Albany Times Union Local News

BALLSTON SPA - Ballston Spa Middle School student Gregory Kaatz won the school's annual GeoBee, the first stage in the National Geographic GeoBee.

As a landmark federal opioid case inches toward a likely settlement, politicians and interest groups are already beginning to eye their stake in the billions of dollars that could soon flow to states and localities impacted by the deadly epidemic.

As they do, Cheryl Healton — a public health expert who helped develop the award-winning anti-tobacco Truth campaign and now heads New York University’s School of Global Public Health — believes those who sign off on any opioid settlement ought to heed a few lessons from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with Big Tobacco first.

Sutil, 35, was an infielder on the 2005 ValleyCats. He batted .325 with 13 stolen bases in 59 games in the first of his eight seasons playing in the Houston Astros minor-league system.

Sutil, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, spent the past three seasons as the manager of the GCL Astros in the Gulf Coast League. He had a record of 79-81 there.

SCHENECTADY – Schenectady police have a new multi-year contract.

The 5-year deal with the city, which is retroactive to January 2018, calls for a total 10 percent annual pay raises or  2 percent annual.

The agreement was ratified by the rank and file earlier this week and then unanimously approved Monday by City Council members at their regular meeting.

Police Chief Eric Clifford said the new police contract includes a longevity pay based on annual base salary, an incentive to hopefully keep officers on the force beyond 20 years, when they can retire and collect their state pension.

TROY – The 46-year-old deteriorating Uncle Sam Parking Garage is at the end of its lifespan and plans should be made to replace it in the next 10 years, according to an engineering study.

The report by Structure Care of Lancaster, PA. contains 270 photographs showing where the aging parking garage owned by The Bryce Companies of Troy is falling apart and the apparent structural damage.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the firm rated the garage a 3 or “marginally fair.” It’s just above a rating of poor.

“The current conditions are considered unsafe,” warns the Nov. 2019 study by Structure Care, a firm specializing in parking garages. It advises parking should be restricted until repairs are made. Two copies of the report were forwarded to The Bryce Companies, according to the Jan. 14, 2020 letter accompanying them.

GREENPORT --Columbia County sheriff's officials are classifying the death of an ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) Milling worker Tuesday morning as an industrial accident.

Sheriff David P. Bartlett said deputies were sent by Columbia County 911 at about 10:20 a.m. to assist EMS personnel with a reported cardiac arrest in an elevator chute at the flour mill, located on Route 23B, and determined that an industrial accident had occurred, resulting in the employee's death.

The incident remains under investigation and Sheriff’s Office personnel will remain at the scene, officials said later in the afternoon.

Bringing hydropower from northern Quebec to New York City would not really cut down on greenhouse gases, according to a study released this week by New York-based opponents of the HydroQuebec, which is currently in talks to sell power to the city.

HydroQuebec, though disagrees.

GLENS FALLS — Lottery sales are up at the Cumberland Farms on Bay Street after a customer hit it big.

Store manager Bruce McCoach said a customer bought the Make My Year ticket on Jan. 2 and won $2.5 million. The New York State Lottery's Kylie McDonald will present the winner a ceremonial check on Wednesday afternoon at the store.

ALBANY - The state inspector general's office, which has drawn criticism for failing to interview key witnesses before closing an inquiry into the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, needs to be structurally overhauled or replaced, a commissioner with the panel said Tuesday.

Gary Lavine, a commissioner with New York's ethics enforcement agency, had previously called the secretive, nine-month inspector general's investigation into a potential leak of confidential JCOPE information to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo “not credible.”

As the Times Union reported, the inspector general's investigation failed to include an interview with Assembly counsel Howard Vargas – the person whose phone call to a JCOPE commissioner a year ago sparked the inquiry. The office also did not interview Cuomo or Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, two people that allegedly had a conversation about the results of a confidential JCOPE vote at a meeting a year ago.

ALBANY — A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors in the case of a well-known DJ failed to reach a verdict, according to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

The panel considering the fate of Brian O. Angelo, aka “DJ Iroc” told Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch that they were hopelessly deadlocked.

Angelo, 51, is accused of preying sexually upon a child.

He was represented by former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove.

BETHLEHEM -  Stewart's Shops is proposing to build a new gas station and convenience store that would include a car wash at the intersection of Route 9W and Wemple Road.

The site is currently vacant farm land and sits across from another vacant parcel across 9W where a 96-unit apartment complex is planned.

ALBANY — Unemployment in the Capital Region edged higher in December, rising to 3.6 percent of the workforce from 3.5 percent last year, the New York State Department of Labor reported Tuesday. In November, the rate had been 3.2 percent.

ALBANY - Cree, the North Carolina company that is building a $1 billion silicon carbide chip factory next to the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Utica, is moving forward with construction and has hired a contractor to oversee the massive project.

The company that is doing the work, Exyte, built GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County. Exyte used to be known as M+W Group and has its U.S. headquarters inside the ZEN building at SUNY Poly's Albany campus.