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Ramapo police are investigating a crash involving a bicyclist and car early yesterday in Sloatsburg. The incident occurred on Orange Turnpike near Liberty Rock Road. Both the driver and cyclist were from Sloatsburg. Police say the cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet. He was taken to Nyack Hospital by Spring Hill Ambulance with a head injury. No further information was available.

Four Rockland brothers face decades in federal prison after being accused of creating a sophisticated scheme to rip off online retail giant Amazon to the tune of $19 million. Audrey Strauss, the Acting U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, says Suffern’s Yoel Abraham, Heshl and Zishe Abraham of Spring Valley, and Shmuel Abraham of Airmont were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Strauss says they put a new twist on an old trick, called “overshipping,” using technology to bilk Amazon for goods they never provided through various wholesale businesses.

Get ready to pay a higher sales tax, that’s if a proposal by Rockland’s county executive gets approval from the state. Ed Day is calling for a hike of one-half of one percent to the local sales tax to take effect December 1st or shortly thereafter. It would be temporary, lasting for three years. The current sales tax rate in Rockland is 8 and 3/8ths percent, this plan would raise it to 8 and 7/8ths. The increase is necessary to counter the anticipated revenue shortfall and cuts from the state. In addition to the tax increase, Day is calling for the Sain Building in New City to be sold. That could add another half-million in taxes for Clarkstown, the school district and the county. The County Legislature is expected to consider the resolutions at their next session September 1st. The Sain Building has been closed since December 2017.

24 hours after Tropical Storm Isaias marched through Rockland, New York’s governor says he wants answers as to why power restoration is taking so long. The Department of Public Service will look into storm responses by power companies in the state, including Orange and Rockland Utilities. The governor also declared a state of emergency yesterday including Rockland that provides local governments with additional clean-up and operational support. Orangetown supervisor Teresa Kenny says she’s thankful that it wasn’t worse…

Kenny and Rockland’s other four town supervisors have written a letter to O&R to express their “dismay and displeasure” with their preparation and response to the storm. Rockland County Highway Superintendent Skip Vezzetti says about a dozen poles came down along the causeway over Lake Deforest in Congers…

Vezzetti says we got much more wind and less rain than expected. For its part, O&R says they plan on restoring power to the vast majority of the 200,000 or so customers who lost power by Tuesday night, Aug. 11th.

If you don’t have power and you need some relief from the heat, there are cooling centers are available around the county. In Clarkstown you can go to Town Hall, the Street Community Center, the Pascack Community Center and the Congers Community Center. Haverstraw Town Hall, Orangetown Town Hall and Ramapo Town Hall are also available. O&R is doing a drive-thru distribution of bags of ice at Palisades Credit Union Park in Pomona today. The distribution will continue until they run out.

Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power to more than half of O&R’s 300,000 electric customers, more than 62,000 here in the county. O&R company and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal experts are working feverishly to repair storm damage and restore power as soon as possible. In a Facebook update yesterday afternoon, Rockland County Executive Ed Day said thankfully, the storm was very fast-moving…

O&R spokesman Mike Donovan says customers should prepare for an extended outage…  

Don’t go near any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call local police or O&R immediately at 1-877-434-4100.