Area Celebrates Dairy Month

June is dairy month and Chenango County and will celebrate the hard work of local dairy farmers with its annual Dairy Day tomorrow in Norwich.

The day begins at 9 a.m. with the 5k Milk Run at the race track gate on East Main Street followed by the annual parade at 10:30 moving from the Tops Plaza down East Main Street to the Chenango County fairgrounds.

The parade will feature tractors, milk trucks, bands, farm animals and more.

Cyber-Bullying Bill Not on Legislation

New York state governor Andrew Cuomo says charging teenagers with cyber-bullying isn’t going to be part of new legislation to make taunting others online a crime, or at least raise awareness of the issue.

Members of the legislature and the governor are working on a cyber-bullying bill. Lawmakers want provisions for criminal charges against those who attack others on websites, chat rooms and other online websites.

The governor says he chooses to highlight the problem instead. He says the first step needs to be a definition of the crime, and a reporting requirement for schools to report incidents.

The issue has become prominent after the suicide of a gay teenager who was the victim of offensive online comments, and a downstate girl who took her life after being taunted on a social networking site.

Libous Introduces Bill to Prohibit from Spending

State senator Tom Libous has introduced a bill that would prohibit welfare recipients from using public assistance for cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, lottery tickets or casino gambling.

Unlike food stamp purchases, cash assistance purchases are currently permitted under state law.

“The public assistance integrity act” bill would prevent individuals from using their electronic benefit transfer card to make atm withdrawals at certain places, including liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs.

Libous says the legislation is in response to numerous complaints from his constituents, as well as a TV news report detailing tens of thousands of dollars in misuse of EBT cards in an 11-county area in upstate New York.

New Legislation to Help Microbreweries

Governor Andrew Cuomo, majority senate leader Dean Skelos, and assembly speaker Sheldon Silver have agreed on legislation to help grow New York’s craft beer industry.

The legislation will protect a vital tax credit for small breweries in New York, exempt breweries that produce small batches of beer from paying an annual state liquor authority fee, and create a farm brewery license that will allow brewers to expand operations by opening restaurants or selling new products.