Sarah Trafton at Columbia-Greene Media doesn't speak with any Greene County legislators who favor the new Greene County jail using its excess beds to house the homeless, an idea recently proposed by the Albany County sheriff. Greene William Lawrence, a Republican from Cairo, said, “[Municipalities] have an obligation to have a place for these people to reside, to train them so they can find employment and provide mental health services. Jail is not quality of life.” “There is a lot more space available [in Albany],” Greene County Legislature Chairperson Patrick Linger, a Republican from New Baltimore said. “They have 1,000 beds in multiple buildings. They can take a full building for [the homeless].” Sheriff candidate Pete Kusminsky said Greene County could not house the homeless because of regulations. “Based on the size and the way Greene County’s jail is designed with classification requirements by the Commission of Correction, I do not believe that we would have the ability to close a pod, making it unlikely that we would be able to utilize the building in such a manner. If the ability arises where we had the space and if we would be permitted to do so, then I would certainly consider it.” Sheriff candidate Diana Benoit said, “It is sad to know we are going into this knowing we have overbuilt our jail. It seems strange to start thinking about what we are going to do with an overbuilt jail before it is built. I think the best thing is not to build a jail that is overbuilt and needs budget augmentation.” Lawrence, chairperson of the Public Safety Committee, said, on average, Greene County residents can expect a 6.73 percent tax increase next year because of the construction. The tax increases are similar across the county with Windham residents seeing the lowest increase of 6.48 percent, and Ashland residents receiving the largest increase, of 6.91 percent. Construction on the jail on Coxsackie began this summer. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Amanda Fries reports in the Albany Times Union that Schodack politicians are learning about state law, and delaying bedrock blasting at the future Amazon warehouse site on Route 9. Activists against the project in the town claim town officials were unaware of the 2015 state law mandating a 45-day notice before blasting. “This is because of what Birchwood (Association) brought to the attention of our elected officials,” said Adam Brunner, a town resident and neighborhood association member. “Information they should have already known.” The Drinking Water Protection law was passed in 2015 when Kinder Morgan was proposing a 320-mile gas pipeline that would pass through Rensselaer County. Read more about this story in the Albany Times Union.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media in the Greenville Pioneer that state Education Department test results of students in grades 3-8 in the Greenville school district declined this year while Cairo-Durham increased, but remained below the state average. In Greene County, the number of proficient math scores rose from 34 to 37 percent, while English scores fell from 32 percent in 2018 to 31 percent in 2019. In the Greenville district in 2018, 33 percent of students scored at a proficient level in English, but that number fell to 26 percent this year. In math, the decline was from 34 percent in 2018 to 30 percent this year. Cairo-Durham's English proficiency scores rose from 27 percent to 30 percent, and math scores rose from 24 percent to 31 percent. Across New York State, English language arts proficiency rose 0.2 percent to 45.4 percent, and math test results rose 2.2 percent, to 46.7 percent in 2019. Read more about this story in the Greenville Pioneer.

Diane Valden reports in the Columbia Paper that Hillsdale resident Leigh McBride presented her history research with Richard McCormack of the site in Craryville where GRJH wants to put a gas station at the Sept. 5 Copake Planning Board meeting. McBride said that in 1936 Clayton Carl owned the Craryville Garage on the site at the northwest corner of the state Route 23, County Route 7, and Craryville Road. In 1947 the property was deeded to his wife, and in 1960 she deeded it to Doris Carl and in 1961 the land was transferred to Sam and Roberta Flaum who operated it the Craryville Garage, with a gas station operated by Ezra Link. McBride says the garage lift is still on the property and worried that hydraulic oil could still be present. The Copake Planning Board extended the public comment period on the proposed Craryville gas station, with the next planning board meeting Oct. 3. Read more about this story in the Columbia Paper.

From WOOC, WGXC's partner station in Troy, activist Mark Dunlea discusses the climate protest in Albany Friday.

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news update for Mon., Sep. 16. (Produced by Philip Grant.)

Dan Friedman is reporting for Mother Jones magazine former Congressman John Sweeney has a new job. In August, Sweeney signed a lucrative contract to lobby on behalf of a key Russian bank connected to Vladimir Putin's government, just as Congress is considering legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia for its attack on the 2016 American elections. Under the terms of the contract, the Troy native will receive $62,500 per month for 12 months of work. Sweeney filed paperwork late last month with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit to represent VEB, a Kremlin-controlled investment bank. The filing says that Sweeney will “engage in meetings and other communications with U.S. government officials regarding potential new sanctions legislation…that could affect” the bank. Sweeney is the former Republican representative of New York's 20th congressional district. He served from 1999 to 2007, before being defeated by Democrat, now Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. An early Donald Trump supporter, Sweeney successful ran Trump/s primary campaign in New York, and served on the presidential transition team. He began lobbying the White House soon after Trump took office on behalf of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a project partly owned by Russia’s Gazprom. Read the full story in Mother Jones.

PRNewswire is reporting the International Center for Leadership in Education, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 16, announced that MaryEllen Elia, former Education Commissioner has joined the center as a senior fellow. Elia left the department on Aug. 31, but her future plans were not announced at the time of her resignation. Elia served as state Education Commissioner since 2015. She will serve as "a vital thought leader" for the International Center for Leadership in Education, "contributing to the vision and content development within her specialized practice areas, which will include policy, community schools, teacher evaluation systems, standards, school choice and urban education." As state Education Commission, Elia "...oversaw the work of more than 700 school districts with 3.2 million students; 7,000 libraries; 900 museums; and more than 50 professions encompassing nearly 900,000 licensees," according to a press release. Read the full press release at Finance Yahoo [dot] com.

Celia Seupel is reporting for the Daily Freeman the Woodstock Film Festival this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. Festival co-founder and Executive Producer Meira Blaustein said of the experience, “I never knew how incredible it would be, or how hard. It’s been magical.” Both she and festival co-founder and partner Laurent Rejto attended the New York City School of Visual Arts. Before starting the Woodstock event, Blaustein had worked on a couple of film festivals before. This year, the festival will include more than 50 features from around the world, as well as many short films, panels, live performances and other special events. The festival will close with a special showing of “The Marriage,” a feature starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, with co-stars Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta. Celebrity guests at this year’s festival will include Hudson Valley local Rosie Perez, Matt Dillon, Karen Allen and Tim Guinee. The festival takes place October 2 through 6, this year. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for the Times Union so-called ghost guns are now present in New York. Beginning a little more than a year ago, some law enforcement agencies in the state began encounterng the untraceable firearms more frequently. The weapons, including assault-style rifles and semiautomatic handguns, are increasingly finding their way into the hands of anyone with the minimal skills needed to assemble them. The guns are 80 percent finished when they are sent to customers by mail-order companies that provide the tools necessary to make them operable. They are called ghost guns also because the self-manufactured weapons have no serial numbers. The companies exploit a loophole in the federal and state gun control laws that does not define the weapons as a firearm under the Gun Control Act. Law enforcement agencies in Onondaga County have seized more than 20 ghost guns over the past 21 months. Legislation that would have banned online sales of self-manufactured firearms was put off by state lawmakers in May, and did not reach the floor of the Senate or Assembly for a vote. Read the full story in the Times Union.

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Click here to download or play today's "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

Jesse McKinley and Christina Goldbaum report in The New York Times that Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans this week to convene the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council to issue an emergency regulation to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in New York. The Council is a little-known regulatory body, and the health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, would call to convene the meeting and call for the ban, which would take effect immediately. At least six deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations have been attributed to flavored e-cigarettes, with 64 cases in New York. Health officials are saying they are seeing lung disease linked to vaping that causes severe shortness of breath and days of vomiting, fever, and fatigue. “Vaping is dangerous. Period,” Cuomo said. “No one can say long-term use of vaping — where you’re inhaling steam and chemicals deep into your lungs — is healthy.” The ban would not affect sales of tobacco and menthol-flavored products. “While today’s announcement was well-intentioned, it will drive our youth to use menthol-flavored products in even greater numbers,” said Harold Wimmer, the American Lung Association president. Read more about this story in The New York Times.

Peter Eliopoulos reports for News10 in Albany that a New York judge became the first to take a gun away from a citizen using the state’s new ‘Red Flag’ law. Robert King of Stephentown was arrested last week for allegedly illegally possessing a pistol and firing it into a parked car in New Lebanon in Columbia County. Police say he made a comment about harming himself after his arraignment, and they filed an extreme risk protection order against King. On Sept. 4 King's guns were temporarily seized, pending a Sept. 13 hearing. On that day, King waived the formal hearing and Rensselaer County Supreme Court Judge Patrick McGrath took away King's pistol and seven long guns for one year. Read more about this story at the News10 website.

Melanie Lekocevic in Columbia-Greene Media surveys local officials as another politician announces yet another effort to address the lack of broadband access in rural New York. This one comes from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and is called "The Upstate Cellular Coverage Task Force." “It’s a big problem across the county, and I know it’s one everybody from Sen. Gillibrand to Congressman Delgado to state and county officials have had conversations about to find ways to fill the gap in Greene County,” Jeff Friedman, president and executive director of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce, said. “Even in places like Main Street in Catskill — if you have Verizon, you don’t have service,” he added. “It’s a big part of attracting people to live and open businesses here.” Catskill's hilly terrain makes reception of all sorts of radio signals difficult, not just broadband. The Catskill mountains also mean more towers are needed for better broadband coverage. Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden crowed about one new tower going up to give one neighborhood better coverage. “A new AT&T tower is being built in Tannersville near Twilight Park, which will pick up a lot of service in that area. That is where hiking accidents happen,” Groden said. “We have a number of dead spots there and sometimes not even 911 service works there.” In Columbia County, Board of Supervisors Chairperson Matt Murell said Germantown, Clermont, Valatie, and other areas lack proper broadband coverage. “We had a broadband committee and a task force and even though they are not related, the public was telling them to fix the cell service while they are at it,” Murell said. Republicans George Amedore and Jake Ashby, and Democrat Didi Barrett also lament the lack of service, singing the same song local residents have heard for years with little improvement. Government officials can't even give away money to improve the problem: in 2010 Mid-Hudson Cable was awarded, and then turned down, a $3.5 million “rural broadband” grant from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Services programs that would have addressed service in the towns of Ashland, Jewett, Lexington, Cairo, Catskill, Windham, Coxsackie, and New Baltimore in Greene County, and Austerlitz, Copake, Claverack, Ghent, Chatham, Hillsdale, and Taghkanic in Columbia County. The Upstate Cellular Coverage Task Force, the latest effort, includes no local representatives. Read the full story at HudsonValley360.com.

Emilia Teasdale reports in the Columbia Paper about a public hearing the Chatham Village Board held Sept. 3 on proposed updates to the village zoning code. Teasdale does not quote any of the public's comments in the story. But local residents will have other chances to hear about the proposals and have their say. The Chatham board holds a workshop on the zoning proposals Sept. 23 and another public hearing October 14 before the board’s regular monthly meeting. The zoning proposals include a new zoning map, new and/or updated definitions, and a new use table, and can be seen on the village website at villageofchatham.com. Read more about this story in the Columbia Paper.

This is WGXC's Congressional Report, tracking the votes, words, and actions of Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from Rhinebeck representing the 19th Congressional District, and Paul Tonko, a Democrat from Amsterdam from the 20th Congressional District. The Fivethirtyeight.com website reports that, so far, the first-term Congressperson Delgado votes with Donald Trump's positions 4.4 percent of the time. Since Democrats took over the House of Representatives Tonko also votes with Trump's positions 2.2 percent of the time. In the previous Congressional session, Tonko voted with Trump 22.6 percent of the time. Click here to download or play an audio version of this report (5:51).

• Patricia R. Doxsey reports for the Daily Freeman that the message from Rep. Antonio Delgado on a conference call with reporters Sept. 10, was that the federal government should do more for adequate affordable housing opportunities. Delgado called for more investment by the government in affordable housing programs, and more, or stricter, regulations for how private developers can use federal funds. Delgado has been on something of an affordable housing listening tour, with a town hall-style meeting Sept. 4 at Bliss Towers in Hudson. Putting restrictions on short-term rentals would be a first step for Delgado. "When it comes to things like Airbnb, there are currently no federal restrictions," he said. "That drives the cost of the housing up in the surrounding area and it takes housing away from people who live in the community.... The federal government hasn’t made any meaningful, robust investment in affordable housing in about 30 years.” The larger problem, Delgado said, was that the government has its interests backwards. "We have a severe imbalance in the interest of private capital and the interest of public good," he said. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

• Patricia R. Doxsey reports in the Daily Freeman that Rep. Antonio Delgado blames Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump for the lack of action on gun control issues, after so many deaths in mass shootings recently. "It's naked corruption," Delgado said during a Sept. 10 conference call with reporters. "This feels like money and special interests and gun companies being able to dictate to Mitch McConnell how to proceed," Delgado said. The president originally voiced support for background checks after recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. "Then he got a phone call" and changed his position, Delgado said. Now McConnell is saying he will only allow votes on bills the president will sign, and Trump is mum about what legislation he approves. Delgado has voted for a couple of gun control measures this year that have not received votes in the Senate. He met members of Hudson Valley chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Sept. 9 in Rhinebeck, and he applauded their efforts to pass gun control legislation. "I told them their work is effective, that work is happening," Delgado said. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

• Congress returned to Washington D.C. after their summer break last week. Delgado and Tonko both voted for the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, which passed 225-193, with only four Republicans voting for the bill, and only five Democrats voting against it. Most of that is also true of the Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act, which passed with Tonko and Delgado's support, and 12 Republicans joining Democrats for a 238-189 vote. And 22 Republicans joined Delgado and Tonko and other Democrats to pass the Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act of 2019. The Homebuyer Assistance Act also passed last week, with only four Republicans and one independent voting against the bill. Delgado and Tonko also supported the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, which passed 295-114, and the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act, which passed 384-23.

• Paul Tonko does list any public events this week on his website. Antonio Delgado does not have any public events listed on his website this week.

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Sarah Trafton is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Friends of St. Patrick's Church are continuing the effort to reopen the historic Catskill church. The 134-year-old St. Patrick’s, located on Bridge Street, was closed in 2016 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. The Friends, a group of 25 parishioners have appealed the diocese's decision, but that appeal was denied by the Vatican's Congregation of the Clergy in 2018. “We recently heard ... that our appeal is expected to be heard by the Collegium of Cardinals but that the promoter of justice, Father Johannes De Witt, has also written that the financial situation of the parish is very bad and it’s demonstrated that the parish at the moment cannot afford to keep the church,” said Deborah Johnson, co-chair of Friends of St. Patrick’s Church. Republican Greene County Legislator Matthew Luvera, of Catskill, wrote to Albany Catholic Diocese Bishop Edward Scharfenberger in 2017, asking that the diocese allow the community more time to raise the needed funds to repair the church. Anthony Petrianni, co-chair of the Friends group believes there is still hope of overturning the diocese's decision. “They didn’t follow protocol when they closed the church,” he said. “They should have let the congregation know. It should have been up to the people.” Parishioners were in the midst of a capital campaign when St. Patrick's was closed, Petrianni said. The Friends will continue to fundraise while the appeal is pending. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Bill Mahoney is reporting for Politico New York as most of New York's minor parties are fighting to maintain fusion voting, the Green Party is urging the Public Campaign Financing Commission to end the practice. Electoral fusion is the practice of allowing two or more political parties on a ballot to list the same candidate, pooling the candidate's votes. New York's Working Families and Conservative parties have filed lawsuits to stop the commission from even considering a ban. “The Green Party has always maintained that political parties should run candidates on their own lines,” New York co-chair Peter LaVenia said. “Candidates should run on party platforms, not the cross-endorsement game that we see, which is often a horse-trading patronage game that the Working Families, Conservative and Independence parties tend to play.” Unlike every other well-established party in New York, the candidates the Green Party supports run on just one ballot line. But the party's official status makes it easier for candidates to occasionally steal the line. Enrolled members can force a primary by collecting the signatures of only 5 percent of the party’s members in a district. In 2016, Republican state Sen. George Amedore defeated Democrat Sara Niccoli in the Green Party primary after the party enrollment in Hunter suddenly increased, and the town's members backed Amedore 39-to-0. Read the full story at Politico New York.