Katie Kocijanski is reporting in The Daily Mail Cairo-Durham Superintendent Anthony Taibi [TIE-ee-bee] addressed the Greene County Legislature Public Safety Committee, Wed., Jun. 1, urging that changes be made on Route 145, at the entrance to the Cairo-Durham Middle and High School campus. Several serious accidents have occurred at the site in the past few years and raised community concerns about safety, for students in particular. Taibi told lawmakers, “This intersection is a ticking time bomb. We need to come up with a permanent solution.” Following a fatal accident at the intersection in 2011, the state Department of Transportation reduced the speed limit and removed a passing zone, but school officials say more is needed. They are asking that a traffic light be installed, and a passing lane be created. County legislators Harry Lennon and William Lawrence of Cairo, and Aidan O’Connor Jr. of Durham, all support the changes. Town, county and school district officials intend to write letters to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, state Sen. George Amedore and Assembly member Pete Lopez, proposing the changes. Taibi said the letter-writing campaign on the issue conducted by the district reached 4,000 people on social media. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.

John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star Hudson Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton said Wed., Jun. 1, the city's new senior center will open sometime in July. Hamilton made the announcement as she laid out her center staffing and programming plan for the Common Council Youth and Aging Committee during its regular monthly meeting at City Hall. Under Hamilton's proposal, the center will be managed by a site manager provided by Columbia County, Americorps workers and a site coordinator hired by the city. Morning activities will be open to people 60 and older, feature two presentations a month on subjects such as health and wellness, but the center will generally be open for unstructured pursuits during that time. The county will provide meals to the center. Reservations will be required 24 hours in advance. Hamilton said bingo will no longer be offered. She recently confirmed with the New York Gaming Commission that the city cannot run bingo games. The new Hudson Senior Center is located at 51 N. Fifth Street, in the former Hudson Armory building. Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Bethany Bump is reporting at Capitol Confidential the New York State Education Department Wed., Jun. 1, released more questions than ever before from the grades three through eight state English and math tests. This is also the first time the information has been made available this soon following the exams. The material was provided in response to long-held concerns over the usefulness of state assessments. Three-quarters of the test questions are now available online at EngageNY [dot] org. And instructional reports providing evidence of how students performed on the 2016 tests will be made available to districts and schools by the end of the week. High Achievement New York, a pro-Common Core group that supports state testing, said the department’s action creates an opportunity for advocates and critics to come to the table and work to improve state exams. Testing opponents have long argued that the state assessments lose their usefulness when the questions and results do not come out soon enough for districts to identify student progress and learning gaps. Read the full story at Capitol Confidential, a Times Union blog.

Michael Ryan in The Windham Journal reports that like Hudson's basketball team winter, the last time the Windham-Ashland-Jewett baseball team won their section class title, there was not a state tournament to attend. This spring they won their first Section IV, Class D championship in 42 years and now head to the New York State Tournament. The Windham-Ashland-Jewett high school team plays at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at Broome County Community College. “I was extremely happy for these kids. A lot of them have been playing baseball together since little league," coach Jim Adair said. “It has definitely been a process, first winning the [Delaware League] crossover title and then coming so close in sectionals a year ago.” Read the full story in The Windham Journal.

The expansion and renovation of the VA Clinic at the Greene Medical Arts Center in Catskill gets a ribbon-cutting event at 11 a.m. June 2 with U.S. Rep Chris Gibson, Scott Guermonprez the Interim Director of the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center, and CMH President and CEO Jay Cahalan. The clinic, which gives Columbia and Greene County veterans access to healthcare services in a now 3,300 square-feet space with other improvements, with Columbia Memorial covering $100,000 of the improvements, and a $400,000 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs paying for the rest.
For more information see the hospital's press release about the expansion on the WGXC Newsroom here:
https://www.columbiamemorialhealth.org/news/columbia-memorial-health-u-s-rep-gibson-veterans-affairs-announce-agreement-improve-expand-service-veterans-columbia-greene-counties/

The Daily Freeman reports that if anyone wants to vote in the Congressional primary election June 28, the final day to register to vote is Friday, June 3, and the last day to file a change of address for the primaries is June 8. The Democratic and Republican primaries in the 19th Congressional District will take place June 28. Will Yandik, from Columbia County, and Zephyr Teachout are vying for the Democratic nomination for the seat that Rep. Chris Gibson (R-Kinderhook) will give up next year. State Assemblyman John Faso, who also lives in Kinderhook, faces Andrew Heaney in the Republican primary. The district includes Columbia, Ulster, and Greene counties, and parts of Dutchess, Albany, and six other counties. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.

Emilia Teasdale reports in The Columbia Paper that after Chatham Town Comptroller Deborah Cesternino died last April, the town's books were looked over by a temporary comptroller before Mike Bucci of Patterson, Koskey, Bucci & Howe took the role. Bucci has examined Chatham's books and while, “the town is not in… dire financial straits,” he said he does have concerns. The White Mills Bridge project, for example, has not yet been fully paid for and, “We have some work to do on that,” he said. Bucci and the town want to put the current budget reports on the town website. “We are going to have a very transparent budget,” said Councilman Bob Balcom. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

Today is Day 1 of the WGXC All Together Now! 2016 Summer Pledge Drive. During the next two weeks, WGXC programmers, volunteers and staff must raise $20,000 to keep WGXC Hands-on Radio on the air, live and local during the coming months. Your support will make all the difference. Call 518-697-7400 or go online to wgxc.org [slash] donate. Thank you for supporting creative community radio in New York's Greene and Columbia counties.

Local weather forecast

Today: Mostly sunny. High near 79. Thursday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8 p.m. Cloudy. Low around 61.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
FRIDAY: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy. High near 72. Friday night, a chance of showers between 8 p.m. and midnight. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy. Low around 56.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny. High near 81. Saturday night, a chance of showers, mainly after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy. Low around 61..

Sunrise today: 5:20 a.m.
Sunset today: 8:26 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 15:06 hrs.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

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

ANCRAM Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 1416 County Rte. 7, Ancram (329-6512).
ASHLAND Planning Board meeting, 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 12094 Route 23, Ashland (734-3636).
AUSTERLITZ Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 812 Route 203, Spencertown (392-3260).
CAIRO Town Board meeting, 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 512 Main St., Cairo (622-3120). COPAKE Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 230 Mt. View Road, Copake (329-1234).
COXSACKIE Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 16 Reed St., Coxsackie (731-2727).
GHENT Town Board workshop, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 2306 State Route 66, Ghent (392-4644).
HUDSON Industrial Development Agency meeting, 10 a.m. at City Hall, 520 Warren St., Hudson (828-0212).
KINDERHOOK Zoning Board of Appeals meeting (tentative), 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 4 Church St, Niverville (784-2233).
KINDERHOOK Village Planning Board, 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 6 Chatham St., Kinderhook (758-9882).
STOCKPORT Town Board meeting, 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 2787 Atlantic Ave., Stottville (828-9389).

Techdirt reports that until May 31 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was the only appeals courts to rule warrantless access to cell site location data violated the Fourth Amendment. It was a limited decision, just concerning the collection of historical cell site data for extended periods of time as the court believed the records would give authorities considerable detail about a person's private movements. That changed with a May 31 ruling. "We now hold that the Government’s acquisition of historical [data] from Defendants’ cell phone provider did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Supreme Court precedent mandates this conclusion. For the Court has long held that an individual enjoys no Fourth Amendment protection “in information he voluntarily turns over to [a] third part[y].'," according to the court's opinion.

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local news update for Wed., June 1 (3:39). (Produced by Alanna Medlock.)