Albany

An animal rights attorney asked a judge Friday to order State Police to file charges against a Columbia County man who allegedly left his dog chained up in subzero temperatures last winter.

Zeus, a 13-year-old Great Pyrenees dog, was chained up outside his owner's Elizaville home during the frigid polar vortex in January, attorney Matthew Albert told state Supreme Court Justice Raymond Elliot.

A neighbor, Trish Bode, contacted State Police, but troopers refused to intervene, Albert said. He said Zeus was forced to endure the freeze in an oversized doghouse without any insulation, a violation of state agricultural and markets law which requires that animals receive adequate shelter.

Albert said the law mandates police must take action. He sued the State Police on behalf of Bode and his own organization, New York State Citizens Against Puppy Mills, to compel police to arrest Robert Krupa, the dog owner.

Albert said he wants police to seize the dog and take him to safety.

"Basically we tied the case up in a beautiful pretty bow for the troopers and said, 'Now will you please take action?'" Albert told reporters. "We weren't looking to come to court. We wanted to settle it nicely."

Trooper Melissa McMorris of State Police Troop K said, "We need probable cause to effect an arrest. A review of this matter revealed that there is no evidence that any laws were violated, therefore no arrest was made."

The State Police is being represented by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, which is legally obligated to defend state agencies. Assistant Attorney General Cathy Sheehan argued the merits of the case were moot because Albert lacked legal jurisdiction. She asked the judge to dismiss the case.

Outside court, Albert was joined by Bode and Tina Aiken, a veterinarian who examined photos of Zeus and his living conditions. Aiken said Zeus has reduced muscle mass and likely arthritis.

"In my opinion, he should have been inside somewhere," she said.

Albert provided photos that show the dog outside with snow on his fur. He said in his six years prosecuting animal cruelty cases in the Buffalo area, he never had evidence as strong as the case he presented to State Police to charge Zeus' owner. He said some 50 pages of evidence includes expert testimony by veterinarians, experts in the Great Pyrenees breed and two eyewitnesses who witnessed the dog withstand the conditions for years.

"This isn't a close call by any stretch of the imagination, Your Honor," Albert told the judge. "This is a slam dunk."

The lawyer accused Schneiderman's office of "showing a complete lack of regard for animal welfare" and apparently trying to delay helping the dog "until Zeus ends up roasting in the hot sun."

Nick Benson, a spokesman for the attorney general, declined to comment on the remarks. The dog's owner could not be reached for comment.

The judge gave Sheehan until June 11 to file her motion to dismiss the case. He gave Albert until June 20 to respond.

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU

Lake George

He's got the hip swinging moves, the wavering voice, the white suit and the screaming fans. And he's only 9 years old.

Connor Russo, from Caledon, Ontario, left the stage at the Lake George Elvis Festival to a standing ovation after his Friday performance of "Suspicious Minds."

"His first words were 'blue shoes,'" said his mother, Stacy Russo. The family bought a karaoke machine before Connor was 1, and they played a lot of Elvis.

"He kept saying these things, these words, and for about a month we couldn't figure out what it was," she said. "Then our friends came over and said, 'You know, I think he's saying blue shoes,' and he ran over to the karaoke machine like crazy and we put the song on for him."

As one of three kids in the youth competition, this is Connor's first Lake George festival, but he began competing in Elvis tributes when he was 5.

The festival, which opened Wednesday and concludes Sunday at the Lake George Forum, is in its 11th year. This year it has drawn 65 Elvis tribute performers from all over the world, and is expected to attract 5,000 people by the end of the weekend.

The performers call themselves ETAs, or Elvis Tribute Artists, which are different from impersonators. Performers pay tribute to Elvis, rather than trying to be him.

The older ETAs compete in four categories. The festival splits the competition into the Early Years (1950s and '60s) — marked by rockabilly music, lame suits and black leather — and the Later Years (1970s) — marked by jumpsuits. The two eras are split into nonprofessional and professional performers.

At the end of the weekend, prizes will be awarded for the top five tributes in each category, plus a fan favorite, Festival Director Jason Sherry said.

His company, Sherry Management, runs seven Elvis events around the country, but the Lake George festival is the largest.

"It's a great opportunity to get together with people who become like family after 11 years," Sherry said. "Many of the fans come with us from one event to another in different parts of the country."

He expects that 30 percent of the attendees this weekend are from the Capital Region, while the rest come from out of town.

"They all say this is the best, with the best fans," said Donna Vetter of Queensbury. Lake George is the only Elvis festival she attends, but she has been there every year since it began. "I look forward to this all year long."

"This is the best one I have been to," said Carol Hopkins from Winchester, Va., who has attended Elvis festivals all over the country. "I think this one is even better than Las Vegas."

The event concludes on Sunday with the final competition and awards from 1 to 5:30 p.m. This is a qualifier for the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest in Memphis.

The festival is also hosting other Elvis-themed events, which can be found at http://lakegeorgeelvisfest.com.

ebrower@timesunion.com • 518-454-5420

Brunswick

Frear Park Golf Course's seventh and eighth holes are at the center of the latest tussle between the town and neighboring Troy, which owns the 18-hole links.

The two communities appear headed into their final round of land disputes that began last year when the city unsuccessfully attempted to add parcels long-taxed by the town to the city tax rolls.

The city's court case made the town realize that it had 20.7 acres of city golf course within its boundaries, not just some vacant land owned by the city as tax records had long shown.

That led to a tremendous reassessment of the greens' value.

"I can't ignore it. I know it's a golf course," Steve Rooney, the Brunswick assessor, said Friday.

The town put a full market value of $395,648 on the two holes for 2014. The town's assessment means the course is 14 times more expensive than its $28,438 value in 2013.

In terms of taxable value, the town increased the golf course assessment to $105,638 this year from $7,900 in 2013.

The city filed its appeal with the town's Board of Assessment Review Tuesday, the last day of appeals.

At stake is a jump in the city's property tax bill to $12,050 from $900.

The city didn't enjoy the sting of losing its battle in the dispute over who should tax certain parcels that traditionally were on Brunswick's tax rolls even though part of the lots were in the city. The higher golf course assessment is another blow.

"The administration felt there was no legal justification for such an increase in the assessment," said Michael Morris, a spokesman for Mayor Lou Rosamilia.

In its appeal, the city argued that the town didn't conduct a revaluation or update but violated clauses in the U.S. and New York state constitutions with the dramatic increase.

Rooney said the town based its assessment of Frear Park's seventh and eighth holes on the city's assessment of its golf course.

"The intent was never to spite the city," Rooney said.

The city argues the nine-hole Brunswick Greens golf course assessment should be used for comparison. The town gave the land at the course a value of $168,539, which translates to a value of $18,726 per hole. This would place the assessed value of two holes at $9,900, which is $2,000 more than the town's 2013 assessment of $7,900 for the Frear Park course land in 2013.

The Board of Assessment Review decision on the city appeal is expected to be released next week, Rooney said.

If the city doesn't convince the town to lower the assessment, it has the option of going to court.

"If the determination is not favorable," Morris said, "it's likely the city will move forward with legal action."

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe

Albany

Army National Guard Col. David Martinez, an Albany resident, has been named to command the Guard's historic 369th Sustainment Brigade, nicknamed the "Harlem Hell Fighters."

Based in New York City, the unit traces its lineage back to the African-American soldiers who formed in New York just before the United States entered World War I.

"The Harlem Hell Fighters are one of the most storied units in American military history," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced the new command on Friday. "Its soldiers fought proudly and distinguished themselves in World War I, and also served with distinction during World War II, Desert Storm and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

During World War I, the unit fought under French command because U.S. Army commanders did not trust African-American soldiers. The unit sustained 1,500 casualties and its soldiers received 171 medals from the French government. Albany native Henry Johnson, who became famous for defeating a German patrol during an engagement in May 1918, was a member of the 369th.

Today, the 369th oversees a number of logistics units across New York. The brigade's job is to coordinate the delivery of supplies to division-size combat forces.

Martinez, who is a full-time employee of the New York Army National Guard, was previously responsible for operation and training of all of the state's Guard units. In 2005, he deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, as commander of the 642nd Military Intelligence Battalion.

Martinez was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program when he attended the University of Albany in 1984. He has a master's degree in public administration from Marist College, and a master's degree in national security studies from the Army War College.

Martinez is married to Pauline Martinez, who is also a member of the New York National Guard.

ccrowley@timesunion.com • 518-454-5348 • @cathleencrowley • http://facebook.com/cathleenFcrowley

Albany

In December 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung died trying to protect students during the shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn.

On Friday, the first conference of the Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Center for the Promotion of Mental Health and School Safety took place at the Sage College of Albany, where she was a doctoral candidate.

In attendance were local teachers, mental health counselors and law enforcement officials seeking to better address issues that lead to violence in the nation's schools.

Keynote speeches by Larry Epstein of the Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatry department and Chris Kukk of Western Connecticut State University dealt with early interventions meant to prevent violent behaviors from ever erupting.

"Those issues that played out this week in California began when that child was very, very young." Ann Myers, director of the center, said of the May 23 killing spree by 22-year-old Elliot Rodger at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Breakout sessions also dealt with addressing crises and school violence when it occurs. East Greenbush educators shared lessons from their experience with a shooting at Columbia High School 10 years ago.

Epstein kicked off the daylong conference with a call for educators to change their approach to children with challenging behaviors. Assume that kids who don't behave well lack social skills — not that they are defiant, he said. It's not that they won't behave well, but that they can't, he said.

And understand that what an adult identifies as a problem may be the child's solution to another issue, he said. Recognize the core problem and you're on your way to changing the behavior.

"It's asking them to do a 180-degree shift in their approach," Myers said of Esptein's talk.

Epstein could be humorous in pointing out what's wrong in the traditional approach to difficult behavior in students. Imagine, he said, suspending a child for not reaching the reading level for his grade, then chastising him to go back to the classroom and "make better choices." That's what educators often do with children they mistakenly label as "oppositional," he said. They tell the kids to change, without teaching them the skills to do it.

Children, like adults, he said, want a sense of mastery, autonomy and purpose.

"These kids have been misunderstood for a long, long time," Epstein said.

Myers, an associate professor at Sage, hopes to package information in the breakout sessions for use in online courses, she said.

chughes@timesunion.com • 518-454-5417 • @hughesclaire

The 20th annual St. Basil's Greek Orthodox Church festival was held Saturday in Troy.The event continues from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Saratoga Springs

An email from France has taken a D-Day veteran back to his days as part of the largest military invasion in modern history.

Paul Calhoun was one of the first Americans to participate in the liberation of Europe during World War II when he parachuted behind German lines five hours before the Allies invaded France on June 6, 1944. Dropped in a swampy area about 10 miles from his intended target, he was later wounded and captured.

He escaped from the truck taking him to a German prison camp and hid in the Norman countryside. Weak from fatigue and loss of blood, he managed to evade other German soldiers and eventually came to a farmhouse, where — unsure of how he would be received — he warily knocked on the door. The farmer who answered was shocked to find a wounded, bedraggled American paratrooper there, deep in German-occupied territory. Despite the danger, the farmer delivered Calhoun to an underground network of French families who nursed his wounds and fed and sheltered him for nearly a week.

Seventy years later, Calhoun, now 92, lives in the Wesley Community in Saratoga Springs.

The former U.S. Army corporal was transported back to that exhilarating and dangerous time recently when he received an unexpected note and two photographs from Frenchman Jacques Gilles, who, when he was 8 years old, helped his mother and father rescue Calhoun.

Gilles had tracked down Calhoun to reintroduce himself and to say thanks ahead of the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

"It is a duty and an honor for us Normans to show our deepest gratitude to the young brave Americans who, like you, came to fight and, for many, to give their lives for our freedom," Gilles wrote in his email.

Calhoun was "emotionally shaken," family members said, when he received the message.

"Shocking," Calhoun said on Thursday. "It was 70 years since I last saw any of them," he said.

Calhoun was shot in his left hand. The bullet went through a knuckle, leaving the finger dangling. One of the photos shows Calhoun, his hand bandaged, and a young Jacques Gilles and others who helped hide him.

"I remember when they were fixing my finger, which was sort of a mess," Calhoun said. "Two little boys were sitting there just wide-eyed, staring at the blood, the splint and bandages."

Paul William Calhoun shared his remarkable story of survival with help from his 63-year-old son, Paul Walter Calhoun, who is dean of special programs at Skidmore College. He recorded a series of interviews with his father in 1980. Those and a 45-minute interview Calhoun agreed to last week are the only times he's spoken about his experiences in one of history's greatest military operations, his son said.

His first-hand account of his D-Day exploits is a testament to enduring relationships formed among people who were united by destiny.

The signal in the plane to jump was a green light. At 1 a.m. on June 6, 1944, Calhoun and his fellow paratroopers leaped one second apart from a mere 500 feet into the black of night. Their orders were to attack German installations and to secure the coast for the coming seaborne invasion.

Calhoun was a member of the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which would be immortalized in the 2001 HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." Each paratrooper carried 95 pounds of equipment. Calhoun had two parachutes, a life jacket, a Thompson submachine gun, 240 rounds of ammunition, four grenades, a land mine, two knives, a 50-foot rope, two days of rations, a gas mask and a compass.

Calhoun's parachute opened as he watched Germans on the ground fire red and green tracer bullets at the plane he had just exited. He landed unscathed in a marsh.

When dawn broke, Calhoun and the 30 other Americans he was with realized they had been mistakenly dropped near Cherbourg, about 10 miles northwest of their target landing zone. They moved south, and at around noon on D-Day, the group became engaged in a firefight with a German unit. In the confusion of battle, Calhoun became separated from most of the other Americans.

It was a clear day, but he was wet and exhausted. He ditched his weapon, fearing it would attract the enemy, and waited in some tall reeds until dark with two other paratroopers from the 101st. They then entered a barn that led to a courtyard — where they ran into three Nazis soldiers. One fired and Calhoun fell to the ground, hit in his left hand.

He was captured and thrown into an underground concrete dugout. Calhoun never saw the other two Americans again.

In the morning, his captors put him in the back of a covered truck. When the truck stopped at a crossroads, Calhoun jumped out and rolled off the road. "I disappeared into the woods as fast as I could," he said. He hid under a haystack, but soon became desperate for food and water.

After scouting a farmhouse for hours, he finally approached and knocked on the door. He told the surprised man who opened it, "Je suis un Americain parachutist." He showed the Frenchman — later identified as Jules Lebredonchel of Le Theil — his finger and begged for help.

Lebredonchel, after consulting with others inside, took Calhoun in. Lebredonchel summoned friends, who took their surprise American guest to Jean-Baptiste Sauvey, who introduced him to Fernand Gilles, a schoolteacher who spoke English and was Jacques Gilles' father.

"They treated me very special," Calhoun said. "I felt very safe with them."

After about a week in hiding, Calhoun woke up one morning in the woods and heard some clatter. The Germans were retreating before the advancing Americans. The French who lived in the area celebrated with unrestrained joy, Calhoun recalled. They made him eat two large duck eggs to line his stomach so he could handle drinking Calvados, the powerful apple brandy made in Normandy.

"The most moving thing that happened was all the French gathered at their town hall, raised the French flag and sang 'The Marseillaise,' their national anthem," Calhoun said.

He hitched a ride with the U.S. infantry and a few days later rejoined the "Screaming Eagles" near Caen. Calhoun was the only lost member of his unit to make it back. He was sent to England for medical treatment and returned to the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, Hitler's last-gasp effort to reverse the Allied tide.

Gen. George Patton's Third Army eventually broke through the German defenses and within months the war was over. History credits the daring D-Day invasion with liberating western Europe from Hitler's Third Reich.

Calhoun was part of the hunt for Hitler at the Nazi dictator's Eagle's Nest fortress in Bavaria.

The war ended while he was stationed in Austria and he was shipped home to Philadelphia, where he was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star and married his wife, Ruth. The couple had three children — Paul, Candace and David Lee.

"I was lucky, very lucky," Calhoun said. "I cheated death. I'm very thankful for the French people who helped me."

Calhoun exchanged Christmas cards with Sauvey and the elder Gilles, who sent him copies of the two pictures taken in France with his rescuers on June 9, 1944. Communication with the family ended in the 1960s after the Frenchmen died. It resumed on April 26 of this year when Jacques Gilles found an old Venice, Fla., address for Calhoun and tried to contact him by sending an email to the Venice town hall.

Calhoun had moved to Saratoga Springs from Florida in 2010 after his wife died. Kit McKeon, a West Point graduate and Venice City Council member, tracked down Calhoun at the Wesley Community and forwarded Gilles' message.

"The French who lived there have obviously never forgotten and won't," Calhoun's son said.

His father sent Jacques Gilles a letter on Monday.

"I will never forget the courage of your people in leading me through the woods to the farm where we met your father," Calhoun wrote. "They risked their lives if the Germans saw us."

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's sobering and helpful analysis of the pluses and minuses that four Vegas-style casinos will likely bring to upstate New York has arrived in good time.

In a month final bids will be received by the state's euphemistically named Gaming Commission — it is a gambling commission — for the four licenses. It's an outfit, incidentally, that acts suspiciously like state gambling's biggest booster rather than its statutory regulator. There are 19 contenders for the licenses. Billions in gambling revenues are at stake. In the next 30 days, citizens for and against sitings will go to war; town boards and at least one city council — Albany's — will vote on the all-important supporting local resolution.

For the first time, state government, through DiNapoli's assessment, is actually giving its citizens and local governments an even-handed look at what casinos are likely to bring, and it's not all the rosy baloney the Cuomo administration has been touting. Local governments where casinos are proposed have been forced to hire consultants and legal help to negotiate the treacherous and unfamiliar waters ahead, without any clear understanding whether a casino is ultimately a good idea for them. It's a crapshoot with terrifying consequences.

DiNapoli's report doesn't entirely douse with ice water Cuomo's pronouncement of casinos as great economic engines, but pretty close.

The comptroller acknowledges there will likely be some state revenue gains from these casinos, but he is skeptical the numbers will be as good as forecast. Other states have regularly come up short on revenue projections. And the costs, he suggests, both direct and buried, are complicated and far reaching. Determining whether on balance the state is a winner or a loser by bringing in Vegas-style casino gambling will take years to figure out. Jobs will shift around, other businesses will go under, consumer spending patterns will change with unpredictable consequences. Existing gambling venues, notably the lottery, will take a big hit.

Localities are taking the biggest risks with casino building, says the state's top accountant. Massachusetts, which is scheduled to award a Vegas-style casino license this month near us, has built into its legislation a requirement that the state study, and keep tabs on, the changes casinos bring to the local communities and the affected region. In other words, the balance sheet is kept open for answering the hard questions. New York has no such requirement for its Gaming Commission, although DiNapoli suggests it should.

After studying all 17 states that already offer full casino gambling, the comptroller's report offers some reliable insights.

Right at the top, he steers us toward answering one of the most critical questions that face us as we go forward with either yes or no to casinos. That is, where will the money come from to sustain an industry looking for healthy returns on the hundreds of millions it's investing?

The governor has repeatedly offered the vision of tens of millions of foreign tourists, lured to New York City, rushing upstate to gamble. The comptroller doesn't buy it.

Where will the money come from? Look in the mirror, look across the street. As DiNapoli notes, the industry's prime target zone for raking in the dough is 50 miles or 50 minutes from the casino. As for luring huge numbers of out-of-staters, why should they come? There are already comparable gambling venues all over the map. Europeans? Be serious; they've been at it for centuries.

Fifty miles, 50 minutes. It doesn't really matter whether the casino is in Albany or East Greenbush in terms of regional impact. That covers the entire Capital Region of around a million, and encompasses a whole lot of pay checks, mortgages, Social Security checks, pensions, private school and college tuitions, and 401Ks.

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin got testy because Bethlehem's town board passed a resolution opposing the proposed siting of a casino near Exit 23 of the Thruway in Albany that's on Bethlehem's border. The town further resolved against any casino anywhere in the Capital Region, which is smart and consistent given the DiNapoli report. McLaughlin should accept such a resolution as not a comment on Albany's economic development prowess, but as Bethlehem's defensive action in support of its own residents.

The blunt truth is that Bethlehem residents have a hell of lot more to lose at such a casino than Albany residents.

The DiNapoli report is a solid, pithy read, if low-key. It's on the comptroller's website, and covers a lot of ground, not the least being the myriad anticipated negative impacts on other forms of established gambling in New York, from the lottery to VLTs to race tracks. We are no doubt a gambling state, with more gambling revenues collected here than anywhere, more than California and Florida combined. But we are now a considered a ''mature'' market, close to tapped out in terms of bringing in fresh money from those prone to gambling.

But that's the casino industry's challenge now, to find ways to create, lure in more new gamblers from within 50 miles or 50 minutes to feed the always hungry beast.

Just what we need. Thank you, governor.

flebrun@timesunion.com • 518-454-5453

Albany

When civilization and wildness clash, civilization usually wins.

So it wasn't surprising when a bear's foray into an Albany neighborhood didn't end well for the animal. Still, last week's strange standoff won't strike many as one of the region's proudest moments.

The lasting memory will be of a presumably terrified and definitely wounded animal high in a tree, with an armed cadre of state and local officials waiting on the ground. Then, there was the bear's horrible fall, complete with breaking branches and a THUD! on the ground.

Did it have to happen that way?

Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection aren't second-guessing their approach.

"From a public safety standpoint, I'd say it was as successful as it could have been," said Larry DiDonato, a DEC captain who was at the Albany scene. "We didn't have too many options for improving it."

Let's back up a bit to fill in details for those of you who didn't obsessively follow L'Affaire Bear.

• The animal arrives in the Whitehall Road neighborhood on Tuesday, apparently after marauding around Bethlehem over the weekend, and after twice being hit by a car near the Interstate 787 tollbooth.

• DEC officers track the animal to a ravine, where one officer fires a shot. The bear is wounded, but not mortally, and it climbs a tree behind a house on Rose Court, where it remains for roughly 24 hours.

• The bear becomes an instant Capital Region celebrity. Reporters track its every movement, even as it refuses to move. Crowds gather in the streets below. Children hold "Save the Bear" signs.

• On Wednesday, DEC workers on a lift fire tranquilizers at the bear. Two hours later, it falls from the tree yet survives. It is taken to another location and "dispatched."

We have conflicting attitudes about bears. They're the cuddly, furry Teddy every child loves, yet they forever live with wolves in the deep recesses of the human fear reflex. Last week, we saw both impulses on display. Some wanted the cute cub returned to the wild. Others wanted the terrifying beast eliminated.

In reality, bear attacks on humans are exceedingly rare, and so the DEC doesn't kill every bear that wanders into civilization. In fact, on the very Tuesday when our local sensation strolled into town, the agency quietly removed a bear from the SUNY New Paltz campus, releasing it Wednesday.

"We have a long history of giving bears a second chance," DEC wildlife biologist Larry Bifaro told me.

But Albany Bear, as it was nicknamed, had a rap sheet. In April, it killed three chickens and destroyed a coop in Lackawanna County, Pa. On its trip through Bethlehem, it apparently tried to break into a garage.

Minor offenses, perhaps.

But DEC determined this was a nuisance bear that would continue to cause trouble. So when an officer had the chance, he shot to kill. He didn't succeed, obviously.

It's easy to criticize such decisions from the sidelines.But few of us know what it's like to weigh the life of a potentially aggressive animal against the need to protect a neighborhood.

And when a bear looks for food in populated areas, the behavior is often the result of problems we've all caused.

We're sprawling into bear habitat. We're changing the climate and once-predictable food patterns. We're continuing to put economic growth above all else.

If wildness is the salvation of the world, we're doomed.

The day after the bear in Albany died, I spoke with Assemblymen Jim Tedisco, the Republican from Glenville. He's one of the Legislature's most devoted animal advocates, and he initially questioned the DEC's handling of the bear saga.

"My wife thinks I'm a nuisance, too," Tedisco said. "I hope she doesn't shoot me."

More seriously, Tedisco wondered why DEC didn't initially tranquilize the bear, rather than shoot it. It turns out, though, that DEC protocol warns against tranquilizing roaming bears, because the drugs don't work immediately and bears behave erratically or aggressively in the meantime.

So we had L'Affaire Bear.

It could have been worse.

I was living in Maine in 2003, when a bull moose was found wading in a cove that abuts some of Portland's residential neighborhoods. A large crowd, including children, gathered to watch and enjoy the moose — and onlookers all but rioted when a city cop abruptly shot the animal dead.

The rationale then was the same as it was last week in Albany: The defense of public safety.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill

Elmont

America's horse.

That's what California Chrome has become.

Right after the solidly built chestnut colt with four white feet and a big white blaze down the center of his face won the Preakness two weeks ago, putting him on the doorstep of thoroughbred immortality, Steve Coburn, the colt's co-owner who cries as often as his horse wins, offered up California Chrome to the people.

"It's hard for me because I get very emotional about it," Coburn said. "But I honestly believe this is America's horse."

America will get its chance to scream and holler for California Chrome once more Saturday in the Belmont Stakes, where he will try to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Thirty-six years ago, another chestnut horse named Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Since then, 12 horses have made it to Belmont Park with the chance to join the select group of 11 Triple Crown winners. All failed.

"We need a hero right now," Art Sherman, the 77-year-old trainer of California Chrome, said by cellphone last week from southern California.

Why not California Chrome, the people's horse?

America can love this story, because it's one not often told in the sport of kings. Thoroughbred racing is a rich folks' game. They go to horse sales in Kentucky and Florida and Saratoga Springs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on what they hope will be the next great racehorse. And then the horse is sent to a high-profile trainer like Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert.

California Chrome was not purchased for hundreds of thousands of dollars, his owners are not rich and his trainer isn't famous. "We are not Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert," said Alan Sherman, California Chrome's assistant trainer and Art's 45-year-old son. "We don't have a lot of horses in the barn, and it's hard to fathom winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and now having a chance to win the Triple Crown."

The Sherman Racing Stable is based in California. They have 40 horses in training in northern California and 20 at Los Alamitos Race Course in the southern part of the state.

Before California Chrome won the Derby, nobody outside of Los Alamitos Race Course had heard of Sherman, who spent 21 years as a West Coast jockey and has been training horses since 1979.

Not a whole lot of people really believed in California Chrome, either. He was a dazzling runner on speed-favoring California tracks. But when Chrome got to Louisville for the Derby, the local horsemen could not wait to tell everyone why this colt would not win the most famous horse race on U.S. soil.

They had good reasons. California Chrome was born in California, and a California-bred had not won the Derby since 1962. His sire is an obscure thoroughbred named Lucky Pulpit.

It only cost $1,500 for Chrome's owners to breed Lucky Pulpit to their mare, Not For Love, whom they bought for $8,000. Do the math, and they are on the verge of having a Triple Crown winner for the bargain-basement price of $9,500.

"It's great for racing when you have a story like that," said Elliott Walden, president/CEO and racing manager of heavyweight WinStar Farm in Kentucky. "It tells everyone that they can get in the game."

WinStar, by the way, has a horse in the Belmont Stakes named Commissioner. They bought him for $150,000. Walden said the average price for horses WinStar buys is between $150,000 and $200,000. The biggest buy came earlier this year, when WinStar bought a colt for $1.6 million. Coburn and his partner, the seldom-seen Perry Martin, could have bought 168 California Chromes with that much loot.

During the week before the Kentucky Derby, California Chrome, despite his four-race winning streak, was not getting respect. Kentucky-based trainer Dale Romans, whose Medal Count would finish eighth in the Derby, could not hide his contempt for California Chrome, saying he didn't belong. Fellow trainer Dallas Stewart, whose Commanding Curve finished second in the Derby and will run in the Belmont, was also a Chrome naysayer.

"Yup, and I was wrong," Stewart said. "We all tried to get smart and add up the breeding. You knocked him because he was from California and he ran on the speed track at Santa Anita. We were wrong. That horse is just a runner."

California Chrome has been in New York for almost two weeks. His every move has been watched by Alan Sherman, who accompanied the horse from Baltimore after the Preakness. Art Sherman went back to California two days after the May 17 Preakness to tend to his horses at Los Alamitos; he's expected in New York on Monday.

Alan Sherman said there only has been one time that he was disappointed in California Chrome, and that came the first time the horse ran. It was Friday, April 26, 2013, in the second race at Hollywood Park. The maiden race was worth $53,000, and California Chrome went off at 7-1, the fifth choice in the field of nine California-breds going 41/2 furlongs.

"I always liked the horse, and I bet on him in that first race pretty good," Alan Sherman said. "He didn't win; he ran second. I bet $500 on him to win, and that is a big bet for me. I got nothing. He has paid me back since then."

California Chrome does have some star horses in his breeding, as his bloodlines go back to Pulpit (second in the 1997 Florida Derby, fourth in the 1997 Kentucky Derby) and A.P. Indy (1992 Belmont and Breeders' Cup Classic winner) and even 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.

But Lucky Pulpit, California Chrome's sire, raced 22 times in his career and had just three wins, five seconds and five thirds. Lucky Pulpit finished seventh -— and last — in the 2004 Santa Anita Derby at odds of 33-1.

Ten years later, his famous son won that same race by 51/4 lengths and ran the fourth-fastest time (1:47 2/5) in the race's history.

"We think maybe he got one special gene," Art Sherman said. "Really, we don't know why we would have gotten that extra special horse. But I know he has become the people's horse."

Earlier this spring, California Chrome's owners turned down an offer of $6 million for the horse. Coburn said he had a dream that California Chrome was going to win the Triple Crown. If that dream comes true, Coburn, who works in a factory in Nevada, won't have to worry about not being rich anymore.

Belmont Park could see a record crowd — there were 120,139 there in 2004 when Smarty Jones failed to win the Triple Crown — come through the turnstiles Saturday. And just about all of them will be there to witness history. They want to see California Chrome do it one more time.

"This has been such a story, such a ride," Art Sherman said. "There has been a lot of eyeballing all over the country about this horse, and he deserves it. You want to know something? I am going into (the Belmont) more relaxed than ever. He deserves to be the favorite to win the Triple Crown. He has done fantastic, and I could not ask for a horse to be doing any better than he is doing now. We're ready to go."

twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin

Some Capital Region students will get the pleasure of taking not one but two Regents exams in algebra this month.

On Tuesday, students who began studying algebra this year will have to take the Algebra 1 Common Core Regents Exam. But with parents concerned about the learning standards, students will also be able to — and in some districts will be required to — take a second Regents exam called the Integrated Algebra Regents. That test will be offered June 20.

If students take both tests, the higher grade will be counted and go on their school record.

"They've got to take the Common Core exam, but they have the option of taking the exam on the old standards as well," said Jonathan Burman, a spokesman for the state Education Department.

In the city of Albany schools, students are being encouraged to take both tests, said spokesman Ron Lesko.

"All of our freshmen are required to take the test Tuesday," he said.

Students who took algebra last school year and did not pass the course or the Regents, then retook the class, can choose to take only the integrated Regents exam, he said. Some have asked to take the Common Core exam as well.

"We have been offering since April separate review classes in both," Lesko said.

The review courses for the integrated algebra test have been offered three days a week, Monday through Wednesday, while the course for Common Core algebra has been offered Thursdays. More time was devoted to the older exam, he said, because this year's classes focused more on the Common Core curriculum.

"After Tuesday, the curriculum and the instruction in the classroom will switch a bit to address where there are different nuances for the integrated algebra," Lesko said.

In the Guilderland schools, a letter home to parents informed them that students could opt to take the second Regents.

Both scores would be shown on the students' report cards so parents could see how their children did, said the letter from Michael Piscitelli, instructional administrator for math, science and technology at Guilderland High School.

In the letter, Piscitelli said that after the Common Core Regents, classroom teachers would review some of the material for the integrated algebra exam.

"There is not enough class time to teach all the concepts," he wrote.

He outlined five major topics that are not part of the Common Core curriculum but are covered under the earlier approach. They are rational expressions, right triangle trigonometry, probability, ratio and proportions, and solid geometry.

The district is also offering some after-school help for students who will take the integrated algebra exam, Superintendent Marie Wiles said.

"We've been talking about it for a good portion of the year. I think people are working through it, as we are. We haven't had a lot of complaints," she said. "Transitions are always a challenge, and we do our best to help our students, parents and instructional staff through it. In the end, I think our students will do just fine."

To help students, the district created a web page with resources for students to use including video tutorials, notes and practice problems. The district's letter also recommended buying the Integrated Algebra review book, looking up past exams on the state Board of Regents' website and going to online practice sites.

In the North Colonie district, students are being required to take both Regents exams, Superintendent D. Joseph Corr said.

"We are teaching to the Common Core. That's the burden," he said. "They can do the very best they can. They take the highest score and have that on their permanent record."

tobrien@timesunion.com • 518-454-5092 • @timobrientu

Q: Recent articles in the Times Union have mentioned upcoming road construction that is about to begin. However, no mention has been made of any significant construction scheduled for Interstate 87 southbound between Exit 8 and I-90.

For a while now, there have been four large temporary signs covered up in black plastic along the southbound lanes. Two of them are at mile markers 9.2 and 7.3, which places them on either side of the Twin Bridges. The other two are located just before and after Exits 2W and 2E.

Is it possible that they are intended to be early warning alerts advising drivers to take alternate routes once construction starts at other locations?

— Roger Ksenich, Clifton Park

A: The black plastic is now off, said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Carol Breen.

"The signs have now been uncovered. They are located at decision points and direct motorists to consider using alternate routes if their destination is heading eastbound over the Patroon Island Bridge on I-90," she said. "Work to replace the bridge deck will occur each week night between 8 p.m. and 5:30 a.m."

During the construction, she said, traffic may be delayed and drivers should consider using alternate routes. Among the potential alternatives are the Thruway, the Dunn Memorial Bridge carrying Routes 9 and 20 over the Hudson River, or the Troy-Menands Bridge carrying Route 378 over the Hudson River.

Q: As a frequent visitor to Orlando, I'm impressed with how they keep traffic flowing. In particular, when an intersection has left turn arrows, if there are no vehicles in the lane, the left-arrow cycle is omitted and opposing through traffic immediately gets the green light. Although this may only save 10 seconds, at rush hour it would be very helpful. Personal experience at Holland-Delaware-Morton and Whitehall-Delaware-Second in Albany show that this is not a practice in Albany. Is there a reason this is not utilized?

— Michael Belemjian, Bethlehem

A: "They are utilized, and they are utilized at those specific intersections," said Officer Steve Smith, spokesman for the city on traffic issues. "He must be there when traffic is heavy."

When traffic is light, he said, detectors do pick up that there is no one in the left-turn lane and those signals should not turn green.

"Getting There" is compiled by staff writer Tim O'Brien. Do you have a question about transportation? Call 518-454-5020 or e-mail gettingthere@timesunion.com. Please include your name, town and telephone number.

Glenville

Former veteran WRGB Ch. 6 news reporter Judy Sanders, who is on hospice care and in the late stages of ovarian cancer, is expected to make an emotional appearance to accept a lifetime achievement award from the Women's Press Club of New York at the group's annual dinner Thursday.

Sanders will be inducted into the Hall of Honor, joining recent inductees Chris Jansing Kapostasy, Barbara Walters and Jill Abramson.

"I'm touched and honored that my esteemed group of colleagues sees me worthy of such recognition," said Sanders, whose five-year ordeal with cancer while she continued to work as the official photographer to three governors was detailed in a May 22 Times Union profile.

"I'm looking forward to saying hello to a lot of old friends," she said.

"We want to honor Judy Sanders for her distinguished career and significant contributions as a TV journalist and a photographer to governors," said Mary Alice Molgard, president of the Women's Press Club.

"Judy was not only the consummate professional, but she was always caring, considerate and fun to work with," said Deborah Rausch, past president of the group and a former public information officer for state agencies.

Other honorees this year include Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan (woman in the news), Vikki Moran, co-publisher of Capital Region Living Magazine (excellence in career achievement) and Jennifer Gish (media person of the year).

"I'm honored to be in such amazing company," said Gish, who is a features editor and sports columnist at the Times Union. "I think I'm the only journalist in America who writes a sports column and lays out a food page in the same day."

Gish majored in journalism and women's studies at Penn State University. She came to the Times Union in 2005 from the York Dispatch in York, Pa. Her sports and feature pieces have won several writing prizes.

"I've been allowed to do a variety of things at the paper and feel really fortunate to be supported in a way that allows everyone to play to their strengths," Gish said.

Lauren Sears, a junior at The College of Saint Rose, will be presented the group's annual scholarship, given to a student pursuing studies in a communications-related field of study.

The group was formed in 1966 and has about 100 members, including a few men after membership was opened to them recently.

The annual dinner is certain to include heated discussions about former honoree Abramson, the first female executive editor of The New York Times, who was fired abruptly last month in a termination clouded by charges of pay inequity and gender discrimination. Abramson's ouster ignited a broader discussion on female executives and a male-dominated corporate culture.

"We started when the LCA (Legislative Correspondents Association) was basically all male and women had to fight for their place," Rausch said. "We've made great strides since then, but there is a glass ceiling and we want women to understand the past and to aspire to greater things in the future."

"Whether Abramson was dismissed because she was a pushy female or due to other circumstances, we don't yet know the full story," said Molgard, assistant professor of communications at Saint Rose. "But her situation brought these issues very close to home for all of us."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl

The second annual GuilderFest was held at Guilderland High School on Sunday in Guilderland. The event was put on by the Guilderland High School Class of 2016, which will use the funds for junior prom, senior ball, graduation and to offer scholarships to some of their fellow classmates when they graduate.

Colonie

On Friday, it will mark 70 years to the day when Julius Boreali was aboard a landing craft crammed with young soldiers floating toward a beach on the western coast of France.

Boreali was 22, in his third year with the U.S. Coast Guard. On June 6, 1944, his job was to transport troops — many younger than he was — to "Omaha," a five-mile-long stretch of sand on a bank of the Douve River estuary and one of five D-Day landing zones for the Allied forces.

"I remember it very clearly," Boreali recalled Sunday of the morning the invasion of German-occupied western Europe began during World War II. "The beach was all mines. It looked like (the Germans) didn't even need guns. What we saw...it was awful."

Now 92, his head still both thick with white hair and full of vivid wartime memories, Boreali was one of several veterans who lived through the Normandy landings at a recognition and remembrance gathering at the Holiday Inn Express off Old Loudon Road. It was the fourth annual event, put together by a local D-Day Revisited Association.

"Events that occurred 70 years ago can't be forgotten," Frank DeSorbo, the D-Day association's president, told the crowd of a few hundred, many sons and daughters of deceased veterans or themselves veterans of later wars.

The mood Sunday was a mix of nostalgia, patriotism, reminiscence and appreciation.

Flags were abundant and held high with pride. Speakers a generation younger than the World War II veterans spoke of the war's impact on their lives. Patrick du Tertre, president of the nonprofit The French Will Never Forget, talked of grand plans his group has for the 70th D-Day anniversary and for why he dedicates hours to coordinate such celebrations.

"My grandfather was on death row, a leader in the resistance. He was freed by the Americans," du Tertre said. "My family was freed thanks to the Americans."

Normandy veterans like Boreali were eager to swap stories with one another even though many of the aging servicemen had never meet before.

"There's a bond there you can't explain," said Boreali, a Howe Caverns native who now lives in Schenectady.

DeSorbo said its important for him to continue to hold these gatherings now, while troops who served during the most widespread global war ever seen are still alive to share their harrowing experiences firsthand.

Roughly 16 million Americans served in World War II. As of 2000, there were 6 million still alive, according to the National World War II Museum.

Today, there just over 1 million living American World War II veterans. That number is expected to drop below 1 million by next year, according to the museum.

"There's not a whole lot of us left," Boreali said. "It's very, very nice to see everyone here today."

bfitzgerald@timesunion.com • 518-454-5414 • @BFitzgeraldTU

The New York Racing Association got its first performance review in years this month from a state oversight board. And NYRA, the host of Saturday's Belmont Stakes, did not ace the exam.

Moreover, the operators of the state's three thoroughbred tracks did not show desired respect to those grading it, according to the grader: the Franchise Oversight Board.

The FOB, the Division of the Budget and state Gaming Commission leader Rob Williams, who heads the board, refused to hand over the final draft of "the evaluation of the performance" to the Times Union — even though the document was discussed at the board's May 13 public meeting.

Yet the 56-page report, obtained by the newspaper, shows NYRA has failed to satisfy two key performance standards — one regarding expenses, the other involving improving conditions for backstretch workers. It partially satisfied three other performance standards and did all right on five others. Overall, its performance wasn't bad enough to constitute a "material breach" of NYRA's franchise agreement.

The review covers Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2012. The FOB was supposed to have done it months ago. Members at the FOB's meeting May 13 wanted more time to read the document, and action on it was tabled for a vote at the next meeting, presumably in June. Some members had studied the evaluation closely.

"When I got through the end of this, I was a little taken back from the tone of some of NYRA's responses," said James T. Towne Jr., an FOB member and Albany lawyer. His comments came at the public session attended by NYRA Chief Executive Officer Christopher Kay. Towne pointed out NYRA's written responses to criticisms and said, "We are your partners in a parental sense. We're donating our time. ... There is an undertone of argumentative attitude and really sort of a petulant response in several places that I find inappropriate and counterproductive," he said. "We're trying to make it possible for NYRA to succeed."

The document shows that NYRA failed to create and implement a plan to "substantially" improve the condition of the housing and working environment for backstretch workers. The FOB said that NYRA was supposed to fulfill this franchise standard when it started getting video lottery terminal payments from Resorts World New York City, the Genting racino at Aqueduct, in October 2011.

The board said it realized that NYRA got VLT revenue for capital improvements for the final 14 months of the review period and didn't have a lot for capital improvements. NYRA said it thought it had satisfied the requirements.

The reviewers also faulted NYRA for failing to operate its business with reasonable expenses, including spending on executive compensation.

Towne questioned the $160,000 payment he read about in the Times Union that NYRA reportedly paid to two former executives, President Charles Hayward and General Counsel Patrick Kehoe, after they were dismissed amid a scandal involving NYRA's improper overcharges to bettors.

Towne said he wanted to know if NYRA had insurance to cover the expenses, or if the payment came from working capital.

"That is confidential," said Susanne Stover, NYRA's chief financial officer.

After a pause, Towne said, "Well, I don't know that it can be confidential based on the 4,000 pages I read of how this committee got into existence. ... If it's coming out of working capital, it's not confidential as to us. If it's $160,000 in working capital, I've got an issue. ... $160,000 for an entity that is losing money is a lot of money."

Based on the reports on why the pair were let go, he said "I was a bit surprised ... they were paid anything."

The NYRA first-quarter financial report suggested its financially healthy through 2014, but the looming costs of retirement benefits and retroactive pay for unions makes 2015 less certain, Towne said.

"I'm concerned that if significant changes aren't made, when we unbridle your entity what is the viability of it?" he asked.

The association is operating under a changed structure, under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's direction. It moved from a private company to one controlled by designees of state government and has been meeting in open and subject to the Freedom of Information Law.

But until recently, NYRA had refused to reveal Kay's compensation agreement, rejecting the Times Union's FOIL request for it. He is paid $300,000 — a potential bonus of $250,000 — and other perks, including a car allowance of $1,650 a month.

"I have no problem with Mr. Kay's compensation," said Towne. "I don't think anybody should have wasted a minute of time fighting a FOIL request for your contract. ... Fighting something like that is just an unnecessary diversion. Open candor with the owners — the taxpayers of the state of New York — that's what you need to do. Stop all of these diverging nightmares. It has to be on the table, everything. It's time to show where your cards are."

Asked on Tuesday for the salaries of NYRA's recently hired chief experience officer and general counsel, plus the chief compliance officer hired in February, NYRA's spokesman promised to deliver the information by last Friday.

On the appointed day, the spokesman said the information would not be provided after all but should be released this week. The spokesman said he could not explain the delay and asked that his name not be used.

Do you have a story about waste and abuse of public funds? Contact James M. Odato at 518-454-5083, jodato@timesunion.com or on Twitter at @JamesMOdato

Current and former heavy smokers have new local options for detecting lung cancer with a low-dose CT scan that can catch small tumors early and has been shown to save lives.

Some local doctors believe these scans will become as common as mammograms or colonoscopies as tools to identify tumors early among those most at risk for getting lung cancers, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the country. The idea is to catch malignant lumps when they are small and easy to remove, avoiding years of chemotherapy and other treatments that offer less chance of success.

Unlike other screenings, however, the low-dose computed tomography scans are not always covered by insurance — at least not yet. Health providers are offering them at fees from $75 to $235 locally, in some cases lower than the cost of providing them.

Ellis Medicine in Schenectady launched a screening program a couple of weeks ago. Albany Medical Center has had one for a couple of years. Both are designed to be comprehensive, with coordinated follow-up visits and programs to help patients stop smoking.

Capital Imaging Associates in Latham began lung cancer screenings four months ago, after requests from primary care providers, said Michael Masone, the firm's operations director. Out of 20 or so patients scanned so far, tumors were found in two, he said.

Albany Med doctors have diagnosed more cancers than expected among the couple hundred screened each year, according to thoracic surgeon Dr. Thomas Fabian.

"It's surprisingly high — the number of cancers that we're finding," he said, though he could not provide a figure.

The new services come on the heels of a large-scale study published in 2011, the National Lung Screening Trial, which found a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer deaths among healthy smokers at high risk for the disease who received low-dose CT scans as compared to those who had chest X-rays.

Until recently, CT scans were not recommended for smokers without cancer symptoms because the higher radiation dosage posed too many risks, said Dr. Areta Pidwerbetsky of Schenectady Radiologists, who is involved in the Ellis program. The low-dose scans used now emit about one-tenth of the radiation, she said. The new technology is also more accurate, so fewer cancer-free patients end up in the operating room, Fabian said.

False positives and overdiagnosing remain risks of the new screenings, nonetheless, according to the National Cancer Institute. They can result in unnecessary treatment.

Medical societies such as the American Cancer Society, National Comprehensive Cancer Network and Lung Cancer Alliance recommend the screenings for high-risk former and current smokers.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel, last year gave a "B" recommendation to the scans; the grade requires private insurance carriers to cover the service under the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, beginning next year. The state's Medicaid program for low-income New Yorkers also covers the screenings.

Doctors behind the Ellis lung cancer screening program were hopeful that Medicare would also decide to pay for them, they said. Medicare, which provides health insurance for Americans 65 and older, would cover many of the people in the high-risk group recommended for screening, age 55 to 74.

But last month, a federal advisory panel voted not to recommend the screenings for coverage, based on a lack of confidence in the evidence available to compare the benefits and risks of low-dose CT scans. The vote is not binding; federal officials are expected to decide next year whether Medicare will cover the screenings.

Albany Med charges $235 for the CT scans, Capital Imaging $185 and Ellis $75. The prices are far lower than for CT scans prescribed for other reasons, which doctors estimated can run thousands of dollars.

Ellis will lose money on the scans, doctors said. Yet there is a financial incentive for them to offer them at a discount, Dr. Christopher Dolinsky of Northeast Radiation Oncology said: the CT scans should result in less expensive, less lengthy treatment than for cancers caught late. That's good for patients, and in keeping with new medical payment methods that discourage costly hospital admissions.

Schenectady has a high rate of smokers, compared to the rest of the state.

"When you live in a community that has chronic disease, it really takes a toll on the whole health care system," Pidwerbetsky said.

chughes@timesunion.com • 518-454-5417 • @hughesclaire

Albany

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi visited Albany Sunday as part of a bus tour rallying support for legislative proposals that would ensure equal pay and other benefits for working women.

Pelosi was joined by U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and others at Davies Office Refurbishing on Loudonville Road to promote "When Women Succeed, America Succeeds," an economic agenda from House Democrats focused on equal pay, a minimum wage increase, paid family and medical leave and improved access to child care.

"What can we do to unleash the power of women in the workforce, while respecting the responsibilities at home?" said Pelosi, leading into a story the Democrat said highlights the economic challenges facing women and families.

Pelosi described hearing from a female bus driver who explained that she often saw mothers upset because they had to send their children to school sick since they couldn't afford to take the day off and stay home.

"She has no paid sick days... and she cannot afford child care. So what does she do?" said Pelosi. "She puts a sick child on the bus in tears. And that's not rare."

According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, more than 80 percent of low-wage workers have no paid sick days. And while women are the primary or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, they make up a disproportionate majority of minimum wage workers, and earn about 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, according to a White House Task Force report.

Congresswomen Jackie Speier, Rosa DeLauro, Doris Matsui and Nydia Velazquez are also part of the bus tour, which kicked off Sunday in Seneca Falls, the site of the nation's first women's rights convention in 1848. The tour will end later this week in Chicago.

Albany resident Sandra McKinley took to the microphone to explain her troubles working in a low-wage job while trying to raise four sons by herself and the difficulty she faced having to choose between a paycheck and supervising her sons, since she worked a night shift but couldn't afford child care.

"I was forced to leave them home alone, and you can imagine my nervousness," McKinley said.

Albany's first female mayor, Sheehan received loud applause from the audience as she advocated for measures that would boost women in the workplace.

"We need to make sure that we lift up our families because the way out of poverty is education, and the way to education is for women to succeed, for women to make a fair wage," Sheehan said.

asanto@timesunion.com • 518-454-5008 • @alysiasanto

Malta

For the second time in two weeks, police in Saratoga County blamed a home dispute for a homicide, highlighting the often invisible issue of domestic violence in the growing county, officials said Monday.

Charles Wilkinson, a security guard at GlobalFoundries and retired police officer, choked his wife to death during a dispute in their Meadow Rue Place home around 10 p.m. Friday, law enforcement officials said. Wilkinson, 68, lived with the corpse of his wife, Kathleen Wilkinson, 65, until around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, when investigators went into the home to check on her, Sheriff Michael Zurlo said at a Monday news conference.

The killing follows that of Derik K. Clark, 32, who police say was stabbed in the neck by Matthew J. Brown, an 18-year-old son of Clark's girlfriend, in their Victory home following an argument on May 16. It marks the sixth consecutive homicide in the county involving family members or intimate partners. Maggie Fronk, executive director of Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Saratoga County, said the deaths had caused the public to take note of crimes that often occur behind closed doors.

"I think seeing two homicides related to domestic incidents in two weeks makes the public aware that this is part of our community," Fronk said.

Sheriff's deputies went to the Wilkinsons' home Sunday after the couple's son reported not hearing from his mother for several days. Charles Wilkinson reluctantly allowed deputies into the home, where they found Kathleen Wilkinson's body on the floor of a first-floor bedroom, Zurlo said.

Charles Wilkinson retired as a patrol officer from the Nassau County Police Department around 1984 and worked part-time security for GlobalFoundries. His wife did not work. The couple moved to the area 10 years ago and have two children who live in the Boston area, the sheriff said. Wilkinson had no criminal record. Sheriff's investigators said they were still going through the home for possible weapons.

Wilkinson choked his wife during a fight and caused her death, sheriff's Investigator Rick Capasso wrote in a court document released Monday in Malta Town Court. An autopsy performed at Albany Medical Center Hospital revealed Kathleen Wilkinson died from asphyxiation by strangulation, according to police.

Wilkinson was charged with second-degree murder and sent to the county jail without bail. He is to reappear in Malta Town Court on June 17. District Attorney James A. Murphy III said prosecutors were confident they could prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Murphy said authorities were looking into whether the couple's financial circumstances had anything to do with Kathleen Wilkinson's death.

Domestic violence is defined as intimidation, physical assault and/or abusive behavior by a family member or an intimate partner. An estimated one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, or 1.3 million women every year, according to national statistics.

There were 697 domestic violence arrests in Saratoga County in 2012, including 542 for simple assault, 101 for violating a protection order, 42 for aggravated assault and 12 for a sexual offense, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The number of arrests marked a 16 percent increase over 2011 (587) and a 14 percent increase over 2010 (601). By comparison, there were 2,252 arrests for domestic violence in Albany County in 2012, 1,960 in Schenectady County and 457 in Rensselaer County.

"Anyone of these cases can advance to a level of a fatality," Fronk said. "Sometimes there's a linear progression where things become more and more violent, but there's also an element of unpredictability."

Two weeks ago in Victory, Matthew J. Brown killed his mother's boyfriend after calling 911 to report the couple were arguing, according to police. He was charged with second-degree murder and held without bail. His attorney has said that Brown killed Clark in self-defense.

Last year, John Ambrozak, 47, beat and fatally stabbed his mother, Patricia Ambrozak, 75, at their home near Saratoga Lake before taking his own life. In 2012, Joshua McWain, 28, killed his 59-year-old mother, Carol Stanford, and buried her body under a work shed at their Daniels Road home in Greenfield. He was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison; and Joey Paul, 27, of Stillwater, was sentenced to 18½ years in prison for fatally shooting her boyfriend, 28-year-old Matthew Furlani, in the head in their Schuylerville apartment. In August 2011, Robert Monacchio Jr. strangled his wife, Cynthia Monacchio, in the couple's home in Day. He then killed himself.

Fronk said she works collaboratively with the sheriff and district attorney in an effort to prevent violence and has trained members of the Saratoga County and Saratoga Springs police forces in responding to domestic violence complaints. She said one problem is that domestic disputes often are not reported, making it hard for authorities to intervene.

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko

Albany

Not even a letter from Maya Angelou could keep Kevin Powell from jail.

But his punishment was far too lenient for his victim and her family.

Powell, a former Army captain from Delmar, was sentenced Monday to three months of jail on weekends and five years of probation for felony assault — but not before his attorney revealed an April 15 letter of support from the acclaimed poet and author, who died last week at age 86.

Powell, 33, admitted in early April that he hurled a 32-ounce plastic beer mug that hit an unsuspecting woman outside Wolff's Biergarten on June 26, 2010. The attack seriously injured Karen Paluso of Connecticut, who lost much of her sense of smell and taste and has a permanent scar.

Paluso told the Times Union she was "disgusted" at the sentence given to Powell, who was initially sentenced to 3½ years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Earlier, in an emotional victim impact statement, Paluso also blasted Powell as an unremorseful liar who refuses to accept responsibility.

"For me personally, this sentence is obscene," Paluso's older sister, Jennifer, said outside court. "It's insulting. He got everything he wanted. He did not want to go to state prison. So now he does not have to go. ... There's no justice in the criminal justice system."

Using the letterhead of Wake Forest University, Angelou lauded the character of the West Point-educated defendant, explaining she was a friend of his family. She said Powell and his brother have referred to her as "Auntie" since Powell was in junior high school.

"I never thought anyone would be called upon to give this wonderful young man a character reference," she wrote to acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough. "He has never been in trouble and I believe your desk could be flooded with people who know, love and support him. Sincerely, I am one."

Under his plea, Powell admitted to recklessly throwing the mug that hit Paluso, albeit without intending to strike her.

When given a chance to speak, Powell told the judge he "made many attempts" to apologize to Paluso, but he acknowledged he did not do so personally. He said he "was truly sorry for what happened" — then began listing his personal accomplishments unrelated to the case, including some in high school.

Powell was convicted in 2011 of second-degree assault and sentenced to prison. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling that the trial judge did not allow the jury to consider whether Powell was acting in self-defense.

On April 4, Powell pleaded guilty to second-degree assault to resolve the case.

According to Powell's attorney, Terence L. Kindlon, the series of events began over a racial slur aimed at Powell, who is black. Kindlon argued that Powell threw a beer stein to back up a group of people who followed him from the bar, and unintentionally hit Paluso in a "one-in-a-million shot."

Assistant District Attorney Brian Conley said Powell hurled the mug the way a pitcher throws a baseball — and that Paluso risked blindness if the mug landed any closer to her eyes.

Paluso and her family scoffed at Kindlon's use of race and reference to Angelou's letter. Kindlon also made repeated references to Paluso's lawsuit against Powell, which was settled for $600,000.

"I didn't ask for this," Paluso told McDonough, crying. "Nor did I deserve this. But I am now having to deal with this for the rest of my life because of the choices Mr. Powell made."

In a statement, District Attorney David Soares said: "Maya Angelou once said, 'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.' And those words could not ring more true in the powerful impact statement that the victim in this case delivered on the stand."

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU