All Over Albany

Sex trafficking sting nets 12 arrests, Albany County legislature votes down anti-nepotism proposal, Kirsten Gillibrand and the F word

Underage sex trafficking sting
Police say an underage sex trafficking sting operation based in Warren County netted the arrests of 12 men from around the region. The sting involved posting online ads with an undercover police officer posing as the contact person -- they men were arrested when they showed up and agreed to a price. The sting included the Warren County Sheriff's Department, State Police, and FBI. [TU] [Daily Gazette] [Post-Star] [News10]

Trial in the death of Medina Knowles
A prosecution witnessed testified Monday that when he and Raekwon Stover were inmates at the Schenectady County jail, Stover admitted that he had fatally shot Medina Knowles (the witness is set to get a reduced jail term for his testimony). [Daily Gazette]

Albany County anti-nepotism proposal
The Albany County Legislature voted against a proposed resolution that would have imposed stricter rules for the hiring of former officials and the family of county officials to county jobs. [TU]

Trial in the death of William Chamberlain
Jury selection started Monday in the trial of 29-year-old Joseph N. Vandenburgh, accused of fatally stabbing former Troy city official William Chamberlain near his Wynantskill home a year and a half ago. [Troy Record]

Northeast Parent and Child Society
Northeast Parent and Child Society in Schenectady has been hit by two recent cases of alleged misconduct involving staff: a teacher that was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a student, and a teacher's assistant who turned herself in Monday after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. [Daily Gazette] [Spectrum]

Peter Young Housing Industries and Treatment
The fight between the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and Peter Young Housing Industries and Treatment over whether the non-profit org should be allowed access to state grants included arguments in court Monday. (That state alleges that past misconduct within the org should bar it from state grants.) [TU]

State Police: rocks thrown at cars on 787
State Police say they arrested three teens for allegedly throwing rocks at vehicles on 787 in Albany Saturday night. One rock is said to have crashed through a sunroof, hitting a driver and giving him a concussion. [NYSP] [News10]

Pot legalization
The latest push to get New York State to legalize recreational marijuana use. [TU]

Alcohol in movie theaters
The latest push to get New York State to allow movie theaters to sell alcohol. [WNYT]

Rensselaer County politics
A longtime Rensselaer County political figure has been booted from his job with the county legislature, the latest turn in what state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin calls "a political civil war" over the impending Republican primary for county exec between him and deputy county exec Chris Meyer. [TU]

Leonard Hospital and Troy leadership
Mark Robarge says the recent episode in which the Troy City Council rejected a plan for affordable housing at the Leonard Hospital site in Lansingburgh has made him reconsider moving to the city -- and question the city's leadership in general. [Troy Record]

Anti-blight funding
A state Attorney General's Office program is granting money to a group of cities around the state -- including Albany, Saratoga Springs, and Schenectady -- to use a system that pulls together data on code enforcement, tax liens, and and fire and police calls for anti-blight programs. [NYS OAG]

Schenectady pump station
The Schenectady City Council has reached a compromise on the plan to site a new pump station in a park along in the Mohawk River in the Stockade. [TU]

CMoST
The Children's Museum of Science and Technology -- which had been slated to move to SUNY Poly campus in Albany -- is apparently now looking at a site in Clifton Park. [TU]

The F word
Chris Churchill has the recent reaction to Kirsten Gillibrand's public use of rather emphatic modifiers: "Political civility was already lying its coffin and struggling to breathe. Then Trump came along, hammered the lid shut and threw dirt over the box. Political civility is now cold to the touch and buried, and it's stupid to pretend otherwise." [TU+]

Stuff going on today

Stories
Tuesday: The Front Parlor storytelling series is back at The Ale House in Troy. This month's theme: "karma." Tuesday 7:30 pm

Phone photography
Tuesday: Photographer Cindy Shultz -- who was an award-winning photojournalist at the Times Union for many years -- is leading a class at the Troy Innovation Garage about upping your mobile phone photo game. Tuesday 6 pm -- $20

Music: New York Women: Singing for Suffrage
An Old Songs show at the New Scotland Historical Society. "With enlightening narrative, and songs that women sang during the suffrage movement between 1848 and 1920, this dynamic 50 minute performance tells the story of the New York women who worked to reform the inequality of women in the new America." Tuesday 7 pm

Music: Fates Warning at Upstate Concert Hall
Metal. With: Infinite Spectrum, Final Sleep, Winters Burden. 7 pm -- $18 ahead / $20 day of