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Ithaca City School District has announced a public hearing on its proposed 2024-2025 operating budget. The meeting will take place May 14 at 5:30 p.m. at York Hall at Ithaca High School. Last week we reported on a 5-hour meeting during which the board heard from taxpayers concerned with the effect of the rising school budget on local taxes. Following that meeting the proposed budget was reduced by $4 million. According to the Ithaca Voice, if approved the new budget would result in a school tax rate of $15.68 per thousand dollars of assessed value. This would be a reduction of about 13% compared to last year’s tax rate. However average assessments in…
Listen to author Raul Palma in conversation with student organizers April Morales, Emily Trage, Riley Rhoder and Professor Jacob White. The 2024 New Voices Festival runs from April 24-26 at Ithaca College and in your community.
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What does community radio mean to you? We think this commercial-free, free-form, independent station helps make our listeners lives-and life in our communities-just a little better. We strive to make programing that opens ears, opens hearts, and leads us to ask important questions about our world. Even if it’s just to ask yourself, “What in…
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This is the last of my three stories about freedom of expression at Cornell University this year. Here are links to the first and second stories. The academic theme at Cornell this year is “Freedom of Expression.” In earlier stories, we reported about the general mood at Cornell around free speech, and students’ opinions about…
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Photo: Adrian Buckmaster for the Klezmatics Frank London of the Klezmatics talks with Felix Teitelbaum and Aron Gutman ahead of their show at Cornell, Saturday April 13, 2024. He discussed the cultural significance of klezmer music and Yiddish culture with its roots in Ashkenazi Jewish traditions and influences from Eastern Europe. He reflected on the…
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Daily features and interviews from our community
Tompkins Legislator Anna Kelles called into WRFI Community Radio News at 6 on Tuesday June 9. She spoke with WRFI News Director Michayla Savitt about how her campaign for Assemblyperson had adapted in the midst of social distancing, what she’d do in the assemblyperson position to address police brutality and pervasive racism in the U.S.,…
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The Tompkins County District Attorney is Tompkins’ top law enforcement official and prosecutes violations of New York State law within the county. New York’s primary election is coming up on June 23 and WRFI is pleased to present a District Attorney Candidates Forum Monday, which aired June 8th from 6-7pm. Incumbent Matt Van Houten,…
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At New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press conference Friday, Cuomo announced that the state is at its lowest number of deaths and hospitalizations since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo also confirmed over 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 in New York, making the statewide total to over 376,000. There are 19 active cases of…
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In the last week countless protests have broken out over the world in response to the murder of George Floyd and other innocent black people lost to police brutality and racist violence. On a call with the media, Congressman Tom Reed, who represents Tompkins and Schuyler counties, provided comment on the recent protests. WRFI News…
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