SEN. CLINTON GIVES, RECEIVES PRAISE AT PATTERN CONFERENCE

NEW PALTZ - U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation as she
approached the podium to make the opening remarks at Mid-Hudson Pattern for
Progress' 40th anniversary conference on Wednesday.

Outside, a handful of demonstrators voiced their opinions on medical
marijuana and U.S. involvement in Iraq.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who introduced the senator in the Studley
Theater on the SUNY New Paltz campus, received his own accolades in the
form of applause, hoots and hollers.

"We ... were very excited when we learned she was considering a run for the
senate," Hinchey, D-Hurley, said of Clinton. "She campaigned in places in
upstate New York where they had not seen a ... senator, let alone a
candidate, in decades.

"It's exciting to me that, for 40 years, there's been this kind of
accomplishment," Clinton, D-N.Y., said of Pattern, a public policy research
and planning institute. "Perhaps the best years for Pattern lie ahead."

Clinton said progress in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and other Hudson River
cities has not been easy, but the results are clearly visible.

PRAISING the region as "the most beautiful place in the entire country,"
Clinton said open space and farmland must be preserved while incentives are
provided for the right kinds of business to locate here. And, she said,
"it's important to harness the resources we already have, the human capital."

Clinton said she remembers visiting Hudson, in Columbia County, in 1999 -
when she was first lady and a Senate candidate - just as the renaissance
there was starting to take hold; and Beacon, before the Dia Art
Foundation's new museum, Dia:Beacon, was even a concept.

Stewart International Airport didn't have low-cost carriers like the
recently arrived Independence Air, and the region was just beginning to
recognize the Hudson River for its historic significance and ability to
attract visitors and commercial interests.

Of brownfields, polluted former industrial sites that now are vacant,
Clinton said they need to be turned into something positive for the future.

Sprawl and traffic congestion, meanwhile, may not have been on the agenda
40 years ago, but they are today, the senator said, noting that more
housing is needed so people who want to remain in this area or return after
college can afford to.

CLINTON said New York's agricultural traditions, such as apple growing and
the wine industry, can be part of the economic future. She said there are
efforts to create a farm-to-fork initiative that would encourage
restaurants and other large consumers in New York City to look north for
their agricultural needs, rather than to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Describing a creative economic development effort she's worked on in the
Adirondacks, Clinton said the Hudson Valley needs to take existing small
business and connect them to the global marketplace.

In the state's North Country, Clinton said, a cooperative was formed, and
through a special initiative with online auction and merchandise sales
sites, one- and two-employee companies making things like soap or
fly-fishing rods have been able to sell their wares internationally.

THE demonstrators outside the theater had left by the time Clinton's
20-minute address ended, but a waist-high model of a human head labeled
"depleted uranium" remained seated by the entrance as the senator was
driven from the rear of the building in a short motorcade of black SUVs.

The Pattern conference, "Change Challenge Charter: An Agenda For Our
Future," continues today at SUNY New Paltz with keynote speaker Michael
Gallis, who will put the Hudson Valley in a global context leading into a
discussion titles "The World in a Hudson Valley Context."

Following the session, smaller group caucuses will work on issues of
environment, the economy, respectful social and political culture, and a
dynamic cultural society.