Items tagged with 'rpi'
Too much rain in Rensselaer, Bruno will be interfacing with officials, YouTube vigilante, tunnel found in Stockade, Curlin owner issues challenge to Big Brown
State DEC officials say it looks like the recent flooding in Rensselaer was just the result of too much rain in too short a period of time. Rensselaer city leaders had been questioning whether development in the Greenbushes had overwhelmed the area's drainage system. The National Weather Service in Albany estimates Rensselaer got up to 6 inches of rain on Monday. [TU]
Joe Bruno has registered as a lobbyist with New York State. By law, he's not allowed to lobby the legislature for two years, but he says he will be "interfacing" with officials in the executive branch for his job as CEO of a computer services company. [TU]
Time on the $100 million Blue Gene supercomputer at RPI will be available free to New York State businesses -- if they can figure out how to use it. [Biz Review] [Daily Gazette]
State agency commissioner's husband fired for fraud, RPI professor helping Olympic swimmers, more roundabouts planned, infamous bed and breakfast going to auction
The husband of a state agency head has been fired from his state job after investigators reported that he took almost $20,000 in pay for work he didn't actually do. Larry Ritter had been an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action officer at the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. His, wife, Diana Jones Ritter, is the commissioner for the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Investigators say they didn't find any wrongdoing on her part. [TU] [Daily Gazette]
The Saratoga Springs School Board has officially fired the English teacher who had been found by state ed officials to be having a platonic, but inappropriate, relationship with a student outside of school. [Daily Gazette]
An RPI engineering professor has been working with the US Olympic swimming team to refine swimmers' techniques. Timothy Wei's research has been credited with helping a US swimmer set a world record in the backstroke earlier this year. [TU]
Malta and Colonie are among the towns planning new traffic roundabouts. [CBS6]
The Schenectady bed and breakfast infamous for its swingers parties is going up for auction and everything -- yes, even the, um, equipment in the basement -- is up for sale. [TU]
Bruno's leaving this week, concrete drivers back behind the wheel, poster board broken out in Saratoga public safety building fight, Peerless Pool opening soon
Joe Bruno has announced he will officially leave his state Senate seat this Friday. Bruno says he's not "the kind of guy to retire and just play with horses and golf and whatever else is there" -- he will reportedly take a job with CMA Consulting Services, a firm whose clients include many New York State agencies. [Daily Gazette] [TU]
One more detail about that $1.5 billion IBM chip fab research deal: RPI and its $100 million supercomputer will be involved with research into how to encase the chips and connect them to computers. [Daily Gazette]
A group of concrete truck drivers have ended their strike after their union agreed to a new four year deal. The drivers had been out for a week, which put a snag in a handful of construction projects. [TU]
The owner of steel manufacturing company in Schenectady says a proposed roundabout for Erie Blvd might bump him from the city because his adult video bookstore owning landlord -- who says the roundabout is a plot to get him -- would be forced to take over his space. [Daily Gazette]
Ron Kim, the Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner, has unveiled what he calls a "failure-o-meter" to keep track of how long it takes the city council to issue bonds for the new public safety building. The city's finance commissioner, who ultimately must issue the bonds, says Kim hasn't provided him with all the necessarily details about costs. [Saratogian]
CDTA will stop exchanging tokens at the end of this month. The authority stopped accepting the tokens for fares in January. [TU]
The Peerless Pool at Spa State Park is expected to open Friday, three weeks after its originally scheduled opening. [Daily Gazette]
Pay up or EMPAC gets it?
EMPAC
So there was that story the other day about how Troy wants to charge RPI a "safety fee" of $100 per student per semester. The city says it spends a bunch of money on services for the school and it's looking to recoup some of the expenses. OK, this sounds like a discussion that reasonable people can have.
But then toward the end of the TU story, there was this:
The discussions about a public safety fee come as EMPAC is nearing its October opening and RPI must obtain a certificate of occupancy to use the arts center.
"RPI is noted for saying we're having a grand opening and inviting everyone before they have a CO," [Deputy Mayor Dan] Crawley said. "If the invitations go out for October and their place is not completed, they're not going to get a CO."
And that sounded a lot like, what's the word... oh, right: a shakedown. But, no, that couldn't be right. The City of Troy wouldn't hold the opening of EMPAC ransom over this safety fee, would it? This is a municipality and an institution with 180 years of shared history. That would just be... tacky.
So we made a few calls. Here's what we found.
Wellington work to start, cops can make a lot of cash, Troy looks for RPI to chip in, more hybrid buses, stack of pancake panned at SPAC
Work to demolish, renovate and rebuild at the site of the Wellington Hotel on State Street in Albany is scheduled to start today. The development company behind the $65 million project says it will be taking apart the historic facade "stone by stone," so that it can be preserved and used on the new building. The project is scheduled to be finished by 2011. [Daily Gazette] [Business Review]
Thanks to overtime, you can make a lot of money as cop in the Capital Region. Example: a Schenectady officer made $115,359 last year. [TU]
The City of Troy is looking to get RPI to pay $200 per student per school year to help fund public safety coverage of the campus and surrounding neighborhood. And it almost sounds like the city's making a veiled "pay up or else" threat related to EMPAC. [TU]
There's a plan in the works for a downtown business improvement district in Troy. [Troy Record]
Ninety percent of graduating seniors from Albany and Troy high schools are headed to some kind of college, junior college or university next year. [TU]
CDTA is buying 21 more hybrid buses, which get an extra 1 mpg (total fuel efficiency: 4.8 mpg). [TU]
The new facade proposed for SPAC could be changed after public complaints that it looked like a stack of pancakes. [TU]
One of the Sculpture in the Streets pieces was moved from the HSBC bank building on Pearl after people noticed that the sculpture was both anatomically correct and not shy about it. The offending statue is now in front of Capital Rep. [TU]
Reward for identity of West Hill shooter, teen saves baby, a challenger for Amedore, homecoming queen election intrigue
An Albany church is offering $1000 to anyone who can identifiy the person who shot and killed 10-year-old Kathina Thomas in West Hill Thursday night. Police think Thomas was hit by a stray bullet. [Daily Gazette]
An 18-year-old was shot twice in the head near Schenectady's Central Park Saturday. The teenager, who was visiting from Maryland, is Schenectady's third homicide this year and the seventh for the Capital Region. [Daily Gazette]
An Albany teenager saved a baby from being run over by a bus Friday afternoon. Tyler Purvis-Mitchell, who's 14, spotted the five-day-old baby after it had fallen out of its carriage while being loaded onto the bus. [TU]
Police say a guy robbed a bank at Stuyvesant Plaza the Town Center Plaza in Guilderland (the plaza at Johnston Rd across from the mall), was then chased through Colonie and Menands, and then nabbed in the parking lot of the VA hospital on Holland Ave. in Albany. [Daily Gazette]
Schenectady city councilman and Democrat Mark Blanchfield announced he'll challenge Republican George Amedore for the 105th Assembly District seat (that's Paul Tonko's old seat). Amedore was elected in a special election last year after Tonko left to head up NYSERDA. [Daily Gazette]
RPI will knock down 13 buildings in the neighborhood surrounding EMPAC. [TU]
Benita Johnson won her third consecutive Freihofer's Run for Women Saturday -- and then found out her dad had just died. [TU]
Was an openly gay student elected homecoming queen at Hudson High? Students say yes, the administration says no. [TU]
A fifth-grader in Saratoga has raised $650 to buy mosquito nets for people in Africa. She decided to raise the money -- she's aiming for $1000 -- after seeing a segment about malaria on an "Idol Gives Back" episode of "American Idol." [Saratogian]
Gambling joint knocked over, texting while driving ban proposed, MoveOn in town, nanoeconomics
A couple of things about the local gambling scene have to come to light over the past month. The first: people have been playing poker at illegal clubs around Albany, including a "members only" club on N. Allen. The second: it looks like a group is knocking over these clubs, in robberies like something out of a movie. [TU]
The state Senate has passed a bill that would make it illegal to text while driving. The bill now heads to the Assembly. [Daily Politics]
MoveOn will be in Albany and Saratoga Springs today campaigning in a somewhat unusual way against John McCain. [Saratogian]
A road reconstruction project has downtown Chatham closed to traffic, maybe for months. [TU]
RPI is moving toward letting students use their school IDs to spend their "Rensselaer Advantage Dollars" at off-campus businesses. UAlbany, Siena and St. Rose already such arrangements. [Troy Record]
UAlbany recently awarded the world's first PhD in "nanoeconomics." [Daily Gazette]
Clifton Park is looking at opening a second the dog park -- and hiking fines for not leashing dogs in its other parks. [Daily Gazette]
Local congressional candidates talk and point, suggestions for downtown Saratoga, big expectations for AMD plant, who needs trays?
The eight Democratic candidates running for the 21st Congressional District (McNulty's seat) showed they could wait their turn Wednesday night. It seems they can also point fingers. [TU] [CBS6]
A group that represents businesses along Broadway has suggested a bunch of improvements for downtown Saratoga. Among them: more trees, more parking, public bathrooms, heated sidewalk, and pocket parks. [TU]
Expectations for the proposed AMD chip fab plant in Malta are becoming, let's say, exuberant. The latest claim: the project could spur the area's population to grow by 400,000 over the next 10-15 years. [Saratogian]
The Troy fire deparment has called off its overtime boycott of RPI's commencement after the school agreed to talk about the department's concerns. [TU]
Two brothers are opening a Vespa dealership in Schenectady. (Yes, someone did that in Saratoga awhile back. No, it didn't make it.) [Daily Gazette]
Among the local measures taken in the struggle against rising food costs: "Trayless Tuesday" at the RPI dining halls. That doesn't seem to have worked out very well.
Cracking jokes not a crime, food costs strain charity, ticked off firefighters, combative legislators, senate-raised pork
Legal experts say it's unlikely that former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek will face charges related to the busted drug operation in which his wife and stepson were allegedly involved. It seems that cracking jokes about your spouse's drug shipments isn't actually a crime. [TU]
A guy in Halfmoon was sentenced to 60 days in jail for neglecting to treat an inch-deep wound around his dog's neck. Apparently one of his children had put a rubber band on the dog, which led to the injury. (PS: Snowball -- a purebred Samoyed -- is now available for adoption.) [TU]
High food costs and slow business have prompted half of the restaurants originally slated to participage in today's Hunger Action Networks' Feast for Famine to back out. [Daily Gazette]
The firefighters union in Troy has asked its members to not work overtime for RPI's commencement ceremony. The union is ticked off that RPI president Shirley Jackson hasn't met with them to discuss concerns about fires that could pontentially involve lab chemicals or tight spaces. [TU]
Local legislators -- they're just like us! They bicker over money! They call each other names! (OK, on second thought, maybe they're not like us.) [Troy Record] [Troy Record]
Pork is being served up this week by the New York Senate. Among the items once described by Eliot Spitzer as "dripping with fat": $4 million for Skidmore's Zankel Music Center and $6 million for semiconductor training at HVCC . [TU]
SPAC is getting a new $2.5 million facade for its ampitheater. [Saratogian]
Shirley Jackson on Charlie Rose
RPI president Shirley Jackson was on Charlie Rose last week. She joined a group of other science bold-face names at Charlie's oak table in the room without walls to talk about "The Imperative of Science." The discussion focused, in part, on how the US is falling behind in scientific education and understanding among the general public.
Here's a little bit of what Jackson said:
"The question becomes... how did such a mess come about? And it's almost as if we've had so much that has come out of science and the technological innovations built on those discoveries that we've come to take things for granted. Moreover, those technologies have driven almost a kind of information overload. So people are not able to sort through what is fact and what is fiction. I like to say that the Internet does not come with a credibility filter. And therefore, you have to get back to the habit of thought, the way of approaching complexity, that learning science even at a very elemental level helps an individual to do."
Video of the full episode is embedded after the jump.
The scene from the Troy free speech protest
It's a quick clip that captures the scene from the protest in front of Troy City Hall over the code enforcement action taken against The Sanctuary for Independent Media after it showed Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi." Uploaded by YouTube user brettuthius.
Harry Tutunjian, the mayor of Troy, has said the code enforcement didn't have anything to do with the Bilal exhibition.
Also, if you'd like to hear Wafaa Bilal talk at length about his experiences dealing with RPI (where the exhibit was originally to be shown), filmmaker Jim Finn has posted an interview on YouTube. Here's RPI's statement about suspending Bilal's work.
Wafaa Bilal update
updated March 14 -- see below
A few websites have popped up to support Wafaa Bilal and the exhibition of his work "Virtual Jihadi."
WafaaBilal.com has posted pictures and other media from the one-night exhibition at the Sanctuary for Independent Media.
And Free Troy Letters is, well, we'll let them explain:
Sparked by the blatant censorship of Wafaa Bilal's artwork in March 2008, Free Troy Letters illuminates attempts to limit democratic governance and discussion at RPI and in the city of Troy by mapping responses to authoritarian practices.
There are already a number of letters posted there.
And if you'd like to hear (or, rather, read) Bilal at length, here's an interview with him.
By the way, we couldn't find the off-campus RPI College Republicans site where someone reportedly called the institute's art department a "terrorist safehaven." If anyone has the link, please send it along or post it in the comments.
Here's the off-campus RPI College Republicans site that's been playing a role in all this. The site doesn't seem to include the "terrorist safe haven" remark.
(Thanks for the link, skfl!)
photo: wafaabilal.com
More turns in the "Virtual Jihadi" drama, Schenectady cops to be tracked, call for more depleted uranium testing in Colonie, good year for maple syrup
The Sanctuary for Independent Media is discussing whether it should file suit against the City of Troy after the city closed the gallery to public events because of code violations. The org says the action was politically motivated, a response to the gallery exhibiting Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi." [TU]
RPI has yanked the school-hosted site of the College Republicans after they called the art department a "terrorist safehaven" for its involvement with Wafaa Bilal. But the site that actually featured those comments is hosted off campus -- and it's still up. [TU]
Police cars in Schenectady will be getting GPS units so dispatchers can track their locations. The geographic info is supposed to help improve response times, but it would also help the department know when one of its cops has gone to Scotia to watch bowling. [Daily Gazette]
A group of activists is trying to get government money to do more testing of people who lived and worked near the old munitions plant on Central near the Albany/Colonie line. There's depleted uranium at the site and tests reported three months ago that some people who lived nearby were exposed to it. [TU]
RPI plans to give out $10 million more next year in financial aid. [TU]
Despite its currently decrepit state, architects and town residents are excited about what the plan to turn the Victory Mill (in Victory, outside Saratoga) into luxury condos. [Post-Star]
It's looking like a good year for maple syrup. [Daily Gazette]
Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi" finds a home
Last week RPI closed the exhibit of artist-in-residence Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi," a video game mod that casts Bilal as a suicide bomber out to kill President Bush. Now the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy has taken in the work and will exhibit the installation a various times throughout the next month.
The first chance to see "Virtual Jihadi" there will be tonight. Bilal will be there for a reception at 6 pm, followed by a showing at 7. Admission is a suggested $10 donation.
There also seems to be a protest against Bilal's work planned for tonight outside the gallery.
Earlier on AOA:
+ More about that artist at RPI who had his exhibition suspended
image: Wafaa Bilal
More about that artist at RPI who had his exhibition suspended
After seeing the article this morning about RPI suspending the exhibition of "Virtual Jihadi," we were curious about Wafaa Bilal - - the artist behind the work. And it turns out he has quite a story.
RPI pulls art work, Albany on the hook for judgement against cop, no-show crossing guards could get raise, assemblyman gives entire salary away
RPI has suspended the exhibition of a video work in which the artist cast himself as a suicide bomber on a mission to assassinate President Bush. The artist tells the TU that the school feels like "a military camp," while the College Republicans are calling the art department "a terrorist safe haven." [TU]
A federal jury awarded $200,000 in punitive damages to the plaintiff in the civil suit against Albany cop William Bonnani. If the award stands, the City of Albany will be on the hook for the money because of its union contract with the APD. Bonnani -- despite a string of complaints about the use of excessive force -- is still on the job. [TU] [Daily Gazette]
Environmental groups are calling on the Spitzer administration to crack down on mercury emissions from a cement plant in Ravena. The plant is the single largest emitter of mercury in New York State, according to recently released data from the EPA. [Daily Gazette]
State police say there's evidence indicating that the crash that closed the Northway last week was an act of suicide. [AP/CBS6]
After reports that crossing guards in Schenectady weren't showing up in bad weather -- or were sitting in their cars as kids crossed the street, a councilwoman has proposed increasing the guards' salaries. "It's reprehensible we're only paying them $8.50 or whatever -- no wonder they're not showing up," she told the Gazette. [Daily Gazette]
The backers of a plan to open a food co-op in downtown Troy say it looks like the grocery store could open sometime this year, maybe as soon as the Spring. [TU]
For the third consecutive year, state assemblyman Bob Reilly (his district includes Albany and Saratoga counties) donated his entire after-tax assembly salary to charity. This year's total was $73,000. At a press conference introducing the recipients of the money, Reilly cracked that the people there were "the only group of people in New York who advocate salary increases for legislators." [Daily Gazette]
Freaking out at RPI: an interview with Puckman
Doesn't he ever get sick of being slapped around?
Tomorrow is RPI's 31st annual Big Red Freakout. So on the eve of the institute's biggest hockey game of the year, AOA got an exclusive interview with the RPI mascot, Puckman.
Rules of etiquette for RPI hockey
It's not that RPI hockey fans are very intense about their sport, it's just that RPI hockey fans are VERY intense about their sport. Engineers fans have lots of important rules and traditions for spectators.
You don't necessarily NEED to know all of those rules and traditions to enjoy an RPI hockey game, but if you don't, you may find yourself looking around going, "WTF?" So here's a primer on how to fit in at tomorrow's Big Red Freakout, or any RPI hockey game:
- Wear red
-During the national anthem, yell out the word RED (you know, at the rockets red glare part).
- No matter who's playing , Clarkson still sucks.
- When the phone rings in the press box yell "Phone!"
- When the other team is introduced yell, "You suck!" after every player is announced, and "You suck too!" after the coach is announced.
- When the other team gets penalties: interrupt by screaming "Sucking" and "Sucks" after they announce the players name: "Number 23 John Doe [SUCKS!], has received a 2 minute penalty for [SUCKING!]"
- If anyone asks, "Clarkson still sucks!"
- After every RPI goal be sure to chant, "1, 2, 3, 4, ... , (N) we want more! Sieve, Sieve, Sieve!" where (N) is the new RPI score. (This is an engineering school, of course there's an equation involved.)
- And when there's one minute left be sure and yell: "One minute left, and Clarkson still sucks!"
Morning Blend: tasers, budget shortfall, RPI applications
Saratoga cops are getting tasers, looking to quell Caroline Street rowdiness with them. [Saratogian]
New York State's revenue projections for aren't looking so hot. Estimates are that the state will have more than a billion dollars less next year than it thought it would. "We're very nervous about next year," the governor's budget expert says. [TU]
A clerk in Schnectady's city hall has been supsended after accusing the mother of a boy who was hit and killed while riding his bike in 2005 that she wasn't watching her children. The accusation was sent via email -- from a city address -- after an exchange on Craigslist. [TU]
RPI reports that it's received a record number of applications for next year, more than 11,000 total. The school's application counts have doubled over the last decade. And the number of young women applying has tripled during the last three years. [Business Review]
... said Amelia about local college rankings