“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.

“I’m scared as hell,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. “Thanksgiving is around the corner.”

“They surrendered without firing a shot,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said of the Trump administration’s battle against the coronavirus. “It was the great American surrender. Americans don’t surrender. And they didn’t even put up a fight and what we learned in New York was, if you put up a fight, you would have won because New York won. Other states won also.”

Albany County continues to experience an uptick in COVID-19 cases with 32 new cases reported on Saturday morning.

Two reports from the state comptroller’s office show that, while Wall Street is doing well in the midst of the pandemic — securities-industry profits grew by 82 percent in the first half of 2020 — Main Street is not.