State education commissioner John King said in a statement that the planned public forums about the new Common Core standards, including one in Clifton Park, were cancelled because the first such forum -- last week in Poughkeepsie -- had been "co-opted by special interests" attempting to "manipulate the forum." The Poughkeepsie meeting included, in the Poughkeepsie Journal's description, an "often critical and loud crowd." [Daily Gazette] [TU] [Politics on the Hudson] [Poughkeepsie Journal]
A public forum in Saratoga Springs about the possibility of a full casino in the city included many people skeptical of expanding gambling. Statewide opposition to the ballot question that would approve full casino gambling in the state is, in Capital New York's description, "poorly financed [and] loosely organized." [Saratoga Wire] [Daily Gazette] [Capital New York]
Paul Tonko and Chris Gibson on the partial federal shutdown: it never should have happened. Gibson: ""When you take a look at where we're at, this is just wrong. I mean we can do so much better than this." A few more instances of how the shutdown is said to be affecting people in the Capital Region. [YNN] [WNYT] [TU]