All Over Albany

Soares to investigate death of Donald Ivy, NYS budget includes corruption referendum, Schenectady High teacher nominated for a Tony Award, Happening today: baseball trivia and fish tossing

Weather

The first moment we almost considered just going back to bed? The one where we learned there was snow in the forecast today.

News

Soares to investigate Donald Ivy death
DA David Soares has announced his office will conduct an independent investigation into the death of Donald "Dontay" Ivy, the mentally ill man who died after being tasered in a confrontation with police last week. [TU]

Shooting outside elementary school
Schenectady police say a man was shot in the road outside Hamilton Elementary School on Tuesday. Said a neighbor of the school about the search for a shooter "We live by the no-snitch rule in the neighborhood, and one day, it'll be my little ones that get shot."[WNYT][Gazette]

Referendum on corruption
An item in New York's new budget would require voters to decide on whether to revoke the pensions of public officials convicted of corruption.[TU][WNYT]

Oil train increase
Crude oil transportation is down nationwide but not in Albany. At a press conference on Tuesday held by Green Party presidential hopeful Jill Stein, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy pointed out at a rally Albany is now the third busiest oil hub in the United states. [TU][TWCN][Saratogian]

Budget pork
Several billion dollars worth of pork in the new state budget.[CapNY]

Saratoga VLT $$ up, but down
The Saratoga Racino recorded an all time high record in VLT wagers but $18.7 million in free games to entice gamblers. [TU]

Hope House expands
Hope House clients hooked on heroin and other opioids jumped from 5 percent to 35 percent in three years. The facility has just doubled its capacity for adolescents in an effort to meet the challenge.[WNYT]

Schenectady teacher is a Tony nominee
Bill Ziskin, a longtime teacher at Schenectady High School has been nominated for a special Tony Award, thanks to the efforts of students and community members. Says one former student who has gone on to teach theater at Temple University "He goes above and beyond and has been so generous. I know it's a cliche, 'Teachers change lives,' but in Bill's case, it's really true."[TU][Gazette]

Happening today:

Fishing ... backwards
In an annual Saratoga Springs tradition, 700 trout will be thrown into the Geyser Creek today. If you want to help, it's BYOB(Bring Your Own Bucket).[WNYT]

Baseball trivia
Wednesday: The Albany Institute has a baseball trivia night hosted by the Times Union's Pete Iorizzo as part of its ongoing "Triple Play" exhibit. Teams can include up to four people. Prizes include tickets to the Albany Devils and Tri-City ValleyCats. Wednesday 6 pm - $25/person (pre-registration encouraged)

Challenging groupthink in sports and culture
Wednesday: Former ESPN anchor/current MLB Network host Brian Kenny will be at Skidmore for a talk titled "The Herd: Challenging GroupThink in Sports and Culture." Blurbage:

Why do NFL teams still punt, and baseball teams still bunt, when neither leads to long term success? Because that's the way they've always done it, that's why! Teams and coaches still prefer to fail traditionally rather than give themselves the best chance to win. We can all do things against our best interests, but the herd-mentality has long been a tradition even in the most competitive fields in American society.

Wednesday 7 pm, Palamountain Hall - free

Making pasta
Wednesday: Gio Culinary Studio has a hands-on class about making pasta from scratch. "Students will learn to create many distinct hand-made pasta shapes, along with sauces. We will be using all scratch ingredients, professional and traditional techniques, that can be easily duplicated at home." Wednesday 6:15 pm - $60

Wednesday: Session Americana at Caffe Lena
"[A] Boston-based rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle." 7 pm - $22