Harold Miller left the Hilltowns and the family farm where he was raised. But now, in his old age, he has, through assiduous research of online vital statistics, pieced together a view of the Helderbergs' settlement that rights the long-held local lore.

Yvonne Lustenhouwer's father was a master carpenter in Holland. She uses her hands, too — to quilt, to  garden, to embrace. Her friends appreciate the oasis she has created.

Growing up in a segregated Wichita, André Thomas found a place where race didn't matter — the choir. But he eschewed spirituals, seeing them as a way whites put down blacks, until his mentor, Jester Hairston, led him to embrace his heritage. Now, he's an authority on spirituals and most recently sought his African roots.

SLINGERLANDS — Victor Shear, of Canajoharie, was arraigned on Sept. 9 on charges that he robbed the TrustCo Bank on New Scotland Road in Slingerlands.

The indictment alleges that, on Aug. 21, he entered the bank, demanding money while brandishing a gun and then, after taking the money, fled.

When a 16-year-old was asked by an off-duty officer what he was doing with a dufffle bag behind a Dumpster at Crossgates Mall, he said he had just stolen a laptop computerr.

Guilderland music teacher Rae Jean Teeter says performing stretches her students. Their latest reach is a long stretch, answering an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall. Fund-raising is underway.

Unanimous votes on both sides ushered in three-year pact for six Guilderland administrators with a raise the district's negotiator called "modest" — 1.5 percent each year.

The Guilderland School Board decided there would be no harm to the environment with a proposed plan to upgrade seven school buildings.

“He gave his life in the line of duty” says the new gravestone for Harold C. Mattice, a corporal with the New York State Police, buried in Berne’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

A Berne man riding an all-terrain vehicle was killed on his Saw Mill Road property Saturday afternoon when, police say, he struck a wire strung four or five feet off the ground, meant to protect four marijuana plants.