These local students were among those honored Nov. 1 at the National Philanthropy Day Celebration and Scholarship Reception at Hudson Valley Community College. The event honors and recognizes all HVCC Foundation scholarship recipients for the current academic year. They include:

These local girls are among 46 Cadettes, in sixth through eighth grades, to have earned their Silver Awards in 2013. Involving more than 50 hours of work per girl, the Take Action project for the Girl Scout Silver Award is aimed at making the local neighborhood or community better.

Sixteen months ago, a speeding driver in Altamont turned out to have illegal drugs and $4,000 cash in his car. The Voorheesville man was coming from music festival Camp Bisco, police said.

In amassing random viewpoints on hydraulic fracturing, Westerlo's advisory committee has drawn no conclusions. The committee needs to guide the town before the window of opportunity closes.

ALBANY — Told that she brutally took her son’s life, Tracey Zetzsche accepted her sentencing on Nov. 1 as she recalled not how he died, but how much she loves him.

Zetzsche, 53, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter based on extreme emotional disturbance, reduced from second-degree murder after both parties in the case determined she had legitimate amnesia, unable to remember any of the facts surrounding the killing of 22-year-old Gabriel Philby-Zetzsche by knives to his heart and a hammer to his skull. From July 26 to 30 during the summer of 2012, his body remained on the floor of their Westerlo apartment.

Judge Stephen Herrick described the “horrific nature” of the injuries to Philby-Zetzsche and said that evidence showed his mother tried to remove signs of his murder.

These local students have recently distinguished themselves:

— Cecilia Snow of Schenectady plays Sarah in the musical Ragtime, being performed at the State University of New York College at Potsdam;

— Anthony DeSousa, of Schenectady, received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

It is hard to watch someone you care about battle cancer, says Rhonda Flansburg who is marshaling battalions of friends to help Tammy Ferriero.

Clearly defined choices are the heart of America's democracy. The heart is what pumps the life blood into the body politic.