No local plans to resume mask mandates in Albany-area counties timesunion.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesunion.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jewish organization sues Schoharie County, says its facilities unfairly targeted | The Daily Gazette
SECTIONS
ALBANY A Jewish organization that operates two children’s camps in Schoharie County has sued the county, charging discriminatory treatment as officials repeatedly issued citations and shutdown orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Albany also names county Public Health Director Amy Gildemeister as a defendant, and says the persecution by neighbors, town officials and county officials dates back to the mid-2000s, when it first acquired property and set up operations in Schoharie County.
Oorah Inc. is asking the court to declare the county’s efforts a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause, more commonly known as freedom of religion; to block further attempts by the county to impair its operations; and to award compensatory and punitive damages, plus legal fees.
TheZone Camp Campus, July 21, 2013
TheZone, an Orthodox summer camp in Schoharie County near Albany, NY, is taking the county to federal court for targeting them over their religious views.
TheZone runs two Jewish separate sleepaway camps for its boys and girls divisions in the upper Catskill region. Oorah, Inc., the owner of TheZone camps, is suing Schoharie County, NY and Amy Gildmeister, the county’s health commissioner, in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. The lawsuit is focused on discrimination the camp organizers say they faced last summer in the way they were being treated by local officials compared to other groups.
Numbers vary by county as NY surpasses 27M COVID tests | The Daily Gazette
SECTIONS
Shares0
ALBANY While vaccines may be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel in the COVID-19 pandemic, testing remains critical to controlling the virus while we’re still in that tunnel.
Hundreds of thousands of tests are now being administered each week across New York, with the dual benefit of telling individuals if they’re infected and showing public health officials where the virus is most active.
The statewide cumulative test total since March 1 surpassed 27 million late last week.
State health officials are now seeking to expand one of the busiest testing regimes in the nation even further as they deal with a post-holiday onslaught of new infections and the arrival here of a more highly contagious variant of the virus.