ALBANY COUNTY — The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has supported a second booster vaccine against COVID-19 for people 65 and older and for people who are immunocompromised.

Because of federal pandemic aid, each United States resident received on average $8,050 more in federal expenditures on their behalf than they paid in federal taxes,says a report released this week by the state comptroller. This contrasts with 2019 and prior years, when New York and a handful of other states had a negative balance of payments with the federal government. 

The town of Rensselaerville has been working to control levels of disinfection by-products in its water, which have exceeded standard minimums frequently enough that the United States Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue a formal notice to the town, according to water/sewer advisory committee member Ed Csukas in a report to the town board last month.

ALBANY COUNTY — People living in nearly 7,000 group homes across New York state were at risk during the pandemic, according to an audit of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities released this week by the state’s comptroller, Thom

A special enrollment period has been set up by Health and Human Services to help people who lose Medicaid between March 31, 2023 and July 31, 2024, move to the Obamacare marketplace: https://www.healthcare.gov/.

Pharmacist Zarina Jalal, who manages Lincoln Pharmacy in the city of Albany, has accused the Albany County Department of Mental Health of nepotism and unfairly redirecting patient prescriptions from independent pharmacies like hers to the Genoa Healthcare pharmacy that opened inside the department’s city headquarters in 2020. Department director Stephen Giordano denies all of the accusations. 

After a pandemic-induced moratorium on evictions that lasted almost two years, ending early in 2022, proceedings have topped pre-pandemic levels in 40 out of 62 counties statewide, according to an analysis by Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Albany County saw filings for 8 percent of renter households in 2022, according to the Eviction Filings Dashboard. The county, with 55,849 renter-occupied units, had 4,362 filings last year.

“The classroom disruptions caused by the pandemic have hurt New York’s students,” said Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli this week as he announced the results of his analysis. “Academic losses were greater for younger students, with fourth grade scores dropping more than the national average. School districts must act quickly to take full advantage of available resources to help students that are most in need get caught up, before time runs out.”

“Continued Federal Reserve Board actions to raise interest rates in response may dampen national and local economic prospects, which, if not carefully managed, risks causing a recession,” says the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli in his report on the executive budget.

“Inflation is not only driving increased service to community members in need,” said Natasha Pernicka, director of The Food Pantries for the Capital District, “but is also impacting food pantry operations to keep shelves stocked. Our fuel expense to distribute food nearly doubled in 2022.”