The National Center for Education Statistics issued what is commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card on Sept. 1, which showed that nationwide, reading and math scores for 9-year-olds fell between 2020 and 2022 by unprecedented levels.

“This AmeriCorps, like the Peace Corps, like VISTA [Volunteers In Service To America], is a national movement to try to help improve our country,” said Community Caregivers’ Executive Director Lee Lounsbury. “I don’t want to get political but, if people are looking for a way to make a difference, this is the way to do it.”

The decision on overtime pay for farm workers is now in the hands of the state’s labor commissioner, Roberta Reardon.

GUILDERLAND — Laura Barry is like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed.

Except, instead of planting apple trees, which originated in Asia, she is planting native trees.

“I planted about 15 trees this year, little saplings and things all over the place secretly,” she says, improving open land.

Investigators in Massachusetts have located and recovered the remains of 42-year-old Meghan Marohn.

On Tuesday, Andrew McKeever, spokesman for the​​ Berkshire District Attorney’s Office, told The Enterprise, “The office of the chief medical examiner did confirm the ID over the weekend.”

BETHLEHEM — Two teens, stealing from a supermarket, police say, fled and crashed into a marked Bethlehem police car.
Police arrested Bishop A. Fraser and Jaquan D. Johnson — both 19-year-old Albany residents.

September marks the beginning of several hunting seasons in New York State. Hunting seasons for squirrel and Canada goose begin Sept. 1 in upstate New York, and the early bear and antlerless deer seasons begin Sept. 10 in select wildlife management units.

The state’s labor commissioner, Roberta Reardon, who will oversee the study, said, “When women are not part of our workforce, we are literally leaving money on the table. It damages our economy and it bruises our culture.”

Finding teachers of Italian is also difficult, Superintendent Marie Wiles said, so a lottery is used to decide who gets to study Italian. “We right now have two Italian teachers, both of whom are excellent, and their classes are full, especially at the middle school, full to capacity, with 30 kids,” said Wiles. “Hopefully, we can hang on to these two gentlemen who teach Italian.”

ALTAMONT — Karen Williams, Linda Zell, and Megan Connolly consider themselves to be sisters.

“The bond is that strong,” said Connolly in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

The three women are not related by blood. Rather, they are part of what they describe as a “church family.”