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 mask mandates will stay in place at Greene County schools as the regulation imposed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul makes its way through the courts. Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker on January 24, ruled the governor’s mask mandate to be unconstitutional, but after an appeal by the New York State Department of Health, Appellate Court Judge Robert J. Miller on the next day issued a stay to keep the mask mandate in place while the case is on appeal. The New York State Education Department this week issued guidance to school districts regarding the mask mandate. “...[I]t is NYSED’s position that schools should continue to follow the mask rule.” Catskill Central School District Superintendent Ronel Cook, said in a statement to district parents that the mask mandate would remain in place. “Please know that at this time, all students and staff must continue to wear masks in school,” Cook said. The next hearing in Miller’s courtroom pertaining to the stay will be held on January 28. “I would expect an immediate decision because they know everybody is hanging in the balance,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. Officials with the Greenville Central School have confirmed that their district will continue to comply with the mask mandate and the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District released a statement drafted by its attorneys regarding the stay. “In light of this ruling, public school districts in New York State remain subject to the Department of Health masking regulation at least through January 28, 2022,” according to the statement. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup an emergency meeting of the Cairo Town Board held to appoint a building and code enforcement clerk on January 27, degenerated into an argumentative back-and-forth when the members disagreed over whether the matter warranted a special meeting and how the hiring process was handled. Board member Tim Powers said that he and fellow board member Stephen Kralovich did not receive copies of the applications until they arrived for the meeting and that they were not involved in the interview process. Powers said that when he questioned Supervisor Jason Watts, he was told: “Well we already have our three votes so basically we don’t need you.” Powers said, “When I made the comment that we need to do things the right way I was told by Supervisor Watts that we did not have time to do things the right way." Watts said, “No, I said we don’t have time to keep wasting. We must go forward with the town.” After about 10 minutes of back-and-forth, the board went into an executive session for approximately 20 minutes to discuss the applicants. When the board members emerged they voted 3 to 2 to hire Kyrie Fielder as the town's new building and code enforcement clerk at the hourly rate of $15, for no more than 30 hours per week. Watts, Cords and Michael Flaherty voted in favor; Powers voted no, and Kralovich abstained. The former building and code clerk, Donna Chewins resigned as of December 7. Read the full story at porcupinesoup [dot] com.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media that on Jan. 24 Republicans in Ravena abandoned their own incumbent Mayor Bill Misuraca, picking Dominic Ruggeri instead as their nominee for village elections in March. The next day, Democrats in Ravena chose Misuraca, the Republican incumbent, as their nominee. “If you had asked me seven-and-a-half years ago where I would be tonight, I would have had a radically different answer,” Misuraca said after getting the nomination to a crowd at the Ravena firehouse for the caucus. “But you almost made me cry — you are too kind and I really feel like this outpouring of support tells me that I am doing my job the way I am supposed to do my job. I appreciate it so much.” Democrats in Ravena also backed Republican Caitlyn Appleby, who will be on both lines for a town board seat. Read more about this story at TheUpstater.com.

The MidHudson News Network is reporting the state is asking the public to comment on a proposal to add a new area code in the 845 region in the Mid-Hudson Valley. By the third quarter of 2023, all phone numbers in the 845 area code are expected to be used up due to an increase in demand. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator has applied to the State Public Service Commission to add a second area code, the commission said in an announcement. A specific, new three-digit code has not been proposed yet. The 845 area code is used in all or part of Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster counties. Existing 845 numbers will remain intact. According to the commission, by the time the new area code becomes effective, customers will already have transitioned to mandatory 10-digit dialing as a result of the national implementation of the ‘988’ three-digit hotline to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline which is occurring now. The PSC wants input from the public about the proposal. People may comment by going online to the Department of Public Service website or by calling (800) 335-2120. Comments should refer to case 21-C-0600. Read the full story the Daily Freeman.

Today's daily news update.

Ted Remsnyder reports for Columbia-Greene Media that on Jan. 25 Greene County announced another COVID-19 death, an unidentified inmate at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie. The prison currently has the highest number of positive cases in the state incarceration system, though this is the first coronavirus death there. The Coxsackie Correctional Facility has had four confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Currently there are 85 active cases with the Greene Correctional Facility, and 19 active COVID cases in the Coxsackie Correctional Facility. Jose Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, continued to call for clemency and early releases for many prisoners in the face of the deadly pandemic. “Two different families across the state are receiving the terrible news that their loved ones died cold and alone in the dungeons of mass incarceration, for no reason other than a lack of political will on the part of our elected officials,” Saldana said in a statement. “Their pain is unimaginable. People were dying in New York State prisons every three days before the pandemic, so it’s important to recognize that these COVID deaths are happening on top of a crisis that’s been with us for more than a decade. We call on Gov. Hochul to use her clemency pen to save lives. We also call on New York’s legislative leaders, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Carl Heastie, to pass the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills to provide meaningful pathways to release consideration for incarcerated New Yorkers – and to do it quickly, before more lives are extinguished by their inaction.” Only 53.2 percent of prisoners in state prisons have been partially vaccinated, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Albany County, meanwhile, reported Jan. 27 that a man in his 80s died from coronavirus, the 500th Albany County death. “It saddens me to have to report another Albany County resident losing their life to COVID-19,” Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said. “This is now the 500th death in the county since the pandemic started, and it unfortunately won’t be the last. While we see progress in our fight in some areas, we need to continue doing what we can to protect our most vulnerable from the virus, which is still spreading.” Read more about that story in the Times Union.

Nick Reisman reports for New York State of Politics that Democrats controlling New York's legislature plan to vote on new redistricting maps this coming week. New York's redistricting commission of Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a bipartisan agreement on district boundaries for the state Senate, Assembly, and U.S. House of Representatives. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie released a statement together on Jan. 26. "The statutory deadline for the Independent Redistricting Commission to submit congressional and state legislative maps has passed," the lawmakers said in the statement. "As per the New York State Constitution, it becomes the Legislature’s responsibility to consider fair maps that ensure all New Yorkers have equitable representation in their government. That is a duty we take very seriously. Given the expedited nature of the political calendar, we fully expect the Senate and Assembly to consider new fair maps in a timely manner. The plan is to vote on these maps next week." Democrats are deciding because they hold the majority in the state legislature. The election commission was set up so legislators would not be drawing their own district lines, but, obviously failed to do that. Locally, candidates such as Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro have already announced an effort to unseat Rep. Antonio Delgado, but neither of them know what district exactly they are running to represent until the lines are drawn. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.

Shannon Coan reports for the Times Union that Rensselaer County native Edmonia Lewis is being honored with her face on a U.S. Postal Service stamp, with a ceremony Jan. 26 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lewis was "the first Black and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition" according to the story. “Lewis’s achievements cannot possibly fit on a postage stamp, but I think it’s so fitting to honor her legacy in this way,” said Karen Lemmey, the Lucy S. Rhame curator of sculpture at the museum. “It is collectible and some may wish to collect and preserve it just as we do our sculptures here, but I think Lewis would be equally pleased to know these stamps will be zipping around the country just as she did,” Lemmey added. Lewis was born in 1844 and died in 1907, and spent much of her life in Rome making neoclassical-style sculptures incorporating themes relating to Black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas, according to Wikipedia. At the ceremony this week, the Smithsonian unveiled “The Death of Cleopatra,” one of Lewis’ most well-known works, which had been lost since the 1980s. “It was so thoroughly lost that I, along with most people who were at all interested in finding out about it, feared, for good reason, that it had been destroyed,” said Marilyn Richardson, an art consultant and the person who found the work in an abandoned storeroom at a suburban Chicago shopping mall roughly three decades ago. “It was just an extraordinary thing to find it not only intact but intact and in such condition that it could be beautifully, beautifully restored,” she said. 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.

Noah Eckstein is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a two-year audit by the Office of the New York State Comptroller has found the Hudson City School District failed to properly secure and protect its information technology systems against unauthorized use, access and loss. In response to the state's findings, the district has now issued a Corrective Action Plan. The audit was released January 14 and covered the period between 2018 and 2020. Auditors found the Board of Education and school district officials did not adopt adequate IT policies, thereby leaving the system's data susceptible to fraud and cyber-attacks. Officials did not implement a satisfactory disaster recovery plan against potential risk factors and attacks and did not provide sufficient IT security awareness training to students and staff or adopt an acceptable use policy. The audit also found questionable internet use on four of six computers tested. The district has implemented remedies to these issues, said Jesse Boehme, Hudson City School District business administrator. “Our interface looks different. Students get in-class training and we have IT safety professional development for staff,” said Boehme. The auditors recommended adopting comprehensive IT policies that addressed recovery plans and cyber security, implementing student and staff IT training, developing written codes and protocols for administering systems access, and disabling more than 100 network user accounts that included generic and former employee information. “Since the audit, we have totally revamped the IT department and are working to move it completely in-house,” said former Superintendent Maria Suttmeier. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

William J. Kemble is reporting for the Daily Freeman in remarks delivered on January 26, U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado told attendees at the Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast, that the current division between the Democrats and Republicans will not get in the way of working to resolve detrimental bureaucracy. At that meeting, Ellenville Regional Hospital President Steven Kelley noted that the Rhinebeck Democrat was able to work with Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, of Schuylerville, to address problems caused by a regulation change that occurred without public input. “It was not in the federal register … that could lead to the closure of half of the small hospitals in New York,” he said. Kelley said Delgado and Stefanik have continued an 18-month push with recent efforts to have Congress adopt the Protecting Rural Access to Care Act, and making a direct appeal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Elise Stefanik, obviously, we’re not in the same party, there are different politics, but we care about an issue that speaks directly to our community,” Delgado said. “We both have critical access to hospitals that we know our communities depend upon, and that’s where the work needs to be done.” Other facilities impacted include Margaretville Hospital and O’Connor in Delhi. The proposed legislation restores the rural hospital criteria for determining a critical-access designation. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup former Greene County assistant public defender Anthony Pastel, 38, of Freehold, has pleaded guilty to felony assault. Pastel was arrested in August 2020, following an incident in the village of Athens. The victim, according to the state police, suffered serious injuries and was taken by Catskill Ambulance to Albany Medical Center. Pastel was charged with second-degree assault and second-degree strangulation, both felonies. The charges were later upgraded by a grand jury to include attempted murder. Because the assault occurred in the presence of a minor, Pastel was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. Pastel was also charged with driving while intoxicated after leaving the scene of the attack. “Having uncovered additional facts of the case, the People and Court agreed to accept Mr. Pastel’s plea to felony assault in the second degree, in satisfaction of the charges,” the Greene County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement January 24. Pastel faces up to seven years in prison, plus three years post-release supervision when he is sentenced on March 23. Pastel was hired by the public defender's office in the spring of 2019 and was placed on administrative leave after his August 2020 arrest. By the following November, he was no longer employed by the county. Pastel will lose his license to practice law as a result of his conviction. Read the full story at porcupinesoup [dot] com.

Nick Reisman reports for Spectrum News that Zephyr Teachout, who lost a bid for Congress in the 19th Congressional District in 2016, is now joining New York Attorney General Letitia James' office as a special advisor and senior counsel for economic justice. The activist and Fordham Law School professor last year announced she was running for Attorney General after James announced her run for governor, but after James decided instead to run for re-election, Teachout ended her campaign. She praised James in making the announcement of her new job in the attorney general's office. "She... pushed for reforms to modernize New York State’s own antitrust laws and give enforcers the tools they need to hold dominant firms accountable," Teachout wrote. "I couldn’t be happier to be working with her and the extraordinary lawyers and leaders in her office." Teachout ran for attorney general in 2018, but lost to James. She previously lost elections for governor in 2014 and against Republican John Faso in the 19th Congressional election in 2016. Read more about this story at Spectrum News.

Today's daily news update.

Rick Karlin reports in the Times Union that the unemployment rate in December in the Capital Region was less than half of what it was in 2020. The 2.5 percent unemployment rate that the state Department of Labor reported for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area was 2.5 percent, much better than the 5.4 percent reported for the same period in 2020. Ithaca, at 2.2 percent, was the only metro area in New York with a lower unemployment rate last month. Columbia County posted the lowest local unemployment rate, at 2.2 percent. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Massarah Mikati reports in the Times Union that 500 gallons of oil spilled Jan. 25 at the Citgo on River Road in Bethlehem in southern Albany County. The leak occurred after a malfunction in the containment area's vapor recovery system, which removes vapors from crude oil, causing the spill. Fire departments from Selkirk, Elsmere, and Delmar joined the DEC and the Bethlehem Police Department at the scene. The DEC was removing snow and gravel contaminated by the oil at the gas station. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

MidHudson News reports about Republican television entertainer Joe Pinion, who announced Jan. 17 he is running for U.S. Senate to replace Democrat Chuck Schumer. The 38-year-old former Colgate University football star is the former host of a show on the right-wing Newsmax network that is on the Mid-Hudson Cable network locally, and other systems around the country. “Chuck Schumer, he no longer represents the 19 million New Yorkers. The Schumer from 1988 no longer exists,” Pinion said. “What we have now is somebody who is so concerned with holding on to power that he has forgotten to empower the people who have placed their trust in his hands. For me, we want to reinvite the people to this conversation.” Schumer is not just a long-serving senator, but the current Majority Leader. Pinion opposes Schumer, he says, because the Majority Leader allows free speech. “Chuck Schumer is supposed to be the adult at the table in Washington. Instead, he allowed children to hijack the national conversation about justice reform, and people died as a result," he said. The only other issue the story addresses is Schumer's large campaign war chest next to the challenger's meager account. “We just have to raise enough money to get our voice out there," Pinion said. Read more about this story at MidHudson News.