With the last Kutsher on the verge of retirement, the resort that inspired "Dirty Dancing" was poised to follow its Borscht Belt brethren into a long twilight of decrepitude. But in a lucky break for the 103-year-old hotel, caterer Mickey Montal and longtime guest Yossi Zablocki pooled a few hundred thousand dollars and pulled Kutsher's back from the brink. From the Times Herald-Record:

Zablocki — in charge of everything but the food — put a new hot tub in the indoor pool area that, thanks to a new filter, is now crystal clear, like the outdoor pool. The natural wood for a new outdoor kids' playground just arrived — although the old steel merry-go-round with the ladybug head he once played on stays.

"I want to breathe life in it," says Zablocki. "I don't want it to become an old age home."  Read more

A bill instituting no-fault divorce in New York State, which cleared the state Senate last month, passed the Assembly yesterday with wide margins. When Gov. Paterson signs it -- which he's promised to do -- New York will join the 49 other states that allow married couples to divorce without claiming wrongdoing by either party.

Though support for no-fault divorce has been fairly broad, the measure shares some critics that don't always see eye to eye on social issues. Among the opposed groups, a New York Times feature notes, are the Catholic Church and the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Here's a quote from NY-NOW's Marcia Pappas, who contributed an essay to the NYT feature:  Read more

Only up here in the hills, we call 'em "marihuana." This just in via a press release from the Delaware County Sheriff's Department:

On Thursday, July 1, Delaware County Sheriff's Deputies searched properties located in the towns of Delhi and Davenport and seized sixty nine marihuana plants.

Acting on information provided by the Civil Air Patrol, Deputies searched a property located between the West Branch Delaware River and Arbor Hill Road in the Town of Delhi on Thursday morning and seized thirty five marihuana plants.  That afternoon, Deputies searched along the Charlotte Creek in Davenport Center and seized thirty four additional marihuana plants.

Deputies are continuing their investigation and encourage anyone with information concerning the cultivation of marihuana to contact and report suspected marihuana growing locations to the Sheriff’s Office.  Calls will remain confidential and callers can report information anonymously.  Read more

Reporter Adam Bosch of the Times Herald-Record promised yesterday that Ulster County denizens would want to pick up the paper this morning -- and he wasn't wrong. Today's big local story is a ripping yarn about three anti-government nuts who allegedly tried to roll the county, three towns, several public employees and a credit union for $1.24 trillion.

(Yep. That's "trillion.")

The bizarre plot came to light in April, when Ulster County and public workers brought a racketeering case against the alleged conspirators. The suit accused six people of intimidating government employees by sending them fraudulent bills and filing liens against their personal property, totaling $143 billion. Feds pegged the extortion plot at $1.24 trillion.

One of the three, Jeffrey Burfeindt, is currently missing; all three face mail fraud charges.  Read more