Half of Schenectady kids living in poverty, fracking decision apparently delayed, professor argues number of Lyme cases is much higher than reported, 10 years of YNN
Today is Columbus Day. Banks, many schools, and the post office are closed.
A little more than half of children in the city of Schenectady were living in poverty in 2011, according to figures from the Census Bureau. [TU]
The Cuomo administration's decision on whether to allow frack is on hold, Fred LeBrun says. "Sources close to the Cuomo administration" tell Fred Dicker the study of potential public health effects of fracking could hold up a decision until January or later. Andrew Cuomo recently said there has been "no step back" on the process. [TU] [NY Post] [AP/Troy Record]
Says a family member of one of the people who died in the Salem house blast that killed six people of the plea deal of 1-3 years in prison offered to Steven McComsey, accused of causing the explosion: "This is an insult to the dead." McComsey rejected the deal. [TU] [News10]
Schenectady police say a man was shot multiple times Friday afternoon in Hamilton Hill -- and Charles Bowman later died from his injuries (map). SPD says it has arrested a man, Terell Bethea, for being the alleged shooter. Bowman's aunt says Bowman had been trying to calm down Bethea after Bethea was angrily looking for answers related to a robbery. [Daily Gazette] [News10] [TU] [TU]
Schenectady mayor Gary McCarthy says there is no front-runner to replace retiring police chief Mark Chaires. (The TU reported Thursday that assistant chief Brian Kilcullen is the front runner, according to "those in city government familiar with the search process.") [Daily Gazette] [TU]
It looks like there might be a deal between secondhand goods dealers and county legislators on the long running effort to get a law requiring dealers to report valuable purchases as way of combatting crime. (A previous version of this law passed the legislature but was vetoed by the county exec.) [TU]
Lake George officials are again deploying lake bottom mats in an effort to smother invasive clams. [TU]
A SUNY Adirondack professor argues that the actual number of cases of Lyme disease in humans in this area exceeds the the number of official reported cases "by a factor of 80." [Saratogian]
Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican challenger Wendy Long both went to Dartmouth and "embodied the grit and ambition that drove the early daughters of Dartmouth." [NYT]
Madelyn Thorne -- Democratic challenger to Hugh Farley, who's been in the state Senate since forever -- on the 35 percent of the vote fellow Democrat Susan Savage pulled in during the last election against Farley: "I'm not sure I can do better than that." [WNYT]
The state Senate won't release information about addresses that were sent mailers from Roy McDonald's office. [Daily Gazette]
Good-government groups are pushing for election day voter registration in New York. [Daily Gazette]
Downtown Troy business owners say more college student are making their way downtown. [TU]
Though allowed back in Shen high school sex ed classes, Planned Parenthood reps have yet to be re-invited. (There was much drama over their presence in classes about a year ago.) [TU] [TU]
The fee for getting a copy of birth certificate in the city of Schenectady right at the moment you request it is going up $10, because of staff cutbacks. [Daily Gazette]
East Greenbush police say they arrested "a trio of pumpkin patch vandals" for allegedly stealing pumpkins from a farm and "throwing and rolling large pumpkins" into traffic onto Route 9J. [WNYT] [EGPD press release]
Ellis Medicine's new emergency department will be named for Jane and Neil Golub, who donated money toward the project. [Daily Gazette]
YNN -- born Capital News 9 -- is now 10 years old. [TU]
There were almost 22,000 tasting tickets sold at Chowderfest in Troy. [Troy Record]
Paul Grondahl talks to two Mormon missionaries in Albany. [TU]
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Comments
Dear Young Women of Schenectady, STOP HAVING BABIES! Take control of your lives, you can be awesome. There is plenty of time to have a baby. Don't limit yourself and your future by having children before your are financially ready. The average cost to raise a child from birth to age 18 is $250,000!
... said Stop the Insanity on Oct 8, 2012 at 1:14 PM | link
Stop the Insanity - I can agree with your sentiment but I also think that young men fathering these kids need to accept their responsibility to either avoid having so many kids before they can afford it or to co-parent and support their kids - it takes two to tango!
... said madeline on Oct 8, 2012 at 3:36 PM | link
@stop the insanity
Increase education. Increase opportunity. Increase hope. I know those sound like empty political platitudes, but those things need to change first.
... said Mrs. M on Oct 8, 2012 at 3:41 PM | link
No surprises that half of Schenectady kids live in poverty. For all of our talk about the American Dream and opportunity, many studies have proven that you can largely predict a child's life outcomes based simply on his/her mother's level of educational attainment. To break it down, if you're born into poverty, it's very, very likely that you will live in poverty for a variety of reasons.
I suspect that the reason you see high percentages of poverty in the cities is that is where the services are: public housing, public transpo, social services, shelters, food pantries etc. etc. People tend to self-segregate, so you have poor people in the cities near services, and more affluent people in the burbs where there are fewer services, more expensive housing, and less public transpo, and then a mix in the rural areas. No amount of education or money is going to fix our cities, unless you start some social engineering project where you move some of the poor folks out to Clifton Park/Niskayuna/Delmar, and some of the wealthier folks into Schenectady, but that's never going to happen. So basically, we middle class will just continue to wring our hands and worry about what's going to become of all these poor kids but we’ll do so from the comfort of our safe suburban communities. Nothing changes.
... said LouHarv on Oct 9, 2012 at 12:07 PM | link