A New York court is considering this week whether an elephant can be considered a person by law. The argument involves Happy, the last remaining elephant at the Bronx Zoo, and whether she should be granted legal personhood—which would subject her to...

Twelve-year-old Isla Besha can pick up a copy of J.K. Rowling's new book, The Ickabog, open it to a certain page, and find an illustration she had drawn on a whim while looking for something to do during the pandemic lockdown. The middle school...

Election Day has come and gone, and Times Union Capitol Bureau reporters Amanda Fries, Edward McKinley and Chris Bragg offer a debrief of state-level election surprises and as-yet undecided races. Also on this episode, reporter Massarah Mikati visits...

NXIVM leader Keith Raniere has been sentenced to 120 years in prison, doubling his lifetime and all but ensuring he will spend the rest of it behind bars. Times Union reporter Rob Gavin was in the federal courtroom for the sentencing this week, and...

Almost 90 years ago, a valuable painting in Jewish newspaper publisher Rudolph Mosse's Berlin collection was stolen by Nazis, and disappeared. Last week, the FBI announced the painting had been recovered and returned to Mosse's heirs. It had been...

India Oxenberg spent seven years of her life entrenched in the world of the shadowy organization known as NXIVM. She was a member of the secret female "master/slave" group run by Keith Raniere, and was branded with his initials. She left NXIVM in 2018...

Father Peter Young's life would make for a great movie. The Albany-based priest spent decades doing everything in his power to help men in the Capital Region suffering from alcoholism, addiction and homelessness get treatment and get their lives on...

It has been nearly two years since the tragic limousine crash in Schoharie county that killed 20 people. This week, the National Transportation Safety Board finally released its long-awaited , laying the blame for the crash on the limousine...

Zanief Washington has been numb to the sound of gunfire since he was six, when a stray bullet smashed through his living room window in Albany and lodged itself in the wall while he was playing a video game. Now 19, he walks for hours around the city...

Some say notorious prohibition era gangster John T. "Legs" Diamond got his nickname from his ability to outrun trouble. But trouble did eventually catch up with him in 1931, when he was gunned down in a boarding house in Albany. But for all his...

The annual special section is finally coming out, after a five-month delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. Times Union readers voted in record numbers this year, selecting their favorite local businesses and services across 100 categories. On this...

The national debate over how to commemorate the nation’s past came to Albany this spring when Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced her intention to move the statue of Philip Schuyler—Revolutionary War general and owner of enslaved persons—from in front...

Hometown hero Tiz the Law is favored to win the Kentucky Derby

Capital Region educators, school leaders, stakeholders and parents are feverishly planning for the start of the school year amid an uncertain landscape.

Live theater is back in the Berkshires this week. The only two theater companies in the country that have the blessing of the Actors Equity Association opened shows there, and the Times Union's top theater critic Steve Barnes was in the house. ...

College students from out of town have returned to campuses all over the Capital Region this week. But classes won't be starting just yet. Instead, they're electing to quarantine in their dorm rooms or hotel rooms for 14 days. Education reporter...

We use the concept of a "drive-thru" for many aspects of modern life - i.e. for food, for banking, for coffee - but the pandemic has opened up a new avenue for a funeral home in Ballston Lake. Reporter Rick Karlin spoke with the directors of the home...

A recent surge in gun violence in Albany and across New York led senior editor Brendan Lyons to investigate the cause. What he found was not what he expected - that teenagers are doing  most of the shooting. Also on this episode, education...

A Minerva man unites with the daughter he never knew he had

Reporter Massarah Mikati sits down for an exclusive interview with Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins about what he calls the exhausting work of balancing the responsibility to support his officers and the need to respond to calls for change in the...

Reporter Wendy Liberatore spares no detail in recounting the saga of a 7-foot wooden penis sculpture that became the center of a Saratoga county squabble. Also in this episode, education reporter Rachel Silberstein talks about high school graduation...

Times Union horse racing writer Tim Wilkin has never covered a season quite like this one. In this episode of The Eagle, he recounts his evening with the Saratoga Springs-based owners of Tiz the Law as they watched their horse win the first leg of the...

The faces and voices of the fight for racial justice in the United States today span no less than three generations. Those that witnessed the Civil Rights movement in 1960s protest alongside those who have just come of age during the 21st century....

Times Union Capitol correspondent Emilie Munson recounts her latest shift at the White House this week as the president welcomed law enforcement officials to discuss potential police reforms. Also on this episode, investigative reporter Chris Bragg...

Times Union reporters share their experiences covering peaceful protests and violent incidents in the Capital Region this week, spurred by the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans across the country at the hands of police.