ALBANY COUNTY — The week started with the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, acknowledging that, after a review, the agency found it did not respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was confusing, very frustrating, stressful, the unknown, fear of the unknown, because this was the first fall when our expectation was that everybody went back to school,”Governor Kathy Hochul said at Monday’s press conference, going over back-to-school COVID protocols. This year’s landscape is different, she said, adding, “We’re expecting it to be a much, much easier year for parents and for schools.”

Gianluca Russo became a journalist because he likes telling stories.

He has just published his first book, “The Power of Plus: Inside Fashion’s Size-Inclusivity Revolution.”

The book is “For the women who changed my life and the people who saved it.”

Her teacher, Jon Kauffmann, said in a 2019 email to the girl’s mother, “I was referring to a joke from the show NCIS, and meant no harm when I tapped the back of her head. I am devastated that she felt uncomfortable.”

GUILDERLAND — A woman says she was “held against her will” between Aug. 11 and 17 and “repeatedly sexually assaulted” by Wyatt J. Bleau at his residence, according to an Aug. 17 release from Guilderland Police.

On Aug. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed standards, continuing a trend it had started earlier this year. In February, the CDC had shortened isolation times. The changes are part of a movement away from institutions enforcing COVID rules — the Albany County Health Department like others in New York State long ago stopped tracking COVID cases — and towards individuals taking their own measures to protect themselves.

John Charles Bielik is a teacher, a designer, an historian, and a preservationist.

He makes marbled paper — the sort of colorful patterned paper that you see in centuries-old books — the traditional way.

“It is a profession and I am a professional,” Bielik says in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

This week, Albany County’s 126th of coping with the coronavirus, the governor’s office reported three virus-related deaths — one each on Aug. 4, 5, and 9 — in Albany County. This would bring Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll to 579 although, as of Tuesday, the county’s dashboard showed 578.

The tax rate for Guilderland residents will go up 4.84 percent rather than the 2.98 percent predicted last spring. This is because the taxable valuation in town decreased by nearly $80 million from the $4 billion estimated in April. So Guilderland residents will pay $18.20 per $1,000 of their property’s assessment.

“It seems like the world’s in chaos, the world’s at odds,” said Karol Harlow who organized a Day of Oneness in Berne on Sunday.