So what can we expect from Wednesday's State of the State speech from Governor Andrew Cuomo, besides a lot of issues-oriented and geographic shout-outs we and every other news outlet in the state will be discussing over the coming month? According to Rick Karlin of the Times Union's Capital Confidential column, "an oft-discussed pay freeze for roughly 130,000 state employees may be Topic One during Wednesday’s State of the State speech, according to several reports this morning quoting sources in the Cuomo Administration."

Cuomo is said to be planning to announce the freeze in Wednesday’s State of the State address. Because state workers in the executive branch are under the governor’s control, a freeze wouldn’t have to be approved by the Legislature. Many of the major state employee contracts expire in April.

Karlin goes on to note that the idea of a pay freeze isn’t new, with Cuomo having mentioned just such a thing in a campaign memo back in May. In December a group of mayors also said they hope the governor — along with the Legislature -- gives them authority to impose a freeze for their workers as well.

The New York Times also had a big story about pay freezes and an impending battle between Cuomo and the state's powerful public unions coming up, noting how both the governor's father and Hugh Carey fought similar battles in their day back in the 1970s and 1980s.

In terms of actions, the new Cuomo has set a tone for his administration by already setting he and his staff what some could term a workaholic schedule, as well as by removing a number of safety elements, from traffic stanchions outside the capital to closed hallways within, that were enacted by the man who defeated his father, George Pataki, in the midst of his three terms in office.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="K2 is one of several brands of "legal marijuana" that have been banned for one year by the federal FDA, under emergency regulations for study purposes. Photo by the Daily Freeman's Tanya Barricklo."][/caption]A synthetic marijuana of chemically treated herbs that has been marketed on convenience market shelves as incense under names such as “K2,” “Buddha,” and “Spice” has been banned for a year by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration after concern was repeatedly voiced by smaller municipalities across the country dealing with users entering emergency rooms and inundating poison control hot lines complaining of elevated heart rates, seizures, paranoia, vomiting and hallucinations. In a story in today's Daily Freeman, reporter Patricia Doxsey has a piece about how the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has used its emergency authority to ban the five synthetic cannaboids used to turn the leafy herbs into a legal form of pot. The chemicals match the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is what causes marijuana smokers to get high. The ban will last a year, giving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services time to study whether to permanently ban the synthetics.

“K2 is dangerous and it’s in the public interest to no longer allow this stuff to be sold,” said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The synthetics will be classified with other drugs such as marijuana, heroin and LSD as Schedule 1 drugs, considered to have no legitimate medical use and, hence, banned.

Although there have been no medical mishaps from the drug locally, Doxsey's report touches in with local hospitals and school administrators dealing with the drug, including Superintendent of Schools Kate Farrell in Catskill.

For the full story click HERE...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Columbia County Board of Supervisors Chairman Roy Brown was chosen to lead another year by his GOP caucus in recent weeks. Photo from Columbia County homepage."][/caption]After all the back and forth in local letters columns between the chairmen of Columbia County's Republican, Conservative and Independence parties and 2010 Chief Financial Officer Art Baer - largely over some bad choices such as the decision to buy the old Ockawamick School for county offices, it seems the party chiefs have won, with the Hillsdale town supervisor passed over for his county-wide position for the coming year. At least by his own party.

The Register Star has a story this morning that quotes "multiple sources" confirming that at a caucus of Republican supervisors which took place Dec. 22 saw current Board of Supervisors Chairman Roy Brown, R-Germantown elected as the county Republican Party’s choice for 2011 BOS Chairman. And county Treasurer, Ken Wilber, will take on the title of county Budget Officer - currently held by Baer, R-Hillsdale.

Baer and Brown declined comment and deferred to county Republican Party Chair Greg Fingar, who they said was in charge of speaking to media sources regarding the caucus. Fingar has not returned phone calls regarding this story since the caucus was held.

The Columbia County Board of Supervisors, including all elected officials, will vote to appoint a Board Chairman at their 2011 organizational meeting this Tuesday at 3 p.m., at the Supervisors’ Chambers at 401 State Street, Hudson. At that time it will be interesting to see whether Baer's call, in his letters, for a public repudiation of behind-closed-doors decisions by party chiefs gets heeded.

Holiday closings
Per The Daily Freeman.
•Columbia County offices: closed Monday.
•Greene County offices: open Monday.
•Schools: Reopening Monday.

Information sought
Police are seeking information on two crimes in the first few hours of 2011. In Hillsdale, an armed robbery occurred around 12:30 a.m. at the Cobble Pond Farm convenience store at Route 23 at Route 22, Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper reports. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (518) 828-3344. In Hudson, two Catskill men were stabbed around 3:30 a.m. near the West Indies Natural Foods store at 222 Warren St., according to Francesca Olsen in the Register-Star. Anyone with any information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact HPD at 518-828-3388 or the Detective Unit and TIPS line at 518-828-9900.

Town meetings tonight
GERMANTOWN FIRE COMMISSION Germantown Fire Commission meeting, 7 p.m. at Germantown Fire House, 181 Main St., Germantown. Organizational Meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Germantown Fire District of the Town of the Town of Germantown.
TAGHKANIC ORGANIZATIONAL AND REGULAR MEETING Taghkanic Organizational and Regular Town Board Meeting at Taghkanic Town Hall, 909 Route 82, Taghkanic, 518-851-7638. Town Board of the Town of Taghkanic will be hold their Organizational meeting and continue their year-end audit at the Town Hall, Route 82, Taghkanic, NY. Immediately following the Organizational Meeting, the Town Board will hold their regular monthly meeting.
TANNERSVILLE SITE PLAN PUBLIC HEARING Tannersville Site Plan Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at Tannersville Village Hall, 1 Park Lane, Tannersville, 518-589-5850. Village of Tannersville will hold a Public Hearing on Monday, January 3, 2011 at 7:00 pm in the Tannersville Village Hall for the purpose of Site Plan Review on the Drizen property located at 83 Spring Street and tax map # 166.18-1-57.

Ski report
CATAMOUNT 20-36" 4 lifts open, 24 trails open.
HUNTER 30-75" (27" natural) 6 lifts, 47 trails open.
WINDHAM 45" 5 lifts, 36 trails open.

Weather
SUNNY Temperatures just below freezing.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 1:49 a.m./Low, 8:10 a.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET Chatham: 7:24 a.m./4:33 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET Chatham: 6:48 a.m./4:03 p.m.


Birthdays
JANUARY 3: Van Dyke Parks, John Paul Jones, and Palmolive.

[caption id="http://newsroom.wgxc.org/archives/6555/_mg_9665" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Andrew Cuomo arriving at Capitol 8:15 a.m. Jan. 1, 2011. Photo from governor's office."][/caption]Governor Andrew Cuomo Sunday signed an Executive Order requiring all Executive Chamber staff and other top state officials to participate in ethics training offered by the Commission on Public Integrity. The training will be available beginning no later than January 31 and must be completed within sixty days. Individuals covered by this Executive Order also include agency commissioners and their respective counsels and ethics officers. "Honor and integrity will be a hallmark of this administration, and I am confident that we have assembled a team that reflects that commitment," Governor Cuomo said. "Nonetheless, it is imperative that Chamber staff and other high ranking government officials be versed in the ethics rules and regulations that apply to them. Top government employees should have no questions, no gray areas, and no possibility of confusion regarding what is proper and what is not." The Executive Order also requires officials to participate in this ethics training every two years.

Debora Gilbert's story in The Columbia Paper about the Dec. 28 year-end Taghkanic town board meeting where Supervisor Betty Young revealed she's asked for a risk assessment review from the state Department of Audit and Control is fascinating for its details. How did the audit come out: "Young disclosed the audit in response to a reporter's question at the Town Board's end-of-year end meeting Tuesday night, December 28, just as the board was preparing to adjourn to an executive session," Gilbert writes. She says the town began, but did not finish, the required year-end audit, which she says will continue at tonight's town board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Gilbert notes Taghkanic officials recently revealed a discrepancy between the Highway Department and Town Board about finances. Gilbert hints that the meeting was divisive: "During the internal audit process conducted on Tuesday night of records kept by the town tax collector, town clerk and two justice courts, those in attendance could watch the Town Board scrutinize documents but could not hear comments made by officials or otherwise follow the process. Ms. Thompson had circulated a guide and questionnaire provided by the state comptroller's office and suggested that town board members use it to give the process more structure, but she got no cooperation from her colleagues on the board. The only other Democrat on the board, Larry Kaddish, was absent Tuesday due to the illness of a family member." Then Gilbert writes, "Town attorney Robert Fitzsimmons, who is paid $150 per hour for travel, attendance at meetings and legal work, sat motionless through the whole hour-long process after delivering a brief report on a new dog licensing law, which requires every who owns a dog to buy a license for the animal costing $10 to $18 dollars each." After the board finished perusing the town financial records, a budget amendment was passed that allowed $1,943 to be taken from the contingency fund to cover $1,447 worth of recent bills, Gilbert reports. The board also authorized a $12,600 payment to the local rescue squad and voted to retain the Fingar Insurance agency and its current bookkeeper, Brian Fitzgerald. Read the story in The Columbia Paper.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="From Riverkeeper website."][/caption]Riverkeeper, the member-supported environmental organization that defends New York waterways, is touting several victories this past year:
• Riverkeeper succeeds in convincing New York State to deny Indian Point a key water quality certificate for failure to prevent fish kills, damaging IP’s prospects for relicensing.
• EPA issues a historic directive to General Electric to remedy decades of PCB contamination in the Hudson River. General Electric later agrees to EPA’s terms.
• New York imposes a moratorium on gas drilling using the controversial “horizontal hydrofracking” method, after Riverkeeper’s Fractured Communities report reveals widespread environmental damage caused by fracking in other states
• The federal government settles Riverkeeper vs. EPA federal government settles Riverkeeper vs. EPA, and commits to new regulations to prevent up to a trillion fish kills each year at 500 power plants and industrial facilities nationwide.

New York State Senator James Seward, left, takes the oath of office at the Otsego County Courthouse in Cooperstown with his wife Cindy, and Otsego County Judge John Lambert. Seward represents Greene and other counties in the Senate. Photo from Seward office.

[caption id="attachment_2087" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Andrew Cuomo gladhanding after campaign kickoff speech at BRIK Gallery in Catskill, 071710. Photo by Tom Roe/WGXC."][/caption]Andrew Cuomo is now the 56th Governor of New York (his father Mario was 52nd). The New York Times has text of his entire speech from Albany yesterday here. Below, the Associated Press posted a video of his swearing in Friday night at the Capitol. Ten New York governors have been major-party candidates for U.S. president, and six - Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt - have won. Six New York governors have gone on to serve as U.S. vice president, according to Wikipedia.

The year-end meeting in New Baltimore went down just as much of the town's politics, and day-to-day activity has in recent months, according to a report in today's Daily Mail. There was yelling, recriminations, calls for greater civility between board members and the town's staff, and battlelines drawn between the two parties, with one Republican questioning why any of this was brought up in public. The chief battlefield? A mistake was made when an e-mail including social security numbers for staff was forwarded around. After the town supervisor asked everyone to delete what they'd gotten, one GOP board member refused to do so. Later, he was asked to pick up his snail mail from the town clerk and got belligerent with town hall staff. Someone messed up all the town's mail slots. A workplace violence coordinator was called in and a report given this past Thursday at the year-end meeting. Local elections swing around again this November. For the full story read The Daily Mail.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Pull over or move slow when you see this from now on."][/caption]A new state law designed to protect law enforcement, fire personnel and emergency workers took effect today, January 1, 2011, that requires motorists to move over or slow down when approaching a parked authorized emergency vehicle with emergency lights flashing. The law obligates drivers to move over to the lane that is farthest from where the emergency vehicle is pulled over. On single lane roads, drivers are required to slow down and take care to pass emergency vehicles at a safe distance. Violators will face fines and points charged against their driver’s license.The Ambrose-Searles “Move Over” Act honors the memory of State Trooper Robert Ambrose and Onondaga County Deputy Glenn Searles, who lost their lives while serving the public. This report was culled from an online notice found at the Mid-Hudson News Network.

Here's a strange one... MetroNorth railroad says most of its ticket machines are accepting only cash this weekend, noting that its machines on Hudson and Harlem river lines, to Poughkeepsie in the west and northern Dutchess County in the east, as well as Connecticut, are malfunctioning at all stations except Grand Central Terminal and simply aren't accepting credit or debit cards. Cash is still accepted for all tickets, and higher onboard fares are being waived during the outage. The railroad says machine repairs will continue through the weekend. Metro-North is operating on a Sunday schedule for New Year's Day on Saturday. We got this AP update through the Daily Freeman this morning, as the MTA's own website has nothing about it anywhere obvious as yet.

Two men from Catskill were stabbed early New Year's morning on the 200 block of Hudson's Warren Street, city police from the latter town are reporting in a late-breaking Daily Mail story this afternoon. According to the police account, city police responded to the vicinity of 222 Warren Street (West Indies Natural Foods) at approximately 3:18 a.m., after receiving a 911 call reporting a disturbance. There officers located a 27-year-old male victim with multiple stab wounds. The Greenport rescue squad responded to the scene and transported him to Columbia Memorial Hospital. He was later moved to Albany Medical Center where he is in stable condition. A second victim, a 35-year-old male, was also located with multiple stab wounds. He was treated and later released. An investigation is ongoing and no information regarding suspects was released by HPD. Two days earlier, on Thursday evening, police arrested 10 following a drug raid on Columbia Street a block away. The public’s assistance is being requested. Anyone with any information regarding this crime — or any other criminal activity — is encouraged to contact HPD at 518-828-3388 or the Detective Unit and TIPS line at 518-828-9900....Scanner reports also indicated an armed robbery around 12:30 a.m. in Hillsdale.

[caption id="attachment_6451" align="alignright" width="500" caption="By Gus Murphy"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Frederick's blog points out several blocks in Hudson that may be remade in the next few years."][/caption]Hudson-based architect and urban designer Matthew Frederick notes on his blog "Hudson Urbanism" that his city will radically change in a few years time if a number of projects currently planned or somewhere in the planning process get built: "a Hudson Senior Center [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Proposal for Hudson Senior Center, from The Gossips of Rivertown blog."][/caption](to be built as an addition to the Youth Center), a city police station, a city court, a consolidated headquarters for the Columbia County Department of Social Services (if the department stays in the city, as it should), a new parking garage (to serve social services and the general public), a new housing development to replace Bliss Tower, a new restaurant on the waterfront, and the restoration of Washington Hose." He notes, "five of these projects--the police station, courthouse, social services, parking garage, and Bliss II--will be built within a several-block area between Columbia and State Sts., from around First St. to just above Fourth." He advocates a coordinated approach to re-make the city instead of each project happening independently with a resulting hodge-podge look.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="A proposal is being discussed to move many of Hudson's county services into the vacant Wal-Mart store on Fairview Ave. in Greenport. Photo by Tom Roe."][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Washington Hose, in this photo from The Gossips of Rivertown, is being restored and will be offices for the Hudson Development Corporation and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce."][/caption]

A rundown of New Year’s holiday schedules from The Daily Freeman:
•Amtrak: regular schedule Saturday.
•Columbia County offices: closed Monday.
•Federal offices: open Monday.
•Financial markets: open Monday.
•Greene County offices: open Monday.
•Greene County Transit: No service Saturday.
•Mail delivery: None Saturday.
•Metro-North: Sunday schedule on Saturday.
•Schools: Reopening Monday.
•State offices: Closed Saturday.
•Trailways: Regular schedules.

John Mason in the Register-Star reports that Tuesday the Greenport Planning Board granted the Widewaters Development Corp. a subdivision for Kohl’s, meaning the new department store will have its own large sign on Fairview Avenue. Mason says there was little comment at a public hearing for the proposal. Marco Marzocchi, general counsel of retail development for the Widewaters Group, told Mason Widewaters is in negotiations with potential tenants for the structure adjoining Kohl’s. "Marzocchi told the Register-Star the subdivision allows Kohl’s to be separately assessed and receive its own tax bill," Mason wrote. "The store can also put up its own monument sign on Ring Road." Previously Marzocchi maintained Kohl's would not open the store without Columbia County granting the chain a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). When the county denied Kohl's that tax break (another story is here), they went ahead and will open in February, Mason reports. Kohl's and a Wal-Mart superstore anchor this new plaza, and a TJ Maxx also recently opened there.

Starting on Monday, January 3, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., the Athens Cultural Center hosts a free playgroup for 0-5 year-olds accompanied by a parent, grandparent, or guardian. At 10:30 a.m. each week the group includes circle time with songs and a story. Small babies and expectant parents are welcome. For more information contact Leslie Reed at lesliecreed@hotmail.com or (518) 945-2580.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced in the final moments of 2010 the emergency adoption of revisions to the state regulation implementing the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) program. According to a DEC press release: "The revised greenhouse gas regulations will shield smaller sources from regulations that are aimed at larger, more significant sources. With this revised regulation, smaller sources in New York such as schools, auto-body garages, churches, multi-family residential buildings or dwellings, warehouses, shopping centers, restaurants, and other small commercial facilities will not be subject to the federal regulation of greenhouse gases beginning January 2, 2011."

An unsigned "breaking news" report at 6:30 p.m. Friday Register-Star came in ahead of the paper's usual 2 a.m. online "printing" with a report of a Hudson police sweep almost 24 hours before. The 7 p.m. Thursday raid via county-issued search warrant arrested 10 people on various drug charges at the first floor apartment of 235 Columbia St., the third time in five years the address has been raided. John S. Waite, 47; Demond A. Davis, 29; Victoria A. Teator, 47; Johnathan Roman, 34; John V. Winfield, 60; Thomas C.P. Rockwell, 48; Michelle L. Moskaluk, 21; Daniel J. Brown, 39; and Jennifer L. Torres, 24, all of Hudson, and Tamara L. Egan, 40, of Stuyvesant, were all charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, first-degree loitering and criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, all class A misdemeanors, police told the Register-Star. There were additional charges for several defendants.