All Over Albany

Continued focus on train safety measures, NYSP: customers restrained alleged robber, Grammy nom for ASO, to school on a unicycle

After the Bronx crash, the feds have ordered Metro North to overhaul its signaling system and to temporarily have two people in the driver's cab during stretches that include speed changes. MTA says its signal network will now warn operators of the sharp bend in the tracks and trains will automatically break brake if they're traveling faster than the speed limit through that stretch. Chuck Schumer and Connecticut US Senator are pushing for the installation of audio and video recorders in trains that would focus on engineers and the tracks. [AP/TU] [NYT] [AP/TU]

State comptroller Tom DiNapoli said his office will be auditing the state Division of Criminal Justice Services' oversight and management of hate crime reporting across the state. The announcement follows concern raised by a Manhattan state Senator that some hate crimes in the state are being missed. [NYS OSC] [TU]

Many newborn blood samples aren't making it from hospitals to the state lab in Albany within the two-day window mandated. [TU]

Schenectady schools superintendent Larry Spring says he will personally travel to New York City this week to deliver the school district's civil rights complaint against the state to federal Department of Education investigators. (The district argues that it's not getting the state funding it deserves, and alleges the state's formula has ended up being discriminatory against districts with large minority populations.) [Daily Gazette]

Updated: Albany police responded to a reports of gunfire in West Hill (block map) overnight and found a man with a gunshot wound. APD says the man later died of his injuries. APD says an investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call the Albany Police Detective Division at 462-8039. [WNYT] [APD press release]

State Police say patrons of a Stewart's in Rexford restrained a man who's accused of forcibly taking money from the store's cash register (map). NYSP says the patrons held the man in the parking lot until police arrived. [NYSP]

Colonie police say the Cumberland Farms in Boght Corners (map) was robbed at gunpoint Saturday night. [TU]

East Greenbush police say two men were arrested after it's alleged they walked out of Walmart with two 50-inch flat screen TVs without paying. From an EGPD press release: "According to witnesses, the suspects raced to the waiting vehicle, then struggled to get both TV's into the back seat of the Cadillac. Unable to fit both into the car, the men finally put one of the sets on the ground in the parking lot. Then, in their haste to speed off, they backed up and ran over it, leaving it demolished." [TU] [EGPD]

Niskayuna's police chief says the department has made (unspecified) changes after a rape case was dismissed by a judge for taking too long to investigate. [Daily Gazette]

Schenectady's troubled Mont Pleasant Middle School just got its sixth principal in less an year and a half. [Daily Gazette]

Latham official writes letter about EPA drinking water regulations covering lead in fire hydrants -> Paul Tonko co-sponsors bipartisan legislation in the House exempting fire hydrants -> House passes bill -> now it's on to the Senate. [TU]

Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are supporting a call by Rensselaer County leaders for a health study of residents near the toxic Dewey Loeffel dump -- state and federal officials recently said a new study was not needed. [TU]

Members of the Saratoga Springs city council are irked that the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority approved its next budget and lined up its next director without an OK from the council, as is (depending on who's talking) required. [Saratogian]

Sam Coleman, who had run for Albany Common Council this past fall, said he'd been viewing a rental property when he was nabbed during a drug bust recently -- a prosecutor says police found Coleman hiding behind a furnace. [TU]

A resident of Snowden Ave in Schenectady (map), which a few residents say is increasingly plagued by drug dealing and other unruliness: "If it wasn't for the good neighbors we would have walked away years ago, and you know what? The good neighbors are starting to leave." [TU]

Explainer/profile: What the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission does. [TU]

A large overnight fire destroyed the McDonald's in Waterford this past weekend (map). [Troy Record]

The Rotterdam Square Mall is up for auction online this week. [Daily Gazette]

The biggest crowds at a soup kitchen in Saratoga Springs come not in the winter, but the summer. [Saratogian]

An Albany Symphony Orchestra recording has been nominated for a Grammy. [TU]

An Albany 8th grader rides two miles to and from school -- on a unicycle. [TU]