eedition The Daily Mail April 18-19 2020

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The Daily Mail Copyright 2020, Columbia-Greene Media Volume 228, No. 78

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The nation’s fourth-oldest newspaper • Serving Greene County since 1792

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Saturday-Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

Greene has first COVID deaths

nFORECAST WEATHER FOR HUDSON/CA TODAY TONIGHT SUN

By Sarah Trafton and Abby Hoover Columbia-Greene Media Rain and drizzle

Clear

Some sun, then clouds

HIGH 49

LOW 29

64 40

Complete weather, A2

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19,

2020 - C1

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Three Greene County residents have died due to COVID-19, the public health department said in a release Thursday evening.

“Three Greene County residents have died due to causes related to Covid-19,” according to the statement. “All three were senior citizens who had pre-existing medical conditions.”

All three residents were hospitalized, Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore said, with two in Albany and one patient at Columbia Memorial Health.

“

They have moved some patients around, so positive patients are in with other positives. Quarantined are not with non-quarantined.

They changed staff movements as well, so staff are not moving between floors and between wings.

”

— Patrick Linger Greene County Legislature Chairman

One of the residents was a hospice patient, Linger added.

Linger was unsure if any other residents are in critical condition, he said Friday morning.

“We have some that are hospitalized,” he said. “I don’t know what condition they are

in.”

The county has five COVID-19 patients that are hospitalized, according to the public health department.

Residents may notice a difference in reporting between the state and county websites, Linger said.

“The state website is not going to show a death in Greene County,” he said. “It’s reported where in county where they’re in the hospital.”

For example, the state reports that 13 people died in Columbia County, 12 of which were residents. No fatalities

were listed for Greene County on the state’s website.

With a shortage of test kits, the county is requesting 300 tests from the state, Linger said.

Additionally the county placed an order for 1,000 test kits, which will either be paid for with grant money from the state Department of Health or with taxpayer dollars and then reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said.

The county’s initial supply of 100 kits from the state was quickly depleted when See DEATHS A2

Greenport Rescue rolls on COVID front line

n SPORTS

By Nora Mishanec Columbia-Greene Media

Local hoops standout

Dispatching an ambulance takes just minutes, but for the Greenport Rescue Squad and other rescue crews around the region, that one call may result in an hour or more of COVID-19 decontamination work.

“People think they call 911 and the ambulance just shows up,” said Greenport Rescue Squad President Antonio Merante Jr. “I don’t think they realize that there is a process to go through, protocols to keep everyone safe.”

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, rescue crews across

Hudson’s Dayquan Griffin was named to the 15th team in Class B PAGE B1

n LOCAL Transfer station project

Greene and Columbia counties have been called to transport symptomatic patients and those suspected of carrying the virus. As the designated transport team for Columbia Memorial Health, the Greenport Rescue Squad also does planned transports of known COVID-19-positive patients.

When called to transport a COVID-19 patient home from Columbia Memorial or to Albany Medical Center, Greenport’s emergency-service providers wear hooded Tyvek suits and Power Air Purifying Respirators, known as PAPRs, which filter See RESCUE A2

Greene County receives bids on the $1.4 million Hunter transfer station rebuild PAGE A3

Members of the Greenport Rescue Squad follow a strict decontamination protocol to prevent COVID-19 infection.

n INDEX

Cuomo, Trump clash in real time at briefing

Region Opinion State/Nation Obituaries Sports Classified Comics/Advice

A3 A4 A5 A5 B1 B4-B5 B7-B8

On the web www.HudsonValley360.com Twitter Follow: @CatskillDailyMail Facebook www.facebook.com/ CatskillDailyMail/

Nora Mishanec\Columbia Greene-Media

By Kate Lisa Johnson Newspaper Corp.

ALBANY — President Donald Trump “should read his own reports,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, as the pair clashed in real time Friday over the necessity of hospital beds and ventilators New York procured to combat the coronavirus.

“Gov. Cuomo should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’ Get out there and get the job done.

Stop talking!” Trump wrote on Twitter during the governor’s daily COVID-19 briefing Friday afternoon. “We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of ventilators that you should have had

and helped you with... testing that you should be doing. We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!”

A reporter asked Cuomo about Trump’s tweets, and the governor responded in real time.

“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Cuomo said during Friday’s briefing in the state Capitol. “Second, let’s keep emotions and politics out of

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Courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office

Gov. Andrew Cuomo railed against President Donald Trump with boiling words in a briefing in the state Capitol on Friday as the two officials clashed over the necessity of the state’s number of hospital beds and ventilators to combat COVID-19.

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

A2 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

Weather

Deaths From A1

FORECAST FOR HUDSON/CATSKILL

TODAY TONIGHT SUN

MON

Rain and drizzle

Clear

Some sun, then clouds

HIGH 49

LOW 29

64 40

TUE

WED

Mostly Some Partly sunny cloudy with a brightening and cold shower

52 32

57 27

49 27

Ottawa 50/35

Montreal 51/35

Massena 51/36

Bancroft 47/34

Ogdensburg 51/39

Peterborough 49/36

Plattsburgh 50/34

Malone Potsdam 49/36 50/37

Kingston 46/38

Watertown 47/36

Rochester 49/36

Utica 45/30

Batavia Buffalo 45/36 45/39

Albany 49/31

Syracuse 48/35

Catskill 49/29

Binghamton 41/30

Hornell 45/32

Burlington 51/35

Lake Placid 43/28

Precipitation Trace

Low

Today 6:09 a.m.

7:41 p.m.

4:40 a.m.

3:27 p.m.

Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset

Yesterday as of 3 p.m. 24 hrs. through 3 p.m. yest.

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Rescue

SUN AND MOON

Statistics through 3 p.m. yesterday

Temperature

Sun. 6:08 a.m.

7:42 p.m.

5:05 a.m.

4:26 p.m.

Moon Phases New

First

Full

Last

Apr 22

Apr 30

May 7

May 14

49 27 YEAR TO DATE NORMAL

9.05 9.92

Forecasts and graphics provided

by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020

CONDITIONS TODAY AccuWeather.com UV Index™ & AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature®

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The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low; 3-5 Moderate; 6-7 High; 8-10 Very High; 11+ Extreme. The patented AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature is an exclusive index of effective temperature based on eight weather factors.

NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Seattle 59/47

Winnipeg 41/22 Minneapolis 62/34

Billings 53/32

Montreal 51/35 Toronto 50/38 Detroit Chicago 52/40 56/44

New York 50/41

San Francisco 65/52 Denver 55/32

Washington 59/41

Kansas City 61/45

Los Angeles 66/52

Atlanta 72/50 El Paso 80/53

Houston 73/68

Chihuahua 87/49

requested or made a priority through Public Health,” Linger said. “There may have been some contact tracing that fed back toward one of these facilities, so then public health would then have to prioritize that.”

With eight deaths, 23 positive cases and three hospitalized residents, Pine Haven Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Philmont has the largest cluster in Columbia County.

Pine Haven spokesman Geoff Thompson, of Thompson & Bender in Westchester, confirmed there have been eight deaths related to COVID-19 at the senior-living facility.

An additional 11 residents are in isolation, and nine have recovered.

The 120-bed facility received 12 testing kits from the Columbia County Department of Health last week and a few more this week.

“There’s no shortage of other supplies, either, other protective devices or anything else,” Thompson said.

Pine Haven currently has 87 residents. Before COVID-19, the nursing home had 118 residents, but some have been removed by their families.

Columbia County owned and operated Pine Haven until it was

sold in August of 2015 for $6.5 million. Jacob Sod owns 47.5%, Jonathan Bleier owns 47.5% and Bruce Peckman owns 5%.

Columbia County also entered into an Operations Transfer and Surrender Agreement with Pine Haven Operating, LLC. Both transactions were approved by the state’s DOH Public Health and Health Planning Council.

Columbia County Public Health Educator Victoria McGahan had information that conflicted with Thompson’s numbers at Pine Haven, and said as of Friday, April 17, Pine Haven has 26 positive cases and seven resident deaths.

Livingston Hills Nursing and Rehabilitation Center had one positive case being treated in the hosptial, and the resident’s roommate is in isolation as a precautionary measure, Desiree Kraft, admissions and marketing director for Livingston Hills, said Friday.

FASNY Firemen’s Home in Hudson and Ghent Rehabilitation and Nursing Center have no confirmed cases.

Nursing home testing is included in the total number of cases reported at the county level in Columbia.

ambulance can be sent on another call.

The COVID-19 transfers from CMH are planned in advance, which gives Greenport EMS providers time to put on their Tyvek suits and PAPR devices.

The extra layers of protection are necessary because providers are spending more time with the patient, sometimes traveling all the way to Albany, Fox said.

But EMS providers do not have time to put on full Tyvek suits when responding to emergency calls with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19.

“During the day shift, you have one minute to answer that call and have your ambulance en route,” Merante said. “On the overnight, you have two minutes to be out the door.”

Instead, the crew follows a “respiratory-precaution” protocol, which means quickly donning face shields, gloves, N95 masks and gowns. Arriving on the scene, the EMS providers perform a “six-foot assessment” before treating the patient or taking them to the hospital, Fox said.

“The risk you run is, you don’t know if they are positive,” Merante said. “They could be, you don’t know.”

Returning from a respiratoryprecaution call, the EMS providers follow the decontamination protocol and sanitize their

protective gear, which will be reused on future calls.

“We wash the gowns as many times as we can and sanitize the masks using the UVC lights,” Merante said.

The Greenport squad’s 40 employees are diligent about caring for their protective equipment because they know they may not receive enough replacement gear from the state, Merante said. They have developed a system for washing and hanging out the gowns to dry.

As COVID-19 continues to spread in the Twin Counties, more emergency calls are requiring rescue crews to don full precautionary gear.

“The record is one Saturday when we did six respiratoryprecaution calls in one day,” said Fox. For some crew members, that meant decontaminating and showering three times in a single day.

Merante said the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced his rescue squad’s commitment to safety and teamwork. The EMS providers are taking every precaution to keep themselves and their families safe, while understanding the risks involved in their line of work.

“We hold meetings to talk about safety and see how do people feel,” said Fox, who also teaches EMT classes at Questar.

“Someone said, ‘I got into this to help people. I am here to help people, so if I have to suit up and put myself in a little bit of risk, that is what I signed up to do.’”

Keeping the entire Greenport squad updated is a constant challenge, Fox said. The team holds morning briefings and posts information on white boards to keep all EMS providers on the same page, as protocols can change from day to day.

The squad members are constantly experimenting with creative ways to improve their decontamination process, Fox said.

“It is a group effort, with everybody pitching in to say, ‘How can we make it better? Let’s try this,’” he said.

Outside hangs a banner with the rescue squad’s motto: “All for one, one for all, on the front line for you.” Some community members have taken the time to recognize the Greenport crew for their efforts on the front line, dropping off cookies, pretzels and soup.

“Some people have made small monetary donations, saying, ‘Hey, we know you’re spending money on extra equipment, please use this,’” said Michael Cozzolino, deputy chief of the Greenport Rescue Squad.

As of March 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected 160 million to 214 million Americans would become infected with COVID-19 by the pandemic’s end — more than half the 328 million people in the U.S. population — and between 2.4 million and 21 million people would be hospitalized.

The United States has 925,000 total staffed hospital beds, according to the governor’s office.

“Read your own report next time before you criticize me,” Cuomo said. “They’re your projections, Mr. President...We listened to you, Mr. President. And if we were foolish for listening to you, then shame on us.”

Cuomo has thanked Trump in his daily briefings for supplying the USNS Comfort hospital ship and mobilizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a 2,500-bed field hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Manhattan. About 800 patients have come through Javits since it opened April 3.

“What am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers? I said thank you, thank you, thank you,” Cuomo said Friday. “That was your role as president. How many times do you want me to say thank you for doing your job?”

States, private-sector companies and the federal government are calling to bring rapid saliva and antibody COVID-19 testing kits to scale, the governor said, and may face a hardship similar to last month’s scramble for ventilators by

having to compete with each other.

“The president said, ‘I don’t want to get involved in testing.

It’s too complicated, it’s too hard,’” Cuomo recalled. “The federal government cannot wipe their hands of this. We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help.”

New York representatives in China helped with the international supply chain issue of securing equipment like masks, gowns and ventilators, Cuomo said Friday, but cannot handle the state’s COVID-19 testing trade relations without federal oversight.

“This is so much beyond that level,” the governor said. “You have the federal government, Illinois, Italy, South Korea... everybody going to China. It was well beyond the capacity of our reps.

“We need testing agents, and they’re made in China.

These are national-security issues when you’re in this situation.”

Cuomo also announced Friday he will issue an executive order to direct the state’s public and private labs to coordinate with the state Department of Health to prioritize diagnostic

testing for public health and restarting the economy.

The state’s COVID-19 infection rate remains at 0.9, meaning one New Yorker with the virus is, on average, infecting about 0.9 other people. The state has not calculated a separate infection rate for downstate counties and New York City, where the virus remains the most prevalent.

Hudson 49/30

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

ALMANAC

a resident at The Pines at Catskill Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation tested positive on April 10. The public health department used 89 tests at The Pines, Linger said. The Pines had its own supply of tests, which has also run out, Linger said. Columbia and Greene county health officials are trying to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19 in the area’s nursing homes.

Greene County’s initial supply of 100 kits from the state was quickly depleted when a resident at The Pines at Catskill Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation tested positive on April 10. The public health department used 89 tests at The Pines, Greene County Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, said. The Pines had its own supply of tests, which has run out.

At The Pines, 17 residents and nine staff members tested positive for the virus. Only the first patient, who tested positive April 10, was symptomatic and required hospitalization. No additional cases have

been reported from the facility, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden confirmed Friday.

The Pines has made adjustments to combat the spread of the virus, Linger said.

“They have moved some patients around, so positive patients are in with other positives,” he said. “Quarantined are not with non-quarantined.

They changed staff movements as well, so staff are not moving between floors and between wings.”

In addition to The Pines, the county performed testing at Home Sweet Home on the Hudson in Catskill.

“I don’t believe there were any positives,” Linger said.

Staff from The Dialysis Center in the Greene Medical Arts Center traveled to the Valatie Care Centers for testing Thursday because neither Greene County nor Columbia Memorial Health had tests to provide, Linger said.

When more tests arrive, Greene County’s public health department plans to do more testing at The Pines and The Dialysis Center, and begin testing at Greene Meadows Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, Linger said. “[The testing] was either

Miami 91/75

Monterrey 87/70

From A1

the air inside the suit. The suits were purchased amid fears of an Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the PAPRs were bought on eBay from Canada in January.

Returning to the station, the EMS providers begin a multistep process to decontaminate the ambulance and all equipment.

First, the ambulance is parked outside and the crew places a fan inside to blow out any loose particulates inside the vehicle, said Greg Fox, Greenport Rescue Squad’s advanced life-support coordinator. Then the ambulance surfaces are sprayed with a disinfecting 10to-1 bleach mixture.

The returning EMS providers, still in their suits, begin an hourlong decontamination protocol.

“We are sprayed with bleach when we come back,” Fox said.

“We wait 10 minutes, then we get hosed off and then we go into the shower.”

Meanwhile, the bleachsprayed ambulance is cleaned out with water and crew members place ultraviolet sterilization lights inside the vehicle to kill any remaining traces of the virus. The whole process must be completed before the

ALASKA HAWAII

Anchorage 43/36

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Honolulu 84/68

Fairbanks 44/32 Juneau 56/35

10s rain

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

Hilo 81/67

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NATIONAL CITIES City Albuquerque Anchorage Atlanta Atlantic City Baltimore Billings Birmingham Boise Boston Charleston, SC Charleston, WV Charlotte Cheyenne Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus, OH Dallas Denver Des Moines Detroit Hartford Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Knoxville Las Vegas

Today Hi/Lo W 67/43 pc 43/36 c 72/50 pc 56/42 r 57/37 r 53/32 pc 70/51 pc 68/43 pc 42/35 sn 84/59 sh 54/34 pc 73/44 pc 51/25 s 56/44 s 57/38 pc 52/40 s 52/36 s 68/59 t 55/32 pc 61/40 s 52/40 s 47/30 r 84/68 s 73/68 c 56/40 s 61/45 s 62/39 c 75/58 pc

Sun. Hi/Lo W 70/48 pc 43/37 c 67/55 t 58/50 pc 65/49 pc 54/36 c 69/53 t 64/41 pc 59/43 pc 79/65 t 62/42 pc 69/54 r 51/30 s 53/34 pc 57/39 c 58/32 c 57/36 c 82/56 c 58/36 pc 57/36 pc 54/28 c 62/44 pc 84/69 s 84/59 t 58/36 c 62/38 pc 61/49 r 78/60 c

City Little Rock Los Angeles Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Nashville New Orleans New York City Norfolk Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland Portland Providence Raleigh Richmond Sacramento St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Savannah Seattle Tampa Washington, DC

Today Hi/Lo W 65/51 pc 66/52 sh 91/75 t 58/44 s 62/34 pc 62/42 c 81/72 c 50/41 r 64/45 r 64/53 pc 66/40 s 84/68 c 55/39 r 79/59 pc 50/37 pc 45/32 r 59/47 sh 45/33 r 68/40 sh 65/38 sh 71/49 pc 62/46 s 62/47 s 65/52 c 84/61 pc 59/47 pc 84/72 pc 59/41 r

Sun. Hi/Lo W 68/48 t 64/54 pc 92/78 pc 49/32 pc 50/37 pc 62/47 r 84/68 t 63/48 pc 71/57 pc 69/46 c 59/37 pc 90/74 pc 65/48 pc 84/61 s 57/35 pc 56/42 pc 67/46 pc 59/44 pc 73/55 r 70/48 pc 71/50 pc 62/39 c 60/43 t 63/51 c 80/67 t 65/45 pc 88/76 c 67/50 pc

Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

Cuomo From A1

it, and personal ego if we can... because this is about the people, and it’s about our job.”

New York’s COVID-19 fatalities totaled 12,822 by Friday — up from 12,192 Thursday.

The state saw 630 virus-related deaths Thursday, including 590 in hospitals and 40 in nursing homes from 606 Wednesday, and down from 752 fatalities Tuesday.

New York tested 550,579 people, revealing 229,642 positive cases of COVID-19 by Friday afternoon. The state’s hospitalization rates continued to decline to 17,316 patients Friday, or 7.5%, down from 17,735, or about 8%, on Thursday, with 5,039 patients in intensive care.

Net change in intubations was also down 73 fewer patients, according to the governor’s office.

“I don’t believe we are in a place today where we are at risk of going over capacity,” Cuomo said of the state’s hospitals.

Cuomo has frequently butted heads with Trump, asking for more federal help including ventilators and personal protective equipment to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this week, Trump claimed he would decide when states reopen for business, issuing a three-point plan for governors to use, but later changing his mind and saying states will decide when to lift stay-at-home orders.

HUDSON RIVER TIDES High tide: 12:27 a.m. 3.6 feet Low tide: 6:54 a.m. 0.7 feet High tide: 12:45 p.m. 3.7 feet Low tide: 7:19 p.m. 0.4 feet

To see the complete county breakdown of positive COVID-19 cases and deaths statewide, view the COVID-19 map and tracker at hudsonvalley360.com/site/covid19.html.

The Tribune News Service contributed to this report.

CMYK

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - A3

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

CALENDAR EDITOR’S NOTE: Most events and meetings are being cancelled due to the virus outbreak. Please call ahead to confirm.

Monday, April 20 n Athens Town Board 6:45 p.m.

Town Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518945-1052 n Catskill Village Planning Board Stewart’s Public Hearing 7 p.m. Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill n Greenville Town Board 7 p.m.

Town Hall, 11159 Route 32, Pioneer Building, Greenville

Tuesday, April 21 n Athens Village Planning Board 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518-945-1551 n Coxsackie-Athens Central School District Board of Education 6 p.m. (virtual meeting) n Greenville CSD BOE Meeting Questar III Annual Vote & Election 5 p.m. Virtual Meeting Only (see website for link) n Hunter Town Board 7 p.m.

Town Hall, 5748 Route 23A, Tannersville

Wednesday, April 22 n Athens Village Board 6:30 p.m.

Village Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518945-1551 n Catskill Village Board 7 p.m.

Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill 518-943-3830

Thursday, April 23 n Coxsackie Village 2020-2021

Proposed Tentative Budget Public Hearing 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie

Monday, April 27 n Catskill Village Planning Board

7 p.m. Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill

Wednesday, April 28 n Catskill Town Planning Board

canceled 518-943-2141

Monday, May 4

Bids awarded for $1.4M Hunter transfer station

By Sarah Trafton

Columbia-Greene Media

HUNTER — Greene County lawmakers awarded bids Wednesday for the reconstruction of the Hunter transfer station, a project that has proven difficult for the design team to keep within budget.

The bid for general contractor was awarded to Tweedie Construction Services Inc., of Walton, at $959,160; and the bid for electrical contractor was awarded to CDE Electrical Inc., of Cairo at $108,100.

Legislator Michael Bulich, R-Catskill, said it was good to see a local contractor on the project.

The project will not be affected by COVID-19 mandates because construction related to solid waste is considered essential, Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, said Thursday.

Construction on the capital project at Columbia-Greene Community College and on the new Greene County Jail is continuing.

“We got clarification that they were considered essential infrastructure to be able to continue,” Linger said. “As long as they maintain social distancing and are following the guidelines, they are able to continue.”

After going through several designs with the consulting team at Barton & Loguidice, the county decided to completely rebuild the Hunter Transfer Station rather than renovate it. The estimate cost

for the project is $1.4 million.

“It is much higher than our original estimate, but it is a much more workable solution,” Greene County Highway and Solid Waste Superintendent Robert Van Valkenburg said in December.

A previous estimate for renovation of the existing building came in at $2 million, when the county was expecting to spend $500,000, Van Valkenburg said.

“At that point I said we have to stop and look at where we’re going. This whole project is basically on life support,” he said.

A second estimate for renovating the building came in at $630,000, which was over budget but significantly less than the original design, Van Valkenburg said.

A problem with the previous design was that the trailers were too high above the tipping floor, Van Valkenburg said.

“They were four feet above the tipping floor,” he said.

“We’ve been able to lower that to three feet and now have 20 feet of clearance from the top of the trailer.”

In the existing building, there is 12.5 feet of clearance, which makes it difficult for the excavators to compact the waste in the trailers, Van Valkenburg said.

The trailers are required to meet a 28-ton minimum, so compaction is critical, he said.

By making the Hunter station capable of shipping its own waste rather than sending everything to Catskill could

result in an estimated savings of about $100,000 per year in trucking costs, Van Valkenburg said.

Barton & Loguidice was also hired to reconfigure the Coxsackie station to have this capability and to design a new scale house in Catskill.

No construction schedule for the Hunter station has been set, but the Windham transfer station closed April 13 and will remain closed for about two weeks until a new scale is installed.

County lawmakers in February ordered a new scale for the Catskill station at a cost of $102,260. Catskill’s existing scale is being transferred to Windham.

The newer scale at Windham will help the station deal with the increased tonnage while the Hunter station is decommissioned, which Van Valkenburg estimated will be about four months.

Hunter accepts about 3,000 tons of waste per year, and Windham about 2,200 tons, he said.

“We hope to have the Hunter side done this construction season,” Linger said.

The county’s transfer stations remain fully operational during the public-health crisis, Linger said.

During the scale replacement, mountaintop residents with bulk loads that need to be weighed should go to the Hunter station. Windham is still accepting bagged waste and recyclables.

BILL WILLIAMS/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Car rolls over in Kiskatom.

No reported injuries in Kiskatom crash

By Bill Williams Columbia-Greene Media

KISKATOM — No injuries were reported Thursday afternoon in a one-vehicle accident in Kiskatom, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

About 4:15 p.m., a car traveling north on Route 32 in the area of the former Carson City crossed the right

shoulder and rolled over in a ditch, police said.

Kiskatom Fire Department and Town of Catskill Ambulance were called to the scene by Greene County 911.

The woman who was driving was not injured, sheriff’s deputies said. The car was towed from the scene. Route 32 was reduced to one lane in the area of the crash.

n Athens Town Board 6:45 p.m.

Town Hall, 2 First St., Athens 518945-1052 n Cairo Town Board 7 p.m. Town Hall, 512 Main St., Cairo n Greenville CSD BOE/Budget discussion 5 6 p.m. Virtual Meeting only (see website for link)

Tuesday, May 5 n Durham Town Board workshop meeting 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 7309 Route 81, East Durham

Thursday, May 7 n Ashland Planning Board 6 p.m.

Town Hall, 12094 Route 23, Ashland n Cairo Town Planning Board 7 p.m. Town Hall, 512 Main St., Cairo n Coxsackie Village Workshop 6 p.m. Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518-731-2718

Monday, May 11 n Ashland Town Board 7:30 p.m.

Town Hall, 12094 Route 23, Ashland n Catskill Village Planning Board 7 p.m. Senior Center, 15 Academy St., Catskill n Coxsackie Village Board 7 p.m.

Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518-731-2718

Tuesday, May 12 n Coxsackie Village Historic

Preservation Committee 6 p.m. Village Hall, 119 Mansion St., Coxsackie 518-731-2718

Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York launches digital cookie campaign ALBANY - Despite all of the uncertainty in the world, Northeastern New York residents will have at least one constant this year – Girl Scout cookies are coming. And now, customers can donate boxes to the first responders and medical professionals who are on the front lines of our current struggle.

Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York (GSNENY) has joined Girl Scout councils across the country in the Cookie Care Campaign launched

by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA). The program allows consumers to order cookies through an online portal for home delivery or share cookies by donating boxes to first responders, volunteers and local causes.

To protect girls and communities in the wake of COVID-19, GSNENY has suspended doorto-door sales and deliveries, as well as cookie booths. In

these unsettled times, Girl Scout Cookies can be a source of comfort and this initiative provides a safe way to receive personal orders and to give back to others. Many local Girl Scouts have set up an online page to allow their customers to order cookies from them directly. This national program also provides a path for people who may not know a local Girl Scout to order cookies locally.

“With this campaign, we hope to enable girls, their families and consumers to connect, explore, find comfort and take action,” said GSNENY CEO Mary Buszuwski. “The Cookie Care Campaign will support our local Girl Scouts during this year’s cookie season until the day when we can all come together and share cookies face to face.”

The Girl Scout Cookie Program is the largest investment in girls annually and the driving force that allows councils

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such as GSNENY to deliver programming to its members.

GSNENY will ensure proceeds from this national campaign benefit local Girl Scouts by distributing a percentage of sales directly to its troops once the campaign is complete.

With this plan, customers are not only purchasing cookies, but are also helping girls give back to their communities and sustain innovative local programming.

Visit the council’s digital cookie platform, GSNENY’s Cookie World to purchase cookies for delivery or donate to frontline heroes during this crisis. Customers can also order from their local Girl Scouts through individual digital cookie pages.

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THE DAILY MAIL Established 1792 Published Tuesday through Saturday by Columbia-Greene Media

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HAROLD B. JOHNSON EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 1919-1949 MARY DEMPSEY LOCAL PUBLISHER

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OUR VIEW

Rural economy needs specialized care Some people seem to think the reboot of our economy will be a one-size-fits-all operation, that all parts of the nation will get well at the same time.

To put this in perspective, though, New York’s federal lawmakers are fighting for $50 billion to help small counties like Greene and Columbia, towns and rural communities, both combat COVID-19 and rebuild after the pandemic.

Cash-poor communities could suffer more pain during the economic recovery than wealthier communities.

That’s only logical. But poor communities can’t afford to get poorer.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-19, are urging their congressional colleagues to include robust

funding for small counties and rural communities in Congress’ next COVID-19 economic relief package.

Rural communities across the state and nation operate on thin margins, which will be scraped even thinner by mounting debt from the pandemic. These communities often have to wait for federal funding to trickle through state bureaucracies or take time to apply for multiple grants.

This is going to be a gut check for many small counties. It would be realistic to presume that many small businesses closed by the pandemic will not return.

Unfortunately, the communities these businesses call home won’t have the time to wait for federal funding to save them.

The $50 billion would

serve as direct relief to towns with 50,000 residents or fewer and counties with fewer than 200,000 people, which means Greene and Columbia, and would give rural communities funding for emergency management and temporary assistance as they rebuild their struggling economies.

The real issue here is fairness. It’s unfair that local governments in municipalities under 500,000 people did not receive direct action with funding. It is imperative to focus on Greene and Columbia county communities, whose largest populations hover around 10,000 in Catskill and Hudson, and see their problems are far different than those of urban areas. They need separate funding to make a recovery.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Navigator Program ready to assist To the editor: I am writing to make the public aware that the Healthcare Consortium’s Navigator Program is here to help at this difficult time. Unfortunately, many people have found that their employment situation has abruptly changed, and they may have lost income or employer-sponsored health insurance coverage as a result.

Yet, maintaining health insurance coverage — and the access to care it provides — has never been more important.

Our four full-time navigators can help individuals and families shop for and enroll in health

plans through the NY State of Health (NYSOH), New York’s online marketplace for health insurance, including the public health insurance programs, Medicaid, the Essential Plan, and Child Health Plus, and commercial self-pay programs, called Qualified Health Plans.

Furthermore, the NYSOH has extended the open enrollment period for the Qualified Health Plans to May 15th. Our navigators can be reached by calling 518-822-8820.

In addition to the Navigator Program, the consortium continues to operate all of its Consumer Assistance Programs

during the COVID-19 outbreak (see www.columbiahealthnet.org for descriptions), all of which can be reached by calling 518-822-8820, which is being answered 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

Helping people to get and stay healthy has always been our goal, but it has never been more true than now. If there is any way you can imagine that our staff can be of help, please don’t hesitate to call.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ‘Young lovers are always doomed.’

LUCREZIA BORGIA The Daily Mail welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must contain a full name, full address and a daytime telephone number. Names will be published, but phone numbers will not be divulged.

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The seriousness of and flaws in Tara Reade’s allegations WASHINGTON — What to make of former Joe Biden staffer Tara Reade’s allegations that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee sexually assaulted her in 1993? This is a difficult and important question — not least for those who were persuaded by Christine Blasey Ford’s assertion that then-Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were high school students in the 1980s.

Indeed, it’s a difficult and important question for me, as someone who not only expressed alarm about Ford’s allegations at the time but also wrote a book that concluded she was telling the truth, and that the flawed, rushed investigation meant Kavanaugh’s tenure “will forever have an asterisk attached.”

This column represents a good-faith effort to grapple with the seriousness of, and flaws in, the Reade allegations.

My conclusion is that while Ford’s allegations are on balance stronger, those who took Ford’s complaints seriously cannot simply dismiss Reade’s claims out of hand. I don’t think what Reade claimed happened, yet the evidence is murky.

And it’s important to acknowledge: We all suffer from the inclination, whether knowing or unknowing, to assess evidence through the lens of preexisting biases. Liberals have faced — and failed — this test before, when they minimized the significance of President Bill Clinton’s predatory behavior with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Writing in Vanity Fair, Marjorie Williams skewered “the writers, lawyers, activists, officeholders, and academics who call themselves feminists” who had been outraged by the sexual harassment allegations against Justice Clarence Thomas but “were either silent or dismissive this time.”

We should all keep her admonition in mind today. Outrage over misbehavior only by those with whom we have ideological differences is not righteous — it is hypocritical. Skepticism about accusations only when they are made against someone with whom we are ideologically aligned is not high-minded — it is intellectually dishonest.

And yet. Reflexive acceptance of any and all allegations of sexual misconduct against any man is not staunch feminism — it is dangerous credulity that risks doing terrible injustice to the accused. #BelieveAllWomen was a dumb hashtag and a dumber approach to inevitably complex, fact-bound situations. I have always tried to argue in favor of fact-finding first, conviction later, whether in the court of public opinion, in the Senate confirmation process or elsewhere.

That was why I questioned “whether justice was done” in the case of former Minnesota Democratic senator Al Franken, whose precipitous resignation short-circuited a Senate Ethics Committee process that could have helped determine whether Franken’s behavior merited the equivalent of a political death sentence. That was why I argued during the Kavanaugh confirmation for a serious Senate and FBI investigation, not the limited sham that was designed less to unearth the truth than to secure the necessary 50 votes to get him confirmed.

Which brings us to Reade, whose allegations present a situation at once familiar and

WASHINGTON POST

RUTH

MARCUS perplexing. Unlike with Franken and Kavanaugh, there is not an easy or obvious official entity (the Senate Ethics Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBI) that could probe her allegations. Last week, Reade filed a report with D.C. police, but it’s not clear what a criminal investigation of an allegation this old could produce for public consumption. Police investigations and grand jury material remain confidential, unless a decision is made to file charges, which seems unlikely.

Reade claims that, when she was 29 and working briefly as a staff assistant, Biden pushed her against a wall somewhere in the Capitol complex, reached under her skirt and pushed his fingers inside her.

Here’s my analysis of how to assess these competing accounts: Contemporaneous evidence: Reade says she told her mother, who has since passed away. When contacted recently, her brother initially recalled Reade telling him in 1993 that Biden had behaved inappropriately by touching her neck and shoulders; it was only several days after providing this account to The Washington Post that the brother reached out to add that he remembered her saying Biden had reached “under her clothes.”

In perhaps the most powerful piece of corroboration, a friend of Reade’s, who had interned for another member of Congress, corroborated Reade’s account of telling her about the incident at the time, but she declined to be named.

Reade says she filed a complaint with Senate officials, but she does not have a copy of it, no such record has been found, and the law would have required that any such allegations be referred to an official hearing; there is no indication such a hearing took place. Biden aides disputed her account of having complained to them, which she says was not about the sexual assault but about less problematic conduct.

Bottom line: the contemporaneous evidence is inconclusive but stronger than that in the Kavanaugh case. That comes as no surprise; in fact, Ford said she took pains not to let family and friends know about the alleged assault.

Evidence predating current allegation: Reade says she told a therapist about the alleged assault more recently, but — unlike Ford — declined to make the notes of that conversation available to reporters. A second friend said Reade told her years later that Biden had touched her arm and behaved inappropriately — although, significantly, not with specific details about an alleged sexual assault.

That friend also declined to be named.

When complaints surfaced last year about Biden’s conduct in touching women in nonsexual ways, Reade reached out to reporters to say that Biden had touched her in ways that made her feel uncomfortable. She mentioned nothing then about a sexual assault.

Bottom line: Reade’s shifting

account introduces a confusing element. If Biden did what she now alleges, why did she not say this a year ago? Reade says she did not feel comfortable telling her full story then, but she seems to have offered no clue that there was more to her story. Ford had similarly shared her account about Kavanaugh with friends, family and therapists; however, by contrast with Reade, her story did not change over time.

Credibility: Reade presents a confounding figure — to me, much more so than Ford, although I have the advantage of not only having watched Ford’s testimony but also having interviewed her over many hours.

One fundamental difference involves the matter of motive.

Ford came forward only reluctantly, and without evident ideological motivation; she told me that she worried, actually, that if Kavanaugh were forced to withdraw, a more conservative nominee might take his place. Reade supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I) presidential bid, and the fact that she went public with her allegations just as Biden was on the verge of cementing the Democratic nomination raises the possibility of political motivation, although Reade denies this.

Other red flags emerge as well. Reade has been inconsistent in her attitude toward Biden. She repeatedly praised him on Twitter, including specifically for his work on combating violence against women — an odd position for someone who now claims Biden sexually assaulted her. She has given conflicting descriptions of her reasons for leaving the Biden office after just nine months — she received a job offer, she was tired of “the reckless imperialism of America” and, more recently, she was “forced to resign.” She has both criticized Russian President Vladimir and, more recently, lavished him with bizarre praise: “an alluring combination of strength with gentleness,” “intoxicating to American women,” “I like President Putin ... a lot, his shirt on or shirt off.”

Bottom line: The credibility question is the biggest hurdle for me with Reade. Ford did not strike me as a person who was coming forward because of political motivations or because she wanted publicity — anything but. Reade seems a much different and less reliable figure.

Pattern evidence: There’s no doubt that Biden has a history of touching women in ways that they say made them feel uncomfortable. There is also no other evidence that his handsiness ever crossed the line into any kind of sexual assault.

Bottom line: The Kavanaugh chapter produced evidence, albeit inconclusive, of other incidents, when he was young, of problematic behavior toward women. The likelihood of definitive proof one way or another seems frustratingly low. My gut says that what Reade alleges did not happen. My head instructs that it is within the realm of possibility, and fairness requires acknowledging that. And there is another point to bear in mind: Double standards work in both directions. Those who disbelieved and diminished Christine Blasey Ford face the challenge of explaining why they seem so much more eager to credit Tara Reade’s account.

Ruth Marcus’ email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com. (c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group

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Barry Chester Alfred Crews Barry Chester Alfred Crews, age 26 years, of Catskill and Cairo, passed away suddenly on April 15, 2020, at his home in Cairo, N.Y. Barry was born on November 22, 1993, in Macclenny, Florida, and is the son of Christopher Crews of Cairo and Teresa Crews of Augusta, Georgia.

Besides his parents, Barry is survived by his beloved Son Cameron Crews of East Durham, his maternal grandparents, Dennis and Deborah Stack, his paternal grandparents Chester and Bonita Crews, his three loving brothers Brendon of Cairo, Jacob of Augusta Georgia, and Jefferson of Cairo, his loving sister Erin of Augusta, Georgia, two nieces and one nephew, and many other family members and numerous friends.

During his lifetime, Barry attended Catskill High School and was employed for the last few years at A.A.F. Flanders in Hudson, N.Y. as a forklift driver.

Barry was out going, the joys of his life included fishing, being a member of bowling leagues with his brother, he loved alternative music, playing the guitar and spending time with his family. Barry will be sorely missed.

Due to the social distancing restriction, private services will be held. Funeral arrangements are under the care of Richards Funeral Home, Cairo, N.Y. Donations in Barry’s memory may be made to The Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758516, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8516.

Condolences may be made at www.richardsfuneralhomeinc. net.

Peter Christopher Martino Peter Christopher Martino O’Dell(Erik), his stepdaughter (Papa Pete), 58 of East Cha- Shelby Shannon, his Brother tham, New York, passed away Gerald Martino(Susan) of Kinon April 16th, 2020 after a year- derhook, his Sister Joyce Davis long battle with a chronic illness. (Fred) of Hudson, his Brother He passed with his Fiancé and Glenn Martino(Mary) of Hudson Daughters by his side. , His Grandchildren Claudia and Peter was born in Hudson Cameron Hudson, Anthony and at Columbia Memorial on June Madison O’Dell and Legend 17th 1961, to the late Shannon. He is also Francisco (Frank) Marsurvived by many niectino and Ann (Harder) es, nephews and great Martino. He attended nephews, and nieces.

School at Ichabod Peter was predeceased Crane. He worked in by his Brothers Frank construction most of Martino and Bradley his life and most recentMartino. ly was working for the In lieu of flowers, Columbia Agricultural contributions can be Society in Chatham. He Martino made to A.B.A.T.E., enjoyed estate saling with Abby, fishing and riding his P.O. Box 227 Hudson N.Y. motorcycles! He was involved 12534 A private service will be in ABATE of Hudson and loved held for Peter. The family has a going to the events. He was also plan to throw a celebration of a past member of Albany Rods life party when the time is right and hope you will all join us to and Kustoms.

Peter is survived by his Fi- celebrate Peter at that time. Arancé Abby Mason of East Cha- rangements are with the Raytham. His Daughters Ashley mond E. Bond Funeral Home, Martino-O’Dell(Jake) and Kayla Valatie, NY.

Ruth E. Rogers GREENPORT – Ruth E. Rogers, 96, entered into rest April 11, 2020. She was the wife of the late Reverend William F. Rogers. Survivors include a daughter, Jeanne Tiolis of Grandville, NY; two sons, Forest Rogers of Enfield, Connecticut and William Rogers of Hannacroix, NY; three grandchildren,

Suzanne Shook of Hudson, NY, Erika Tiolis of Arizona and Erin LaLima of Ravena, NY; and three great-grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will be held at a later date, to be announced, at Winsted United Methodist Church, Winsted, Connecticut.

Lawsuit holds up plastic bag ban

By Sarah Trafton Columbia-Greene Media

As residents suit up for their weekly trip to the grocery store, many are noticing a return of plastic bags.

While the switch may be indirectly related to COVID-19, the primary reason is a group of businesses filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Conservation in February. With courts operating at a bare minimum, enforcement of the ban has been postponed until May 15.

But the department will continue its public plastic bag campaign.

“DEC continues to encourage New Yorkers to transition to reusable bags whenever and wherever they shop and to use common-sense precautions to keep their reusable bags clean,” according to a statement from DEC. “New York’s ban on single-use plastic bags went into effect as planned on March 1. Retailers across the state are complying. We have consistently said since the beginning of our outreach campaign that we will focus on education rather than enforcement.”

Poly-Pak Industries Inc., Green Earth Food Corp., Green Earth Grocery Store, Francisco Marte, The Bodega and the Small Business Association filed suit against the state of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, DEC and DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos on Feb. 28.

The petition describes the law as contradictory.

“In 2019, the Legislature enacted and the governor signed a budget bill that, among other things, prohibits the use and distribution of certain plastic bags but permits the use and distribution of others, and, confusingly, seems both to encourage and simultaneously to forbid the use and distribution of reusable plastic bags while allowing the use and distribution of reusable fabric bags,” according to the petition.

Another inconsistency cited by the plaintiffs is that certain retailers are required by law to establish in-store programs to supply customers with reusable bags, which include durable plastic bags with handles, specifically designed for multiple uses.

These types of bags, although included in the Act’s definition of a “reusable bag,” is not listed among the bags exempt from the Act, according to the lawsuit, making retailers unable to comply with both laws simultaneously.

Although the Bag Act did not authorize DEC to regulate the Act, DEC added regulations,

FILE PHOTO

In this March 30, 2019 file photo, Mike Dufficy, of Ghent, carries plastic bags filled with groceries outside ShopRite in Greenport. A lawsuit naming Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Department of Environmental Conservation Basil Seggos as defendants alleges the ban law is unconstitutional.

The plastic bag ban in New York state was delayed until May 15.

including expanding on the exempt bags section to include non-film plastic bags. Nonfilm plastic bags are described as being less than 10 mils in thickness, according to the regulations, which would require manufacturers to make even thicker plastic bags to be in compliance.

The regulations would cause companies such as Poly-Pak to produce “a product with a greater carbon footprint and no greater functional utility than the reusable plastic bags it already makes,” according to the petition.

The plaintiffs requested that the law be considered void and found vague, unconstitutional and arbitrary.

Former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics, criticized the lawsuit.

“I just don’t think that lawsuit has merit,” she said. “The Legislature had the authority to adopt this, stores had nine months to prepare. Poly-Pak is a plastic bag maker. They want to keep making plastic bags.”

Riverkeeper Legislative Advocacy Manager Jeremy Cherson echoed similar remarks.

“I think we’re disappointed the enforce delay has gone into effect and that the industry decided to bring a lawsuit rather than comply with the state’s law,” Cherson said. “But we have full faith that the plastic bag ban will go into effect as intended and the state’s commitment to the ban is still strong.”

Enck and Cherson stressed there is no connection between reusable bags and COVID-19. “[The misinformation] is

unfortunate because there is no medical evidence linking coronavirus to reusable bags,” Enck said. “I recommend people wash their bags with hot water and soap and pack their own groceries to reduce any concerns. When you think about it, it’s a really sensible policy. You know where your bags have been. Single-use plastic bags travel the world and then sit open in stores for many hours before you put your food in it and bring it home.”

Cherson agreed. “The general perception is that singleuse products, plastics in particular, right now are going to protect you more than bringing your reusable bag but to this date there is no evidence of transmission from person to person from a reusable bag,” he said.

Transmission of the virus typically occurs from droplets when a person coughs or sneezes.

“For retailers who are bringing plastic bags back and using the coronavirus as an excuse are flouting the law of the land and Riverkeeper’s opinion is the state will be obligated to enforce the law, unless the litigation changes that,” Cherson said.

Hannaford Supermarkets are among the stores that are bringing back plastic bags for the time being, spokesman Eric Bloom said.

“We have temporarily reintroduced the use of plastic bags in our stores during this time,” Bloom said. “The 5-cent charge for plastic and paper bags has been suspended.”

Price Chopper also brought

Michael Cohen will be allowed to leave prison due to pandemic Matt Zapotosky The Washington Post

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, will be released to home confinement as part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ push to stem the spread of coronavirus, according to his attorney and a Justice Department official.

Roger Adler, a lawyer for Cohen, said he had filed paperwork with prison officials seeking “compassionate release” for Cohen during the global health pandemic because Cohen had “an underlying medical condition that he has been hospitalized for.” He said Thursday night it was his “understanding from speaking with a family member” that the request had been granted, and that Cohen would soon be moved to home confinement.

A Justice Department official confirmed the development Friday.

A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said in a statement, “I am unable to address any specific offenders suitability for home confinement.” A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which prosecuted Cohen, declined to comment.

Cohen once affectionately considered himself Trump’s fixer, though as he became ensnared in multiple federal investigations, he turned on his former client, connecting Trump in federal court to criminal misdeeds and alleging scandalous conduct in testimony before Congress. He had reported to prison on May 6 to begin serving a three-year sentence.

At Attorney General William Barr’s direction, the Bureau of Prisons has

been working in recent weeks to move more inmates to home confinement in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus at the institutions it manages. According to information from the bureau’s website, nearly 1,200 inmates have been transferred to their homes. Some criminal justice advocates have said more should still be done.

Cohen is among a number of highprofile inmates who have pushed to get out of jail during the pandemic - some successfully. The Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail internal discussions, said Barr had told Bureau of Prisons’ leadership to “not give special treatment to any inmate,” though the precise calculations in Cohen’s case were unclear.

Last month, Cohen’s attorney wrote to a judge that the Bureau of Prisons was “demonstrably incapable of safeguarding and treating B.O.P. inmates” during the coronavirus pandemic and asked that Cohen be moved to home confinement. The facility has had 14 inmates and seven staffers test positive for the novel coronavirus, according to the latest Bureau of Prisons figures.

Prosecutors objected to the request, asserting that Cohen was “53 years old and in good health,” and noting that he had at that point “not moved for compassionate release, likely because he is manifestly ineligible for it.” U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III sided with the government.

“That Cohen would seek to single himself out for release to home confinement appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news

cycle,” Pauley wrote. “As the Government points out, he is ‘manifestly ineligible’ for compassionate release and has not exhausted his administrative remedies.”

Adler, Cohen’s attorney, said that in asking the prison warden for release - an administrative remedy - Cohen had submitted evidence to back up his claims.

“He has a number of lung problems that were documented; medical records were provided,” Adler said.

He declined to say what Cohen’s lung problems were.

Adler said it was his understanding that Cohen was among a number of inmates that will be released because of the pandemic.

Barr had directed prison officials to look at inmates’ vulnerability to covid-19, their conduct in prison and whether they would pose a danger to the community in deciding whether they should be let go. Such factors generally favor older, white-collar criminals.

A federal judge in California recently said he would allow the release of lawyer Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rose to prominence as the legal counsel for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during her lawsuit against Trump over a hush-money deal, but with bond and other stringent conditions.

Avenatti was convicted in an extortion case this year in New York and has been awaiting trial in California on allegations that he stole millions of dollars from his clients.

The Bureau of Prisons said it would similarly approve furlough from

prison and home confinement for former New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who had been serving a four-year and three-month prison term after he was convicted in a corruption case. Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Skelos had tested positive for coronavirus but had been “symptom-free since approximately April 8,” and he would be released pending approval by medical staff and sign-off by the U.S. Probation Office on the place he wants to live.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman who was convicted in 2018 of bank and tax fraud, asked Monday to be released from prison to home confinement to serve the remainder of his 7½-year sentence, saying his age and health put him at higher risk of death from coronavirus. The issue now could come up in the case of Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime confidante who was convicted last year of tampering with a witness and lying to Congress about his efforts to learn of hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A federal judge in D.C. on Thursday rejected Stone’s bid for a new trial and said he should report to prison to begin serving his 40-month sentence as soon as federal officials instruct him to do so, after a two-week grace period lapses. Stone’s likely appeals, though, could delay that.

As of Friday, Cohen remained in federal custody at FCI Otisville in New York. His attorney said, like other inmates being released, Cohen would have to be quarantined for two weeks before being sent home.

back plastic bags in late March, Vice President Mona Golub said.

“We made the decision to bring plastic bags back into our New York stores at the end of March, based on three factors: the paper bag supply chain was tightening, the conversion to reusables was still in a state of transition and our customers were expressing a higher comfort level with disposable bags in this time of elevated sanitation protocols. This sentiment has since grown,” Golub said.

Tops Markets is another chain that has temporarily brought back plastic.

“Tops is temporarily not enforcing [the ban] in order to help with sanitation concerns surrounding reusable bags and COVID-19,” Tops Markets Public and Media Relations Manager Kathy Sautter said.

“If a customer brings in a reusable bag and does not bag their own groceries themselves, the cashier will then bag their groceries in either a plastic or paper bag. There will be no fee for plastic bags however Tops will still be charging a fee for paper bags. This procedure is in place at all of our stores until further notice.”

FUNERAL DIRECTORS Copake, N.Y. (518) 329-2121 Pine Plains, N.Y. (518) 398-7777

VITO LAWRENCE SACCO Sacco-McDonald-Valenti Funeral Home 700 Town Hall Drive Hudson, New York 12534 • 518-828-5000 e-mail: smvfh700@gmail.com

M. GRIMALDI FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICES 25 Railroad Ave., Chatham, N.Y. (518) 822-8332 Mario A. Grimaldi, Manager

ATTENTION FUNERAL DIRECTORS Obituaries, Death Notices or Funeral Accounts Should Be Submitted Before 2PM Daily For The Next Day’s Paper.

Notices should be emailed to:

obits@registerstar.com or obits@thedailymail.net

Call Patti to advertise your funeral home: (518) 828-1616 x2413

For

CURRENT OBITUARY LISTINGS be SURE to CHECK our WEBSITE: hudsonvalley360.com

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA • THE DAILY MAIL

A6 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

Timely tips for springtime gardening As the landscape begins to turn green we are suddenly overwhelmed at all the gardening chores that need to be accomplished.

It seems like we go from winter to summer without enough time to enjoy the spring each year. At least it has seemed that way to me the past five years or so.

This year it will be different. Many people are stuck at home and might even have some extra time to get things done without so much of a rush. As Shakespeare said, “Sweet are the uses of adversity,” which means pretty much the same thing as “making lemonade when all you have available are lemons.”

Gardening is a great learning activity for homebound kids as well, especially vegetable gardening. To paraphrase another truism: Give a person food and they will eat until the food is gone, but teach a person to grow food, and they will eat forever. Now is a good time to start thinking about your food supply come this fall.

It is still too early to worry abut getting all the gardens planted. Some very hardy vegetables such as lettuce, onions, beets, and spinach may be planted outdoors right now if the soil is dry enough to work. Peas planted on April 15 or May 1 will generally produce the first harvest within a few days of each other despite the two-week lag in planting time.

Buy a soil thermometer and take your soil’s temperature, along with your own.

Once the soil warms to 55 degrees you can plant cold hardy crops but wait until it reaches 70 before you set out tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, okra, sweet corn or squash. If you planted

GARDENING TIPS

BOB

BEYFUSS parsnips last summer they should be harvested now, as should horseradish roots.

Fall planted garlic is up and growing well and will be harvested near the end of July.

If you have constructed framed raised beds, they are generally suitable for planting a good two weeks earlier than ground-level soil. Avoid trying to till or even walk on cold, wet soils because this may cause permanent compaction of the soil. Black plastic mulch spread over raised beds will warm up quickly, and spun-polyester “floating row covers” can be installed over rows of early vegetables to provide a few degrees of frost protection.

If you need some early color to lift your spirits, transplant some pansies, primula or snapdragons into window boxes. Easter lilies, pottedup “forced” hydrangeas and azaleas may be transplanted outdoors in another week or so. With a little luck they will re-bloom later this fall or even survive until next year.

Spring flowering bulbs are bursting into bloom right now. An application or two of liquid fertilizer will ensure a repeat performance next year. Crowded clumps of daffodils that fail to bloom may be divided after the foliage turns yellow in June and replanted. If the tops of the bulb

foliage have been browned by frost, simply cut off the tips with sharp scissors. I have observed iris and daylily tops burned back by frost, as well as peonies and a few other early perennials.

There is still time to prune your apple and pear trees, but wait to prune peach, plum and cherry trees until two to three weeks after they bloom.

Shade trees such as maples, lindens, oaks and ash may be pruned now to shape the tree.

Of course, you do not want to prune anything that is due to flower in the next month or so. This includes forsythia, lilac, rhododendrons, azaleas, spirea, flowering cherry, quince, mock orange, wisteria, redbud, Bradford pear and magnolia. These trees and shrubs are best pruned immediately after flowering.

Summer-bearing raspberries should be thinned to three strong canes per linear foot of row after removing all the dead canes from last season. Fall-bearing raspberries may be cut back to ground level right now while allowing on three canes per foot of row to come up and reestablish the planting.

Blueberries are pruned by removing a few of the oldest canes at ground level.

The best berry production is achieved from three- and four-year old stems. Use only acidifying fertilizer such as ammonium sulphate on acidsensitive plants such as blueberries, azaleas, rhododendrons and hollies. Avoid the temptation to fertilize your lawn right now. Wait until Memorial Day for this chore, but you may apply crabgrass killer as soon as the yellow forsythia blooms.

Reach Bob Beyfuss at rlb14@cornell.edu.

RIT’s Saunders College of Business waives GMAT/GRE tests for fall 2020 graduate applicants ROCHESTER - In an unprecedented decision, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business is now accepting applications for fall 2020 graduate education without standardized tests, including Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). The decision was made to benefit graduate school applicants facing uncertainty created by COVID-19 and the closure of standardized testing centers.

Applicants will be reviewed with the information submitted and may be requested to provide additional information or schedule an online interview. If Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and/or International English Language Testing System

(IELTS) are not available for international applicants, RIT will accept the Duolingo English test for 2020 applications. Students admitted with Duolingo scores will take an additional English test at RIT. Scholarships are also available for qualified students.

“Students and their families are dealing with so much uncertainty related to COVID-19,” said Jacqueline Mozrall, Saunders College dean.

“It is our hope to help ease some of this stress by providing incoming graduate students with support in the way of graduate admissions test waivers and additional scholarships. Faculty and staff at Saunders College are not only committed to providing an exceptional and relevant education that integrates business with technology,

but also serve to reassure and assist our students whenever possible, particularly during this time.”

Saunders College of Business has rolling admissions; applications can be submitted at any time. International students must apply no later than June 24 in order to leave sufficient time to secure a visa. For start dates of each Saunders College graduate program, go to Master of Business Administration and Master of Science degree comparison charts.

Prospective students are also encouraged to register for an upcoming online graduate information session.

For more information, contact Vienna McGrain at 585-475-4952, Vienna.Carvalho@rit.edu, or on Twitter: @ viennamcgrain.

Bard College announces new application options for Hudson Valley area students ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON - In response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis, Bard College has established new options for local college-bound students planning for the coming year.

For applicants from the surrounding Hudson Valley counties of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, and Ulster, Bard is reopening its application window from April 1 through May 1, 2020.

These applicants will receive decisions by mid-May. A special scholarship will be available to eligible Hudson Valley-based students, called the Hudson Valley Scholarship.

This scholarship will

make the cost of attendance at Bard the equivalent to the cost of a local state institution, currently at $24,726.

Bard always assesses need first, so certain applicants may see scholarships in excess of this amount based on their financial situation.

HOW TO APPLY For students who have already applied to colleges via the Common Application, simply add Bard College to your school list and answer Bard College’s supplemental questions.

If you have not used the Common Application to apply to a college or university during this admission cycle, visit the Common Application website at https://

www.commonapp.org/ to start your application to Bard.

FINANCIAL AID For financial aid consideration, Bard requires both the FAFSA and CSS Profile.

If you have already filled these out for other schools, you simply need to add Bard to the list of institutions you wish to share your documents with.

If you have not completed these forms, please do so by May 1.

Admitted students who choose to enroll at Bard must make their deposit by June 1. For questions and more information please contact us at admission@ bard.edu.

“Help us Bridge The Gap Between Hospital and Home” by joining our team at

518-943-9380 Greene Meadows Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is a 120 bed facility located in Catskill, NY (exit 19 off of the NYS Thruway). Greene Meadows has long been acknowledged as a leader in senior care along with providing a variety of other specialty services.

Great work environment. Come be part of our family!!

CMYK

Religion/Neighbors

www.HudsonValley360.com

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - A7

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Editor’s Note: Virtual Worship Editor’s Note: Normally this page is devoted to Church News; however, since churches are closed at this time and there are no church events, we have nothing to place on the page. However, if your church is having Virtual Worship or

meetings on Zoom, we would be more than happy to include those on this page. Please send the pertinent information to us at editorial@registerstar. com; editorial@thedailymail. com; or schasney@registerstar.com. Thank you.

Virtual Worship TRI-COUNTY LUTHERAN PARISH VALATIE - The eight congregations of Tri-County Lutheran Parish would like to invite you to worship with them. The parish worships at 10 a.m. every Sunday via Zoom: https:// zoom.us/j/7700997419. If you would like to receive an email with the Sunday bulletin, email the office at stlukes@slelc.com to request a copy.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HUDSON - First Presbyterian Church of Hudson will offer a modified worship service broadcast weekly from the sanctuary for the duration of the closure at the regular worship time 10:45 a.m. on Facebook Live on the facebook page: https:// www.facebook.com/FirstPresHudson/ NOTE: It is important to distinguish that this is NOT the church’s Facebook group which is a closed group, but its public page. It is also important to note that you can access these gatherings without a Facebook account, but if you would like to actively participate by offering prayer requests, it is recommend you create one if you do not have one already. If you have trouble finding the service during the live broadcast, don’t worry, Facebook will automatically record the service and the video will remain up on the page.

For the next few weeks, Bible study will continue to meet on Wednesday evenings on Zoom, but at a new time at 6 p.m. If this new time does NOT work for you and

you wish to continue attending, please let them know!

Gatherings will focus on the revised common lectionary gospel reading for the following Sunday. You can follow along at: https://www. presbyterianmission.org/ devotion/revised-commonlectionary/ Here’s all the info to join in on Zoom: Meeting ID:808 085 013 Password:487712 https://zoom.us/j/80808 5013?pwd=bUpqRVF3OWN QNC80RFM0c0dPdHI3UT09 Dial-in:646-558-8656 Digital giving: The church will soon offer opportunities to offer recurring pledge and plate offering through the Presbyterian Foundation with a link on the website at FirstPresHudson.org.

Take this opportunity to join a live-streamed worship service with one of the sister churches: Caldwell Presbyterian Church: Live Streaming Sundays at 10 a.m. Visit their website for details on how to join.

First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls: Live streaming Sundays at 10 a.m. from their YouTube channel, FPCGF Church Mayfield Central Presbyterian Church: Live Streaming Sundays 10:30 a.m.

Visit their Facebook page to watch. Note that you do not need to have a Facebook account to watch a Facebook Live video stream.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Albany: Live Streaming Sundays at 10 a.m.

Visit their website for details on how to join.

Hair today, gone tomorrow I was taking Telly, my trusty canine companion for a Eur-a-peeing tour of the property the other day during the visit of our weekly spring rainstorm. Come heck or high water, when Telly has to go, Telly has to go.

A mild spring zephyr of 50 miles per hour or so sent my baseball hat careening.

Telly, thinking the cap was some kind of mutant alien rodent trying to escape, chased it down and killed it.

I commended my faithful companion on his hunting skills and patted him until he relinquished his salivacovered trophy. Telly then completed his appointed rounds and we headed for the house through a hail of thrashing trees, blowing raindrops and low-hanging, fast-moving black clouds.

I rubbed Telly down with his towel, hung my rain jacket on its proper hook and immediately looked at the mirror that hangs on the wall over the coat hooks.

Major senior moment! I was checking to see if my

WHITTLING AWAY

DICK

BROOKS hair was all messed up. It’s been 30 years since I’ve had enough hair to be messy; I guess it’s a case of old habits die hard. I’ve gotten used to my forehead ending on the back of my head and it really isn’t something I’m concerned about.

In fact, with so many young guys shaving their heads, for one of the few times in my life, I’m in style.

My hairstyle, or the lack of a hairstyle, has its advantages. I don’t need to remember to carry a comb. I’ve saved a fortune in haircare products — no gel, no hairspray or color to keep the gray away.

I have added untold hours

of useful time to my busy daily schedule when you take into consideration the time no longer spent fussing with my locks. I spend less than five minutes in the barber’s chair on my monthly trip, and best of all, he no longer asks how I want it cut since shorter is the only style choice that is available to me. Having never been one who was overly fond of trips to the barber, this is a comfort to me.

My grandfather was a barber and I was very fond of him, but he seldom cut my hair. My father, relying on the belief that the skills of the previous generation were in his DNA, usually cut our hair. This meant a kitchen chair on the porch, a towel around our neck and a pair of hand-powered clippers intended for use on farm animals.

Thank goodness the prevailing style among my peers was the brushcut that my dad was able to accomplish reasonably well with a minimum of squirming on my part and non-church words

on his part. Around seventh grade, I discovered the wonders of Butch Wax. Applied properly, this made the front row of your brushcut stand straight up, turning your haircut into a deadly weapon of mass destruction had you head-bumped anybody or anything.

For college, I wore The Princeton, a style stolen directly from Perry Como, who was popular at the time. I wore this style until my hair departed, leaving me with my present style.

I do miss the smell of Vitalis in the morning, but the scent of the Mop and Glow that I now use does remind me of days gone by. Oh well, hair today — gone tomorrow.

Thought for the week — We’re born naked, wet and hungry — then things get worse.

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.

Reach Dick Brooks at Whittle12124@yahoo.com.

FASNY stresses cooking safety to keep everyone fire safe ALBANY - Families and individuals across New York are staying home to practice social distancing to help flatten the COVID-19 curve. Local volunteer fire departments are working hard to protect their neighbors and respond to calls for help during these challenging times.

FASNY would like all New Yorkers to follow a few cooking safety tips as social distancing continues throughout the state. n Remain in the kitchen while cooking. Whether you’re frying, grilling, baking or broiling food, it’s always a good idea to supervise cooking directly.

With many New Yorkers working from home, or attending

to school-age children that are now home more, it is very easy to become distracted while cooking. n Most cooking fires involve the stovetop, so keep anything that can catch fire away from it, and turn off the stove when you leave the kitchen, even if it’s for “just a second.” A second is all it takes for a house fire to start. n If you’re simmering, boiling, baking or roasting food, check it regularly and use a timer to remind yourself that you’re cooking. n For homes with children, have the kids remain outside the kitchen area while food is being prepared. Pets should also be kept out of the kitchen

while cooking. The safest chef is an undistracted chef! n Avoid loose or dangling clothing when cooking - particularly around the stovetop burners on gas ranges. n Make sure your smoke detectors are functioning by

pressing the “test” button. If needed, replace the batteries – and if not functioning after testing, install brand-new smoke alarms.

Tips provided by FASNY and the National Fire Protection Association.

Authentic German cuisine DAILY SPECIALS Reservations Recommended

COUNTRY INN & RESTAURANT

“Wunderbar”

866 Mountain Avenue, Purling, NY 12470 Thur 5pm-8pm, Fri 5pm-9pm, Sat 5pm-9pm & Sun 1pm-8pm 518-622-3261 • www.bavarianmanor.com

House of Worship

News & Services Trinity United Methodist 1311 Rte. 143, Coeymans Hollow | NY 12046 • 756-2812

Pastor Paul Meador • Sunday Worship 11:00am (all are welcome) • Church School: “Faith Builders Kids Christian Education” Wednesday at 7pm • Wednesday, Bible Study & Prayer - 7-8:30pm (all are welcome) • Food Pantry, Last Saturday of the month, 10-11am and last Monday of the month, 5-6pm, or by appointment • Thrift Shop Open April 12 - Mid Oct., Thursdays 10 - 4 Saturdays 10 - 2 and when Food Pantry is open. (Handicap Accessible) • Youth Group - Grades 6 - 12 2nd and 4th Thursdays @ 6:30pm

Catholic Community of Saint Patrick 24 North Washington Street, Athens 12015 · 945-1656 66 William Street, Catskill 12414 · 943-3150

Janine O’Leary, Parish Life Coordinator Fr. L. Edward Deimeke, Sacramental Minister Saturday* 4:00 p.m. EST / 4:30 p.m. DST *1st / 3rd Athens and 2nd /; 4th Catskill Sunday 8:45 a.m. Catskill / 10:45 a.m. Athens

All Are Welcome!

New Baltimore Reformed Church 518 756 8764 • Rt. 144 and Church St. NBRChurch@aol.com • www.nbrchurch.org

Rev. Rick L. Behan, Pastor Sunday Worship - 9:30 AM Communion First Sunday every month Fellowship before and after worship Thursday - Choir Rehearsal 4:45 PM Tuesday - Bible Study 10:00 AM 2nd Sunday - Helping Hands 10:30 AM Come to the Church in the Hamlet! Working together since 1833

Church of Saint Patrick 21 Main Street, Ravena, NY 12143 • (518) 756-3145

Pastor: Fr. Scott VanDerveer Weekly Mass: 9:00 a.m. Wed & Thurs Saturday Vigil 4:30 p.m. Sunday 9:30 a.m.

Food Pantry Hours: Tues & Thurs 10-11 a.m.

Wednesday 6-7:00 p.m.

Thrift Shop Hours: Wed. 6:00-7:00 Thurs, Fri. & Sat. 1:00-3:00 p.m.

All Are Welcome!

To list your Church Services please call Patricia McKenna at (518) 828-1616 x2413

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

A8 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

Shields recognized with Dot Ball Memorial 4-H Leader Award HUDSON - This National Volunteer Week, April 19 through April 25, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia & Greene Counties looks to recognize those who volunteer in the 4-H Club program.

Jessie Shields, a Hannacroix resident, has been selected to receive the Dot Ball Memorial 4-H Leader Award from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties’ 4-H Youth Development Program.

This award is presented in the memory of Dorothy Ball, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 89.

Wanting to help her children and other neighborhood children, Dorothy started a 4-H club in 1954, the West Copake Lassies, which she led for 20 years.

After that she continued to support 4-H as a public presentation and county fair judge for an additional 20

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Dot Ball Memorial 4-H Leader Award recipient Jessie Shields (center) with 4-H educators, Meghan McDermott and Linda Tripp.

years.

Shields has been the volunteer leader of her community 4-H club, the Bananas, for

11 years. Along with this she also volunteers to co-lead the Teen Ambassador 4-H Club.

Shields is the most gracious

individual who is always willing to help – without ever being asked.

She has opened her heart and her 4-H club to all ages and all needs in youth. She strives to help every single child in her 4-H club to be the best they can be – to participate as fully as they can.

Beyond her local 4-H club Shields volunteers often for local 4-H volunteer assignments.

She can be found as a driver to a 4-H activity and as a chaperone to the Cornell Career Explorations trip, 4-H Forestry Weekend or the New York State Fair.

Last year she volunteered to ensure that local 4-H members’ exhibits chosen for the state fair were able to be on display there when the loss of a 4-H staff person left it in question.

“Jessie is the person that, no matter how busy she is or how much she has going on

in her personal life, she will always try to find a way to help. She is that quintessential volunteer that is always there!” said Linda Tripp, 4-H Youth Development Issue Leader.

In recognition of this award Shields was presented with a gift certificate to one of her favorite local restaurants where she can enjoy a night out (hopefully without the kids).

Also recognized are 4-H club leaders who have attained five-year increments of active involvement.

They received award pins and certificates at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties Annual Meeting in November 2019.

They are: Five year silver award – Alan Chittenden, Schodack Landing, Farm Friends 4-H Club; Billy Greer, Kira Greer, North Chatham and Siobhan

Connally, Kinderhook, Baker’s Dozen 4-H Club; Jeannie Slater, Ancram, Barn Buddies 4-H Club; John Brady, Valatie, Black Sheep 4-H Club; Kathy Jackson, Athens, Evarts Engineers and Evarts Scientists 4-H Clubs; Leslie Reed, Athens, Greene Earth 4-H Club.

Ten year gold award – Andrew Tillman, Nassau, Buccaneers 4-H Club; Cindy Carlson, South Cairo, Flora and Fauna 4-H Club; Helen Brady, Valatie, Black Sheep 4-H Club; Karen Gilligan, East Chatham, Farm Friends 4-H Club.

Fifteen year pearl award – Lisa Lafferty, Schodack Landing, Farm Friends 4-H Club; Mary Hallenbeck, Claverack, Country Kids 4-H Club; Rebecca Johnk, Greenville, Medway Mountaineers 4-H Club.

Twenty year diamond award - Sandy Muller, Cairo, Flora and Fauna 4-H Club.

WE ARE HIRING!

COMPETITIVE WAGES! GREAT WORK ATMOSPHERE! BECOME PART OF OUR CMH FAMILY!

We Are Hiring For The Current Categories: • Nursing & Clinical Professionals • Support Staff • Environmental Services • Administrative Roles CMH is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. It is the policy of the Hospital to ensure equal employment opportunity in all personnel actions including, but not limited to, recruitment, selection and employment, training, promotion, transfer, compensation, work location, discharge, benefits and all other conditions of employment.

This policy is to be administered without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, color, national origin, age, marital status, disability or political affiliations unless a bonafide occupational qualification exists.

APPLY TODAY: www.ColumbiaMemorialHealth.org/careers

CMYK

Sports

SECTION

NFL Draft

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

& Classifieds

Eddie Brown’s top 10 cornerbacks and safeties in the upcoming NFL Draft. Sports, B2

B Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - B1

Tim Martin, Sports Editor: 1-800-400-4496 / sports@registerstar.com or tmartin@registerstar.com

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Hudson’s Dayquan Griffin (32)

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Catskill’s Lavon Fernandez (23)

Local hoop standouts earn All-State honors

By Tim Martin

Columbia-Greene Media

Patroon Conference Most Valuable Player Lavon Fernandez was named 10th team All-State in Class B boys basketball by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

Fernandez’s teammate DeVon Haye was named to the 16th team, while Hudson’s Dayquan Griffin was named to the 15th team in Class B. Maple Hill’s Rian Jewett and Germantown’s Bryan Bathrick earned honorable

mention status in Class C and D, respectively.

Fernandez finished his high school career with a monster season, averaging 24.6 points, 10 rebounds and six assists per game in leading the Cats to their eighth Patroon Conference title in the past 10 years, Fernandez scored 549 points, topping the 30-point mark on six different occasions with a season-high 39 coming in a 77-67 victory over Hudson on January 26.

He reached the 1,000-point milestone for

Youth turkey season looms, still time to get certified

By Larry DiDonato For Columbia-Greene Media

It’s zero dark thirty and your 12-15-year-old is rousting you from the fog of an early morning deep sleep.

They’re sounding the alarm that you are “going to be late” for opening day. This scenario is likely to be played out in homes all across the state, hours before daylight next Saturday on April 25.

The reason? At precisely 30 minutes before sunrise on that Saturday morning, bearded wild turkeys become fair game with the opening of the 2020 Youth Turkey Season. After being cooped up at home for the past few months, it will be a welcome change to get out of the house out into the woods.

One unforeseen problem is that many prospective youth hunters who signed up to take the required hunter safety course just in time for opening day, had their class cancelled due to the coronavirus.

DEC quickly realized the impact the Covid-19 cancellations had on the Hunter Education Program. They calculate that from March 18 to April 30 there were more than 150 hunter education courses cancelled. Nearly 3,000

would be hunters who already registered would be unable to get their hunting license.

In answer to pleas from instructors, parents, and students asking how they can get kids certified before the 2020 spring turkey season begins, DEC’s Hunter Education Program Administrator, Kelly Stang swiftly sprang into action.

As a result, New York is now offering a fully online hunter education course so that students can get their certificate in time for the fast approaching Youth Turkey Season while in-person classes are suspended.

A notice to that effect was sent to Hunter Ed Instructors statewide.

The online course will be available for a limited time, from April 15 through June 30 2020.

DEC also emailed all students who had registered for a hunter education course in March and April that was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The email let them know about the online course option if they need to get a hunter education certificate prior to the upcoming season.

The course will cost $19.95 per person. Anyone age 11 or older can See TURKEY B3

his career in an 80-48 victory over Coxsackie-Athens on January 7.

Haye also reached the 1,000-point milestone during the season, becoming the 15th boys player in school history to accomplish the feat during a 97-35 victory over Taconic Hills on January 31.

Haye averaged 19.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game with 12 games of 20 points or better. His season-high of 32 came in a Dec. 10 victory over Hudson. He See HONORS B3

TIM MARTIN/COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

Catskill’s DeVon Haye

Mets’ McNeil, Nimmo working out together in Port St. Lucie garage Deesha Thosar New York Daily News

What would you do if you were neighbors with Brandon Nimmo?

Jeff McNeil, who has remained in Port St. Lucie since spring training was shut down last month due to the coronavirus, was faced with that question. So he started working out with his always-enthusiastic teammate.

“We’ve been able to workout together and hang out a little bit,” McNeil said Thursday in an interview on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio. “He’s super positive all the time, always smiling. It’s been good living down the street from him. We’ve had some barbecues. He’s not a bad person to hang out with when you’re stuck at home the whole day.”

Nimmo lives “three doors down” from

McNeil and has created a mini-gym in his garage. The two teammates even found a batting cage to help stay in shape and McNeil said he hits three times a week.

“It’s been tough. The whole complex is closed right now,” McNeil said. “Have to try to make the best of it. The main thing for me is keeping my body in shape and going to the gym.”

See METS B3

Two top prospects skip college for G League and weaken NCAA’s hand Michael Cunningham The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

None of the players in the 2019 high school class signed up for the NBA G League’s one-year program that offers top prospects a paycheck before they are eligible for the NBA draft.

NCAA boosters cited that as evidence that college basketball offers great value to elite prospects even though they aren’t paid a salary. I saw it as a function of the market because the $125,000 contract the G League offered just wasn’t enough.

It turns out I was on to something. The G League is offering more money this year, and two of the top prospects in the 2020 class are taking the deal.

California’s Jalen Green signed a contract with the G League on Thursday for more than $500,000. Isaiah Todd of See PROSPECTS B3

ELSA/GETTY IMAGES

Jalen Green of Team Stanley heads for the net as RJ Hampton of Team Ramsey defends during the SLAM Summer Classic 2018 at Dyckman Park on Aug. 18, 2018 in New York City.

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

B2 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

Alabama receiver Henry Ruggs is on fastest track to NFL draft Ben Bolch Los Angeles Times

He resembled a real-life Forrest Gump, this supersonic kid from Alabama who played football for the Crimson Tide and dearly loves his mama.

Only his mama could outrun him.

Nataki Ruggs, a former track star, has said she once ran the 40-yard dash in a roadrunner-like 4.23 seconds during a morning workout. That’s two one-hundredths of a second faster than her son Henry’s best official time, and only one one-hundredth of a second slower than John Ross’ NFL combine record of 4.22 seconds set in 2017.

Even her fleet-footed son thinks mama might be pulling a fast one.

“If you ask me, she never ran that time,” Henry Ruggs III said with a smile at the most recent combine in February. “I knew she was pretty fast. She used to run in the neighborhood, run against guys all the time and beat them. And we used to race when I was young, but I was young.”

Those races would take place in grocery store parking lots, empty streets and outside the house — mother and son seeing who was fastest to the car or an imaginary finish line.

Nataki’s track background and experience gave her an advantage that her son eventually overcame with his sheer talent.

“Once I started to beat her, she would

BUTCH DILL/USA TODAY

Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Henry Ruggs III (11) during the first half of their Sept. 21 game against Southern Mississippi at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

tell me, ‘OK, you’re gonna be able to run,’ “ Henry said. “That helped me develop a lot of

confidence.”

That belief prompted Ruggs to proclaim

himself the fastest player at the combine and take aim at Ross’ 4.22.

Alas, Ruggs posted a 4.27, several ticks short of the record, but maybe that’s for the best. He doesn’t just want to be known for his speed, touting himself as a complete receiver after a junior season. He made 40 catches for 746 yards and seven touchdowns as part of a stacked receiving corps that also included Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith.

“I’m a playmaker; I don’t just pride myself on just speed,” said Ruggs, measured at 5 feet 11 and 188 pounds. “I want to be a guy who can do everything on the field. I get downfield to block for my teammates, just as they do the same for me. I play without the ball, and with the ball in my hands I can make a play.”

Ruggs is widely projected as being selected in the middle of the first round, the third receiver off the board behind Jeudy and Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb. He said he feels his best football is ahead based on having been surrounded by talent that required a wide distribution of touches at Alabama.

No matter how long he stays in the NFL, he might never find anyone as fast as his mama ... or at least as fast as his mama claimed to be.

“Ultimately, she’ll tell you that she’s not faster than me,” Henry said. “Maybe in her prime, she felt like it. But ... no.”

2020 NFL draft: Top defensive backs Eddie Brown The San Diego Union-Tribune

Welcome to draft season!

Here are Eddie Brown’s top 10 cornerbacks and safeties: 1. Jeff Okudah (Jr., Ohio St., 6-foot-1, 205 pounds) The Buckeyes continue to churn out NFL-worthy corners, but none of them were unanimous All-Americans like Okudah. Projected: Top 10 2. C.J. Henderson (Jr., Florida, 6-1, 204) Quarterbacks avoided this three-year starter with shutdown capabilities. Henderson’s weak tackling is overblown. Projected: 1st round 3. Jeff Gladney (Sr., TCU, 5-10, 191) Physical press corner with elite athleticism and ball skills. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 4. Jaylon Johnson (Jr., Utah, 6-0, 193) Johnson’s skill-set is perfect for press-man and he’s versatile enough to play inside or outside. Has had three shoulder surgeries dating back to his senior year of high school. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 5. Noah Igbinoghene (Jr., Auburn, 5-10, 198) The son of world class track athletes (his mother Faith won bronze at the 1992 Summer Olympics) is merely scratching the surface, but there is immense talent to be mined here. Igbinoghene could be an impact kick returner as well (he averaged 31.4 yards per return in college). Projected: 1st or 2nd round 6. Bryce Hall (Sr., Virginia, 6-1, 202) Was almost an exclusive all-state (Pennsylvania) wide receiver in high school, which explains his elite ball skills. Hall was a team captain who missed half his senior season with an ankle injury that required surgery.

Projected: 2nd to 4th round 7. Kristian Fulton (Sr., LSU, 6-0, 197) Former five-star recruit who is capable of playing press-man outside on in the slot. His inconsistent technique as a tackler leads to misses. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 8. Trevon Diggs (Sr., Alabama, 6-1, 205) Elite size, instincts and athleticism, but he needs to clean up his technique to

reach full potential. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 9. A.J. Terrell (Jr., Clemson, 6-1, 195) Struggles against LSU in the national title game dimmed his draft stock a bit, but this fierce competitor bounced back at the combine in Indy. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 10. Damon Arnette (Sr., Ohio St., 6-0, 195) Significant growth after returning for his senior season.

Arnette isn’t a burner, but he’s athletic enough to hold his own in man-to-man at the next level. Projected: 2nd or 3rd round BONUS. Troy Pride Jr. (Sr., Notre Dame, 5-11, 193) Pride is a plus athlete with sprinter speed which he relies upon to cover up his undeveloped technique. Projected: 3rd or 4th round BONUS. Cameron Dantzler (Jr., Mississippi St., 6-2, 188) Size and lack of elite speed may force move to safety.

Dantzler is a good tackler with aggressive tendencies in coverage. Projected: 3rd to 5th round BONUS. Javelin Guidry (Jr., Utah, 5-9, 191) Size is an issue, but Guidry JOE ROBBINS/GETTY IMAGES is FAST (he was 100-meter Ohio State defensive back Jeff Okudah runs a drill during the NFL champion in both Texas and Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on February 29.

California during an illustrious high school track career). Alabama, 6-0, 201) 3. Grant Delpit (Jr., LSU, He could shine in some sort McKinney is an alpha play- 6-2, 213) of hybrid nickel role. Project- maker who can handle evDelpit won the 2019 ed: 4th to 7th round ery position in the defensive Thorpe Award (nation’s top BONUS. Lamar Jackson backfield. Projected: 1st or defensive back) on reputa(Sr., Nebraska, 6-2, 208) tion alone. Various injuries 2nd round Jackson’s best traits are his physicality and size. He has a strong man-to-man skills, but lacks elite speed. Projected: 5th round to UFA BONUS. Stanford Samuels III (Jr., Florida St., 6-1, 187) Samuels is a physical bump-and-run corner with solid ball skills (eight interceptions in 24 starts) and decent quickness. Projected: 6th round to UFA Safeties 1. Antoine Winfield Jr. (So., Minnesota, 5-foot-9, 203 pounds) A chip off the ol’ block (his father was a pro bowler), Winfield is an opportunistic playmaker with elite ball skills and a high football IQ. Only three FBS players had more than his seven interceptions in 2019. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 2. Xavier McKinney (Jr.,

clearly hindered his play last season. There’s All-Pro potential if he returns to his 2018 form. Projected: 1st or 2nd round 4. Ashtyn Davis (Sr., California, 6-1, 202) The rare dual-sport walkon in college (football and track), Davis is fearless and relentless on the football field. He’ll have to control his overaggressive nature in the NFL. Projected: 2nd or 3rd round 5. Kyle Dugger (Sr., LenoirRhyne, 6-1, 217) Dugger won the 2019 Cliff Harris Award (the Division II Defensive Player of the Year).

He averaged 13.9 yards per punt return with six touchdowns during his collegiate career. Projected: 2nd or 3rd round 6. Jeremy Chinn (Sr., Southern Illinois, 6-3, 221) Chinn is a poor man’s Isaiah Simmons. His uncle is Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater. Projected: 2nd or 3rd round 7. Terrell Burgess (Sr., Utah, 5-11, 202) The San Marcos native has a nose for the ball and the range to handle all of his coverage responsibilities. Burgess could be a core special teamer early. Projected: 3rd or 4th round 8. Antoine Brooks Jr. (Sr., Maryland, 5-11, 220) Brooks is a thumper in run support and will carry special teams value. Projected: 3rd to 5th round 9. J.R. Reed (Sr., Georgia,

6-1, 202) NFL pedigree (father is former Viking receiver Jake Reed; uncle is former Chiefs cornerback Dale Carter) and finalist for the 2019 Thorpe Award. Projected: 3rd to 5th round 10. Brandon Jones (Sr., Texas, 5-11, 198) Jones lacks ideal size, but he wins with athleticism and toughness and can play both safety positions. Projected: 3rd to 5th round BONUS. Alohi Gilman (Jr., Notre Dame, 5-10, 201) Gilman is more effective closer to the line of scrimmage. He set a Notre Dame single-game record with 19 tackles as a sophomore (vs.

Clemson). Projected: 4th to 6th round BONUS. Julian Blackmon (Sr., Utah, 6-0, 187) Blackmon excelled at both cornerback (four interceptions in 2017) and strong safety (four interceptions in 2019) for the Utes. Projected: 5th to 7th round BONUS. L’Jarius Sneed (Sr., Louisiana Tech, 6-0, 192) Sneed returned at least one interception for a touchdown in three of his four seasons. No FBS player had more over that time period.

Projected: 5th to 7th round BONUS. K’Von Wallace (Sr., Clemson, 5-11, 206) Wallace is a three-year starter (and team captain) who is built like a cornerback, but plays like a safety with elite awareness. Projected: 5th to 7th round

CMYK

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - B3

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

No one knows what they’re talking about when it comes to quarterbacks in the draft

Turkey From B1

take the online course but youth hunters must be between 12 and 15 to hunt. New York State students who successfully complete the course and pass the final exam will get a hunter education certificate.

Starting Wednesday, April 15, the course can be found at https://www.hunter-ed.com/ newyork/.

DEC does not keep any of the $19.95 fee which goes directly to the online vendor. Administrators of DEC’s Sportsmen Education Program will revisit the all-online course in June reaffirming the value of in-person instruction. They plan to resume hands-on classes as soon as they are able.

So, with kids and many parents home, it’s a good time to take your online course, sightin your turkey gun and practice hands-on firearms and hunting safety. The bottom line is there’s still time to get your youth turkey hunter properly credentialed and practiced before for opening day.

You’ll find its been worth the effort right around the first crack of gray dawn, when a big tom breaks the calm with an unmistakable gobble. With a little patience, skill, and luck, you and your youth will soon feel that spit, drum, and gobble resonate deep in your chest.

Then, after giving your youth hunter the green light, at nerve straining, nearly point-blank range, they shoot. Not only will they have bagged an unforgettable tom, but a memory that will last a lifetime.

Happy Hunting, Fishing and Trapping until next time.

NEWS AND NOTES NY Closes All Boat Launches in the State: NYS has closed all

Honors From B1

scored a total of 441 points and knocked down 32 three-pointers, knocking down 39.4% of his shots from beyond the arc.

“Two very well deserving athletes who were a joy to coach this past season,”

Mets From B1

Though most Mets players returned to their year-round homes after news of the postponed baseball season, McNeil and Nimmo are joined in Port St. Lucie by Michael Wacha. The former Cardinals right-hander was acquired by the Mets on a one-year deal over the offseason. McNeil pointed to Wacha as a good signing by GM Brodie Van Wagenen, as he helps fill the hole Noah Syndergaard left behind in the rotation — should the 2020 season be played. Syndergaard had Tommy John surgery late last month, and is expected to recover by April 2021.

When he’s not spending time with familiar faces, McNeil is passing the time electronically.

Prospects From B1

Richmond, Va., reportedly will join Green in the G League. I hope more prospects can get G League deals that are better options than having the value of their labor and marketing stolen by college programs.

Green’s contract shows that even top recruits who have yet to play a college game are worth much more than a scholarship. The G League may not pay any other players $500,000. But maybe they can get something between that figure and the $125,000 the G League offered last year as part of its pathway program.

“Exposure” is one of the main arguments for the value of NCAA basketball to players. That’s what companies

Dave Hyde Sun Sentinel

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Perspective is lost. Context is dead. There must be castiron certainty in discussing NFL draft prospects and so analytic-based Pro Football Focus wrote the quarterback plays, ‘undisciplined too often.”

NFL.com’s scouting report wrote the prospect’s best comparison was Jay Cutler’s shaky career. Most of the big-wig draftniks like ESPN’s Todd McShay or Mel Kiper Jr. didn’t have him picked in the first round. Mike Mayock, now the Oakland Raiders general manager, had him being drafted 32nd by Arizona.

Patrick Mahomes, nonetheless, was drafted 10th by Kansas City in 2017 and left last season hoisting the Super Bowl trophy.

Mitchell Trubisky, now failing, was the pre-draft quarterback star that year. “Very polished as a passer,” as PFF said of Trubisky. “A good starting quarterback with the potential to be great,” NFL.com’s scouting report read.

Is there a sports event where loud opinions come with less perspective than the NFL draft? Double that idea if we’re talking quarterbacks.

The general managers picking them, the ones whose careers ride on it and who have all the medical and personality information, realize choosing a quarterback is often a dart throw.

Each year brings

chapter and verse of why you shouldn’t listen too hard to the draftniks, too. In 2018, the debate was if Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold would be the top pick and Josh Rosen wasn’t far behind.

Most everyone agreed Lamar Jackson was the fifth-best quarterback talent. The only question was if he went in the first round.

“Accuracy is clearly spotty ... a high risk,” NFL.com’s report read.

Jackson was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in February, while the others are still trying to find their footing.

If you can’t grade teams on individual picks, you can on philosophy. Consistency. Do they have a plan? Can they follow it? And, yes, are they in one of the few franchises that know how to find a quarterback beyond blind luck?

Kansas City with coach Andy Reid is one of those franchises. Green Bay with former general manager Ron Wolf was another. Wolf traded for an unproven Brett Favre and his protege, Ted Thompson, drafted Aaron Rodgers. Genius, right?

No, not genius. Philosophy.

Wolf’s Law stated to draft a quarterback every year. The position is that important.

The value is that necessary.

Between Favre and Rodgers, here were the names Wolf drafted: Ty Detmer, Mark Brunell, Jay Barker, Kyle Wachholtz, Ron McAda, Matt Hasselbeck, Aaron Brooks

and Craig Nall.

Some good. Most bad. But Wolf’s Law involves the idea no one can really predict how a college quarterback will play in the NFL. It is followed by the smartest franchises who realize how difficult it is to find a quarterback.

New England’s Bill Belichick knows what he wants in a quarterback. Accuracy is the No. 1 criteria, a two-decadeold report from former scout Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com said.

Belichick’s Patriots took Tom Brady in the fifth round and Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round. That’s why they’re so smart, right? Well, maybe. Or maybe they’re so smart because of all the other quarterbacks Belichick drafted: Rohan Davey, Kliff Klingsbury, Matt Cassel, Kevin O’Connell, Zac Robinson, Ryan Mallett, Jacoby Brissett, Danny Etling and Jarrett Stidham.

Giving credit for Brissett and Cassel, that means Belichick has found four NFL quarterbacks in 11 picks.

Maybe five if Stidham emerges. Still, that’s not great by statistical standards. It’s great by philosophical ones, though.

Belichick knows to keep taking them. It’s that difficult to find one. Bill Parcells was humbled searching for quarterbacks so many times that when he took over the Dolphins in 2008 he said, “You do your work in finding one. And hope you have some luck.”

boat launches regardless of their jurisdiction. This means all state, county, town and village boat ramps are closed to the public, just in time for striper and fishing season.

This makes absolutely no sense as one of the least likely places in NYS to catch the virus is at a boat ramp or on a boat with your family.

Reminder: 2020 Hudson River Striper Regulation Changes Now in Effect In the Hudson River and its tributaries: Slot size limit: 18”- 28” total length (No fish smaller than 18” or

greater than 28” may be kept) Season dates: April 1st - November 30 Daily possession limit of 1 fish per angler DEC recommends the use of inline circle hooks but not required until January 2021 Remember to report poaching violations by calling 1-844-DEC-ECOS. You can share any comments with our sports desk at sports@ registerstar.com *If you have a fishing or hunting report, photo, or event you would like to be considered for publication, you can send it to: huntfishreport@gmail.com

Catskill coach Doug Lampman said of Fernandez and Haye. “Both embodied what I take pride in our program: working hard in the classroom, acting like gentlemen around school and working hard every day to represent this remarkable program.

“I think their best basketball is ahead of them, both of them have the talent to play a huge

role at the next level. I was honored to be a part of their journey.”

Griffin strapped a young Hudson team on his back this season and led the Bluehawks to a 13-7 record and secondplace finish in the Patroon Conference standings.

A three-year varsity starter, Griffin scored 464 points, averaging 22.1 per game. He had

16 games of 20 points or better and reached the 1,000-point career milestone in a Jan. 26 game against Catskill.

“It’s a huge honor to make an All-State team,” Hudson coach Shawn Briscoe said.

“This is a great accomplishment for the end of a great career at Hudson, 1,000 point scorer, first team all conference and now the All-State

“A few weeks ago I started playing a lot of video games,” he said. “There’s nothing really else to do.”

McNeil is participating in the league’s first-ever MLB The Show tournament, which raises funds for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada. The 30-player league includes 11 former All-Stars, five World Series champions and eight players aged 25 or younger.

Each participant plays in a round-robin format throughout the month of April for a total of 29 three-inning regular season games. Fans can stream the games on multiple digital platforms, including YouTube and Twitch.

“It’s been a good way to interact with the fans,” McNeil said. “The fans are looking for something to watch right now so the tournament’s been fun for them, and it’s been fun for me as well.”

This year, McNeil spent the majority of his spring training taking reps at the hot corner.

He was expected to be the team’s starting third baseman after earning his first All-Star nod as an outfielder in 2019.

In real baseball, McNeil is prone to swinging on the first pitch and making contact on pitches that are out of the strike zone, which results in spraying the ball all over the field. His approach in video games is a little different.

“As for pitching or hitting and which one I’m better at, I’m definitely a better hitter in this game. I keep it in the zone for the most part, kind of the opposite of who I am in real life. I swing at everything,” McNeil said, laughing to himself.

“If it’s a strike early in the count, I still swing,” he said.

“But, if it’s a ball in the dirt, I have no chance of getting that in the game.”

New York Mets left fielder Jeff McNeil (left) is greeted by center fielder Brandon Nimmo (9) after hitting a home run against the Miami Marlins on March 3 at Clover Park.

offer when they don’t want to pay workers market salaries.

Congress and the courts allow NCAA schools to collude so that “exposure” and a scholarship are pretty much all that their laborers with specialized skills can earn.

You can’t spend exposure.

But it is worth something to players, even if it’s less than their true market value. Last year’s best high school seniors didn’t bite on the G League’s $125,000 offer. Green decided that $500,000-plus is his price.

Practically every top college program in the country offered Green a scholarship (he was said to favor Auburn and Memphis). Now Green doesn’t have to bother with generating significant revenue for one of them without a salary. Someone else can have the exposure while Green is paid the money he’s worth.

And there’s more to Green’s G League deal than money.

The league said top prospects in its pathway program also will receive mentorship and life-skills training. Some players get those benefits in college. Green will get them plus a paycheck.

You can see the attraction of the G League program for players if the money is right and they aren’t interested in college. International pro leagues have signed some top prospects with similar developmental programs. Now the G League appears poised to up its bids for those players to keep them here.

NBA officials would love it if more top prep players enter the G League. General managers could evaluate more of them in competition against pro players, including some with NBA experience. NBA

coaches would appreciate their teams drafting rookies who’ve already been pros and received some formal offcourt development.

“The NBA is the best development system in the world, and those players shouldn’t have to go somewhere else to develop for a year,” G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim told ESPN. “They should be in our development system.”

There are some potential negatives for Green in the G League. It’s unglamorous in comparison with big-time college basketball. He could hurt his draft stock by struggling against older professionals instead of excelling against college players. The $500,000 mitigates some of those possible drawbacks.

Another benefit to playing college basketball is the

team, “I would say that is a great way to end a high school career, great senior season from a great young man!”

Jewett was consistent all season long for coach Scott Hanrahan’s Maple Hill Wildcats, averaging 22.9 points per game. He finished with 503 points and drained 49 threepointers. His season-high of

37 came on Jan. 28 against Catskill.

Bathrick finished up his high school career by scoring 308 points and averaging 15.4 points per game for a Germantown team that advanced to the semifinals of the Section II Class D playoffs. He poured in a season-high 30 points in a non-league victory over Rhinebeck on Feb. 18.

STEVE MITCHELL/USA TODAY

chance to work with coaches with track records of developing pros. But NCAA rules limit how much time players can practice, part of the effort to maintain the illusion they are students first. In the G League, Green will have much more time to work on the NBA-style game while getting paid for it.

Green is the third prospect in the past two high school classes to opt for a pro development program instead of college. Last year LaMelo Ball (Australia) and R.J. Hampton (New Zealand) signed with international teams (it was Ball’s third pro contract). Hampton also signed a five-year deal with a Chinese shoe and apparel company despite not getting the “exposure” from playing in the NCAA. The G League now may sign more prospects of that caliber.

Some players still will decide

to play in college or go pro in another country. But a domestic minor league with hefty contacts would further weaken the leverage NCAA programs have over top American prospects.

There’s a chance the G League’s pathway program will be obsolete in two years.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said he wants players finished with high school to be eligible for the 2022 draft.

I’d expect owners and GMs to push back on that idea because it’s harder to evaluate high school prospects.

For now, the G League’s pathway program is another way for top high school basketball prospects to get paid before they are eligible for the draft. Green signed up for $500,000. The G League will get more players like him if it pays up.

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, the Town Board of the Town of Hunter will hold a Public Hearings on April 28, 2020 at 6:40 PM and 6:50 PM regarding proposed Local Law #1 of 2020 Temporary Moratorium on the Establishment, Placement, and Construction of Commercial Solar Fueled Electric Generating Facilities in the Town of Hunter and proposed Local Law #2 of 2020 Temporary Moratorium on the Establishment, Placement and Construction of Commercial Containerized Energy Storage/Battery Facilities Designed for Connecting to the Electric Power Grid in the Town of Hunter.

Public comments received by 4PM on 4/27/20 will be reviewed by the Town Board. You may mail comments to PO Box 70, Tannersville, NY 12485, place written comments in the drop box outside of the Town Hall or you may email comments to Cpascucci@townofhuntergov.com.

By Order of the Town Board Corina Pascucci, Town Clerk

NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING OF THE STOCKPORT FIRE DISTRICT April 28, 2020 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Stockport Fire District will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Stottville Fire House, 6644 Fire House Road, Hudson, New York (County of Columbia). The purpose of the special meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners is to consider a proposed bond resolution entitled, “BOND RESOLUTION DATED APRIL 28, 2020 OF THE BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS OF THE STOCKPORT FIRE DISTRICT AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $375,000 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF SERIAL GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS TO FINANCE A PORTION OF THE PURCHASE OF A FIRE-FIGHTING VEHICLE AND APPARATUS USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH AT AN ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF $600,236, APPROPRIATING SAID AMOUNT THREFORE, AND AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF AN INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACT AS AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF FINANCING SAID ACQUISITION�.

A copy of the proposed bond resolution is available upon request to the Fire District Secretary, who may be reached by email at stottcar156@gmail.com.

April 15, 2020 Mike Briscoe Fire District Secretary Stockport Fire Distri

PUBLIC NOTICE TOWN OF TAGHKANICPLEASE TAKE NOTICE The Town Board of the Town of Taghkanic will accept letters of interest to serve on a Task Force of 5 members to study the impact of short-term rentals on our town.

All letters of interest for the above Task Force should be sent to Cheryl Rogers, Town Clerk, 483 County Route 15, Elizaville, New York 12523 or emailed to crogers42857@gmail.com.

Letters should be delivered or emailed for receipt no later than April 30, 2020.

Cheryl Rogers Town Clerk Dated: April 16, 2020

NOTICE TO BIDDERS The Board of Education of the Greenville Central School District will receive separate sealed bids for: REFUSE REMOVAL and RECYCLING For 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR The Board of Education reserves the right to reject any or all bids and waive any informalities or defects in such bids.

Sealed bids will be received in the District Office of Greenville Central School until: DATE: Thursday, April 30, 2020 TIME: 10:00 a.m.

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained on the District’s website www.greenvillecsd.org or at the Business Office, Greenville Central School, 4982 SR 81, Greenville, NY 12083.

Robyn Bhend Business Official

Notice to Owners of Unclaimed Money Held by BlueShield of Northeastern New York Albany, New York If your name is listed below, our records show that we have an unclaimed check for you in the amount of $50 (fifty dollars) or more: CHRISTMAN, SCOTT, 1370 HIGHFALLS RD, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 DEBNATH, SURAJIT, 227 JOHNNY CAKE LN, GREENVILLE, NY, 12083 EDDY, SHANNON, 28 SOUTH JEFFERSON AVE 2S, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 FRISBEE, CHRISTOPHER, 84 N WASHINGTON ST, ATHENS, NY, 12015 GALLO, MICHAEL, PO BOX 366, CAIRO, NY, 12413 GRIFFIN, DOROTHY, 25 MAHICAN WAY, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 MCDONNELL, BRIAN, 4914 ROUTE 32, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 O S T E R H O U D T, CATHERINE, PO BOX 753, CAIRO, NY, 12413 PASSERO, JENNIFER, 135 GRANDVIEW AVE APT 4D, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 ROBERT SCHNEIDER MD PC, RTE 23A PO BOX 60, TANNERSVILLE, NY, 12485

NOTICE Village of Athens The Village of Athens will be holding 2 Public Hearings on April 22, 2020 at 6:30PM. The first Public Hearing will be held for the purpose of receiving public comment on proposed Local #1 of 2020 regulating shortterm rentals in the village.

The second Public Hearing is being held for the purpose of receiving public comment on the proposed adoption of local law #2 of 2020 which would override the property tax cap for the coming fiscal year.

Copies of both proposed laws are available by request from the Village ClerkTreasurer at voaclerk@yahoo.com or calling the clerk’s office (518) 945-1551 between the hours of 9AM – Noon Monday through Friday.

This meeting is being held in accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order 202.2 and we will be conducted electronically.

The public may join the meeting using the following link or call in number: Join: https://meet.google.com/pwh-iwgf-ygg +1 573-569-9899 PIN: 535097312# M. Wynne TOWN OF STUYVESANT COLUMBIA COUNTY NEW YORK NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that public hearing will be held by the Town Planning Board of the Town of Stuyvesant, Columbia County, New York at 7:00 o’clock PM in the afternoon on April 27, 2020 for the purpose of accepting public comment on a proposed subdivision located at Route 9, North of Frisbee Lane, Stuyvesant, NY Tax Map # 63.1-2-27. The meeting will be accomplished via telephonic conference call in accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order 202.2 to combat the spread of the COVID19 virus. Members of the public may attend by dialing (646) 558-8656 and entering access code 342796 or by utilizing the following link via Z o o m : https://zoom.us/j/9871 7959186?pwd=R3hiZj V zekw0YnZZU3h4MEhHTkZwUT09 Dated: April 15, 2020 Planning Board Town of Stuyvesant

STEPHENS, WILLIE, PO BOX 705, CATS- Notice to Owners of KILL, NY, 12414 Unclaimed Money Held by BlueShield of TOMPKINS, MICHAEL, Northeastern New 3 NORTH WARREN York ST, ATHENS, NY, Albany, New York 12015 If your name is listed below, our records TOMPKINS, MICHAEL, show that we have an 18 NORTH WATER ST, unclaimed check for ATHENS, NY, 12015 WILLIAMS, ALISON, 178 MAIN ST, CATSKILL, NY, 12414 A report will be filed with the Comptroller of the State of New York for these checks which have not been claimed. This applies under Section 1316 of the Abandoned Property Law of New York State. The report will be available for the public to inspect at our 257 W. Genesee Street offices in Buffalo.

Please call (716) 8878418 or toll free 1-866645-7542 for more information.

We will reimburse you for these funds before or on August 31, 2020 as long as you can prove your identity to us.

On or before September 10, 2020, all checks which haven't been claimed will be paid to the Comptroller of New York State. After this payment has been made, we can no longer return the check to you; however, we can provide the necessary information to help you obtain a refund from New York State.

BlueShield of Northeastern New York

you in the amount of $50 (fifty dollars) or more: ALLEN, NORINE, 27 APPLE MEADOW RD AJ6, HUDSON, NY, 12534 ARY, HOLLIE, PO BOX 232, COPAKE, NY, 12516 BROWN, MELISSA, PO BOX 126, EAST CHATHAM, NY, 12060 COLE, HEATHER, 541 EICHYBUSH RD, KINDERHOOK, NY, 12106 DILORENZO, JACQUELINE, 119 COLUMBIA ST APT 304, HUDSON, NY, 12534 DOYLE, NANCY, 2033 COUNTY ROUTE 9, CHATHAM, NY, 12037 FINO, GARY, 6595 ROUTE 9, HUDSON, NY, 12534 GARDNER, MATTHEW, 38 TREELAND FARM, HUDSON, NY, 12534 GOHL, MICHAEL, PO BOX 27, VALATIE, NY, 12184 HODGES, KELLY, 7 COUNTY RT 46, STUYVESANT, NY, 12173 JORGENSEN, SERINA, 20 RABBIT LN, KINDERHOOK, NY, 12106 KNIGHTES, SARAH, PO BOX 201, NIVERVILLE, NY, 12130 LIPARI, SCOTT, 28 LASHER DR, ELIZAVILLE, NY, 12523 OAKLEY, DOREEN, 1843 STATE RT 66, GHENT, NY, 12075 PATTON, KATHLEEN, 25 HUDSON AVE APT 3, CHATHAM, NY, 12037 PLANZ, DONALD, 41 COLUMBIA TPKE, HUDSON, NY, 12534 PULLEN, CATERINA, 473 COUNTY ELIZAROUTE15, VILLE, NY, 12523 RAWLINS, RICHARD, 16 MAJESTIC DR, STUYVESANT, NY, 12173 ROCKEFELLER, JOYCE, 440 RTE 6, GERMANTOWN, NY, 12526 RUFO, JEANETTE, 1 DROWNE RD, OLD CHATHAM, NY, 12136

YEATS, MEGAN, 21 COURTS LN, HUDSON, NY, 12534 A report will be filed with the Comptroller of the State of New York for these checks which have not been claimed. This applies under Section 1316 of the Abandoned Property Law of New York State. The report will be available for the public to inspect at our 257 W. Genesee Street offices in Buffalo.

Please call (716) 887-8418 or toll free 1-866-645-7542 for more information.

We will reimburse you for these funds before or on August 31, 2020 as long as you can prove your identity to us.

On or before September 10, 2020, all checks which haven't been claimed will be paid to the Comptroller of New York State. After this payment has been made, we can no longer return the check to you; however, we can provide the necessary information to help you obtain a refund from New York State.

BlueShield of Northeastern New York Public hearing scheduled: April 23, 2020 at 11:00 AM hosted by the Village of Coxsackie, 119 Mansion Street, Coxsackie, NY 12051.

The instructions to join the meeting via teleconference and/or Zoom will be posted on the Village of Coxsackie Facebook page as well as www.villageofcoxsackie.com prior to the meeting.

Held by: The Village of Coxsackie Historic Preservation Commission For: 16 Reed Street, Coxsackie, NY 12051, Tax ID#s: 56.20-1-11 Proposal: To repair the rear brick wall facing lower New Street.

Brick on the secondfloor level will be removed down to a stable level and replaced as it was. Window and/or second floor door openings will remain the same.

No other exterior rear work is covered by this hearing at this time.

Details of the proposal can be discussed with a representative of the National Bank of Coxsackie by calling either Nicole Bliss at (518) 622-9993, or Jim Warren at (518) 7316161.

STEADMAN, SARAH, SECTION 00020 PO BOX 4, NEW LEB- A D V E R T I S E M E N T FOR BIDS ANON, NY, 12125 Sealed bids for the furVAN VALKENBURG H, nishing of all labor and LESLIE, 262 MAPLE material necessary for LANE, VALATIE, NY, the 2020 Columbia County Multi-Bridge 12184 Element-Specific WADE, PATRICK, PO Bridge Work: Hickory BOX 70, SPENCER- Hill Road over Agawamuck Creek, Shufelt TOWN, NY, 12165 Road over Kline Kill WHEELER, LANCE, (BIN 3222560), CR 34 Hollow Brook PO BOX 9, CLAVE- over (CB#125) (BIN RACK, NY, 12513 3342420), CR 34 over

Hollow Brook (CB#126) (BIN 3342430), CR 9 over Wyomanock Creek (BIN 3342210), CR 9 over Punsit Creek (BIN 3221940), Church Road over Mud Creek (BIN 3222600), Shaker Museum Road over Tributary to Kinderhook Creek (BIN 3222100), CR 34 over Hollow Brook (CB#150) (BIN 3342560), High Bridge Road over Stony Kill (BIN 3222070) will be received by the Office of the Columbia County Department of Public Works – Highway Division, 178 Route 23B, Hudson, New York 12534 until 1:00 pm local time on Thursday, April 16th, 2020 at which time and place they will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Bids will be received for the following Contract: Contract No. 1 (Base Bid) – Hickory Hill Road over Agawamuck Creek, Shufelt Road over Kline Kill, CR 34 over Hollow Brook (CB#125), CR 34 over Hollow Brook (CB#126), CR 9 over Wyomanock Creek, CR 9 over Punsit Creek, Church Road over Mud Creek, Shaker Museum Road over Tributary to Kinderhook Creek –perform element specific bridge repairs to include implementation of a short term lane or shoulder closure, installation of new bridge and approach railings, milling and placement of new asphalt bridge deck overlay, concrete repair, joint repair, clearing and grubbing, installation of temporary waterway diversion structures, gravel bar removal and excavaplacement of tion, stone fill along stream banks, stream bank restoration and stabilization, and site restoration.

Alternate Bid No. 1 – CR 34 over Hollow Brook (CB#150) – placement of stone fill along stream banks, stream bank restoration and stabilization, and site restoration.

Alternate Bid No. 2 – High Bridge Road over Stony Kill – installation of stone fill keyway and placement of stone fill along the stream banks, and site restoration.

Contract Documents, including Advertisement For Bids, Information For Bidders, Labor and Employment, Additional Instructions, Bid Documents, Agreement, General Conditions, General Requirements, Specifications, Contract Drawings and any Addenda are available in digital format and may be obtained from Barton & Loguidice, D.P.C.. Digital copies can be obtained by providing a valid email address to tsavino@bartonandloguidice.com.

Download instructions will be provided upon notification.

Each bid must be accompanied by security in an amount not less than five percentum (5%) of the amount of the bid in the form and subject to the conditions provided in the Information for Bidders. No Bidder may withdraw his bid within forty-five (45) days after the actual date of opening thereof.

This is an exempt public works capital improvement project, and Bidders shall not include in their bid sales and compensating use taxes on the cost of materials which are to be incorporated into the work and which are to be separately sold by the Contractor to Columbia County prior to incorporation into the work of the Contract.

The attention of Bidders is particularly called to the requirements as to conditions

of employment to be observed and prevailing wage rates to be paid under the Contract.

The right is reserved to waive any informalities in the Bid and to reject any or all Bids.

Help Save A Life Today.

Please Donate Blood Village of Valatie Public Notice-Budget Hearing Meeting April 20, 2020 6:00 pm Due to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 202.1 which suspends the Open Meetings Law to permit any public body to meet due to COVID-19, the Village of Valatie will hold a Public Hearing to pass the Tentative Budget by telephone conference on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm. If anyone would like to review the budget or would like to submit questions regarding the budget, please contact the Village of Valatie at 518-7589806. Questions can be emailed to the Village of Valatie via the Village website at www.valatievillage.com. If anyone would like to take part in the conference call, please contact the Village office to ask for the phone number and code to access into the conference call.

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CMYK

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - B5

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA THE TOWN OF GREENPORT WILL BE FLUSHING HYDRANTS M-F, beginning Monday, April 20, 2020 through Friday, May 15, 2020 from 7 AM – 3:30 PM (daytime hours).

Real Estate 240

255

415

General Help

Employment Big Top Portable Toilets is looking for self-motivated, dependable, hardworking individuals. Service route drivers and delivery driver wanted. Delivery driver must have 24' straight truck driving experience. CDL and Non-CDL wanted. Service drivers must be able to service and deliver portable toilets on a route. Average 40 hours per week, must be able to work overtime and weekends. A clean driver's license is required. For more information or to apply please call 518-622-3353.

Lots & Acreage

Farms for Sale

Sales Help Wanted

425

MINI FARM: Livingston, NY. Includes farm house with new heating system and electric, new roof, appliance upgrades, breezeway with carport, barns, sheds, four electric fenced pastures, 2 car garage, and two rental units. All on 12 acres with stream. Price $575,000. Call for details 518-822-1970

Selling exclusively 91 Acres of pristine land in the process to be subdivided in Athens NY Greene County.

The land is relatively flat, partially wooded no wet land, exclusive high end location, near schools and all the shopping.

The owner is also considering partnership with a builder-developer, and he will consider any decent offer.

We anticipating to have approved in 2 to 3 months between 170 to 200 lots, all with municipal water and sewer, Electricity is on site already. We also offering 70% financing and we also have a Bank ready to fun this deal offering 75% financing at prevailing rate of interest.

We willing to talk to any developer who has a good track record feel free to contact us any time: 646-552-0455 or email us at :contraabc.yahoo.com; looking forward to hear from you soon we have many other sites ready approved,any size, any budget, simply inquire within......

Danny Odato the Land Specialist and Construction loan funding including land acquisition for 25 years.

Oxford Property Group USA Note: We expecting a boom of new homes buyers here upstate as peoples they escaping the congestion of the city right after the virus just like happened on 9-11 when we couldn’t build homes fast enough, it will happen exactly the same so let’s plan now to build new homes our economy can use it big time…..and we here to help !!!!!.

COLUMBIA-GREENE Media Corp. is seeking a full time Newspaper and Digital Advertising Sales Account Representative. Come join our multi-media sales team serving Columbia and Greene Counties.

Join our team of professionals who assist local businesses with their marketing goals utilizing the latest digital solutions as well as traditional print. Qualified candidate should possess excellent verbal and written communication skills and have a proven successful sales record. Media sales experience preferred.

Candidate should be self-motivated, goal oriented and assertive. We offer base pay plus commission, 401K, health insurance, vacation and sick days. Valid clean NYS Driver's License required. Please send resume with 3 references to mdempsey@registerstar.com or cgmjobs@columbiagreenemedia.com

Looking for a hard-tofind item?

You never know what you might find in the Classifieds – your best local marketplace!

Professional & Technical

435

SEEKING SAFE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS FOR FULL TIME WORK W.M. Schultz Construction Inc group of companies, is seeking versatile FOREMEN and HEAVY EQUIPMENT OPERATORS with experience in cast-in-place concrete, general sitework, and process pipe.

Our group of companies is a leader in the heavy civil construction industry with work on infrastructure projects in the transportation, water/wastewater, site development, and utility fields. We are committed to a culture of safety and operate under our company's core values and code of conduct, while building complex and challenging projects.

Project Locations include: Capital District Area, Catskill / Mid-Hudson Area, and Eastern NY/ CT border Please submit your resume which details your experience, work history, and educational background as well as any relevant trade licenses or certifications.

We will be conducting the interview and onboarding process following CDC recommendations during this COVID-19 crisis.

Lets Be

Upon acceptance of offer we will coordinate new hire paperwork and pre-employment substance screening. A valid driver’s license is required

FRIENDS

Long-term and leadership positions available to those with the drive and skills!

W.M. Schultz is an equal opportunity employer, women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

For consideration email or fax your resume to: Fax : (518) 885-0744 Email : careers@wmschultz.com www.wmschultz.com EOE

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Broncos LB Miller tests positive for COVID-19 Field Level Media

Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller tested positive for COVID-19, he told 9News in Denver on Thursday.

Miller developed a cough and got tested two days ago.

“I’ve just been here in the crib and I started to get a little cough,” he said on 9News. “You know I have asthma and I started getting a little cough a couple days ago. My girlfriend she told me when I was asleep she said my cough it didn’t sound normal.”

After several days of using his nebulizer (breathing device) to address the cough, “It wasn’t working how I thought it would. My assistant said let’s go get tested. So I got tested, that was two days ago. I started to feel like normal yesterday and then this morning Dr. (Steve) Geraghty called me and told me.”

Miller added, “It’s crazy. I have to be quarantined here at the house. There’s not really any medicine or anything like that. Dr. Geraghty told me if my breathing changed ... honestly, I’m still new to this. This is like an hour.

“I’m not sure what’s going on but I tell ya what, I’m in good spirits. I’m still Von. I’m not feeling sick or hurting or anything like that.”

Agent Joby Branion earlier told USA Today that Miller feels compelled to speak on the topic.

JUSTIN EDMONDS/GETTY IMAGES

Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller during warmups before a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High on December 1, 2019, in Denver.

“Given the circumstances in the country right now, he feels it’s worth letting people know that this is a real concern and not something they can take lightly,” Branion said.

Miller told reporters on a conference call last week he had been training in San Francisco when the coronavirus pandemic began to cause widespread stay-at-home orders, so

he returned to Colorado. He was asked about how the situation has affected him and his offseason training.

“Everybody’s going through the same thing,” Miller said last week. “It’s a tough time. It’s a crazy time that my mom and my grandmother didn’t experience, and we’re experiencing it. Just trying to stay the best, stay positive. Everything I need to do, I can do here at the house with my guys.”

Miller has battled asthma since childhood, and he has used an inhaler during practices and games while with the Broncos.

He is the second known NFL player to test positive for COVID-19. Los Angeles Rams center Brian Allen told Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer on Wednesday that he was recovering from the virus.

ESPN reported Wednesday that one member of the Los Angeles Chargers tested positive and two others had shown symptoms.

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton also revealed he tested positive and has since recovered.

Miller, 31, had eight sacks and 20 quarterback hits in 15 games last season, missing a game for the first time since 2013. The threetime All-Pro has 106 sacks and 216 QB hits in 135 games across nine seasons with the Broncos.

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace thinks Kyle Larson deserves a second chance

By Alex Andrejev The Charlotte Observer (TNS)

KATELYN MULCAHY/GETTY IMAGES

Driver Bubba Wallace stands by his car before qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on February 29.

Four days after Kyle Larson dropped a racial slur during an iRacing event that cost him his sponsors, his job with Chip Ganassi Racing and likely future employment opportunities, Bubba Wallace offered his commentary on the situation.

Wallace, driver of the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Petty Motorsports, is the only African-American driver in NASCAR’s top series. In a statement Wallace posted on Twitter on Thursday, he recognized his unique place in the sport.

“As much as I didn’t want to be involved, I was from the very beginning,” Wallace’s statement began. “There is a part of my background that feels attacked and hurt, and the other part feels confused and angry.”

In four paragraphs, Wallace condemned Larson’s use of the word, saying, “What Larson said was wrong, whether in private or public. There is no grey area.”

He also said there was an opportunity for forgiveness and an avenue for the sport to move forward. Wallace said

that within five minutes of the incident, Larson texted him and that the two had a FaceTime conversation the next day in which Larson offered a “sincere” apology.

“I told him, it was too easy for him to use the word and that he has to do better and get it out of his vocabulary,” Wallace said in the statement. “There is no place for that word in this world. I am not mad at him, and I believe that he, along with most people, deserve second chances, and deserve space to improve.”

“I do wish him and his family nothing but the best,” the statement continued.

“And I am more than willing to work with him to address diversity and inclusion in our sport.”

Wallace was the first African-American driver to compete in NASCAR’s Cup Series at the 2018 Daytona 500 since Hall of Famer Wendell Scott first broke that racial barrier in 1969. Wallace was the first African-American driver to compete full-time in the Cup Series since 1971 and has been an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusion in the sport.

“NASCAR has been doing what it can to get away from the ‘racist and redneck

sport’ labels,” Wallace said in the statement. “Diversity and inclusion is a main priority for the sport across every team, every car, every crew member and employee. With that said, it hurts to see the African-American community immediately throw NASCAR under the bus with the ‘I’m not shocked it’s NASCAR.’” “NASCAR has been, and will be way better than how we’ve been represented in the last couple of weeks,” the statement continued. “As the person that arguably has the biggest voice on this topic in our sport, it’s tough for me to speak to because I didn’t imagine us being here.”

“Can we all do a better job with inclusion? Absolutely, it’s a worldwide problem, not just in our sport. We as humans can always do better,” the statement said.

Wallace also said that he would expect NASCAR to hold him to the same standards if he were to use the word.

“I think everyone can learn something from what has happened these past few weeks,” Wallace wrote in closing. “I am looking forward to getting the season back underway and continue our momentum!”

CMYK

B6 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

‘Last Dance’ director talks about how he prepped for the massive ESPN project on the Bulls Dan Wiederer Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — In the opening scenes, Michael Jordan has the microphone. He’s standing near midcourt at the United Center with the lights down and an overhead spotlight engulfing him and only him. Naturally.

It’s Nov. 1, 1997, the night of the Bulls home opener and the pregame ring and banner ceremony to further celebrate the organization’s fifth championship in seven years.

Jordan is addressing a sold-out crowd that he has already captivated, entertained and spoiled for most of the previous 13 years.

Their journey together, though, is not over.

“To all the fans in the city of Chicago,” Jordan says, “if you guys remember in 1984 when they drafted Michael Jordan, I said then when I got here that we’d be champions by the time I leave. Well, we’re a five-time champion going for six. And we’ll need your support.”

That’s your cue. Buckle in.

“The Last Dance,” a 10-episode documentary that will premier Sunday night on ESPN, should be a thrill ride for Chicagoans eager to take a time machine back to the 1990s to relive the exhilaration of the greatest run of success in the city’s rich sports history. The film zeroes in on the last of the Bulls’ six champiFILE PHOTO onship seasons, the 1997-98 campaign with Michael Jordan holds up six fingers for each Bulls championship as he addresses the Grant Park carefully chosen flashbacks and subplots ex- crowd on June 16, 1998. plored throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s to give we have to get back to that season. So when you would have wanted to ask or explore with the story its needed depth and context.

Everyone knows how the story ends — with you look at the chronology of that season, you him?

A: I would have asked him what he would Jordan and the Bulls digging deep to win that identify who your main characters are on that sixth championship. But it’s everything along team, and then when did they do something have done differently to salvage the core of the way — the tension and the laughter, the significant enough during that season that that team. How many titles did he think they unity and the fatigue — that steers the story it warrants telling the story in the moment could have won if he had made different deciand then also warrants going back and telling sions in his relationships with Phil and Miin such a compelling manner.

This week the documentary’s director, Ja- their back story. So Steve Kerr hits some big chael and Scottie? Jerry is a polarizing charson Hehir, took time out to visit with the Chi- shots in the Eastern Conference finals, which acter, especially there in Chicago. But he is cago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer for a deeper happens in Episode 9. That’s when we go No. 1 on my list where if there is one person I discussion about his approach to the film, back and tell the story of Steve and his father wish we could have interviewed for this docthe overall wiring of Jordan and the Bulls and that whole story. With Dennis Rodman, umentary, it’s Jerry Krause. Because he was and the most enthralling things he learned once Scottie returned (to playing) about a such a central figure in both the rise and the throughout the process of completing “The third of the way through the season, Dennis fall of this dynasty. And I think that as polargoes off the deep end. And that seemed like izing as he is — and he’s not a people person, Last Dance.”

(Some questions and answers are edited a good time to delve into Dennis’ back story. he’s not camera-friendly — he was still the That happens in Episode 3, chronologically architect of that team. And I do feel like he for clarity and space.)

Q: As you started this project, what was the in our series. So that dictated when we were is unfairly cast as a 100 percent villain when extent of the prep work needed before con- going to tell Dennis’ story. Then Phil has to it’s not always black and white. There’s a lot ducting even a single interview so that you rein Dennis back in and manage this team more gray area there. But I will also say that had the appropriate knowledge base for all now that Scottie is back on the floor. So tell- in Episode 10, he does get his due from, of all you wanted to explore? What did you read? ing Phil’s story in Episode 4 made sense. Re- people, Scottie Pippen.

Q: One of the things that truly stands out What did you watch? What went into that ally, with that, we really just used the ‘97-’98 season as our North Star and went from there. as a thread throughout the film is just how massive homework assignment?

Q: Here in Chicago, so much of that team’s intensely personal Michael took winning.

A: Thank God for YouTube, because I could watch just about anything that has ever been success is remembered as such a feel-good With your opportunity to sit with him for so produced about the Bulls or Michael. I could fairy tale. But one of the jarring reminders in much time, what was your lasting takeaway watch specific games. But more importantly, the film is how much tension there was be- from exploring that part of his DNA? And is it was just a matter of burying myself in my tween management — Jerry Krause in par- there much more depth to him beyond that apartment and reading every single thing I ticular — and the team, whether it was Phil intensely personal pursuit of winning?

A: There is more depth there to him than could get my hands on. I still have a stack of or Scottie or to some extent Michael. It seems books in my apartment that goes up above my almost surreal in retrospect to think that after that. Competition and winning is clearly cenwaist that I read about this team. Some were championship No. 5 with the greatest player tral to his core being. I asked him at the beincredibly insightful, some not so much. But I of all time that there was serious discussion ginning of our second interview — during the just read and watched everything I could pos- within the organization of starting over and playoffs last year — and we just started rollsibly get my hands on. There were well over tearing it apart. What struck you about the ing cameras and I asked him if he was watch10,000 pages of research that I read. The NBA heaviness of the weight on that team for the ing the playoffs. And he said, “Oh, yeah.” And I asked, “What do you miss the most?” And he was generous with its library visually and last leg of its journey?

A: It was clear when you asked any of the immediately said, “Proving people wrong.” with transcripts from their past interviews.

I just wanted to be sure I knew as much as I players on that team to describe the atmo- Now this is a guy who if there’s anyone who could possibly know going into this process sphere in the locker room on Day 1 of the doesn’t need to be proven right, it’s Michael so that we could (make progress). It’s difficult 1997-98 season, none of them say anything Jordan. He has had the most prolific, sucenough to storyboard out a one-hour docu- except tense, unsteady, uncertain, ominous. cessful, dominant career of any modern NBA mentary. But to storyboard out 10 hours and This was a team that had just won five titles player. No one is really (doubting him). You to determine what our arc was going to be, I in seven years. You would think that the on- wonder, what is it within him that makes him wanted to make sure. I knew this was going to ly pitfall would be complacency. But it was feel like he is being wronged or doubted by be so busy and such a race to the finish line — clear to everyone in that offseason that this anybody? No one doubts Michael Jordan. So even a little bit faster here than we thought — was going to be it. The end. So there was al- that was fascinating to see. And this is where to get this done that we had to have a 10-epi- most a sense of dread at the beginning of that we had the luxury of time and resources sode plan in place when we started shooting. season. I’ll put a period on it there. But it was and cooperation from him where we could We had to have a vision for what this was go- very clear from Bill Wennington to Steve Kerr go back and see what the roots of that were. ing to be. And then if we had to deviate from to Dennis to Scottie to Michael that this was And we see that it was him competing with that, that only meant that something went so not something that they were enjoying any- his brothers for his dad’s attention and growwell that it had to be included in the doc. And more. It almost seemed like a chore. And it ing up in a family where winning was the only luckily that happened dozens of times over was only through bonding during that season option. Losing wasn’t truly accepted. Doing that you start to see the joy emerge again in your best, I should say, was the only option. the course of two years of shooting.

Because I do think that Michael handled losQ: You’ve talked about this big documenta- the second half of the year.

Q: From what you learned and what you ex- ing very well. It was never like he was a sore ry basically having so many mini-documentaries folded within it. In many ways, you’re perienced with these guys, that finality seems loser or a crybaby. He showed a lot of poise.

You can tell that he wants to break down after basically walking into this big ‘90s Bulls mu- pretty intense, right?

A: Yeah. When your head coach who has that 1990 playoff loss (to the Pistons). Yet he seum in which you have all these different artifacts and subplots and anecdotes to check won you five titles in the last seven years handles himself well. But it’s been instilled in out. How, as a director, did you choose when comes in with a laminated packet that says him from before he ever picked up a basketto stop and more deeply explore a specific ex- “The Last Dance” on it on the first day of ball. He was taught that you always do your your season, it’s going to raise some eye- best. And that’s with him to that day. hibit or topic?

Q: That’s why LaBradford Smith, George A: It’s a good analogy. A lot of times it was brows. And I’m sure everyone in that room dictated by the ‘97-’98 season. That was the when Phil did that was stunned. This was Phil Karl and even B.J. Armstrong get a bit of spemain highway that we kept coming back to. Jackson expressing to that team (how he felt). cial treatment and are woven in as sort of tarAnd we would refer to taking exits and taking He had just come out of Jerry Krause’s office gets of a Jordan grudge. I imagine that resolittle detours off of that main highway. But where Jerry Krause had told him “You could nated with you accordingly, right?

A: I wish we could have dedicated four epithe highway was the ‘97-’98 season. And we go 82-0 and you’re not coming back to coach could get off on an exit and study somebody’s this team next year.” Which seems like such sodes to those stories. Because everyone who story. But we had to get back to that highway. a sophomoric, heady thing to say. But I think played against him has a story like that that I used to always say to our editors, “We can that’s how deep that schism was at that point. either happened to them or to someone they stop to eat but we can’t stay overnight.” So That chasm was there between them. And it know. He was that (intense). And sometimes we have to get in and out and tell a story thor- was all about credit. he would have to conjure it. Like the LaBradQ: If Jerry had still been around, what is it ford Smith thing didn’t even really exist. He oughly if it’s a back story we need to tell, but

THE PUBLIC NEEDS THE TRUTH; NOT SOCIAL MEDIA HEADLINES & FAKE NEWS.

made that up. Because he was so dominant he had to start making things up (in his head).

He dominated Dan Majerle in the 1993 Finals in big part because Jerry Krause said Dan Majerle was a good defender. OK, then that’s what I’m going to take. Karl Malone was the MVP in 1997. And you’ll see in Episode 9. When Michael gives immediate answers, I loved it. Because that’s the most transparent glimpse into his psyche. Because you can see him respond verbally but you can also see his facial expressions. For instance, when you see Gary Payton say that he could have made (the ‘96 Finals) a different series if he had been able to guard Michael the whole way, it’s so revealing to see his facial expression. He’s so emotive and generous with his emotion there. So I said to him, “What was the motivating factor going into the ‘97 Finals?” And I barely got the question out of my mouth, and he said, “Karl Malone winning MVP.” He always had to make it personal.

And that was because he accepted nothing but the best out of himself. And if that meant making things personal and creating a vindictiveness where none was warranted, he was willing to do that.

Q: There was a point during Michael’s rise to superstardom at which the black light came out to try to find the stains on who he was. Whether it was “The Jordan Rules” book (by Sam Smith) or the Atlantic City trip (during the 1993 playoffs) or his unwillingness to speak up during the (racially charged) North Carolina Senate race in 1990, there are reminders of him being human and having imperfections. What would you identify as Jordan’s imperfections or blind spots or those things that are sort of part of him?

A: It’s tough to call it imperfections. He’s not a perfect person. None of us are. Michael is well aware of that. But his blind spot around that time was ... he thought he could win at being perfect or being perceived as perfect.

And he realized that even he is not immune to the toll that that spotlight takes on a person — that you can’t just get up and take a ride with your dad and go play blackjack for a few hours in Atlantic City without it becoming a national event. And for people to be flying in from all corners of the country to camp out in front of your hotel to get a comment on it.

So he probably thought he could exude this image of perfection and be human behind the scenes. But ultimately? His rise came at a time where his rise paralleled the rise of tabloid journalism in our pop culture in a lot of ways. So what better piece of meat than this person who is perceived as being perfect to start picking away at and trying to tear down than Michael Jordan? I think he realized that nobody is immune to that kind of scrutiny.

Q: One thing that really strikes me throughout the film that I’m not sure Chicago truly appreciated in real time was the very real fatigue and intense test of stamina the team faced along the road. When the audience gets to the end of Episode 10, what do you hope it realize about how that group managed to both survive and thrive amid all that pressure?

A: I don’t want to give you some canned answer about how hard it is and how you always have to work your hardest to succeed.

Just from a purely mathematical perspective, consider the amount of games that these guys were playing. That was increased by 20 games per year, increased by 25% each year just due to the fact they were so great that they didn’t lose and they kept winning deeper and deeper into the year. So one of the reasons it’s so hard to repeat as a champion is because you have less time off to recover in between seasons. Because you have played an extra two months if you make it all the way to the Finals. They did that six times in eight years.

It’s astounding. This is long before the era we have now with superteams where the greatest players in the league can decide to play together. None of those teams from the present era have done what the Bulls did. And the Bulls were not a contrived superteam. They were built from the ground up within their own system. So the amount of dedication and stamina and fortitude it took to do this year after year, I hope that people appreciate that when they come away from this. Just understand how difficult it is to even win two in a row let alone six out of eight. I asked Michael, “Had you stayed around through those baseball years, could you be talking about eight in a row?” And he said, “I don’t think so.” He needed to leave for those two years to even have the opportunity for a second three-peat.

Because he was gassed. Eight in a row is impossible. Unless you’re Bill Russell. But that is part of this.

#SupportRealNews

CMYK

Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 - B7

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

College graduate seeks ways to boost vocabulary Dear Abby, I am a 26-year-old college graduate. I immigrated here in 2001, so English is my second language. I have no accent, and I have been doing well in my life overall, except I score low on DEAR ABBY reading and written communication when I take exams.

I’m intelligent and a quick learner, but my vocabulary is kind of limited. I try to read, but I don’t always have the time.

Do you have ideas on how I can improve my vocabulary or do better on exams?

Smart But Feels Stupid

JEANNE PHILLIPS

I know someone who, like you, immigrated to the United States in her early 20s after having spent her first 17 years in Russia. From there she went to Italy, where she learned to speak Italian.

From there she came to the U.S. When I asked her how she learned English, she told me it was by watching American television.

If there was a word she didn’t understand, she would look it up in a dictionary. Not only can this be fun, I have heard others say that’s the way they learned English, too.

She also read books in English with a dictionary by her side. Audiobooks could be helpful, too. An adult education class might help you not only improve your vocabulary, but also help you sharpen your written English skills. Please consider it.

Dear Abby, My 11-year-old niece sometimes calls my 7-year-old son fat, which hurts him to the core.

He’s very close with his cousins, and we get

together a lot. I have talked to my sister on numerous occasions about it.

My son knows it’s not OK to make fun of how others look, and he doesn’t understand why she says these mean things to him. She’s old enough to know better. I don’t know how to get through to my sister that this behavior should be reprimanded when she doesn’t seem to care.

Fed Up In Wisconsin Your sister’s parenting skills appear to be questionable. Because she refuses to teach her daughter consideration for the feelings of others, or reprimand her when she’s cruel and hurtful, see less of the two of them.

DR. KEITH ROACH

The most common cause of knee pain in older adults is osteoarthritis of the knee, and one treatment for moderately severe disease is injection of hyaluronic acid. The benefit of these injections is modest in trials compared with placebo. Side effects from injection include a painful flare-up of pain after injection. This happens perhaps 10% of the time. Infection is a serious but rare side effect.

Stroke risk should not be affected by knee injection of any kind. If the treatment is effective, there may be benefit. Regular moderate exercise helps reduce stroke risk in addition to helping relieve symptoms and improve function in most people with osteoarthritis.

If regular medicines such as Tylenol or

Whether it’s illegal in your community is something you should check locally because there may be an ordinance that forbids it. While I can’t speak for everyone, some of the homeowners those trash cans belong to would strenuously object to someone throwing dog doo-doo into them. That’s why my advice is, “When in doubt — DON’T.”

ARIES (March 21-April 19) — Someone is investigating developments that have involved you at least peripherally. What you have to offer explains more than these events.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — Circumstance conspire against you for a time today, but you know how to make the best of such situations. The day ends with you on top.

Garfield

Blondie

anti-inflammatory drugs have been no help, and you get no relief from injections or physical therapy, it may be time to consider joint replacement.

However, this is not a trivial surgery, and careful coordination with your medical and neurological doctors would be required to ensure as safe a procedure as possible, given your anticoagulants and history of stroke.

Could you tell me what causes small boils all over the head? They are very painful.

Skin infections are caused most commonly by Streptococcus (“strep”) and Staphylococcus (“staph”) species. As a general rule, if it has pus, it’s staph; if not, it’s strep. These organisms live on the skin and can cause infection where there are breaks in the skin. Even microscopic breaks allow the bacteria to enter. When there are many areas of infection on the scalp, the concern is that the hair follicles are the location of the infection. A clinical exam can confirm this.

Sometimes, the follicles get damaged by something you are doing. Frequent scratching or pulling on hair, tight hairstyles and some hair care products can predispose to developing folliculitis of the scalp. Some scalp conditions, such as eczema, can predispose to scalp infections. A dermatologist would have the most expertise at looking for underlying hair or scalp conditions.

Local treatment, including warm compresses, anti-dandruff shampoo or antibiotic creams may resolve the problem. However, oral antibiotics are sometimes necessary.

Horoscope

By Stella Wilder Born today, you are never above using tricks and deceptions to get what you want — as long as you are sure that no one is going to be harmed outright because of anything you do.

Winning may not be everything to you, but it is a lot — and you will continuously do all you can to ensure that you come out on top in the end, no matter what the contest may be. Early success is not guaranteed to transfer to your later life, however; you must always learn, progress, grow and evolve, changing with the times if you are to parlay early accomplishment into later triumphs.

You have a great deal of personal power and charisma, and you know how to take control of situations by controlling the hearts and minds of those around you.

Also born on this date are: Kourtney Kardashian, reality TV star; David Tennant, actor; Moises Arias, actor; Melissa Joan Hart, actress; America Ferrera, actress; Conan O’Brien, comedian and late-night host; James Woods, actor; Haley Mills, actress.

To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19

Classic Peanuts

Dear Abby, When I take my dog for a walk, I always carry little doggy bags and pick up his business. I live in a residential neighborhood with alleys behind the houses. After my dog does his business, I pick it up and often throw the tied-up bag in a trash can along the alley. Is this rude? Is it illegal to put things in other people’s trash cans?

Considerate In Colorado

Can hyaluronic injections increase risk of stroke?

Will hyaluronic acid injections in the knees increase the risk for stroke in a person with a stroke history? I had strokes about 20 years ago and have been on blood thinning meds (first aspirin, then Aggrenox) since then. The suspected stroke cause was vasculitis, although this was never definitively determined.

TO YOUR Recently, I have had severe, GOOD HEALTH semi-debilitating knee pain.

After I tried physical therapy with no success and cortisone injections with limited success, the orthopedist has suggested that I try hyaluronic acid injections. Is this safe? Can such injections increase my risk for another stroke? If hyaluronic acid would not be appropriate for me, I would appreciate any other nonsurgical suggestions you might have.

Family Circus

Hagar the Horrible

Zits

Baby Blues GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — A friend has unearthed something that makes you vaguely uncomfortable at first — but you can figure out a way to profit from this.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) — You can instruct someone in the etiquette suitable to a certain unusual situation — and you must take care that you observe protocol as well.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — It may take you longer than expected to adopt methods that will enable you to progress much more quickly. The day is rife with complications.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — You’ve been telling others what to do for so long that you may not know how to react when, today, they perform well entirely on their own.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — You don’t want to put anyone in an uncomfortable position, so you may have to deal with an unpleasant surprise entirely on your own.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — You may have to be more strict than usual today with those who are in your care. Keep your eyes and ears open for clandestine behaviors.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — You’re beginning to become concerned about something that has started to affect your daily productivity. It’s time for an expert opinion.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — Your best course of action today may be to admit a recent wrong so you can begin to clean up any messes as quickly as possible today.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — You’re hesitant to share some news with a friend or loved one for fear that he or she will take it the wrong way. That’s not likely.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — You may have trouble managing your own affairs today, so it’s certainly best to steer clear of someone else’s that are more complicated.

COPYRIGHT 2020 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.

Beetle Bailey

Pearls Before Swine

Dennis the Menace

CMYK

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA

B8 - Saturday - Sunday, April 18-19, 2020 Close to Home

SUPER QUIZ

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek Get the free JUST JUMBLE app • Follow us on Twitter @PlayJumble

Unscramble these Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

ORJEK MICPR PTYREO TTTEAL ©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the Graduate Level and 3 points on the Ph.D. Level.

New York City Level 1

2

3

4

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

Answer here: Yesterday’s

Answers (AnswersTuesday Monday) Jumbles: MUSIC SLANT QUENCH WOODEN Answer: The store’s window featured all-female life-size figures. One could call them — “WOMANNEQUINS”

4/18/20

Solution to Friday’s puzzle

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit

Heart of the City

sudoku.org.uk © 2020 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

(e.g., Three-word expression for a very short period of time. Answer: New York minute.)

Freshman level 1. This statue in New York Harbor is a symbol of the United States.

2. The city’s most common nickname is “The Big ____.”

3. Which NYC street is a symbol of American finance?

4. Which bridge connecting boroughs has become an icon of the city?

5. Which song contains the lyrics, “And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere”?

Graduate level 6. NYC consists of how many boroughs?

7. Which borough is the least populated?

8. Which borough is home to Central Park?

9. Who are often referred to as “New York’s Finest”?

10. Which song contains the lyrics, “It’s lovely going through the zoo”?

PH.D. level 11. Which of the boroughs is last alphabetically?

12. This intersection is sometimes referred to as “The Crossroads of the World.”

13. Identify the city’s spherical stainless steel representation of Earth.

14. Name the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex.

15. This neighborhood experienced a renaissance during the 1920s.

SUPER QUIZ ANSWERS 1. Statue of Liberty. 2. Apple. 3. Wall Street. 4. Brooklyn Bridge. 5. “New York, New York.” 6. Five. 7. Staten Island. 8. Manhattan. 9. Members of the NYPD. 10.

“Manhattan.” 11. Staten Island. 12. Times Square. 13. Unisphere. 14. Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center). 15. Harlem.

24 to 30 points — congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points — honors graduate; 13 to 17 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 5 to 12 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 4 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you?

Mutts

Dilbert

Pickles For Better or For Worse

Get Fuzzy

Hi & Lois

Crossword Puzzle Mother Goose & Grimm ACROSS 1 Not in danger 5 Undress 10 Blemish 14 “Queen for __” of old TV 15 Mr. Ledger 16 Forbidden action 17 Where we wait for a plane 18 Done out of __; convenient at the time 20 “I __ Man of Constant Sorrow” 21 Pekoe and oolong 22 Becomes furious 23 Birds with eerie cries 25 Bowl-shaped pan 26 Glows 28 Dodge City’s state 31 Diets successfully 32 Those listed in a will 34 Carry something heavy 36 Time-__; game breaks 37 Yes-man 38 __ up; agitate 39 Fraternity letter 40 TV’s Morgan 41 Actress Sharon 42 Resounds 44 In need of a haircut 45 Unser & Gore 46 Empire State Building topper 47 Classic board game 50 Other __; besides 51 __-faced; deceitful 54 Conquers 57 Everett, for one 58 Lucie’s brother 59 Public discussion 60 __ firm; didn’t buckle 61 Household pests 62 BBQ utensil 63 Provokes DOWN 1 Lengthy story 2 First of zillions 3 Always expecting the worst

Bound & Gagged

Created by Jacqueline E. Mathews

4 Storm center 5 Martin & Charlie 6 Austin’s place 7 Knocks 8 Ending for social or suburban 9 Prof.’s degree 10 Moves furtively 11 Early Atari game 12 __ in a blue moon 13 Items in Santa’s bag 19 Actor Jeremy 21 On one’s __; alert 24 Singles 25 Cautious 26 Feed the pigs 27 Provide shelter for 28 Children 29 Including everything 30 Taking to court 32 Works in the garden 33 Q-tip target 35 Author Zane 37 Classic Father’s Day gifts 38 Asterisk

4/18/20

Friday’s Puzzle Solved

Non Sequitur

©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

40 Unwanted nasal growth 41 Tibia 43 Joel Chandler or Julie 44 Sudden muscle contractions 46 __ off; disregard 47 Soft drink, for short

4/18/20

48 Kiln 49 Lie down for a bit 50 Harbor bird 52 Word attached to side or board 53 Likelihood 55 Frequently, to a poet 56 Wine and dine 57 Actor McBride

Rubes