[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Rural post offices,, in danger of closing as the USPS tries once more to balance its books, have long been a key to America's sense of community, as seen in this classic Currier & Ives image from 1857."][/caption]The U.S. Postal Service is again looking at the closing down of smaller post offices across the country, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal on January 24, that ends up highlighting the post office's dual role as "an agency that keeps rural areas linked to the rest of the nation, and one that loses a lot of money." Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year... and hundreds more closed since 2009. In addition, the USPS will be reviewing another 16,000—half of the nation's existing post offices—that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don't include profitability.

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

The postal service argues that its network of some 32,000 brick-and-mortar post offices, many built in the horse-and-buggy days, is outmoded in an era when people are more mobile, often pay bills online and text or email rather than put pen to paper. It also wants post offices to be profitable to help it overcome record $8.5 billion in losses in fiscal year 2010.

Post office closings occurred in recent years throughout the Albany city area, as well as in rural Delaware County. Sometimes the former community centers slip away quietly, sometimes against community opposition, which has kept a place like Ulster County's Willow P.O. viable for years. "Currently, there are no Post Offices in the Ulster, Columbia or Greene Counties scheduled for closure," said USPS press representative Krista Riemma in a curt comment on the changes on Monday. For the full WSJ story click here.

The City of Hudson is starting to worry about its budgeting process for the coming year. The Register-Star has a report this morning on the city finance committee's first meeting of the year last Tuesday, January 18, where City Treasurer Eileen Halloran said that the possibility of a 2 percent property tax cap proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo will force the city to start discussing what services they could reduce or eliminate in the coming months, for both the current and coming years.

“What are essential and non-essential services? What would people tolerate less of as money is tight?” asked Halloran. “We’ve got to start thinking about where we can cut to hold the line on property taxes ... We should start talking about it right away.”

Halloran and the committee, however, strongly stressed the importance of gathering as much public opinion on any possible cuts as possible.

Some possibilities she used as examples would be cutting down on maintenance of the City Hall building; only picking up recycling once a month; only collecting trash every other week; and altering the snow removal process.

“We may all have to reset our expectations,” said Halloran.

Alderman Abdus Miah, D-Hudson2, said bringing in more revenue would solve more problems than cutting or reducing services.

“I believe that we should look at bigger income,” said Abdus.

Halloran and committee chair Alderwoman Sarah Sterling, D-Hudson1, argued that you can’t have it both ways — but Common Council President Don Moore begged to differ.

“It’s a little premature to say we can’t have one or the other,” said Moore. “We have to look at both, and we need to start now — where we can cut, but also where we can raise money.”

He noted that bringing in revenue is always a “slower process” than cutting expenditures.

“Necessity you cannot cut,” said Miah. “You cannot cut snow removal and garbage (pickup).”

Halloran stressed the importance of being realistic with tax payers when it comes to what “tax correction” will mean for the city and the state as a whole.

“I don’t think we can let people believe there won’t be some shared pain,” said Halloran.

In addition to cutting services and boosting revenue, Halloran said another key principle to keep in mind when talking budgets is to add more property to the tax base, and “find some non-traditional ways” of accomplishing this.

Regarding a 2 percent property tax cap, county Board Supervisor Bill Hughes, D-Hudson4, said he fears Gov. Cuomo is “putting the cart before the horse” when it comes to shifting tax burdens to the municipalities. It’s for this reason that it’s more important than ever to have a game plan in place, he noted.

“I don’t think it’s fair to impose a 2 percent property tax cap and then say, ‘Let’s see how much (municipalities) have to cut,’” said Hughes.

Halloran echoed that the property tax cap is impossible to carry without cutting jobs, which translates to cutting services.

The discussion then quickly shifted to the subject of shared services, with Moore asserting that it may be in the city’s best interest to consolidate certain services with the Town of Greenport.

“It’s a huge issue to raise, but it needs to be raised ... what (Hudson) and Greenport could do together,” said Moore. “Both Hudson and Greenport win if we were to allow that — not just on issues of taxes,” but also sewer and wastewater treatment.

The city missed its chance on the sewer-wastewater consolidation between Hudson and Greenport, it was noted by several in attendance, with new treatment plants currently in the works for both jurisdictions. Hughes noted that a “golden opportunity” for a shared senior center between Hudson and Greenport was also passed up last year.

Halloran was supportive of the idea of shared services with other municipalities, but noted she’d like to see “some successes” first, including the yet-to-happen consolidation of the city trolley bus service and the Greenport Shopping Shuttle.

The city cut the trolley bus service out of the 2011 budget completely, with a new consolidated service set to begin on Jan. 1. The consolidation has yet to officially take place and a new schedule has not been finalized.

“I hope all the supervisors in Hudson push hard in the county and not take no for an answer when it c

omes to shared services,” said Halloran. “Just look at the bus — why the county didn’t get that done is beyond me. We need successes. The bus ought to be one, and garbage pickup ought to be another.”

Alderwoman Ohrine Stewart, D-Hudson4, questioned what would have happened if the city canceled its auto insurance on the buses in anticipation of a Jan. 1 start date for the consolidation.

Among other topics discussed at finance committee:

* The online credit card payment system for city taxes is up and running, with Halloran citing “some subscribers” utilizing the service. One problem, however, is that some people find the convenience fee to be rather high: roughly 2.8 percent of the payment (which goes to the credit card company and not the city). Halloran said she is currently working with the software provider and Bank of Greene County to set up electronic check payment for a flat fee of $4.
* Various resolutions involving fund transfers were introduced, including one which indicated insufficient funds in the employees and police retirement budget line for 2010. Surplus funds from the hospital and medical insurance and cemetery lines were transferred to New York State retirement and monies from industrial development, accountant fees and printing and advertising were moved to New York State Police retirement.

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, which defines itself as serving a nine-county region including Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties, has announced that it will host its third annual “Regional Leadership Conversation” with the chief elected officials from Hudson Valley counties during its President’s Day Breakfast on Feb. 24 in Poughkeepsie. Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, Orange County Executive Edward Diana, Putnam County Executive Paul Eldridge, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Jonathan Rouis, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, and Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino have been invited to participate in the “conversation.” Pattern for Progress President Jonathan Drapkin will moderate the panel. Last year’s event drew more than 360 business, not-for-profit, academic and government leaders to Poughkeepsie for the event.


The breakfast will be held from 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel and Conference Center, Civic Center Plaza, in Poughkeepsie. Tickets are $35 for members and $50 for non-members; table pricing is available. For more information, contact Pattern for Progress at (845) 565-4900 or www.pattern-for-progress.org.

The big question is why the 45-year old entity developed as a basis for plotting a vision for the Hudson Valley to "preserve and promote the social, economic and natural environments of the Hudson Valley region by building consensus for a pattern of growth that will insure a high quality of life" hasn't been involving Columbia or Greene counties more... is it our representatives' fault, or an oversight from the rest of the valley?

We'll let you know before the breakfast...

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Pine Haven Care Center"][/caption]The Ockawamick School building that Columbia County bought in Philmont for county offices, then instead used for storage in the face of a Department of Social Services move out of Hudson, is now being discussed as a potential Pine Haven Nursing Home extension. A story in the Register-Star reports how the county is considering opening mental health office satellites in Valatie and at John L. Edwards primary school in Hudson, and is on the verge of hiring a consultant to evaluate the financial feasibility of home health care services, and the architectural firm overseeing the plans for a new Pine Haven is going to consider the Ockawamick School on Route 217 in Philmont as a potential location. The first Health and Medical Services Committee meeting, chaired by Ghent Supervisor Larry Andrews (R), was held last week consolidating the Public and Mental Health departments and the Pine Haven Nursing Home for the County Board of Supervisors' purview. The Ockawamick plan would see the site opened on a trial basis for a day or two a week, if approved. Cost considerations will be the major concern, according to county supervisors.

The National Weather Service has posted a Wind Chill Warning through 9 a.m. for our area. Monday's NWS forecast says it will be mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 8. Wind chill values as low as -23. Monday Night: A chance of snow, mainly after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 5. Wind chill values as low as -6. South wind between 3 and 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.


Town meetings tonight
COLUMBIA COUNTY Columbia County Board of Supervisors’ Economic Development/Planning Committee meeting – 6 p.m. at 401 State St., Hudson.
TOWN OF GERMANTOWN Monthly meeting at 7 p.m. at Germantown Town Hall, 50 Palatine Park Road, Germantown. 518-537-6687.
CITY OF HUDSON Hudson Common Council Police Committee meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall; Hudson Common Council Fire Committee meeting at 6:45 p.m. at City Hall.
HUDSON SCHOOL BOARD Hudson City School District Board of Education Meeting at 7 p.m. at Junior High School cafeteria.


Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 7:10 p.m./Low, 12:41 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 7:17 a.m./4:58 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 11:18 p.m./9:36 a.m.


Birthdays
JANUARY 24 Oral Roberts, Warren Zevon, and John Belushi.


Live on WGXC Monday
*6-8 A.M.: WGXC Morning Show Hosted by Casson Kennedy, and Mark Lacoy. A mix of news headlines, audio features, and conversation. This morning there will be updates about the storm, possible closings, and more.
6:15 A.M.: WGXC Monday Morning Sports Report
6:30 A.M.: WGXC Farm Report
6:45 A.M.: WGXC Business News
7 A.M.: WGXC Newsroom Headlines
7:15 A.M.: Paul Smart calls in with live news update.
7:30 A.M.: Obama in Schenectady; Gibson on national TV
8 A.M.: Brian Dewan, a Catskill musician and inventor, is featured in The New Yorker this week, and WGXC plays clips of his Dewanatron instrument he and his cousin Leon made, and other Dewan performances.
9 A.M.: WGXC Newsroom Headlines
10 A.M.: Lafarge legislative hearing at Ravena High from last Thursday.

New Representative Chris Gibson, from Kinderhook, made national TV Sunday morning, appearing in the accompanying clip "Behind the Scenes with the New Right" on "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour on ABC. Gibson is shown with President Obama Friday in Schenectady, and speaks about how he would like the President to work with all Americans. He also shows off the air mattress in his office closet, that he pulls out at night to sleep.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Urban farming envisioned for Detroit, as pictured on the Gas 2 website."][/caption]The news out of this year's statewide organic farming conference in Saratoga this past weekend, at least as reported in the Times Union on January 23, is that, "urban agriculture is about more than growing food, and growing food is about a lot more than farming and gardening," according to a leader of the Detroit urban farming movement that's gotten a lot of coverage in the past year. "We're not just growing food. We are growing communities as well," said Malik Yakini, who chairs the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, in the annual conference's keynote speech on Saturday. "We're a post-industrial city that is struggling to find its way," and "urban agriculture is playing a role in that." The three-day conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, with the theme "Diggin' Diversity," drew more-than 1,200 to the Saratoga Hilton and City Center, making the 29th annual organic farming and gardening conference the largest ever for the organization. Some of this year's growth is attributable to a scholarship program that paid the $225 registration fee for 75 beginning farmers, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she said. Including so many younger farmers in the mix, along with those more experienced members in their 50s and 60s, has added a fresh note of excitement for all the participants, organizers said.



During his speech, Yakini, 55, touched on the challenges in trying to interest young people and African-Americans -- who make up a majority of Detroit's population -- in growing food.

For African-Americans, the idea of growing food and cultivating land can be entwined with historic experiences of slave labor and share-cropper farming, he said, describing this as "a mental barrier."

"We have this mind set we have to get through," while well-meaning whites may reflexively move to build relationships that are too paternalistic, rather than supportive, he said. "It has nothing to do with bad intentions," but failure to recognized the tendencies can undermine progress, he said.

Yakini, who was a school principal for many years, described the growth of his own immersion in food and agricultural advocacy from first encouraging children to garden. Gardening took root in the curriculum as a way to help the students build self-confidence and a sense of service, and also develop a sense of environmental connections.

"We also were very concerned about the quality of food in our communities," Yakini said. Residents shopped at convenience stores with little fresh produce and tastes gravitated toward meals high in fat and salt, he added.

He concluded by urging the farming audience to help fuel the momentum of what he called the "good food revolution."

"It seems that the stars are aligned, and people are beginning to catch on, from the White House on down," he said. "This is our time right now. We have to strike while the iron is hot."

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="This Passive House, in Claverack, was designed by Dennis Edlick Architect and will not only be the first such home in New York State when completed in the coming weeks, but one of only 11 in the nation. Click on photo for more information."][/caption]The state’s first certified passive house, in rural Claverack, gets a nod in the January 23 Register-Star, which reports on the final days being spent completing the 1,650 square-foot, three bedroom home being built by Chatham-based Bill Stratton Building Company, designed by architect Dennis Wedlick, after seven months construction. A "showroom for brand new, green products from companies like General Electric, Philips and Mitsubishi," the Claverack home is the 11th certified passive house in the United States and has been featured, to date, in a number of eco-home building publications, as well as on the Sundance Channel.

Passive house does not mean passive solar, Wedlick explained. While passive solar “puts more focus on the sun,” passive “puts more focus on the entire envelope to reduce the amount of energy you need to heat and cool.” About 90 percent less energy, in fact. Similarly sized homes cost around $3,000 a year in energy costs, said Wedlick. This one will probably cost $450 in energy costs per year. That includes heat and electric.



For more information e-mail hudsonpassiveproject@denniswedlick.com, or visit www.thegoodhome.com.

From The Daily Freeman:

The single winning ticket for a Saturday night $122,100,000 Powerball jackpot was sold in Catskill, according to the New York state Lottery Division website. The ticket was sold at the Clothespin Laundromat, Wal-Mart Plaza, U.S. Route 9W. Florine Fisher, who answered the phone at the laundromat and is a friend of the owner, said they did know Sunday who bought the ticket. The winning numbers were: 30, 31, 34, 45, 51, and the Power Ball number was 23.

Clothespin Laundromat was the first laundromat statewide to offer lottery tickets, owner Bahasu Patel said, and now laundromats are encouraged to carry lottery vending machines or have an attendant on hand to sell tickets.

“Somebody said the guy at the tobacco shop had won,” Patel said in a Daily Mail story on the winner, “but when someone went to check they said he hadn’t.”

Two other people Patel spoke with also thought an employee at Smoker’s Choice on Central Avenue had won Saturday night’s Powerball jackpot but no one could confirm it.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Rural Columbia County, maintained by farmland open spaces, has been the the subject of an ongoing series of public hearings on a new protection plan for the county's agriculture."][/caption]The first of five public meetings on a new Columbia County Farmland Protection Plan took place Saturday morning, January 22, at the North Chatham Fire House.The need for a local slaughterhouse and a county agriculture Internet presence were among the concerns raised at the meeting, according to a report in the Jan. 23 Register-Star, which also noted that Columbia County is one of only a few counties in New York state without such a plan. The county’s plan, reporter John Mason wrote, has been in the works since 2001, with the first draft released in 2005. Now, with a $37,500 grant from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, a coalition of groups is working to finish the work started a decade ago, starting with public input. Since 2002, the size of the average farm in Columbia County has declined from 240 acres to 192 acres, while the number of farms has increased 11 percent, from just under 500 to 550. The move to create the new plan takes into account growing pressures from both a second home market in the area that likes the open spaces of agriculture, and would support more farming given proper mechanisms for land rentals to farmers, and developers eying the region's value as a bedroom community feeder for the Capital District. The next public information meeting on the Farmland Protection Program will be 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Cornell Cooperative Extension on Route 66 in Greenport, and the other meetings are listed on the WGXC Events calendar. Read the rest of the story in Register-Star.

Sales tax revenues in Ulster, Dutchess, and Greene counties all increased in 2010 over the same period in 2011, according to a story in Sunday's The Daily Freeman by Patricia Doxsey. "With two more 2010 sales tax revenue checks still due, receipts in Ulster and Greene already exceed what those counties had budgeted for 2010 and receipts in Dutchess are on pace to surpass 2010 projections," Doxsey writes. Greene County has recorded $25,282,642 million in sales tax revenues so far for 2010 (two reports are still due) up $260,872, or 1.04 percent, from the $25,021,770 the county received in sales tax revenues in 2009. The 2010 Greene County budget called for $24,899,995 to be generated in sales taxes.

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Chill Watch for Western Greene County for late Sunday night through Monday morning. Overnight temperatures are expected to be the coldest of the year, and the NWS warns that wind chills could drop to between 25 and 35 degrees below zero in the mountains of Western Greene County. Temperatures throughout the region may fall below zero. What's next? More snow!

Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Francois de Beaupuy in Bloomberg report Lafarge SA, "Europe’s most indebted cement maker" and international owner of the Ravena cement plant, may sell its gypsum business, "four people familiar with the situation said."

"Firms including TPG Capital, Carlyle Group LP and PAI Partners are preparing for a sale this year and may consider bids for all or parts of the operations, said the people, who requested anonymity as Lafarge hasn’t made a decision. A sale may not happen soon because the U.S. unit is still unprofitable and Lafarge may wait for a recovery, the people said. The unit may fetch at least 450 million euros ($605 million) or even top 1 billion euros, provided profit recovers, analysts said. Chief Executive Officer Bruno Lafont, who ran the unit until 2003, has pledged to step up disposals to cut debt. The cement maker aims to retain investment-grade credit ratings after borrowing to make a $15 billion acquisition in North Africa in early 2008, just before a construction slump in Europe and the U.S. set in. 'The gypsum business is less and less at the core of the group’s strategy, which wants to focus on cement and emerging markets,' Rafic El Haddad, an analyst at Natixis in Paris, said in an interview. 'It looks like a business for private equity firms. Industrial players can’t buy it for antitrust reasons.'"

Here in the states, Lafarge has launched a new website for its continental operations, claiming it is, "North America's largest building material supplier."

The attempt to brand Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, and Rensselaer counties, all just north of Columbia and Greene counties, as "Tech Valley" may be self-fulfilling, according to the 2010 Tech Valley Patent Indices Annual Report from Hoffman Warnick, an intellectual property law firm based in Albany. The report says the number of patents issued from the four counties keeps increasing. Spencer Warnick, a partner at Hoffman Warnick, said, "the most impressive numbers to us are the Capital Region without GE indices. Both the quarterly average and total number of issued patents have continued to rise over the nine years that we have done the index. These are prime indicators that the region continues to get stronger technically and that the region is clearly no longer just IBM and GE. We are technologically diversified and are stronger for it."

A longstanding tussle to expand Coxsackie village water to a trailer park on its edge along the Route 9W corridor seems to be in its final stages, according to a Daily Mail report, which says that the final preparations are being put in place to enable Diederich’s mobile home development to connect to the village water supply.

Engineering reports have already been completed that will facilitate the development’s ability to hook-up its residents to village water. The move is being undertaken because the well water that currently services Diederich’s was found to be contaminated.

Holding up the hookup has been the fact that the village is completing work on a new water treatment plant, which got underway a couple of months ago and is expected to be completed in the spring. Until that is done the village is somewhat constrained in how much water it can supply for new hook-ups, even though the Diederich’s issue was considered a public health matter so clearance was given by the state. “Because of the limited capacity we have with the current plant, we don’t have the ability to hook-up a large number of new water users,” Mayor Mark Evans said. “But two of Diederich’s wells went bad and they were forced to choose between installing an expensive chlorination system or hooking into the village system. They opted to do the latter.”.

All engineering plans for the project were completed last month. The cost of paying for the hook-up is being borne by the mobile home park and will not cost the village anything.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Creative Commons image from Inthekoots.com."][/caption]All feeding of black bears is now banned by The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Previously, the DEC prohibited the intentional feeding of bears in proximity to certain locations; DEC's new regulation prohibits both incidental and intentional feeding of bears statewide. The new measure also prohibits incidental or indirect feeding of black bears through food attractants such as garbage, refuse, or bird seed. The regulation grants DEC the authority to require removal of these and other food attractants when bears become problematic. DEC generally encourages discontinuing bird feeding activity in the Spring when bears emerge from their dens and natural foods for bears are not abundant and natural food for birds are becoming more available. More information about black bears can be found on the DEC website at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6960.html.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Furgary Boat Club alongside the river in Hudson, as seen in a photo from the Gossips of Rivertown blog."][/caption]The Register-Star is reporting on a motion to dismiss filed by the City of Hudson in its defense against a lawsuit filed by the Furgary Boat Club in an effort to officially claim ownership of land in the North Bay along the river, where the club of ramshackle fishing shacks has existed on state-owned lands for generations. Those lands are now pegged for transfer to the City. The Furgary, calling itself the North Dock Tin Boat Association Inc. in court papers, filed an adverse possession or “squatter’s rights” lawsuit in June, 2010 against the city of Hudson, the state Office of General Services as well as 18 of the descendants, heirs and devisees of the city’s original founders. Victor Meyers of Hudson law firm Rapport Meyers, who is representing the city in the case, said a motion to dismiss the lawsuit was filed in December.

The question of who owns the land, at the intersection of Front and Dock streets, arose as the city finalized plans to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant next door in 2009. The city was informed that the land on which both the Fugary club and the sewer plant sit was owned by the state. The state swapped the 14.45 acre parcel for underwater acreage in the Hudson River and deeded it to the city.

The shanties which sit on the land in question have been passed down from generation to generation for decades; those who frequent the club use the cabins and the land for socializing, fishing and storing equipment. The land has been unregulated and untaxed for almost 100 years.

“The state still owned, and could grant, the boat club property in 2009,” asserted Meyers.

But the Fugary claims in its suit that the land was originally purchased in the late 1700s by the founders of the city, known as the Proprietors. The club’s attorney, Scott C. Paton of Albany law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus and Williams, P.C., said a title search unearthed the original deed for what was then called Claverack Landing, and that there is no evidence that the deed was ever switched.

“That’s the real issue: What did the state grant to the Proprietors?” Meyers said. “If we can show, based on documentary evidence, that they don’t have a claim — and, of course, the state agrees with us — I think ultimately we hope to be successful on our motion to dismiss.”

Meyers thinks the end result is inevitable — that the Furgary will be unsuccessful in its attempt to prove ownership of the land.

“They’re trying to buy some time to stay another year or two,” said Meyers, adding, “These folks — they are squatters. They don’t have deeds, they don’t pay taxes. It’s a nice life.”

Coxsackie-Athens Central School District officials have been criticized by state audit officials for not having more safeguards in place for their online banking, according to a report issued this week by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, reported in the Times Union. Comptroller Office auditors are saying they surveyed district financial records from July 2008 and last April and suggested the district build in more layers of computer security defenses for their daily banking practices and establish a written policy for users. The district does online banking with four different banks and auditors selected for review 30 electronic transfers totalling nearly $7 million. They noted that the district should follow federal and state recommendations and set up a dedicated computer just for online banking. District officials in a response letter attached to the report said they plan to implement the recommendations.



''A dedicated computer that is restricted from e-mail applications and any Internet activity other than online banking is less likely to encounter a banking 'Trojan horse' or other malicious software (malware) that could lead to a compromise of data confidentiality,'' the report noted.

Other recommendations included establishing procedures with the online banking computer that prohibit putting banking connections into quick links like stored user names, online favorites, or website links.

The audit also said the district should completely close out the online banking connection after each use and erase it from the web browser cache, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies and Internet history.

They also said the computer should then be completely shut down after use.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Chris Gibson campaign announcement in Albany. Photo by Tom Roe."][/caption]Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-20) will appear on ABC’s “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour this Sunday, January 23, a rescheduled air date from Sunday, January 9, when the segment was bumped after the attempted murder of a U.S.Congresswoman in Arizona. “This Week” profiles three freshman Members of the 112th Congress including Gibson, Congressman Bobby Schilling (R-IL) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). "This Week" airs Sunday at 9 a.m. on WTEN in Albany.

Mid-Hudson News reports that private sector employment in the Hudson Valley increased 2,700, or 0.4 percent, to 723,000 for the 12-month period ending on Dec. 31 2010, according to the state Labor Department. "Hudson Valley employment gains last year were greatest in leisure and hospitality (up 1,700 jobs), educational and health services (up 1,500) and professional and business services (up 1,400). Job losses were concentrated in trade, transportation and utilities ( down 1,200), manufacturing (down 600) and natural resources, mining and construction ( down 500)," the article said. The Labor Department defines the Hudson Valley as Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. Greene County’s jobless rate ticked up in December from 8.4 percent to 8.5, and Columbia rose from 7.1 to 7.3.