The National weather service confirmed Tornado Touchdowns in Madison County, contributing to 4 fatalities in the town of Smithfield Tuesday night.  Governor Cuomo toured the site Wednesday:

(Cuomo 7-10-14)

National weather service investigators will next check damage on Bear Spring Mountain in Walton, where a tornado may have touch down Tuesday.

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The state DEC has proposed new black bear management measures, as bear incidents are becoming more frequent. The bear population has increased in certain regions to a point where bears are becoming a neighborhood issue. The black bear population has risen by 40 percent in the Southern Tier and Catskill areas between 2003 and 2009. The DEC’s Black Bear Management Plan proposes several changes to the current plan to maintain or reduce population levels in certain areas and reduce bear-human conflicts. Options include a longer bear hunting season, and consideration of the use of new bear trapping and baiting techniques

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A group of restaurant servers, bartenders and delivery drivers is asking New York State to raise the $5 minimum wage for tipped workers to the full minimum wage of $8. The coalition is calling on Gov. Cuomo, and a state board that oversees wages, to increase the amount the business owners pay their tipped workers. Restaurant workers and other tip workers aren’t subject to the minimum wage because their income includes gratuities. The state’s minimum wage will rise to $9 by the end of 2015

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The Bainbridge-Guilford Central School will hold the annual Re-organizational Board of Education Meeting today in the Guilford School Cafeteria.  The meeting will begin at 6:30 PM.