Former state tax worker accused of stealing identities, Jennings officially running for re-election, Troy and Albany among highest spending districts, DA wants meeting about Skidmore pot, woman wants to clean up the crap

A retired employee of the state Department of Taxation and Finance was arrested yesterday on accusations that he had used stolen taxpayers' person and financial info to open credit cards and other accounts. He's accused of running up $200,000 in fraudulent charges. Authorities say they found more than 2000 post-it notes with taxpayer data in the man's Troy home. [TU] [AP/Daily Gazette] [Troy Record]

The NY20 special election inched forward yesterday a judge ruled on how some of the absentee ballots should be assessed. The latest unofficial numbers from the New York State Board of Elections has Scott Murphy leading Jim Tedisco by 365 votes. [TU] [NYS BoE]

Tedisco was facing a sticky situation in his current job -- in the state Assembly -- yesterday after someone anonymously sent documents to the TU and various other offices that indicate Tedisco's top staffer had his personal legal bills paid by Repbublican Assembly campaign money. [TU]

Jerry Jennings has officially announced he's running for re-election as mayor of Albany. [TU]

Filming starts today on that Angelina Jolie movie -- here's a listing of the road closures. [AOA]

A retired Albany police detective, who had been injured in the line of duty, was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges. The former cop was scheduled to testify before the Albany Common Council after he recently accused APD chief James Tuffey of not being truthful about the ghost ticket scandal. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

According to data from school "report cards" issued by the state, the school districts in Troy and Albany are among the highest-spending local districts on a per-pupil basis. The report cards also include info on student achievement -- and a few local districts came up short. [TU] [Daily Gazette]

The Schenectady school board approved a budget that includes the elimination of 30 teacher jobs and 30 teacher aide jobs. [TU]

Laura Anglin, the state budget director, is stepping down. She's becoming head of a lobbying group for independent colleges and universities. [NYT] [TU]

More than 100 people turned out at last night at a public hearing to oppose the demolition of Troy's Proctors Theater. The developer behind the project says they won't move forward unless the state comes through with a $5 million grant. [Troy Record] [TU]

The Saratoga County DA wants to talk with Skidmore officials and and Saratoga Springs police after the Saratogian reported that students were openly smoking pot on campus this week. [Saratogian]

A handful of summer events in Lake George have been cancelled because of the economic downturn. [Post-Star]

An 83-year-old Colonie woman, sick of picking up litter near her house, has started a "Clean up the crap in Colonie" campaign. [TU]

Comments

Too bad that Jennings didn't use Twitter to announce. I guess that's what all the cool Mayors are doing.

Re: DA wants meeting about pot

Granted, I don't smoke weed mostly because I enjoy being able to remember whether or not I ordered a pizza, but I'm not really concerned if some college potheads want to publicly smoke weed on 4/20. Don't you think we should be more worried about the drug ads on TV telling me to ask my doctor for medicine if my legs feel restless? And what about the fact that I feel like I'm tripping when I see that Burger King-Sponge Bob-Sir Mix Alot commercial? For the love of god!

did anyone else notice anything weird about jennings crowd at his little press conference yesterday?

It was mostly old white people. There were like 4 people who where his shade tan or darker. Three of them were on the stage with him.

You would think that when someone owns their own tanning booth they'd share!

RE: DA wants meeting about pot

I NEVER understood why people have to smoke pot in public... simply do a bong hit before you leave the house.

@A Mistake- Any time I see a public official using Twitter, my opinion of him goes down. I'm glad he didn't.

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