Governor David Paterson requested the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) designate Columbia and 16 other counties as agricultural disaster areas. Local farmers report problems with tomato, cherry, strawberry, rye, oats, and other crops this summer.

The North Country Public Radio blog reports that national Republicans are not running ads in U.S. Representative (D-20) Scott Murphy's district, and do not seem to be targeting the new Congressman. The Albany Times-Union's Capitol Confidential reported in mid-July that the Democrat hauled in $567,000 from April 1-June 30.

CHATHAM — A public hearing has been set for the revised draft of the town’s Comprehensive Plan Aug. 20, after the public hearing for the Leash Law.

CATSKILL - Andrew Amelinckx's blog reviews Laetitia Hussain's show "Aurum" at Terenchin Fine Art. The Hudson-baes artist, "uses cast-off items, both natural and man-made to talk about the relationship between humanity and nature in its positive and negative aspects," writes Amelinckx. "The work’s gilding helps to integrate the pieces internally and as a whole, they suffer from a loss of the individual color characteristics of the materials used."