It snowed, Schumer says Capital Region is a "high-risk area" for terrorism, chicken law discussed in Albany, nation a Twitter about Jimmer
This just in: it's snowed. The snowfall total forecast for the Capital Region has been revised upward -- we're now looking at 10+ inches by the time the storm moves on (probably sometime this afternoon). A snow emergency has been declared in Albany, starting tonight (Wednesday) at 8 pm with parking on the EVEN side. Parking flips to the odd side Thursday at 8 pm. [NWS] [City of Albany email press release]
While appearing in Albany yesterday to push for increased domestic security funding, Chuck Schumer said the Capital Region is "a high-profile and thus high-risk area." Schumer criticized a cut in funding that would have helped pay for a radio system to allow emergency responders across the region to communicate with each other. [WTEN] [Troy Record] [TU]
State Police top brass got pay increases of as much as $28,000/year late last year in order to address a "pay inequity" caused when a union member achieved the rank of major, and thus would have made more than his supervisors. [WNYT]
Beth Whitman-Putnam was sworn in as fire chief in Gloversville last night -- she's the first female fire chief in the history of New York State. [WNYT] [Fox23]
Rotterdam police say a longtime Golub Corp. employee stole $300k from the supermarket company over the course of a decade. They allege the woman, who reportedly was in charge of the employee rewards program, skimmed extra gift certificates from the program. Investigators say they were able to pull data from the woman's use of her AdvantEdge card that allowed to them bring the alleged plot to light. [WNYT] [TU] [Fox23]
Upset about their salaries, there's a push among New York State judges to form some sort of union. [NYT]
Saratoga County's reverse 911 system now includes the ability to send out voice and text messages to mobile phones. [Saratogian]
An investigation into the 2009 Troy incident in which a girl nearly drowned (and later died from complications) reports that glare and a lane stripe on the bottom of the city pool may have prevented lifeguards from seeing the girl. [TU]
The Albany Common Council's law committee took no action on the proposed backyard chicken legislation after public comments at a meeting last night. [TU]
The State Police tell the TU that the only document they have on the Neil Breslin traffic stop last fall is an internal document created as part of an investigation after media coverage of the stop, which did not result in a citation or arrest. [TU]
What happens when a judge who's been accused of drinking and driving criticizes people before his court for DWI? [TU]
The City of Troy's top overtime earner last year was a police sergeant who racked up $43,652 in OT. [Troy Record]
The actual demolition of the old Troy city hall has apparently not begun yet. [Troy Record]
The Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office is looking to rent jail cell space in the county jail as way of generating revenue. [Troy Record]
Bethlehem police say a Schenectady man caused two car crashes while fleeing from a house he allegedly burglarized Tuesday morning. One of the crashes was at the Four Corners intersection (map). [YNN] [WNYT]
The Schenectady police officer recently arrested for alleged DWI has pleaded not guilty. [YNN]
Health departments in the region say people don't seem all that interested in getting a flu shot this year. [Post-Star]
Per diems for state legislators are down $6 this session, to $165 per day. [TU]
Attendance at state parks in the Capital Region was up 16 percent last year, according to the state parks agency. [Post-Star]
Scotia village officials are trying to find a new home for the Scotia Diner, whose building is slated for demolition as part of a new development project. [Daily Gazette]
Former Glens Falls high school basketball star Jimmer Fredette put up 47 points for BYU last night against Utah. The performance made him a trending topic on Twitter. [ESPN] [CBS6]
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Comments
"Price Chopper was able to retrieve all of these transactions for the past 10 years."
Nice! They have my grocery list from the year 2000!
... said Lu on Jan 12, 2011 at 11:33 AM | link
I posted a story about the chicken thing and the common council. They are just distressingly incompetent. I do not think they did any research before last night.
Fox News was there and they only interviewed the chode that thought chickens were a bad idea. Go figure.
http://tinyurl.com/6evsvrn
... said mr slow loris on Jan 12, 2011 at 11:52 AM | link
Schumer probably should have added that we also have an Olive Garden, which likely increases our risk of terrorist attack by a factor of 2.
I'm all for local government grabbing what they can from the Fed, but the "terrorist attack" excuse is kind of wearing thin. This is Albany. Terrorists don't go looking for the 10th busiest train station, or Tier III tech colleges when they're trying to make a point.
... said Bob on Jan 12, 2011 at 12:15 PM | link
@Lu: I'm really curious about how much data the Chopper has from those cards -- and what they're using it for (not implying it's anything bad).
They've said publicly that they use the card data to notify people who have bought products that are recalled. I wonder if they could open more of that data up to shoppers (via a login online, for example) so it could be used in other ways.
... said Greg on Jan 12, 2011 at 12:30 PM | link
@Greg: C'mon, you already get this. PC knows that you made a purchase at X datetime, and the items, quantities and prices. Also the location.
If you ever login to their website and poke around, PC knows about that too, and can mash it against store transaction data. Same for gasoline discount data. Dunno if that's used right now, or how, but they'd be dumb not to preserve it.
What's not known is whether they acquire third-party databases and try to mash those in. This is the privacy gray-area. A human knows when he has presented the card, and reasonably knows that the transaction details are logged against his unique identity. It's invisible third-party data aggregation practices that should concern folks.
Me, I don't care. These practices seek to better target ads to me, but I'm ridiculously numb to even the very few ads that pierce my filters. Heck, I've never seen the ads that I'm sure appear on AOA. Sorry about that, BTW.
LQ
... said Lou Quillio on Jan 12, 2011 at 11:11 PM | link