All Over Albany

July unemployment rate lowest in five years, woman arrested for allegedly driving SUV into crowd, Cohoes home all abuzz

The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in July -- down from 7.9 percent in the same period last year -- according to the state Department of Labor. It's the lowest July level in five years. [NYS DOL] [TU]

An Albany woman was arrested for allegedly running down six people with a truck during the incident on Elk Street Monday evening. Shanikqua Thomas has a history of arrests and outbursts, and told a judge she's been high on crack for two weeks.[YNN] [TU]

Anthony Walker -- convicted of animal abuse, including abusing the "Railroad Puppies" last September -- is being allowed to live in the same house as his mother's dog, in spite of the fact that the terms of his probation ban him from owning a pet for five years.[TU]

A 42 year old Albany man was found dead under the deck of a Provincetown hotel on Tuesday.[TU]

The Local Ocean indoor fish farm was sold back to the property's previous owner for $3.4 million. [TU]

Lawson Lake in Coeymans has been closed to swimmers because of a slime produced by algae. [TU]

The battle of the audits is on between Andrew Cuomo and state comptroller Tom DiNapoli. After DiNapoli's office released the results of an audit criticizing the state Department of Health and overpayments from the Medicaid system, the governor's office has just released the results of an audit of DiNapoli's office, reporting its 1980s-era mainframe computer systems are outdated and need to be replaced. [TU] [Capitol Confidential]

According to an analysis by a tax think tank, New York State lost $45.6 billion in income from people who moved to other states between 2000 and 2010. [TU]

Calling it "excessive," former Assemblyman Vito Lopez is planning a lawsuit over the $330,000 fine levied against him by the Legislative Ethics Commission for allegedly sexually harassing women in his office. [Daily News]

Police are investigating a shooting near Crane Street and Sixth Avenue in Schenectady on Tuesday night that sent a city man to the hospital with gunshot wounds in his abdomen. [News 10]

A state trooper in northern New York will soon face the first of three trials on allegations he attacked three women in the last five years.[Saratogian]

A Troy man will spend up to four years in prison after admitting on Tuesday to stabbing a convenience store customer in the neck with a screwdriver and also to breaking into the home of his girlfriend. [TU]

A 26-year-old Troy woman will spend eight years in jail for taking part in a robbery of an Albany home in which her accomplice held the victim at bay with a hatchet while she and another man stole money and electronics from the home. [Record]

Albany mayoral candidate Kathy Sheehan announced endorsements from CSEA and AFSME on Tuesday.[TU]

State Farm is putting two buildings at its Malta complex on the market -- but it says the move won't have an affect on its 1,600 jobs there. [TU]

The head of the division that oversees Momentive Performance Materials' Waterford plant has resigned for "personal reasons," just over a year after taking the job.[TU]

At a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed home for people with chronic or late-stage alcoholism in Troy there concerns about the effect on the surrounding Ida Street neighborhood.[Record]

The NYS Capitol has seven new $10,000 doors. [WNYT]

Weather extremes have made this a difficult year for some Schohairie County farms.[Gazette]

Following a seven year battle, a Thruway billboard on a mountain in Montgomery County must come down. [TU]

A Bethlehem High School senior is working to raise money for bulletproof vests for the Albany County Sheriff's Department's three K-9 members. [News 10]

The Adirondack chapter of Bicycles for Humanity collected more than 500 bikes to send to Africa this year. [Saratogian]

Thousands of honey bees were discovered inside a Cohoes home on Monday. [News 10]

A 72-year-old post card sent by an Albany resident and Holocaust survivor to Nazi Germany in 1941, is part of a book published by a New Zealand stamp collector.[TU]