Today's daily news update.

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

Nick Reisman is reporting at State of Politics a judge in Steuben County April 18, appointed a special master to draw new congressional district boundaries as the legal challenge to the legislative maps drawn by the state Legislature continues to make its way through the courts. Judge Patrick McCalluster named Jonathan Cervas of the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University to draw the new lines. The same judge last month ruled the maps should be redrawn after ruling they violated the state's constitutional amendment against partisan gerrymandering. Ryan Whalen is reporting former U.S. Rep. John Faso, a Republican, said the appointment was a good sign. "I looked at his bio, his resume, and he appears to have the requisite experience and knowledge to be able to undertake this task so again, we're really encouraged by this," Faso said. Michael Li, a redistricting expert for the nonpartisan organization Brennan Center for Justice, also believes Cervas looks like a good choice. "He is, I think, very qualified and well-positioned to do this, assuming that he gets cooperation from the parties and he gets access to all the data and the like," Li said. Democrats have argued the lines were drawn fairly and will be upheld. Both sides have indicated the matter will likely go to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, regardless of the outcome of the appellate division arguments this week. Read more at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Alex Weprin is reporting for the Hollywood Reporter Stockport resident and international counterterrorism intelligence expert Malcolm Nance is now fighting Russians in Ukraine. Nance has also been a longtime MSNBC on-air terrorism and national security analyst since 2007. In an appearance on Joy Reid’s program on April 18, from a “secure location,” Nance announced that he had joined the “International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine,” a Ukrainian version of the French Foreign Legion. For 15 years, Nance has appeared on a number of shows to discuss intelligence-, insurgency- and national security-related topics. An MSNBC spokesperson this week denied that Nance is a contributor, though it is not clear when he parted ways with the network. He was identified as an MSNBC analyst on-air as recently as February 28, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had already begun. Nance said on Reid's show this week, “The more I saw of the war going on, the more I thought, ‘I’m done talking, all right? It’s time to take action here.” He said, “I am here to help this country fight what essentially is a war of extermination. This is an existential war and Russia has brought it to these people and they are mass-murdering civilians, and there are people here like me who are here to do something about it.” Read more at hollywoodreporter [dot] com.

Jeanette Wolfberg is reporting for The Columbia Paper Hudson Junior-Senior High School went into shelter-in-place for roughly two hours the morning of March 29, as the result of a fight between two students. Jacob Hromada, the student representative to the Hudson Board of Education, reported on the incident to the Board of Education, on April 5. A fight between two students in a classroom spilled over into the hallway, Hromada said. “I was right in the hall when it happened. It was really scary.” As one of the students was being restrained by Sheriff's Deputy Brian McSween, a pocket knife fell from the student’s pocket. According to Superintendent Lisamarie Spindle “at no time was the pocket knife purposefully or threateningly pulled on any individuals.” But the knife was confiscated, and the building went into shelter-in-place mode “to keep hallways and common areas clear while the situation was addressed,” Spindler said in a March 29, message to district parents and guardians. “Additional law enforcement officers arrived at the school to assist the investigation” and to determine when it was safe to resume the normal school day. While officials waited for the student's parent to arrive, everyone else had to stay in one place until they got the clear sign, Hromada reported. “It was the right thing to do, but it put a lot of fear into everybody,” he said. “They thought it involved more than a pocket knife,” he added. Spindler said the district is looking into ways to prevent similar situations in the future, including camera upgrades and a mobile app that would allow students to immediately and anonymously report possible threats. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

Business Insider predicts bad solar weather this week, after a solar flare knocked out radio signals in parts of Asia and Australia. The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center reported the solar flare peaked on April 17, followed minutes later by a massive sun eruption known as a coronal mass ejection, Space.com reported. "A pulse of X-rays from the flare produced a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and Australia," said NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which recorded the X1-class solar flare, the strongest types of storms on the sun. "Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz." The good news is that the coronal mass ejection's trajectory will miss Earth, passing behind our planet in its orbit around the sun, Spaceweather.com reported. Powerful solar storms can alter the Earth's northern lights displays and wreak havoc on satellites and astronauts in orbit, as well as radio transmissions. The sun is currently in an increasingly active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle.

Today's daily news update.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that an April 9 town meeting led to at least three positive COVID-19 tests. At least ten people attended the meeting. “The meeting was the ninth. One person tested positive and advised everybody else. We all tested and three people tested positive in total. I haven’t heard of any serious complications; it all was very mild. I believe people are quarantining, and just following protocol," Ancram Town Supervisor Art Bassin said. Ancram had stopped requiring masks in the town hall, but now does after the outbreak. The Columbia County Department of Health reported 41 new positive COVID cases on April 18. “We’re elevated but I don’t necessary see anything continuing to spike,” Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said. “We know flu cases have spiked in the state, and why have they spiked, because we stopped wearing masks. I think the masks do work to ward things off. If people want to wear them they should be encouraged to wear them.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

MidHudson News reports that traffic increased on all five Hudson River bridges in 2021 over 2020. The Rip Van Winkle Bridge, linking Greene and Columbia counties over the river, went from over 5.1 million crossings in 2020 to almost 5.8 million in 2021. Likewise, the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge went from 6.7 million to 7.6 million trips, the Mid-Hudson Bridge increased from 11.8 crossings to 13.3 million, the Newburgh-Beacon bridge increased from 21.3 to 24.4 million crossings, and the Bear Mountain Bridge went from 6.4 to 7.2 million crossings. 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, was a record year for traffic on the five bridges, and traffic remained below those levels in 2021. Read more about this story at MidHudson News.

Larry Rulison reports in the Times Union that National Grid won't be able to fully heat and power upstate homes and businesses with all-renewable fuel sources until 2050. And National Grid is not going all-electric, as environmentalists recommend, but will continue to rely on pipelines to transport bio-gas and green hydrogen. Bio-gas is generated largely from the off-gassing of cow manure at dairy farms. We see this as a more affordable pathway than all-electric," Rudy Wynter, National Grid's New York president said. Currently, heating homes and buildings generates 39 percent of all the greenhouse gas emissions in New York. The switch will be slow for National Grid too, as by 2030 National Grid will only get 20 percent of its heating gas from renewable sources. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Today's daily news update.

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

Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Catskill Board of Education last week adopted a proposed $48.6 million budget for the 2022-23 school year, a 5.48 percent increase over the previous year. District voters will weigh in on the proposal on May 17. The spending plan includes a 1.85 percent tax levy increase, less than the state-mandated tax cap of 3.52 percent. The tax levy will raise $20.34 million in revenue. In an email message that accompanied the proposal, Catskill Superintendent Ronel Cook said the district would apply $3.36 million from its fund balance to reduce the tax levy. The administration’s goals in crafting the budget included maintaining pre-K and kindergarten programs at Catskill Elementary School and maintaining the same level of funding for books, supplies and materials for all students in the district. The seats currently held by Allan Couser, Patricia Dushane and Andrew Varone are up for re-election. Voters will also be asked to decide a proposition to fund the purchase of a new school bus and additional equipment for the district. "The proposition would allow the district to borrow up to $400,000 over a five-year period to replace aging maintenance and grounds equipment, as well as purchase a 16-passenger school bus for field trips, after-school extracurricular activities and other special area student transportation needs that are not easily met through our contracted busing service,” Cook wrote. The district expects to receive $20 million in state aid during the next school year. District officials will hear public opinion on the 2022-23 annual budget on May 4 in the Catskill High School library. The annual budget vote and school board election will take place 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on May 17 in the in the high school library. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics New York Attorney General Letitia James issued an advisory Mon., Aprl 18, reminding landlords that they cannot raise rents if they accept or plan to accept funding from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. James' advice comes after state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul fortified the program with $800 million in replenished funds as part of the $220 billion state budget agreement. James said, “The rules are clear: Landlords who accept ERAP payments cannot raise rents for 12 months. This program was created to support struggling tenants and to keep New Yorkers in their homes during the pandemic. Landlords who accepted payments from the state yet are still raising rents are double dipping and breaking the law. I urge any tenant who accepted ERAP payments and received a new lease with rent increases from their landlord to contact my office." The state so far has distributed $2.1 billion in federal funding for renters behind on their rent, impacting 160,000 low and moderate-income households statewide. Landlords must also waive any late fees due on rental arrears covered by a payment from ERAP. At the same time, they cannot evict recipients of ERAP funding when their lease expires. The budget also included $125 million for the Landlord Rental Assistance Program for property owners whose tenants have not applied for aid. So far, the state has paid out 15,000 payments of more than $160 million for landlords. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

MidHudson News is reporting the Hudson Farmers’ Market marks its 25th anniversary this year, beginning Sat., Apr. 23, and continuing through November 19. The market will offer more than 30 vendors each Saturday in the county parking lot at 6th and Columbia streets in the city. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and parking is available in the lot adjacent the market and in the municipal lot behind St. John’s Church, at 6th and Union streets. Various events are scheduled during the 25th anniversary season, including a ribbon cutting with the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce on May 7, the Family Scavenger Hunt with the Hudson Area Library on July 30, the second annual Tomato Fest on September 3, and the Halloween Bash on October 29. Information is available at Hudson Farmers' Market NY [dot] com. Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Elle Kehres reports for Radio World that the Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, which is the union for broadcast tower climbers, and Storybuilt Media are releasing a feature-length documentary “Vertical Freedom,” about six communications infrastructure workers in the United States. Ky Nguyen is featured in the film, and said he had no experience before joining the industry. “I started as a climber and then just kept working my way up,” he said. “Then I became foreman and began project managing. I’m one of those types of guys where, if you want it done a certain way, you have to be with them, showing them, leading by example – so I’m climbing every day.” In 2012, a PBS Frontline documentary called "Cell Tower Deaths" reported that in the previous decade nearly 100 climbers were killed on radio, TV, and cell towers, a rate that is about 10 times the average for construction workers. The latest death was in December of Michael Vasquez, working for Broken Arrow Communications, when he fell from a communications tower in Arlington, WA. This industry documentary does not focus on those deaths and accidents, but hints at the issue. “The turnover rate is pretty crazy because not everyone can do it,” said Nguyen in "Vertical Freedom." “It takes a special type of crazy, a certain type of person, to want to be up that high working and traveling on the road. You know, you sacrifice not being home.”

Today's daily news update.

MidHudson News reports what could be a rare sign that the roaring Hudson Valley housing market could be slowing. In Ulster County in the first three months of this year the number of single-family home sales dropped 23.7 percent from those sold in the first quarter of last year, according to the Ulster County Board of Realtors. In January, February, and March, 373 homes were sold in Ulster County this year, compared with 489 during the same period last year. But two other statistics may show the housing market is still heated: the average selling price rose by 16.7 percent, going from $390,037 in the first three months of 2021 to $435,818 this year. And the number of days a house remained on the market remained about the same with 61 in 2021 and 62 in 2022. Read more about this story at MidHudson News.

Liz Montgomery reports for Porcupine Soup that law enforcement officers investigating the death of Catskill activist Scott Meyers still can't figure out the password to the video recording system that may have recorded his death. Myers, 68, was stabbed to death in his apartment at 39 West Bridge St. apartment last November, and Carrie Weiser, 32, of Catskill is in the Greene County Jail, charged with his murder. “No updates yet,” Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione said last week about the case. A Greene County Grand Jury in December indicted Weiser on second-degree murder, a class A-1 felony, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon charges. Meyers and Weiser had drinks at a local brewery the night of his death, and then went to his apartment. She says she does not know what happened that night. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

Michelle Del Rey reports in the Times Union that Republican candidate Liz Joy raised $146,575 from individuals during the year’s first quarter, while incumbent Democrat Paul Tonko raised just $84,637. Since the beginning of 2021, Joy has raised $457,185 in individual donations, while Tonko raised $409,110. “Our campaign continues to beat expectations and raise more money each quarter. We outraised (Tonko) again in individual contributions for the third quarter in a row, which shows the level of support we have from people who live and work in the 20th district,” read a statement provided by Joy's campaign. The Republican Joy lost to the Democrat Tonko by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin. Redistricting has made the district slightly better for a Republican, but it is still considered a safe seat for Democrats. Tonko's campaign did not comment for the story. Read more about this story in the Times Union.