News from the Noteworthy: Have a plan: Start the conversation New York State is 50th in the nation for hospice utilization, and I wish I knew why. I believe most people know about hospice. It is a service that helps and supports those with life-limiting conditions to address their symptomatic needs. Additionally, hospice supports the patient families, including bereavement care after the patient passes. New York has a hospice utilization of 30 percent, meaning only 30 percent of those who…
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Stealth Omicron By Richard Sternberg, M.D. While Omicron appears to be peaking in New York overall (though not yet in Otsego County) we have now been told that there is a new “stealth” version of Omicron named BA.2 that is beginning to replace the variant we have been experiencing for the last two months. While it is too early to know for sure, BA.2 does not seem to be more virulent than the original Omicron BA.1, but appears to be…
Letter: Diplomacy the only route After fighting in Afghanistan for 20 years and spending more than 1.5 trillion dollars and accomplishing nothing but starvation for millions and political instability in the country, the withdrawal was the correct step. What did the United States learn from this terrible mistake, which cost the American taxpayer $300 million a day for 20 years? It seems that our current government had not learned anything to avoid making the same mistake again in Ukraine. Let’s…
Oh, there’s a surprise! By Ted Potrikus We New Yorkers used to leave it up to our state Legislature to fulfill the once-a-decade duty of redrawing congressional and state election district lines. They got so good at it they made the map of the state’s voting boundaries look like the inside of a lava lamp. We New Yorkers got a little tired of it, so we voted in 2014 to amend our state constitution to establish an Independent Redistricting Commission.…
Editorial: The Sideshow “New York will create a bureaucracy out of anything.” So wrote one of this newspaper’s Facebook followers after reading a post about the state’s new “Office of Cannabis Management,” set up as the agency tasked to regulate legal weed and its derivations. The Office was a long time coming; ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo had stalled his appointment of potential agency leadership and then he stepped down. His successor moved (relatively) quickly and, voila, we have a new state…
SQSPCA head will chair state association Susquehanna SPCA Executive Director Stacie Haynes takes on another role this year as Board President for the New York State Animal Protection Federation, a statewide organization formed in 2010 to safeguard the well-being of all animals through legislative and policy initiatives in the state. Ms. Haynes has served on the Federation’s board since 2019. The group is the voice of New York’s animal shelters, humane societies, and animal welfare organizations, and a trade/educational resource…
Library lovers line up for library love Kick the winter blahs with “Library Lovers’ Month” in New York State — a February event that our local libraries will celebrate in fun fashion. Friends of the Village Library in Cooperstown plan a month filled with activities for all ages — events the group hopes will help fill the void left by a year without Cooperstown’s Winter Carnival. The group is sponsoring a month-long writing contest for all ages, looking for “a…
Farm Wage Board OKs lower threshold The state’s Farm Laborers Wage Board met January 28 to take testimony from those crowded out of its three prior sessions, then took a surprise vote to recommend a phased-in lowering of the overtime threshold to 40 hours per week from its current 60 hours per week. With a 2-1 vote, the Board recommended a 10-year ramp to the new threshold, reducing the mark for farm laborers by four hours per week every two…
Otsego County’s DA calls discovery, bail ‘form over function’ Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl is stark and passionate about New York State’s criminal justice reform to the point where — absent modification to the new laws — he won’t seek reelection in 2023. He’s on the record with that pronouncement from late last year, frustrated that from his point of view, New York’s bail and discovery statutes don’t let him do his job. “With the combination of bail and…
COVID update for February 2 The latest information from the Otsego County Health Department shows: 68 new cases 5 hospitalized 0 new deaths reported 11.7 seven-day average percentage positive Otsego County and all of New York State remains under an indoor-mask mandate from Governor Kathy Hochul, with exceptions under certain conditions when proof of vaccination is required for entry to an indoor public facility. Read more about New York State’s mask requirement at this link.…
