These local students were named to the spring 2021 dean’s list at Ithaca College, with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher:
 

— Kaitlyn Coffey of Delmar;

— Nathaniel Finke of Schenectady;

— Grace Keefe of Delmar;

— Allison Lasch of Delmar;

— Ryan Maercklein of Schenectady;

These local students were named to the dean’s list from their college or university for the spring 2021 semester:
 

— Abbie Donofrio of Schenectady, at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island with a grade point average of 3.4 or higher;

These local students were named to the spring 2021 dean’s list at Fairfield University with a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher:
 

— Amelia Kedik of Altamont;

— Julia Higgins of Delmar;

— Molly Lamendola of Delmar;

— Kiersten Murray of Delmar;

— Nina Panto of Delmar;

The emergency was declared on March 7, 2020 to fight COVID-19 and had come under fire in recent months, particularly from Republicans, as an abuse of power by the governor. The announcement ended a week, statewide and in Albany County, in which infection rates and hospitalizations remained low and vaccination rates inched upward. The week before, Cuomo announced the statewide lifting of most COVID-19 restrictions.

“The nature of rare plants is that you almost never find them. To have discovered a state endangered species that hasn’t been seen in 100 years — it’s just amazing,” says Jesse Hoffman who discovered two Virginia marbleseed plants in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

Local sales tax collections, which had dipped precipitously a year ago as the result of restrictions to contain the pandemic, in May increased by 57.8 percent over last May, the highest one-month increase in recent history, the state’s comptroller announced.

While statewide, New York reached the 70-percent mark of adults with at least one dose of vaccine, lifting restrictions, vaccination rates vary across the state. On Friday, the state’s vaccine tracker started listing the rates according to ZIP code.

In Albany County, the lowest rate of residents who have received one dose is 1222 in Albany at 7.7 percent and the highest is 12007 in Alcove at 100 percent.

The Guilderland Planning Board recently heard Borrego Solar Systems propose a five-megawatt ground-mounted solar facility at 2825 Curry Road, a well-screened-from-the-road 48-acre parcel located in a largely commercial area. 

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen warned, “I don’t think we’ve crossed the finish line yet …. I do not believe at this point herd immunity has been achieved and I think that this is something we can continue to work towards.”

SCHROON LAKE, N.Y. -— James “Jim” H. Butler, a bank auditor who helped write the breed standards for the Alaskan Klee Kai, died at Glens Falls Hospital on Saturday, June 12, 2021, due to pneumonia after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 82 years old.