All Over Albany

Health care big topic for Faso TV town hall, body found on tracks in Rensselaer, Schenectady County considers rolling back allowed fireworks

Faso TV town hall
+ A big topic during John Faso's TV town hall event on WMHT Thursday evening: health care, and his support of the effort to replace the Affordable Care Act -- "My approach with the ACA is keep what works and fix what doesn't." [NYSNYS/Daily Freeman] [TU]
+ The studio audience for the event was about 80 people, and a crowd of about 100 people gathered outside to protest. [News10]
+ Paul Tonko has a town hall-style event scheduled for next Thursday at Skidmore. [Daily Gazette]

School budgets
+ Because of an unusually large increase in state aid, the Albany school district is proposing a budget that adds multiple new programs -- but doesn't include a tax increase. [TU]
+ The Troy school district got less in state aid than officials were hoping, and its superintendent said the result was a "tough" budget. [Troy Record]

Body found on tracks in Rensselaer
Rensselaer police said the body of a man in his 20s was found on the train tracks Thursday afternoon and there are indications he was hit by a train. Amtrak stopped train traffic along the stretch while investigators worked the scene. [WNYT] [News10]

Albany fatal shooting investigation
After a Times Union report, citing unnamed sources, that a nephew of Common Council member Mark Robinson is a suspect in the shooting death of Christopher Hardy, Robinson said in a statement that he has not spoken with his nephew, but: "My family has shared with me that my nephew, Taron Robinson, is afraid that he has been wrongfully implicated in this case." [TWCN]

Sheila Abdus-Salaam
+ Anonymous officials tell the NYT that New York City police haven't reached a conclusion in their investigation of the death of Court of Appeals judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam. [NYT]
+ Many media reports have noted that Abdus-Salaam was Muslim and that she had been the first Muslim woman to achieve various positions in the judiciary -- but a Court of Appeals spokesman says she was not Muslim. Nick Reisman: "[I]t's fascinating, and a bit disturbing to me as a reporter, how this went unchecked, if only for posterity's sake. Someday there will be a practicing Muslim serving on the Court of Appeals who should be the one to be identified and honored with the distinction." (Abdus-Salaam was the first the African-American woman to serve on the state's highest court.) [State of Politics]

Free tuition plan
David Brooks, not holding back on the Cuomo admin's free SUNY tuition plan: "Donald Trump sets the bar very high, but the award for the worst public policy idea of the year goes to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo." [NYT]

Earlier: Scanning the reaction to New York's new free public college tuition plan

Facing federal budget cuts
A look at how proposed federal budget cuts would affect programs such as road paving and social services in Schenectady. [Daily Gazette]

Schenectady County fireworks
Schenectady County legislators are considering whether to make fireworks such as sparklers illegal again after complaints about larger fireworks. [Daily Gazette]

Momentive
The latest turn in the post-strike scene at the Momentive plant in Waterford: The company has banned employees from wearing union insignia that reference workers who were fired during the strike. [TU+]

Travel agent pleads guilty
A Saratoga County travel agent pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny and admitted to stealing almost $50k from customers over the course of two years. [Daily Gazette]

Apartments proposed for Menands
There's a proposal to build 80 apartments at the Olympic Lanes site in Menands. [TU]

Erie Boulevard
Agents and property owners say there's been increase in interest in properties along Erie Boulevard since the opening of the casino. [Daily Gazette]

Church windows
A look at the effort to restore stained glass windows from closed Catholic churches in Troy so they can be installed at a church in Clifton Park. [Troy Record]