Today's daily news update.

Alexander Tin at CBS News reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Dec. 27 that Americans testing positive for COVID-19 without symptoms can now stop isolating after five days as long as they wear masks everywhere. Previously, the CDC wanted a ten-day quarantine after a positive test. Also, the CDC now says Americans who are fully vaccinated and boosted do not need to quarantine after an exposure to someone with COVID-19. Previously, anyone in close contact to someone with coronavirus needed to quarantine. "The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and has the potential to impact all facets of our society. CDC's updated recommendations for isolation and quarantine balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses. These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. Now many communities locally and across the country are seeing record numbers of cases and rising hospitalizations fueled by the new Omicron variant. "Prevention is our best option: get vaccinated, get boosted, wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial and high community transmission, and take a test before you gather," said Walensky. Read more about this story at CBS News.

Brendan J. Lyons reports in the Times Union that last week 12 members of New York's ethics commission wanted to send a letter to the state attorney general's office pushing back on that office's assertion that the panel did not issue a valid order when it voted to have former Gov. Andrew Cuomo surrender the $5.1 million that he received for his COVID-19 memoir. But the executive director of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Sanford Berland, refused to sign on to the letter. The controversy comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul has publicly said that the ethics panel should be disbanded and replaced by an oversight board that is not handpicked by the lawmakers it's supposed to police. Meanwhile, Richard Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, continues to claim there were no ethical errors concerning the book. "Staff who volunteered took time off, evidencing that they were volunteering and not on state time," he claims. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Noah Zweifel reports for the Altamont Enterprise that the Town of Knox, in southern Albany County, decided Dec. 21 not to opt-out of cannabis retail shops or consumption lounges. The town board did not vote, but discussed the issue, and decided not to take a vote. Outgoing Knox supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis said Nov. 30 he was not opposed to allowing those facilities, and then on Dec. 10 he emailed The Enterprise to express his surprise at the number of people interested in the issue. Then on Dec. 21 he somehow claimed “This was only dropped on my desk last week,” despite his previous comments and the widespread reporting that communities had until Dec. 31 to opt-out of sales or lounges. No member of the public spoke either way about the law during and public-comment session in Knox. Supervisor-elect Russell Pokorny said after the meeting, “I’m not sure whether we’ll have to modify zoning laws or not.... It’ll take a little while to figure that out.” Read more about this story in the Altamont Enterprise.

Today's daily headlines.

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Spectrum News staff report that amid a new, more contagious outbreak of a deadly disease, Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to let a group that is only 16.4 percent vaccinated and not allowed booster shots to gather in large groups. “We want to make sure these schools stay open,” the governor said Dec. 27. “We want more vaccinated; we want them boosted at some point as soon as possible.” No one under 16 years old is allowed to get a booster shot now, and there is currently a rise in pediatric hospital admissions across New York. Scientists are predicting the Omicron strain of coronavirus is about to infect a large number of Americans, and most school children are not ready for that. Besides providing millions of test kits to schools, New York health officials are just hoping many young people suddenly get vaccinated. “We need to get them higher than they are, particularly in the 5-11 age group,” said acting Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett. “Parents can play a role in this, understanding that their children may become infected and may become sick.” Read more about this story at the Spectrum News website.

Roger Hannigan Gilson is reporting for the Times Union A. Colarusso & Son Inc., the Greenport gravel business with a dock on the Hudson riverfront, has filed suit against the city, arguing the city Planning Board has overstepped its authority. The issue concerns Colarusso's right to continue to operate the dock and to expand a private haul road connecting the dock to its mine. The planning board in November issued a decision requiring a thorough review of Colarusso's entire operation and the company is now trying to get that requirement thrown out. Colarusso bought the dock and a mine outside of Hudson in 2014, three years after the city rezoned its waterfront. The dock was grandfathered in as a "non-conforming use" and was able to continue to operate as long as no improvements were made. Opponents of the company's dock operation say as soon as Colarusso altered the dock's bulkhead and installed 2,000 tons of rock along the shoreline in 2016, it lost its grandfathered status, and the entire operation could be thoroughly reviewed by the planning board. Colarusso is claiming the planning board decision was "arbitrary, capacious, irrational, affected by [an] error of law and grossly in excess of the (board's) jurisdiction." In a statement provided to the Times Union, Colarusso president Paul Colarusso said the company was "compelled" to "assert our legal rights and to protect our business for the sake of our future and our employees." He said the environmental impacts of the company's mine, the proposed haul road upgrade and dock repair and operations "have been exhaustively analyzed by other federal, state and local agencies and found to be complete and compliant,... There is simply no legal basis for the board to demand any further analysis. ...." Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson and planning board chair Stephen Stein both declined to comment on the lawsuit. Note: Johnson is an active WGXC on-air volunteer programmer. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the village of Athens will receive $20,000 in clean energy funding from the state of New York. As part of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, Clean Energy Communities initiative, the village qualified for the funding through a point-based system. To be eligible, the village took steps to become a clean energy community by completing a series of climate-friendly tasks, including securing the commitment of 10 residents to sign up for a community solar program. The $20,000 can be used to upgrade the village's energy infrastructure. Village board member Joshua Lipsman said the board will decide on how the money will be spent during its January 12 meeting. Ideas under consideration include the installation of software at the sewage treatment plant to reduce the use of electricity, and upgrades and renovations to the cultural center on Second Street, which belongs to the village. “We are delighted at this recognition from New York for our efforts in Athens to help our residents while helping the environment,” Mayor Amy Serrago said in a statement. “This is a win-win-win situation. Our residents win because these programs can save them money. Our village wins cash awards. The environment wins when we reduce our use of fossil fuels that create climate change.” Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Emilia Teasdale is reporting for The Columbia Paper the Chatham Town Board unanimously approved a Resolution Against Hate at its regular board meeting on December 16. The resolution was also adopted by the Columbia County Board of Supervisors in July, and the town of New Lebanon in May. Board member Kevin Weldon brought the resolution to the board for consideration. The resolution begins, “whereas recently as a nation we have witnessed record high violence based upon a person’s religion, race, gender identities, sexual orientation, nationalities, economic status and political affiliation” and concludes, “[the town board] reaffirms its commitment to a status of inclusion for all races, religions, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic statuses and political affiliations… and on behalf of all residents of the town of Chatham, we maintain our position that violence of any kind is unacceptable …” December 16 was the last regular board meeting for members Weldon and John Wapner. Neither man sought re-election. Weldon has served on the board for four years and was involved with the Climate Smart Task Force and the town Recreation Committee. Wapner was appointed in early 2015 and subsequently elected in 2017. He also was involved in the Recreation Committee and upgrades at Crellin Park and working with the Morris Memorial to identify a new home for the Morris’s recreation program. Town Supervisor Donal Collins thanked them both and said he appreciated all their work pointing out, “We got the town through an early part of a pandemic.” Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.

Today's daily news update.

Chris Bragg reports in the Times Union that Kathy Hochul has been governor of New York for over four months, but her office has not disclosed any meetings with lobbyists in that time. Hochul’s administration previously pledged to increase publicly reporting meetings with lobbyists under a 2011 law requiring the executive branch to report meetings with lobbyists. While Hochul has announced zero meetings, lobbyistsreport more than 200 instances of directly lobbying her office just in September and October this year. Through Dec. 21, other executive branch agencies in Albany besides Hochul’s office had disclosed 252 meetings with lobbyists since she became governor, but zero from Hochul's own office. Hochul’s press secretary, Hazel Crampton-Hays, said that “Gov. Hochul is committed to transparency and restoring trust in government.... To ensure full compliance with Project Sunlight, we are providing additional refresher trainings on the requirements of Project Sunlight to employees, designed to serve as a reminder of the duty to follow the state policy and sending staff regular reminders of their responsibility to record covered appearances into the database." Read more about this story in the Times Union.

MidHudson News reports that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed new legislation over the holiday week amending the state’s public health law to establish the first emerging contaminants list. The legislation requires a list of contaminants be updated every three years. Locally PFOS and PFOA chemicals in firefighting foam at a training center in Cairo and at the Stewart Air National Guard base have polluted water supplies in Cairo and the City of Newburgh. “New York families can have peace of mind knowing robust safeguards will soon be in place to rigorously test and monitor their water,” said State Senator James Skoufis. “The fight against PFOS/PFOA and other contaminants continues, but this new law ensures no small municipality or isolated water system will go without the necessary testing to identify these harmful chemicals in our drinking water.” Read more about this story at MidHudson News.

The Daily Freeman reports that gas prices were down again this week locally and nationally. Locally, gas was at $3.46 per gallon as of Dec. 27, down 2.1 cents from a week earlier, while the national average fell by 4.4 cents, to $3.25. GasBuddy reported prices of $3.31 per gallon in Ulster County, down a penny from a week earlier; $3.49 in Dutchess County, down two cents; $3.42 in Greene County, down eight cents; and $3.40 in Columbia County, were average prices were unchanged. “Nearly every state saw average gasoline prices decline last week … with the national average now nearly 20 cents per gallon lower than in early November,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Larry Rulison reports in the Times Union that the dine-in movie theater in Greenport reopened Dec. 17. The former Cosmic Cinemas is now the Madison Theatre, with the same name as the owners other theatre in Albany. The movie house opened showing both the new "Spider-Man No Way Home" film as well as a few holiday classics with $1 entry fees. But the bar is not ready yet and only "most" of its kitchen menu is available now. "Please bear with us as we continue to get our systems back in place," the company said in a Facebook post. "We appreciate everyone’s patience and look forward to seeing you soon." Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Today's daily headlines.

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 Greene County officials have received a new supply of KN95 masks to distribute to residents. The shipment of 21,000 masks were received from the state last week. To facilitate distribution, Greene County Public Health is looking for local community groups and organizations to serve as pickup points for the free masks. “We’ll place them all around the county,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. “They’ll be in various locations, like fire halls. The Emergency Operations Center, or EOC, has a list of places where we can drop these things off.” Organization and community groups interested in distributing the masks are asked to contact Emergency Manager Specialist Dan King via email at emergency [at] gc911eoc [dot] com. Greene County Emergency Services will distribute the masks to 25 locations throughout the county, including Coxsackie Village Hall, the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Cairo, Durham Town Hall, the Athens Fire Department, the New Baltimore Animal Hospital, the Heermance Memorial Library in Coxsackie and Catskill Village Hall. The county reported its 92nd death on December 23, when an unidentified man in his 80s, who had comorbidities, died in hospital. According to Groden, the man was not vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time of his death. As of Dec. 23, 66.1 percent of Greene County residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The county has reported 5,865 positive cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Roger Hannigan Gilson is reporting for the Times Unio that the town boards of Cairo, Hunter, and Windham have each voted to opt-out of cannabis dispensaries, with many officials saying they did not want to sign onto anything before the state released regulations. Under the law, towns are able to opt back in at a future date. Windham Town Supervisor John Hoyt voted to opt-out of allowing pot shops during a town board vote in early September. "I’ll put it right out there — any community that opted in is very foolish," he said, "because there’s no guidance out there." Hoyt expressed reservations about marijuana itself and how his town, which he called a "family community," would adapt to it. While Windham will not benefit from any potential revenue by opting out, Hoyt said that gaining tax revenue was not a consideration when he cast his vote. Greene County Administrator Sean Groden agreed, calling the revenue argument "insane." Groden said, "We shouldn't be salivating over the prospect of receiving tax income from this – the health implications are too severe." In fact, Groden said he would prefer the "recriminalization" of pot. In Cairo, the five-member town board voted against allowing dispensaries within the town borders in a split vote, with two members voting to allow them. One of the votes in favor of dispensaries was cast by town supervisor-elect Jason Watts, who is set to be sworn in on January 1. "I want cash to come into the town of Cairo – the town of Cairo needs money, so I want that extra little bit of revenue," he said. "Any kind of revenue is better than nothing." Current Supervisor John Coyne was one of the three lawmakers against dispensaries. He said he "voted on the side of caution" because regulations had not been decided upon by the state, and a future town board could always opt back in. In Hunter, the dispensary vote was taken on December 13. Town Supervisor Daryl Legg did not respond to calls for comment. As of December 24, the towns of Ashland, Jewett, and Prattsville had also opted out of allowing dispensaries, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government Marijuana Opt-Out Tracker. The town of Catskill voted to allow dispensaries, but will decide on whether to allow lounges after a mandated public hearing on the issue is held on December 29. The communities of New Baltimore, Lexington, and the village of Catskill, are holding their public hearings and votes between Christmas and New Year's Day, according to the Rockefeller Institute. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Brendan J. Lyons in the Times Union writes about the widening election fraud probe in Rensselaer County, where a public-housing apartment complex in Lansingburgh is now the focus of investigation. There have been previous reports of Republicans filing absentee ballots on behalf of citizens without their knowledge. Now board of election records show that 45 absentee ballots were filed on behalf of residents in one apartment complex, many listing "permanent illness or physical disability" as the reason for the absentee ballot. The newspaper quotes an anonymous source saying investigators visited the Lansingburgh apartment complex on 114th Street earlier this week to interview residents, but did not say if they were from the State Police, FBI, or the state attorney general's office, who are all investigating the potential ballot fraud. The Times Union reported last month that a 32-year-old Rensselaer man had absentee ballots applied for on behalf of him and his wife by someone unknown to him. The man claimed he has never voted in an election or applied to vote by absentee ballot, and that someone had forged their signatures on the documents. And then days after that story was published in the Times Union, the tires on his vehicle were slashed outside his residence. Rensselaer Mayor Michael Stammel had his mobile phone seized during the investigation, and has been about the only Republican whose name has emerged in the investigation to make any public comment. "I myself or nobody affiliated with me during the election process, that I am aware of, had anything to do with any wrongdoing with any absentee ballots or any voting intimidation or anything to with the election other than assisting those people who wanted to vote by absentee ballots with their approvals," Stammel said a day after he was interviewed by an investigator. Read more about this story in the Times Union.