Steven Schreiber​, Voorheesville

Rachael L. Finn, St. Petersburg, Florida, Matt Columbus, Albany

Maria Walski, West Coxsackie

Sacrificing the safety of children for political expediency is unacceptable. Schools need both accurate guidance and adequate funding to keep our children safe.

“We’re playing Whac-A-Mole with the micro-clusters,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday. “You get a micro-cluster that flares up, we attack it, more restrictions, it drops, another micro-cluster pops up and what we’re seeing obviously nationwide is a very threatening rate of increase, and so far, knock wood, New York has defied that rate of increase.”

A new course taught by Rabbi David Katz at B’nai Sholom Reform Congregation in Albany will look at the effect of gossip and how individuals and society respond to it.

“On Gossip” will be offered four Tuesdays beginning Nov. 3, from 10 to 11 a.m. via Zoom.

Seventy-two county residents have died of overdoses in the first nine months of 2020, a 44-percent increase over last year.

This year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, the need for donated toys will be much greater but, at the same time, collecting the toys will be more difficult, according to Marine Corps Reserve Staff Sergeant Patrick Lurenz.

Since an astronaut — “someone not even on this planet” — voted, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said there is no excuse not to vote.