John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star Bliss Towers is getting a computer lab. The board of the Hudson Development Corporation Tue., Jul. 26, unanimously awarded more than $4,000 to the Hudson Housing Authority for the purchase of four Dell computers and dedicated WiFi access. The Computer Lab and Training Program will make it possible for Bliss residents and Section 8 applicants to obtain technical education and computer literacy. The lab will be used by residents to seek and gain employment and available housing opportunities, as well. Second Ward Alderman Tiffany Garriga said the facility will also allow existing programs, such as the Women's Health Project and Operation Unite's literacy program, to expand. For some time, the public housing complex has been Hudson’s only low-to-moderate-income housing center without a computer room. The residential complex is located on Second Street, between Columbia and State streets in the city's Second Ward and is home to 282 people. Hudson Terrace, Crosswinds and Providence Hall/Schuyler Court all have their own computer rooms. With this program, Bliss Towers enters the 21st century. “It was a long journey, but there’s a shining light at the end," Garriga said. Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Katie Kocijanski is reporting in The Daily Mail the Catskill Village Board voted Wed., Jul. 27, to oppose the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline project. In so doing, the village joins more than two dozen other New York communities, including the town of Catskill, against the proposed 178-mile double pipeline that would move Bakken crude from the Port of Albany to northern New Jersey, and then send refined crude back north to Albany, largely along the I-87 corridor. A portion of the pipeline would pass through a part of Catskill where the town and the Greene County Industrial Development Agency are hoping to attract significant development from the tourism or lodging industry. The board heard from Catskill business owner Arielle Herman on Wednesday. Herman pointed out that the pipeline would pose a threat to the IDA property, to the new Leeds sewer system and would also intersect the village's water supply at the junction of County Route 23B and the Thruway. “Pilgrim has not offered any description for how they would protect our water infrastructure from damage during the construction or operation of these pipelines, and, in fact, has failed to even acknowledge that our water supply exists within the proposed pipelines’ route,” she said. Village Trustee Vincent Seeley will attend the town board meeting next week and present a joint resolution for approval. While the measure will not be binding, it will make it clear the municipalities are opposed to the pipeline, he said. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

Jeanette Wolfberg is reporting in the Columbia Paper the number of homeless people receiving or awaiting county aid this month was the highest since March, according to the Columbia County Department of Social Services. The homeless rate usually decreases in the summer. DSS Commissioner Kary Jablonka told the county Board of Supervisors Human Services Committee last week that tackling the homeless issue is a priority for his agency. According to the records maintained by DSS, the number of homeless countywide increased from 34 in June, to 55 in July. A lack of emergency and transitional housing and public transportation are factors in the increase, according to some county officials. No mention was made of the changing housing market in the city of Hudson and the county. Columbia County currently houses its homeless population in motels. However, some people have resorted to living in a tent city located in the woods near the DSS building in Hudson, said a DSS official. At the meeting, Hudson Second Ward Supervisor Ed Cross expressed some frustration with the county's efforts to remedy the situation. He said that several times in his many years as supervisor he has heard the “same dialogue” about the homeless. “We get almost ready. And then two years later, we have the same problem,” he said. Read the full story in the Columbia Paper.

Karrie Allen in The Chatham Courier reports that Chatham is addressing its budget shortfall by hiring a deputy or a sergeant from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office to give out tickets on the Taconic State Parkway to raise money for the cash-strapped town. Councilman Henry Swartz was the only no vote on the proposal. “We shouldn’t be hiring a deputy to make money for the town,” he said after the vote. Residents on nearby Bunker Hill Road and County Route 32 have complained about speeders, but the New York State Department of Transportation denied a speed reduction on those roads. Instead, an illuminated sign has been placed on roads in the town to alert drivers to their speed. Chatham Supervisor Maria Lull told the assembled at the town meeting that, “We are $227,000 in the hole for the 2016 budget.” David Levow told the board reducing speeding was fine, but the town was “dead wrong” to increase patrols to boost revenue. Read the full story in The Chatham Courier.

Lindsay Ellis reports in The Albany Times-Union that the Albany port is getting a $17.6 million federal grant to to move and store heavy cargo. The grant will fund a new on-dock warehouse to accommodate a big lift system, work to upgrade terminals, and reconstruction of the port roadway. Port of Albany General Manager Richard Hendrick said he hopes that the investment will bolster regional manufacturing. The Port of Albany claims it was responsible for $800 million in state economic output annually and employs 1,400. Read the full story in The Albany Times-Union.

Andrew H. Roiter reports in the Albany Business Review that passenger traffic at the Albany airport increased 10.4 percent in the first half of 2016, compared to last year. Albany County Airport Authority chairman Kenneth Doyle said new flights from JetBlue and American Airlines, and a healthy economy, drove the increased traffic. The airport is trying to win $40 million from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office that would add 1,000 more parking spaces to the 6,000 there now. Southwest Airlines is the busiest carrier in Albany, accounting for 289,759 of the 680,340 passengers traveling through the airport this year. Read the full story in the Albany Business Review.

Sarah Maslin Nir reports in The New York Times that last week Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law allowing eating in funeral homes. New York joins 46 other states allowing light refreshments and non-alcoholic drinks at funeral homes. Joshua Slocum, the executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, claims the laws trace back to the Victorian era, when people believed dead bodies could spread disease through the ether. “In reality, it is ridiculous to be afraid of getting sick from an inert body that is not talking, not breathing and not sneezing,” Slocum said. Read the full story in The New York Times.

Local weather forecast:

Today: A slight chance of showers and non-severe thunderstorms after noon. Mostly sunny. High near 90. Thursday night, a continued chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 69.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
FRIDAY: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 3 p.m., then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m. Cloudy. High near 79. Friday night, a chance of showers, mainly before 7 p.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 63.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny. High near 82. Saturday night, a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 63.

Sunrise today: 5:45 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:18 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 14:32 hrs.


PUBLIC MEETINGS


Today is the fourth Thursday of the month.
WGXC suggests calling ahead to confirm time and location.
All numbers are in the 518 area code unless otherwise noted.
CHATHAM Village Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 77 Main Street, Chatham (392-5821).
CHATHAM Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 488 Route 295, Chatham (392-1651).
COLUMBIA County Board of Supervisors Insurance Sub-committee meeting, 1 p.m.; Finance Committee meeting, 2 p.m.; at 401 State Street, Hudson (828-1527).
COPAKE Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 230 Mt. View Road, Copake (329-1234).
HUDSON Community Development and Planning Agency meeting, 1:30 p.m. at 1 North Front St., Hudson (751-1044).
WINDHAM Town Board meeting, 8 p.m. at Town Hall, 371 State Rt. 296, Hensonville (734-4170).

Here's the relevant piece of transcript, from 2015: https://t.co/yVbzyziDHF pic.twitter.com/wXh3Hunx1I

— Ben Taub (@bentaub91) July 25, 2016

There's lots of talk in the news about whether Russian hackers broke into a Democratic computer, copied a lot of information and internal communications, and sent it to Wikileaks to disrupt the Presidential election in the United States. Wikileaks denies that is true, President Obama has said anything is possible, and Donald Trump on July 27 spoke about how a foreign country hacking and releasing emails to affect the outcome of an election was a good thing. Last year, The New York Times included a long story about how Russia employed trolls posting hoaxes and conspiracy theories, heavily-produced YouTube videos, fake Wikipedia entries, and using tens of thousands of bogus social media accounts to alter discourse on topics affecting Russia worldwide. The Times writer, Adrian Chen, said in a podcast released with the story that, "I created this list of the Russian trolls I was researching. And I check on it once in awhile, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what is going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff." So you don't need to believe the Wikileaks story to think that the Russian government is attempting to influence this presidential election. Chen said, "I feel like maybe it's some kind of really opaque strategy of electing Donald Trump, to undermine the U.S., or something. Like a false flag kind-of thing. You know, that's how I started thinking about this stuff after being in Russia."

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news update for Tue., July 26 (2:32). (Produced by Tom Roe.)

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