All Over Albany

Paterson proposes spending cap, man arrested after 29 years on the run, more suspected H1N1 cases test negative, Schenectady's empty neighborhoods

David Paterson has proposed capping increases in state spending at the average rate of inflation over the previous three years. Paterson says a cap "will force government to live within its means." The Governor says that if such a cap was already in place, the state would have spent $17 billion less over the last five years. A spending cap would probably have to be added to the state constitution to have any real effect. [AP/Saratogian] [NYDN] [Daily Gazette] [TU] [NYT]

Police arrested a Troy man yesterday who had escaped from a Tennessee prison 29 years ago. Robert T. Henry had been serving a 15 year sentence there for robbery. Henry apparently saw that Tennessee officials were looking for him as part of a sweep of old fugitive cases -- and he contacted them to proclaim his innocence. Henry says he was pardoned, though there doesn't seem to be a record of it. Though he apparently kept an apartment, police say he told them he'd been living in Prospect Park. [Troy Record] [TU] [Tennessean] [CapNews9] [Fox23]

The sister of Albany police chief James Tuffey testified before the Common Council last night that her daughter's car did not carry a bull's eye sticker when it was involved in a 2007 crash. The TU has reported that Albany cops didn't ticket the chief's niece for the crash because she had a sticker. [TU]

Five more suspected cases of H1N1 flu in the Capital Region have tested negative -- four in Albany County and one in Saratoga County. [TU] [Saratogian]

Kirsten Gillibrand, while talking to constituents in Western New York yesterday, about how to get federal stimulus money: "Flood Washington with your requests ... It's like hockey, the more shots on goal you have, the better your chance of scoring a goal." [Biz Review]

Another state audit has criticized the way the City of Rensselaer handles its money. Among the apparent trangressions: the city had been paying insurance on cars it didn't own. [Troy Record] [TU]

Saratoga Springs has gotten a federal grant to help it form its own SWAT team. [Post-Star]

The Saratoga County coroner says the man found Sunday in the Mohawk drowned -- and there's no evidence of foul play. [Saratogian]

Some of Schenectady's neighborhoods rank among the most "empty" in the entire state. For example, more than one in four homes in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood is vacant. [Daily Gazette]