The Albany County Redistricting Commission’s original submission was rejected by the county legislature in October due to what legislatures described as a possible dilution of the county’s majority-minority districts.

Poverty rates in New York State have been higher than the national average since 2014. In 2021, the most recent year with available data, 13.9 percent of New Yorkers lived in poverty — 2.7 million people — compared to 12.8 percent nationwide. For 2020, Albany County had a poverty rate below both the state and national averages — at 11.3 percent.

Dorothy Anna (née Komjathy) Herzog died peacefully at home on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022, surrounded in death as she was in life — by her loving family. She was 89.

She was born on July 29, 1933, the third child of Steven and Esther (née Wright) Komjathy.

The bill, signed by the governor late last month, requires that all funds received by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority from renewable-energy facilities built on farmland will be put into a farmland protection fund. 

A report released on Tuesday by AARP New York found that a lack of affordable and accessible housing in rural areas compounded with a lack of public transportation make it hard for old New Yorkers living in the country to age in place. The housing problem has been made dramatically worse by the pandemic, the study found.

The budget is similar to  what was proposed earlier this year, with taxes down 8 percent and spending up about 6 percent from this year.

Governor Kathy Hochul said she is keeping in place her Executive Order 4, declaring a statewide disaster emergency due to healthcare staffing shortages, to allow medical professionals from other states to work in New York, and to allow “more professionals to administer vaccinations and tests,” Hochul said.

The state’s workforce rebounded in the second half of the last decade before dropping significantly with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released this week by the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli.

Jay Alan Longshore, a teacher, died after a brief illness in Thailand on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. He was 61.

He graduated from Guilderland High School in 1980, from Haverford College in 1984, and from Temple University in 1990.

Interest in farming saw a resurgence during the pandemic, and, according to Knox farmer and chairman of the town’s agricultural committee Gary Kleppel, a new generation is finding that the oldest profession lines up perfectly with their modern values. They just need a little help getting started.