Rick Karlin is reporting for the Times Union that a visitor from the Bronx, who did not know how to swim, was rescued by bystanders August 28, at Kaaterskill Falls in Greene County. According to a state Department of Environmental Conservation report, forest rangers received a call at 1:15 p.m. reporting a person struggling in the middle pool below the falls. The 27-year-old person wandered into a deep section of the pool and could not stay above the water. Other visitors pulled the person out, and the individual, after being evaluated by rangers, walked out. They were taken by ambulance to Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson. Kaaterskill Falls, a steep and dramatic waterfall located in the Catskills outside of Tannersville, has been the site of several deaths over the years. Most occurred when a visitor slipped and fell or drowned in the pool at the bottom of the cascade. There have been enough problems at the site that the DEC in 2017 opened a new lookout area above the falls, which allows for safer viewing since visitors do not have to navigate the treacherous trail from Route 23A. Read the full story in the Times Union.

MidHudson News [dot] com is reporting that the Sears department store at the Newburgh Mall, the shopping center's longstanding anchor store, will be closing. Mid-Hudson News confirmed the closure with a spokesperson for the mall. The facility is the last full-service Sears in New York. It is unknown when the store would close for good. The Newburgh Mall is in the early stages of a total makeover by Resorts World Hudson Valley. The casino is set to become the new focal point and anchor at the complex on Route 300. Work on that new entertainment venue is moving forward with an anticipated opening later this year. Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Harrison Gereau is reporting for News10 [dot] com that Albany County officials announced August 31, that 5,000 portable air filtration units have been purchased for K-12 classrooms countywide. The air purifiers, manufactured in New York by Austin Air Systems, were unveiled at Watervliet High School by County Executive Daniel P. McCoy, President of Austin Air Systems, Lauren McMillan and Watervliet officials. The portable units are intended to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools and throughout the community. Austin began delivering the units in late August. Nearly 4,100 air purifiers will be provided to public schools, with the rest going to private and charter schools. The total cost of each Austin Air HealthMate unit was about $540. Albany County funded the program with a federal grant supporting COVID-19 mitigation efforts in K-12 schools. The units are equipped with HEPA filtration, a key tool for mitigating COVID-19 transmission indoors. Medical-grade HEPA technology is certified to remove 99.97 percent of all particles larger than 0.3 microns and up to 95 percent of all airborne contaminants as small as 0.1 microns, including viruses, bacteria, dust, dander, and allergens. The unit's filter also includes a carbon blend to remove chemicals, gases and odors. Read the full story at News10 [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Mid-Hudson News reports that Gov. Kathy Hochul has called out the National Guard to help put out the wildfires in Minnewaska State Park in Ulster County. Between 130 and 150 acres of forest were burning on the mountain on Aug. 30. Two Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters with three-person crews that can drop 600 gallons of water at a time have been added to the response team, as well as five firefighters from the Air National Guard. More than 200 wildland firefighters and volunteers, including rangers, local response resources, and staff from DEC, Office of Parks, Homeland Security, State Police Aviation and state fire division are also fighting the fires. The website reports that four fires are active, including three at Napanoch Point, started from lightning strikes, and a smaller fire, two miles east at Stony Kill. Read the full story at Mid-Hudson News.

Andrea Macko reports in Porcupine Soup that two days after a fire at the Catskill transfer station that officials said they would never learn the cause, there was a second fire, and now officials are asking residents not to put certain types of batteries in the trash. This time, on Aug. 30, Catskill firefighters put out the fire quickly with little damage. “Thankfully no one was injured today, and we didn’t lose our transfer station,” a Catskill fire company official said. They are also asking residents not to put lithium batteries in the garbage taken to the transfer station. Lithium-ion batteries, or others in electronic devices, should be recycled at certified battery electronics recyclers that accept batteries, officials say. A fire at the transfer station late on Aug. 27 destroyed three massive trailers loaded with garbage. Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.

On Aug. 29 and Aug. 30, Greene County Department of Health officials reported new deaths from COVID-19 in social media posts. That brings the total COVID-19 deaths in Greene County to 135 since the pandemic began in March, 2020. Greene County officials also reported 16 more cases of the virus in Greene County on Aug. 30. They post information about COVID-19 on taxpayer-funded social media accounts, but do not let citizens comment on those posts. Columbia County Department of Health officials reported their latest COVID-19 death on Aug. 22. They also reported 13 more cases of COVID-19 on Aug. 30, and 37 more on Aug. 29.

Today's daily news update.

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Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the 181st Columbia County Fair begins at noon Aug. 31, and runs through Sept. 5. All of the attractions that bring visitors to the fair are back this year, including the midway, hundreds of exhibits and food vendors, entertainment at multiple fair locations and lots of farm animals. The entertainment at the main grandstand includes two nights of the demolition derby, on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2, and the monster tractor pull on Sept. 3. On Sept. 4, the Association takes the stage in the afternoon and former lead vocalist for Journey, Steve Augeri performs in the early evening. The North Gate Stage also provides continuous entertainment through the fair’s six-day run, including Columbia County’s Got Talent, featuring dozens of local performers. Other fair attractions for all ages include the racing pigs, the petting zoo, and Circus Incredible. The first Columbia County Fair was held in the city of Hudson on October 12, 1841, a year after the Columbia County Agriculture Society was formed. In 1852, officials announced the fair would be held for the first time in Chatham Four Corners, which later become known as the Columbia County Fairgrounds when 15 acres were purchased from a man identified only as “Mr. Bullis” for $175 per acre in 1856. The fair’s main exhibit building, which became known as the Fairhouse, was built in 1884 for a cost of $1,676. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.


Aina de Lapparent Alvarez is reporting for The Berkshire Eagle Joshua Lang, Lanesborough, Massachusetts, town administrator, has decided to resign, after less than a year on the job. “God comes first and guides my marriage and how I raise my family,” he said. “Then family is very important to me and it is difficult being away from your loved ones. The decision I made was primarily due to the fact of wanting to be close to my wife,” he said. Lang married Makayla Zonfrilli last month. Zonfrilli worked part of this year as an administrative assistant for Lanesborough, but now lives in Pennsylvania, where she serves as a York County administrator. Her hiring during a closed-door session of the Lanesborough Select Board was controversial, leading officials to later admit they made a mistake interviewing her during an executive session. Zonfrilli was Lang's fiancé at the time she was hired. Lang, who was sworn in on December 15, 2021, has agreed to remain on the job until September 12, then work mostly from Pennsylvania until the town can find a successor. Lang said he will work remotely, coming to Lanesborough one week per month. Lang indicated he will remain on until the Select Board hires a new administrator and said he is hoping to continue working in the public sector. “My passion is public service. That’s my pathway in life, whether that’s government or local government,” he said. When he was hired, Lang was given a three-year contract at an annual salary of $80,000. Read more in The Berkshire Eagle.

Nick Reisman is reporting for Spectrum News that New York state is designating millions of dollars to provide transportation for people to addiction treatment services in underserved areas, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office on said August 30. In New York City, the funds will create prevention coalitions to aid vulnerable and isolated people, Hochul said. The transportation funding will target areas of upstate New York, including western New York and the Finger Lakes, to increase transportation options. Hochul said, "This funding will help better engage vulnerable communities in New York City while providing transportation to individuals who would otherwise be unable to access treatment in Western New York and the Finger Lakes — supporting our nation's leading addiction treatment services." The state is spending $2.3 million to boost addiction treatment efforts amid a sharp rise in overdose deaths statewide, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. State health officials this week warned of a rise in overdoses in parts of central New York, including Oneida County. Earlier this summer, state health officials required pharmacies to carry naloxone, a drug used to counter the effects of an overdose. Read the full story at spectrumlocalnews [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Lana Bellamy reports in the Times Union that a second wildfire is now burning in the Minnewaska State Preserve Park. Over the weekend a lightning strike sparked the Napanoch Point Fire on the Shawangunk Ridge. Now the Stony Kill Fire is also burning in the Minnewaska State Preserve Park. Officials are adding 60 more firefighters to the almost 100 already fighting the first fire and have doubled to four helicopters for water drops. All access points to Minnewaska State Park have been closed until further notice. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and Ulster County Department of Emergency Services officials are holding a community meeting about the fire at 7 p.m., Aug. 30 in the auditorium of Ellenville Junior/Senior High Schoo and residents can call the Ulster County Community Service Center with questions at 845-433-8888. Officials from the DEC said Aug. 29 that the first had burned at least 30 acres and was 15 percent contained. Currently, there are eight wildfires across New York State, and the DEC’s fire danger map lists the Hudson Valley and Catskills as a high risk of fire. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Now that New York's Congressional elections are all set, the political prognosticators have released their predictions for the November vote, and they are mostly in agreement. The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, and Larry Saboto's Crystal Ball all predict that the NY-19 race between Democrat Josh Riley and Republican Marc Molinaro is a toss-up. They have the NY-18 election between Republican Colin Schmitt and Democrat Pat Ryan either "lean Democrat" or "tilt Democrat." And the Cook Political Report rates the NY-20 contest between Democrat Paul Tonko and Republican Liz Joy as solid Democrat, and the NY-21 election between Republican Elise Stefanik and Democrat Matt Castelli is solid Republican. The fivethirtyeight.com website is the only outlier. They rate NY-18 a toss-up between Ryan and Schmitt, and say the NY-19 election between Molinaro and Riley leans Republican. But fivethirtyeight.com agrees that the NY-20 race is solid Democratic, and the NY-21 election is solid Republican.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media that Greenville school officials are working to put a $13.6 million renovation project before voters in December. The proposal includes the addition of an art suite, art classroom renovation, roof restoration, improved ventilation, asbestos abatement and exterior masonry renovations for the Greenville middle/high school. The Scott M. Ellis Elementary School would get renovations to classrooms in the front wing of the building, new heating system boilers, roof restoration, ventilation upgrades, plumbing upgrades, and restoration of exterior masonry. “One of the bigger things we are looking to do is put an addition on the building to create a dedicated middle school and a dedicated high school art room,” said Matthew Schools, of SEI Design Group. “Right now, they are in one space that really could be the space that one single art room should take up, so essentially they are two small art rooms. We want to add a little to the building and re-equalize the art rooms so they are essentially equal but larger collectively.” The project would cost $13,655,000, with $11,278,233 going to renovations to the elementary school and $2,386,767 for the middle/high school. Officials say 95 percent of the project will be eligible for state aid and that school taxes will not rise. While there will be a large election turnout for the mid-term Congressional election in November, a Greenville-only school election in December should have a low voter turnout. Read the full story at TheUpstater.com.

Today's daily news update.

Click above to download or play today's "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

The Daily Freeman is reporting that the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office will continue to process pistol permits as before even after state gun laws change in September. Dutchess County Acting Sheriff Kirk Imperati said in a press release that while the agency will continue issuing permits, applicants should expect significantly increased waiting times. He also said his agency will do everything possible to limit those wait times. Imperati said the new law will require applicants to attend an extensive firearms safety course and provide information on their social media accounts as part of enhanced background checks. He said that some jurisdictions have stopped taking applications at this time due to the increased waiting times. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Haley Brown and David Propper are reporting for the New York Post more than 2 million New Yorkers will receive student-loan relief under the federal new program, but the government first has to hire thousands of workers to help run it, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said. “They need to hire new people, train those people and not have people wait three hours for a phone call,” Schumer said on August 28. “The federal government already has the dollars. We’ve spoken to the Department of Education. They are willing to give the loan processors more money to hire more people,” he said. President Joe Biden announced on August 25 that his administration would forgive $10,000 for borrowers individually earning less than $125,000 a year or $250,000 as a family. Those who received federal Pell Grants and make less than $125,000 will be eligible for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness. About $16.3 billion worth of debt will be canceled in New York alone, according to Schumer’s office. New Yorkers have a combined $93.9 billion in federal debt, his office said. Student-loan process providers are expected to be staffed up in the coming weeks to prepare for the calls anticipated this fall, Schumer said. Critics of the program, including some Democrats, have called it “monumentally unfair” to those who have already paid off their debt, chose less costly colleges to avoid excessive debt or opted never to go on to higher education. Read the full story in the New York Post.