Controversial sign scrapped from casino plan, Skelos and son request community service, how to outwit a brazen turkey

Controversial sign pulled from casino plan
Rush Street Gaming scrapped its plan to build a controversial 80-foot pylon sign at the Front Street entrance to the $330 million casino on Erie Boulevard.[TU][Gazette]

Skelos and son ask for community service
Lawyers for former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, and his son Adam, who were convicted of all eight bribery, extortion and conspiracy counts against them late last year, have asked a judge to forgo prison sentences and sentence them, instead, to community service.
[NYT]

Plea/sentencing for slashing brother
The 20-year-old Saratoga man charged with stabbing his 10-year-old brother's throat last spring pled guilty to felony assault charges on Wednesday and was sentenced to time served. [TU]

SUNY tuition hike
SUNY's board of trustees says they'll stand behind a plan to hold tuition steady next year if the legislature can provide $73 million in assistance. [WNYT][TU]

Menands company illegally outsourced state contract
A Menands document imaging company that contracted with NYS to digitize files compromised the data and violated its contract by outsourcing about a third of the job to india. The company has reached an agreement with the state after admitting it paid an Indian company $82,000 to do about a third of a $3.45 million state contract job that required background checks for employees and stipulated the majority of the work was to be done by people with disabilities. [NYT][TU]

Lawyer sues for back pay for judges
A Manhattan-based lawyer active and former New York State judges is suing the state for $312 million in back pay to cover "financial harm" to his clients[TU]

Minimum wage compromises
As legislators debate the state budget, negotiations are underway on several compromises in Andrew Cuomo's proposed $15 minimum wage hike. [WNYT]

Troy liquor store suspect charged with four Albany robberies
The suspect in the robbery of a Troy liquor store is now also a suspect in four separate hold-ups at a Delaware Avenue Sunoco station in Albany. [WNYT]

Driver says he blacked out before crash
The driver charged with causing a Duansburg crash in September that killed three members of the same family says he had one beer that evening and a prescription pain killer in the morning, but blacked out before the crash. [Gazette]

Washington park car burglaries
A 16-year-old Albany resident is being charged as an adult for a string of car break-ins in the Washington park neighborhood. [TWCN]

Jay street fire suit
The family of a man who died in last years fire that destroyed a Jay Street apartment building has filed a lawsuit against the property owner. [Gazette]

Active threat drill in Voorhesville
The Albany County Sheriff's Department is holding an Active Threat full scale exercise in Voorheesville today.[WNYT]

Rensselaer County and heroin
The Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office seized more than 1,600 individual packets of heroin off the streets of the county in 2015 -- one of the facts revealed in a community conversation Wednesday on heroin abuse in the county. [TU]

How to outwit a brazen turkey
A pair of border collies have been brought in to scare of a brazen turkey that has apparently been harassing employees at the Times Union and town library patrons. So far the plan appears to be working. [TU+]


Happening today

The Lion King
Tuesday-Sunday: A touring production of The Lion King opens a month-long run at Proctors. It is, of course, the hugely-popular musical based on the Disney movie. Tuesday-Sunday various times -- $20 and up

The Blue-Sky Boys
Tuesday-Sunday: Capital Rep's production of The Blue-Sky Boys, about "the maverick engineers who stopped at nothing to get a man to the moon and back," continues this week. Tuesday-Sunday various times - $20 and up

Len Tantillo
Artist Len Tantillo -- who's painted many scenes Albany's history -- will be at the Albany Institute for a talk about his career. Thursday 6 pm -- free

On Screen/Sound
The On Screen/Sound series at EMPAC continues with a look "at the importance of incidental music and Foley sound effects in the horror movie genre." Thursday 7 pm - $6

Music

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely at Troy Music Hall
"Toshi Reagon is a one-woman celebration of all that's dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music." 7:30 pm - $34

Bonerama at Parish Public House
Funk. With: Oobleck. 8 pm - $17

Turkuaz at Putnam Den
Funk. 9 pm - $10 ahead / $15 day of

The Lustre Kings + Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones at Helsinki Hudson
Rockabilly. 8 pm - $15 ahead / $19 day of

Comments

"Controversial sign pulled from casino plan"

I understand they're decided to go with a more modest and less garish sign -- a Las Vegas-style, neon-lit, scantily-clad showgirl beckoning passers by to patronize the casino.

@Bob...it will be more influenced by the times and style of Schenectady...Cardboard and with some GE bulbs.

@Amelia...In a parka?

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