Dispatches from around the Fourth of July of years gone by included raising a new Liberty Pole in the village in 1949 and, of course, Puff Daddy’s noisy party 50 years later.

From airplane noise to the goings-on in Accabonac Harbor, this is what’s on readers’ minds this week.

Joe Biden has dedicated his life to public service, but he cannot win this one. The debate of June 27 was a tipping point.

The Fourth of July in 1827 was the day that slavery officially ended in New York State.

Those doing this duty are the unsung heroes of the waterways, ridding potentially thousands of gallons of wastewater from boats from the region’s most precious resource.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs.

Europeans make fun of Americans for the way we go about grinning and chirping banalities at one another, but we don’t do it because we’re all idiots, but because the smiling, nodding, and have-a-nice-day-ing are folk customs that serve a social purpose.

The love of objects isn’t necessarily symptomatic of greed. Sometimes they become an extension of who we are, and a tangible sign of our connection to others.