Huffington Post contributor Dave Colavito takes aim at Gov. Paterson's decision to spend $6 million on the Concord resort project.

The Concord project is on life-support, and that's being generous, considering it's been a year since any pulse has been detectable there.

There are plenty of better things the state could be spending money on in Sullivan County, Colavito says--like the new jail the county is required to build, or more oversight of natural gas drilling.

The recently-founded Kingston Neighborhood Watch is getting a lot of interest from residents and local media. Here's an interview with cofounder Mike D'Arcy from the Kingston News videoblog.

The group will be meeting on April 13 to hammer out their agenda and recruit volunteers.

Also, KNW warns Kingstonites to beware of dog stalkers.

Yep, that's for sledding downhill on. The terrifying item pictured above is a jack jumper, recently donated to the Calvin Coolidge House in Vermont. 19th-century Vermont must not have had many lawyers. 

Readers: Got any good snow toys in the attic?

Rural towns and outdoorsfolk are up in arms about the Paterson administration's proposal to shutter dozens of state parks--an act that would save the state a few million dollars, a pitiful handful of gravel to toss into the yawning abyss of the state budget hole. But every little bit counts, right?

Rubbish, says Dave Pidgeon of Compass Points. It's a political move.

This is about negotiation. When’s the last time you heard of a state either a.) shutting its state parks permanently or b.) laying off massive amounts of public employees. You haven’t. It’s bad politics to do so, even for an embattled governor who is not running for re-election. Plenty of legislators have their elected jobs on the line, too.

Pidgeon believes the real cuts to state park services will be much smaller than those that have been threatened, when the dust finally settles.

Earlier: Park outlook: Stark

NYC ag lawyer Cari Rincker recently helped to start a New York chapter of the American Agri-Women Association. She's looking for other digitally connected women in New York agriculture:

New York Agri-Women now has a Facebook fan page and you can follow the organization on Twitter @NYAgriWomen.  Would love to start a blog for the organization as well so if you are a New York female involved in the agriculture industry interesting in starting a blog, please let me know.  Alternatively, if you already have a blog about New York agriculture, please let me know for a blogroll that I am working on.