Phyllis Johnson and I were both diagnosed with cancer this past spring. She died on Friday. I am still here, and wishing she were, too. It’s not fair.

On Thanksgiving eve, just after darkness fell, 74-year-old William S. Kelsey of Berne was navigating the steep “Upper Letter S” curves on the edge of the Helderberg escarpment when he hit a deer, police say.

Jon McCloskey recently sought a new home for newspapers reporting on JFK’s assassination, which he had kept since he was a kid.

RENSSELAERVILLE — In a four-way race for town board, the two candidates running on the Republican line won. Incumbent Marion Cooke, a Conservative, was the top vote-getter and Jason Rauf, a Republican making his first run for office, came in second.

WESTERLO — In this rural Helderberg Hilltown, dominated by Democrats for decades, a Republican newcomer to politics, Richard Filkins, has ousted a longtime Democratic councilman, William Bichteman. Democratic incumbent Joseph Boone was the top vote-getter.

Robert Loucks is unfazed by complaints lodged against the Invents Company, which he believes will help him realize his dream of bringing the ladder stabilizer he invented to market.

Police have pictures of two women they say stole a dog from a store at Crossgates Mall; the dog is back but the suspects are at large.

Christopher McManus, vice president of the Guilderland School Board, resigned from the board, effective Wednesday, he said.

RENSSELAERVILLE — David Bowdish says he was surprised on Thursday night to hear from a neighbor that he was on the ballot, running on the Republican line to be town supervisor.

Democrat Victoria Plotsky says her experience as a lawyer will help her in drafting legislation for the Albany County Legislature. Democrat Timothy Stanton says the legislature has too many lawyers and public servants; it needs a large landowner and farmer like himself.