Albany, Albany County | featured news

AlbanyThe state pension fund is more than doubling investments in a stock fund aimed at firms working to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Wednesday.DiNapoli said he will increase stock investment in low-emissions companies from $2 billion to $4 billlion.

A man arrested Tuesday in Colonie for allegedly possessing heroin tried to destroy evidence, State Police said.Shaun Saviano, 30, of East Chatham, Columbia County, was charged with tampering with physical evidence, a felony, as well as criminal possession of a controlled substance and possession of a hypodermic instrument, both misdemeanors.

As part of their Warrant Wednesday initiative, State Police are searching for a man suspected of trying to cash a stolen check in Clifton Park.

SCHENECTADY — The attorney for Schenectady police lieutenant Mark McCracken, who remains on paid leave from the department, has filed a motion seeking to have the misdemeanor against him dismissed.The veteran lawman, once a finalist to become police chief, is charged with one count of criminal contempt stemming from dispute with his estranged wife, Cassie Walker, at the Union College hockey rink where his son was playing hockey. The couple is going through a contentious divorce.

ROTTERDAM - Even as it is pushing its Spectrum cable TV customers into an all digital channel format that will require everyone to get set-top boxes, Charter Communications says that its customer complaint rates are falling compared to when Time Warner Cable was in charge.

Schenectady
If there were a Tony Award for Best Unintentionally Self-Parodying Musical, producers of the touring version of "The Bodyguard," based on the 1992 Whitney Houston-Kevin Costner movie of the same name, would redirect it from the road straight to Broadway, where they previously have not brought the 6-year-old show, presumably because it is so, so terrible.
They surely know they would clean up in such an anti-Tonys, if not sweeping the awards then at least being guaranteed of taking home honors for Best Ham-Fisted Stage Direction, Most Uninspired Use of Scenery and Greatest Offenses

Schenectady
It will be a few days before city officials can determine the cause of a weekend mudslide that injured three people and displaced nearly two dozen residents, but Mayor Gary McCarthy insisted Tuesday the city is not at fault.
He said city engineers hoping to evaluate the material — a mix mostly made up of sand and mud that also includes shrubs — that slid down the bank from the hillside above Nott Terrace were surprised to discover water still seeping from one of the demolished homes at 11 Barney St.

MALTA - GlobalFoundries move this year to making better-performing chips using 7 nanometer architecture at its Fab 8 factory in Saratoga County can't come soon enough.

Just weeks after winning a $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket, an upstate man died of cancer, according to the Daily Star of Oneonta.Donald Savastano, 51, died on Friday. He was recently diagnosed with stage IV cancer and had hoped the winning ticket he scratched off on Jan. 4 would help pay for his health care.