All Over Albany

Orszag to speak at RPI commencement

Ladies are powerless to resist the haircut.

Nerd sex symbol Peter Orszag will be the speaker at RPI's commencement this year. When Orszag isn't impregnating heiresses or engaging stunning television reporters, he's the director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Obama Administration.

It's very possible that Orszag is a cylon -- what with his sterling CV, rep as a "super nerd" in the White House, anti-charity approach to losing weight, being "way taller than you're supposed to be", marathon running, and genetic ability to metabolize large amounts of caffeine. All that -- and he's putting the "OMG back in OMB."

And check out the lineup for this year's "President's Commencement Colloquy:" Orszag, Robert Langer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Harold Varmus. That's like a week's-worth of Charlie Rose episodes.

Also: The Albany College of Pharmacy has lined up the US Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, as its commencement speaker.

[via Kevin]

photo: Marc1022 via Wikipedia

Officials say they're prepping for swine flu, more ghost ticket testimony, ACP student's skull cracked in assault, phoning while driving sweep nets hundreds, rock snot

There have now been 28 confirmed cases of swine flu in New York State -- all of them in NYC. The state Department of Health says it expects to see more cases emerge. State and local officials say they're prepping in case the influenza strain spreads elsewhere in the state. The state has set up a swine flu hotline and info page: 1-800-808-1987. [NYT] [TU] [Daily Gazette] [NYS DoH]

The head of the Albany police union testified under oath last night before the Common Council about the ghost ticket scandal. Christian Mesley reiterated his earlier assertion that APD chief James Tuffey wasn't totally forthcoming in his comments about the tickets. Mesley was testifying as an officer -- not as union head -- and some council members say they suspect they didn't get the full story as a result. [TU] [Fox23]

David Paterson says he's issuing an executive order requiring that any need state mandate on local governments will have to include funding the new rule. Paterson says the order should help slow the increase of property taxes. The governor also said yesterday that state's fiscal outlook later this year "may not be as bad we first thought." [TU] [AP/Troy Record]

County sales tax revenues were down in the first quarter of 2009 -- both locally and across the state. And that could mean... higher property taxes. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

(there's more)

Political antics on the web, probation for pharmacy college, eviction for Golden Fox, the guy in the picture didn't actually do it

Phil Steck, one of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the 21st congressional district, is accusing one of his fellow Democrats of "cybersquatting" domains that include his name. Steck says consultants connected with Tracey Brooks have snapped up PhilSteck.org and other similar urls. Apparently Brooks' people have also done this for variations on Paul Tonko's name, too. [WNYT]

Republicans in Guilderland have accused the town's economic development director of "fraud and abuse." Why? They say he posted comments to a TU blog while on the clock. (TU Local Politics has background -- it sounds a little like an outtake from the movie Mean Girls.) [TU]

The amount wagered at Capital OTBs was down about four percent last year from the year before. [TU]

The Albany College of Pharmacy has been put on probation after an accreditation organization said the school isn't moving quickly enough toward an interactive curriculum. (Apparently traditional lecture-type classes are, um, old-school.) [Daily Gazette]

The 10-story office building at 100 State in Albany sold for $3.5 million. The investors behind the deal plan to spend $1.3 million on renovations, including restoration of the building's clock tower. [Business Review] [Daily Gazette]

An eviction notice is on its way to the owner of the Golden Fox restaurant in Troy. The city says the owner is $27,000 behind on his taxes and it wants to secure the building's furnishing to help cover the debt. Apparently the plasma TVs have already found the exit, though. [TU]

A man convicted this week of burglary and menacing in Schenectady County Court tried to pass off the picture that came with a frame as a photo of the "real" perp. Prosecutors were suspicious of the photo, but weren't sure until an employee in the DA's office noticed the exact same picture on the shelf at a Wal-Mart. [TU]