Albany News

ALBANY - The month-long Senate leadership standoff ended this afternoon when a Democrat who worked with Republicans in a June 8 coup said he will return to the Democratic conference.

In the streets surrounding the state Capitol, the real-life consequences of New York's legislative gridlock may be taking shape.

At the request of Senate Republicans, a Nassau County judge issued an order shortly after midnight Thursday effectively suspending Gov.

As the cost for a pack of cigarettes continues to skyrocket, the effort in New York state to help people stop smoking is now having success in a demographic where 80 percent of the population smoke cigarettes.

City police said they are investigating a fire late Friday at 31 Benson St., a residence that had no power for three days before the fire.

Citing unanswered questions about the details and length of the borrowing package, city lawmakers stalled a crucial bond vote Monday night that would have paved the way for the first phase of the $41 million Rapp Road landfill expansion.

AP -- The self-described 'amigos' who've threatened the Democrats shaky majority in New York's Senate say they're meeting to end the standoff that's paralyzed the chamber since a coup two of them helped engineer.Democratic Sens.

Evident Technologies announced a filing in chapter 11 reorganization today and has asked the Bankruptcy court in Albany, New York to approve a debtor in financing package of $ 1.35 million.

SAUGERTIES An Albany man has been arrested in the Village of Saugerties while in possession of 150 ecstasy pills and 150 tablet of diverted prescription drugs.

ALBANY It won't be the same cookies and doughnuts and icing on the cake come July 1. Bakers in Albany County have started their cry against the trans fat ban, which will take effect in just two months.

APNewsNow. Will be led. AP Photos ALBANY, N.Y. _ Gov. David Paterson is considering a new interpretation of the state constitution by good-government advocates and legal scholars that would allow him to appoint a lieutenant governor to address the monthlong standoff in the Senate.

Make way for Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who said today he's got an idea that will unlock the Senate stalemate: a lawsuit.

Reporting from San Francisco and Albany, N.Y. - As California lawmakers stay locked in partisan gridlock, residents might take small solace in one fact: There is a legislative body even more divided, more hapless and more dysfunctional than the one in Sacramento.

By MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. - Gov. David Paterson said Sunday he'll use a statewide tour this week to turn up the heat on senators who remain gridlocked in a monthlong power struggle.

For those who live in or near Albany, it's easy to take for granted how impressive a small city it is.

As the day goes on and as negotiations seem to go nowhere, senators are more and more resigned to working on July 4th, since Gov.

On Saturday afternoon, from the peaks of the Adirondacks to the sands of Coney Island, New Yorkers will be celebrating the Fourth of July with picnics, softball games or a dip in the ocean.

New York's senators are stuck in Albany this July 4 weekend in a partisan standoff that has lasted about as long as the founding fathers spent in Philadelphia in 1776, drafting a new government that derived its power from the governed.

The GE "puffer" machine at the security checkpoint at Albany International Airport is still in use.

ALBANY, N.Y. - Battling leaders of New York's Senate and Gov. David Paterson are scheduled to meet to try work out a power-sharing agreement for the chamber.