Albany Times Union Local News

SCHENECTADY – A relatively minor issue months ago with a sink spray hose at Bumpy’s Polar Freeze has resulted in the popular ice cream shop being fined $10,000.

The future of Bumpy's at 2103 State St. is also in question as operator David Elmendorf has said he would be willing to sell the business, according to the county attorney's office.

TROY — A 95-year-old male resident of the Troy Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing has died from COVID-19, the second such death of a resident at that facility over the weekend.

HOOSICK – Bennington Battle Day will be celebrated Aug. 16 to mark the 243rd anniversary of the battle at the Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site off Route 67 and across the state line in Bennington, Vt.

Bennington Battle Day is a Vermont state holiday marking the American victory over a British force at the battlefield site on Aug. 16, 1777 near the hamlet of Walloomsac, New York.  The battle was part of the Saratoga campaign in 1777, which is considered to be the turning point in the American Revolution.

ALBANY — New York had its lowest percent positive COVID-19 rate Saturday since testing began in March.

The number of people testing positive for coronavirus was .78 percent Saturday of 65,812 people getting tested. Typically the number has remained at 1 percent of people testing positive for the last several weeks.

JACKSON — A car crash Saturday afternoon killed two people and injured two more.

ROTTERDAM — State Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a fatal one-car motor vehicle crash on I-890 late Saturday night that took the lives of an 11-year-old boy and a 32-year-old woman.

Classes haven't started yet at colleges and universities in the Capital Region, but thousands of college students from out of state moved into dorm rooms this week to begin 14 days of mandatory isolation.

College students from dozens of U.S. states must quarantine in accordance with New York's travel advisories to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Black Girls Do Bike convinces women of color to try cycling. The founder of the Cap Region chapter wants to bring more Black teen girls into the group and hopes the pandemic may mean there are more girls with free time since mosques and churches have canceled summer camp and youth activities.

I require a new photo for my New York State license renewal. My present license expired at the end of June. If I am reading the DMV website information correctly, I have an extension until October, when the office may open for onsite renewals. Am I right?

Doug Harris, Slingerlands

ALBANY — It was just before 8 p.m. Saturday when the sound of gunshots split the air in West Hill at least 20 times in a row.

Four people were shot. One of them, an 18-year-old, died.

Saturday’s shooting, which Albany police say was a drive-by with more than one shooter in the vehicle, brings the city’s total number of gunshot victims this year to 91. The victim is the 11th person to be killed in Albany so far in 2020, as part of a wave of violence and gun incidents that have hit the city.

We're kicking the day off with a mostly clear sky with some thin clouds spreading from about Lake George into the Champlain Valley. All the while, there are a couple of isolated showers from Saratoga County up to Glens Falls, where a little shot of heavy rain is falling. Oh the challenges of our weather sometimes!

Several Albany-area urgent care centers charge uninsured patients up to $200 to get tested for COVID rather than participate in a federal reimbursement program that would allow the uninsured to get tested for free. At the same time they’re shunning the money for testing, these urgent care providers — WellNow Urgent Care, Community Care Physicians, and Albany Med EmUrgentCare — have applied for and received millions in federal subsidies benefiting their own bottom lines.

WASHINGTON — Barbara Drago remembers the 1980 Republican National Convention as one of the best experiences of her life.

The Albany resident fondly recalls everyone from Hollywood celebrities to "the local worker bee" hobnobbing in the crowd at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, eager to put Ronald Reagan in the White House. Now 64, Drago had been eager to attend her second convention in 2020 as an alternate. But the coronavirus dashed her prospects of going, along with those of so many others.

“I’m still disappointed, but I understand we are going to have a marvelous showing with virtual events," Drago said.

As a result of the pandemic, both major-party conventions have been retooled as largely virtual affairs that will have little to no in-person presence, even from the presidential contenders themselves. The conventions will still crown each party’s nominee, but what are normally raucous once-every-four-years political jamborees with tens of thousands of people will be scaled back to a collection of televised speeches and caucus videoconferences over the last two weeks of August.