Charles North, president and CEO of the Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce, attributed the growth in hiring there to expansion at area universities and hospitals.

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It's a paradise that only the "Dutchess of Coolsville" could imagine, and one she's brought to vivid life in her new album, The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard.

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But the surrounding areas of Dutchess, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam and Westchester Counties do not.

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