Schoharie students tell story of tragedy with technology

By: Jessica Layton           

WNYT

Updated at: 02/20/2012 11:38 PM

SCHOHARIE - While students in the Schoharie School District enjoy winter break this week, they'll be working to "get out the vote."

The district is among 12 finalists in a national competition sponsored by Samsung. The grand prize winner receives $100,000 in new technology for its school.

To vote for Schoharie Central School, click here: https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/index.jsp?auth=1

"This will mean day and night difference for our students, trying to be competitive," said English teacher Amie Hausmann.

The district is desperate for new computer equipment and a morale boost after Tropical Storm Irene plowed into the village.

Hausmann lost her home during Irene in August 2011. She understood the loss so many of her students were going through. Six months later, the village is recovering. And the disaster has proved to be a teaching moment in her classroom every day since.

So when she came across the Samsung Project focusing on science, technology, engineering and math, she thought it would be a great way get in the running for some new computers - and to help the healing process along.

The project has been therapeutic. The students collected and analyzed water and soil samples from the areas in their village hardest hit by the flooding. Math students calculated Ph levels in the samples. English students wrote a script for the findings and set it to video.

The school is now competing with 11 other schools around the country for the top prize. Voting continues through March 12.

Citizens Fiscal Advisory Committee

The Citizens Fiscal Advisory Committee has scheduled a meeting for Monday, February 13, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

The meeting will be held in the Community Room at Town Hall and is open to the public.

U.S. economy adds 243,000 jobs, unemployment falls to 8.3%

The Business Review

Date: Friday, February 3, 2012, 9:25am EST

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2012/02/03/us-economy-adds-243000-jobs.html

The U.S. labor market added 243,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in January — the biggest jump since April and a better showing than many economists had predicted, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The jobless rate shaved off 0.2 percentage points to land at 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday morning. Also, the department revised upward by 60,000 jobs its preliminary November and December figures.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the jobless rate to stick at 8.5 percent and payrolls to add 125,000, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The gains were real, not because of a smaller labor force, with the number of unemployed people falling to a three-year low of 12.8 million, the report says.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits in the week ended Jan. 28 fell by 12,000 from the previous week, to 367,000.

The four-week moving average was 375,750, a decline of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 377,750, according to a statement.

Overall, about 3.4 million people were getting jobless benefits during the week ended Jan. 21, a decline of 130,000 from the preceding week.

The unemployment rate dropped in the Albany, New York region in the final month of 2011—the latest figure available—falling to 6.9 percent compared to 7.1 percent previous year.

National Wear Red Day®

Celebrate National Wear Red Day® on Friday, February 3, 2012 when Americans nationwide will wear red to show their support for women's heart health. Show off your favorite red dress, red shirt, red tie, or Red Dress Pin to raise awareness that heart disease—the #1 killer of women—is largely preventable. 

The Heart Truth® created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to remind women of the need to protect their heart health, and inspire them to take action. National Wear Red Day promotes the symbol and provides an opportunity for everyone—men and women alike—to unite in this life-saving awareness-to-action movement by wearing anything and everything red!