The City of Hudson reported 68,000 gallons of "partially treated wastewater with disinfection" discharged into the North Bay in Hudson, on the Hudson River Nov. 24. The discharge, at 8 Dock St., in Hudson, impacts the boat launch, the Fugary boat launch and the Henry Hudson Park there.

DOWNLOAD or PLAY the audio version of the local news headlines for Fri., Nov. 25 (8:09). (Produced by Philip Grant.)

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced Nov. 23 the completion of $750,000 in safety improvements at the Kaaterskill Wild Forest in the Catskill Forest Preserve. The DEC just installed a 115-foot hiking bridge spanning Spruce Creek and connecting the hamlet of Haines Falls to the Escarpment trail and North/South Lake campground, part of a new 1.8-mile trail there. The area includes the Kaaterskill Falls, where two hikers have died this year, and others have recently. In 2015 the Department of Environmental Conservation closed the area near the falls for $450,000 in safety improvements. The scene there is also immortalized in Hudson River School paintings and Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle.”

Emilia Teasdale is reporting in The Columbia Paper the Chatham Town Board last week adopted its $3.4-million 2017 budget. The spending plan covers government operations plus support for five fire companies that serve the town and for the North Chatham Library. The budget also included $30,000 for the Enhanced Enforcement Patrol, which is paid to the County Sheriff’s Office for a deputy assigned to monitor speeding and other traffic violations on town roads. Councilman Henry Swartz expressed reservations about the item and said the board could have put the money to better use. Board members John Wapner and Landra Haber said they supported the patrol as a way to to deal with speeding in the town. The board cut the salaries of Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals members. The decision was also made to reduce the number of members of the ZBA from seven to five. That reduction will happen over the next two years. The town assessor and a town hall maintenance worker also took pay cuts in the 2017 budget. Town Councilman Bob Balcom said he was proud of how the 2017 budget was prepared. He thanked the Citizens Finance and Planning Committee, and budget consultant Michael Richardson for volunteering their time. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

The Albany Times Union reports that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer was in Catskill Nov. 23 as a long-lost frieze by Thomas Cole was revealed Wednesday at the artist's one-time home in the village. The Thomas Cole House announced the discovery 18 months ago, and Schumer helped the museum get $600,000 toward restoration. "This discovery was a historic moment for upstate New York and all American culture, and I was proud to help deliver the federal funding needed to make this recovery and restoration project possible," Schumer said in a statement, saying he is trying to get another $500,000 for the Thomas Cole House to install a fire suppression system. Read the full story in The Albany Times Union.

The Daily Freeman is reporting the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston is now a year-round facility. After more than 35 years in operation, the museum received a grant from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to fund the installation of new energy systems to heat the building in winter, and cool it during the summer. The museum’s director of education said school tours that were not possible before are now being scheduled during winter months. Beginning Dec. 1, the museum will be open Thursday through Sunday, every week. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

David Giambusso is reporting at Politico New York because the future of the federal Clean Power Plan is in doubt following the general election, fresh air proponents are turning their attention to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. That initiative caps carbon emissions from the power sector and sells allowances back to the market. The program has proven to be a success for power plants, its nine member states and clean energy promotion. Money won from selling carbon allowances is invested by states back into energy efficiency and renewables. The design for the initiative from 2020 to 2030 is expected to be laid out by early 2017, at the latest. Advocates pushed for an annual 5 percent reduction in emissions, but during a conference this week, it looked like the cut was more likely to be in 2.5 to 3.5 percent range. Conor Bambrick, air and energy director for Environmental Advocates of New York sad, "While they didn't talk about the 5 percent at all ... the states are coalescing around getting the best package they can." Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration said it was premature to assume the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would not pursue more aggressive cuts. "At this time, no decisions have been made and everything is still on the table," said a state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman. Read the full story at Politico New York.

Dianne de Guzman is reporting in the Times Union iPhone and iPad users are being advised to use caution when clicking on randomly received links via email or text. Reddit users and a number of technology blogs are reporting that an .mp4 clip circulating on the Internet has the ability to crash an iPhone in roughly 10 seconds. Once clicked, a corrupted video loads and begins to play. The Apple device then slows to the point of freezing and it eventually requires a hard reset. The Verge ran a test and found iPhones running iOS 10.1 and beta versions of 10.2 are vulnerable. A further test by The Telegraph found that versions going back to iOS 5 are also at risk. The content of the video itself is rather benign -- a man briefly appears and performs a magic trick with a deck of cards. Android and Windows users have not reported problems with the video. Read the full story in the Times Union.

The Daily Freeman has a rundown of holiday-related closings for Fri., Nov. 25:

Amtrak: Modified schedule.
Banks: Open.
Columbia County offices: Closed.
Dutchess County offices: Open.
Federal offices: Open.
Financial markets: Open until 1 p.m.
Greene County offices: Open.
Greene County Transit: No service.
Mail delivery: Regular service.
Metro-North: Saturday schedule.
Schools: Closed.
State offices: Open.
Trailways: Holiday schedule.

Local weather forecast:

Today: A slight chance of drizzle before noon, then a slight chance of light rain after noon. Cloudy. High near 46. Friday night, a chance of rain before 3 a.m., then a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy. Low around 34.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
SATURDAY: A chance of rain and snow before 9 a.m., then a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy. High near 45. Saturday night, a slight chance of snow showers between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 29.
SUNDAY: Partly sunny. High near 40. Sunday night, partly cloudy. Low around 28.

Sunrise today: 6:59 a.m.
Sunset today: 4:26 p.m.
LENGTH OF THE DAY: 9:26 hrs.

PUBLIC MEETINGS


Today is the fourth Friday of the month.
WGXC suggests calling ahead to confirm time and location.
All numbers are in the 518 area code unless otherwise noted.


HUDSON Historic Preservation Commission meeting is cancelled (828-1030).

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced decimating cuts to programming last week, and more than 60 staffers reacted by unanimously passing a motion of no confidence. The radio staff cited "systemic failure" in senior radio management and, "the erosion of the editorial and managerial responsibilities of executive producers." The motion also said, "The continuing erosion of specialist programming in music, features and religion is a serious breach of the ABC Charter and a disservice to the Australian audiences that the ABC is funded to serve." Eight staffers lost jobs in the announced cuts, which included the experimental "Soundproof" show.

DOWNLOAD or PLAY the audio version of the local news headlines for Thu., Nov. 24 (4:35). (Produced by Tom Roe.)

Sarah Stodola in The New York Times gives the town of Catskill the next-big-thing treatment, mentioning the real estate speculation there and featuring the Magpie Bookstore, New York Restaurant, Catskill Mill, House of Tuki, The General Store of Catskill and other shops. Stodola writes, "a new energy had taken hold in this small town of 4,000 set in the Hudson Valley, where Catskill Creek meets the Hudson River," and gives the credit to Etsy founder Rob Kalin who started Catskill Mill in 2013. Jeff Friedman, president of the Chamber of Commerce says of the recent development in Catskill, “this has been more sustained, and it’s been fueled by more public-private partnerships.” Read the full story in The New York Times.

Jay Braman Jr. is reporting in the Daily Freeman three regional ski centers will soon open thanks to the sudden weather change and the arrival of snow in the mountains this week. The Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, in Shandaken, Ulster County, will open Friday morning, as will Hunter Mountain in Greene County. Hunter announced the opening on its website Tue., and said the mountain now has more than 12 inches of natural snow and the facility has been making snow nonstop since early Sunday. Windham Mountain, also in Greene County, will open Friday, as well. “We couldn’t ask for a better start!” Windham said on its website. “More than 10 inches of has fallen since Saturday.” Ski Plattekill, in Roxbury, Delaware County, will open Dec. 10. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Today is Thanksgiving Day.

Local weather forecast:

Today: A chance of snow before 10 a.m., then a chance of rain and snow between 10 a.m. and noon, then a chance of rain after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Thursday night there is a chance of rain and snow before 10 p.m., then a chance of rain between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., then a slight chance of freezing drizzle after 2 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 32.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
FRIDAY: A chance of drizzle, mainly after 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. Rain showers are possible before midnight, then a chance of rain and snow showers overnight, with a low around 34.
SATURDAY: A chance of showers, with a high near 42.

Sunrise today: 6:58 a.m.
Sunset today: 4:26 p.m.
LENGTH OF THE DAY: 9:28 hrs.

While there has been a bit of media scrutiny about Jeffrey Eisenach, the head of the President-elect's telecom transition team, the other person named to the Federal Communications Commission transition team for Donald Trump is Mark Jamison. Brian Fung in The Washington Post reported this week that last month he proposed all but abolishing the FCC's role as a consumer protection watchdog. "Most of the original motivations for having an FCC have gone away," Jamison, who leads the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida, wrote. "Telecommunications network providers and ISPs are rarely, if ever, monopolies." Under current chairman Tom Wheeler, the agency has proposed record-setting fines against companies for slowing down "unlimited" data plans and for illegally billing consumers. Jamison said Wheeler has allowed politics to, "infiltrate the FCC a lot more than is necessary." Jamison has argued that the FCC could be replaced by a much smaller agency that just hands out licenses for the airwaves for cellphone calls, mobile data, and TV signals. The Post notes that both Jamison and Eisenach are part of the American Enterprise Institute, an elite conservative think-tank. "I think both Jeff and Mark envision a significantly pared-down agency," said Hal Singer, an economist at the George Washington University's Institute for Public Policy. "In their minds, proponents of regulation must demonstrate a market failure… This is a 180-degree turn from Wheeler's FCC, which began with a presumption that markets failed."

DOWNLOAD or PLAY the audio version of the local news update for Wed., Nov. 23 (3:47). (Produced by Lynn Sloneker.)

The Nov. 21 Hudson Common Council budget hearing was recorded and uploaded by Dan Udell.

The Daily Freeman reports that unemployment fell in Greene County from a year ago. It rose slightly in Columbia County, which continued to have the lower unemployment rate in the state, according to state Department of Labor statistics released Nov. 22. Greene County had an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent last month, down from 4.8 percent in October 2015. Columbia County’s rate was 3.5 percent, up from 3.4 percent a year ago. Ulster County was at 4.2 percent, from 4.3, and Delaware County was unchanged at 4.8 percent. Statewide, unemployment was at 5 percent, up from 4.7 percent. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.

Emilia Teasdale reports in The Columbia Paper that Valatie Village Mayor Diane Argyle will appoint Larry Eleby to the Board of Trustees in January, replacing Philip Bickerton after he was elected to the Kinderhook Town Board Nov. 8, and is not allowed to hold both seats. Eleby lives in Holly Hills and recently retired, now substitute teaching in the Ichabod Crane and Chatham school districts. At the Nov. 15 town board meeting Rustin Dolan was also added to the Village Planning Board. Dolan is an assistant chief in the Valatie Fire Department. The next Valatie village meeting is at 7 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Martin H. Glynn Municipal Building. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.