All Over Albany

Long-awaited report on Albany's finances finally out, DA rolls back Walmart theft case agreement, push for farm worker labor rights, more bits about possible new Cap Rep theater

Report on Albany finances
+ The long-awaited state-backed consultants' report on the city of Albany's finances was finally released late this past Friday afternoon -- among the many recommendations: fewer police officers and firefighters, higher taxes. [TU]
+ Reaction from the mayoral candidates. [WNYT]

State Senate stipend scandal
+ An overview and recap of latest scandalous situation involving the state legislature, involving the state Senate and the payment of committee chair stipends to members who didn't actually have the positions. [NYT]
+ "A source with knowledge of the decision" tells the Daily News that the Albany County DA's office will not be pursuing a formal investigation of the situation. [NYDN]

Rensselaer County and Walmart theft cases
+ After an agreement between the Rensselaer County DA's office and Walmart in which the chain was not to call law enforcement for thefts less than $100 -- a bid to reduce crowding local courts with cases over small thefts -- came to light in a Times Union report, DA Joel Abelove reversed course Friday. [TU x2]
+ Chris Churchill: "It all sounds like a madcap game show in which contestants run around a big-box store filling their carts -- but if they go over the $100 limit, they lose and don't get to keep the stuff. (Sad horn sound.)" [TU+]
+ From Bloomberg Businessweek last year: "Walmart's Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy." [Bloomberg]

Farmer worker labor rights
A look at the push for farm workers in New York State to get collective bargaining rights. [TU+]

ICE in Columbia County
Business owners -- a restaurant owner and a farm owner -- says recent ICE raids in Columbia County have been making it hard to find workers as undocumented immigrants have fled the area. [WNYT]

Hoosick Falls
A look at the services a prominent PR firm performed for Hoosick Falls' then-mayor as the village dealt with the contamination of the water supply -- at a price of more than $100k. [TU]

Alleged Schenectady murder for hire
Schenectady police arrested a man Friday accused of setting up a murder-for-hire last year. [TU]

Ambulance death autopsy
Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino said that an autopsy concluded that the man who died in the Duanesburg ambulance crash last week was fatally injured in the crash. [Daily Gazette]

SUNY free tuition plan
Regulations for the SUNY free tuition plan are now in place -- applications open June 7. [Politico NY]

Nancy Zimpher
Reviewing Nancy Zimpher's eight years as head of the SUNY system as she's about to leave the job. [TU]

New Capital Rep theater
The owner of an old factory/warehouse space at Pearl and Livingston says the property's under contract with Capital Rep for the building to potentially become the org's new theater space. [Biz Review]

Schenectady pump station in the park
Sara Foss is skeptical that building a new sewage pump station Schenectady's Riverside Park is the best option. [Daily Gazette]

Energy storage facility floated for Malta
A company is looking at the possibility of siting an electricity storage facility -- basically a giant battery for the electricity grid -- in the Luther Forest Technology Campus. [TU]

"But you are noticed. You feel it."
Chris Churchill talks with Jacques Bastien about living in this area as a person of color and the decision he and his wife made to leave the area. [TU+]

Stuff going on today

Music: American Young Voices at TU Center
"The biggest school chorus in the world!" 7 pm -- $30