All Over Albany

This week was brought to you by

2012-02-03T22:31:00Z

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]]> This week was brought to you by 60 degree temperatures, Super Bowl hype and one really confused groundhog.

And of course, by our AOA advertisers. You depend on AOA and AOA depends on them -- it's that whole circle of life kind of thing. So when you have an opportunity, check out what they have to offer. It's all good.

Meanwhile, if there's something you want to let people know about, AOA can help. Advertising with us is easy and affordable. It starts with an email to advertising@alloveralbany.com.

Here's are the folks who supported your AOA information fix this week:

Helpful stuff

+ Buying or selling a home or commercial property? You need a great real estate lawyer. Dorothy Tischler, an attorney with 24 years experience helping buyers and sellers in commercial and residential real estate.

+Recenter Square is ready to help you jump start your new year's resolution right now. They've got personal trainers, classes and there's off street parking.

+ Sunmark Federal Credit Union is partnering with Regional Food Bank to help distribute prepared and non perishable food. They're also temporarily easing the loan process to get cash to people who need to make repairs, necessities and clean up efforts.

+ Best Cleaners will pick up and deliver your dry cleaning to your home or office at no extra charge.

Stuff to learn

Endorphin Business Center will help teach you the tools to make your new idea or business a success.

Albany Law School presents "From Lark Street to Nuremberg" a program on Supreme Court Justice and Albany Law Grad Robert Jackson.

Food and Drink

+New World Bistro Bar is now taking reservations for their three course prix fixe Valentine's day menu. Here's a sample : Truffle butter stuffed pheasant, Mexican coffee crusted beef filet, lobster and mushroom fettucine, ginger mushroom flan and more. Reservations at 694-0520.

+Our Daily Eats -- serving up fresh basil pesto, roasted nuts and seeds. They also have four granolas. Available at the Delmar Farmers Market, Schenectady Greenmarket and the Empire State Plaza Wednesday Farmers Market. Local retailers are listed on their website.

+ The Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark is now offering a five-course tasting menu with seatings at 6 and 9 pm Tuesday-Saturday. You'll need to make a reservation for those.

+ Capital Wine on State and Lark in Albany. They've got tastings every Friday night, so stop by on your way out to dinner. And they've got great tips on wine and food pairings.

+ Taste is holding after work French wine tastings with their wine steward. Tastings start at 5PM.

+ Stop in at The Point for dinner on in the "Don Draper Room."

+ There are lots of great seasonal flavors waiting for you at Honest Weight Food Coop.

Stuff to do

+Proctors presents jazz great Branford Marsalis with the Joey Calderazzo Duo and the Branford Marsalis Quartet, Friday, February 3rd.

+The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall has three great shows coming up: Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole on February 4th, John Waite on February 9th and the Pickin' All Star Bluegrass All Star Jam on February 10th.

+The Sisters Rosensweig opens this weekend at Capital Rep.

Albany Dodgeball is looking for players. Join them any Thursday nights at The Washington Avenue Armory.

Stuff to Do

+The Hellions of Troy are celebrating their third year in the Capital Region.

+The Albany All Starsare back at The Washington Avenue Armory.

Stuff to live in

17 Chapel Boutique Condominiums in downtown Albany still has a few condos available. You can check out their new model condo and see the furnished rooftop patio. A special tax discount from the City of Albany means that combined utility costs, homeowners fees and property taxes are as low as $250 per month.

Stuff to Try

+ Get $250 off your 2011 website design and development from Brayton Graphics when you mention you came from AOA!

+ Get a FREE MONTH of Wink High Speed Internet Service from Tech Valley Communications. Enter this code when you sign up for service at: www.winkinternet.com: w1n87k0

Photo: Flickr user D.Fletcher

Atop the Capitol

2012-02-03T21:50:19Z

Check out this beautiful photoset of the Capitol restoration by Elisa Vietri. She got a tour of the project from the Capitol architect. Some of her photos from the Capitol's roof are great. [via Sebastien]

"Wait, what are you doing for the next 45 minutes?"

2012-02-03T20:05:41Z

Over the Hairpin today a story by KT Kieltyka about the 2009 TulipFest and the woman she picked up at the Albany bus station. "She looked like she could maybe get a callback for the part of a boring mom in a Lifetime movie, so I figured she was legit." Those are the ones you always have to keep an eye on... [via @ElizabethEss]

Eating the buffalo chicken wing cupcake from Coccadotts

2012-02-03T18:50:03Z

Buffalo wings and cupcakes together -- as nature probably never intended.

]]> When we heard this week that local cake shop Coccadotts was making Buffalo chicken wing cupcakes for the Super Bowl, we were intrigued. Because... Buffalo chicken wing cupcakes. It seemed unnatural, possibly wrong -- and perhaps, in some weird way, maybe kind of good.

So we stopped by the bakery today to eat one.

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Talking into the wind

2012-02-03T17:00:00Z

A photo and story by Tim were featured on Pictory yesterday. The photo is beautiful. The story is sad. Earlier: Tim on AOA

Stuff to do this weekend

2012-02-03T16:10:00Z

Branford Marsalis plays Proctors tonight with pianist Joey Calderazzo and quartet.

]]> Maybe you're prepping for a Super Bowl party this weekend, but if you're looking for something to do before the game, you have a long list of options.

After the jump, a few things going on this weekend that we thought you might enjoy. Got other plans? Share, please.

And whatever you're up to, have a great weekend.

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Loss of public sector jobs holds back local economy, youth club director accused of rape, problems for a winter carnival during the non-winter, sir -- is that a cattle prod?

2012-02-03T15:32:35Z

The Capital Region's job market has been slow to bounce back from the recession in large part because of a loss of public sector jobs, according to a state comptroller report out this week. [TU]

State inspector general Ellen Biben has been picked to head the state's new Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Her selection came during a closed-door meeting and was only officially confirmed publicly two days later after it was reported by the New York Times. Biben has close ties to Andrew Cuomo and her selection has prompted questions about the independence of the new panel. A Cuomo spokesman argued Biben is "the most successful public integrity prosecutor in modern political history." [TU] [NYT] [YNN] [State of Politics] [AP/Troy Record]

A couple of voters witnesses in the Troy ballot fraud trial testified they never saw the absentee ballots that were allagedly intended for them. [Troy Record]

There were six cases of Legionnaire's disease connected to the Best Western hotel near UAlbany, according to the state Department of Health (map). DOH says there were higher than normal levels of the bacteria that cause the disease in the hotel's water system. The hotel says it's fully cooperating with DOH. [Daily Gazette] [TU] [WTEN]

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Miss Albany Diner building sold to Matt Baumgartner and partners

2012-02-03T14:20:56Z

]]> Miss Albany Diner.

]]> Matt Baumgartner posted today that he and business partners Jimmy and Demetra Vann have bought the Miss Albany Diner building. The name "Miss Albany Diner" and its recipes are not part of the deal:

Mrs. [Jane] Brown and her son Bill, are legally keeping the name "Miss Albany Diner" as well as their recipes, and they maintain the right to open another diner in another location, as well as having the right to sell the name Miss Albany Diner and it's recipes to an interested party at another location. As new owners of the property, we legally can not continue to operate the space as Miss Albany Diner or use their menu items. I'm only noting that because it is important to us that it is clear that we are not "closing down Miss Albany Diner". They sold us the property, and we are not legally allowed to re-open Miss Albany Diner in that space.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Jane and Bill Brown, for giving us the opportunity to care for a building that is considered by many to be one of the most iconic buildings in the capital region. I know the Browns hold the diner very dear to their hearts, and I promise we will respect the history, the memory, and the integrity of Miss Albany Diner.

Baumgartner told Steve Barnes they don't have immediate plans to re-open the place as a diner. [Table Hopping]

The diner had been for sale since 2009. Cliff Brown, who owned the diner with his wife Jane, passed away in 2010. [TU] [TU]

The diner was built in 1941 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's had at least three names prior to being called the Miss Albany. [National Register] [Wikipedia]

Of course, Baumgartner and his partners own Wolff's, which is just next door to MAD.

photo: UpstateNYer via Wikipedia

The organic milk shortage

2012-02-02T21:45:24Z

A sign on the dairy case at the Hannaford in Albany.

]]> Over the last month or so we've noticed signs popping up on dairy cases at both Hannaford and Price Chopper noting that there's an organic milk shortage. And the shelves in the case have appeared rather bare at times. (We were the ones who took the last half-gallon of organic milk at the Slingerlands Price Chopper the other day. Sorry about that.)

So, what's going on?

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Hevey D, Koz, and Ja Rule

2012-02-02T20:00:00Z

Odd trio story of the day: the New York Daily News' interview with rapper Ja Rule about his prison friendships with former NYS comptroller Alan Hevesi (corruption involving the state pension fund, using state drivers to chauffeur his wife) and former Tyco exec Dennis Kozlowski (corruption, a $15,000 umbrella stand), while serving time together in Oneida. Says Mr. Rule: "Outside, you don't meet guys like this every day. This place is amazing." [via Gannett Albany]

Schenectady during the Super Bowl

2012-02-02T18:55:46Z

The video embedded above is a GE commercial that the company says will run during the Super Bowl on Sunday -- it highlights the turbine factor at GE's campus in Schenectady, along with some of the people who work there.

The spot's cinematography is good -- the turbines looks like sleek sculptures. Not as good: the odd turn in the last third about how the turbines make Bud beer possible.

The company says it will be playing two commercials during the game broadcast, the Schenectady spot and one about an appliance factory in Louisville (embedded after the jump). They both put emphasis on the fact that GE is building stuff -- and employing people -- in the US. (Possible subtext: don't just focus on taxes...)

Earlier on AOA: President Obama at GE in Schenectady

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The dude abided in Saratoga -- and he wore a dinner jacket

2012-02-02T17:55:21Z

The next time you call someone "dude," you'll remember this.

Apparently one of the earliest uses of the word, back in 1883, did not describe a bro. The word was used as a put down for a man who paid too much attention to clothing and fashion. Yes, the opposite of the Dude.

It turns out that the "King of the Dudes" back then was a guy named Evander Berry Wall, a multi-millionaire who reportedly drank champagne instead of water, wore a walrus mustache, had 5,000 neckties -- and like many wealthy East Coasters of the day, spent a fair amount of time in Saratoga.

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Smart

2012-02-02T16:44:23Z

Check it out: Angela Wang, a Shaker High School student from Latham, is a finalist in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search. Wang has been working with researchers at the Wadsworth Center on a brain-to-computer interface that would allow people with disabilities to communicate via their thoughts. Past finalists in the science contest have gone on to win many of the scientific world's top awards -- including seven finalists who have won Nobel awards. [Daily Gazette] Earlier: I think, therefore I Twitter

White Nose Syndrome continues to kill off bats

2012-02-02T16:20:50Z

]]> Bats with White Nose Syndrome in Hailes Cave in Albany County.

]]> White Nose Syndrome -- the bat disease first identified in the Capital Region -- has killed as many as 6.7 million bats, according to recent estimates by biologists working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Since first being documented in 2006, the disease has now spread to 16 states -- and at many sites it's killed almost 100 percent of the bats. It has some biologists worried that some once-common varieties of bats could be facing extinction. [US FWS] [NYT]

The "white nose" in the syndrome's name refers to a fungus that grows on the face of the bats. Last fall researchers confirmed the fungus was responsible for the syndrome after 100 percent of the bats exposed to it in captivity developed the symptoms in a study. The fungus infects the bats' skin and causes lesions. [Nature News]

In 2010, New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation reported the White Nose Syndrome was likely in all bat caves in the state. The population of some species of bat had declined by 90 percent. [NYS DEC]

The disease was first identified in Howes Cave in Schoharie County -- it spread to other caves in the region and large bat die-offs followed.

Bats don't necessarily have the best reputation with a lot of humans, but they're an important part of the ecosystem because they eat huge numbers of insects -- including mosquitos.

photo: Nancy Heaslip, NYS DEC

Calls for mistrial in Troy voter fraud trial, state employees leaving Schenectady reportedly will be replaced by greater number, mobile phone video submitted as evidence in fatal stabbing case

2012-02-02T15:10:56Z

Two voter witnesses in the Troy ballot fraud trial testified yesterday that the signatures on the affidavits submitted to the grand jury in lieu of their in-person testimony are not their signatures. That prompted the defense to ask for either the indictments to be dismissed or a mistrial declared. [TU] [Troy Record]

Andrew Cuomo described the push for his proposed budget as the "Battle of Albany," pitting him against teacher unions, "wholly unacceptable" legislative redistricting, and "a system that for 15 years has been dysfunctional." One of the weapons in Cuomo's arsenal: Photoshop. Also yesterday: education lobbyists continued to press their case that the state's education aid is falling short. [AP/Troy Record] [State of Politics] [Fox23]

The state has recovered 46 percent of the jobs it lost during the recession, according to a report from the state comptroller's office. [State of Politics] [NYS OSC]

The 240 state DOT employees moving from a downtown Schenectady office building will reportedly be making way for as many as double that number of employees to be moved in. [Daily Gazette]

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