All Over Albany

Teen shot in Albany, Rensselaer County deputy fired after arrest, absentee ballots will decide Rensselaer races & Saratoga charter

Teen shot in Albany
A 17-year- old boy is recovering from an abdominal wound after he was shot on Hunter Avenue in the city at around 4 pm on Wednesday. [WNYT]

Active shooter training
The Clifton Park Library held an active shooter drill on Wednesday. [Gazette]

Guns
"All of these mass killings are senseless -- and yet they happen again and again"-- Chris Churchill on the Texas church shooting. [TU]

Absentee ballots will decide Rensselaer County races
Several Rensselaer County races, including the county executive race, will be decided by absentee ballots on Monday.[TU]

Saratoga Springs charter reform
Saratoga Springs residents will have to wait two weeks for a decision on reforming the city charter, while absentee ballots are counted. [Spectrum]

New Rensselaer County deputy fired following arrest
Cory Wagner, a former Rensselaer County Sheriff's Deputy, was fired after less than a month on the job following his arrest on Monday. Wagner was charged with first-degree criminal sex act.[Record][News 10]

McCormick search negative
After two days of digging, a search this week in Fulton County in the case of a 13-year-old Saratoga Springs girl missing for more than 30 years found no evidence. [TU]

Albany set to sell Coeymans land
Albany's Common Council has approved the sale of 363 acres in Coeymans to a recycling company, in a deal that could bring the city as much as $620,000. [TU]

Hamilton Hill
The next phase of development in Hamilton Hill will include ninety-four new housing units.[TU]

Former Schenectady union leader sues GE
A former union leader at the GE plant in Schenectady is suing the company, alleging self-serving management of its 401(k) plans. [Gazette]

Negativity and Niskayuna
Sara Foss on negative campaigning, bullying, and the Niskayuna town supervisor race. [Gazette]

Via Port mall sues Sears
Via Port Rotterdam is suing Sears over $500,411 plus interest for the 14.5 months rent it will not receive from the company. [Business Review]

Rensselaer homeless relief center burglarized
Between $3,000 and $4,000 in donated items were stolen from St. Paul's Center in Rensselaer, an organization that provides shelter to homeless mothers and children. [WNYT]

Code blue
The Code Blue alert has been extended through Sunday in Albany.[TU]

Connecting inmates with their kids
UAlbany students are helping Albany County Jail inmates to connect with their children by recording the inmates reading children's books, and sending the recordings to their families. [WNYT]

Green & healthy homes
The mayors of Albany, Schenectady and Troy have formed the nations first regional Green & Healthy Homes Initiative partnership, aimed at creating housing intervention programs for residents in energy-inefficient, unhealthy and unsafe homes. [TU]

$600,000 for Schenectady parks
Schenectady County has granted $600,000 for improvements on its parks, including a trail connection from Tribute Park to Vale Park. [Gazette]

Keeping a tournament in Albany
The benefits of keeping the AAU basketball tournament in Albany. [TU]

Drumming from Guilderland to Glasgow
A 13-year-old Guilderland Scottish drummer took first place in his age group at the World Solo Drumming Championships in Glasgow.[Gazette]

Stuff going on today

Film

Pine Hills Film Colony
Thursday: The Pine Hills Film Colony's fall series is showing the 1941 film That Night in Rio at The Madison. Thursday 7 pm -- $10

Arts and sciences

New Yorker cartoons
Thursday: New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Bob Mankoff will be at the State Museum as part of the NYS Writers Institute visiting writers series. Chast has a new book, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York. Thursday 8 pm, State Museum, Huxley Theater -- free

The First Amendment
Thursday: Saint Rose is hosting a talk and panel discussion titled "Disagree with Dignity - Understanding the First Amendment." Panelists include Loretta A. Preska, a senior judge with the United States District Court; Eve Burton, senior vice president and general counsel for Hearst; and Alfred D. Chapleau, associate professor of criminal justice at Saint Rose and a former ADA in Schenectady County. Thursday 5:30 pm, Lally School of Education -- free

Sanctuary cities
Thursday: Albany Law is hosting a panel discussion about issues related to sanctuary cities. Panelists include: Albany mayor Kathy Sheehan; Dina Francesca Haynes, Professor of Law, New England Law; Jeremy McLean, Staff Attorney, Worker Justice Center of New York; Philip L. Torrey, Managing Attorney, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. Thursday 5:30 pm, Moot Courtroom -- free

My Paradoxical Knives
Thursday: Performer/choreographer Ali Moini will be appearing at EMPAC via Skype to talk about My Paradoxical Knives:

Ali Moini's My Paradoxical Knives includes poetry by the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi and movements reminiscent of the Sufi whirling dervish. Diverging from this tradition, Moini performs in a costume made of straps that connect metal knives to his body like appendages or prostheses. As Moini spins and sings, the knives ascend and point toward the audience as if to ask: What happens when poems are cut loose and become dangerous? What is a safe distance between the audience and the performer? How close can you get to someone who comes from a different culture?

Moini was originally scheduled to be there in person, but wasn't able to get into the country "due to visa processing delays stemming from current federal immigration policy." Thursday 7:30 pm -- free

Alan Alda

Thursday: Alan Alda will be at Proctors for a talk titled Getting Beyond A Blind Date with Science:

It was in autumn of 2003 that Alan Alda's life changed forever. While filming for Scientific American Frontier, Alda felt an intense pain in his abdomen. It was his appendix, and it needed to be removed immediately. In a local Chilean ER, a doctor saved his life just in the nick of time.

A lifelong lover of science, Alda would like everyday people and science to shake hands. Just as he knew to get to a doctor, because of what his body was telling him, Alda believes that people should have an easier time understanding and relating to science.

Thursday 8 pm -- $30 and up

Thursday: Modern English at The Hollow
"I'll stop the world and melt with you..." 9 pm -- $20 ahead / $23 at door