Above: A female common merganser, photographed recently in Hortonville by John of Catskills Photography and shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.
Still no word from the state Department of Environmental Conservation on why they raided William Hrazanek's junkyards in Fleischmanns and Arkville last week -- but it might have something to do with a nasty chemical spill discovered on another property he owns in Mount Tremper. Stay tuned.
A possibly-contaminated former gas station in Catskill is proving to be a headache for Greene County legislators, who worry that if they foreclose on the property, they'll be on the hook for cleaning it up.
Sullivan County needs a new jail, but legislators are balking at the $80 million price tag.
The infamous Jennifer Morris, who was arrested in June in connection with a string of online threats made against Walton schoolchildren, was arraigned in Delaware County court yesterday. Morris faces a few new charges since her June 20 arrest: The charges against her are now up to four counts of falsely reporting an incident, a felony, and seven counts of aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.
Meet the Catskill Mill: Etsy founder Rob Kalin wants to transform a couple of buildings in Catskill into a kind of temple to local craftsmanship.
Just six weeks after he jumped into the Ulster County comptroller's race, Ulster supervisor James Quigley has jumped back out -- and he's not seeking reelection as supervisor, either.
State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's regularly-recurring list of recent audits usually has something local and juicy in it. Most recently, that's the Sullivan County town of Fremont, which has been overestimating its annual revenue for the last few years.
The Thompson planning board isn't sitting around waiting for New York State to pass casino legislation. Last week, they gave Concord developers the green light to start digging.
The Mountain Cloves Scenic Byway: Officially a thing now. Backers are hoping the route's new official designation might free up some federal money to deal with perennial parking problems near Kaaterskill Falls.
Tomorrow, July 17, is the deadline for people affected by the proposed Constitution Pipeline to apply for "intervenor" status with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A local citizen group wants that deadline extended -- because FERC's online application system doesn't work with Internet Explorer 10. (From a couple of news-website-owners who are constantly wrassling with IE bugs, a little advice: Just get Chrome or Firefox already.)
Big Brother is watching Saugerties: Some locals love the village's police surveillance cameras. Others are fretting about privacy and the police state.
Ulster County legislative chairwoman Terry Bernardo didn't get picked by the county Republican Committee to run in the November election, but she's going to try anyway: Bernardo is seeking a Republican primary pitting her against District 21 party pick John Dawson.
A Woodstock man was arrested by Ulster County cops yesterday and charged with robbing another man at knifepoint at a High Falls swimming hole. Also arrested: His alleged getaway driver, for DWI.
An Ulster neighborhood is up in arms against a woman who wants to start an egg farm on her family's 13-acre Forest Hill Drive parcel.
A car rolled into the Plattekill Creek in Saugerties yesterday, but its two lucky occupants escaped none the worse for wear.
Coconut water is so 2011. The new trendy beverage du jour: Straight-up un-boiled maple sap.
NewsShed, our weekday digest of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness from around the region, is a new item here at the WP. Got a hot tip for the NewsShed? Send it to editor@watershedpost.com.
