All Over Albany

Sheehan names panel on rail safety, Troy officer charged with tipping off drug suspects, hundreds line up to meet Clinton in Saratoga, billboard ad nets three kidney offers

Kathy Sheehan named a 15- member panel on Tuesday to investigate rail safety in Albany, in response to last week's call from County Executive Dan McCoy to relocate residents from the Ezra Prentice Homes , which border the rail yard. Albany County has also established a hotline for people with crude oil train concerns. [TU][WNYT]

Fans waited for up to five hours to meet Hillary Clinton sign their copies of her book at Northshire Books on Tuesday.[TU][Saratogian]

The NYS Attorney General's office is alleging that a Troy police officer tipped off suspects in a drug ring about pending search warrants, allowing them time to hide evidence. [WNYT]

New York has been ordered to repay the federal government more than $1.3 billion in overpayments made in 2010.[Capitol Confidential]

The Moreland Commission spent more than $350,000 in its nine month investigation.[Capitol Confidential]

Wielding a bottle of Clorox, Rob Astorino said at a press conference Tuesday that his campaign has raised more than $500,000 in the last week, and suggested the recent New York Times articles about Governor Cuomo's involvement with the Moreland commission have helped with that. [Capitol Confidential]

The Rensselaer County Jail is now using a video visitation system that charges inmates $9 for a 20 minute video call.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of a house fire that killed a 70-year-old woman early Tuesday morning in her Rensselaer apartment, but they are now saying they don't consider the blaze suspicious.[Record][TU]

A police standoff on Washington Avenue and Quail Street on Monday night ended peacefully after a man who was believed to have been armed with a handgun or rifle surrendered to police. [TU]

Albany police have arrested a man for allegedly robbing two banks within minutes of each other last week. [WNYT]

A man with 44 arrests in 29 years is now facing rape and sex abuse charges in Saratoga County. [TU]

A Schenectady man is facing arson and assault charges for allegedly attacking his girlfriend and setting their Mont Pleasant home on fire on Tuesday. [TU]

Albany police charged two teens with robbing a man and taking his car on Woodlawn Avenue last week. [TU]

The Albany Convention Authority has reopened talks with the firm SMG to manage the Albany Capital Center and the Times Union Center. [TU]

Andrew Cuomo is considering a visit to Israel. [WNYT]

More than half of the dozen companies that will get tax breaks under the START-UP New York program are not new companies, but expansions of existing companies. [TU]

Redistricting efforts are underway in the Schenectady school district, and the initial maps were released on Tuesday. Schenectady's school superintendent Laurence Spring says without redistricting "Kids will be hanging out the windows in Yates [elementary school] and rattling around a mostly empty Woodlawn [elementary school][TU][Gazette]

The Cuomo admin's New York Renewable Heat NY initiative is promoting companies that make high efficiency, low emission wood heating systems and promoting the use of wood for heating.[Record]

A group of Ukrainian Americans from the Capital Region picketed outside the Bolshoi Ballet's performance at SPAC on Tuesday, to protest what they described as Vladimir Putin's treatment of Ukraine.[TU]

David Cassidy's lawyer is expected to enter a plea on the former teen idol's DWI charge from last year, aagreeing to a misdemeanor charge and a sentence.[TU]

Paul Tonko suggested this week that the video of him speeding on the NYS Thruway may have been the act of professionals.[Capitol Confidential]

The Albany woman who took a billboard ad to advertise for kidney donors has found three potential matches willing to give her a kidney.[TU]