Kyle Adams writes in The Daily Mail Greene County government and business officials met with analysts from the federal Government Accountability Office Tues., Dec. 3, to discuss the challenges rural communities face in accessing broadband Internet service. The analysts are visiting rural counties in New York and Vermont to conduct in-depth interviews for a report to be released in the spring about the effectiveness of the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service Broadband Loan Program. The group met with Warren Hart, director of Greene County Economic Development, Tourism and Planning, Jeff Friedman, executive director of the Great Northern Catskills Chamber of Commerce and Jim Gibbons, director of new business development for Columbia-Greene Media. Hart and Friedman answered questions about the demographics of the county, the Internet services already in place, the economic effects of dead zones and the projected benefits of broadband. The analysts were gathering data for a study, so the meeting is not likely to result in immediate material benefit to the county. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.