All Over Albany

City of Albany pushes for Harriman PILOT, kindergartner spends day at wrong school, some sort of minor goat miracle

Albany mayor Kathy Sheehan was joined by local state legislators and business leaders Thursday to call for the state to arrange a PILOT with the city for the Harriman State Office Campus. (PILOT = payment in lieu of taxes. The campus is tax exempt because it's owned by the state.) The Cuomo admin said it was too early to consider such payments, and the city should wait until after the financial restructuring board returns its recommendations. Jack McEneny, Albany's former rep in the state Assembly, said getting a payment will be a struggle: "I think what the legislature sees is this enormous subsidy to Albany in the form of state workers' jobs." Also notable from Thursday press conference: Albany Med president Jim Barba was there and said the city's non-profits should look at contributing to the city government in some way, either via payments or in-kind services. [Troy Record] [TU] [TWCN] [News10]

After the announcement of the Albany County moratorium on the expansion of crude oil handling facilities at the Port of Albany, an official with Global Partners -- the company proposing to building the facility for warming crude oil at the port -- tells the Times Union the company's project "does not seek to expand the permitted storage capacity or total volume of petroleum products received at the facility and transported from the facility." (The fact that Global actually said something in the media is sort of notable on its own.) [TU]

The state Court of Appeals -- New York's highest court -- has rejected Steven Raucci's request to have the appeal of his criminal case heard by the court. [Daily Gazette]

A Schenectady kindergartner ended up at the wrong school Wednesday and apparently no one noticed until her mother didn't find her at the bus stop in the afternoon. The school district says when the student arrived at the wrong school, she was asked if she was a new student the school was expecting -- she reportedly said yes, and even signed that name to papers during the day. Said the girl's mother in response: "Ok, so blame her, she duped you, that's one up on her, not on you. That's all I can say, and I'm being cocky about it now because they don't know what I went through." Said a district spokesperson: "We are not placing blame on a 5-year-old. We were pointing out how her response and behavior contributed to the confusion and how she managed to be in the wrong school for the day." Said district superintendent Larry Spring: "While the student did impersonate another student, which didn't raise any red flags, the situation has brought to light some other serious issues that need to be addressed on our end." [WNYT] [TU] [TWCN] [Daily Gazette] [News10]

A look at how a person who told legislators she hadn't really been following the Common Core situation got elected to the state Board of Regents this week. [TU]

A Malta town official accused of making town employees do political work on town time apparently didn't show up for the town ethics training that was prompted by the accusations against her. [TU]

A Coeymans town justice/Ravena village justice has resigned after allegations intervened in cases involving his family and elected officials. [TU]

A state appeals court ruled that a man in prison for a double shooting in Schenectady two decades ago should get a chance to present new evidence from a witness who says the man wasn't in the area when the shooting happened. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

The taxi driver who was stabbed repeatedly after driving a woman from Johnstown to Schenectady last year testified that the woman told him, "Drive or I'll kill you." [TU]

Albany police are crediting a beat officer for "keen work" that led to the arrest of three teens for allegedly burglarizing homes in the Helderberg neighborhood. [APD FB]

State Police say they arrested a 71-year-old woman for allegedly shoplifting two packages of coffee from a Clifton Park Starbucks. [NYSP]

"People with knowledge of the situation" tell the Times Union two Albany County assistant district attorneys were recently suspended for a joke photo that appeared on Facebook. [TU]

More state parks around the region are in line to get automated payment systems at entrances in an effort to re-deploy employees to other jobs. [Saratogian]

A federal review of Metro North concludes the railroad has a "deficient safety culture." [NYT]

A group called Transport Troy is pushing for the city to give a closer look at options for non-automobile forms of transportation. [Troy Record]

A company is proposing to building a solar farm in Washington County to provide electricity for Lake George. [Saratogian]

SEFCU made the first and only bid on the downtown Troy building that houses Daisy Baker's and Bacchus. [Troy Record]

Union College students have to win a lottery to be allowed to live off campus, which some students say can cause some problems when arranging to lease an apartment. [Daily Gazette]

Farther afield: A goat at SUNY Cobleskill recently gave birth to quintuplets -- "a minor miracle in goat terms." [Daily Gazette]