Cloey Callahan is reporting for the Times Union the state Public Service Commission April 14, approved and ordered a plan to create an additional area code for all or portions of the following 10 counties: Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The new area code is expected to be activated before June 2023, six months before numbers using the current 845 area code are expected to run out. Residents issued a new phone number around this time next year will likely be assigned a new three-digit network code. “As the economy continues to grow, and the need for more cellular service becomes apparent, there is a greater need for an additional telephone area code number,” said Public Service Commission Chair Rory M. Christian in a news release. Three public hearings were held on the matter in March. According to public documents, phone carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have indicated strong support for the new area code, stating it will “minimize inconvenience to consumers,” and that it is the “most practical and effective form of area code relief available.” For anyone with an 845 area code already, that number will remain the same and nothing will change. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics that New York state residents will be able to write a gender-neutral "X" on nearly all state forms beginning in 2023. The change was included in the state budget that was adopted last weekend. The measure, along with new funding for anti-discrimination and anti-hate crimes programs, is meant to build on the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, to strengthen laws against discrimination in the workplace and housing. Some state agencies, including the Department of Labor, Office of Children and Family Services, Office of Temporary Disability Assistance and Division of Criminal Justice Services, will have until 2024 to make the gender-neutral "X" option available. If those agencies cannot meet the deadline, a public report is required explaining the delay. Gov. Kathy Hochul said, "The past two years have been hard for us all, but especially hard for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers who have always been forced to deal with levels of isolation due to homophobia and transphobia. That's why it's so important that our newly enacted budget presses forward in the fight for equality with historic levels of state funding and initiatives for LGBTQ+ equity." The spending plan includes $12.5 million for the state Division of Human Rights to strengthen anti-discrimination investigations and prosecution as well as a $3.7 million increase for education programs. Lawmakers also approved $25 million for grants directed to a program meant to combat hate crimes. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

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The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that New York announced 52 approved cannabis growing licenses April 14, with several local farmers included. There was one licensee in Albany County, three in Columbia County, six in Dutchess County, four in Schoharie County, one in Delaware County, and two in Ulster County. Aeterna Cannabis LLC, Claverack Farm LLC, and Fat Nell LLC. were the three growers authorized in Columbia County by the state Cannabis Control Board. Announcing the first cannabis growers now will allow for spring planting and an October harvest, said Allan Gandelman, a Cortland-based hemp grower and the president of the New York Cannabis Growers and Processors Association. “We have a narrow window here. Most people are planting cannabis in our area around May and June. So we’re pretty much there,” said Gandelman. Farmers are limited to a combination of up to one acre of flowering canopy outdoors or a little more than half that space in a greenhouse. “New York’s farms have been the backbone of our state’s economy since before the American Revolution, and now, New York’s farms will be at the center of the most equitable cannabis industry in the nation,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press release. Read more about this story in the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Andrea Macko reports in Porcupine Soup that there will be yet another vote on whether the Town of Cairo has a recycling center April 20. The town’s recycling center, in the Angelo Canna Town Park, was closed in October 2020 by the unanimous vote of the board. The board said at the time that, “Greene County Solid Waste Department noted that the Cairo recycling dumpsters had to be dumped into the normal domestic garbage stream due to contamination by unrecyclable materials." So they stopped the recycling theater. The board also cited garbage strewn near the facility and staff harassment. At a meeting earlier this month the board voted against reopening the recycling center. Board member Tim Powers questioned why Cairo should recycle. “My question is, why are we reopening it?," he said. Board member Mary-Jo Cords answered, “We had a lot of people come to town board meetings and say that they wanted the recycling center open." Then Deputy Town Supervisor Cords and Councilperson Michael Flaherty voted in favor of reopening the facility but Councilperson Tim Powers voted against, and three votes of the board's total of five members is needed to pass a motion in Cairo. Town Supervisor Jason Watts and Councilperson Debra Bogins were absent, but that is not expected to be the case April 20, when Watts seems to be the third vote needed to open the facility. “I won’t stop bringing it up,” said Watts. “I want it back.” Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.

New York State on April 14 extended its ban on all live fowl shows and exhibitions in the state to "all fowl auctions and other events for the purchase, sale, swap, or trade of fowl." Currently 26 states are dealing with highly pathogenic avian influenza.

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Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Ichabod Crane Board of Education April 12, adopted its proposed $46.7 million 2022-23 school budget. District voters will have their say on the spending plan May 17. The proposal, as presented by district business manager Michael Brennan prior to the vote, includes an increase in appropriations of $2.8 million, or 6.4 percent, over the current budget. Brennan said the largest increase is in the debt service category, which grew by $1.4 million, but that will be offset by state aid. Brennan said the proposal calls for a 2.3 percent tax levy increase, well below the state-mandated cap of 3.45 percent. He said, “What we’re proposing to balance this budget this year is a 2.3 percent increase in the levy which would provide just under $26 million of revenue.” Brennan was careful to point out that a tax levy increase does not necessarily translate into a higher property tax bill for residents. He said, “The tax levy is just one of three factors that determines a final tax rate that is set in August. That includes the levy which we are setting, town property assessments and the state’s equalization rates.” During the 2022-23 school year the district will receive $18.7 million in state aid, an increase of $2.5 million over the previous year. In addition to voting on the budget, district residents will decide two propositions: a request for authorization to purchase four school buses for just under $444,000; and a second asking if the district should continue to have a non-voting student member of the board of education. The annual school board election and budget vote will be held 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on May 17 in the high school gym. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Paul Kirby is reporting for the Daily Freeman the NoVo Foundation has finalized a purchase agreement for The Metro building on Greenkill Avenue in Kingston, from the affordable housing agency RUPCO. The agreement "...will result in NoVo assuming full ownership of The Metro in spring 2022,” said Martin Kirk, NoVo’s senior projects coordinator. The purchase price for the 70,000-square-foot facility is $2 million. The foundation intends to turn the building into a youth facility that includes a so-called 15,000-square foot Fabrication Center where things can be made. NoVo is to partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston, located across the street from The Metro, to launch a youth-led design process this summer. Megan Weiss-Rowe, NoVo’s project coordinator said, “The ‘Fab Lab’ model from which we draw inspiration was pioneered by the Fab Foundation, an initiative out of MIT, whose mission in part is to “…provide access to the tools, the knowledge and the financial means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world." NoVo’s 2020 tax form shows that $500,000 was given to the Fab Foundation for a Fab City Kingston project. Jennifer and Peter Buffett are the co-presidents of the NoVo Foundation. They also co-chair its Board of Directors. Peter Buffett is the youngest son of investor Warren Buffett. The foundation has distributed tens of millions of dollars to various organizations, governments, colleges, and not-for-profit agencies, among others, throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley region. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Cloey Callahan is reporting for the Times Union environmentalists are warning about the invasive round goby fish, seen as far south as Poughkeepsie and in the Erie Canal to the north, and the impact it could have on the Hudson River. They say it is a species that could do ecological and economic harm to the Hudson River. They are voracious feeders that outcompete native species for food and spawning habitat. They also eat the eggs of native species and popular sportfish such as smallmouth bass and walleye, as well as the eggs of forage fish, such as river herring. In addition, round goby carry and spread Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, which can lead to large fish kills statewide. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is working on a plan by May to block the invasive species from spreading in the Hudson River. Efforts are currently underway to keep the round goby from entering Lake Champlain through the New York canal system. A nonindigenous aquatic species tracker created by the U.S. Geological Survey had six sitings of the round goby in the Hudson River along Columbia County, and at least seven sitings along Dutchess County and more. The bottom-dwelling fish is native to the Black and Caspian Sea regions in between southeastern Europe and Western Asia. It was inadvertently introduced to the Great Lakes in 1990 and colonized all of the Great Lakes within five years. The fish then entered the Erie Canal in 2014. The invader was monitored by scientists, but never stopped by government intervention. If the round goby takes over, it could lead to a decline in striped bass because the species would consume the eggs of what striped bass usually eat, which in turn leads to a compromised ecosystem and less recreational fishing. Read more in the Times Union.

Paul Revoir reports for The Daily Mail that the British Broadcasting Corporation has another so-called "slow radio" production in the works that is a field recording reality show. "Honey – A Day In The Life Of A Dog" will air in July on the BBC's Radio 3 using "carefully placed" microphones so that "the essence of Honey is captured as we are gently enveloped in the noises she both makes and hears." Honey is a fox-red labrador. The BBC recently began airing what they call "slow television," which has included a BBC4 show of a two-hour bus ride through Yorkshire and canal journey on a narrowboat. For what they call "slow radio" the BBC's Radio 3 has aired a show on the "all-consuming silence" of a walk along the coast of Greenland, and Benedictine Monks in the "silence of the monastery." On Saturday, April 30, Wave Farm airs some "slow radio" on WGXC with SoundCamp's ninth iteration of "Reveil," a collective production by streamers at listening points around the earth. Starting on the morning of Saturday 30 April in South London near the Greenwich Meridian, the broadcast will pick up feeds one by one, tracking the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following daybreak around the earth for 24 hours.

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Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media that two of the three Cairo board members present April 4 to reopen the Cairo recycling center, but a majority vote was not enough. Motions must pass with a majority of the entire board of five, so all three votes were needed. Deputy Town Supervisor MaryJo Cords and Councilperson Michael Flaherty voted in favor of reopening the facility but Councilperson Tim Powers voted against. Town Supervisor Jason Watts and Councilperson Debra Bogins were absent. The town’s recycling center, in the Angelo Canna Town Park, was closed in October 2020 by a unanimous vote of the board. The board said at the time that, “Greene County Solid Waste Department noted that the Cairo recycling dumpsters had to be dumped into the normal domestic garbage stream due to contamination by unrecyclable materials." So they stopped the recycling theater. The board also cited garbage strewn near the facility and staff harassment. At the April meeting, Powers questioned why Cairo should recycle. “My question is, why are we reopening it?," he said. Cords answered, “We had a lot of people come to town board meetings and say that they wanted the recycling center open." Read more about this story at TheUpstater.com.

Larry Rulison reports in the Times Union Hannaford Supermarkets plan to be operating on 100 percent renewable energy by 2024. The large supermarket chain, with local branches in Kinderhook, Livingston, and Cairo, currently operates on 30 percent renewable energy through 30 community solar contracts in New York and New England. "This is an important step forward," said George Parmenter, who leads sustainability efforts for Hannaford. "We plan to keep on that path." Community solar farms sell shares of the electricity produced to local residents and businesses. Hannaford's parent company says it will be net carbon zero by 2040. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Porcupine Soup reports that the Greenville Public Library has added a new seed library. “My hope is to get our community involved in saving and sharing heirloom flower and vegetable seeds in a seed library,” says Ashley Jensen of Surprise Hill Farm in Freehold. A variety of seeds will now be available in a catalogue there. “There are hundreds of thousands of varieties of seeds on our planet, and each time we save a seed, we are saving the genetic information of a variety of plant that can successfully live in our type of environment,” Jensen explains. “We are asking for people that would like to help with this project. We need help packaging and cataloging seeds and growing information in the old card catalog of the Greenville Library,” she said. “We will have a place at the Greenville Library for people to drop off their seeds and write a little info about the variety, or to sign up and volunteer with this project.” For more information, contact Jensen at surprisehillfarm@gmail.com. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

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Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics a poll released April 12, by Unite NY and conducted by John Zogby Strategies found voters do care about who fills the lieutenant governor's job. The poll was released the same day that Brian Benjamin resigned from the office hours after he was indicted on charges of bribery and fraud stemming from an unsuccessful campaign for New York City comptroller. The poll found 88 percent of participants believe the lieutenant governor should have the "readiness to lead immediately" as their most important trait. Benjamin had been expected to compete in a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in June against activist Ana Maria Archila and former New York City Councilmember Diana Reyna. It is not yet clear if Gov. Kathy Hochul will select a replacement for Benjamin in the office, or if Democrats will be able to replace him on the statewide ballot ahead of the June primary. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins is currently serving as lieutenant governor in an acting capacity. On the Republican side, the poll found that U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin is at 27.8 percent, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino at 15.2 percent and Harry Wilson at 10.5 percent of support. Former Trump administration official Andrew Giuliani is in a virtual tie with Zeldin at 29.1 percent, the poll found. The poll of the GOP primary was conducted April 10 and has a margin of error of 6.1 percentage points. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Rachel Silberstein is reporting for the Times Union a provision in the newly adopted New York state budget was crafted to transform the school transportation sector, requiring all school buses purchased after 2027 to run on electricity and replacing all 50,000 diesel-fueled buses statewide with electric vehicles by 2035. Environmental advocates applauded the move, but educational leaders and school officials warn that making the goals will be financially and logistically challenging. In the coming years, districts will have to install charging stations and possibly renovate their electrical infrastructure and bus routes to support the new fleets. Brian Cechnicki, executive director at the Association of School Business Officials, said this is the first in a series of state and federal mandates targeting school districts to help governments reach their environmental goals. "These are all things that we, as advocates and schools, will need to be mindful of ... remember, the more you have to spend in these areas, the less you have to spend on teachers and academic programming," he said. The 2022-23 state spending plan infused the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act with $500 million to support electric school buses and charging infrastructure. Studies show numerous benefits to going electric. Diesel fuel has been shown to worsen respiratory illnesses and cause cancer. Electric buses have 70 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than diesel buses, which benefits the environment and results in cleaner air for everyone, according to advocates. Bethlehem Central School District last year became one of the first in the state to start the process of swapping out its diesel buses with battery-run vehicles. The district secured $1 million in funding from the state to supplement the purchase of five electric buses. Read the full story in the Times Union.