The Daily Freeman is reporting the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary recently rescued 29 animals from a farm in Pennsylvania. The organization said the situation was one of extreme neglect and animal hoarding. Included in the rescue was one cow, two ducks, two goats, four geese and 20 chickens, according to the High Falls-based sanctuary. The Woodstock group worked with other rescuers and sanctuaries, including the Lancaster [Pennsylvania] Farm Sanctuary, which was at the scene for more than a week trying to place hundreds of animals in safe, forever homes. The surviving animals had been exposed to cold weather, were without food and water and were surrounded by dead animals. Woodstock Farm Sanctuary Director Hervé Breuil said in a statement, “We weren’t planning on doing another rescue this year, but when I got the call from Lancaster Farm Sanctuary that they needed help with this huge neglect case with hundreds of animals, we couldn’t say ‘no.' These new residents strain our resources, which are already tight due to the pandemic, but our mission is to save the lives of farm animals and we had to step up.” The Woodstock team provided medical care to the rescued animals over the Christmas weekend. Many of the animals were suffering from infections and diseases, and malnourished from long-term neglect. The rescued cow is now housed at the Cornell Animal Hospital in Ithaca, while the other 28 rescued animals are in residence at the sanctuary in High Falls. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

WRGB-Albany is reporting Gov. Kathy Hochul's executive order issued over the weekend will allow state lawmakers to meet virtually through January 15. At the same time, the order leaves a question as to how the 2021 State-of-the-State address will be delivered. Legislation adopted in September permits public bodies to socially distance while conducting their meetings, as long as the meetings are made available to the public. That provision could impact the state of the state and the opening of the legislative session scheduled for January 5. Hochul has already discussed the possibility of a scaled-down address with a limited number of guests because of the pandemic. In her COVID briefing December 27, the governor was asked about whether she would consider extending the utility moratorium which expired last week. She said her goal was to get people back to work so that they would not need that kind of assistance. Read the full story at CBS6Albany [dot] com.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.