Coming Soon.

On Dec. 6, 2004, engine trouble left the Malaysian freighter Selendang Ayu adrift in an angry, stormy Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. The ship was carrying 424,000 gallons of fuel oil and 18,000 gallons of marine diesel when it was ripped in half near Unalaska Island's Skan Bay in the Aleutian Islands, a sensitive habitat for salmon, cod, halibut and Tanner crab.

There were desperate rescue attempts, a fatal helicopter crash and the worst Alaskan oil spill in more than a decade, since the Exxon Valdez. Miles of coastline were contaminated and over 1,600 seabirds and other wildlife killed.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that there is no evidence that any wheat gluten contaminated with melamine has entered the human food supply.

The FDA has provided an update on the recall on pet foods from the Canadian firm Menu Foods and reported its latest findings in its ongoing investigation into the recent outbreak of cat and dog illness and death associated with pet food manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten.

Americans are worried. There's been yet another recall.

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to use American Bullie A.B. Bull Pizzle Puppy Chews and Dog Chews manufactured and distributed by T.W. Enterprises of Ferndale, WA., because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella which can cause serious infections in dogs and cats, and, if there is cross contamination, in people, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems.

ALBANY---The New York State Department of Health overpaid medical providers $25.7 million for clinic services for hospitalized Medicaid recipients because controls within DOH's eMedNY claims processing system designed to prevent double payments for services were not being used and the clinics were not following Medicaid billing guidelines, according to an audit released Friday by the state Comptroller's office.

NEW YORK---The New York Civil Liberties Union has condemned the treatment of a 13-year-old girl who was arrested after she wrote the word "okay" on her school desk, saying the incident sheds light on the fatal flaws in New York City's use of law enforcement to impose discipline in classrooms.

GLOVERSVILLE---In a complaint filed on behalf of a health care provider at Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, the NYCLU charged this week that a Rite Aid pharmacist who refused to fill a patient's prescription for refill doses of Emergency Contraception should be disciplined by the New York State Board of Pharmacy for putting moralistic judgments before her professional responsibilities.

ALBANY---The four bidders seeking to be awarded the franchise to operate the state-owned thoroughbred facilities at Aqueduct Race Track, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course will publicly present their proposals on Tuesday, April 10 and Wednesday, April 11 in Meeting Room Six of the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany.

ALBANY--Tax relief is on its way to property owners who sustained significant damage from last summer's floods.

"While he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones", the Prosecutor's Creed says that is posted next to the beaming David Soares at the website for the Albany County District Attorney's office.

Menu Foods, the Canadian firm which is at the center of the pet food contamination scandal which is killing and sickening beloved cats and dogs in North America, expanded their recall Thursday to include 27 more varieties of products with earlier production dates, but no additional brands.

Cardinal Mahony is not amused. Mahony, overseer of the nation's (if not North America's) largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, has called on obedient Catholics to 'beat down' a proposal to legalize assisted suicide in the state of California. For those of you keeping score, this is the third year in a row that state's legislative body has pushed this insufferable rubbish into the agenda.

ALBANY---April is National Child Abuse Month and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services has announced the award of grants totaling more than $1.4 million that will create 10 Child Advocacy Centers that centralize and increase access to necessary services for child victims and non-offending family members.

MANHATTAN---A Brooklyn man has been arrested for stealing over $3.6 million from the New York City Comptroller's office in order to purchase jewelry and other personal items.

Officials at East Allen County Schools in Indiana are doing a pretty good job of educating their students about the values of free speech, free press and other parts of the First Amendment - even though it seems they didn't intend to.

TALLAHASSEE--The Florida Bar, the state's guardian for the integrity of the legal profession, announces that the Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 26 attorneys -- disbarring five, suspending 16, placing three on probation and reprimanding six. Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline.

PANAMA CITY, FLA---Saying that Joe Francis "may have snookered us and gotten out of Saturday", U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak ordered the Girls Gone Wild founder to surrender to federal authorities by noon Thursday to begin serving a sentence for contempt of court.

Q. What foods have been recalled?

A. For a complete listing of dog foods and cat foods affected by the recall, please go to http://www.menufoods.com/recall/. For information regarding the voluntary withdrawal of Hills Pet Nutrition Prescription Diet™ m/d™ Feline Dry Food, please go to www.hillspet.com.

QUEENSBURY---Perhaps Warren County Clerk Pamela Vogel has lost track of time.

Most likely the reason that she hasn't properly responded to a Freedom of Information Law request filed with her office in February by The North Country Gazette is because she doesn't have the requested documents and doesn't want to put such a statement in writing as she is required to do under Public Officers Law.

QUEENSBURY---Defense attorney Gregory V. Canale of Glens Falls will be the defendant when he appears in Queensbury Town Court on April 23 after being stopped in the southbound rest area of the Northway early Saturday morning.

SUFFOLK COUNTY---A Suffolk county jury has convicted a 22-year-old New York police academy recruit of conspiracy to commit murder for trying to hire a hit man to kill his girlfriend.

SYRACUSE---Ironically two weeks before income tax returns are due to be filed on April 15, U.S. prosecutors have sued to block Robert L. Schulz of Queensbury from selling an alleged tax fraud scheme said to have cost the U.S. Treasury more than $21 million.

ALBANY-An Albany County court judge has ruled that an assistant district attorney in the office of Albany district attorney David Soares engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by not turning over evidence to defense attorneys in the case involving a Colonie family whose members are on trial for charges of enterprise corruption.

It's a hot potato, a case of pass the buck.

Who's responsible for hundreds, maybe thousands of cats and dogs dying and becoming seriously ill from contaminated pet foods?

If Larry Cleveland thought he had the remotest chance of being reelected sheriff of Warren County, he bit himself in the buttocks Tuesday with a little help from his PR frontman, Post-Star reporter Don Lehman.

The Warren County Conservative Party has endorsed Cleveland's opponent, retired State Police investigator Bud York for the office of Warren County sheriff.

NEW YORK-The state Attorney General's office has reached new agreements with Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital to ensure that patients can make educated decisions about genetic testing.

The pet food recall has scared the nation.

More than that, it has seriously placed the credibility of not only the pet food companies but that of our own government at issue.

Despite Menu Foods having been responsible for the deaths and sickness of hundreds of pets, they're encouraging the public to keep buying their product because after all, while they recorded nearly a $6 million profit in the last quarter of 2005, for sure their bottom line is going to take a hit in the first quarter of 2006.

ALBANY---The state Attorney General's office has signed settlements with major universities concerning student-loan arrangements between the schools and lenders. The settlements require schools to reimburse students money that the colleges were paid by lenders for loan business and to adopt a new landmark College Code of Conduct.

JACKSON, MISS---A federal jury in Jackson, Miss., has convicted Biloxi attorney Paul S. Minor, former Mississippi state chancery court judge Walter W. Teel, and former Mississippi state court circuit judge John H. Whitfield of charges related to their role in a bribery scheme in which Minor provided Teel and Whitfield with money and other things of value in exchange for favorable rulings in cases brought before the judges by Minor's law firm.

SYRACUSE---A federal district court has ruled that school officials of the Liverpool School District violated a fourth grader's free speech rights and denied her equal protection by refusing her request to distribute religious flyers constituting her "personal statement" during non-instructional time.

Is anything on those pet food shelves safe to feed your beloved cat or dog? Pet owners across the U.S. are angry and confused about the recent pet food recall. Owners have experienced anxiety and fear while some are in shock over the sudden illness and in some cases, untimely death of their pets.

Convicted baby killer Mary Beth Tinning and Richard Paris, captain of the Ethan Allen tour boat, have a lot in common.

But there's one important difference.

Mary Beth Tinning, formerly of Schenectady, has served 20 years in prison and will serve at least two more years for being responsible for the death of her infant daughter.

ALBANY---It's no April Fool's Day joke.

The State of New York actually has a budget in place. While the $121 billion spending package technically wasn't in place by the April 1 midnight deadline, the Legislature met in a special Sunday morning session for its passage.

QUEENSBURY----The Warren County Conservative Committee has endorsed Nathan "Bud" York of Warrensburg for Warren County sheriff in the upcoming November election.

PANAMA CITY, FLA---"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis got a rather unique gift his 34th birthday Sunday, a get out of jail card.