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Snow and sleet in the Catskills forecast

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.

The National Weather Service in Albany has issued a winter weather advisory for Greene, Ulster, Columbia and Dutchess Counties, from 6pm tonight til 7am Sunday morning:  Read more

Central Hudson customer data hit with massive cyberattack

Up to a third of Central Hudson's customers may have had their personal or financial information accessed by hackers in a cyberattack that struck over President's Day Weekend, the electric utility announced Wednesday.

In a release issued about the attack, Central Hudson offered to give a year's worth of credit monitoring to each of the 110,000 customers whose information may have been breached:

“We will be using an automated telephone system to call all of our customers for whom we have telephone contact information to alert them as to whether they are potentially affected or not by noon tomorrow,” said Central Hudson President James P. Laurito. He stressed that no evidence has been uncovered to date that confirms that any information was transferred during the attack, and that Central Hudson is taking these notification steps as an added precaution.  Read more

HIGH TRAFFIC COMMERCIAL near PHOENICIA

Commercial space on Rte. 28 in Shandaken available for rent

8-9 parking spaces, off street, 2 5x7 display windows, hardwood floors, antique barn interior with cathedral ceilings, woodstove or possible propane heat

Huge traffic on Busy route 28.

Additional space may be available in future.

750SF

$1100 per month plus heat.

Call Faye Storms 845-532-4601

DEC's Willie Janeway leaves to head Adirondack Council

Willie Janeway, a Department of Environmental Conservation official who heads the agency's Region 3 in the Hudson Valley and lower Catskills, is leaving for a nonprofit job in the high peaks of the Adirondacks.

The Adirondack Council, a prominent conservation group, announced Tuesday that Janeway will be taking over as their new executive director in May. In Tuesday's press release, Janeway, who headed the Adirondack Mountain Club's North Country operations from 1985 to 1994, said he's excited to get back to the Adirondacks:  Read more

Catskills county governments take aim at SAFE Act

Photo of L1A1 SLR semi-automatic rifle by Flickr user Keary O. Published under Creative Commons license.

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

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

Seven ways to spend Valentine's Day in the Catskills

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.

1. Stay In.

Is anything cozier than a night in the mountains in front of the woodstove? Photo by Flickr user Amy; published under Creative Commons license.  Read more

To drill or not to drill: New York gas regs delayed again

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

Could New York's Cardinal Dolan be Pope?

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.

Catholics everywhere are wondering: Who's next?

There's no clear front-runner at the moment, writes the New York Times:  Read more

Sleet on the roads -- and school closings -- across the Catskills

Weather advisories are in effect across the Catskills this morning, as snow and freezing rain make for a slick commute on local roads. The slippery stuff is expected to shift over to rain by noon. 

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a freezing rain advisory this morning for an area that includes Delaware and Sullivan Counties. A winter weather advisory is also in effect across eastern New York, including Greene, Schoharie and Ulster County.

Many local school districts are closed or operating on delays this morning. 

Closed:

Onteora Central School District

New Paltz Central School District

Sullivan West Central School District  Read more

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