Sponges inside bodies; heat and more heat; awaiting the Gov's signature
"Your Morning Call" catches you up on Saratoga Springs and regional news, especially stories we are tracking but not necessarily covering (at least not yet).
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Leaving surgery with more than you came with
Every day on average someone in the country leaves surgery with a medical device accidentally left inside of them, says a story in the Times Union. Albany Medical Center has recorded five incidents but the paper found evidence of seven in the last five years, making the medical system the fourth-worst hospital in the state for this sort of problem, the story says. However, it is a medical rarity as Albany Medical Center completes about 30,000 surgeries a year, the story says. Hospitals are required to tell the state Department of Health when these incidents happen, but the state does not make the data public in order to encourage participation, the story says.
Day 1 of Your Morning Call
Today, we roll out “Your Morning Call,” a daily briefing of regional news you won’t want to miss. We hope you enjoy it. It’s a companion to our afternoon email, “The Daily Dispatch,” a rundown of all the news we have covered in the day (it runs at about 4:30 p.m). This week, we are running our content, FREE! Enjoy it. Fall in love with it. Expect it and read it, and next week you can sign up for a seven-day free trial of the Dispatch and support local journalism in Saratoga Springs, NY!
Traffic, elections and other detritus
Traffic: According to Google maps at this hour (about 7 a.m.), traffic is light or even dreamy throughout Saratoga Springs. Albany traffic is clear as well with some slow downs near the Interstate-87/Route 7 interchange.
Election reminder: Saratoga Springs has just one primary election, tomorrow, for members of the Working Families Party. We have a small story on that scheduled for later in the day.
Premarket trading: Plug Power is off about three cents in premarket trading, this morning, according to Marketwatch. See our brief below about their latest. The Dow is off a smidgen, while the S&P500 and the NASDAQ are up by equally small amounts.
Saratoga, it is the heat, not just the humidity
The National Weather Service in Albany (and pretty much the rest of the country) is warning of extreme heat beginning at 11 a.m. and running through Tuesday at 8 p.m. Heat-related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events.
The weather service says the high temperature today will hit about 95 degrees but the temperature can feel as hot at 106.
Tomorrow is not much better with a high temp forecasted at 93 and a heat index of 105.
Watch for heat stroke, medical professionals are saying. Symptoms: high body temperature; confusion; vomiting; skin hot to the touch (and often no sweat); racing heart; terrible headache, the Mayo Clinic says. Stay in cool locations; drink plenty of non-alcoholic liquids. At this writing, it is already about 69 degrees and 100% humidity in Saratoga Springs, the NWS says.
The electrical grid is holding up thus far, with just 17 active outages in Saratoga County, according to the National Grid outage map.
Unplugging
261 employees at Plug Power, the hydrogen fuel cell company in Slingerlands, are being laid off today. The company employs 731 people, the company’s announcement of the lay-offs says. The reason is simply “economics.” The company’s stock reached a high of $3.34 last July, but on Friday it closed at $1.11. Workers in Slingerlands, Latham and Clifton Park are being let go.
Local bills waiting on the gov’s desk
Veterans housing stands a chance of expansion, given passage by the legislature this session, according to a story in the Daily Gazette. Sen. Jim Tedisco (R,C-Ballston Lake) and Assemblywoman Carrier Woerner (D-Round Lake) co-sponsored a bill that will sell state land in Wilton to the Veterans and Community Housing Coalition. The plan would see 12 housing units and future expansion, if the governor signs the bill that sits on her desk. the AJ Smullen Traffic Safety Memorial Law creates a traffic safety sign program to memorialize victims of fatal vehicle collisions. Sponsored by Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R-Johnstown) and Sen. Patricia Fahy (D-Albany), the law is named after Smullen’s son Alexander John Smullen who died after being struck by a car last year. The bill heads to the governor’s desk.