THE CHATHAM TOWN BOARD last week added a late agenda item on a whether to join some other municipalities in calling for the state legislature to repeal the SAFE Act, the new law that expands gun buyer background checks, limits the rounds in ammunition clips and bans certain assault-style firearms.
The county Board of Supervisors voted for repeal as did the Claverack Town Board in a revised version. The measure has also come before other boards, and gun rights activists are working hard to build grassroots support for getting rid of the law.

WE KEEP OUR FOCUS on local news. Other sources are better able to deliver statewide, national and international reporting and perspective. Then along comes an event that breaks down the barriers of what we define as local. Monday afternoon the geography that separates Columbia County and Boston suddenly disappeared.

We experienced fear, anger, bewilderment, sympathy and connection with our Boston neighbors. As much as these feelings matter, they don't add much to an understanding of what happened and why. Most of what we know comes from radio, TV and the web, and those media say law enforcement expects to benefit from having so many video recordings of the bomb blasts. But the endless repetition of Twitter and YouTube phone-video clips of the two explosions and their aftermath leave me questioning their value to viewers. After a while they morphed into a numbing cascade of explosions. It quickly began to feel like the video was primarily being used on TV to distract viewers so we wouldn't notice the monotony of reporters who had no independent information. For a time those same video loops fed public confusion about the overall number of bombs.