All Over Albany

Local response to Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, family trying to settle after house knocked down, multiple hit-and-run crashes, film shoot in Troy

Response to Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
+ Hundreds of people -- including people of different faiths and elected officials -- gathered at Temple Israel in Albany Sunday for a prayer service in response to the Pittsburgh synagogue. Said a 69-year-old man, whose family had members killed in the Holocaust, at the service: "These kinds of acts are an outrage and they're scary as well. My children are worried, they're scared for themselves, for their children, for us. What's going to happen?" [Daily Gazette] [News10] [TU]
+ From state released by Andrew Cuomo: "The hate in this country has reached a fever pitch and it is bubbling over into violence. This past week, the entire nation was shaken by targeted attempted political bombings, by the racist attack in [Jeffersontown,] Kentucky and by the anti-Semitic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In New York, we mourn for the victims and their loved ones, and we stand together with the African American and Jewish communities and all communities that make up our diverse social fabric." [Cuomo admin]

Bomb threat at WNYT
+ WNYT's facility in Menands was evacuated Sunday morning after the station received a bomb threat via a phone call. Law enforcement swept the building and didn't find any explosives. [WNYT] [TU]
+ Monday morning the President of the United States used Twitter to call the news media "the true Enemy of the People." [Washington Post]

"All we had is that house"
Chris Churchill talks with the family who lost their Sheridan Hollow home when a city-hired contractor conducted an emergency demolition on the next-door building. (Here's a the News10 story about the demolition of the Orange Street home a week ago.) [TU] [News10]

Race and Niskayuna schools
Talking with with alumni and parents about their experiences attending Niskayuna schools as people of color and the discomfort and exclusion they felt. [Daily Gazette]

Hit-and-runs
+ Police say a bicyclist was injured in a hit-and-run on Amsterdam Road in Glenville Friday morning. [WNYT]
+ Schenectady police say a pedestrian suffered serious injuries in a hit-and-run crash early Saturday morning at at the corner of Albany Street and Brandywine Avenue. SPD says it's found the vehicle, as of Sunday there were no reported charges. [Spectrum] [Daily Gazette]
+ State Police say a pedestrian was struck in a crosswalk at Crescent Road and Lapp Road in Clifton Park Saturday night in a hit-and-run. The pedestrian was in stable but serious condition. [News10] [NYSP]

Albany shooting
Albany police are investigating a shooting on Second Street Saturday after a man walked into the emergency department at Albany Med late Saturday morning with non-life threatening gun shot wounds. [APD]

Schenectady shootings
Schenectady police say two men were shot early Saturday morning near State Street and Elder Street, suffering non-life threatening wounds. [Daily Gazette]

Rotterdam kidnapping case
A Schenectady man if facing multiple felony charges for allegedly forcing his way into a woman's home and taking her to an apartment in Schenectady against her will (police say it appears the man and woman knew each other). [Daily Gazette]

Undocumented children in New York State
There are more than 12,700 undocumented youth in immigration courts in New York State this year, and about a third face possible deportation without an attorney. [TU]

NY-19
A profile of where things stand in the tightly-contested NY-19 Congressional election. [TU]

Corruption in state government
Sara Foss argues that corruption should be a major consideration for voters in state elections: "Voters might view corruption as a separate and distinct issue from more pressing concerns. But it's inextricably connected to other, longstanding problems." [Daily Gazette]

Municipal budgets
+ The Schenectady City Council passed a revised city budget 4-3 -- it includes a slightly larger property tax rate cut and smaller raises. [Daily Gazette] [TU]
+ A look at the back and forth over the proposed Niskayuna town budget. [TU]
+ Overviews of more town budgets. [TU]

Saratoga Springs charter
The current mayor and immediate-past mayor of Saratoga Springs are at odds over the latest proposed rewrite of the city's charter. [TU]

Cohoes Community Center closure
The Cohoes Community Center closed Friday because of $450k in debt. State Assemblyman (and former Cohoes mayor) John McDonald said law enforcement agencies have started looking into the situation. The center employed 72 people. [News10] [TU] [CBS6]

Megyn Kelly and Bethlehem
+ A group of Bethlehem high school students on Megyn Kelly's recent comments about blackface and Halloween and the town in the 1980s, in a piece posted on the NBC News website: "Those comments definitely do not speak to who we are in Bethlehem or at Bethlehem Central High School, from which she graduated in 1988. Blackface is not acceptable anywhere in America, and it is not acceptable in our town. We weren't alive when Megyn was in high school but, in the recollection of many of our parents who grew up around here, it was not acceptable even in the 1980s town that she knew." [NBC News]
+ The students say the piece has gotten a lot more attention than they expected. [TU]

Green Tech charter
Albany's Green Tech charter high school wants to add a middle school. [TU]

Access to medical marijuana
There's a push to require health plans in New York State to provide coverage for medical marijuana. [TU]

Kenwood campus
Work at the Kenwood campus in Albany continues, though a trio of contractors say they haven't been paid. [Biz Review]

RPI-Union hockey
The RPI men's hockey team swept Union in their two-game weekend series. [TU]

Troy film shoot road closures
There are a handful of road closures in Troy this week because of a film shoot. [Troy City Hall]

Stuff going on this week

Check out the big list of things to do during this week.