Times Union
Getting to the heart of stories that matter in NY's Capital Region, Hudson Valley and beyond. Got a question? We're glad you asked: timesunion.com/ask
- The New York doctor previously charged in two southern states for allegedly mailing abortion medication to women is being investigated again for sending pills to a woman in Louisiana, according to that state’s attorney general, Liz Murrill. (📝 @mariamsilva.bsky.social )
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first technological research university in the United States, held its 219th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10, at the ECAV Arena at the East Campus Athletic Village.
- A $588 million contract signed with a private tech company over a decade ago — which does not appear on the agency’s own public-facing database — is blamed for an increasing backlog of retirement cases, driving up wait times for callers seeking help from the agency and increasing strain on staff.
- As the Albany Symphony wrapped up its dress rehearsal on the evening of May 2, the staff received upsetting news. The National Endowment for the Arts was terminating its $35,000 grant for the orchestra’s annual American Music Festival, set to open in a month. (📝 @katkiessl.bsky.social )
- Norlite’s controversial hazardous waste incinerator off Saratoga Street was shut down in March of last year amid legal challenges with the state. More than a year later, the company’s future plans are up in the air. (📝 @tyleramcneil.bsky.social )
- Deck shuffleboard requires players to push discs with cues down a court or table into a narrow scoring zone. Several bars across upstate New York accommodate a table version of the bar game. But the court version is a rarer find. (📝 @tyleramcneil.bsky.social )
- The third season of the late 1800s drama, packed with local sights, is set to debut in late June on HBO on cable services and the Max streaming app. (📝 @tyleramcneil.bsky.social )
- Siena men's lacrosse senior Pratt Reynolds has scored a program-record 55 goals this season. But it's the one F-bomb he dropped on national television that had people talking after the Saints won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship last Saturday.
- A magical time, 1925: The 20th century reached the quarter pole, the Jazz Age was gaining momentum and “Phantom of the Opera” opened in theatres. It also was a year that four area golf courses opened. Ballston Spa, Battenkill, Bend of the River and Troy all turn 100 this season.
- "More than 200 mourners dreamed of an encore from the man beloved as the hub of a wide wheel of friends and colleagues, a political fixer whose reputation as a confidant earned him the sobriquet 'Booker T. Freud,'" writes columnist Paul Grondahl.
