All Over Albany

Sheldon Silver arrested on corruption charge, Cuomo lays out $141 billion "opportunity agenda", Albany lawmakers consider residency requirement, new redistricting plan for Schenectady schools

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested today on corruption charges. The charges stem from allegations that Silver took payments from a small law firm that he failed to list on his annual financial disclosure filings. [AOA][NYT]

Andrew Cuomo laid out a 141.6 billion budget plan on Tuesday for the upcoming fiscal year. What Cuomo called his "Opportunity Agenda" included plans to tie $800 million in school aid to an 11 point list of school reform that includes incentive pay for teachers, tenure reform and an increase in charter schools. The plan also calls for cutting more than 2 million in aid to communities with VLTs, which could mean a hit of half-a-million dollars to Saratoga Springs and Saratoga County. Cuomo also announced a proposal to better protect students from sexual assault on college campuses and $500 million for broadband access in rural upstate areas. Reactions to the plan were mixed. Here are a few take away items from the speech [TU][TU][TWCN][TU][Saratogian][Gazette][WNYT][Record][AOA]

Twenty-two protestors were arrested outside the entrance to the convention center during the speech.
Protests outside the address were smaller than in recent years, with some anti fracking advocates holding up thank you signs. Others work "I Can't Breathe" sweatshirts and carried signs that read Black Lives Matter. [TU][WNYT][CNY]

Albany Common Council members have given their preliminary blessing to a proposed residency requirement for city employees that would affect about 450 workers but would exclude police and firefighters. [TU]

Two trains traveling at a slow speed, grazed each other in the Selkirk rail yard causing one of the trains to derail and turn on its side, spilling fuel from a gash in the fuel tank. [TU][TWCN]

Two Albany men were sentenced to 25 years to life on Wednesday for gunning down a man outside a Willie's bar on Washington Avenue.[TU]

The father of a Ualbany student who died in an off campus pledging event for an underground fraternity has filed a notice of claim, alleging the University didn't do enough to rein in activities at the fraternity. [Gazette]

The family of Kenneth White, the little boy allegedly killed by his cousin in December, was in court on Wednesday in an effort to get custody of the boy's two sisters, passing protestors who want to see the girls kept in foster care. [Gazette][WNYT]

Schenectady's school board has adopted what is being looked at as an "imperfect" redistricting plan, in an effort to diversify schools.[Gazette]

The Capital Region's first full-size inclusive playground is being built in Milton. [WNYT]