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.

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Michelle Bocanegra and Shannon Young report for Politico that a New York Supreme Court judge reinstated, at least temporarily, New York's mask mandate Jan. 25, a day after a Nassau County Supreme Court judge said it was unconstitutional. The state mask mandate for indoor public settings expires Feb. 1, while the school mask mandate lasts through Feb. 21. "I commend the Attorney General for her defense of the health and safety of New Yorkers, and applaud the Appellate Division, Second Department for siding with common sense and granting an interim stay to keep the state's important masking regulations in place," Hochul said in a statement. "We will not stop fighting to protect New Yorkers, and we are confident we will continue to prevail." Nassau County State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Rademaker ruled on Jan. 24 that the governor and the department of health cannot impose a mask mandate, only the legislature can. Associate Justice Robert J. Miller let the mandate stay on Jan. 25, but ordered the state to show cause by Jan. 28. Read more about this story at Politico.

Joshua Solomon is reporting for the Times Union the state of New York is soon expected to launch an Office of Gun Violence Prevention, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's office. The governor's budget includes $500,000 for the initiative. Data collected on gun violence would be used by the office to "track emerging gun violence hotspots and deploy resources to those areas that need it most," according to the governor's budget book. The details are expected to take further shape at a meeting of the state's first-ever Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns on January 26, in East Greenbush. The task force, led by State Police officials, is intended to help slow the spread of illegal guns into New York communities. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is expected to be in attendance. An illegal gun from Baltimore is believed to have been used by a 47-year-old Manhattan man to shoot two New York Police Department officers recently; both the officers and their assailant died. The state has also spent at least $144 million of the $159 million dedicated to the gun violence state of emergency. The remaining money has been promised to organizations and remains to be spent. The emergency was first declared by then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in July, as the state was seeing an increase in violent crimes, especially those involving firearms. Following the shooting of the NYPD officers, Hochul released a statement that she had extended the state of emergency on gun violence, has offered a vision for the state's plans on gun violence moving forward, and offered her condolences. The governor also said the new task force would be convened in less than a week after the tragedy to discuss the pipeline of illegal guns and how neighboring states can work with each other. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Amtrak announced January 24, that it is temporarily suspending various services as COVID-19 grows amongst its workforce. “The cuts are due to staffing challenges brought on by the...pandemic,” Amtrak Media Relations spokesperson Kimberly Woods said. “While nearly 97 percent of Amtrak employees are fully vaccinated, several hundred of our onboard service personnel, conductors, engineers and mechanical crews continue to be impacted by COVID infections or exposures, particularly given the highly infectious nature of the new variant and the prevalence of breakthrough cases,” she said. Some Empire Service and Lake Shore Limited trains will no longer be running, according to a statement released by the railroad. Trains 234 and 256 from Albany-Rensselaer and trains 241 and 261 from New York City are suspended on the Empire Service line. Trains 49, 449, 48 and 448 of the Lake Shore Limited are being suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday. Amtrak is suspending eight percent of its train departures over the next 10 weeks. They are also working to fill vacant positions and train new employees to avoid staffing shortfalls that are a result of unplanned absences, Woods said. She said as overall staffing and equipment availability levels improve, Amtrak will restore service levels as quickly as possible. Right now, Amtrak is planning to resume the suspended services by late March and early April. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Emily Crane is reporting for the New York Post the SAT exam is moving online and will now be shorter, the College Board revealed on January 25. The upcoming changes will be rolled out in the U.S. in 2024. The changes are expected to help keep the test relevant as more colleges make standardized tests optional for admission. Students taking the exam will be allowed to use their own laptops or tablets, but will still have to sit for the exam at a monitored testing site or school, the College Board said. The new online version will also reduce the exam time by one hour, making the reading, writing and math assessment roughly two hours instead of three. The test will also feature shorter reading passages with one question tied to each and calculators will be permitted for the full duration of the math section. Also, test-takers will be sent their scores within days, instead of weeks, administrators said. “The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments at the College Board. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform — we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible." Read the full story in the New York Post.

Today's daily news update.

Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that the indoor mask mandate in New York schools remains in effect as New York appeals a state Supreme Court ruling issued Jan. 24 striking down a Health Department rule requiring masks in all indoor public places, including schools. "It is SED’s understanding that the Department of Health will appeal the Nassau County Supreme Court decision, which will result in an automatic stay that will unambiguously restore the mask rule until such time as an appellate court issues a further ruling," a letter from the state Education Department read. "Therefore, schools must continue to follow the mask rule.” A New York Supreme Court judge in Nassau County on Jan. 24 ruled against New York's indoor mask mandate, that is set to expire on Feb. 1. State Attorney General Letitia James' office filed a notice to appeal Jan. 25. The judge ruled that a mask mandate was legal if passed by the legislature, but not if it came from the Department of Health and the governor's office. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.

The number of COVID-19 cases remains relatively high in the Hudson Valley, but the numbers have fallen from the heights of recent weeks. In Columbia County, for instance, there were only 70 cases announced on Jan. 24. Greene County only had 19 new COVID-19 cases announced on Jan. 23. Ulster County officials reported four more deaths from coronavirus on Jan. 24. But county officials also reported a steady decline in the number of active COVID-19 cases. On Jan. 20 Ulster County had 7,150 cases. By Jan. 23 there were 6,777 cases there. Numbers are also trending down in Albany County where there were 307 new positive coronavirus cases announced Jan. 25. “I’m happy there are no new COVID-19 deaths to report today, and while average daily infections continue to come down in Albany County, the number of residents in ICUs with the virus has shot up to 16 from nine in just the last 24 hours,” said Albany County Executive Dan McCoy.

Rebekah F. Ward reports for the Times Union that on Jan. 24, New York’s Office of Cannabis Management introduced a new medical cannabis certification system allowing any doctor to prescribe medical marijuana to any patient for any reason. New York lawmakers already made cannabis use legal last year. But, except for a limited medical cannabis program, cannabis won't be for sale in the state until sometime next year while regulations are set. But now physicians and other certified health care providers can prescribe cannabis for conditions such as anxiety and insomnia. "A lot of doctors and other providers who I’ve spoken to over the years have said, 'I have patients who I think it would help, but they’re not eligible,'" said state Sen. Diane Savino. "That’s a conversation that should happen between a patient and their provider, not a patient, their provider, the state Department of Health and Sen. Savino." Read more about this story in the Times Union.

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Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for the Times Union former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, at one time one of the most powerful lawmakers in New York, has died at the age of 77. Silver passed away in a federal medical center prison in Massachusetts where he was serving a six-year term for bribery and corruption. The Manhattan Democrat served as speaker for more than 20 years, He was sent to prison in August 2020 following a second conviction after the first was overturned by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He was arrested in 2015 following a federal investigation that found he had secretly steered state contractors to a law firm where he had an interest, generating millions in personal income. He was replaced as speaker by Assemblymember Carl E. Heastie less than a week after his arrest. Silver struggled with health problems while incarcerated and he was eventually transferred to a federal medical facility prison in Devens, Mass. His release date was set for March 2026. Prosecutors, in a sentencing memorandum, cited a probation report that concluded Silver was simply motivated by greed. "Silver is an example of why the public has lost faith in their elected officials," they wrote. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Roger Hannigan Gilson reports in the Times Union that a little less raw sewage will go into the Hudson River with $2.15 million in state grants and $350,000 from the city of Hudson to update an antiquated sewer system. Parts of Hudson's current sewer system date back nearly two centuries with both raw sewage and precipitation runoff in the same pipes. The grants mean that the combined sewer line constructed in the 1830s out of stone will be replaced. Failures of this sewer line have become "increasingly common," leading to "serious public safety issues," according to a 2014 city engineering report. Updating Hudson's sewer system, though, is not the only source of raw sewage flowing into the Hudson River. Catskill, Athens, Kingston, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Troy, and West Point all release sewage into the Hudson River. When it rains in the Hudson Valley, millions of gallons of sewage flow into the river. The Clean Water Act was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1972 to stop these pollution discharges that, 50 years later, continue. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

The Daily Freeman is reporting Catskill High School juniors Adam Konsul and Karsen Chiminelli have been selected by the College Board for its National Recognition Program. The students earned the board’s National Rural and Small Town Recognition Award, which highlights the outstanding academic achievements of students from small towns throughout the nation. To be eligible, a student must maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and score in the top 10 percent of all New York students who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2021 Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.