All Over Albany

Dalai Lama in town today, Republican steps into Albany mayoral race, KG introduces first Senate bill, famous shotgun wielding-grandma dies

The Dalai Lama is appearing at the Palace Theater in Albany at 2 pm today. He's also scheduled to stop by the state Senate. A critic of the Clifton Park executive training program that's connected to the event's sponsor organization says Dalai Lama's association with the org is "a mistake." [Palace Theater] [Liz Benjamin] [CapNews9]

There's now a Republican in the race for Albany mayor. Nathan Lebron, an IT exec who lives in the Whitehall neighborhood, says the city's Democratic machine is broken and needs to be replaced. [TU]

Troy police say a man was shot and beaten in his home last night (map). His injuries aren't considered life-threatening. [TU]

David Paterson has ordered state agencies to stop buying bottled water for environmental reasons. The ban covers both indivdual bottles and the standup water cooler bottles. [NYT]

Paterson also announced that the state would be spending $25 million on battery research. The center for that research may not be located upstate, as had originally been announced. [TU] [Gannett/TU]

Outside groups -- including national parties, labor unions and PACs -- spent more the NY20 special election than the candidates did. The outside groups represented $4.2 million of the $7.8 million spent on the race. [TU]

Kirsten Gillibrand has introduced her first bill in the Senate. The legislation would eliminate a $25 service fee currently assessed on recipients of child support. [Post-Star]

Momentive Performance Materials, which is based in Colonie and has a large plant in Waterford, announced it had a $96.8 million loss in the first quarter. [TU]

Residents in the Rotterdam neighborhood near the site of a proposed new Golub warehouse say they're worried the facility will increase traffic and pull down property values. [Daily Gazette]

A company buying back textbooks near RPI says it was bounced by the city earlier this week because RPI didn't want the competition with its own bookstore (the company has since returned). RPI says it just wanted to make sure the business had the proper paperwork. [Troy Record]

The Saratoga County Sheriffs Department has identified the body found in the Mohawk over the weekend. Investigators say it looks like the man committed suicide by driving his car into the river. [Saratogian]

The development company that converted the old Albany Freihofer's bakery into apartments is now looking to convert three empty mansions on Madison Ave into apartments. The mansions sit right across Madison from Washington Park (street view). [TU]

Lisa Kaczmarek -- the wife of former Schenectady police chief Greg Kaczmarek -- was scheduled to be released from jail this morning. Greg Kaczmarek -- and Lisa Kaczmarek's son -- are both still in prison. [Daily Gazette]

A self-contained fish farm is being built near Hudson. [TU]

Jerry Jennings met Angelina Jolie on the Salt set. Also: Jolie -- and Brad Pitt, apparently -- did stay overnight in Albany during the filming. [TU]

Hildegard von Waldenburg, the Rensselaer County woman who got worldwide attention in 1999 for using an old shotgun to shoo off a town crew sent to cut down her trees, died this week. She was 89. [TU]