The Gazette News Group has added a second seasoned reporter to a role exclusively covering politics as part of its Community Journalism Fund. The Schenectady-based newspaper group has five daily publications and three weeklies across the Capital Region.

Ted Remsnyder, a SUNY Stony Brook graduate, will step away from his current beat as the City of Schenectady reporter and take on the role of political reporter within the Community Journalism Fund.

He joins veteran reporter Chad Arnold within the Community Journalism Fund program. Arnold was tapped as a Healthcare reporter in late October.

He joined me in the Daily Gazette podcast studio to talk about the move.

Town of Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett announced on his personal blog Monday that he would not be seeking re-election.

First elected in 1999, he has served the Town of Clifton Park and Saratoga County on the Board of Supervisors for the past 26 years.

He did not return calls for comment on Monday from the media.

On Wednesday, Phil Barrett sat down in The Daily Gazette podcast studio with long-time Capital Region reporter Stan Hudy for an exclusive interview to talk about his decision and reflect on his successes in the Town of Clifton Park.

The word cancer makes almost everyone stop in their tracks -- when spoken about a friend, a loved one, and is heart-stopping when shared from a medical professional to a patient.

Breakthroughs continue to be made every day, but the word sparks a whirlwind of emotions and fear to everyone involved.

Devin Lyons knows is all too well about it and shares her story -- of a cervical cancer diagnosis, her fears and how she took the shocking news and shared it with other women. The day she was diagnosed, her upcoming procedures, her recovery, and then the subsequent news.

The Daily Gazette wrote about her journey, mentioned on the podcast.

She is an advocate for health, her own and that of others, many of whom she has never met.

She is close to me and my wife, we cannot imagine a life without her and are thankful for her having the courage to share her story.

Food writer, award-winning pastry chef, and baker Justin Burke will be the final entry to this year’s CulinaryArts@SPAC series, introducing his first-ever cookbook, ‘Potluck Desserts: Joyful Recipes to Share with Pride, 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4.

“This cookbook is really trying to break the mold of what we perceive as what a cookbook should be,” Burke said during a phone interview last week. “We're seeing that more with the newer cookbooks that are coming out, that the storytelling of food is being included in cookbooks.”

This was planned as an interview for a Sunday Life and Arts story, but Justin Burke was so forthcoming with his thoughts, his stories about his past, baking, and even touching on food insecurity in South Carolina and what he is doing to make a difference.

There was too much for my allotted print space.

Justin Burke was kind enough to let me post our conversation on Tell Me Your Story.

Enjoy.

Joni Bonilla is great with dogs.

She has cared for and trained them. And for the past 10 years, she has paired dogs from shelters with veterans and first responders and provided a free guided training program for post-traumatic stress and mobility service dogs.

If you ask her "How many placements have you made?”

Her answer is simple — “I don’t know.”

Her reasoning is unique, heartwarming, and, at times, heartbreaking.

Daily Gazette reporter Chad Arnold will be changing roles within the Gazette News Group shortly, leaving the daily Schenectady County beat and focusing solely on healthcare within the Capital Region.

This new role is supported by the newly established Community Journalism Fund, managed by The Schenectady Foundation in partnership with The Daily Gazette.

It is just the first plank within the Community Journalism Fund planned on focused, deep-dive journalism into issues that impact the Daily Gazette Family of Newspapers readership.

Chad talked about the opportunity, how he came to find a career in journalism and why he dropped an early plan of being a rock 'n roll journalist to write about things that to him, made a difference.

It was my pleasure to have Chad Arnold, journalist, tell me his story.

Heather Lent is a mainstay on Jay Street in Schenectady, offering the sweetest offerings in the Electric City from her Bittersweet Candy storefront, but she hasn’t always been there. The Schalmont grad spent time in the Hudson Valley, opened Bittersweet Candy in several variations before returning to the Capital Region.

Business editor Shenandoah Briere and Digital Content Producer invited Lent into The Daily Gazette podcast studio to talk about her culinary travels and her passion for Jay Street and its neighbors.

Niskayuna resident Jordan Modiano has had a passion for speed since childhood. It was only surpassed by his love for his daughter, Rachel.

The business owner, race car driver, and parent of a daughter within the autism spectrum merged those passions to create the annual Upstate Chevy Dealers Autism Acceptance Race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday, Sept. 5.

I sat down with Modiano at one of his two Express Employment Professionals locations to talk about racing, his daughter, and autism awareness.