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Another super thread for the year where we chat about the garden we dream of while the ground is frozen and the garden we actually get when things finally warm up. Anything you plan to try new this year? And things you intend to do differently than last year in the hopes of better results? Or are you just gonna say "screw it" and buy produce at the farmers markets?

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Elmira, N.Y. — State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats) tonight blasted the decision by the state’s Farm Laborers Wage Board to recommend rolling back the current 60-hour-per-week overtime threshold for farm workers beginning in 2024. The three-member Board, by a vote of 2-1, handed down its decision just hours after closing the last of four virtual hearings on the issue earlier today. Board member David Fisher, President of the New York Farm Bureau, voted against the recommendation. O’Mara released the following statement: “It’s clear that this was a preordained decision by this Wage Board. The hours of testimony from farmers, farm workers, farm advocates, agricultural representatives and community leaders were still echoing across this state in near-unanimous opposition to lowering the overtime threshold, and the Board took no time at all before coming out with a disastrous decision. “It was a charade all along. I and many others warned that this is where the Wage Board was headed from day one. It was put in place only to keep paving the way for the far-left, so-called progressive political agenda that dominates Albany Democrat decision-making. It had no meaningful or serious concern for the future of family farms and agriculture in New York State. “The Board heard from countless individual farmers and the leaders of local farm communities. It heard from the industry’s top advocates, including the New York Farm Bureau, the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, Grow NY Farms, and numerous others. It heard from local, federal, and state representatives, like myself, who fear the undermining and ongoing collapse of an industry and, equally important, a way of life that has defined the regions we represent for generations. “The Board ignored us all. They ignored common sense and caution in favor of continuing this relentless pursuit of an extreme political agenda and philosophy that will drive this state over the edge of a fiscal and economic cliff. “In fact, Governor Hochul signaled today’s Wage Board decision in her proposed state budget not long ago by proposing a tax credit for overtime costs. She has clearly been determined to finish what former Governor Cuomo set in motion two years ago. “If left to stand, it will change the face of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations. It will produce a nightmare of a ripple effect across local communities and economies in every region of this state – but especially upstate in regions like I represent throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes. It will profoundly diminish the future of high quality, local food production. It will spark the loss of family farms and the loss of the livelihoods these farms support across the industry and throughout hundreds of local economies.”

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What do you think? Where is the line?

The Chemung County Office of Emergency Management has received approximately 3700 Health test kits to be distributed throughout the community. Each municipality within Chemung County received a number of test kits based on their respective percentage of the population within their jurisdiction. The test kits will be available as of Friday, January 7th and can be obtained from your City, Town, or Village Hall during normal business hours. You must reside within the municipality from which you are requesting a kit. Further kits will be disseminated as they are received from New York State or federal authorities. For assistance to properly utilize a COVID-19 iHealth Test Kit, please visit www.chemungcountyny.gov/covid for an instructional video. Contact information for each municipality can be found below: Towns: Ashland (607) 732-0723 Baldwin (607) 398-7208 Big Flats (607) 562-08443 Catlin (607) 739-5598 Chemung (607) 529-3532 Elmira (607) 734-2031 Erin (607) 739-8681 Horseheads (607) 739-8783 Southport (607) 734-1548 VanEtten (607) 589-4435 Veteran (607)-739-1476 Villages: Elmira Heights (607) 734-7156 Horseheads (607) 739-5691 Millport (607) 739-0703 Wellsburg (607) 271-9129 City: Elmira (607) 737-5644

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Governor Kathy Hochul today announced Cayuga, Chemung, Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Erie, Madison and Niagara Counties together received a total of more than $2.7 million in state matching funds via the County-Wide Shared Services Initiative (CWSSI). During this fiscal year, the CWSSI provides a 95 percent state match of taxpayer savings achieved through the implementation of new shared services identified in county-wide plans produced as a result of the Initiative. The counties' plans identified ways to consolidate services and save taxpayer money through government efficiencies in services and community programs. “As government officials, it’s not only our responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are used wisely and efficiently, but it’s also critical that we work consistently to identify savings for hard working New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “I applaud the leadership and creativity of these eight counties and thank all of those who worked on these plans for finding innovative ways to cut costs and put money back into the pockets of New York taxpayers.” Chemung County received $110,755 in state matching funds. The county engaged with eight towns and villages in public works partnerships and IT support to achieve savings. One key project the county implemented was to use its Laserfiche technology to digitize records and modernize record keeping for the City of Elmira, the Village of Horseheads, and the Towns of Ashland, Millport and Horseheads. According to the governor's office, the CWSSI generates property tax savings by facilitating collaboration between local governments across the state and is administered by the Division of Local Government Services at the Department of State.

At a press conference yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a plan to institute term limits for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and Comptroller as the first proposal of the 2022 State of the State. The Governor will also propose a ban on outside income for statewide elected officials while serving in office. The governor's office says these reforms are aimed at increasing accountability and trust in the integrity of State government. “On day one as Governor, I pledged to restore trust in government and I have taken steps every day to deliver the open, ethical governing New Yorkers deserve,” Governor Hochul said. “I want people to believe in their government again. With these bold reforms, we will ensure New Yorkers know their leaders work for them and are focused on serving the people of this state.” The Governor will introduce a constitutional amendment to set limits of two consecutive terms for statewide elected officials. Governor Hochul will also propose legislation to impose a ban on earned outside income for the same statewide elected officials, with an exception for academic positions that must receive ethics board approval.

Chemung County has added a list of the deceased and municipality, as well as age and vaccination status for December:

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See the rest of the list here. How about you? Have you decided to try a new hobby or creative outlet this year? We'd love to hear about it!

On December 31, 2021 at around 12:25 am, officers responded to the 200 block of W. Chemung Place for a report of shots being fired. Upon arrival, officers found evidence of a shooting outside of 270 W. Chemung Place. Multiple spent shell casings were located. Two apartments had been struck by gunfire. Two rounds were discovered to be embedded within an interior wall and television of one of the apartments. No injuries have been reported. Officers canvassed the area and were unable to locate any witnesses to the incident.

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State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats) is continuing to voice his strong opposition to any move by the state’s “Farm Laborers Wage Board” to roll back the current 60-hour-per-week overtime threshold for farm workers. O’Mara has joined other members of the Senate Republican Conference in a letter this week to the members of the Board urging them to reject any move to lower the current threshold. The threshold was put in place as part of a comprehensive “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act” enacted by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature in 2019. O’Mara voted against the act and at that time singled out the Wage Board provision for particular opposition. The three-member board was granted the power to change the law without the Legislature’s approval. In a December 27, 2021 letter to the board (see attached copy), O’Mara and his Republican colleagues wrote, in part, “The long lasting effects of the FLFPA are not just seen and heard through anecdotal stories we hear when we visit farms in our districts, but are supported by a recent state-funded report issued by researchers at Cornell University. The study found that if the overtime threshold was lowered to 40 hours, two-thirds of dairy farmers would make significant changes to their operation, including leaving the industry or investing out of state, and half of fruit and vegetable farmers indicated they would decrease their operations or exit the industry.” O’Mara said, “I was opposed to this Act, and especially the creation of this Wage Board, from the start. In fact, when this legislation was being debated I voiced my fear on the floor of the Senate about giving such far-reaching authority to an unelected, unaccountable body. It is critical for upstate legislators, for whom the farm economy is a foundation of communities we represent, to keep close watch on a Wage Board now holding the future of so many farmers and rural economies in its hands. This is the worst possible time to risk mandating and regulating more farms out of business, and that is exactly what’s at stake here.” In January, the New York State Farm Labor Wage Board will revisit the threshold set in 2019 and make a determination on whether to lower the threshold to 40 hours. Ninety-six percent of farms in New York State, most of which are family-owned, are unable to cover the costs of paying time and a half; a threshold reduction would result in less hours for employees to work and smaller paychecks. With farms being local economic engines, thisAlbany mandate would have devastating effects on communities across New York State. O’Mara currently co-sponsors legislation (S2690) that would extend the date for the Board to submit its final report to December 31, 2024. The legislation would give the Board more time to collect and assess data that would provide a more definitive picture of the impact of the 60-hour threshold on the finances and operations of New York farms, as well as consider additional factors including the COVID-19 impact on the agricultural industry. O’Mara and the Senate GOP conference, together with many farm industry advocates, stress that the board must take adequate time and have the appropriate data to assess the law’s full impact – as well as the impact of COVID-19 -- before recommending changes. It has been reported that farm labor costs in New York State increased 40 percent over the past decade and that the 2019 law could result in another crippling 44-percent increase in wage expenses. Total farm labor costs are at least 63 percent of net cash farm income in New York, compared to 36 percent nationally.

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The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest orbital telescope ever built and is scheduled to be launched into space on Dec. 18, 2021. NASA/Desiree Stover, CC BY by Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021, and with it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to form in the universe, will search for Earthlike atmospheres around other planets and accomplish many other scientific goals. I am an astronomer and the principal investigator for the Near Infrared Camera – or NIRCam for short – aboard the Webb telescope. I have participated in the development and testing for both my camera and the telescope as a whole. To see deep into the universe, the telescope has a very large mirror and must be kept extremely cold. But getting a fragile piece of equipment like this to space is no simple task. There have been many challenges my colleagues and I have had to overcome to design, test and soon launch and align the most powerful space telescope ever built. In order to detect the most distant and oldest galaxies, the telescope needs to be huge and kept extremely cold. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY Young galaxies and alien atmospheres The Webb telescope has a mirror over 20 feet across, a tennis-court sized sun shade to block solar radiation and four separate camera and sensor systems to collect the data. It works kind of like a satellite dish. Light from a star or galaxy will enter the mouth of the telescope and bounce off the primary mirror toward the four sensors: NIRCam, which takes images in the near infrared; the Near Infrared Spectrograph, which can split the light from a selection of sources into their constituent colors and measures the strength of each; the Mid-Infrared Instrument, which takes images and measures wavelengths in the middle infrared; and the Near Infrared Imaging Slitless Spectrograph, which splits and measures the light of anything scientists point the satellite at. This design will allow scientists to study how stars form in the Milky Way and the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. It may even be possible to figure out the composition of these atmospheres. The NIRCam, seen here, will measure infrared light from extremely distant and old galaxies. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY Ever since Edwin Hubble proved that distant galaxies are just like the Milky Way, astronomers have asked: How old are the oldest galaxies? How did they first form? And how have they changed over time? The Webb telescope was originally dubbed the “First Light Machine” because it is designed to answer these very questions. One of the main goals of the telescope is to study distant galaxies close to the edge of observable universe. It takes billions of years for the light from these galaxies to cross the universe and reach Earth. I estimate that images my colleagues and I will collect with NIRCam could show protogalaxies that formed a mere 300 million years after the Big Bang – when they were just 2% of their current age. Finding the first aggregations of stars that formed after the Big Bang is a daunting task for a simple reason: These protogalaxies are very far away and so appear to be very faint. Webb’s mirror is made of 18 separate segments and can collect more than six times as much light as the Hubble Space Telescope mirror. Distant objects also appear to be very small, so the telescope must be able to focus the light as tightly as possible. The telescope also has to cope with another complication: Since the universe is expanding, the galaxies that scientists will study with the Webb telescope are moving away from Earth, and the Doppler effect comes into play. Just like the pitch of an ambulance’s siren shifts down and becomes deeper when it passes and starts moving away from you, the wavelength of light from distant galaxies shifts down from visible light to infrared light. The five layers of silvery material underneath the gold mirror are a sunshield that will reflect light and heat to keep the sensors incredibly cold. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY Webb detects infrared light – it is essentially a giant heat telescope. To “see” faint galaxies in infrared light, the telescope needs to be exceptionally cold or else all it would see would be its own infrared radiation. This is where the heat shield comes in. The shield is made of a thin plastic coated with aluminum. It is five layers thick and measures 46.5 feet (17.2 meters) by 69.5 feet (21.2 meters) and will keep the mirror and sensors at minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 234 Celsius). The Webb telescope is an incredible feat of engineering, but how does one get such a thing safely to space and guarantee that it will work? Engineers and scientists tested the entire telescope in an an extremely cold, low-pressure cryogenic vacuum chamber. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY Test and rehearse The James Webb Space Telescope will orbit a million miles from Earth – about 4,500 times more distant than the International Space Station and much too far to be serviced by astronauts. Over the past 12 years, the team has tested the telescope and instruments, shaken them to simulate the rocket launch and tested them again. Everything has been cooled and tested under the extreme operating conditions of orbit. I will never forget when my team was in Houston testing the NIRCam using a chamber designed for the Apollo lunar rover. It was the first time that my camera detected light that had bounced off the telescope’s mirror, and we couldn’t have been happier – even though Hurricane Harvey was fighting us outside. Rehearsals and training at the Space Telescope Science Institute are critical to make sure that the assembly process goes smoothly and any unexpected anomalies can be dealt with. NASA/STScI, CC BY After testing came the rehearsals. The telescope will be controlled remotely by commands sent over a radio link. But because the telescope will be so far away – it takes six seconds for a signal to go one way – there is no real-time control. So for the past three years, my team and I have been going to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and running rehearsal missions on a simulator covering everything from launch to routine science operations. The team even has practiced dealing with potential problems that the test organizers throw at us and cutely call “anomalies.” To fit inside a rocket, the telescope needs to fold into a compact package. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY Some alignment required The Webb team continued to rehearse and practice until the launch date, but our work is far from done now. [Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter.] We need to wait 35 days after launch for the parts to cool before beginning alignment. After the mirror unfolds, NIRCam will snap sequences of high-resolution images of the individual mirror segments. The telescope team will analyze the images and tell motors to adjust the segments in steps measured in billionths of a meter. Once the motors move the mirrors into position, we will confirm that telescope alignment is perfect. This task is so mission critical that there are two identical copies of NIRCam on board – if one fails, the other can take over the alignment job. This alignment and checkout process should take six months. When finished, Webb will begin collecting data. After 20 years of work, astronomers will at last have a telescope able to peer into the farthest, most distant reaches of the universe. Marcia Rieke is Regents Professor of Astronomy at University of Arizona This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.