On Wednesday, Governor Kathy Hochul quietly extended for another month the pandemic state of emergency she had declared on Feb. 14, set to end March 16. The shortened declaration, which says, “New York continues to experience COVID-19 transmission, with the rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions remaining at over 100 new admissions a day,” runs through April 15.

Given the low community level of COVID-19, as set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Superintendent Marie Wiles recommended, based on the board’s September resolution, vaccination or weekly testing no longer be required for student athletes to play high-risk sports.

Before voting to approve the nine-page memorandum of agreement on March 8, board member Rebecca Butterfield asked for data on the SRO, saying she would like to know what he does on a daily basis and what actions have been taken on criminal matters.

Patricia C. Bischof, as an adult, sat in a room in her mother’s house, crying, as she listened to the story of her mother’s life — a story she had never heard before.

Her mother, Ruth, was being filmed in the next room in an interview, which Bischof had set up, for the Shoah Foundation.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy on Friday reported two previously unreported COVID-related deaths — a man in his sixties, and a man in his seventies — bringing the county’s death toll from the virus to 533.

“My idea was, a lot of love and caring is going to go into this closet, and a lot of smiles and happiness is going to come out. That’s The Caring Closet,” said Amanda Beedle. 

While surges are growing in other places in the world, like New Zealand and Hong Kong, and remote Pacific Islands are just now experiencing their first deaths from the virus, the United States, for the most part, is now defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having “low” or “medium” transmission rates.

“The role of government is getting things done,” said Bethlehem Supervisor David VanLuven, crediting the town, county, state, and federal governments for working together to get the Power Plug project underway “from concept to concrete in five months.”

Lyricist Jerome Leiber and composer Michael Stoller together wrote over 70 chart hits. All of the songs in “Smokey Joe’s Café” were written by them, songs that became staples of the 1950s and ’60s.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance for state and local governments, saying, “Universal case investigation and contact tracing are not recommended for COVID-19.” Rather, health departments should “prioritize specific settings and groups at increased risk,” the CDC says.