According to data graphed by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, shooting incidents involving injury in Albany County peaked in 2020 at over 120; similarly, the number of shooting victims hit peaked at 100 in 2020 while the number of people killed by guns in Albany County peaked in 2021 at nearly 20. By 2024, those numbers for Albany County had declined to about 60 people injured or hit and fewer than 10 people killed.

 Laviano is naming his newly completed complex on Western Avenue the Joseph J. Laviano Plaza in honor of his father.

Erik Carman, a doctor of physical therapy and founder of Altamont Physical Therapy, has received certification for a program that trains Parkinson’s patients in the kinds of bigger movements that the neurological disease makes difficult.  

In the end, the draft budget restored 70 percent of the first-grade teaching assistants. It also restored two-tenths of a librarian’s position at Altamont Elementary School, another cut that had spurred protests from a committed Altamont contingent.

Leonard Stokes, Ph.D., CPA, Professor Emeritus, Siena College, Guilderland

The withdrawal came as a surprise to both IDA board members and staffers as attorneys for the agency were negotiating with Pyramid over the subsidy right up until the day before IDA Chief Executive Officer Donald Csaposs received the March 20 letter informing him that Pyramid would forgo the multi-million dollar exemption.

Mary Jo Batters, Altamont

The proposed levy increase is 2.41 percent, which is just under the state-set tax cap, meaning a simple majority will pass the budget.