiency and farm operation health. The program requires that each grant-funded project demonstrate a path towards expanding storage, increasing energy efficiency, improving food safety, saving work hours, decreasing raw milk dumping or making the farm more resilient economically. Each project must achieve at least two of those listed goals. "The Dairy Modernization Grant Program gives farms like ours the opportunity to progress and innovate and continue being the lifeblood of our communities," said Amy Beyer, owner of Glory Days Farm. "This program encourages the adoption of efficient technology that improves food safety with more consideration to environmental impacts, securing the future of dairy in New York." This new grant program is authorized for another $10 million round in 2026 — and Hochul indicated that further funding will be headed to the dairy industry for research and climate-resiliency work in the future. "Our dairy farmers and processors are second to none when it comes to the care they give to the land and their animals and the quality of their milk products," said Ball, the state Agriculture Commissioner. "I am so pleased to see this funding being awarded to these deserving farms, who will now have the additional resources they need to ensure that they can continue to provide the very best milk and dairy products, and keep operations and the supply chain going, even in the event of severe weather or emergency events." This grant funding comes as the New York dairy industry sees major investments in plants and farms across the state. In April, Gov. Hochul and regional lawmakers attended the groundbreaking of a new, $1.2 billion Chobani company plant in Oneida County, which will become the largest single-site natural food processing center in the country and increase fluid milk demand by multiple billions of pounds per year. New York has already pumped $23 million into that project alone, with another $73 million in tax credits for job creation set aside once the facility starts hiring. A handful of other major projects, including a Fairlife milk processing plant in western New York, a $30 million expansion of the Agri-Mark cheese facility in Chateaugay, Franklin County, a $150 million Cayuga Marketing milk plant in Auburn, a $621 million cheese plant in Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, are expected to increase demand for milk in New York by more than 35% by 2030. New York already has nearly 300 processing facilities for milk and milk products, served with more than 16 billion pounds of milk per year from over 3,000 dairy farms, over 95% of which are family-owned and operated.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NYS dairy farms get over $21 million for modernization, resiliency projects
Jun. 2—LOWVILLE — New York state is pushing over $21 million in grant money out to over 100 dairy farms statewide, part of a long-term push to enhance and expand the state's upstate milk and milk product industry. On Monday at Glory Days dairy farm in Lowville, state Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball announced the funding through the state Dairy Modernization Grant program as the state kicked off June Dairy Month. "New York's dairy industry is the backbone of our agricultural economy, supporting thousands of jobs across our rural communities," said Governor Kathleen C. Hochul. The Governor had successfully pushed for this program in budget negotiations last year. "With this $26 million investment through the Dairy Modernization Grant Program, we're giving hardworking dairy farmers and cooperatives the tools they need to grow, innovate and lead in a changing market. This is how we honor our agricultural legacy — by making sure it has a strong and sustainable future," Hochul said. Across the north country, 15 farms will get a combined $3.3 million in state grant money — in central New York will get more than $3.9 million, and in the Finger Lakes, 20 farms are getting more than $4.3 million. The money can be used for projects on dairy farms to expand or improve storage, improve transportation and strengthen operations — it helps farmers buy newer, more efficient equipment and is run with an eye towards increasing environmental protection, efficiency and farm operation health. The program requires that each grant-funded project demonstrate a path towards expanding storage, increasing energy efficiency, improving food safety, saving work hours, decreasing raw milk dumping or making the farm more resilient economically. Each project must achieve at least two of those listed goals. "The Dairy Modernization Grant Program gives farms like ours the opportunity to progress and innovate and continue being the lifeblood of our communities," said Amy Beyer, owner of Glory Days Farm. "This program encourages the adoption of efficient technology that improves food safety with more consideration to environmental impacts, securing the future of dairy in New York." This new grant program is authorized for another $10 million round in 2026 — and Hochul indicated that further funding will be headed to the dairy industry for research and climate-resiliency work in the future. "Our dairy farmers and processors are second to none when it comes to the care they give to the land and their animals and the quality of their milk products," said Ball, the state Agriculture Commissioner. "I am so pleased to see this funding being awarded to these deserving farms, who will now have the additional resources they need to ensure that they can continue to provide the very best milk and dairy products, and keep operations and the supply chain going, even in the event of severe weather or emergency events." This grant funding comes as the New York dairy industry sees major investments in plants and farms across the state. In April, Gov. Hochul and regional lawmakers attended the groundbreaking of a new, $1.2 billion Chobani company plant in Oneida County, which will become the largest single-site natural food processing center in the country and increase fluid milk demand by multiple billions of pounds per year. New York has already pumped $23 million into that project alone, with another $73 million in tax credits for job creation set aside once the facility starts hiring. A handful of other major projects, including a Fairlife milk processing plant in western New York, a $30 million expansion of the Agri-Mark cheese facility in Chateaugay, Franklin County, a $150 million Cayuga Marketing milk plant in Auburn, a $621 million cheese plant in Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, are expected to increase demand for milk in New York by more than 35% by 2030. New York already has nearly 300 processing facilities for milk and milk products, served with more than 16 billion pounds of milk per year from over 3,000 dairy farms, over 95% of which are family-owned and operated.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘So polarised': Bruce Springsteen's anti-Trump comments divide US fans
As the lead singer of a Bruce Springsteen cover band, Brad Hobicorn had been looking forward to performing at Riv's Toms River Hub in New Jersey on Friday. Then came a text message from the bar's owner, saying the gig was cancelled. Why? Because the real Bruce Springsteen had lambasted Donald Trump. 'He said to me his customer base is redder than red and he wishes Springsteen would just shut his mouth,' Hobicorn recalls by phone. 'It was clear that this guy was getting caught up in that and didn't want to lose business. The reality is we would have brought a huge crowd out there: new customers that are Springsteen fans that want to see a band locally.' The culture wars have arrived in New Jersey, the state of Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, comedian Jon Stewart and TV hit The Sopranos. Springsteen – revered for songs such as Born In The USA, Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark and Born To Run – has long been a balladeer of the state's blue-collar workers. But last year, many of those same workers voted for the president. Related: Bruce Springsteen says Trump is running 'rogue government' and 'siding with dictators' Now their split loyalties are being put to the test. Opening a recent tour in Manchester in Britain, Springsteen told his audience: 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.' He repeated the criticisms at later concerts and released them on a surprise EP. Trump responded by calling Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. 'This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country.' Trump, 78, also posted a video edited to make it seem as if he had hit 75-year-old Springsteen with a golf drive. Trump called for a 'major investigation' into Springsteen, Beyoncé and other celebrities, alleging that they had been paid millions of dollars to endorse his Democratic opponent in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris. Harris beat Trump by six percentage points in New Jersey, significantly less than Joe Biden's 16-point winning margin in 2020. In Toms River, a township along the Jersey Shore, Trump received twice as many votes as Harris, helping explain why Riv's Toms River Hub got cold feet about hosting a Springsteen cover band. The bar and restaurant cancelled the 30 May gig by No Surrender, a nine-person band that has played Springsteen songs for more than two decades, despite it being scheduled months in advance. Contacted by the Guardian, owner Tony Rivoli declined to comment. Hobicorn, 59, from Livingston, New Jersey, says the band suggested a compromise of playing classic rock other than Springsteen's but Rivoli rejected the idea. Hobicorn also received some criticism from Springsteen fans for offering the partial climbdown. But he explains: 'That's where I made the point that not everybody in the band is aligned with Bruce Springsteen's politics. Everybody's got a different point of view but that's OK. You can still be in a Springsteen cover band and not 100% agree with everything he says.' He adds: 'My band is split. We're half red, half blue. We have civilised conversations and then we go and play the music and it's never been about politics. This thing got made into a political situation.' Springsteen is not new to the political arena. When former president Ronald Reagan referenced the singer's 'message of hope' at a campaign stop, Springsteen wondered if Reagan had listened to his music and its references to those left behind in the 1980s economy. Later, he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential election campaign. He has also challenged his audience politically beyond presidential endorsements. Born in the USA told of a Vietnam war veteran who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. My Hometown described the kind of economic decline and discontent that Trump has exploited: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' Springsteen's 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad bluntly documented the lives of struggling immigrants, including those from Mexico and Vietnam. His 2001 song American Skin (41 Shots), criticised the shooting by New York City police officers of an unarmed Guinean immigrant named Amadou Diallo, angering some of the blue-collar segments of his fanbase. But taking on Trump is a cause of a different magnitude. His 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement has proved uniquely polarising in US culture, forcing many people to choose whether they are on the blue team or red team. The clothes people wear, the food they eat and the music they listen to have become signifiers of Maga. Even some in New Jersey, where Springsteen grew up and now lives in the town of Colts Neck, are having doubts. Hobicorn reflects: 'As the country has become more and more divided, there's certainly a real disdain for Springsteen and his politics in New Jersey. Most New Jerseyans are supportive of who he is, what he's done for the state, what he's done for our culture, what he's done for music. 'I feel like it's not a lot of stuff in the middle like, yeah, he's OK. It's one way or the other. In New Jersey it's mostly in a positive way: people love and respect Bruce for everything. But some are going to paint the picture of him: he's a billionaire and he doesn't give a crap about anybody but himself. That's what they do.' No Surrender has found an alternative venue. After the cancellation of its Toms River gig, Randy Now's Man Cave, a record shop in Hightstown, New Jersey, stepped in and will host the band on 20 June. The shop will produce flyers and T-shirts that say: 'Free speech is live at Randy Now's Man Cave.' Owner Randy Ellis, 68, says: 'The state is proud of Bruce Springsteen. He should become the state bird for all I know.' But he admits: 'In the last election, Harris won the state but there were many more people for Trump than I ever expected in New Jersey. It's so polarised now. We may have people in front of my store saying Springsteen sucks and all that. Who knows?' At a time when many of Trump's critics have kept quiet, Springsteen is arguably his leading cultural foe. In 2020 he said: 'a good portion of our fine country, to my eye, has been thoroughly hypnotised, brainwashed by a conman from Queens' – knowing the outer-borough reference still stung a man who built his own tower in Manhattan. Related: 'This dried out prune of a rocker': Donald Trump attacks Bruce Springsteen after musician's fiery speeches Dan DeLuca, who grew up in Ventnor, New Jersey, and is now a popular music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, says: 'The thing about Bruce that people love is this idea of being a truth teller. You see what you see and you need to speak on it. There's a lot of people who are muttering things or speaking in private about what's going on in America who are not speaking out for whatever reason. Maybe they don't believe that politics and art should mix. Maybe they're worried about their fanbase or something. 'As he said, there's a lot of crazy shit going on and it's happened since he was last on the road. It's good that he's speaking his mind and he's speaking what a lot of people want to hear but maybe are afraid to hear and it's maybe giving some people courage.' But as the case of No Surrender demonstrated, there is a significant minority in New Jersey who see things differently in this hyper-partisan era. DeLuca reflects: 'I grew up in south Jersey, which is less densely populated, less urban, and it's Trump country now. 'Springsteen has been true to what he sings about and the people he sings about and the blue collar concerns but then he's open to target because he's rich or hangs out with Obama. They probably think that Bruce has turned into a knucklehead socialist or something. I'm sure there are plenty of people who probably do have some divided loyalties.'
Eater
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Inside Echo, Las Vegas's New Retro-Chic Listening Lounge
Natalie Young finally built the kind of space she used to daydream about: a lounge with warm light spilling over leather couches, the crackle of vinyl in the background, and and low-lit drinks designed for lingering. In March, she wrapped the 12-year run of her beloved brunch spot Eat, a cornerstone of the Fremont East dining scene, to focus fully on Echo Taste and Sound, a lounge built around a vintage analog sound system, with bites carried over from Eat, and bar talent from the storied Downtown Cocktail Room. After visiting ESP, a listening bar in Denver, Colorado, Young got the idea to open a vinyl-centric lounge of her own. 'I love music,' she says. 'I love music more than food.' But after the headache of ongoing road construction in front of Eat, which impeded foot traffic, and the increasing cost of goods, Young planned to just go out with a bang and pivot to something with a lighter lift. 'I wanted to just serve hot tea and maybe a bar and some really simple pastries and small bites — and play records,' she says. But then her business partner, Tom McAllister, shared that a space opened up in the new Colorado building on Main Street — and it had a full kitchen. The result is Echo, a retro-cool space framed by warm wood slats and acoustic paneling. Tactile pieces by local artists add texture to the walls, houseplants catch the afternoon sun that peeks between burnt orange curtains. A cozy, living room-style seating area with chairs salvaged from Downtown Cocktail Room, which is often referred to as DCR, faces Young's personal turntable setup. Also carried over from DCR is the talent. Before closing the downtown bar last year, owner Michael Cornthwaite introduced Young to his longtime general manager, Jackie Loran. 'She's now my general manager and running the bar program at Echo,' Young says. As a sober owner, Young made it a priority to develop an inclusive beverage menu from the start. Echo's menu features zero-proof takes on classic cocktails like an espresso martini and more experimental mocktails like one with sparkling citrus and ube. The team of DCR bartenders at Echo also whip up signature drinks like the Glory Days with popcorn-washed bourbon, sherry, and chocolate bitters and the Little Red Rooster with tequila, vanilla sandalwood syrup, and grapefruit soda. The menu at Echo is tight, with light bites meant for sharing. Visitors can expect crisp chips with a trio of dips, marinated chicken skewers, a mix of delicately fried tempura mushrooms, and toasted focaccia topped with garlicky roasted tomato spread. The beloved shrimp and grits from Eat have found a new home at Echo. As for fan favorites like the thick-cut grilled cheese and deep-fried deviled eggs, Young says they might return when the weather cools. For Young, vinyl isn't just about sound — it demands attention and commitment, like smoking a cigar, she says. It's a love that began in her childhood, sprawled on the shag carpet, playing Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy over and over and over. Now she fills Echo with jazz, funk, and world music, deftly flipping from Nina Simone to Casey Chapman to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The main room at Echo features high-fidelity McIntosh gear chosen specifically for full-album playback. Young imported her vintage analog speaker system from home, and a DJ booth glows with the neon green lights of a state-of-the-art suite of McIntosh turntables and amplifiers. In the back, a 12-seat VIP listening room is being acoustically treated and outfitted with a rotating lineup of elite equipment — including vintage McIntosh 75 tube amps and La Scala speakers — for those who want a more intimate, audiophile-caliber experience. In the future, the space will host multi-course dinners paired with guided listening sessions that highlight the character of each setup. Young says fellow vinyl heads often peruse the Moondog Records display, thumbing through the collection of records for sale before walking out with four or five new finds. While Main Street tends to skew younger, especially with the adjacent Swan Dive drawing a late-night crowd, she appreciates that Echo attracts an older audience. 'I kind of built something for high-age people, you know, like 40-plus,' she says. Whether seated at the bar beneath artwork that used to adorn the walls at DCR, cozied up into a booth to nosh on Mexican shrimp cocktail, or lazing in the living room setup to watch a DJ — or sometimes Young, herself — man the turntables, Young says that Echo is the place to begin or end the night, to have a conversation, and to listen to the music. Sign up for our newsletter.
Powys County Times
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Bruce Springsteen hailed for ‘life-saving' 20,000 dollar gift to striking miners
Singer Bruce Springsteen has been hailed as a 'hero' after a 'life-saving' 20,000 dollar donation to striking miners was revealed in a new documentary. In the BBC show, When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain, it is revealed the 75-year-old invited women from miners' support groups to his show at Newcastle United's St James' Park stadium in 1985, amid pit closures across the country. Juliana Heron, who ran a support group of wives of miners faced with losing their jobs, joked in the feature that she was initially reluctant to attend the stadium as she supported Newcastle's rivals Sunderland, before her friend Anne Suddick was presented with the cheque. She explained: 'I got a phone call off Anne Suddick, she was the kingpin for the… support group, she says, 'Juliana, do you fancy going to a concert?', and I said, 'what concert?', she says, 'it's Bruce Springsteen', I says, 'well, who's Bruce Springsteen?'. 'I says, 'it'd be difficult for me to go in there as a lifelong supporter of Sunderland football club, I'll cross myself when I go in', but I've got to say, I'll remember that day for the rest of my life. 'During the interval, this man tapped Anne on the shoulder, and he says, 'could you please come and meet Bruce Springsteen?', so she went in, and she was about half-an-hour anyway, she comes back, and she sits down. 'She says, 'you'll never believe this, look', and she just handed this cheque that says 20,000 dollars, she says, 'yes, it's for the… support group in Northumberland off Bruce Springsteen'. 'I says, 'wait, he doesn't know us', she says, 'yes, but he knows what we're doing'. 'He's a hero to us, he didn't do it for publicity. He did it because he wanted to do it, and that would have helped a great deal in the support groups. 'It was absolutely life-saving, it was life-saving.' Speaking about his support for the miners, Springsteen said in the documentary: 'My parents were working class people and I watched them struggle their whole lives. 'I'd been reading about it (the strike) in the newspapers and so it was just something that felt it would be a good thing to do. 'It wasn't a big thing, it was just a good thing to do at the time.' Beginning his career in the 1960s, Springsteen has gone on to have 12 UK top 10 albums and four UK top 10 singles, he is best known for songs such as Born In The USA, Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark, and Born To Run.
