There was a big change announced Thursday regarding  the start of the upcoming school year for the Rochester City School District - all classes will be held remotely for at least the first ten weeks of the school year.

Originally, like a lot of districts, RCSD was going to use a hybrid model -- a combination of in-class and remote learning. For RCSD, that hybrid model would have been used for Pre-K through 4th grade; students in 5th  through 12th grades would have continued with distance learning unless they were in specialized programs.

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello has signed an executive order which requires all non-governmental county contractors to comply with federal and state equal pay laws.

He did the signing at an event at the County Office Building on Thursday with the Pay Equity Coalition, as part of their Sound the Alarm Event to recognize Black Women’s Equal Pay Day.

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is the approximate day a Black woman must work into the new year to make what a white, non-Hispanic man made at the end of the previous year.

A state agency has made its decision on rate hike requests from health insurance companies.

The New York State Department of Financial Services says that overall, rates in the individual market for 2021 will increase by only 1.8%, the lowest increase in that category since the agency regained the authority to approve the rates a decade ago.

DFS says the 4.2% average rate hike for small group plans is the second-lowest ever approved by the agency during that period.

A series of online school reopening forums for Rochester City School District families starts Saturday. 

The district announced late last month that it intends to bring prekindergarten through fourth-grade students into school buildings part of the week while offering distance learning for nearly everyone else. The sessions will give the community opportunities to give feedback on the plan.

First hour: Local town supervisors react to President Trump's comments about low-income housing in the suburbs

Second hour: Discussing Black Women's Equal Pay Day 2020