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TAX FREE ZONES
Cuomo, cabinet pushing his tax-free NY proposal
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his cabinet are hitting the road to push his proposal to create tax-free zones for businesses that set up shop on or near public college campuses in New York.
Cuomo plans to discuss his tax-free New York initiative this afternoon at the State University at New Paltz in the Hudson Valley.
On Wednesday, the governor announced in Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse that he wants to provide tax-free opportunities to new businesses that move onto or near SUNY campuses. Cuomo's plan would allow those businesses to operate free of all business, property and personal income taxes for 10 years
Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy will be in Rochester today and other top-ranking Cuomo administration officials are traveling across New York to boost the governor's plan.
MILITARY-SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Senator: Assaults let military culture continue
WASHINGTON (AP) - A New York senator says repeated sexual assaults in the military allow a culture to continue.
Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand (KEHR'-sten JIHL'-uh-brand) addressed the latest case at West Point. An Army sergeant is charged with secretly taking pictures and video of at least a dozen women at West Point.
Gillibrand tells NBC "Today" that when sexual assault happens repeatedly, with no accountability, quote, "it allows the culture to continue."
Gillibrand is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She says sexual assault should be reported outside the chain of command, directly to a military prosecutor, and victims need to know justice is possible.
The West Point case is just the latest in a series. A Pentagon report says as many as 26,000 service members may have been sexually assaulted last year.
SEX OFFENDER-AIDS
Lawyer: NY man at center of HIV scare not positive
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - The attorney for a New York man imprisoned amid accusations he infected 13 young women with HIV in the 1990s says his client doesn't have the virus.
Nushawn Williams' lawyer says Williams' blood was examined by the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Attorney John Nuchereno tells Buffalo media that he doesn't believe Williams ever was HIV-positive.
Williams has been in prison since pleading guilty in 1999 to statutory rape and reckless endangerment in Chautauqua County in New York's southwest corner.
His sentence ended in 2010 but he remains in prison under a state law that allows confinement of dangerous sex offenders.
A civil trial is scheduled for next month to determine whether he will remain locked up.
CHENANGO-BODY FOUND
NY man charged with killing wife is free on bail
NORWICH, N.Y. (AP) - A 38-year-old central New York man charged with killing his wife last December has been released from jail after posting bail.
The Daily Star of Oneonta reports that Ganesh Ramsaran was released from Chenango County Jail Wednesday after he and relatives posted $300,000 worth of real estate for bail.
Prosecutors had requested that he be held without bail after the 38-year-old IBM project manager was arrested last Friday and charged with second-degree murder.
Authorities say he killed 36-year-old Jennifer Ramsaran last December. Her body was found in late February off a rural road in Pharsalia, 10 miles from the couple's home in New Berlin.
Ramsaran told investigators he last saw his wife when she left to go Christmas shopping.
His lawyer, James Chamberlain, says his client denies the charges.
ROCHESTER-TEEN SLAIN
2 men convicted in Rochester teen's fatal shooting
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Two men have been convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of a Rochester teenager last year.
The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reports that a Monroe County Court jury convicted Darius Bursey and Van Cotton of first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Lamar Shahid, a high school senior.
The two men, both 23, were acquitted of second-degree murder charges.
Authorities say Bursey and cotton attacked Shahid and his cousin inside a home in January 2012. Police say Bursey first shocked the cousins with a stun gun before Cotton shot Shahid in the back with a handgun.
Bursey and Cotton are scheduled for sentencing June 20.
SUICIDE-HUSBAND CHARGED
Upstate NY man pleads guilty in wife's suicide
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (AP) - An upstate New York man who bought the shotgun his wife used to commit suicide has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge.
The Post-Star of Glens Falls reports that 69-year-old Willard Skellie pleaded guilty Wednesday in Warren County Court to second-degree manslaughter.
Skellie admitted to giving a shotgun to his 59-year-old wife, Kathy, after she had asked him to buy her one. Prosecutors say he showed her how to use the weapon before leaving their Glens Falls home on Dec. 15. Officials say Kathy Skellie used the gun to kill herself hours later.
Authorities say she had suffered from mental illness for years and had tried to commit suicide in the past.
Willard Skellie was placed him on interim probation for a year and ordered to perform community service.
CREEK-FATAL CRASH
Upstate NY dies after truck crashes into creek
CONSTANTIA, N.Y. (AP) - State police say a 41-year-old man has died after his pick-up truck crashed off a central New York road and landed in a creek.
Troopers say the fire chief in the Oswego County town of Constantia was driving on Route 23 Thursday night when he found the pickup overturned and partially submerged in Scriba (SKRY'-buh) Creek, 15 miles north of Syracuse.
Police say the driver, Ronald Morgan of Pennellville, was partially ejected from the vehicle and was found by firefighters. He was taken to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where he was pronounced deceased.
The cause of the crash is being investigated.
SEIZURE DOGS
Upstate NY judge orders halt to seizure dog co.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A state judge has ordered a company in northern New York to stop selling service dogs that its owner claims help people who suffer from seizures by sensing them in advance and signaling for help.
State Supreme Court Justice David Demarest of St. Lawrence County, in issuing a permanent injunction against Seizure Alert Dogs For Life, Inc., says owner John Sabin of North Colton failed to provide proof the dogs were trained or affidavits from satisfied customers.
According to Demarest, the German shepherds sold for as much as $18,000 to families with an epileptic child.
The state attorney general submitted affidavits from customers saying their dogs were poorly trained.
Sabin said his patented equipment works, including magnetic dog collars and cell phone cases dogs bite to summon help.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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