In Bloomingburg –
As folks from around the village made their way to the Sullivan County seat in Monticello to protest what they see as a lack of action on the big development on Winterton Road, we've been getting releases of other court documents showing all sorts of dealings from the three months that Mamakating hired Washington D.C.-based West End Strategy Group, including the town's apparent successful push to drop their publicity fee to $25,000 so it wouldn't have to go up for public hearing. Seems even West End was worrying from the start about the lack of transparency on all sides.

In Wawarsing –
A copy of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for information regarding recent code enforcement officers came to us recently... anonymously. Accompanying it was one of our own stories about possible trouble coming to the town for the way its handling inspections and other zoning/planning matters. We'll let you know if and when we find something solid...

In Ulster County –
The Industrial Development Agency, always getting into the news about this time every other year, recently said it wouldn't help out a new angel investing group aimed at sparking new start-ups around the area. Yet the county's meanwhile looking to give its district attorney a nearly ten percent raise. Ah, priorities...

In The Region –
While Will Yandik takes on Zephyr Teachout on the Democratic side of the race for Chris Gbson's congressional seat by lining up party leaders in more rural areas, riding his local bonafides, the GOP battle for a primary win next month has gotten nasty enough, with Bob Bishop dropping out and businessman Andrew Heaney tying bathroom laws to Common Core, that the state Conservative Party has stepped in and asked Heaney to quit beating up on former assembly minority leader, gubernatorial candidate and Gibson mentor John Faso. Who in turn has hit with "cease and desist" legal tactics. Talk about home-grown nastiness...