HUDSON - Jamie Larson writes that the Hudson Common Council will consider a new tax on mass transit use, charging for parking at the city's Hudson train station to bring in $197,000 to the city. He only reports the interests of the city, though, and fails to mention which of the two parking lots will feature the up-to-$3-a-day charges, and how the city will deal with folks who stop by for a few minutes to pick someone up and will now, I am guessing, be waiting in the street causing a bit of a traffic mess.

COPAKE - Jamie Larson writes that Copake Town Accountant Brian Fitzgerald is now only reporting town budget issues in writing after mysterious town officials who are never indentified in the story blamed him for the town's estimated $175,000 2009 shortfall. These mystery officials, Larson reports, say Fitzgerald never warned them of the impending deficit. Fitzgerald says they were warned and spent too much money. Why no one else is quoted in this story is the real mystery.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s current clean-up of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the north Hudson River has not polluted the river downstream, CCScoop reports. "There hasn't been any significant change in the concentrations in the lower river," said Patrick Palmer of the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Water Supply Protection. The EPA is monitoring the river's PCB levels at Green Island, Poughkeepsie, Port Ewen, and Rhinebeck. Those municipalities were selected for monitoring every two weeks because they rely on the river for their water supplies.