All Over Albany

Reaction to incident at Kokopellis in Troy, Sheehan wants to take Albany before state's restructuring board, informant headed to prison for trying to frame shop owner

Said Troy mayor Lou Rosamilia in response to the incident at Kokopellis this past weekend, in which the TPD says six officers were injured and mobile phone video shows officers hitting a man while he's on the floor: "preliminary evidence indicates that our police department, in an effort to gain control of an out-of-control situation, used necessary force in order to make arrests and protect themselves and others." Said police commissioner Anthony Magnetto of the video of the situation in the club: "I don't see anything where the officers acted inappropriately or used excessive force." Police chief John Tedesco urged calm: "Let us look at all the relevant evidence and we'll go from there." City council president Rodney Wiltshire also called for caution as the facts are investigated, but about the video: "I'm not happy with what I saw ... It's hard for me to watch." At a community meeting in North Central, Willie Bacote, a pastor, called for immediate changes in the TPD, including the resignation of Tedesco. And Alice Green, from the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, talked to the crowd about racial discrimination in policing. [TU] [WNYT] [Troy Record] [TWCN] [Troy Record]

As skepticism/opposition continues to organize toward a plan to build a facility for heating crude oil at the Port of Albany, more than a hundred people attended a community meeting about the project Monday evening in the South End. [TU]

Said Albany mayor Kathy Sheehan to a state legislature committee on her plan for the city go before the state's Financial Restructuring Board in an attempt to get $5 million to update the city's IT systems:
"We have no choice. We have a $16 million deficit ... If we can't make that investment ... we're just going to continue in the spiral that we're in." [TU]

Anthony Collins, the accused of trying to abduct a UAlbany student at knifepoint from bus stop near the university's downtown residence halls last fall, has pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping and faces up to 12 years in prison. Collins had been the subject of a documentary project about his struggles with mental illness. [TU] [Albany County DA] [AOA]

The median salary for teachers statewide is up 10 percent since 2008-2009, according to an Empire Center report, though the reasons are more complicated than they might first appear. [Empire Center] [TU]

Colonie's town attorney says the owner of the Skylane Motel, recently shutdown for hundreds of alleged code violations, could face additional charges because it appears repairs had been started without building permits. [TU]

The director of Saratoga County's Veterans Service Agency has been put on administrative leave after he says he refused a request to resign. A "former county official who asked not to be identified" tells the Times Union that county Republicans weren't fans of the director working with non-Republicans at veterans functions. [Saratogian] [TU]

Lead (or lede) of the day, from the Times Union's Robert Gavin: "A paid police informant who literally pulled crack cocaine out of his rear end to frame a Scotia business owner is headed to state prison for 6 to 12 years." Said the business owner to the Gazette after hearing about the sentence: "That's the perfect sentence for him. You're not supposed to go into someone's business, someone who's doing good for himself, and plant crack cocaine on the counter ... That could have been me in front of that judge." [TU] [Daily Gazette]

Colonie police say an officer shot and killed a turkey that was either sick or injured and had been acting strangely (map). And from the commenters, a fowl cry. [TU] [WNYT]

Without a police department (it relies on the State Police) or professional fire department (relies on volunteers), the town of Clifton Park's highest earning employees last year were highway department employees. [TU]

Work has started at the site of the new "ZEN" building planned for the NanoCollege campus at Washington and Fuller. [TU]

Pete Seeger -- the folk music icon, environmental activist (he founded Hudson River Sloop Clearwater), and Hudson Valley resident -- has died. He was 94. [NPR]