All Over Albany

Gubernatorial candidates -- all of them -- to debate, man accused of Bailey murder allegedly admitted to it in letter, push to block buying of soda with food stamps, a whole bunch of bugs

Carl Paladino's three minute televised "special message" Thursday evening was a reiteration of his clean-up-state-government platform. And he tried to explain his altercation with Fred Dicker in Bolton Landing. And, in reference to the attention on his personal life, Paladnio wondered why the media hasn't focused on Andrew Cuomo's past, dropping this bizarre line: "Andrew's prowess is legendary." [YouTube] [TU] [NYT] [YNN] [Daily Politics]

Paladino also asked why Cuomo wouldn't agree to debate with the other candidates for governor, but Cuomo outmaneuvered him by announcing shortly before Paladino's recorded message that he would be debating five of the other candidates -- except for Paladino, who hadn't yet agreed. Paladino's campaign accused Cuomo of "playing games" and agreed to join the October 18 debate on Long Island. (In other news, it looks like that debate is going to be a circus.) [State of Politics] [Buffalo News]

The man accused of killing UAlbany student Richard Bailey in 2008 allegedly admitted to the crime in a letter he sent from prison in 2009, according to court documents turned up by the Times Union. [TU]

A report prepared for the City of Albany by a consultancy concludes that the city lags way behind other upstate cities in the amount of state aid it gets. And considering that 60 percent of the land in the city is tax exempt (much of it state owned), the report argues the city isn't receiving an appropriate amount of state aid. [TU] [YNN]

The Troy City Council voted to block the awarding of any contract to knock down the old city hall without the council's approval. But mayor Harry Tutunjian says he's moving ahead with the process unless the council comes up with a way to move city government back to the former city hall. [TU] [Troy Record]

Chris Gibson reiterated his intention to work toward a repeal of the health care reform bill if he's elected to Congress. [Saratogian]

David Paterson and Mike Bloomberg are pushing the feds to put sugared soft drinks on the list of items that can't be bought with food stamps in NYC. [Paterson admin]

The Coeymans town supervisor resigned this week after taking a plea deal in which he admitted to burning down his own house in 2008. [TU] [YNN]

An audit of the Town of Colonie's finances reports that special one-time deficit reduction tax didn't really do much to reduce the deficit because the town's other sources of revenue took such a large hit. [TU]

East Greenbush police say they're searching for a man who they say ran off after he allegedly hit a pedestrian with his car on Columbia Turnpike September 22. They say the man ditched his car 10 miles from the scene and they believe he's hiding out somewhere. [TU] [Troy Record]

There was a rally at UAlbany yesterday to protest the apparent plan to many of the school's foreign language programs and its theater program. UAlbany has lost 30 percent of its state funding over the last three years. [YNN] [TU]

The father of the Albany elementary school student who was left on a bus (and then subsequently ended being left along Central Ave) says the district should have two people sweep buses to make sure they're empty. [CBS6]

National Grid estimates that natural gas bills for consumers will be up about four percent this winter. [Troy Record]

The Ordway Research Institute in Albany recently got a $19.2 million grant from NIH to research ways of preventing and treating drug-resistant infections. [TU]

An indoor aquaculture company is looking to set up a salmon farming facility in Schoharie County. [Daily Gazette]

A real estate forecast firm reports that the Albany metro area is currently one of the best real estate markets in the nation. [YNN]

The scaffolding necessary to fix a portion of the ceiling at Proctors took 10 days to assemble -- longer than it took to repair the ceiling. [Daily Gazette]

There's apparently a bumper crop of box elder bugs this fall. [Daily Gazette]