Steven Schimmrich, a geology professor who blogs as the Hudson Valley Geologist, has an effective technique:

I'm very evil... I told her no one here was an expert on the subject (technically true) and suggested she call the SUNY New Paltz astronomy department!

A surprising detail ends this story about another watershed-related lawsuit in the Daily Freeman.

Correspondent Jay Braman reports that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is suing the town of Shandaken over the town's tax assessment of the wastewater treatment plants the city operates in Pine Hill and Chichester. The DEP sued Shandaken over the same wastewater system two years ago, but despite a settlement, it's at it again: The town is trying to tax a part of the plants not covered by the previous lawsuit, and the city objects. 

At the end of the story, Braman reports that such lawsuits have competely cashed the $3-million-dollar legal defense fund set up for watershed towns in 1997 as part of the massive agreement between the city and the watershed region. The money was intended to pay for the towns' lawyers in disputes with New York City over issues like tax assessments -- but now, just 13 years later, it's gone.

From the Freeman:  Read more

The new president of the New Paltz School Board, Donald Kerr, was charged with marijuana possession after being pulled over for reckless driving in 2008. Here's what was in his car, according to the Hudson Valley New Paltz Times:

The trooper says that Kerr was found with one glass pipe, a plastic baggy with 0.9 grams of weed, and another plastic bag with pot seeds, stems and eight roaches.

Since the incident, Kerr has pled gulity to reckless driving, but not to the drug charges, according to the Times Herald-Record. That probably ends any prosecution for his pot bust too, the Daily Freeman reported today. This leaves the citizens of the school district in a bit of a dilemma.  Read more

Come to think of it, that describes the state of New York pretty well, too.

Ulster County Community College prof Steven Schimmrich, a.k.a. The Hudson Valley Geologist, has detected a glaring basic math error in New York State's formula for community college: Imploding economy + rising enrollment + shrinking budget + increasingly uneducated students = One highly unsustainable situation.

Unfortunately, support from the amazingly inept State of New York has gone down as enrollment goes up (1/3 of our budget)!  Support from the local county has remained flat (another 1/3 of our budget).  Tuition went up slightly (the final 1/3).  We're trying to educate more students but with less money (quite the business model - when enrollment increases, our financial situation gets worse!).

The plot sickens. Schimmrich says that the students most in need of community college -- the ones struggling both academically and financially -- are caught in a vicious catch-22 that practically ensures they'll drop out before graduating:  Read more