Planning for stimulus funds, River Rats bus flips on Mass Turnpike, restaurants cutting prices, no Whitney Gala this year
Sadly, the state's war room doesn't look like this. Remember: you can't fight in the war room.
The Paterson Administration has set up a "war room" to coordinate the state's administration of the roughly $25 billion in federal stimulus money headed this way. [TU]
Buried among the list of new taxes and fees in the Paterson budget proposal: a $10 fee for filing your state tax return on paper. More than 40 percent of state tax returns in New York State were filed on paper last year. [TU]
The Capital District Transportation Committee has put together a list of local infrastructure projects that should qualify for stimulus funding -- a group that totals about $87 million. Among the projects on the list: the reconstruction of Delaware Ave in Albany and the replacement of the Bridge Street bridge in Cohoes. [TU]
Three people from the Albany River Rats were seriously injured this morning after the team bus rolled over on the Mass Turnpike. The team was returning from a game in Lowell. [TU] [Daily Gazette]
From the very special election to fill Kirsten Gillibrand's old House seat... Republicans are criticizing Scott Murphy for not voting in eight primary and general elections between 2000 and 2003. And Jim Tedisco participated in a "tele town hall meeting" yesterday -- basically, the campaign robo-called 30,000 people and told them if they held on, Tedisco would speak and answer questions live. The campaign says it had as many as 6,000 people on the line at one point. [Daily Gazette] [Daily Gazette] [CapNews9]
Top Schenectady city officials are demanding to know how the cop accused of serially spending hours in an apartment when he was supposed to be on patrol could have gotten away with it. This latest scandal is just the latest in a long list of Schenectady Police Department screw-ups. [Daily Gazette] [TU]
AMD squeaked out just enough votes yesterday to make the shareholder vote on the chip fab spin-off official. The company says almost 95 percent of those who did participate voted in favor of the deal. [Daily Gazette] [Post-Star]
The health records of more than 1000 patients from an Everett Road orthopedics practice were exposed on the Internet recently after a security lapse at a dictation company. [TU]
Saratoga mayor Scott Johnson told a group of business owners yesterday that no decisions have been made on charging for downtown parking. But he added that if the public safety building project moves forward, some form of paid parking downtown will probably be necessary. Johnson said two weeks ago that the city council had "already embraced the concept, but not the details" of charging for downtown parking. [Post-Star] [TU]
Bethlehem police say they stopped a guy on Delaware Ave this week who was carting $50,000 worth of heroin. [CBS6]
Some local high-end restaurants say they're lowering prices in response to the economic downturn. Among them: 677 Prime, which has trimmed the prices on a some of its steaks. [TU] [Biz Review]
Colonie state Assemblyman Bob Reilly donated his entire legislature salary to charity for the fourth straight year. Fifteen organizations got money this year. [Troy Record]
There will be no Whitney Gala this summer in Saratoga. With the economy in the dumps, Marylou's husband says it would be "in poor taste to do an extravagant party." [Saratogian]
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Tedisco's campaign did some sort of interview on twitter yesterday too. Funny as hell. One participant got mad cuz the campaign was dodging questions. Whole thing was pretty much a joke. Search #tedisco to read it. The only questions they actually answered were happy little fluffballs.
... said Slacker on Feb 19, 2009 at 10:10 AM | link
If it's in "poor taste" to have the Whitney Gala, I hope the money that would have been spent on it is donated to the local food bank. Otherwise canceling it is a rather pointless gesture to the tanking economy. (Frankly that gala has been in poor taste from the get-go.)
... said chrisck on Feb 19, 2009 at 10:37 AM | link
Did anyone tell the governor that to file your taxes electronically you need a computer. "Poor" people dont have computers or an internet connection... What a ridiculous idea. Yea "poor" is politically incorrect, but it is correct: Low income people are "poor" and this will just contribute to keeping them poor. Since they dont have $10 and a computer to file, (yea yea they can go to the library) they wont file, then there will be fines and late filing fees... and the beginning of yet more complications....
Buffoons.. all of them..
... said hrgreen on Feb 19, 2009 at 11:41 AM | link
I'll bet more people WOULD e-file if there wasn't a $10 fee for filing online.
... said lucy on Feb 19, 2009 at 11:08 PM | link