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Weekend in review
May 06, 2013 5:32 am
Some of the stories that made the news, May 3 to 6:
Paula Ann Mitchell reported in the Daily Freeman divers on Friday afternoon recovered the body of a 72-year-old pilot whose plane crashed in the Hudson River, Thurs., May 2. The body of Copake resident Michael B. Braunstein was recovered in a debris field some 20 feet below the surface of the river. Braunstein was the pilot and owner of the World War II-era reconnaissance aircraft that crashed into the river between Catskill and Germantown, some 30 minutes after taking off from a private airfield in Copake, authorities have said. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.
The Register Star and Daily Mail report CROP walks were held across the Capital Region, Sun., May 5. The Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty hunger walks raise money to help stop hunger locally and around the world. In Columbia County, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Valatie and the Emmanuel Lutheran Parish of Stuyvesant Falls hosted the 10th annual walk at the Elks Club in Kinderhook. More than $12,000 was raised by 112 participants. In Greene County, the walk was organized by the Coxsackie-Athens Ecumenical Clergy Association, and began and ended at the Gospel Community Church on Mansion Street in Coxsackie. Nearly $2,000 was raised by 70 participants. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised will go to local food pantries and soup kitchens.
The Associated Press reported two New York administrative judges have expressed concerns about Canada-based Fortis Inc.'s planned $1.5 billion takeover of the CH Energy Group, which supplies electricity and gas to New York's Hudson River Valley. CH Energy is the parent of the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. The two judges said in an advisory opinion the loss of local ownership of the New York utility might lead to immeasurable difficulties for customers. The judges stopped short of saying the merger should be rejected. Read the full AP story in the Wall Street Journal.
The Public News Service reported a New York Appeals Court ruled in favor of two upstate towns, Dryden and Middlefield, saying a lower court was right in upholding bans the towns placed on hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract natural gas. Dryden passed a zoning ordinance in 2011 prohibiting oil and gas drilling, including fracking. An oil company sued the town saying the state's Department of Environmental Conservation should make the decision, not the community. A judge initially ruled in the town's favor, but Norse Energy, a Norwegian company with U.S. headquarters in Buffalo, appealed. Anti-fracking activists said the ruling will resonate statewide. Read the full story at publicnewsservice.org.
Paula Ann Mitchell reported in the Daily Freeman divers on Friday afternoon recovered the body of a 72-year-old pilot whose plane crashed in the Hudson River, Thurs., May 2. The body of Copake resident Michael B. Braunstein was recovered in a debris field some 20 feet below the surface of the river. Braunstein was the pilot and owner of the World War II-era reconnaissance aircraft that crashed into the river between Catskill and Germantown, some 30 minutes after taking off from a private airfield in Copake, authorities have said. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.
The Register Star and Daily Mail report CROP walks were held across the Capital Region, Sun., May 5. The Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty hunger walks raise money to help stop hunger locally and around the world. In Columbia County, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Valatie and the Emmanuel Lutheran Parish of Stuyvesant Falls hosted the 10th annual walk at the Elks Club in Kinderhook. More than $12,000 was raised by 112 participants. In Greene County, the walk was organized by the Coxsackie-Athens Ecumenical Clergy Association, and began and ended at the Gospel Community Church on Mansion Street in Coxsackie. Nearly $2,000 was raised by 70 participants. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised will go to local food pantries and soup kitchens.The Associated Press reported two New York administrative judges have expressed concerns about Canada-based Fortis Inc.'s planned $1.5 billion takeover of the CH Energy Group, which supplies electricity and gas to New York's Hudson River Valley. CH Energy is the parent of the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. The two judges said in an advisory opinion the loss of local ownership of the New York utility might lead to immeasurable difficulties for customers. The judges stopped short of saying the merger should be rejected. Read the full AP story in the Wall Street Journal.
The Public News Service reported a New York Appeals Court ruled in favor of two upstate towns, Dryden and Middlefield, saying a lower court was right in upholding bans the towns placed on hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract natural gas. Dryden passed a zoning ordinance in 2011 prohibiting oil and gas drilling, including fracking. An oil company sued the town saying the state's Department of Environmental Conservation should make the decision, not the community. A judge initially ruled in the town's favor, but Norse Energy, a Norwegian company with U.S. headquarters in Buffalo, appealed. Anti-fracking activists said the ruling will resonate statewide. Read the full story at publicnewsservice.org.