Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin October 1, said he is against mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for school-aged children. Zeldin is the top Republican seeking the GOP nomination for governor of New York. “Considering the science and data, vaccines widely available for educators and other staff, treatment and testing options continuing to get even better, and other mitigation measures still in effect, New York state should absolutely not require the COVID vaccine for New York's schoolchildren," he said. Children under the age of 12 are yet to qualify for the vaccine, but approval could be granted in the coming weeks. Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration is encouraging vaccinations for young students in New York through pop-up sites in areas that have low rates of vaccinations. Students in New York are already required to have multiple vaccinations at various ages before attending school. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Amanda Burke is reporting for The Berkshire Eagle that a Pittsfield, Mass. man accused of taking part in the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot wants his case dismissed on the grounds that the government’s case lacks facts. Lawyers for Troy E. Sargent September 30, filed motions requesting the court dismiss the six counts filed against their client by the federal government. Defense attorneys Joshua Hanye and Wade Zolynski argue the federal indictment charging Sargent is invalid, alleging prosecutors failed to detail how he may have violated the law, in violation of the Constitution and the rules of criminal procedure, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. “The indictment makes no factual allegations, except to specify the date and location,” and is therefore fatal to the government's case, the lawyers wrote. Sargent has been charged with forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing and impeding federal officers, as well as obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder and willfully and knowingly engaging in physical violence on Capitol grounds. Sargent has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case against Sargent was built around his own social media accounts and police video. Read the full story in The Berkshire Eagle.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a couple hundred people turned out in Hudson Oct. 2 for a rally in support of women's reproductive rights. Speakers spoke out against recent legislation in Texas that significantly limits a woman's right to choose and called for voters to advocate, speak out, and vote for candidates that support abortion rights. During the rally, held in Hudson's Public Square, the Rev. Kim Singletary urged the crowd to advocate for reproductive justice. “America, we can’t go back. We won’t go back,” Singletary said. She called for broader shifts in society that she said would do more to limit the numbers of abortions performed in the U.S. State Assemblymember Didi Barrett noted the battle for abortion rights has been ongoing for decades. “This is the issue that never goes away,” Barrett said. “Forty years ago, we were fighting similar battles,... Choice was on the ascent, not on the descent. And now here we are, 40 years later, fighting the same battle but with fewer allies and this is totally unacceptable,” she said. Supporters in the crowd carried signs reading, “Protect Roe v. Wade 1973,” “Protect Women’s Health, Defund Texas Republicans,” “Someone You Love May Need a Choice” and “My Body, My Choice/My Freedom, My Voice.” The Women’s March is a women-led national movement. Similar demonstrations were held nationwide on Saturday, and locally in Woodstock, Kingston, and Albany. NOTE: The Rev. Kim Singletary is a WGXC volunteer programmer. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Kenneth C. Crowe II is reporting for the Times Union Rensselaer County chief medical examiner, Dr. Michael Sikirica, [sih-KEER-ih-kah], has refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19, forcing the county to send bodies for autopsies to Glens Falls Hospital instead of Albany Medical Center Hospital, county officials confirmed October 1. The autopsies Sikirica does are typically done at the Albany facility, which requires vaccinations for its employees and for anyone working there. “Dr. Sikirica is not employed by Albany Med, but consistent with our policy, physicians who do provide services on our campus must be vaccinated,” said Matt Markham, vice president for communications for the hospital. When asked to comment on why he has not been vaccinated, Sikirica referred questions to Richard Crist, the county director of operations. Crist said Sikirica is still performing autopsies, but not in Albany. As a result, officials, police officers and prosecutors must now travel roughly 50 miles to Glens Falls. Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said the relocation of the autopsies is another unexpected outcome of the pandemic."It's certainly inconvenient for us. We'll make it work," she said. Crist said there could be a ripple effect across the Capital Region because Sikirica works for seven counties. “This is a regional issue,” he said. Kate Lisa is reporting for Johnson Newspaper Corp. roughly 98 percent of the staff at Columbia Memorial Health staffers have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, a massive increase from the lower full vaccination rate reported by the state Health Department last week. Hospital, nursing home and adult-care facility employees in New York state were required to receive their first vaccine by midnight September 28. As of October 1, 1,645 of the total 1,683 health staff at the hospital in Hudson, have received at least one dose of an approved COVID vaccine, CMH spokesman Bill Van Slyke said. It was unclear if the 38 unvaccinated CMH health workers would be placed on leave for a period of time or terminated. “The hospital has taken whatever actions are necessary in order to be compliant with the state order,” Van Slyke said. Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Greene County Public Health may have to terminate up to four of its 33 employees if they are not vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 7. Four employees, including clinicians and support staff, had not received their first dose of the vaccination as of October 1. “Those employees are being notified that this is where we stand,” Greene County Legislature Chair Patrick Linger said. “They will go on an unpaid suspension for probably a week and if they are not vaccinated at that point, we will have no option but to terminate them.” Linger said he does not know why the four unvaccinated employees have failed to comply. The county Legislature on September 27 submitted a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul asking the vaccine mandate for frontline workers be delayed, saying the system is at capacity.

Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics law professor and failed gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout announced October 2, she will run for state attorney general if current Attorney General Letitia James launches a campaign for New York state governor in 2022. Teachout confirmed her plans first to the Times Union and later on Twitter. Teachout challenged then-incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary. In 2016, she ran unsuccessfully for the 19th Congressional District seat against Republican John Faso. And in 2018, she was a candidate for attorney general after the office was vacated by Eric Schneiderman, who resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Capital Region Independent Media the Ravena Village board last week voted unanimously to approve a new law to prohibit the feeding of wildlife, including waterfowl. Over the summer property owners in the village complained that some residents were feeding waterfowl, which resulted in large numbers of the animals flocking to the area. Especially ducks, which were causing property damage and creating a public health nuisance, village.officials said. The village board held a public hearing on the new law in August. Unanimously adopted at the board's September 21 meeting, the measure outlaws the feeding of wildlife within the village and applies to all wildlife, including waterfowl, with the exception of songbirds,. Residents who want to continue feeding songbirds must use bird feeders that follow certain requirements to ensure the food does not attract ducks or other waterfowl. Local police officers, sheriff’s deputies, or law enforcement officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation or the Department of Parks and Recreation are empowered to issue an appearance ticket for those who violate the law. The law is effective immediately after it is filed with the New York Department of State. Read more in The Ravena News-Herald.

Today's daily news update.

Rick Karlin reports in the Times Union that last week Albany County State Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch denied the town of Copake’s request for a preliminary injunction against a 60-megawatt solar farm, saying that “home rule is not unlimited.” The Chicago-based Hecate Energy wants to build the 255-acre Shepherds Run solar farm. But the town of Copake passed a law in 2017 limiting the size of solar energy projects to ten acres. The original size of the Shepherd's Run project was 500 acres. Many citizens and environmental groups want it smaller, and claimed in this lawsuit that the state’s new fast-track approval process for alternative energy developers wrongfully circumvents local control. Lynch disagreed in his decision saying there was nothing wrong with moving the application from the older Article 10 process for approving new power plants to the faster more streamlined process for renewable energy in which the new state Office of Renewable Energy Siting reviews the plans. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Columbia-Greene Media that officials from the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection toured the Batavia Kill stream restoration project in Prattsville and Ashland on Sept. 30. At Red Falls more than 6,000 feet of the Batavia Kill are being restored at a cost of $3.7 million. “We have been doing a lot of stream restoration projects to reduce the amount of sediment that gets into the reservoirs that are managed by the city,” New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “We want to make sure those reservoirs continue to have high- quality water. We invested a lot of money into projects like these.” The project will benefit those south of Greene County as water from the Batavia Kill heads to the Schoharie Reservoir, then to the Ashokan Aqueduct, then to the Catskill Aqueduct. Eventually folks in New York City and more than a dozen communities in Ulster, Orange, Putnam, and Westchester counties gets drinking water from this source. “Not only is this the 450th stream management project that we have done with our various partners, like the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District, but it also happens to be the biggest and most complex stream project we have done,” said Adam Bosch, director of public affairs for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. “It will actually treat a mile of the Batavia Kill that over the years, because of big storms, has resulted in huge slope failures, and it is the single largest source of sediment going into the Schoharie Reservoir.” Greene County Legislator James Thorington, a Republican from Prattsville, said the spending will also help here. “This purifies our water as well, for the fish and the environment,” Thorington said. “A lot of people swim at the barrier dam below this, so it will clean up the water there as well.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Paul Kirby reports in the Daily Freeman that New York Senator Chuck Schumer wants the Federal Railroad Administration to fully inspect a CSX Corp. bridge on the west side of the Hudson River, between the southern Ulster County hamlets of Highland and Milton. The Blue Point Railroad Bridge was temporarily reinforced last year and is being actively monitored by CSX. Nearby residents have expressed concerns about its safety, as freight trains cross the bridge with petroleum products. “A jury-rigged bridge is hardly a long-term solution to securing the safety of the CSX freight rail at the Blue Point Railroad Bridge,” Schumer said in a statement. “Ulster County and the surrounding communities are on board for an independent safety review from the feds, which should grease the skids in the interest of the health and safety of the entire region and bring peace of mind to Hudson Valley residents on both sides of the Hudson.” Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan also wants action taken. “The Hudson River is a precious commodity that we need to protect at all costs, which is why I support Senator Schumer’s call for an immediate inspection of the Blue Point Rail Bridge,” Ryan said in a statement. “… For generations, thousands of Ulster County residents have relied on the Hudson River for drinking water, and these communities deserve the peace of mind of knowing that this bridge is safe.” Riverkeeper Vice President John Lipscomb asked in a statement provided by Schumer’s office, “Is it still strong enough to support the mile-long freight trains it carries daily? Has the margin of safety been lost? And are the repeated vibrations and shocks of daily train traffic continuing to weaken the bridge and compromise even the temporary repairs?” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Today's daily headlines.

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Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup that the rate of violent crime in Greene County is second only to the rate recorded in New York City, according to recently released statistics from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. In 2020, Greene County reported 192 violent incidents, defined by the state as murder, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault. In a report issued last month, the department calculated each county’s rate per 100,000 residents and Greene County's rate was the highest among the 57 counties outside of the five boroughs. Erie County ranked second behind Greene in the violent crime rate, followed by Albany and Schenectady counties, outside of New York City. Greene County Sheriff Peter Kusminsky attributes the high rate to the presence of the two state prisons in Coxsackie. “I have received some preliminary information that there were potentially up to 80 assaults reported at the two state correctional facilities in Greene County in 2019,” said Kusminsky. “This could account for an inflated violent crime rate.” The total number of violent crimes reported in 2019 was 180, of which 131 were assaults. Eighty prison assaults would represent 61 percent of that year's total. “I have asked to have DCJS attempt to filter out the exact data,” Kusminsky said. “There is the possibility that some of the other violent crimes reported in the index crime data also occurred inside these same correctional facilities and not in the general community.” The two prisons are located in Greene County. In 2020, Greene County recorded no murders, 25 rapes, two robberies and 165 aggravated assaults. The county also had 357 property crimes, including 57 burglaries, 288 larcenies, and 12 motor vehicle thefts. In total, the 549 incidents reported in 2020 were a decrease from the previous four years, according to the DCJS. Read the full story at porcupinesoup [dot] com.

Sam Raudins is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the sale of the former Kaz warehouse site on Montgomery Street in Hudson's 1st Ward, has been put on hold, the Hudson Development Corporation announced at its meeting September 28. The HDC signed off on the sale in early September, sending the contract on to the unidentified buyer for final approval. However, the board is still awaiting a response. “It’s the buyer’s investors [who] wanted to see some additional paperwork,” HDC board member Paul Barrett said. The remainder of the discussion about the sale was held behind closed doors, in executive session. Because the sale is pending, the HDC has not identified the buyer nor disclosed the sale price of the property. HDC board president Robert Rasner said he sees “no reason” for the buyer not to sign the contract of sale because there has been an agreement on contract language, terms and conditions. It remains unclear what the buyer intends to do with the land, but Rasner said the buyer has “plans and dreams for a new Hudson neighborhood.” Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

MidHudson News is reporting that the state has announced the latest round of funding for counties to improve the operability of emergency communications statewide. The state of New York has awarded $472 million to municipalities over nine rounds since December 2011. The latest round includes funding for Hudson Valley and Catskills counties as follows: Columbia ($454,700); Dutchess ($558, 300); (Greene ($488,000); Rockland ($772, 800); Ulster ($540,600); and, Westchester ($681,500). Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Rebekah F. Ward reports in the Times Union that the state of New York is violating its own law on home cultivation of medical cannabis. The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act that passed this spring allows limited home cultivation of medical cannabis as soon as the Office of Cannabis Management issues regulations governing it. The law says that was supposed to happen, “no later than six months after the effective date” of the law. But we are now later that six months after the effective date of the law, and no one in the state can legally grow their own medical cannabis. The previous governor, Andrew Cuomo was long opposed to any cannabis legalization, and his administration did not make any of the needed appointments required by the law. New Gov. Kathy Hochul has been making many appointments to the various boards set to create the cannabis regulations, both for medical and recreational sales. Albany Dr. Mark Oldendorf said he is frustrated that he has patients who should be getting medical cannabis now are not. “I’ve had quite a few people who I’ve turned away because they wanted it specifically for insomnia, that’s the big need, and it’s not a qualifying condition” at the moment, he said. “So all of those people are headed off to Massachusetts to buy something.” Medical and recreational cannabis are legal there, but crossing the state line back into New York with cannabis is still a federal crime. State Department of Health spokesperson Jill Montag says now that the appointments have been made, more regulatory changes will be announced. “As the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board have now been fully constituted, they will be overseeing these changes as they occur,” she said. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Today's daily news update.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge, Kate Lisa, and Sam Raudins report for Columbia-Greene Media that about 83 percent of hospital workers at Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson have been vaccinated for COVID-19, the lowest level of any hospital in the Capital Region. That is according to the state Health Department on Sept. 29, while hospital officials refused to release specific staffing numbers. “The combination of record patient volumes (due in large part to COVID) and broader clinical staff supply issues continues to present challenges to many health care providers in the state, including CMH,” spokesperson Bill Van SlykeVan said in a statement. “We have been managing operations throughout the pandemic within a very tight labor market, so to lose any staff can compound that challenge. We are very proud of our employees who meet that challenge every day, and we welcome back staff who have recently been vaccinated. The numbers change daily. Overall, our experience with staff vaccinations is consistent with the broader region.” Before COVID-19, the hospital cut services and no longer does childbirth, sending mothers to Albany and Dutchess County instead. Albany Medical Center. was transparent releasing more detailed information about how many employees were not vaccinated while Columbia Memorial Health, an affiliate of Albany Medical Center, repeatedly refused to release any information. “Each of the Albany Med Health System hospitals handle their own PR, so we cannot speak for Columbia Memorial Health,” said Susan Ford, a spokesperson for Albany Medical Center. A Columbia Memorial official did admit they need help. “Some elective procedures requiring an inpatient stay have been rescheduled, and we’ve offered telehealth services at various locations, such as our rapid care centers, to help manage patient needs. We are actively recruiting for many positions, both clinical and non-clinical, so we encourage anyone who wants to serve our community in a position that offers competitive pay and good benefits to visit our website and apply,” said CMH spokesperson Van Slyke. On Sept. 30, Columbia Memorial Health hospital in Hudson was reporting four hour emergency department waiting times due to staff shortages. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

MidHudson News reports in the Daily Freeman that new airline Norse Atlantic Airways has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to offer service between New York Stewart International Airport and Oslo. The Norway-based carrier wants to start passenger service between the U.S and Europe in the summer of 2022, with round-trip service to Oslo from three U.S. airports: Stewart, Fort Lauderdale, and Los Angeles using Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Norwegian Air pulled out of Stewart in 2019, citing the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max jets after two fatal crashes of that aircraft as its reason for cutting back. Norwegian Air would have been the first airline to use Stewart’s then under construction international arrivals building, which Norse Atlantic Airways will now use. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

Steve Barnes reports in the Times Union that the New Lebanon Farmers Market is now a year-round indoor operation. Local fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, baked goods, prepared foods, and more will be available at 528 Route 20 in the village, noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. The outdoor market will continue through the end of October in the parking lot of the local Berkshire Bank branch (502 Route 20), 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. The market's website includes online ordering at the indoor market. Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, a not-for-profit helping farmers and food makers in Columbia and Dutchess counties, Berkshire County, Mass., and Litchfield County, Conn., provided a low-interest loan to purchase refrigeration for the indoor market. Read more about this story in the Times Union.