Today's daily headlines.

Click above to download or play today's "Better Weather." Produced by Joe Demanso of the Catskill Makers Syndicate.

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup that a beloved local tradition, the Greene County Youth Fair begins its 67th year on July 22, in Angelo Canna Town Park in Cairo. The opening ceremony starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by four days of animal shows, entertainment, exhibits, live music, vendors, food, and fireworks. “We really focus the fair on showcasing the youth,” said Alex Johnk, president of the Greene County Agricultural Society, Inc. the fair organizer. The high point of the event are the shows that feature youth who raise animals or exhibit handmade projects and show off their accomplishments. Greene County kids raise everything from rabbits and chickens to goats and cows to bring to the fair — in the hope of earning a ribbon. The fair last year was held virtually, due to COVID, with the youth showing their animals by video. While the event will be "more normal" this year, Johnk explained there will be less entertainment and no carnival rides. The annual barbecue has also been postponed until next year. “But it is still going to be a fun fair,” said Johnk. “It’s still going to be all about the kids.” The schedule includes Buffalo Barfield, a traditional troubadour, as well as a woodsman show that highlights traditional lumberjack skill and more. Read the full story at porcupinesoup [dot] com.

Susan Arbetter is reporting for Capital Tonight a bipartisan group of upstate lawmakers are pushing Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a long-awaited report on upstate cell service issues. The group is interested in the work of the Upstate Cellular Coverage Task Force, which last met in September 2019. New York Assemblymember Billy Jones, of Plattsburgh, sits on the task force and was a signatory to a letter on the subject recently sent to the governor. “I was part of three meetings in Albany,” he said. “It was a good group of people. Good recommendations came out of it.” The task force was created by Cuomo to study the issue of rural cell service, which remains non-existent in some locations across upstate rural areas. The group's mission was to report on where pockets of inadequate cell service are, and to come up with a game plan to address the issue. But because of COVID-19, the report was never issued. “We are requesting from the governor some kind of report to come out. Recommendations or implementations of these recommendations so that we can get better cell service here in New York state in rural areas,” Jones explained. Empire State Development said in a statement that the report is in the final stages of review and is expected to be released “very shortly.” Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Capital Region Independent Media the Coeymans Town Board voted July 8 to approve a resolution that would approve an analysis of the proposal to provide water and sewer service to three properties in the town's industrial area. “I have been talking to the village of Ravena since last October or November, and also the property owners on Route 144 going out of the hamlet, just outside of the sewer district — the Port of Coeymans, the Biers industrial property and the JAT Construction property, as well as the Coeymans Industrial Park,” Town Supervisor George McHugh said. "...It never has been formalized, so we have been talking since last year about redefining our water and sewer districts so it would include the rest of the industrial properties.” If approved, the project would extend water and sewer lines into the Route 144 industrial corridor, he said. Under a resolution adopted unanimously by the town board, the town’s engineering firm of Barton and Loguidice will conduct a feasibility assessment for the water district at a cost of $4,500, and a map, plan and report for an additional $3,800. The cost of the engineering reports and the extension of the lines would be paid for by the property owners, McHugh said. “This is all being funded by those three property owners who have all committed to sharing equally in this cost,” he said. Read the full story in the Ravena News-Herald.

Smoke and haze from the wildfires in the western U.S. can be seen drifting southeast across the Tri-State area in this satellite imagery. This will filter the sunshine here throughout the day today. pic.twitter.com/LfSay79IQy

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) July 20, 2021

Caitlin O'Kane reports for CBS News that, it may be hard to tell with all the clouds and rain lately, but smoke from distant fires in the western United States has reached New York. On July 20, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation issued an air quality alert for the state, with ozone levels at the surface increasing due to wildfire smoke. The DEC warned those with heart or lung disease as well as older adults and some children to limit outdoor activities. The Upper Hudson Valley air was labeled "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" by the DEC. "That fine particulate matter can be very troubling for people with lung disease, also children and elderly, as well as heart disease. So when you have any sort of underlying illness you have to be really careful not to overexert yourself in this when you’re outside,” said Dr. Keith Rose with Hackensack University Medical Center. Wildfires to the west continue in 13 states, with 83 large fires burning 1,293,636 acres so far, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. An extreme drought, made worse by global warming, has engulfed the western United States this summer, while the Hudson Valley has been drenched the last two weeks. Read more about this story at the CBS News website.

Today's daily news update.

Aliya Schneider reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Verizon Wireless is suing the city of Hudson, the city's planning board and the code enforcement department in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York about the company’s application for six antennae atop Providence Hall. Verizon's application was approved with a 5-2 vote June 23. But the internet service company calls a deed restriction included in the approval an unenforceable “poison pill condition” that effectively denied the application for a special use permit to install the antennae on the roof of Providence Hall. The company alleges in its lawsuit the board spent too long considering the application, though Verizon agreed to extensions during the process. And Verizon also claims the planning board held too many public hearings. Verizon wants the court to annul the board’s resolution, but no Verizon or Hudson city officials would go on the record with comments. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Chris Bragg is reporting for the Times Union the state's ethics oversight agency is looking into a series of phone calls made by a former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The calls drew criticism from some county executives who felt the calls improperly mixed politics with vaccine distribution efforts. An investigator from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has been reaching out to Democratic county executives to set up fact-finding interviews concerning their interactions with Larry Schwartz, one of Cuomo's most trusted advisers. He served as the state vaccine czar during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recently initiated JCOPE investigation is notable because the ethics oversight agency has been criticized for being influenced by the Cuomo administration. Bragg reports that It is unlikely JCOPE staff would have started the investigation without notifying the panel’s commissioners, including the six members appointed by Cuomo. In March, the Washington Post reported that Schwartz called county government officials to measure their loyalty to Cuomo. One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach that the person filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the state attorney general's office. He feared a county's vaccine supply would suffer if Schwartz felt the executive was not supportive of Cuomo. Westchester County Executive George Latimer was one of the Democratic county executives contacted by JCOPE about a fact-finding interview. He said he found nothing inappropriate about the interaction. “People in politics call other people in politics all the time,” Latimer said. “I felt no kind of pressure from him, at all.” It is unclear whether JCOPE is investigating other Cuomo-related matters, including the governor’s use of staff to help produce his book, “American Crisis.” Read the full story in the Times Union.

Chris Bragg reports in the Times Union that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is declining to release public records detailing overtime payments to junior staff members. The records are routinely available to anyone who asks, but Cuomo's staff is arguing these records have been “compiled for law enforcement purposes” and if disclosed would "interfere" with law enforcement investigations. Attorney General Letitia James’ office is investigating Cuomo’s use of government staff to produce his book "American Crisis," which made the governor $5.1 million. So far, Cuomo’s office says that no overtime was paid to staffers for work on the book and that any overtime requested was “to help assist in the operation of state government." The Times Union used the Freedom of Information law to request the days certain junior Executive Chamber staffers earned overtime last year and any records providing a reason as to why the extra work was necessary, but Cuomo's office will not provide the public information. Cuomo's assistant counsel Valerie Lubanko says that there were “several ongoing investigations relating to the governor’s book ‘American Crisis’ for which disclosure of records could impact these ongoing investigations.... Production may also deprive interested individuals of an impartial adjudication of any potential claims." Cuomo’s counsel earlier promised not to use government staff on the book when seeking approval from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, but now won't reveal the public information related to the issue. 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.

Bethany Bump reports in the Times Union that COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks in the Capital Region grew by nearly five times. Cases have grown to the level they were in late May, when they were falling, bottoming out around July 4. Since then, COVID cases are growing locally. The share of people testing positive for the virus in the region rose from 0.3 percent to 1.7 percent during the past two weeks. "After over a year of containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now being told that COVID is now mainly a pandemic among the unvaccinated," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said July 19. "If you haven't already, I encourage you to get your shot to best protect yourself and your loved ones against the variants spreading through the nation.” Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says that more than 99 percent of new COVID-19 cases being tracked by the New York State Association of County Health Officials are from people who are not vaccinated. “If you haven’t gotten the shot, you aren’t protected from the virus, and the delta variant makes the situation even more serious,” he said. “There are opportunities every day to get a free vaccination here in Albany County and throughout the Capital Region.” The new variant of COVID-19 is much more contagious, but the vaccine works very well against any COVID-19 variant. COVID cases across the country were up 70 percent over the past week. Albany County currently leads the area with 61.5 percent of its population fully vaccinated. Columbia County is at 56.6 percent fully vaccinated; Rensselaer County has 55.6 percent vaccinated and Greene County has 48.7 percent of its population fully vaccinated. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Aliya Schneider is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Hudson City School District has nearly $6 million of federal stimulus funding to allocate during the next two to three years and it is required to get community feedback for some of the funding. The district is set to receive one-time federal funding through the American Rescue Plan of just over $4 million, and almost $2 million from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Act. The plan released by the district this month does not include any funding allocations. HCSD Business Administrator Jesse Boehme said a survey requesting that community members prioritize categories to use the American Rescue Plan federal funds closed on June 12 and the plan that was released on July 1, was based on that survey feedback. However, the spending checklist came without cost approximates. The district says it will purchase COVID-19 supplies, review upgrades to HVAC systems, purchase cooling units for the 1997 addition to the elementary school to improve air filtration and ventilation, purchase reusable and disposable masks for students and staff, and purchase an 18-passenger van. It plans to spend money on Chromebooks and licenses, desktops and Chrome Boxes, IT infrastructure requirements, and upgrades to Promethean Boards and monitors. The district plans to hire a guidance counselor for college and career readiness to assess the impact of the pandemic on students, plus a Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Manager and provide training for faculty, students and staff. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for the Times Union police are no longer seizing cannabis, making arrests or issuing tickets for low-level possession for travelers passing through Albany International and other airports in New York. New York legalized the possession of up to three ounces of cannabis in March. Bart R. Johnson, a former State Police colonel and currently the federal security director for 15 upstate airports including Albany International said cannabis is not something that security officers are looking for when they pat down passengers or search their luggage for contraband. "...We just look for threats — explosives, knives, guns; we don’t look for illegally possessed narcotics," said Johnson. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said deputies are sometimes called to the security checkpoint by Transportation Security Administration officials when they find marijuana on a traveler or in their luggage. The sheriff said they no longer issue tickets or make an arrest if the amount of marijuana appears to be less than three ounces. The TSA is required by federal law to notify law enforcement when they discover what they believe to be an illegal substance. But while marijuana is still considered illegal under federal law, the TSA is not a law enforcement agency. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Paula Newton and Kevin Liptak are reporting for CNN beginning August 9, fully vaccinated American citizens and permanent residents living in the U.S. will be permitted to enter Canada. Non-essential travel into Canada has been banned for 16 months, since March 2020, something the Canadian government said was necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. International travelers may also be allowed to enter Canada beginning September 7, provided the "COVID-19 epidemiology remains favorable," the government said in a statement July 19. Any foreign travelers who are not fully vaccinated will continue to be banned from entering the country. The Canadian government's list of acceptable vaccines are those manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Other vaccines, including those from China or Russia, will not be recognized by Canada. Unvaccinated minors under the age of 12 entering Canada with vaccinated parents or guardians will not have to quarantine for 14 days. All travelers entering the country, regardless of vaccine status, will be required to produce a negative PCR or molecular test within 72 hours of requesting entry. The White House has so far failed to commit to reopening the northern border to Canadians wishing to enter the U.S. Read the full story at CNN [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Kenneth C. Crowe II reports in the Times Union that ex-Chatham police chief Peter Volkmann, who cheated the village's retirement system and filed false claims for mileage and expense reimbursement, did not get any prison time for his crimes. Instead, on July 19 he was ordered to repay the $92,000 he stole and was sentenced to 200 hours community service by Columbia County Court Judge Richard Koweek. "Instead of upholding the law, Volkmann, the chief law enforcement officer of the village, defrauded the state retirement system and his community. Taxpayers have the right to expect their public officials, including law enforcement officials, will act with honesty and integrity," State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said. Volkmann, who also resigned as the city of Hudson's police commissioner after his arrest, said, "I've taken full responsibility. I've disgraced my family. I disgraced myself. I lost my home. I lost my business. I lost my standing in the community." Koweek also placed Volkmann on two years conditional discharge for the grand larceny county and one year conditional discharge for the official misconduct charge, and he officially lost his job when he entered a guilty plea. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Abigail Rubel reports for the Times Union that 17-year-old Cairo-Durham High School student Hannah Esslie is now the owner of a United Women’s Soccer team. The Hudson Valley Crusaders, based in Saugerties, are in UWS League 2, a semi-pro minor league for women's soccer. “I’ve always wanted to see soccer at a higher level, especially in my area where there aren’t a lot of opportunities,” Esslie, who will be a senior in high school next year, said. How is it to own a soccer team at 17? “It’s certainly not easy,” she said. “A lot of new things I’ve never done before. … The field rentals, player registration, the social media, the website, preparations for the game.” Her family says she is running the show. “She’s been dealing with people that are twice or three times her age on many occasions,” father Mike Esslie said. “She deals with the coaches, the reps, the league administrator, the regional coordinator.” Unfortunately, the Hudson Valley Crusaders record was 0-4-0. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Melanie Lekocevic reports for Capital Region Independent Media in the Greenville Pioneer that Greenville's water and sewer extension project is back to the bidding stage, after five proposals came in higher than expected. “We opened bids June 15 and they came in noticeably higher than what was anticipated,” Greenville Town Supervisor Paul Macko said. “We had a conference call with the Environmental Facilities Corporation, which controls the funds, so we have a resolution for a water and sewer upgrade to set a public hearing for the amount of funding we will need to complete the project." The town has $1,972,187 for the project and the lowest bid came in at $2,980,920, so there is a million dollar difference. They may add federal money to the project. “In the COVID-19 relief package to the towns, they are talking about money for infrastructure,” Macko said. “It’s looking like Greenville has just under $400,000 coming in two installments." One bidder suggested the town could save $400,000 by buying a new water tank instead of fixing the old one. When completed, the water and sewer lines would be extended 2,400 feet along Route 81. Read more about this story in the Greenville Pioneer.