The law reclassifies hydrocodone from a Schedule III to a Schedule II drug, tightening restrictions on prescribing the drug and banning automatic refills. It also establishes a new statewide online database for doctors and pharmacists to report and track controlled narcotics, dubbed the Internet System for Tracking Overprescribing, or I-STOP.
Other opiates with high addictive potential, like oxycodone, have been on the Schedule II list for some time. Many public health advocates have argued that hydrocodone deserves to be regulated more strictly, citing the drug's widespread abuse, addictive nature and the frequency of hydrocodone-related deaths. Read more
A few of the 99 cats seized in January from the home of a cat hoarder in Wright settle into their new surroundings at the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley. Photos from the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley's Facebook page; used with permission.
A month after 99 cats and a dog were seized from her filthy home on Route 146 in Wright, 50-year-old Irene VanDyke was arrested Monday and charged with animal cruelty, according to several news accounts.
Maximum Snowfall Rates...An Inch Per Hour...Mainly Late Tonight Through Wednesday Morning. * Timing...Snow Arrives After Midnight. Snow Possibly Heavy At Times...Mixing With Or Changing To Rain In Some Areas By Wednesday Afternoon...Then Changing Back To All Snow Wednesday Night. * Ice Accumulations...A Minor Coating Of Ice Is Possible Over Western Greene And Western Ulster Counties.
Watch out on the roads tonight, drivers: Winter weather advisories are in effect this evening across the Catskills region, and forecasters are calling for freezing rain changing over to snow overnight.
In a public vote Tuesday on whether or not to dissolve the village of Middleburgh, residents voted by a decisive 344-71 to keep their village government, several news outlets are reporting.
Mayor Matthew Avitabile issued a statement to the Watershed Post, thanking village residents for not dissolving the village:
"I want to thank the residents of the Village for believing in the future of the community. We're still recovering from the flood and I am glad to see this vote of confidence in the way things are headed," he wrote.
The vote, in which only village residents could participate, had the potential to affect tax rates both inside and outside the village line. Dissolving the village would have probably increased taxes in the town of Middleburgh as a whole, while taxes for residents inside village lines would have gone down. Read more
County governments across upstate New York are weighing in against New York State's new gun control law, the SAFE Act. By the time the dust settles on a spate of pending resolutions, the list of anti-SAFE Act counties is likely to include most or all of the Catskills region.
On Friday, the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors voted 15-1 to pass a resolution opposing the SAFE Act. News 10 reports:
The resolution calls for repealing the new law; explaining the it infringes on people's rights and describes it as unnecessary.
The resolution opposes the process of the enactment and certain provisions, including the ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Read more
Put up your own website -- the fast, low-tech, free way
You can put up a simple, good-looking website for free in five minutes. A step-by-step guide to using free web-based software to post and manage your webpage. Bonus: How to outsmart domain name squatters and thieves.
At the end of the session, you will be able to:
Create a personalized website in ten minutes
Know which software -- Tumblr, TypePad, Blogger, or WordPress – is best for you
Know the ins and outs of domain names, whether you should buy that .biz URL or not
Avoid the five biggest mistakes rookie webpages make
Get the URL you want before a malevolent squatter gets it first
Class sessions: Monday, March 4: Margaretville E-Center, 6:30 to 8:30pm(cancelled) Read more
St. Valentine, it might be remembered, got into a heap of trouble for marrying couples in defiance of the government, which had decreed that young men remain single so that they’d make better soldiers for the state. No matter your feelings about Hallmark-card consumerism, that’s a dude worth commemorating, and hey, doing something sweet for or with your honey is hardly a burden.
So celebrate some romance, y’all. We've put together seven ideas for making sure your Valentine's Day in the Catskills is a great one.
New York State is slated to miss a key Wednesday deadline in the long march toward issuing regulations on hydrofracking.
State health commissioner Nirav Shah announced Tuesday, in a letter to Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner Joseph Martens, that his agency's ongoing review of the effects of hydrofracking on human health would not be finished by its Wednesday due date. Several large-scale studies, including a progress report from an ongoing EPA study of hydrofracking's effects on drinking water, have been released recently, and Shah told Martens that his agency needed time to incorporate them into the review.
In the letter, Shah urged Martens to put the brakes on fracking regulations until the Department of Health (DOH) finishes its review:
The time to ensure the impacts on public health are properly considered is before a state permits drilling. Other states began serious health reviews only after proceeding with widespread HVHF [high volume hydraulic fracturing]. Read more
Photo of New York Cardinal-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, circa 2009. Via Wikimedia Commons.
On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing that he would resign on February 28. As the New York Times noted in a front-page story, he will be the first Pope to step down since 1415, when Gregory XII resigned to put an end to a schism in the Church.
You can put up a simple, good-looking website for free in five minutes. A step-by-step guide to using free web-based software to post and manage your webpage. Bonus: How to outsmart domain name squatters and thieves.
