Authorities investigating vandalism at Lake Champlain Bridge
The Lake Champlain Bridge was reduced to one lane Sunday, with state Department of Transportation workers directing traffic. Someone heaved the bridge’s manhole inspection covers into the lake overnight, said authorities, and police were checking for possible sabotage of the bridge’s systems.
How Corn Can Be a Killer
The old saw “killing them with kindness” was at play this week in the northeast. According to this press release issued by New Hampshire Department of Fish & Game, citizens in the town of South Hampton found six dead whitetails in a wooded, suburban lot on March 20. State biologists and a warden responded to the call and, after a brief search, discovered an additional half dozen dead deer. After examining the animals at a nearby veterinary lab, authorities confirmed that at least two of the whitetails were victims of enterotoxemia, a condition directly linked to feeding deer—primarily corn—in winter.
Pennsylvania Dutch Country
Pennsylvania Dutch Country, also called the Deitscherei in Deitsch, refers to an area of southeastern Pennsylvania, United States that by the American Revolution had a high percentage of Pennsylvania Dutch inhabitants. Religiously, there was a large portion of Lutherans. There were also German Reformed, Moravian, Amish, Mennonite, Schwarzenau Brethren and other German Christian sects. The term was used in the middle of the 20th century as a description of a region with a distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch culture, but in recent decades the composition of the population is changing and the phrase is used more now in a tourism context than any other.
January 23, 2017 9 AM Update
Well I made it to the bus stop on time, mostly because the bus was running later then I was. So be it. I made it in time and that’s what matters. I got the fast bus driver so I don’t expect my arrival to work to be tardy.
The temperature is 39 degrees and it remains cloudy. A little more warm air has pushed in an increasingly think it will be a heavy rain event with driving winds come afternoon. 42 degrees later. I hope you didn’t take your fifty year old car with the vacuum driven windshield whipers to work today.
I learned this morning that CDTA has discontinued the Bus Swiper cards effectively immediately, although they are selling the remaining ones and they will continue to work through June. Everything is going to the Navigator Smartcards. That’s fine, as I like my Navigator card with its automatic refills but I’m hoping I can continue to get the Price Chopper discount on the refills. I will miss the unlimited rides, although at the discounted rates and the amount of time I’m not working downtown, I’ll probably come out ahead.
I got a new belt for my new vacuum cleaner, which means I can continue to suck up the dirt and dust in my apartment. It was a two pack and turned out could just be purchased at Walmart. I guess people break belts a lot in vacuum cleaners. I will be glad when I can continue to suck the dust out of my apartment. There are few spots I want to hit because things have gotten dusty over the past two weeks. I also need to wash down the kitchen floor, sooner then later, as it’s gotten pretty dirty. I was thinking about getting another mop, I think I do better job just with a rag.
The sun will set at 4:58 pm with dusk around 5:28 pm, which is 1 minutes and 17 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 41 minutes of daylight, an increase of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over yesterday.
Rain, possibly mixing with snow later in the city, but it doesn’t seem likely that the city will get much snow as temperatures are not expected to drop below zero.
As previously noted, there are 4 weeks until Presidents Day when the sun will be setting at 5:34 pm with dusk at 6:03 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain, snow and temperatures between 62 and 35 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1930.
I wonder what the snow means for possibly camping next weekend. In some ways, it would be a good thing, as I could I use a sled to drag camping gear back. For now, I’m taking a wait and see approach, but it would be fun to possibly spend a night back in the woods this weekend. We will see. Or if we had enough snow (at some point), I’ve love to cross country ski the rail trail, especially heading out towards Voorheesville — I part that I haven’t explored at all.
Trump’s regulatory freeze halts four Obama rules aimed at promoting greater energy efficiency
The Priebus memo states that federal agencies cannot send new regulations to the Office of the Federal Register — a key step in the finalization of new rules — until Trump’s administration has leaders in place to approve what these agencies are doing. Moreover, it also states that regulations that have been sent to the office but have not yet made it into the published register need to be withdrawn. The Obama administration issued a similar memorandum right after the president took office in 2009.
[On White House website, Obama climate priorities vanish, replaced by Trump’s focus on energy production]
In this case, the language would appear to snag four energy efficiency regulations released very late in the Obama administration that, because of recently issued departmental rules designed to prevent errors, could not be published to the Federal Register for 45 days after their posting by the agency — a timeline that pushed their finalization past the end of the Obama administration.
The Obama administration, in part driven by ambitions to fight climate change, had been issuing a slew of energy efficiency standards, or regulations, each of which took a small bite out of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by requiring a line of products to use less energy.
The regulations that would go into limbo affect portable air conditioners, walk-in coolers and freezers, commercial boilers and uninterruptible power supplies. According to analyses by Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which tracks these standards, over the long term these regulations would save consumers billions of dollars in energy costs by requiring manufacturers to make these products more efficient.
January 23, 2017 7 AM Update
Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Four weeks to Presidents Day. Cloudy and 36 degrees in Delmar, NY. Rather gray start to the morning. There is a east breeze at 8 mph. The skies will clear Wednesday around 4 am. Coffee is ready, waffles covered with fruit are baking in the oven. It’s a Monday, just got to keep moving so I catch the bus on time.
This morning is going to start out cloudy and then rain will mix in midday with a mix bag for the evening commute into the night. No significant accumulations or ice predicted for the Albany area, possibly more for the hilltowns. Very blustery through out the day. Forget your umbrella watch for the icy sidewalks.
Today will have a chance of rain before 3pm, then rain, snow, and sleet. High of 38 degrees at 1pm. Seven degrees above normal. East wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies and a high of 26 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1906. 10.6 inches of snow fell back in 1963.
Tonight will rain and snow before 11pm, then rain, snow, and sleet between 11pm and 4am, then snow and sleet after 4am. Low of 33 degrees at 3am. 19 degrees above normal. North wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow and sleet accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. In 2016, it got down to 9 degrees under partly cloudy skies. The record low of -17 occurred back in 1948.