All Over Albany

Panel proposes property tax freeze, Homeland Security officials raid rape suspect's apartment, court upholds $100,000 ruling for cat

Andrew Cuomo's tax commission is recommending $2 billion package of measures, including a proposed two-year freeze on property tax rates. [Capitol Confidential] [YNN]

Federal authorities raided the home of John Halacy, the Rensselaer County man who had rape charges against him dropped in November due to a paperwork error in the DA's office. Halacy's home was raided on Tuesday afternoon by the Department of Homeland Security, but authorities are not saying why. He's still facing second-degree rape and other charges from the original case involving a pair of teen girls, aged 13 and 14. This is the second time since his release that his home was raided -police searched the house on Thanksgiving Day in connection with a robbery.[YNN][WNYT][TU]

Troy school district voters approved an $8.4 million bond referendum for technology and safety upgrades throughout the district. The plan calls for smartboards, interactive projectors, document cameras, video conferencing abilities, and multimedia systems in about 250 classrooms as well as internet access and security improvements.[YNN][Record]

The Glenville man who allegedly made the bomb threat that forced Global Foundries to evacuate 3,000 construction workers from its site in Malta on Monday is facing as much as 1 and 1/3 years in prison on a charge of second-degree falsely reporting an incident, a felony. [Saratogian]

Jurors began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of Quintril Clark, accused of killing Sha-kim Miller in Troy.[Record]

A Troy man who crashed his car going more than 100 miles per hour on 787 in September has pleased guilty to reckless driving charges in Albany .[WNYT]

A Petersburgh woman was arrested in East Greenbush onSunday for illegal possession of Suboxone -- a highly controlled pharmaceutical product used to help overcome heroin addiction.[WNYT]

State Troopers have arrested an employee of the NYS Office of Children and Family Services for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from a fund for employee gatherings. [WNYT][TU]

A dispute over $5,700 between Albany County DA David Soares office and a former employee has cost the county $15,000 and it's still ongoing.[TU]

Fumes from a pesticide ingested by a patient led to Monday's evacuation of Saint Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam. [Gazette]

This Friday is the deadline for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy to decide whether he'll veto the chain restaurant styrofoam ban passed by the Albany County legislature. [TU]

Parts of Dove Street in Albany were closed down on Tuesday morning due to a kitchen fire. [WNYT][TU]

New York State's highest court ruled on Tuesday that Jana Winter, a Fox News reporter, should not be forced to reveal her sources for her reporting about the massacre in a suburban Denver movie theater.[TU]

Moody's Investors Services says RPI's expenses have been managed prudently but the firm has downgraded the institute's outlook from "stable" to "negative", based in part on its $787 million debt. [TU]

Albany County Surrogate Judge Cathryn M. Doyle was suspended by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct on Tuesday while she awaits a determinations on allegations that she didn't disclose conflicts with attorneys who had cases in her courtroom. [TU]

New York State graduated about 200 new state troopers on Tuesday in a ceremony at the Empire State Plaza. [TU]

An elementary school just a few blocks from Hoosick Street, where vehicle pedestrian accidents prompted the state DOT to spend $100,00 to improve pedestrian safety, will take part in a pedestrian safety assembly. [TU]

Behind the sentencing of Dennis Drue.[TU]

Suzanne Lyall the U-Albany student who disappeared in 1998, is one of seven missing persons to be featured on coasters going out to local bars and restaurants in an effort to help locate them. [TU]

After revising its count, NYS says 31,000 of the more than 100,000 New Yorkers who enrolled in heath insurance through the new online health exchange enrolled in Medicaid - down from the original number of 41,000.[TU]

"The unfinished business of legs Diamond," or why you should always get your money upfront. [TU]

It's not the cold, it's the wind chill.[TU]

The shorter-than-usual holiday season is taking a toll on some of the local branches of the Salvation Army, with Schenectady County $21,000 behind where it was this time last year, and Troy lagging $12,000 behind last year. [YNN][TU]

Comedy Warriors, a locally produced documentary about five severely injured military veterans learning to write and perform stand-up comedy based on their Iraq and Afghanistan experiences, is headed for Showtime. [Gazette]

An appellate division of the state Supreme Court has ruled that a dead woman's cat can inherit $100,000.[TU]