The mask-or-vax mandate for indoor venues is being extended to Feb. 10, Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.

It was originally set to expire on Feb. 1, although Hochul has repeatedly said she may extend it, depending on coronavirus metrics.

Over the last two years, nursing homes in the county — which are required to inform the state, but not the county, of deaths — have not always informed the county’s health department in a timely manner.

New York State has requested an additional $1.6 billion from the United States Treasury Department to help tenants and landlords who have applied for Emergency Rental Assistance.

Starting this year, options have expanded for New Yorkers seeking to pass a test for a high school equivalency diploma.

As bird and insect populations plummet, pesticides that can harm bees and other pollinators are being limited by the state.

The Jan. 24 ruling by Justice Thomas Rademaker of the state Supreme Court in Nassau County said Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration had exceeded its authority in implementing the mask-mandate rule. 

Graphs on the county’s website show the surge this January, with the Omicron variant still making up 95 percent of the cases statewide, was about three times higher than the surge last January, but, at the same time, another graph shows hospitalizations with COVID-related cases were about three-quarters the number in January 2020. Hospitalization surges typically lag about a week behind infection surges so the county’s hospitalizations, while they may be leveling, have not yet plunged like the infection rate.

These local students have recently distinguished themselves:
 

— Jack Diligent of Delmar, majoring in computer science at Hamilton College in Clinton, was a member of the scenery shop crew for the recent Hamilton College Fall Theatre production of 10 Out of 12, by playwright Anne Washburn;

These local students were named to the fall 2021 dean's list at Clarkson University, comprised of students with a grade-point average of 3.25 or higher:
 

— Brian Tyler Chew of Schenectady, a senior majoring in environmental engineering;

These local students were named to the dean’s list or received a similar honor from their college or university for the fall 2021 semester:
 

— Mary V. Fleischut or Delmar, majoring in criminal investigation at State University of New York Canton with a grade point average of 3.25 or higher;