All Over Albany

Rally outside DA's office for Ivy and Dixon cases, Wormuth pleads guilty to federal charges, more tax breaks for GloFo, Peanut is saved

Dontay Ivy and Marquis Dixon
Activists rallied outside the office of Albany County district attorney David Soares to call for the DA to complete the investigation into the death of Dontay Ivy -- who died in Albany police custody four months ago -- and to protest the nine-year sentence given to Albany teen Marquis Dixon, who was convicted of stealing a pair sneakers, allegedly at gunpoint. Said Dixon's mother, Aisha Dixon: "I believe that the crime should fit the time and his crime is not fitting his time." [WNYT] [TWCN]

The rally also points to what one activist described to the Times Union as "disappointment" in Soares, whom many progressive groups have supported in past elections. [TU]

Mindy Wormuth
Former Halfmoon supervisor Mindy Wormuth pleaded guilty to two felony charges of extortion and lying to the feds. She faces up to a year in prison. Wormuth admitted to taking more than $5k in bribes that had been disguised as consulting fees. [Saratogian] [Daily Gazette] [TU]

Charges in fatal Albany crash
Albany police say the man accused of driving drunk in the crash that killed Amy Stock in July has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated DWI. [APD]

Sentencing in fatal Saratoga County crash
The driver who pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular manslaughter for driving drunk in the crash that killed pedestrian Jonathon L. Rogers in northern Saratoga County last September was sentenced to 2-6 years in prison. [Post-Star]

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A stolen summer day: wandering

One of the stolen day destinations mentioned. / photo: Tony Iadicicco

Summer comes and goes so quickly upstate. And there's that constant tension between accomplishing all of the everyday tasks that are necessary to complete in our daily lives and diving into summer's pleasures.

During winter we get the occasional surprise snow day in which to curl up with a good book and a hot chocolate, or make a snowman. So what about summer?

We asked a handful of people what they would do with a stolen summer day...

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Where to get freshly-made tortillas?

Christine emails:

I'm wondering if we can pose a question to AOA readers, is there anywhere in the Capital Region that sells freshly made tortillas?

A variant of this question came up years ago, with only a few suggestions beyond "make 'em yourself." And, of course, things change.

A lot of big cities around the United States now have a factory (or multiple factories) that produce tortillas and distribute them locally. As far we know, the Capital Region does not currently have a such place. But we can hope -- because good tortillas are a great thing.

So, got a suggestion for Christine? Please share!

photo: Flickr user cbertel (CC BY 2.0)

Signs and storefronts

This photo set of old Albany storefronts from the Times Union archive includes some great vintage signage and architecture. (Hint: click the "checkerboard" icon on the article's photo gallery.) See also: the Albany Public Library's "Commercial Streets of Albany" online photo collection.

- Tue 2:45 PM - 1 comment

Can you answer more of these 8th grade math questions correctly?

This week the state Education Department released half of the questions from this year's ELA and mathematics Common Core state tests for grades 3-8. NYSED described them as "a representative sample" of questions used on the tests.

Last year we posted a few of the 8th grade math questions as a sort of short quiz. And people to seem to have a good time nerding out on the questions.

So we pulled five more questions from this year's 8th grade mathematics test -- they're after the jump with the (hidden) answers.

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