Hemp and CBD get boost
The state Cannabis Control Board has issued new rules that may make it easier for at least some hemp and CBD manufacturers to make money, the Albany Business Journal is reporting. The most significant piece of those regulations requires hemp growers and CBD manufacturers to meet standards of quality, tested in various ways at third-party labs. As well, CBD can be infused in other foods. Companies already in position as 3rd party testers or with food-quality CBD can take quick advantage of that revenue stream, the story says.
Castelli starts run against Stefanik
About 50 people joined Democrat Matt Castelli as he officially kicked off his candidacy to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a story in the Post-Star says. The Democrat former CIA officer says Stefanik is out-of-touch with the NY-21 district she represents, that her lack of condemnation for Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is unconscionable, and that she is on the wrong side of dinner table subjects like a living wage and the pandemic-response.
Ron Kim is not Ron Kim
Saratoga Springs mayor-elect, Ron Kim, is not the Ron T. Kim Assemblyman of Queens, the Daily Gazette reported over the weekend. Mayor Kim was the third Asian American elected to public office when he won a seat as the Commissioner of Public in Saratoga Springs in 2005. The Assemblyman, who congratulated the mayor on his win earlier in the week via Twitter, was the fourth, the story says. Sometimes there is confusion, Kim of Spa City said in the story.
UAlbany Teaching Assistants protest wages
Teaching and graduate assistants are necessary to help UAlbany function and teach classes, but some are so cash-strapped, they resort to food pantries, multiple jobs, urban foraging and other side-hustles to make ends meet. Several dozen protested on campus Sunday, during Fall Preview Day for the university, the Times Union says. Wages do not cover tuition and the vaguely-defined “fees” that all colleges use to cover various costs. Those fees are not part of tuition and therefore do not fall under the current tuition freeze at state universities.
No double bunking in jail
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into a law a bill that stops “double bunking” in medium facility locations, and local corrections officers hope it will lower the stress and violence that comes with prison overcrowding, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise says. The law affects the state's 50 correctional facilities. Since the inmates will be spread to more locations, the hope also is that this will slow prison closures.