Community Foundation taps former mayor as new exec director Former Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz returns to a life of serving his community when he takes the helm as the first executive director of the Community Foundation of Otsego County at the start of the new year. “This is thrilling and an honor to have been chosen,” Mr. Katz told The Freeman’s Journal/Hometown Oneonta. “I’m looking forward to the engagement and the change to get out and see people throughout Otsego…
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This Week's Newspapers - Page 145
Farm Laborers Wage Hearing to take place January 4 The New York State Department of Labor announced that a virtual hearing to discuss the overtime threshold for farm workers will take place on Tuesday, January 4, at 3:30 p.m. The main topic of discussion will be whether the required hours of overtime for farm workers should be lowered from 60 to 40. Members of the Farm Laborers Wage Board which include New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, New York…
Take precaution, but don’t rush to judgment “Virologists will tell you that predicting how a new virus might evolve is a fool’s errand. Predicting that it will evolve is money in the bank.” – The Economist. Since the genome for Covid-19 was first sequenced in January 2020, there have been 5.6 million sequence variations added to the database. Obviously most variations do not make much difference, but a very few do so spectacularly. The Omicron variant is different than others…
State DOH temporarily halts Fox electives A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital is among the more than 30 hospitals around New York State required to halt certain elective procedures temporarily under an Executive Order issued in November by Governor Kathy Hochul. Citing concerns over capacity strain and emergency Covid-19 bed availability, the Governor’s order encompasses facilities with a staffed bed capacity of less than 10 percent. The state’s Department of Health delivered official word to affected hospitals late in the evening on…
Let’s verb again, like we did last Christmas By Ted Potrikus Do you remember the classic comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”? It was my daily must-read back when it ran in newspapers; it remains a go-to in its various printed collections or online. My favorite among the strips finds Calvin telling Hobbes this: “I like to verb words.” He goes on: “I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when ‘access’ was a thing? Now it’s something…
Editorial: Timely guidance? New Yorkers learned late December 6 exactly which hospitals around the state would be subject to Governor Kathy Hochul’s Executive Order limiting certain elective surgeries and procedures beginning roughly 36 hours later, on December 9. The order initially exploded out of Albany seemingly moments after South Africa’s first report of Covid-19’s Omicron variant. We recognize and appreciate Governor Hochul’s proactive effort, but there’s a big disconnect at play reminiscent of just about every Covid-19-related Executive Order her…
Photo: Fenimore Museum gets festive for the holidays…
Hall of Fame welcomes six new ‘era’ inductees While Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association dance delicately or otherwise around the current lockout situation, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum presses ahead with news and announcements to keep the faithful alert throughout the winter. This week, the Hall announced the election of six all-time greats through the Eras Committee process, inducting players from the ‘Golden Days’ (1950-69) and the ‘Early Baseball Era’ panels. Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat,…
Bassett chief reflects on a busy first year at helm [Editor’s note: We invited Dr. Tommy Ibrahim, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bassett Healthcare Network, to reflect on his first year at the helm of our regional healthcare facilities. He provided to The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta the following as a first-person, open letter to the communities the network serves.] Dear Friends, Neighbors and Colleagues, By many measures, 2021 was challenging and transformative for our community and Bassett…
County’s farmers push back on overtime Farmers across New York State, including Otsego County, are speaking out in opposition as a New York State Department of Labor Farm Laborers’ Wage Board considers lowering the threshold at which farm workers earn overtime pay from 60 hours per week to 40, a move farmers say will devastate their businesses. Farmers went to Albany Wednesday, December 1, to deliver letters to Governor Kathy Hochul opposing the move and urging the Wage Board to…
