As health departments in New York State and elsewhere are no longer doing the contact tracing they did for most of the first two years of the pandemic, the federal government has launched a website to help Americans figure out, as individuals, how to deal with COVID-19. The “toolkit” has links to find test-to-treat locations, vaccine sites, and how to order masks and self-administered tests.

GUILDERLAND — Bill Batt is a man of ideas — big ideas.

Right now, he’s organizing the annual Council of Georgist Organizations conference to be held this year in Albany, from July 15 to 17.

The district’s committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion voted to move forward a resolution to the school board to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day, which will be discussed with public comment at a later date. The committee is also working on a land-acknowledgement declaration, which is taking time to research. “They want it to be authentic, to see whose land we’re on,” said board member Kim Blasiak.

“New variants, such as the B.A.2 variant, continue to arise,” said Governor Kathy Hochul, “and without additional federal funds the proven tools we have come to rely on, most notably vaccines and boosters, may not be readily available for all New Yorkers.”

Nominations to the registry must be sponsored by an elected state official. Each elected official may nominate two businesses for inclusion per term.

“We’re in that time period between when the ground can be worked on,” said Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber, before the April 1 deadline after which no trees can be cut. That deadline is set by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to protect the northern long-eared bat.

GUILDERLAND — A Guilderland teenager died on Sunday after being injured in a car accident.

Megi Hamza, 18, was a senior at Guilderland High School.

“Customer service and best practices are my keywords,” said David Howell, the new technology director for the Guilderland schools. “Those are my buzzwords — to make sure that we are doing things so that the teachers and the staff and the students all feel supported and we’re giving them the tools they need, but doing it in a safe manner.”

GUILDERLAND — At about 4 p.m. last Thursday, the Guilderland school district posted a notice saying, “We have just been advised by the Guilderland Police Department that Raquan Dyson has been released from custody.

The competition had begun early Friday morning with a physical-fitness regimen, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Bailie. It will end with a 12-mile ruck march — walking fast over rough terrain with a heavy backpack — in the Pine Bush, he said.