The Daily Freeman reports that Andrew Heaney from Millbrook, Bob Bishop of Hamden, and John Faso of Kinderhook, the three Republicans vying to run to replace U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson (R-Kinderhook), representing the 19th Congressional District, will discuss politics April 19. The Marlborough Republican Committee, The Town of Lloyd, and the Plattekill Republican Committees host a candidate forum at 7:30 p.m. April 19 at the Marlboro High School auditorium near Wappingers Falls. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports Bernie Sanders speaks in Dutchess County April 12 at Marist College. Michael Stipe, singer of the band R.E.M., will also attend. The rally is at 7 p.m. at McCann Arena.

William J. Kemble is reporting in the Daily Freeman the state Comptroller’s Office audit of Questar III BOCES [QUES-star three BOW-seez] has found no problems. The report was issued last week. The Comptroller's Office reviewed Questar’s purchasing practices between July 2014, and Sept. 2015. “We randomly reviewed 33 purchase orders subject to the BOCES’ procurement policy during our audit period and found that all complied with the policy,” the auditors wrote. The auditors also examined larger purchases that used a competitive bidding process and found no problems. “We commend BOCES officials for establishing and implementing effective purchasing procedures,” they wrote. Questar III includes school districts in Greene, Columbia and Rensselaer counties. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Josefa Velasquez is reporting at Politico New York the New York state Senate Mon., Apr. 11, unanimously passed a bill exempting feminine hygiene products from the state's four percent sales tax. The bill was sponsored by freshman Sen. Sue Serino, a Republican from Hyde Park. The Assembly last month unanimously passed the legislation, which also has the support of the Cuomo administration. It is estimated the tax on feminine hygiene products brings in approximately $8.5 million a year. The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Andrew Cuomo for signature. Read the full story at Politico New York.

Roger Hannigan Gilson is reporting in the Register-Star businesses in Hudson are beginning to install small safes on the exterior of their buildings to hold keys for entry. The keys would be accessible to only Hudson firefighters in the event of an emergency. The mini safe allows firefighters quick, easy access to buildings and homes, without the necessity of breaking down doors, especially in the case of false alarms. The first building to install one of the safes was the former Armory building which houses the new Hudson Library. Businesses or homeowners who would like to acquire one of the lock boxes must first contact the Arizona-based manufacturer. The company then communicates with the fire department to make arrangements for access. Columbia County 911 will maintain records of where the safes are located on each of the buildings. Information on the system can be found at www [dot] knoxbox [dot] com. Read the full story in the Register-Star.

Emilia Teasdale is reporting in the Columbia Paper Habitat for Humanity appeared again last week before the Valatie village Zoning Board of Appeals to correct a variance granted in December to replace a two-family house the organization purchased on the corner of Main and New streets. The village Planning Board also attended the meeting prepared to vote on the final plans for the project. The Planning Board had concerns about the Habitat plan, which calls for new two-family house to replace the existing one. Each of the two attached homes will be about 1,400 square feet and will be owned by two separate families selected by Habitat. After two rounds of voting, the Planning Board finally approved the plan with reservations. Habitat representatives present invited anyone concerned with the plan to become part of the process. Habitat now has the approvals it needs for the project. The existing structure will be demolished and construction will begin this summer. Read the full story in the Columbia Paper.

Video of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump rallies in Albany April 11. John Kasich was also in the Capitol Region April 11, and WGXC will post video of that event soon.

Local weather forecast

Today: Rain, mainly before 10 a.m. High near 51. Tuesday night, mostly clear. Low around 33.

FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS
WEDNESDAY: Sunny. High near 52. Wednesday night, partly cloudy. Low around 33.
THURSDAY: Sunny. High near 56. Thursday night, mostly clear. Low around 33.

Sunrise today: 6:17 a.m.
Sunset today: 7:34 p.m.

LENGTH OF THE DAY: 13:17 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).
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). VALATIE Village Board meeting has been postponed to Tue., Apr. 19, due to the death of Town Council member Debbie Simonsmeier (758-9806).

Radio Insight reports that two radio stations in the western United States had their signals taken over by illegal transmissions last week, with the pirates forcing a sexually explicit podcast about love between folks dressed as furry characters on the FM signals. KIFT, a Top 40 radio station in Breckenridge, Colorado, and KXAX, a Texas country music station, aired the Furcast podcast, with the pirates hacking into the Studio Transmitter Links to the stations. Both stations used a "Barix Box" Studio Transmitter Link, which the pirates took over. The Alabama Broadcasters Association said in an Advisory. "In at least two cases six-character passwords were cracked." KIFT released this statement:

"In regards to our station KIFT this morning, what we know at this time is that a Studio Transmitter Link for our station, which is Internet-enabled, was hacked earlier today. For approximately an hour and a half, programming from a podcast unrelated to our normal programming was broadcast on a booster of KIFT. The main signal of KIFT was not affected, but the booster station was broadcasting the podcast programming, some of which was inappropriate for broadcast use. Our station was unable to regain control over the STL until the station engineer actually traveled to the remote transmitter site, and reprogrammed the system from that location. We use industry standard closed systems for our STL and are unsure how this was able to happen. We are working with equipment manufacturers and auditing the security of our own systems to avoid any repeats of this incident. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where hacking is becoming and increasingly bigger problem. We would urge other broadcast outlets to be aware of the possibilities and to take precautions. We sincerely apologize for to our listeners for the content of the broadcast and are doing everything possible to ensure that is doesn’t happen again."

Barix Boxes are commonly used by low-power FM stations to send their audio over the internet from studio to transmitter locations (WGXC uses a similar Comrex Box between Hudson and Acra studios). Barix, the manufacturer of the hacked Studio Transmitter Link gear, released this statement:

"Barix has been made aware of reported incidents where Barix devices have been hijacked to broadcast unauthorized content. We deplore these attacks. Barix would like to emphasize that its devices are secure for Broadcast use when set up correctly and protected with a strong password. With several hundreds of thousands of Barix devices in operation worldwide, these unfortunate security breaches are an extreme rarity. The problem rests with securing things on the Internet in general. By checking one of the named listing sites, significant numbers of Internet-connected devices of all types and brands can be found. These devices are easily accessible if not properly protected. Barix streaming devices support the highest security levels with 24-character password protection. However, attacks are made easier if this password is not used and changed regularly."

There have been no claims of responsibility for the pirate transmissions.

DOWNLOAD or play the audio version of the local headlines and weather for Mon., Apr. 11 (5:50). (Produced by Philip Grant.)