State police arrested 30 year old Tyson Smith of Oneonta Saturday after finding 2 of his abandoned dogs in Schoharie County. Smith was charged with 2 counts of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals and failure to provide proper sustenance, after Troopers responded to a house in the town of Fulton after receiving reports of dogs abandoned at the residence. Police said that 1 dog was dead, the other was found living in “squalid” conditions & was taken to an area Veterinarian for treatment, Smith was issued an appearance ticket returnable to the Fulton Town Court at 2 p.m. Jan. 1.
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The Chenango County Sheriff’s Department arrested 43 year old Amy Grant of New Berlin, for allegedly stealing more than $155,000 from her employer over a 5 year period. Grant was charged with 2nd-degree grand larceny, 1st-degree scheming to defraud and falsifying business records, she will appear in court at a later date.
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Governor Cuomo signed the Zombie Property Remediation Act, allowing municipalities to better address zombie properties. The new law will authorize local governments to compel mortgage lenders to either complete a mortgage foreclosure proceeding or to issue a certificate of discharge of the mortgage for any abandoned property, allowing local government officials to deal with these properties that decrease surrounding property values and put on a strain on municipal resources. This new law goes into effect immediately.
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State Senator Jen Metzger is proposing a permanent ban in New York State on Hydraulic Fracturing for natural gas. The proposal follows the 2015 action by Governor Cuomo by signing a bill that called for the DEC to stop issuing permits to companies for Fracking in the state, prior to that action, fracking was performed by gas companies in the Western New York Counties since 1979
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New York is prohibiting the aerial spraying of an agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can harm the nervous systems of infants and young children. Governor Cuomo will direct the state Department of Environmental Conservation to ban nearly all uses of a pesticide commonly used by Apple growers by December 2020.
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The New York State Association of Counties is supporting a proposal by Governor Cuomo to create a commission to investigate the potential benefits of importing prescription drugs from Canada. The 3-part prescription drug plan also includes a proposal to cap insulin co-payments at $100 a month for diabetics who are insured & to let the state Department of Financial Services investigate spikes in prescription drug prices.
Governor Cuomo announced another proposal of his 2020 State of the State Agenda: Legislation triggering automatic manual recounts in close elections and establishing uniform recount procedures. Current law does not require automatic vote recounts, even when election results are extremely close. The legislation would require an automatic recount in all elections in which the margin of victory for a candidate or ballot proposition is 0.2%; & it would ensure that recounts be completed manually.
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Governor Cuomo announced the state Environmental Facilities Corporation has awarded more than $16 million through the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act and the Inter-Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant Program to Southern Tier municipalities for infrastructure projects that protect public health or improve water quality. The Village of Walton will receive grants of 1.2 Million dollars for their $2, Million dollar project.
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