Nick Reisman is reporting for State of Politics the members of the state redistricting commission Sept. 15, indicated they could not agree on the same set of proposed maps for dividing up New York's voters. The commission has been tasked with drawing new legislative boundaries for Congressional seats, as well as for the state Senate and Assembly. The commission will release two sets of maps for debate as the process continues to unfold. But if an agreement is not in place by January 15, when the final set of maps are due, the process could rest with the state Legislature, where the Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers. The state's redistricting process is supposed to be controlled by the commission to remove some of the influence of members of the state Legislature. Commission members hope the next round of 14 statewide public hearings to be held in the coming weeks will provide an opportunity to reach an agreement. "The people of New York are counting on us in ways that are not contemplating before," said Elaine Frazier, a commission member. "I think we're up to the challenge. I look forward to working with you." New York is set to lose one House seat after its population did not grow at the same rate as the rest of the country. If Democrats are able to submit their own version of the maps, it could ultimately help the party keep control of the narrowly divided House of Representatives. In November, voters will also consider changes to the state constitution that could further empower the supermajorities in the Legislature. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the final round of voting to choose a new mascot for the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District has begun. Voters have until 4 p.m. September 20, to choose from the three mascot choices on the ballot: the Eagles, Bluejays, or Riverhawks. The board of education decided in June, on a vote of 6 to 3, to retire the district’s long-time mascot, the Indian, citing cultural insensitivity to Indigenous people. Nominations were submitted by community members, and 14 were presented for a vote conducted in August to whittle the choices down to three. Nearly 2,000 people voted in the first round, Board of Education member Tara Bachner said. Students were encouraged to cast their ballots after school started last week. “The final three were very popular in the community — it wasn’t even close,” she said. Bachner is expected to provide the board of education with an update on the status of the mascot decision at the board of education meeting this week. The board will vote after the community votes are tallied. Ballots can be cast online at cacsd. [dot] org, and ballot boxes have been set up at the district's elementary schools in Athens and in Coxsackie. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

The Daily Freeman is reporting in response to a recent increase in reported anti-Semitic incidents, the Jewish Federation of Ulster County has launched a hotline for reporting such incidents. The federation has announced all calls to the hotline will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and reports received “will be verified and referred to appropriate authorities, including law enforcement agencies when appropriate.” In a press release, the federation’s president, Rondavid Gold, and its executive director, David Drimer, said the organization has created the Ulster County Anti-Semitism Hotline on its website, UCJF [dot] org, where victims of, or witnesses to, anti-Semitic acts can report them to the Ulster County Federation by calling (845) 859-9858 or filling out an interactive form on the website. The federation will also evaluate potential legal action, engage government agencies and coordinate with news media, if applicable, in response to subsequently reported incidents. If callers wish to remain anonymous, their identities will not be divulged to third parties. The first response to a violent or threatening anti-Semitic incident is to immediately call local law enforcement, the organization advised. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.

Today's daily news update.

The Times Union reports that Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sept. 15 mandated that employees and children in New York's state-regulated day care centers must wear masks to prevent COVID-19 spread. "We don't have a vaccine available for 5- to 11-year-olds," Hochul said. "We're not hearing that that will occur for a number of months yet." Currently the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention recommends "universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status." The mandate also covers home-based group family and family child care programs, after-school child care programs, and enrolled legally exempt group programs during operational hours. As Hochul announced the latest mandate, she also made clear she was taking this step to end the pandemic. "We all want this to be over. Everybody's tired of it," Hochul said. "We have the power to end this if every single person in the state of New York ... over the age of 12 ... will simply get their vaccine." Read more about this story in the Times Union.

The Altamont Enterprise reports that part of the Rensselaerville Library will be cooler next summer with the installation of air conditioning. A $9,734 from the State Education Department and the State Library will cool off the library annex. Library’s director Heidemarie Carle said ghis is the second phase of part of a plan to air-condition the entire library. “The first phase was completed in 2020 when we used the same grant funding source to upgrade the existing HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] system in the Reading Room part of the library, adding the AC component,” Carle said. “We will use the new grant funds to install ductless mini-split units in the Annex part of the building. The Annex houses our Main Circulation Area, Computer Lab, Children’s Reading and Activity Rooms, and the several collections of books and electronic resources.” The cooler air won't just keep the books in the southern Albany County library in better condition. “If called upon, the library’s public space can be used as a cooling center in a heat emergency,” Carle said, “an asset in a community that once relied on the cooler temperatures of mountain summer days and where few houses had (or have) air conditioning.” Read more about this story in the Altamont Enterprise.

Alexandra Marvar reports in The New York Times about the boat that is moving agriculture from the Hudson Valley to New York City with a much smaller impact on the environment than trucks or rail. The schooner Apollonia is captained by Sam Merrett, "carrying ayurvedic condiments from Catskill; spelt flour, hemp salves and malted barley from Hudson; wool yarn from Ghent; and other local goods," according to the story. The Apollonia began transporting food in May 2020, and this year it began in late spring and will continue into autumn. The wind-powered boat takes the vegetables to the city where they are then moved by solar-powered e-bikes and sometimes horse-drawn carriages to maintain carbon neutrality. “It’s not that I wish it was 1823 again,” Merrett said. “I think there were ways we used to do things that were really right, and we can learn from those.” Dennis Nesel, a 61-year-old who makes malt in Hudson, said, “Shipping today, post-Covid, is a nightmare,. With tractor-trailers picking up our freight, sometimes the stuff that we have scheduled to go to Brooklyn ends up in Herkimer or Syracuse, and the stuff that was supposed to go to Syracuse ends up in Brooklyn. That doesn’t happen with the Apollonia.” So far the wind-powered service is not profitable. “We as a country need to start reinvesting in waterfront infrastructure for this to work,” Merrett said. “One boat is never going to do that. It needs to become a pattern.” Read more about this story in The New York Times.

Today's daily headlines.

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Roger Hannigan Gilson is reporting for the Times Union one million state residents, or about 14 percent of the population, still have no broadband internet, and low-income residents are far more likely to lack the service. New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli came to Hudson on Sept. 14, to present the findings of his report with other elected officials. According to the the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, more than 98 percent of residents have access to broadband, this just means the service is offered at their place of residence, the report found. A lack of broadband was disproportionately concentrated in poor and elderly households, DiNapoli said. The study found that 36.2 percent of households with incomes less than $20,000 had no broadband, while only 4.5 percent of households with incomes above $75,000 lacked the service. At the press conference, U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado compared the government’s efforts to provide broadband to all corners of the state to President Franklin Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which brought electricity to farming communities across the country. In the Hudson Valley, Greene County had the highest proportion of people without broadband at 18.2 percent, while Putnam had the lowest, with 6.5 percent. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a representative of a Schenectady-based construction management firm recently presented a conceptual site plan to the New Baltimore Planning Board for the building of a new medical facility on Route 9W. Greg Barkstrom, director of real estate development for LeChase Construction, told the board the details of the project are not immediately known because the company is awaiting land-use approval before developing a specific plan. “It will be one, maybe two medical buildings,” Barkstrom said. “It would be on what is known as the Dunphy site on Route 9W.” That property currently houses an abandoned restaurant space in poor condition, Barkstrom said. “It has been vacant for a long time — the place is falling down,” he said. LeChase is looking to merge two adjacent properties for the project. “There are two parcels associated with this. They will be combined,” Barkstrom told the board. “One is 5.8 acres and the other is 2.3 acres.” The area is zoned Development Multi-family Residential, or DMR, which expressly does not permit medical facilities. “In that DMR zone, medical is specifically prohibited, so we are looking for a use variance to allow a medical [facility],” Barkstrom said. Before the project can move forward, the zoning board of appeals would have to make a determination to allow a medical facility in the DMR zone. Planning Board Chair Robert Van Etten referred the matter to the zoning board of appeals for review of the use variance request. Barkstrom said. LeChase will likely bring the matter to the ZBA later this month. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Syracuse [dot] com is reporting seven schools located in Upstate New York made U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 list of the 100 best colleges in America. Cornell University was the top-ranked school upstate. The Ithaca school tied with Rice University in Houston for No. 17 in the overall national rankings; Cornell also ranked eighth for business programs, 21st for most innovative schools, and 22nd for best value. Six other Upstate NY schools made the top 100 nationally, including three SUNY schools. The University of Rochester was named No. 34 overall, followed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy at No. 55, Syracuse University at No. 59, and Binghamton University at No. 83; Stony Brook University and the University at Buffalo tied for No. 93. Binghamton, Stony Brook and Buffalo also ranked among the top 40 public schools in the nation. Princeton University again ranked first in the rankings, released Sept. 13. Columbia University, Harvard University and MIT tied for second place, with Yale University rounding out the top five — the same top five as last year. Other New York schools with notable rankings include Hamilton College, Skidmore College, Union College, and St. Lawrence University. The U.S. News’ annual college rankings are based on student-faculty ratio, tuition, campus life, financial aid, application requirements and post-graduate earning data and more. Read the more at Syracuse [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge for Columbia-Greene Media writes that Columbia County over the weekend reported multiple cases of COVID-19 at a nursing home facility and at a school. There were 13 positive COVID-19 cases at Pine Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philmont and two cases at the Ichabod Crane Primary School in Valatie. Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said Sept. 13 that 10 residents and three staff members at Pine Haven caught coronavirus. “All of the residents were vaccinated and none of them are seriously ill at this point,” Mabb said. Pine Haven officials did not call the newspaper back to comment. “Pine Haven is very responsive," Mabb said. “They call us back, they talk to us on a regular basis and they are very aggressive about getting people tested.” In Valatie, meanwhile, a student and a teacher at the Ichabod Crane Primary School tested positive for COVID-19. The teacher began teaching from home, and the class has been quarantined. Ichabod Crane Superintendent Suzanne Guntlow said, “We made the decision to quarantine the class just to give them time to make sure there’s no further spread within that one room." The teacher had been vaccinated, but the student was too young to receive a dose. “It does seem that this variant, like they’ve been saying, it does seem to spread to children more readily,” Guntlow said. “Last year we didn’t see this many cases the first week of school. Everything we’ve been hearing is that it’s more contagious and children do catch it. Based on the first week of school that seems to be the case.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

The Columbia County Department of Social Services building in Hudson has been shut down due to possible COVID-19 exposure, county officials announced Sept. 14. The decision was made out of an abundance of caution, according to a released statement. The building at 25 Railroad Avenue has been closed to the public to allow for a thorough cleaning of the facility. The department is expected to reopen at 8 a.m., on Sept. 15.

Brendan J. Lyons reports in the Times Union that U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd in Utica issued an order Sept. 14 temporarily stopping employers from enforcing a state vaccine mandate on health care workers who have sought a religious exemption from receiving the shots. The lawsuit was filed by a group of physicians and nurses "who allege that their sincere religious beliefs compel them to refuse the COVID-19 vaccines that are currently available," the judge wrote in the opinion. On Sept. 27 the state's mandate requiring hospital and nursing home workers to be vaccinated goes into effect, but, at least temporarily, health workers will be able to claim religious exemptions. A Jill Montag, a spokesperson for state health Commissioner Howard Zucker, said, "Our overriding focus is the protection of patients and residents in our healthcare settings. This is why everyone who is medically able should be vaccinated, especially healthcare workers who interact and care for our most vulnerable at risk New Yorkers. The department will listen to any and all input that helps to advance the goal of protecting patients, visitors, the public and health care workers." As of Sept. 14 the state health department reports that roughly 20 percent of the state's 450,000 hospital workers are unvaccinated. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Today's daily headlines.

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Albany County and Ulster County each reported new COVID-19 deaths on Sept. 14. In Albany County, a woman in her 50s became the 400th Albany County resident killed by coronavirus. In Ulster County, the latest death made for 275 since March, 2020. Also troubling, the Saugerties school district reported four new cases of COVID-19 from students at the high school there, and one new student and one new teacher at the junior high school, and a student and a staff member at Grant D. Morse Elementary School. The Kingston schools have reported five staff cases and three among students since school opened last week. Columbia County reported 11 more cases on Sept. 14. Previously, Columbia County reported 13 positive COVID-19 cases at Pine Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philmont and two cases at the Ichabod Crane Primary School in Valatie.

The Daily Freeman reports about two more COVID-19 deaths in Dutchess County, announced Sept. 13. That makes six in the last five days, and 12 for the month. Better news, though, was that they only announced three new cases on Sept. 13, while Ulster County added 28 more cases. Columbia County announced 25 more cases on Sept. 13. Last Friday, Greene County announced 13 new cases, but has been mum since then. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.