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Dad accused of using stun gun on baby 10:17 PM ET ALBANY, Ore. - An Albany father used a 100,000-volt stun gun on his 18-month-old son, police said Monday. Rian Whittman, 23, has been accused of assault and criminal mistreatment. Police said he used it "multiple times" over three weeks. A police spokesman said there were up to 10 instances. Police said Whittman's wife, 21, who was not named, reported the abuse on Saturday. The child was treated at a hospital, police said, and then taken into protective custody by the state Department of Human Services. Capt. Eric Carter said...

443 PM EST SUN JAN 14 2007: NORTHERN BERKSHIRE-SCHOHARIE-WESTERN SCHENECTADY- EASTERN SCHENECTADY-WESTERN ALBANY-EASTERN ALBANY- WESTERN RENSSELAER-EASTERN RENSSELAER- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...PITTSFIELD...NORTH ADAMS...COBLESKILL... MIDDLEBURGH...DELANSON...ESPERANCE...DUANESBURG...SCHENECTADY... ROTTERDAM...ALTAMONT...ALBANY...TROY...HOOSICK FALLS ...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO MIDNIGHT EST MONDAY NIGHT... ...FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT... ...WINTER STORM WATCH NO LONGER IN EFFECT... A FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT FOR SCHOHARIE...ALBANY...RENSSELAER...SCHENECTADY...AND NORTHERN BERKSHIRE COUNTIES. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ALBANY HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO MIDNIGHT EST MONDAY NIGHT FOR SCHOHARIE...ALBANY...RENSSELAER...SCHENECTADY...AND NORTHERN BERKSHIRE COUNTIES. THE...

RHINEBECK -- A 70-year-old Catholic priest who struggled with depression for years committed suicide by jumping off the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge about 1 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. The Rev. John Kiwus, a Kingston native, was dead when he was recovered from the Hudson River by a crew from the Ulster Hose fire company, said Bill McDermott, chief of the East Kingston Fire Department. Rhinebeck is approximately 92 miles south of Saratoga Springs. Kiwus, a Redemptorist priest, was stationed at the St. John Neumann Residence on Lake Avenue in Saratoga Springs, said the Rev. Patrick Woods, provincial of the Redemptorist order in...

WATERVLIET -- One of two Watervliet churches scheduled to celebrate their final Masses on Sunday asked the Vatican this week to reverse Bishop Howard Hubbard's decision that the church must close. The appeal contends the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany manipulated the system that decided which of six churches targeted for consolidation would stay open, according to a copy obtained by the Times Union."I'm saying they rigged the process to get the outcome they wanted, right from the beginning," said John Razzano, a General Electric Co. chemist who wrote the appeal on behalf of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.Hubbard...

ALBANY (AP) - A priest who says he was sexually abused as a child by another priest has filed a $2 million lawsuit against a program set up by the Albany Catholic Diocese to investigate such claims. The Rev. Mark Jaufmann filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court against the Independent Mediation Assistance Program. The lawsuit says the program made Jaufmann feel like the abuse was his fault. The lawsuit also says the program does not operate independently of the diocese. Jaufmann, 49, a priest with the Ecumenical Catholic Communion in California, said he was sexually abused as...

Recent weeks have seen two senators caught up in scandals over disclosure of their personal finances. Senator Allen, a Republican of Virginia, failed to disclose stock options he held in a technology company that at one point were worth $1.1 million. Senator Reid of Nevada, the top Democrat in the Senate, was found by the Associated Press to have failed to disclose fully a land deal that eventually yielded him a $1.1 million profit. It may have led some New Yorkers to hope to take a look at the financial disclosure forms of their own state senators and assemblymen, the...

Jeanine F. Pirro, the Republican candidate for attorney general, sharply criticized her husband this afternoon for driving 51 miles an hour in a 25-mile-an-hour school zone on Thursday — only the latest instance of Albert J. Pirro Jr. causing trouble for his candidate-wife. “You didn’t want to be in my house last night,” Ms. Pirro said at a news conference. Mr. Pirro’s speeding ticket in White Plains came two weeks after he accepted a plea deal over another ticket, for driving 98 miles an hour on a 55-mile-an-hour stretch of Interstate 95 in July. Mr. Pirro, a lobbyist with many...

ALBANY -- Jurors heard three opening statements this morning in the federal trial of two Albany men facing terrorism-related charges. Yassin M. Aref, 36, the jailed spiritual leader of a Central Avenue mosque, and Mohammed M. Hossain, 51, a city pizza shop owner, are accused of taking part in a plot to sell missile launchers to terrorists during an FBI sting that began in July 2003. The men face up to 400 years in prison if convicted. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak for the government; Kent Sprotbery for Aref; and Kevin Luibrand for Hossain made brief opening statements in U.S....

"In some ways, you can say we're not a dot on the map anymore," said Sister Linda Hogan, CSJ, of her experience with pastoral planning at St. Cecilia's Church in Warrensburg. "We have to connect the dots, to work together."After working together on a "consuming" five-year pastoral planning process that changed the face of a small North Country church, parishioners and planning teams at St. Cecilia's expect to use lessons culled from their own experience on a larger scale with the upcoming "Called to be Church" process."The whole thing was a miracle," said Sister Linda.Looking aheadOn the retirement of St....

ALBANY (AP) -- Bishop Edwin B. Broderick, who led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for seven years, died Sunday. He was 89. Broderick was appointed the eighth bishop of the diocese by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and served until 1976, when he was named executive director of Catholic Relief Services. He held that post until 1983. During his time in Albany, the bishop served on the state commission that investigated the Attica prison riots. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who succeeded Broderick in Albany, said his predecessor was "a true churchman who implemented the vision of the Second Vatican...

SCHENECTADY -- A transient's anger over his girlfriend's relationships with other men may explain why he targeted the woman's 4-year-old daughter for abuse that left the youngster with broken bones and possible blindness, authorities said.Jose Munoz allegedly broke bones in Xctasy Garcia's arm and shoulder and then held a bleach-soaked rag to her eyes as punishment for urinating in her pants Saturday. Her body was covered with bruises and cigarette burns that police believe were inflicted earlier.Munoz administered stern discipline to the girl and her 7- and 8-year-old brothers, but authorities said the girl took the brunt of the...

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany hopes involving members of the diocese -- from its top clerical leaders to its average parishioners -- will stifle apprehension as the Catholic church begins a two-year pastoral planning process that will reshape the diocese and close some churches. "I believe we have before us ... an opportunity to dream a new church into being; an opportunity to evangelize and re-evangelize," Hubbard said Monday in a prepared speech to diocese leaders in Albany. The meeting was closed to the public, but copies of his speech were provided to the...

Happy communities are all alike-- but every community threatened by eminent domain abuse (EDA) is different. Are political corruption and EDA joined at the hip in Jersey? Let's just say public use in Pay-2-Play Land is one mighty strange bird. Part 3 of a 4 part series focusing on eminent domain abuse in different locales .... Locations covered to date: Albany, New York, New London, Connecticut, Hoboken, New Jersey, Next up: the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, New York. A mammoth land grab launched by developer Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation-- one of the most powerful...

ALBANY - GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Weld is sailing into uncharted waters in New York Republican politics: He's making a major run to line up the backing of the tiny Libertarian Party. Weld confirmed to the Daily News last night that he would "definitely be interested" in winning the Libertarian line "'Libertarian' is not a bad word in my lexicon," he said, noting one of his favorite expressions is: "I want the government out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom." Asked about the party's opposition to the war on drugs, Weld said he'd back medical marijuana, but added,...

ALBANY -- The spiritual leader of an Albany mosque repeatedly called a phone number in Syria that an FBI report indicates had been used to gather terrorist intelligence for Osama bin Laden, according to classified documents unsealed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The FBI report, which was based on information from a confidential informant, was among several once-secret documents that federal authorities say raise questions about Yassin Aref's connections to terrorist organizations across the Middle East. Aref, 35, a Kurdish refugee who moved to Albany with his family in 1999, is in jail without bond while awaiting trial on...

The Flushing YMCA said four people were killed in an accident on the New York State Thruway at 7 a.m. en route to a swimming meet in Buffalo, N.Y. The victims included a 47-year-old woman, her two sons and a 14-year-old girl, who died when a tanker truck slammed into their minivan, New York 1 reported. Two other passengers in the vehicle were removed from the battered minivan and taken to a local area hospital, New York 1 reported. In addition, the driver of the tanker truck was taken to the hospital, according to New York 1. Neither the Flushing...

Gov. George Pataki remained hospitalized Monday nearly a week after undergoing a surgery to correct a postoperative complication related to an emergency appendectomy. Pataki, 60, continued eating some food Monday but also remained on intravenous nutrition and antibiotics to reduce the risk of an abscess... `The governor's doctors have indicated that there has been a slow return of normal digestive function because of the ruptured appendix,'' ... Pataki was originally to be released two days after the Feb. 16 appendectomy. ``The governor continues to be in good spirits and is reading, walking around and conducting state business,'' ...

Gov. George Pataki, showing no improvement five days after surgeons removed his appendix, was transferred Tuesday to a New York City hospital and underwent another operation. Doctors operated to alleviate a blockage in Pataki's digestive system, said his spokesman, David Catalfamo. Afterward, the governor was "awake, alert and resting comfortably," ... A blockage following abdominal surgery is relatively rare, said Daniel Herron, an assistant professor of surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

(Rochester, NY - AP) - Winds gusting up to 77 miles per hour knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and offices today and toppled trees onto a school bus, a car and a truck, killing a suburban Rochester woman and a state worker at a park in Saratoga Springs. A fierce storm swept across the Midwest and into the Northeast before dawn, sending temperatures in some parts of western New York plunging from 60 degrees to below freezing within a few hours. Downed or damaged power lines cut off electricity to at least 215,000 customers. A falling tree...

Who knows whether Cardinal Edward Egan is sleeping soundly these days. But as head of the New York archdiocese—as the top Roman Catholic prelate in the state—he'd have every reason to be restless after the recent advent of a little-noticed lawsuit. The suit, now pending in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, was filed on December 13 by Bob Hoatson—a 53-year-old New Jersey priest considered a stalwart ally among survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. Hoatson, the now-suspended chaplain for Catholic Charities in Newark, is suing Egan and nine other Catholic officials and institutions, claiming a pattern of "retaliation and harassment"...