During yesterday's meeting of the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education, where the district's latest painful budget plan was presented for public comment, the only one to speak up about spending was a 15-year-old:

At the hearing, Sylvia Lagodka, 15, questioned why officials are not requiring more used of double-sided copies and how cuts would affect advanced placement classes. “Currently double-side copying is not mandated ... and I have some teachers who print out their tests on single-sided paper,” she said. “I think that it should be mandatory to be double-sided.”

Judging from the Daily Freeman's coverage of the meeting, it seems that nobody gave her an answer.

On the lam: A trio of alleged paving scammers accused of pulling a bait-and-switch on elderly homeowners around Ulster County. From the Daily Freeman:

Rodney Cooper, 48, Rodney T. Cooper, 28, and James Lambert, 45, are wanted on arrest warrants for attempted grand larceny, a felony, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The office said the three preyed upon an elderly homeowner, offering to seal her driveway for a reduced price of only a few hundred dollars due to the woman's age. But once they completed the work, the cost had jumped into the thousands of dollars and the homeowner did not have the money on hand to pay them, the Sheriff’s Office said.

That's the kind of candid rhetoric I like from a local restaurant:

Well…. I am the new owner and operator of the Munson Diner, let me just say… none of the same old crap… only quality food at a fair price…. I opened on the morning of the 22nd…No previous employees, NO crappy food products, A whole new look, and a new era of the Munson Diner in Liberty.

That's the question for Allan Wikman, a Kingston resident who is going to spend 15 days in jail for refusing to budge during a January meeting of the Ulster County Legislature. Via the Daily Freeman.