Silver apologizes for handling of sexual harassment case, woman accused of soliciting donations for cancer she didn't have, 20 for $1 million
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An "uncharacteristically contrite" Sheldon Silver apologized for the handling of complaints of sexual harassment against now-former Assemblyman Vito Lopez. He also proposed a group of changes to Assembly sexual harassment polices, among them making all Assembly members and supervisory staff mandatory reporters of harassment. [TU] [NYDN] [NY Assembly]
Andrew Cuomo again criticized Silver's handling of the situation Monday. A Democratic Assemblyman from the Buffalo area took the rare step of announcing he was leaving the chamber's Democratic conference in protest. But Silver, "a master of wielding the levers of power at the Capitol," always seems to find a way to sail through the crisis. [State of Politics] [Buffalo News] [NYT]
The Chemung County sheriff says reps for county sheriffs around the state weren't summoned to the Capitol recently to discuss changes to the NY SAFE Act, as they thought -- but rather for Andrew Cuomo to tell to stop speaking against the gun law. [TU]
What's left of St. Patrick's in Watervliet: a pile of bricks. [TU]
Albany police are looking for info on what appears to have been a shooting over the weekend in the South End (map). [YNN]
The Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office says two Rensselaer residents have been arrested after an investigation seized $1.8 million in steroids and controlled pharmaceutal. Authorities alleged the two were middlemen connected to a ring that may trace to China. [Troy REcord] [YNN] [TU]
Troy police say a 17-year-old was arrested after a three-hour hunt through South Troy that included a helicopter and K9 units. [Troy Record]
Troy police say they've arrested a woman for allegedly soliciting donations for her cancer treatment -- but she didn't have cancer. [Troy Record]
The longest trial in Albany County history -- 13 weeks -- ended Monday. [TU]
The man arrested for the gun incident that led to the closing Broadway Brew in downtown Troy was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty. [TU]
The Cuomo admin's "master teacher" program was apparently started without the direct involvement of the state education department. [TU]
Concluded an independent auditor of the city of Schenectady's long-troubled finances: "They're heading in the right direction." [Daily Gazette]
The Albany Common Council passed a non-binding resolution seeking a PILOT on the downtown property gathered for the proposed convention center project. [TU]
Albany County exec Dan McCoy and the county legislature are at odds over the bidding process for the project to renovate a floor of the county office building in downtown Albany for SCCC classroom space. [TU]
Schenectady County has picked a site in Rotterdam for a new dispatch center. [Daily Gazette]
Among the topics at the Troy 100 forum: pedestrian safety on Hoosick Street and relationship between city police and neighborhoods. [Troy Record]
The proposed indoor gun range in Green Island got final approval from the village planning board. [Troy Record]
DEC says emerald ash borers have shown up in a commercial timber forest in Delaware County. (The beetles are an invasive species that kill ash trees.) [TU]
A state Supreme Court justice has ruled that an Adirondack rafting company can once again offer rafting trips if it follows a group of new rules. (The company had been blocked from offering tours after the drowning death of a passenger last year -- the trip's guide was intoxicated and pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.) [Post-Star] [YNN]
A pool of twenty employees at a restaurant in Queensbury are said to have to have a winning $1 million Powerball ticket. [Saratogian]
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Comments
Are you kidding me? So the guy (Silver) who pays off women using tax payer money to keep quiet after being sexually assalted is in charge of legislation to ensure it doesn't happen again? This is unreal. I hope every lawyer in New York State is contacting the woman assalted by Lopez AFTER the first hush money was paid and they go after Silver personally. This is our Penn State and people should be outraged.
... said Karen on May 21, 2013 at 2:23 PM | link
So wait, these women were basically paid out $135k in hush money? I know there is a lot of waste of our tax dollars, but it's outrageous that our taxes were used to reinforce old institutional handling of sexual harassment claims by the old boys club. I certainly think that these women deserve compensation for what they endured, but it should have been done openly in conjunction with punishment of Lopez for his disgusting actions.
... said Valerae on May 22, 2013 at 9:50 AM | link