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Channel: Chris Churchill » Government
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Sunday column: Twice victimized, and still unprotected

Jennifer Burkey says the memory of a night three years ago still terrifies her. That’s when her live-in boyfriend, she says, threatened her life, chased her around their Fort Ann home and then choked...

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Thursday column: In Troy, vote for what’s right

Update: Samara Ceccucci tells me that the Troy City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to pay her claim. On Thursday night, the Troy City Council can reverse an injustice. Its members can finally...

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Column: Water bill brings thirst for answers

Susan Walter has an expensive mystery on her hands. How is it, she wants to know, that the water bill on her Albany property shot up by $450 for no apparent reason? How is it that water usage at the...

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Column: ‘Mayor’ of Albany skating rink gets the boot

UPDATE: The city has decided to go with Dennis VanAmburgh after all… On Wednesday, he signed a contract to operate a newly built concession stand at Swinburne. I’ll post a more complete update on this...

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Update: Swinburne concession stand is back in business

Here’s my good-news update from Sunday’s newspaper on Dennis VanAmburgh and his Swinburne ice rink concession stand: Dennis VanAmburgh is back in business at the Swinburne ice rink. I wrote about...

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Sunday column: We’re sorry; it was a mistake; now pay up

CHATHAM — One look at the tax bill, and it was clear something was horribly wrong. See, the Chatham Town Board had intended to raise the town tax by 4.8 percent — a big increase, yes, but perhaps...

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Sunday column: Where there’s dense smoke there’s ire

EAST NASSAU — I don’t like writing about lasting fights between neighbors. That’s partly because I would hate to live that way, to have neighborly cooperation replaced by anger and acrimony. You might...

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Update: City finds violations at vacant Albany Tudors

I have new information to report after last week’s column about the six Tudor-style houses left vacant and decaying along Holland Avenue in Albany. First, I’ll admit to being stunned by how many people...

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State tax dollars boosted the Bushmaster factory. So … do you have a problem...

So, Sunday’s Advocate column — read it here — is was about the nearly $6 million that the state’s economic development agency has provided to the Herkimer County factory that now produces the...

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Thursday column: A threatened haven for big cats

Thursday’s Advocate column — read it here — is about a Mayfield man’s effort to keep operating his big-cat sanctuary, in the face of mounting pressure from some neighbors and town government. Steve...

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Column: One Bruce gets SLAPPed by another

For Thursday’s Times Union, I write again about Bruce vs. Bruce — the Halfmoon-based lawsuit involving developer Bruce Tanski and ordinary guy Bruce Rischert, right, who had the nerve to go at a public...

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Column: Grain of truth from the blabbersphere

News flash: There are homeless people in Saratoga Springs. That won’t surprise those who know the city, who understand that there’s more to Saratoga than horses and shopping. But it may surprise anyone...

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Column: A park for the South Troy waterfront

In today’s Advocate column — read it here — I argue that a valuable plot of land along the South Troy waterfront should be set aside for public use. That was once planned as an education center that...

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Troy officials reject the proposed ‘porn district’

In Thursday’s column – read it here — I argued against rezoning 70 acres of the Troy waterfront for “adult entertainment” uses such as strip clubs and pornographic bookstores. From my point of view, a...

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Column: The fight to save St. Patrick’s was worth the effort

From Thursday’s column: On Wednesday, St. Patrick’s remained Watervliet’s dominant feature, its 137-foot tower still visible from hills outside the city. But down at 19th Street and Sixth Avenue, crews...

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Column: Parole board acts as judge and jury

From my Sunday column: When a judge says the state is unjustly keeping someone in prison, it’s worth paying attention — even when the prisoner is Hank Morris. Remember Morris? He’s the architect of the...

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Update: Hank Morris wins parole, out by June 3

Hank Morris, the architect of the pay-for-play pension fund scam that put former Comptroller Alan Hevesi and others in prison, has been granted parole and will be released by June 3. Morris, who...

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Column: A legal dead end for Motocross plan?

From Thursday’s Advocate column, which is about the proposed Motocross track in Stephentown: The difficulty with these types of disputes is that both sides are essentially right. It’s true, I think,...

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A bridge made more dangerous for pedestrians?

Guardrails are in place to protect drivers, not pedestrians. That, I think, is a key takeaway from today’s Advocate column about changes being made to the Congress Street Bridge in Troy. The changes,...

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Bolton Landing castle owner jousts with town

John Lavender’s home is his castle. About that, there’s no question. It’s how the 59-year-old uses his castle that has sparked a bitter, three-year fight in Bolton Landing. Lavender, you see, believes...

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