ALBANY — “There was a weird noise coming from the chipper,” said tree climber Brendon John Andres, crying on the witness stand last week at an Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearing in Albany as he recalled the death over a year ago of  a co-worker.

The largest-ever cyber-disaster— the hacking of private information from nearly half the residents of the United States in this year’s data breach of credit-card reporting agency Equifax — got New York State Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy thinking about what could be done to better protect online privacy, she said last week.

The infamous “jump” that drew teen thrill-seekers for years on Hurst Road in Guilderland — to go well above the speed limit in hopes of getting their cars airborne — is being regraded to a “gentle slope,” said Highway Superintendent Steve Oliver this week.

Jennifer Romano says her child, a first-grader, suffered “a violent attack of a sexual nature” on the playground by a classmate at Westmere Elementary School, so she is now advocating for better outdoor supervision and more exterior cameras.

Guilderland school district officials asked students to tell them why so many of them said that safe school buildings were a top priority. Do students not feel safe, officials wanted to know, and, if they don’t, what are they afraid of? They organized a focus group to hear their thoughts, but just one student came.

Some board members expressed concern over aging or disabled residents living on a portion of Stage Road closed for the winter, while highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger said it was a dangerous intersection to plow.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reminds ice anglers to use caution and common sense as ice-fishing season begins across much of New York State. The DEC outlines these guidelines in a recent release.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation reminds snowmobilers to ride responsibly and exercise caution as they use the state’s 10,500 miles of trails, and the office offers these guidelines.

GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Police Department has been instructing Citizen Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) training over the past year and will continue to offer these classes in 2017.

“There is clearly a copycat effect,” says a report on bomb threats by the Educator’s School Safety Network. Over the years at Guilderland, school leaders have had different responses to the threats.