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.…
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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.…
City of Oneonta: Parking restrictions lifted in anticipation of winter storm In anticipation of the long duration winter storm, the City will be lifting parking restrictions and opening the municipal lots (Dietz St, Wall St, Westcott Lot, Damaschke Field) and the parking garage for off-street parking as of 6:00pm tonight (2/2/2022). Vehicles left on city-streets after 2 1/2″ of snow are subject to ticketing and/or towing at the vehicle owner’s expense.…
Oneonta Police seek surveillance camera help in SUNY investigation As its investigation into last week’s death of a SUNY student continues, the Oneonta Police Department released a statement Wednesday, February 2, asking city residents in certain neighborhoods with surveillance cameras to check their devices for possible sightings of 20-year-old Tyler Lopresti-Castro. The statement reads: “At this time, the Oneonta Police Department is seeking assistance from those members of the public who may have surveillance cameras covering the center-city streets west…
January in Hartwick: Maybe just an accident? New York State Police said February 1 an incident they reported as a burglary in the Town of Hartwick on January 3, 2022 “appears to be an isolated incident and remains an active and on-going investigation.” Trooper Aga Dembinska told The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta “there have been no other reported incidents like this.” Sources say the matter was never a burglary nor a home invasion but was, upon investigation, an accident…
