Above: Detail of photo by Flickr user Kevin Dooley. Published under Creative Commons license.

Are you registered to vote in New York State? If not, you have until Friday, October 12 to make sure you're registered to vote in the general election on November 6.

Voters can register in person at their county board of elections, at a Department of Motor Vehicles office, or a state agency-based voter registration center (click here for a list of agencies that accept voter registrations).

Or, if you like, you can mail your voter registration form (embedded below) to your county board of elections: Just make sure it's postmarked by October 12. Forms must be received by October 17 in order to be valid.

DNA evidence has led to the arrest of a man from the Rosendale hamlet of Tillson, 52-year-old William F. Ryan, on multiple burglary charges, according to the Ulster County Sheriff's Office.

Ryan faces charges of third-degree burglary, third-degree criminal mischief, and third-degree grand larceny for a burglary at the PX Express on Route 209 in Rochester, committed in June. He has also been linked to a 2010 burglary at a home in the town of Wawarsing, and faces second-degree burglary and petit larceny charges in that incident.

There may be more charges in store for Ryan, the Times Herald-Record reports:

[Detective Jason] Bruck said Ryan is a suspect in numerous other burglaries and larcenies and an investigation is ongoing.

Ryan was arraigned in the Town of Rosendale and remanded to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $20,000 cash bail or $40,000 bond, to appear in Rochester and Wawarsing courts at a later date.

For the third time this year, the Daily Mail reports, a suspicious fire has destroyed a house in Prattsville. The house belonged to Jim Rion, and was in the process of being rebuilt after sustaining significant damage in the Irene floods.

Officials believe that Sunday's fire was an act of arson, and may have been connected to two fires that broke out earlier this year at flood-damaged properties:

A trailer in the local mobile home park and a home in the heart of the hamlet district were destroyed in May and July, respectively.

All three buildings were without power and empty at the time they were apparently deliberately ignited. “We’re pretty sure it’s arson,” Dymond said.

“We can’t say for certain if the three fires are related but all the buildings were abandoned with no electricity turned on,” Dymond said.

Update: Autumn Fitzpatrick was found late Saturday night and is home safe.

An Accord girl who attends Coleman High School in Kingston, 14-year-old Autumn Fitzpatrick, was reported missing earlier today. According to the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, whose deputies are searching for the girl, she was last seen Friday afternoon in the town of Ulster:

On Friday October 5, 2012, Autumn Fitzpatrick walked away from her school in Kingston and met with her 17 year old boyfriend in Kingston. They obtained a ride to the Hudson Valley Mall from a relative, and met with friends. Later, they left the mall on foot. Autumn and her boyfriend began to argue and parted ways. Autumn was last seen walking in the area of Morton Boulevard and Van Keuren Highway in the Town of Ulster.

Above: A furry replica of the Cohoes Mastodon, whose skeleton was discovered in 1866 in Cohoes Falls, NY. The Cohoes Mastodon's bones are a jewel in the New York State Museum's display collection; the furry reconstruction in the photo above is on display at the Cohoes Public Library.

Scientists have known for a long time that both mammoths and mastodons once roamed across New York State. But thanks to a study recently published by New York State Museum researchers, we now have evidence that they coexisted.

The New York State Museum announces the results, and explains why they're important: