The Duanesburg Research and Archive Center is nearing completion in Quaker Street in Schenectady County.

ALBANY COUNTY — There’s little that’s more reassuring to a child than the sound of her mother or father reading a book aloud. That’s the idea behind a new program getting underway at Albany County’s jail that is designed to keep kids from following in their parents’ footsteps — into jail.

New York is one of just three states in the country that has laws to protect victims, despite any rollbacks on the national level.

Daniel McCoy’s 2018 proposed budget for Albany County is up $25 million from last year, but stays under the state-set levy limit and doesn’t increase taxes.

The Old Stone Fort Museum in Schoharie is hosting a weekend of immersive history re-enactments on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7 and 8.

Stone Fort Days this year will feature a 240th-anniversary commemoration of the 1777 Tory Uprising and Battle of the Flockey.

A Syrian feminist is giving women a voice in peace talks. “We see the political solution is the only way to solve our tragedy, to stop the war,” she said.

“My work is based on imagined worlds with part-human and part-plant figures,” says Andrea Hersh of the mural she will create on a now-blank building along the Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail.

ALBANY COUNTY — Incumbent Albany County Clerk Bruce Hidley, a Democrat, has a challenger in November, from Guilderland. Republican Howard Koff is running against him on a platform of tax reform for seniors, although the county clerk position has no jurisdiction over taxes.