All Over Albany

Gun control, minimum wage & Sandy relief to top State of the State mentions, Silver re-elected speaker, Saratoga Water to be served at inagural luncheon

On the list of things you can expect >pect to hear about in today's State of the State address:
+increasing the minimum wage
+Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts
+Toughening gun control measures, including an assault weapons ban and restrictions on high capacity magazines
Conspicuous by its absence: fracking is not expected to get much of a mention in today's address.[YNN] [YNN] [NYT] [TU]

Expect dioramas and power points. [Capitol Confidential]

Senate officials may have a compromise agreement worked out on gun control by later today. [YNN]

Sheldon Silver has been reelected Assembly Speaker. [YNN]

Police are looking for a set of silver and crystal rosary beads that were missing from the apartment of a retired nun who was found strangled to death in her home last week. Police are questioning a suspect in connection with the case - a man who is currently jailed for violating parole - but have not charged him with Greco's death. [YNN] [TU]

A Verizon employee was fired and is facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly texting himself a topless photo of a woman from the phone of a customer who brought it in to be repaired.

Attorneys for a pair of Capital Region brokers charged with making millions of dollars by defrauding investors say the case against them is based on "Fundamental misunderstanding" and was not a scheme to defraud anyone. [TU]

Albany County executive Dan Mcoy is proposing term limits for his post and downsizing the county legislature as part of a revamping of the county charter. A charter review committee is set to begin working on proposed changes to the charter today. The last changes to the county charter were made in 1994. [WNYT] [Record] [YNN]

The Rensselaer County man who shot himself during an eight-hour standoff with police has died. [TU]

Toxicology results may not be strong enough to support the DA's claims that Dennis Drue was impaired when he allegedly caused the crash that killed two Shenendehowa student athletes. [TU]

A man attempted to rob a Schuylerville Cumberland Farms on Christmas night, but apparently changed his mind halfway through. [Saratogian]

Parents in Saratoga are asking the city's school board to support an online petition to cancel the upcoming City Center Arms Fair.[Saratogian]

A South Glens Falls woman will spend six months is Saratoga County Jail for fracturing the arm and bruising the face of her 7 month old son . {Saratogian]

Schenectady has sold its first foreclosed building in a new building rehab program to a contractor who spent time in prison for failing to pay back taxes and was convicting of stealing from his employees' pension fund at a business he owned in Colorado. [TU]

A car went through a house in North Greenbush on Tuesday, but the situation could have been much much worse.[TU]

County and State authorities are meeting to discuss the case of the Niskayuna teen who died in a fire last week. It is believed the girl, who was home alone when the blaze broke out, had special needs. [WNYT]

Albany police are looking for two men who allegedly robbed a Central Avenue Stewart's shop and two other stores. [TU]

A Troy man caught with 500 bags of heroin stuffed in a macaroni salad container in his car last October will spend three years in prison. [Record]

PEF and CSEA members may be facing layoffs, but they are expected to be fewer because of 2011 agreements that halted raises in exchange for layoff protections. [TU]

19 soldiers from the 27th infantry returned home from Kuwait on Tuesday. [TU]

Governor Cuomo is expected to announce that repairs and renovations to the Capitol building are complete today - two years ahead of schedule and $2.3 million under budget, giving the people "a Capitol that is fit for this new era in New York." [TU]

Saratoga's newest public art project "Saratoga En Pointe" will feature 5 -foot-tall fiberglass sculptures of ballet shoes decorated by various artists. [TU]

A Saratoga County bridge over the Hudson will be fully rehabilitated and revamped for use by hikers, bikers and snowmobilers.

Saratoga water will be served again at President Obama's inaugural luncheon.[YNN]