Colin DeVries of the Daily Mail writes that the small-screen debut of Cat’n Around Catskill has been rescheduled for this Saturday. “Must Love Cats,” the feline-centric television series on Animal Planet hosted by musician John Fulton, will feature Catskill’s annual public art project on Saturday, March 5 at 8 p.m. on Animal Planet. The episode’s air date was rescheduled from March 12 to this Saturday. The show will feature clips of the Cat’n Around Catskill project, possibly featuring Linda Overbaugh, executive director of the Heart of Catskill Association/Catskill Chamber of Commerce, which founded the project, and Peter Markou, then town supervisor of Catskill and current Greene County treasurer. Filming was done last summer and prominently featured the famed fiberglass felines designed by local artists Kenny Rich and N.J. Wheelock.

Greene County Legislature Chairman Wayne Speenburgh has called a meeting for next Wednesday, March 9, to discuss pertinent state government issues with local representatives, all Republican, and has invited all Greene County town supervisors and village mayors to attend. Colin DeVries of the Daily Mail rep reports that the meeting is scheduled for March 9 at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of the Greene County Emergency Services Center, 25 Volunteer Drive in Cairo. The announcement of the meeting came following the legislature's human services committee's passage of several resolutions calling on state government to provide mandate relief in face of the state's declared intentions to initiate a 2 percent cap, which has passed the state senate but is failing to gain support in the Assembly, despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo's support. The six resolutions, which still need votes from the full legislature, include: A call for a full state takeover of local government Medicaid costs; Adequate funding provided by the state for family services and child care assistance programs due to increased caseloads; Reform to the youth detention program that will reduce the counties’ costs for maintaining empty or low-population facilities and provide incentive to local governments for alternatives to incarceration; Provision of adequate funding to administer food stamp and safety net programs; development of "predictable and stable” child care funding streams or takeover child care administration; and the maintenance of a “constitutional commitment to health and well being of children” statewide by maintaining current funding levels for child welfare protective and preventive services. State legislators representing Greene County, and pushing the tax cap, will attend to discuss its built-in supermajority override, underfunded and unfunded state mandates, state pension systems, and local government obligations. New York’s 51st District State Senator James Seward, R-Milford, 127th District Assemblyman Peter Lopez, R-Schoharie, and 108th District Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin, R-Melrose, are scheduled. It seems all the fever for cutting government services is hitting increasing pushback as it meets local needs.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Pete Seeger at Solidarity Rally for Wisconsin labor held in Newburgh on March 3. From Hudson Valley Labor website."][/caption]Union members rallied in the Newburgh area in support of their counterparts at the Wisconsin State Capitol on the afternoon of Thursday, March 3. Pete Seeger lent his voice to the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation's gathering, singing "Solidarity Forever." Union leaders praised Wisconsin State Senators for refusing to allow what they call an attack on labor by that State's governor. "Turnout at the Newburgh Teamster Hall was greater than expected," reads a news note from the Federation. Over 850 were reported to be in attendance by regional publications. According to Mid Hudson News Network, Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Adrian Huff said the labor issues faced in other states could migrant to this area. “This is a wakeup call to all the labor movement, what’s going on in the Northeast, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, soon to come into Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” he said. Also, Paul Ellis-Graham, president of the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, had a message for their fellow union members in Wisconsin. “Just because we are in another part of the country, we know the battle you are fighting,” he said. “We have our own battles to fight and we are all going to fight them together.” Video footage of Seeger singing, placed on Facebook, was removed at some point earlier this morning.

BOS interest in DSS building grows
Francesca Olsen of the Register-Star reports that the Columbia County Board of Supervisors is now expressing serious interest in purchasing and continuing its use of 25 Railroad Ave. in Hudson, the home of the county Department of Social Services, which Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera has also expressed serious interest in purchasing the building to use as its police and court facilities, even going so far as to contact the state Office of Court Administration for its approval. This, after much debate -- and actions -- on alternate spaces ranging from the closed Ockawamick School in Philmont to the old Wal Mart in Greenport.

Sewer plant project pricier than expected
Melanie Lekocevic of the Daily Mail writes that bids for a major renovation project planned for the Athens wastewater treatment plant have come in, and they are higher than originally anticipated by about 5%. Village officials are expected to vote on whether the bids should be accepted at their next board meeting. The total cost of the renovation project will cost in the vicinity of $3.3 million.

Baby 'doing great' in wake of dog attack; man, boy lauded for efforts
The Daily Freeman reports that the three-month-old who was badly hurt in an attack by a pit bull about three weeks ago in Saugerties is expected to have recovered fully within a month, the infant’s mother says. The boy suffered wounds to his neck, chest and legs, including a broken femur, in the Feb. 18 attack at his babysitter’s home, where the babysitter also was attacked. The dog, belonging to the babysitter's son, was put down immediately. The son was attacked, as well. No charges have been filed.

STOP-DWI program handed to sheriff’s dept.
The Daily Mail has a story about the Greene County Stop DWI program, which, in the wake of the retirements of its two staff members, is going to be administered by the Greene County Sheriff's Office.


Labor talks, layoff plans
Jimmy Vielkind of the Times Union notes that formal talks with public employee unions will start next week, and representatives of the Cuomo administration are saying that planning is underway for up to 9,800 layoffs -- a "last resort" under the governor's proposed budget -- if new contracts are not largely settled by the current contracts' expiration on April 1. They add that things could be even worse if those talks drag on. How's that for a starting negotiation stance?

The National Weather Service says today will have mixed sunshine and clouds and a high of 39F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Tonight will be overcast (and dark). Low 31F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 2:52 p.m./Low, 9:22
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:26 a.m./5:48 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 5:57 a.m./5:57 p.m.

Birthdays
March 4
Henry the Navigator, David "Robber" Lewis, Miriam Makeba, , and Jan Garbarek.

Tune in today
WGXC MORNING SHOW Board Operator Mark Lacoy and Host Casson Kennedy bring you the news, music, and more. 6-8 a.m.
DEMOCRACY NOW! 8 a.m.
WGXC MORNING SHOW Board Operator Tom Roe and Host Andrea Cunliffe will preview weekend activities in Greene and Columbia counties, and play interviews from local folks. 9-11 a.m.
QUE COCINARE HOY? "What's Cooking Today?" Spanish-language news and features from Mariel Fiori and Antonio Flores-Lobos. 2-3 p.m.
WGXC AFTERNOON SHOW Tom Roe hosts. 4-7 p.m.

In a follow-up to the March 2 arrests of 17 protesters in the state capitol, at least 15 of those arrested announced at noon on March 3 that they would be risking arrest again in a continuation of civil disobedience actions against Gov Cuomo's Administration for what spokespeople in a press release from New York Stimulus Alliance are calling, "his corporate-backed agenda of tax cuts for millionaires and deep spending cuts to healthcare, education and social services." The group is being joined by 100 grassroots community activists as they block off the State Street entrance of the Capitol Building in Albany. The demonstrators are again planning to block the entrance on the South side of the building, as well as the hallways connecting the entryway vestibule to the Assembly and Senate offices and the stairwell that connects the Capitol Building to the Legislative Office Building. Groups participating in this action included CAAAV, Community Voices Heard, Picture the Homeless, Queers for Economic Justice, and VOCAL-NY and was endorsed by Right to the City - NYC Chapter.

Legendary folksinger Pete Seeger is joining hundreds of area labor union supporters at a Hudson Valley Solidarity rally Thursday, March 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Newburgh Teamster Hall on Stone Castle Road, as noted in a press release from the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation AFL-CIO. According to Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation spokesperson Beth Soto, the rally is being organized in support of the Wisconsin public employees. “All working people should be concerned about the threat to the collective bargaining process not just in Wisconsin, but in other states as well.” Soto said that hundreds of area union members and supporters are expected at the rally, streaming in from as far north as the Adirondacks and as far south as New York City and Long Island. "If any employer, public or private sector, is experiencing profound financial difficulties, the union can negotiate wages and benefits," said Adrian Huff, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 445. "However, the one thing we will never negotiate is our right to collective bargaining." Lee Cutler, the Secretary-Treasurer of New York State United Teachers, said “This is a moment in our nation's history as important as any struggle before. This Wisconsin attack on collective bargaining rights is also an attack on democracy and the middle class. We must all stand in solidarity with the public sector union members in Wisconsin as well as the courageous Democratic Senators whose heroic actions give us hope." Todd Diorio, Business Manager of Laborers Local 17 and President of Hudson Valley Building Trades said: “Every union must set their differences apart and focus on what is in front of us, and what’s in front of us now, is an attack from many against organized labor. Unions must think reasonable compromise and educate their members who their political allies are before it’s too late.” “Do you want to live in Pottersville or Bedford Falls?” asks John O’Malley, President of Hudson Catskill CLC and BA for CWA Local 1120. The Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation represents 113,000 union families across seven counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster.

By Gus Murphy

Skate Factory in West Ghent, a regional stalwart for local families for the past 20 years, will be closing in the coming month as its owners prepare for retirement. “It’s been a wonderful time and we’ve made many friends and have a lifetime of memories,” owner Mary Ann Gazzola said in a press release published by the Register-Star. “But our age and our family’s needs must now take precedence.” The Gazzolas added that they have no immediate prospects for the building, but will make it available for lease. “Who knows? Maybe someone else will come along and want to continue the rollerskating tradition we’ve had in Columbia County since long before we were even here,” Gazzola said. She said that they want to “go out on a high note” so a reunion skate has been planned for 6 to 9 p.m. April 9. The actual final farewell will be the following Wednesday, April 13.

The Glens Falls Post-Star reports that state police have said they would be charging the 17 protesters they arrested in the state capitol on March 2 with disorderly conduct, and arraigned the 17 before a judge and released them later Wednesday. Handfuls of demonstrators held long banners across the stairways and escalator leading to Empire State Plaza and to three Capitol corridors. forcing state workers and visitors "to struggle past or step over, sometimes with troopers’ help, or seek another route... Dozens of other protesters streamed around the Capitol lobby carrying signs calling for jobs, housing and higher taxes on the rich. One carried an American flag." Protest organizer Wanda Hernandez, a board member from the activist group VOCAL New York, said the group opposes cutting social programs and closing hospitals and schools while letting an income tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers expire after this year. Footage shot by Karen DeWitt for WXXI-FM of Rochester.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Why are teachers getting such guff? Journalists are starting to look into the current phenomenon."][/caption]The New York Times' Trip Gabriel has written a story that asks the great question of the day: why are teachers getting so much scorn? "The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her. Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators. You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage," Gabriel starts his piece. "'You feel punched in the stomach,' said Ms. Parker, a high school science teacher in Madison, Wis., where public employees’ two-week occupation of the State Capitol has stalled but not deterred the governor’s plan to try to strip them of bargaining rights. Ms. Parker, a second-year teacher making $36,000, fears that under the proposed legislation class sizes would rise and higher contributions to her benefits would knock her out of the middle class." Gabriel then looks around the country, where teachers are seeing similar demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society. "Education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters," he notes. "Republican lawmakers in half a dozen states are pressing to unwind tenure and seniority protections in place for more than 50 years. Gov. Chris Christie’s dressing down of New Jersey teachers in town-hall-style meetings, accusing them of greed, has touched a populist vein and made him a national star." So what's really up? "Although crushing state budget deficits are the proximate cause of lawmakers’ pressure, a further justification for many of the proposed measures comes from the broad accountability movement, which aims to raise student achievement and sees teachers’ unions as often blocking the way," he writes. "Accountability, particularly as measured by student test scores, has brought sweeping changes to education and promises more, but many teachers feel the changes are imposed with scant input from classroom-level educators." He goes on to point that strong union efforts over the last half century may have worked against opinion of individual teachers, especially from those who believe student testing should be used as a means for consequences to those teaching same students.

Doron Tyler Antrim of the Daily Mail reports that the Cairo Zoning Commission has held what could be its final work meeting in a three-year process to write their town's first zoning laws, with the group saying it hopes to schedule a meeting with the town board and planning board this month to discuss the changes to the document since its unveiling last November. The amended law and zoning map will soon be published online and made available in town hall, the group said. The body will need to hold its own public hearing on the plan before it’s handed to the town board for consideration. Following a public hearing by the zoning commission, the law will be handed to the town board. The board must then hold its own hearing. Since November, several amendments have been made to the 158-page document, including expansions of commercial zoning, much grandfathering of existing businesses and land uses, and increases to sign sizes. Also a five-member Zoning Board of Appeals, appointed by the town board, will need to be established upon passage of the law. Each member will serve a five-year term. Enforcement of the law will fall to a zoning enforcement officer, another appointed position, which officials have said could be the same person as the code enforcement officer. Cairo was one of a handful of towns in the WGXC listening area still without any zoning laws of any sort.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="An Esatern Cougar, seen in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo of one captured (and stuffed) in Maine in the 1930s. From USFWS website."][/caption]Lyssa Harris of The Watershed Post reports that after several years of weighing the evidence, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finally called a halt to its investigation of the eastern cougar and declared it extinct. “We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” said the Service’s Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species Martin Miller in a report published in recent weeks. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.” The eastern cougar, which once ranged across eastern North America, is (or was) considered by many scientists to be a subspecies -- a population that is distinct from other subspecies of cougars, but not genetically different enough from other cougars to be considered a species in its own right. Within their story on the matter, the WP highlights a controversy over classification of cougars, and takes a nod to repeated sightings of cougar-like "mountain lions" within the Catskills region. "While the FWS has apparently closed the book on the survival of wild eastern cougars, we doubt today's announcement will satisfy folks who have been insisting for decades that there are mountain lions in the hills of New York State," Harris writes. "If you've lived in the Catskills for any length of time, odds are you know somebody with a cougar story, and a lot of them aren't easy to explain away as bobcat sightings or figments of overactive imaginations. Could western cougars have roamed all the way across the Midwest to end up in New York State?" This reporter saw one of the animals in Delaware County in 1998, and has run images of the animal's paw prints and scat in local newspapers. He has also published interviews with local wildlife specialists, some working with the state, who have talked of state programs that placed the large cats into the wilds of the Catskills, only to retract such statements at later dates. Keep your eyes open...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Columbia County Council on the Arts' annual Arts Walk, as captured in a WGXC Newsroom image by John Lopez last December."][/caption]Six businesses are up for the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce's Crystal Apple Award, to be announced at a gala affair on Friday, March 11 at the Columbia Golf & Country Club in Claverack. The Register-Star focuses on nominee Columbia County Council on the Arts, which is one of two not-for-profits up for the award, alongside the Chatham Film Club. Other nominees include the Hudson-Chatham Winery, Helsinki Hudson, First Niagara Bank and American Glory BBQ Restaurant, all expect for the bank being cultural- or tourism-related businesses, reflecting recent shifts in the local demographics, as well as the Chamber's focus. The Crystal Apple Award is given to one business a year by the Chamber. The annual honor goes to businesses that have demonstrated significant improvement of community services, expanded educational opportunities, private investment, job creation and distinguished involvement in civic affairs, among other areas. Candidate recommendations are first reviewed by the Chamber’s Board of Directors, with the six candidates selected by them. The chamber’s member businesses then vote on the winner, which receives a crystal apple symbolizing Columbia County’s “simple beauty, agricultural heritage and quality of life,” according to the Chamber’s website. The CCCA, founded in 1965, has gone through several upheavals in recent years but has recently started to revive itself with a strengthened board, new executive director, and increasing programs including the annual Arts Walk.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Little Brook Farm in Old Chatham teaches students the career potential in horse care."][/caption]Francesca Olsen of the Register-Star has a story about Little Brook Farm in Old Chatham, a horse rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary that in 2008was selected to be represented at a USDA forum on unwanted horses — Little Brook was chosen out of all the nation’s other horse rescue operations as an example, especially because of its educational component. Olsen's story follows a Cazenovia College Equine Business class of 15 young women, led by Dr. Karin Bump, touring Little Brook and a few surrounding farms, meeting rescue horses, sheep and other mammals protected by Lynn Cross and her dedicated staff and volunteers. “Lynn has really figured out how to make it work — how to really integrate her passion for horses, people and kids in a way that benefits all those populations,” Dr. Bump said. Currently, Little Brook has 60 horses in nine locations — on 55 acres in Old Chatham. The farm is widely-used by the county’s school districts for visits. Bump said the career options for such a major are “very diverse”: some will go into rescue work, some will get involved in land conservation, equine pharmaceuticals (for horses, not made from horses), some will go on to get their master’s degrees in business. “There are lots and lots of options,” Bump said. “The horse industry is a $9.2 billion a year industry.”

There's a lot of school budget talk going around this week...

Budget Grade: Incomplete
Jim Planck of the Daily Mail reports that Catskill School District Board of Education President Andy Jones is now saying that the preliminary budget currently before the public and discussed in an emotional meeting on March 1 is not what the end product will be, and that the BOE does not intend to adopt it as written. The district’s preliminary budget for 2011-12 is structured, he explained, as a mandated-programs-only budget, usually termed a “bare bones” budget, in which funding for all non-mandated programs and services has been removed. Numerous speakers called the release of such figures as irresponsible on the board's part, and nothing but a "scare tactic." A second hearing on the bare bone figures has been scheduled for March 14 at 6:00 p.m.

HCSD holds first budget workshop
Daniel Wiessner of the Register-Star reports that the Hudson City School District Board of Education warned at a meeting March 1 that layoffs and steep cuts are in the cards in order to close a $3.6 million budget gap, along with increased class sizes, reduced AP classes and electives, and cuts to music and art classes.

Kingston school tax levy hike up 10.8% in latest budget draft
Although not in our listening area, the Kingston City School Board is also wrestling with its figures, according to the Daily Freeman, working to reduce spending while maintaining enough programs to keep the district competitive for its graduating seniors looking to go on to college.

Positions clash over teacher seniority rules
Taking away the idea of experience, and years on the job, from teacher evaluations is creating friction between New York City and the state, as well as students, teachers, parents and everyone else... according to new reporting from the Times Union.

Prelim tax levy increase for NLCSD at 0 percent
Paul Crossman of the Register-Star reports that in the New Lebanon School District, the board is predicting their budget for the coming year won’t be a burden to taxpayers, the key concern from last year, while also not cutting programming in any drastic way, the chief aim for school communities this season. Their trick? They used stimulus funds for one-time-only projects and started trimming back staffing levels, and the costs of rising benefits, over the past decade.

The National Weather Service says today will be mostly sunny a good deal of sunshine. Cold. High 27F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Tonight will be partly cloudy. Low 13F. Winds light and variable. It will start to warm, slowly, in the coming week... with precipitation.

Town meetings tonight
ANCRAM Planning Board meeting at 7:00 p.m., town hall
AUSTERLITZ Planning Board meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall, 812 Route 203, Spencertown
COPAKE Planning Board meets at 7:00 p.m., Town Hall
GHENT Planning Board meeting at 7:00 p.m., town hall.
HUDSON Public hearing on Community Development Block Grant for low income housing at 6:00 p.m.
KINDERHOOK Zoning Board of Appeals at 7:00 p.m. at town hall
WINDHAM town meeting at 8:00 p.m. at 8:00 p.m., Town Hall, Hensonville

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 2:14 p.m./Low, 8:42
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:27 a.m./5:47 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 5:34 a.m./4:57 p.m.

Birthdays
March 3 Charles Ponzi, Doc Watson, Ira Glass, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Tone Loc.

Tune in today
WGXC MORNING SHOW Casson Kennedy and Mark Lacoy are on-air guides. 6-8 a.m.
DEMOCRACY NOW! 8-9 a.m.
WGXC MORNING SHOW At 9:30 a.m., Ellen Thurston and Joan Geitz go over weekend events in both counties. 9-10 a.m.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS Labor special today, with Mike Lonigro from 1199 SEIU, John O'Malley from CWA local 1120, and Hudson Catskill Central Labor Council President Cathy Garrison. Other union leaders may also call-in or be inn the studio. Hosted by Christina Malisoff, Sam Sebren, Alan Skerrett, and Nancy Rothman. 10 a.m.-noon
WGXC AFTERNOON SHOW Richard Roth, Ann Forbes Cooper, and Dharma Dailey host this magazine show of news, features, music, and more.

Video from The White House shows President Obama awarding the 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal to Germantown's Sonny Rollins and others in a ceremony at the White House Wednesday. A military aide introduced Rollins at the ceremony this way:

"The 2010 National Medal of Arts to Sonny Rollins for his contributions to American jazz music. Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era, Mr. Rollins’ melodic sensibilities, playing style, and solos have delighted audiences and influenced generations of musicians for over 50 years."

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Protesters sang before, and while being arrested in the State Capitol in Albany Wednesday afternoon, March 2, as seen in this striking image by the Times Union's Paul Buckowski."][/caption]Protests continuing from yesterday's Lobby Day activities in Albany resulted in 15 protesters being arrested Wednesday afternoon, March 2, and taken from the Capitol after a group blocked off some entrances and stairways during a midday protest against looming budget cuts to state health, education and social service budgets. According to reports by the staff of the Times Union, the progressive advocacy group Community Voices Heard used broad banners to block off the Capitol corridors that branch off from the State Street entrance to the building's south side. The group's members also blocked off the top of the escalators coming up from the Empire State Plaza concourse during the lunch hour. The group, and most lobbyists at yesterday's Lobby Day, opposes the budget cuts to programs for the poor and needy contained in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's fiscal plan, and are pressing for the extension of the state income tax surcharge on high-income New Yorkers. Chanting from the protest, which many described as one of the longest and loudest in recent history, could be heard throughout the first floor and as far away as Cuomo's second floor office, with participants chanting slogans like, "Tax the rich, not the poor" and "The people, united, will never be defeated." Afterwards, state troopers on the scene used video cameras and checked IDs of people using the public concourse leading towards the state capitol and adjacent state office buildings. Similar protests have been spreading in recent weeks throughout state capitols in the Midwest. Versions of this story have now gone global via wire services and television news.

Senate says no thanks to Koch
The Times Union reports that former NYC Mayor Ed Koch pushed his way into the face of Senate Republicans yesterday to reveal that the new legislative majority will renege on its promises to leave redistricting to a nonpartisan citizen's committee, and will handle it as its always been done... in old-fashioned partisan "gerrymandering" style. Majority Leader Dean Skelos raised vague "constitutional concerns" with changing the current system whereby lawmakers from the majority in each house draw lines for themselves, often carving out oddly shaped districts - once noted as being similar to salamanders -- to maximize their partisan advantage.

The Times takes on fracking
The Watershed Post reports on a shift in mainstream media coverage of thegas drilling issue, both within the state and region and on a national basis. "Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has finally hit the big time. Not only did the New York Times make the issue the subject of a front-page series of articles this week, but Josh Fox's Gasland documentary was a runner-up in the "Best Documentary" category at Sunday's Oscar ceremony," they write, noting other major pieces from ProPublica's and the Wall Street Journal. "It's the radioactivity, people."

How many people were in West Capitol Park?
Casey Seiler, Capitol Bureau Chief for the Times Union, has a story up that compares counts between several news organizations and nonprofit organizations on the numbers who came out for Lobby Day in Albany yesterday... or at least those who rallied in front of the capitol. Meanwhile, no substantive reporting of the issues raised, or legislative reactions to "lobbying" efforts by the public, have surfaced anywhere yet.

Task force addresses mandated costs
The Buffalo News reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new Mandate Relief Redesign Team made a first report on March 1, but was silent on anything to do with public union contract talks, or how much local governments must pay for everything from employee health insurance to special education programs. The panel acknowledged more work is needed in those areas and warned that property tax cap measures without accompanying mandate reform could create major problems for everybody.