All Over Albany

Wide range in SUNY graduation rates, audio from fatal Schenectady standoff, in labor and stopped for speeding

Across the SUNY system, 64 percent of undergraduates graduate within six years -- though there's a wide range from campus to campus. [TU]

Andrew Cuomo said Monday there's not an update about when the state Department of Health will finish its review of the potential health effects of fracking. Monday night the Albany County legislature voted to ban fracking waste from county water treatment plants and the use on salty fracking waste to de-ice county roads. [TU] [TU] [News10]

Audio from the May 2 situation on Balltown Road in which Schenectady police fatally shot a man holding a hostage at knife point includes officers repeatedly asking the man to drop the knife and the the man telling police he wanted them to kill him. [TU]

A foreclosure auction of the Local Ocean indoor aquaculture facility near Hudson is scheduled for next week -- and as of Monday, a state DEC officer said the fish appeared to be OK. [WNYT]

Lord & Taylor is returning to Crossgates. [TU]

An attorney for one of the men arrested following an incident in Troy's North Central neighborhood last week in which TPD says two officers were assaulted by a group disputes the department's characterization of the situation, and says there's video of the alleged incident. [Troy Record August 9] [News10]

Albany police are looking into the situation surrounding reports of shots fired in Arbor Hill Saturday night -- which now includes a man shot in the neck, a woman injured when her car window was shattered, and a man slashed on the cheek. [TU] [Troy Record]

Albany police say a man was arrested after allegedly robbed a man and then slashed him in the face with a box cutter early Sunday morning at Lark and Hudson (map). [APD]

Albany police are looking for a man suspected of a July burglary on Spring Street in which the victim was stabbed in the shoulder (block map). The suspected was seen on surveillance video using the victim's stolen debit card. [APD]

Two Schenectady teens are accused of assaulting a 68-year-old man Sunday afternoon. [Daily Gazette]

An East Nassau woman is accused of stealing back the check she paid to an auto repair shop from the hands of a shop employee as the employee stood in line at the bank. [TU]

East Greenbush police say two people were arrested on accusations they were huffing while shoplifting. [TU]

A man at whom a Taser was fired in 2009 as he hung from a bridge while being pursued as a fugitive -- and is now in prison -- is getting a $280k settlement after suing the Schenectady County Sheriff's Department and Schenectady PD; he was injured after falling from the bridge. [Daily Gazette]

The White House is apparently planning an upstate trip for Barack Obama later this month, but for Central and/or Western New York. [AP/Troy Record] [TU]

Chris Gibson is using the renewal of a key agreement for New York City's upstate drinking water supply -- which stretches into Schoharie County -- to push the city to do more on flood mitigation. [Daily Gazette]

Fort Plain's mayor is pushing a fundraising campaign to get a flood warning system installed -- with or without the help of the feds and state. [Daily Gazette]

The husband of Sheldon Silver's chief of staff was fired from his job as CEO of a NYC-based non-profit and is being investigated by the state attorney general and state comptroller. [TU] [NYT]

Finch Paper -- the new owner of the never-used Saratoga County landfill -- got approval for sales and mortgage tax exemptions from the Saratoga County IDA for its proposed paper sludge project there. Finch also wouldn't pay property taxes on the full assessed value of the landfill for five years. [Saratogian] [Daily Gazette]

The Luther Forest Technology Campus told the Saratoga County IDA it can't currently pay the $50k loan payment it owes the IDA. [Saratogian]

The Saratoga Springs school district says the principal of elementary school at which more than a third of teachers applied for a transfer will keep her position, but be subject to more oversight. [TU]

For the season so far at the Saratoga Race Course, attendance is down about 3 percent compared to the same period last summer -- but the total amount bet on races run at the Track is up about 1 percent. [Daily Gazette]

In which the sorry-for-speeding-officer-but-my-wife-is-in-labor excuse was employed on I-87 in Colonie -- and was true. [NYSP]