60-year-old Almond Upton of Florida pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and 10 other charges in Broome County Court this morning.  Upton is accused of intentionally swerving on northbound Interstate 81 & hitting Trooper Christopher Skinner, who was conducting an unrelated traffic stop on the side of the highway.  Upton is charged with 1st degree murder, 2 counts of 2nd degree Assault, 3 counts of criminal mischief & 5 counts of reckless driving, he faces court action again on August 29th.

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State Police reported that 4 people were injured in an accident on State Route 7 in the town of Unadilla on Sunday.  The accident occurred at around 2:45 Sunday afternoon, between a car and motorcycle occurred in a driveway near the juncture of Sheep Pen Road and Sanly Road, Police said that 21 year old Benjamin Newman of Bainbridge; & 68 year old Richard Lewis of Birmingham, Alabama collided, 4 people suffered a variety of injuries.

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State Police at Oneonta arrested 43-year-old Ramnarine Baldeo of Schenectady for False Personation and Aggravated Unlicensed Operation.  The arrest resulted from a stop for not wearing his seatbelt on I-88 in Oneonta; Baldeo is accused of giving the Trooper a false name and date of birth, to keep his suspended driver’s license from being found out.   Baldeo was arraigned and was remanded to the Otsego County Jail in lieu of $1,500 cash bail.

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State Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera today announced that through a partnership with the US Department of Treasury, New York leads the nation in the number of recoveries made, with more than 19,000 individuals who filed fraudulent Unemployment Insurance claims & had their federal tax refunds intercepted.  The Program returned $21 million over the past 6 months to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. New York was the first state in the nation to implement this program and has recovered more than $139.4 million since February 2011.

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Hunting and trapping licenses, and Deer Management Permits for the 2014-15 season are now available for purchase through the State DEC.  Sporting licenses and permits can be purchased at one of DEC’s 1,100 license sales outlets statewide. Licenses can also be ordered at dec.ny.gov/permits.  The 2014-2015 hunting and trapping licenses are valid for 1 year beginning this September 1st

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Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rob Astorino, and the GOP statewide ticket, filed 4,400 pages of signatures in an attempt to create a “Stop Common Core” ballot line this fall.  Astorino’s campaign filed 62,000 signatures from voters in support of the effort, if certified by the state Board of Elections, the effort would give Astorino a 3^rd ballot line against Governor Cuomo in the November election.

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New York is getting new restrictions on the sale of ivory or rhino horn to prevent the slaughter of the endangered animals. Gov. Cuomo signed legislation into law that prohibits the sale of ivory or items containing it unless they are antiques or used for educational or scientific purposes. The rules would also apply to rhino horn. Federal law already restricts ivory imports and interstate sales. The Wildlife Conservation Society said New York is the nation’s No. 1 importer of ivory.

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Governor Cuomo is using his campaign money to pay the cost of travel for himself and his staff to Israel. The three-day journey to Israel is officially a government trip. But members of the delegation are using campaign funds to pay their way. State Senator Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are also using campaign funds. The group was scheduled to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu today & return tomorrow.