All Over Albany

Four Amazon bids from New York, questions about hiring of new Palace leader, pedestrian dies from crash injuries, use of elephants in circuses banned

Amazon bids
+ Here's a snapshot of the Capital Region's bid for Amazon's second headquarters. The pitch was hand delivered to Amazon in Seattle. [AOA] [Biz Review]
+ There were four bids from New York State: the Capital Region, the New York City area, Buffalo/Rochester, and Syracuse/Utica. [Spectrum]

Palace intrigue
Steve Barnes reports that sources tell him that the new head of the Palace Theatre "was hired without input from at least a third of its board of directors and without the outgoing director's knowledge that a search for her replacement had been conducted." [TU]

Sentencing in Albany murder
Gerard Burks -- the man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the beating death of Lori Milks outside the South Mall Towers -- was sentenced to 18.5 years to life in prison. [TU]

Pedestrian dies after Niskayuna crash
Niskayuna police say the man struck by a vehicle in a crash on State Street near Balltown Road Wednesday night has died from his injuries. NPD says the investigation into the crash is continuing. [Spectrum] [Daily Gazette]

Body found in car in Mohawk River
State Police say a dive team found a body in the car that was submerged in the Mohawk River near the Crescent Bridge Thursday. Police haven't released more details. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

NXIVM
A spokesman for the Cuomo admin says its review why state officials didn't follow up on complaints made to the state Department of Health about doctors who allegedly involved with brandings and some sort of experiment connected to NXIUM. A woman and former member of the group described to the Times Union the experiment she was subjected to at a building on Route 9 in Halfmoon. [NYT] [TU]

Troy police contract
The Troy City Council finance committee voted unanimously to move the proposed new contract with the Troy Police Benevolent Association forward to a final council vote in November -- but members are irked by a provision that would provide lifetime health coverage to a former officer who was terminated for tipping off a drug raid. [Troy Record]

Schenectady train station
Both of the bids for construction of the new Schenectady train station appear to be under budget. (The project has been delayed in part because an earlier round of bidding ended up above budget.) [Daily Gazette]

Schenectady County sales tax
Glenville town supervisor Chris Koetzle is pushing for a renegotiation of the formula by which Schenectady County distributes sales tax proceeds to municipalities. [TU]

Schenectady pump station
The design for a new sewage pump station in Schenectady's Riverside Park continues to evolve based on feedback from residents in the Stockade. [Daily Gazette]

Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
Local leaders -- including the mayors of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy -- have signed on to partnership aimed at improving housing stock that's unhealthy, unsafe, and/or energy inefficient. [Troy Record]

Albany public access channel
Producers of programming for Albany's public access TV channel are pushing for a total replacement of the board that oversees the channel. [TU]

Circus elephants
Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation that bans the use of elephants in circuses and parades. [TU]

Plotter Kill
The Plotter Kill Preserve will be closed for three days next week so DEC can apply pesticide to fight the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. [Daily Gazette]

Arena football
It sounds like a group of investors is working toward bringing an arena football team back to Albany and the Times Union Center. [WNYT]