WASHINGTON — A number of state universities and community colleges across the Capitol Region hope that the Biden administration will make colleges more affordable to lower-income students and minority groups as well as provide relief for those paying off student loans.

President Joe Biden campaigned on a plan that included making public universities and colleges free for students with families earning under $125,000 a year, doubling Pell grants for those with financial need and forgiving studen

WASHINGTON — Regional transportation officials hope a $2 trillion infrastructure plan proposed by President Joe Biden's administration will provide money to help them realize plans to increase the number of electric buses, ramp up road and bridge repairs and replace aging rail cars.

Biden has laid out a plan to promote clean energy while pushing major infrastructure investment that would create jobs as part of funding major road and highway projects.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, co

WASHINGTON - Local performing art venues are relieved to know help is on the way after Congress incorporated a $15 billion grant program for art and entertainment venues struggling financially from the pandemic into the most recent COVID-19 relief package.

“(These funds are) critical to ensuring that when all of this over, that our creative economy bounces back, you know, stronger than ever,” said Kristen Holler, director of Albany Barn Inc. and Schenectady’s Electric City Barn Inc.– two venues

ALBANY – County Democratic officials in the Albany area on Wednesday praised President Joe Biden’s inaugural address for its repeated call for unity. They also were excited to watch Vice President Kamala Harris become the first woman to hold that position.

“Today's inauguration means more to me, to women, to young girls across our communities than many would assume,” Carolyn Riggs, chairwoman of the Greene County Democratic Committee, said in a statement.

Biden was sworn in as president shortl

WASHINGTON — Environmental advocacy groups in western New York want state officials to ensure the safety of federal plans to deal with nuclear waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project after a recent federal report found that “critical decisions regarding the project are still unresolved.”

The West Valley Demonstration Project “should never have been chosen” to store hazardous material, said Barbara Warren, a member of the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, an Albany-based group that advoc

National Guard troops patrol the Capitol grounds in Washington on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. The stage for Inauguration Day is in the background. ANNA MONEYMAKER/New York Times

WASHINGTON — The nearly 1,100 members of the New York National Guard deployed to Washington on Friday began their mission patrolling the Capitol building and its grounds, and working on traffic control ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Col. Richard Goldenberg, a spokesman for the New York Natio