Phillip Pants is reporting for the Times Union that at least a dozen residents in Chatham earlier this week, discovered white supremacist literature in their yards apparently left there by a group calling itself White Lives Matter New York. The flyers called for activists in a struggle against white racism and one promoting a documentary called “Europa: The Last Battle.” The items, in sandwich bags and weighted down with dry beans, were thrown from cars, according to residents. At the same time, residents in Rosendale and New Paltz also reported on social media they had been flyered by White Lives Matter New York. “White New Yorkers take notice!” read one flyer found in a mailbox in Rosendale. “The WLM NY Colonial Guard is here to stand for you! Are you ready to join them in Activism and earn YOUR patch?” White Lives Matter describes itself as “dedicated to the promotion of the white race and taking positive action as a united voice against issues facing our race.” The Southern Poverty Law Center defines the group as an extremist neo-Nazi movement. It is decentralized with local cells across the United States, and arose in response to Black Lives Matter. In December of 2021 and January of this year, WLM stickers and flyers were reported in several locations around Columbia and Greene counties, according to Hate-Watch Report, an online clearinghouse for racist propaganda in the region. The group also held a rally in Woodstock in February, where about a dozen white supremacists turned up on the village green. And on the same day in May when a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket put a renewed focus on “replacement theory,” White Lives Matter hung a banner above Interstate 90 in Chatham. Village Mayor John Howe said the police department first received two or three reports about the flyers, but eventually found “close to 20” in the village. Howe said, “We’d like to identify who these people are. It’s not considered criminal at this time, but it’s troubling, to say the least. We don’t want this to turn into something more than what it is.” Those with information are asked to contact the village police department at 518-392-3451 or the village clerk at 518-392-5821, extension 2. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Robin K. Cooper is reporting for the Albany Business Review the former Lighthouse Marina in Craryville on Copake Lake has been purchased by Jon Urban and his family. They have plans to reopen an on-site bar and restaurant. Urban and his investment partners bought the 1.6-acre boat club for $2.3 million, including $700,000 for the business, according to real estate agent John Barbato, who represented the seller, Dominick Sinisi. The transaction was completed September 21 and the details became public after the deed was filed with the county clerk's office last week. To keep the marina business running, the Urban group partnered with Nichols Marine of Albany to manage the boat service, repairs and winter storage business. In the past, the marina has rented its 48 boat slips seasonally at a rate of $2,500 apiece. The marina name has been changed to Mickey's Marina, a tribute to former Copake Lake-area businessman and seaplane operator Michael Braunstein, who died in 2013. In addition to reopening the restaurant and bar, the new owners will generate revenue renting out a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on the property called The Captain's Quarters. The Urban family is originally from the Poughkeepsie area, and has lived in the Copake Lake community for 30 years. They also own the Copake Country Club. The group plans to take some time to come up with a business plan. They have not yet picked a theme for the restaurant or decided whether it will operate seasonally or year-round. Read the full story in the Albany Business Review

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup the old Quarry Steakhouse is thing of the past. Demolition crews last week tore down the once landmark restaurant and banquet hall on Route 26 in Climax, which had been abandoned since a suspicious fire destroyed the building in August 2019. After a report from the Coxsackie code enforcement department cited the unsafe condition of the building, the town board voted to have it razed. Property owner Joseph Pasqualone was invited to a hearing on July 12 but declined to appear. The following day, the town issued a request for proposal for the demolition, cleanup and leveling of the site. The job went to Provincial Contractor Services of Castleton for $32,000. By October 2, the building was completely leveled and only a dumpster, some debris and a piece of heavy equipment remained on the site. J.E.H. Properties 1, with an address in White Plains, is the legal owner of the property, according to tax and deed records. But Pasqualone was previously been publicly identified as the owner behind J.E.H. Earlier this year, the property made Greene County’s list of delinquent tax foreclosures and it could have been auctioned at the county's October 10 foreclosure auction. “However, the property owner has filed bankruptcy which automatically stays any legal actions against the property owner and their property,” said attorney Maria LaRosa, director of taxes for the Greene County Treasurer’s Office. Read more at porcupine soup [dot] com.

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Rick Karlin reports for the Times Union that Heather Goodall, an Amazon employee who is leading the unionization efforts at the company's Schodack fulfillment center, is reporting a strange, intimidating call from the company’s human resources “Central Investigations” office in Portland, Oregon. "Let me get this straight? Are you calling to tell me you're investigating a complaint that …'Heather has a lot of good things to say?' " Goodall asked during the interview, which she recorded. The investigator said, yes, he was investigating an allegation that “Heather has a lot of good things to say.” Goodall has done several interviews with newspapers, and radio and television stations, about efforts to make the Schodack Amazon center a union workplace. "It's extraordinary," said Seth Goldstein, a lawyer representing the Amazon Labor Union. Goldstein said he is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board because he says the interview amounted to coercion and a threat against Goodall because of her union activity. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. “You know how things are. My job is really just to ask the question and to understand what happened and why,” the investigator said during the call with Goodall. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Sara Holthouse reports for the Post-Journal that New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office to reevaluate the system for pricing milk for small farms. Gillibrand chairs the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Local Food Systems, and Food Safety and Security, and passed the Dairy Pricing Opportunity Act, that seeks to reform and modernize the federal milk pricing system. “New York state is the fifth largest dairy producing state in the country,” Gillibrand said Sept. 29, “and yet, we see our small farmers filing for bankruptcy, and sadly committing suicide. Our current milk pricing system is wholly inadequate and nearly a century out of date.... It is time for comprehensive reform. We need a system that fairly compensates our dairy farmers, reflects the modern marketplace, and puts power back in farmers’ hands.” Gillibrand claims that many small farmers lose money producing milk, and that U.S. has lost nearly 60 percent of its dairy operations since 2003. She says she is trying to get the pricing system to reflect the actual costs on small farms. Read more about this story in the Post-Journal.

Two sourdough breads made by the See and Be Kitchen in Cairo were recognized last week at the World Bread Awards

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Brian Hubert is reporting for the Daily Freeman that a Verizon landline outage continued to affect police and fire departments in the region on Oct. 3. As of mid-afternoon that day, the company had yet to provide a specific timeline for when the issue would be resolved. Saugerties Police Department Chief Joseph Sinagra said the outage has impacted callers trying to call police and fire departments using a 10-digit number in Ulster, Dutchess, and Orange counties since Oct. 2. The service did return later that evening only for it to go down again the next day. Sinagra said the outage has not affected his department’s ability to respond to emergency calls. Authorities continue to encourage everyone to call 911 for emergencies. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Mid-Hudson News is reporting it remains unclear who sanctioned three flights carrying immigrants into Orange County Airport in the village of Montgomery last week. Approximately 25 teenagers under the age of 17, mostly girls, boarded a chartered bus at the airport. The bus was then stopped by local and State Police in the village after a pilot reported seeing activity at the airport alleged to be suspicious. Sources told Mid-Hudson News that Homeland Security was involved with the flights, but a federal official with that agency denied it. Then on Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emailed a statement to Mid-Hudson News. “Children under the age of 18 who arrive at the southwest border without a parent or legal guardian are placed in the care of vetted sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement while they await their immigration proceedings. This is done in close coordination with each vetted sponsor who is agreeing to care for the child and is mandated by long-standing legal requirements that have existed under multiple administrations to provide safe, appropriate care to unaccompanied children during the time they are in our care.” In a strangely worded explanation, former Montgomery Mayor Bill Schimpf said, “It has been said that the occupants on the local airplane shipments are being bused to a city of Newburgh church basement for shelter and further distribution, as well as the city of Middletown.” Read the full story at Mid-HudsonNews [dot] com.

Heather Bellow is reporting for The Berkshire Eagle that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on October 3 was investigating the source of an oil slick on the Housatonic River. The source of the pollution was believed to be located north of the Elm Street bridge in Pittsfield, where the slick was first seen late last week. Three members of the DEP’s emergency team were present Oct. 3, looking down at the river, where the sheen of some type of fuel could be seen. Pittsfield resident Maria Vasquez was taking a walk along Elm Street on Sept. 30 when she spotted something in the river she had never seen before. “I’ve never seen a slick there,” said Vasquez, who is familiar with the area near the road bridge where the river flows southwest. On Oct. 3, the DEP workers declined to be identified, but said they had just been called about the contaminant and were about to start tracing it north to figure out where it came from. Vasquez said the area has always teemed with wildlife such as ducks and raccoons, and she once saw a bobcat cross the river. She found the presence of pollution troubling. “That’s really sad to see,” she said. Read more in The Berkshire Eagle.

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Brigid Bergin and Jon Campbell report for Gothamist that Republican and Conservative Party leaders filed a lawsuit last week challenging the New York's laws absentee ballot rules. Currently, New Yorkers are allowed to vote absentee if they fear contracting a disease such as COVID-19. This lawsuit would force most people to vote in person. Some absentee ballots for this election with in-person voting Oct. 29 through Nov. 8 have already been requested, and some have been mailed back. This lawsuit could invalidate those votes. Republicans and Conservatives have been challenging election laws throughout the country recently, in an apparent attempt to lower voter turnout. “Let's face it, the pandemic is over,” said Erik Haight, the Dutchess County Republican elections commissioner who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “So to continue pandemic-era rules in perpetuity is inherently flawed.” The claim that the pandemic is over is false, as the Centers for Disease Control reports high community levels of COVID-19 currently in Berkshire, Columbia, and Rensselaer counties, and local counties continue to report deaths from the virus. Read more about this story at Gothamist.

Tim Williams reports for New York State of Politics that a state appeals judge ruled Sept. 29 that the Independent Redistricting Commission must draw new district lines for the state Assembly after those lines were thrown out by a state Supreme Court judge for being unconstitutional. Last year, a judge had a special master draw new lines for the state Senate and Congressional districts, after they were found unconstitutional before the primary election. But the state Assembly primary is past, and the current lines will remain in place for the coming general election. The Independent Redistricting Commission will work on new lines in advance of the Assembly's 2024 elections. The Independent Redistricting Commission is easily deadlocked, which led to the state legislature drawing their own lines, which led to court's throwing them out. None of that has changed, so the whole process may repeat itself ahead of the 2024 elections. Read the full story at New York State of Politics.

Zach Hirsch reports for North Country Public Radio that Rep. Elise Stefanik claims she brings $600 million into her 21st Congressional District, but that figure is misleading. Scott Horton, the town supervisor of Caroga in Fulton County, supports Stefanik’s record on agriculture and veterans issues. But he says he applied for federal grants through Stefanik's office to help with the repairs to a fire-damaged town hall and got rejected twice. “It was not supported by the Congresswoman and I think it should have been,” Horton said. Correction officers at the federal prison in Ray Brook say the local prison workers' union has tried to meet with Stefanik to talk about staffing issues, but she has not talked with them. While many supporters quoted in the story praise Stefanik for help winning federal aid, she also takes credit for money she did not help to secure. A recent press release titled “Stefanik Delivers Over $586,000 for NY-21 Fire Departments” but in the fine print, the release acknowledges that Stefanik only helped some of the fire departments. Stefanik also has taken credit for projects she opposes. Last year Stefanik described the American Rescue Plan Covid relief package as “filled with pork projects, special interest giveaways, and the Far-Left’s policy wish list.” But after it passed she sent out a press release celebrating a grant for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe with over $850,000 from the relief package that she voted against. A spokesperson for Stefanik would not directly comment on any of these issues, changing the subject instead. Starting in January, the 21st Congressional District will include Rensselaer County. Read the full story at the North Country Public Radio website.

The Times Union reports that New York Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon on Sept. 30 said the plan to gradually raise the minimum wage was ongoing, with upstate regions scheduled to go from $13.20 an hour to $14.20 an hour at midnight Dec. 31. “By raising the minimum wage incrementally, New York is helping businesses adjust to the new rate, while giving low-wage workers the ability to better participate in our economy,” Reardon said in a statement. “Continuing with the multi-year plan to raise the minimum wage is in line with market standards and ensures that no worker is left behind.” But Reardon's announcement will need an official rulemaking and public comment before it is final, according to the labor department. About 200,000 New Yorkers upstate will get a raise if the minimum wage increase is approved. Of those workers, 44 percent are full-time, and nearly 25 percent are supporting children below age 18, according to a state Budget Division analysis. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

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Joshua Solomon is reporting for the Times Union that farm laborers will be paid overtime for time worked beyond a 40-hour work week like other workers in 2032 following a decision issued September 30, by state Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon. Farmers get subsidies to help offset the costs. The decision was celebrated for bringing economic and health equality to the workers but detested by the agricultural industry as another step toward pushing family farms out of business. "This is a difficult day for all those who care about New York being able to feed itself," New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said in a statement. "Commissioner Reardon’s decision to lower the farm labor overtime threshold will make it even tougher to farm in this state and will be a financial blow to the workers we all support." The additional costs to farm owners will be subsidized by New York taxpayers based on tax credits contained in the state budget this year, and farm workers will eventually be paid the same as grocery workers, and other employees. However, the tax credits for farms could be revoked by a new administration. Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, of Long Island, described the tax credit as a "Band-Aid" at an event hosted by a local farmer in Albany County. The farmer, Tim Stanton, said he wouldn't apply for the tax credit from the state because "we don't take anything from the government." Farm laborers currently only get overtime wages after working 60 hours a week, a rule that went into effect in 2020. Before that, farm owners were not required by law to pay their laborers any overtime. Read the full story in the Times Union.