Writing in the Register-Star, John Mason has a rundown of three major bridge projects currently underway in eastern Columbia County. All of the projects require detours. The first is the Dinehart Bridge. Dinehart carries county Route 7A over the Roeliff Jansen Kill in Copake. Traffic is being rerouted over the Center Hill Road section of county Route 7A and a section of county Route 7 passing through Copake Lake and West Copake. The work began June 8 and should take five to six months. The Dean Bridge on county Route 21 is the second project. It crosses a tributary to the Roe Jan Kill. The bridge and the road will be closed until the new bridge is constructed, which is expected it to happen by late September. The detour for the Dean Bridge project takes the westbound motorist north on county Route 22 to Route 203, west to county Route 7 and south to county Route 21. The third project is the replacement of the large culvert that carries county Route 24 over Indian Creek in the southwestern corner of Canaan, in the hamlet of Red Rock. The detour for this project reroutes local traffic beginning at county Route 24. All three projects are being handled by William J. Keller & Sons of Castleton-on-Hudson. Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Katie Kocijanski is reporting in The Daily Mail police departments Athens, Cairo, Coxsackie, Durham, Hunter and Windham are slated to take over the job of monitoring registered sex offender residing within their jurisdictions. Greene County Sheriff Greg Seeley said his office would handle sex offender monitoring, but New York State law now requires local police departments manage that task. Seeley reported at a recent meeting of the Greene County Legislature's Public Safety Committee that his office contacted a total of 211 offenders in 2015, conducted 52 residency checks, and 251 offender registry updates were done during that same period. Seeley said he personally believes the Sheriff's Office should remain responsible for sex offender monitoring. "We are a 24-hour agency," he said. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting in the Revena News-Herald the state is moving ahead with plans to conduct an inventory of the natural resources of the Binnen Kill tidal wetland complex. The project looks to identify rare or endangered species within the tributary, as well as other natural resources. The Louis Berger Group, of Morristown, New Jersey, will run the survey, according to Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos. The resource inventory will be conducted along the west shore of the Hudson River estuary in Selkirk. The Binnen Kill is a tidal tributary of the Hudson River estuary. It is surrounded by a tidal wetland complex that includes upland forest, tidal swamp and agricultural fields. The nearly 500-acre site being studied includes properties either owned by Scenic Hudson or protected by conservation easements, as well as lands owned by New York state. Read the full story in the Revena News-Herald.

Donna Abbott-Vlahos writes in the Albany Business Review the owner of Price Chopper supermarkets is denying a story that the Schenectady-based food retailer is considering a sale. Asked about the story, which cited unnamed sources and appeared in a industry trade publication last week, company spokesperson Mona Golub said, "That would be rumor and innuendo, to which I will not respond." The Golub Corp. owns 135 stores in six Northeast states, including nearly a dozen in Greene and Columbia counties, and western Massachusetts. Price Chopper ranks as the 42nd-largest food retailer in North America.

Claire Hughes is reporting in the Times Union the personal information of approximately 3.3 million people may have been exposed due to a security breach at a company that supplies identification cards for health insurance companies. Albany-based Newkirk Products posted a notice about the breach on its website Fri., Aug. 5. Information from the ID cards of more than a half million Capital District Physicians' Health Plan members, and 70,000 BlueShield members may have been accessed. The details retrieved included names, mailing addresses, subscriber and group ID numbers and dependent names. Social Security numbers, birth dates, financial and medical details and claim information were not accessed. The health insurers systems' were not hacked. Newkirk has so far found no evidence the data has been used fraudulently. The investigation is ongoing. People affected by the breach will be notified by mail. Read the full story in the Times Union.

John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star Hudson Conservation Advisory Council Chairman Jonathan Lerner announced to Common Council last week that arborists have determined that all 18 ash trees on Front Street have been infested by the emerald ash borer. The emerald ash borer is an Asian invasive species responsible for killing 50 million ash trees in the U.S. since first discovered in 2002, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The majority of the infected elm trees are on the Hudson Terrace property, the low-income housing complex located on the west side of Front Street. Commission member and First Ward Alderman Michael O'Hara said the city has no responsibility for maintaining the trees. According to the city attorney, O'Hara said, like snow removal, maintenance of trees falls to the property owner. The arborist the Commission consulted recommended pruning and deep-root fortification to keep the trees viable for another 10 years. Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Scott Waldman is reporting at Politico New York public health experts are accusing the Cuomo administration of distributing health information in Hoosick Falls that downplays the risks of having a toxic chemical in the bloodstream. The fact sheet, distributed by the state, provides a simple explanation of what it means for someone to have elevated PFOA levels. However, four experts who reviewed the document for Politico said the information was misleading and does not adequately convey the severity of the danger. The five-page fact sheet includes 17 of the most commonly asked questions about potential health risks, and concludes with a section recommending links for additional information. Hundreds of Hoosick Falls residents now have high PFOA blood levels, some more than 500 times the national norm. The public health experts all pointed to one section of the fact sheet on cancer risks as problematic. That section states there is “no conclusive evidence that PFOA causes cancer in humans," while focusing on the inconclusive nature of scientific studies surrounding the cancer-linked chemical. The state health department distributed a fact sheet last year in which the state asserted that the presence of the cancer-linked chemical in the public village water supply “does not constitute an immediate health hazard.” State authorities were accused in a recent congressional probe of being “sluggish” in their response to the crisis. Phil Brown, director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University said state health departments are often cautious. They focus on avoiding public alarm rather than delivering the blunt truth, he said. “From their point of view, they don’t want to worry people. The truth is people have the right to know what’s in their bodies, in their homes, in their water, it’s their decision how to react to that data,” Brown said. Read the full story at Politico New York.

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Andrea Sears is reporting for Public News Service the Americans with Disabilities Act turned 26 years old this summer, but advocates for people with disabilities say New York City is way behind the rest of the country in complying with the law. There are almost 900,000 people with disabilities living in the city, but Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, or CIDNY, says the city has a long way to go to make streets, schools, subways and other city services accessible. "So everywhere we turn - seeking city services or attempting to use the city's infrastructure - we are blocked by barriers that should have been removed during the past 26 years," she states. CIDNY and another group, Disability Rights Advocates, have released a new report on the city's record in complying with the ADA. Dooha notes that other cities have done a lot better. In Boston, for example, where the infrastructure is just about as old, 74 percent of subway stations are wheelchair accessible. "But 81 percent in New York are inaccessible," she points out. "So, it's really shocking, how little has been done in New York." And while at least 40 percent of the homeless in the city have disabilities, Dooha says only 32 of the 15,000 beds in homeless shelters are fully accessible. On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is hosting a reception to celebrate the ADA's 26th anniversary. On that occasion, Dooha would like to hear the mayor report on the status of the city's residents with disabilities and the barriers they continue to face. "And I would expect the mayor to announce that he is seeking the advice of the community on a comprehensive plan for remedies for these barriers, and that he's committed to make barrier removal a top priority," she says. The full report, "ADA at 26 in New York City," is online at CIDNY.org.

Local weather forecast:

Today: Patchy fog before 7 a.m. Otherwise, sunny. High near 87. Tuesday night, a chance of showers and non-severe thunderstorms, mainly after 5 a.m. Increasing clouds. Low around 65.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
WEDNESDAY: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Cloudy. High near 82. Wednesday night, scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 69.
THURSDAY: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2 p.m. Mostly sunny. High near 90. Thursday night, scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 72.

Sunrise today: 5:58 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:03 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 14:05 hrs.


PUBLIC MEETINGS

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

CATSKILL Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 439 Main St., Catskill (943-2141).
CATSKILL Village Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Washington Irving Senior Center, 15 Academy Street, Catskill (943-1343).
CHATHAM Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at 488 Route 295, Chatham (392-3262).
COXSACKIE Town Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, Reed St., Coxsackie (731-2727).
GERMANTOWN Town Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 50 Palatine Park Road, Germantown (537-6687).
HILLSDALE Town Board public hearing to establish Conservation Advisory Council, 6:45 p.m.; regular meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, Main St., Hillsdale (325-7563).
LEXINGTON Planning Board meeting, 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 3542 Rte. 42, Lexington (989-6476).
STOCKPORT Town Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 2787 Atlantic Ave., Stottville (828-9389).

The Washington Post reported last week that court-ordered declassified administration guidelines say that President Barack Obama approves radio-controlled drone operations, but does not sign off on every single strike. The 18-page top-secret document was signed by Obama in May 2013, when the administration released a “fact sheet” briefly outlining the secret procedures. The rules say the military must have, “near certainty” that the target is correct and that no civilians will also be hit, and that the target poses a “continuing and imminent” threat to Americans, and capture is not feasible, while the U.S. obeys all relevant domestic and international laws. Last month, the U.S. published aggregate numbers on how many civilians have been killed by CIA and military strikes in countries including Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Libya, with 64 to 116 civilians and 2,372 to 2,581 “combatants” in 473 strikes in countries where the United States is not at war. Many nongovernment groups claimed the numbers should be much higher, and all agreed they do not include actions in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. An American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit before Judge Colleen McMahon, in the Southern District of New York, forced the release of the rules. “The [Presidential Policy Guidance] PPG should have been released three years ago, but its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government’s counterterrorism policies,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. “The release of the PPG and related documents is also a timely reminder of the breadth of the powers that will soon be in the hands of another president.”

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news headlines for Mon., Aug. 8 (7:04). (Produced by Philip Grant.)