All Over Albany

Officials say they're prepping for swine flu, more ghost ticket testimony, ACP student's skull cracked in assault, phoning while driving sweep nets hundreds, rock snot

There have now been 28 confirmed cases of swine flu in New York State -- all of them in NYC. The state Department of Health says it expects to see more cases emerge. State and local officials say they're prepping in case the influenza strain spreads elsewhere in the state. The state has set up a swine flu hotline and info page: 1-800-808-1987. [NYT] [TU] [Daily Gazette] [NYS DoH]

The head of the Albany police union testified under oath last night before the Common Council about the ghost ticket scandal. Christian Mesley reiterated his earlier assertion that APD chief James Tuffey wasn't totally forthcoming in his comments about the tickets. Mesley was testifying as an officer -- not as union head -- and some council members say they suspect they didn't get the full story as a result. [TU] [Fox23]

David Paterson says he's issuing an executive order requiring that any need state mandate on local governments will have to include funding the new rule. Paterson says the order should help slow the increase of property taxes. The governor also said yesterday that state's fiscal outlook later this year "may not be as bad we first thought." [TU] [AP/Troy Record]

County sales tax revenues were down in the first quarter of 2009 -- both locally and across the state. And that could mean... higher property taxes. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

Albany police say a teenager was shot in the finger after getting caught in the cross fire of a gun fight in West Hill Monday afternoon (map). [TU]

Police say two Albany College of Pharmacy students were attacked at Quail and State (map) on Monday -- one has been hospitalized with fractured skull. The APD says it's arrested two suspects. [Troy Record] [TU]

Jim Tedisco says the $30k his top aide got from the Republican Assembly campaign fund for legal fees was a loan. The state Board of Elections says the money in the account shouldn't have been used for that purpose. [TU]

Saratoga Springs police say they've arrested two current Skidmore students -- and one alum -- on drug sales charges. [Saratogian]

People in Half Moon are concerned about the noise that could come from the big 24/7 rail operation planned for the town. [Daily Gazette]

The state police troop based in Delmar reports issued more than 800 tickets during a recent sweep for people driving while talking on their mobile phones. [Troy Record]

Saratoga Springs is hoping to stoke new life at its skate park by lowering admission fees and lengthening hours. Saratoga's park was the first municipal skate park in the state. [TU]

Students attending the prom at Green Island's Heatly School will be screened with a machine to see if they've been drinking. [Troy Record]

Researchers at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna say they've developed a disc than can hold 500 gigabytes of info -- that's about 100 DVDs. The discs won't be available to consumers for at least 4-5 years. [Daily Gazette]

Possibly coming to a stream near you: rock snot. The invasive algae was found in the Esopus recently. It's already shown up in Washington County. [AP/CBS6] [TU]