Tessa Bentulan

The Bethlehem Central School District is beefing up its visitor screening protocol after a level 3 sex offender was at two different schools in one day recently.

A charity in Berkshire County said their food pantry shelves are constantly empty and they desperately need your help.“I’m not saying it’s a critical need. It’s a desperate need. It’s beyond being critical,” Jackie Melendez said, the Christian Center Board of DirectorsThe request for food at the Christian Center in Pittsfield has doubled in the […]

One machine helps Saratoga County identify hundreds of drugs in minutes Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement One small machine is helping officers in Saratoga County identify hundreds of drugs in minutes! The county said it's not just another tool in their arsenal, it can help them save lives. 13 Investigates explained why the drug epidemic is reaching new heights ; even a captain with the sheriff's office says he can't keep up with all the overdoses. The county's new technology helped speed up the process of finding out what drugs almost killed a high school teenager. “It was quite an eye-opener, to say the least,” Captain Dan Morley said. “Somebody almost died.” Captain Morley works for the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office. He said Narcan was given to a student after two altered vapes were confiscated at a Saratoga County school last December. “If somebody wasn't there with Narcan, it might be a very different story.” A fentanyl precursor, ecstasy, and Vyvanse: all drugs found in both vapes. Thanks to the spectrometer. “It is a small compact machine that uses infrared light to determine the components of the substance and it can give us results in a couple of minutes!” Erin Murray said. Murray, the Supervising Epidemiologist at the county health department, said the spectrometer only needs a drug sample the size of half a grain of rice. “The spectrometer that we have here can be used to test a potential adulterated vape, we can use this to test substances that are found at overdose scenes. The data we're getting from the spectrometer will help us understand the composition of our local drug supply. It's going to feed our substance use surveillance system and really help us identify emerging trends.” Saratoga County has been using the spectrometer since last year. “We know that illicit drugs are adulterated with things like fentanyl and xylazine and they're nearly impossible to detect without testing a substance,” Murray said. The spectrometer gives the county preliminary results. Those results are usually then sent to the state for another round of tests for confirmation, which can take months. Captain Morley said the spectrometer is their secret weapon. “In this situation, we're able to get an idea of what's in our drug supply a lot quicker and it's an invaluable thing to us because we can utilize the information immediately,” Morley said. Saratoga County has taken immense steps to reduce the drug problem that's devastated families. The county reports overdose deaths were down by 19% in 2023 because of several initiatives. You can track overdoses and drug use in the county on its dashboard: Https://savealifeto.day/

Alarming new information on the war on drugs in the capital region: a captain with the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office whose job is to track drug usage says he can’t keep up the overwhelming number of overdoses.“It’s huge. I keep track of every single overdose and I log it into an overdose mapping program. When […]

Life on another planet may not be such a far-fetched idea. Two North Colonie students just received national recognition for a design that is meant to produce food on Mars.

Pregnant nurse practitioner rescues elderly man who drove off Thruway bridge Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement Only On 13: the nurse who came to the rescue at a terrifying scene, a wrong way driver plunging off a thruway bridge. ONLY ON 13: a nurse practitioner came to the rescue at a terrifying scene when a wrong-way driver plunged off a thruway bridge. Eyewitnesses said a woman wearing hospital scrubs provided medical attention to an 84-year-old man after he drove off the bridge. That woman is Chrissy Shepard. “Kind of surreal when you come around the bend and something that doesn't belong there, but you don't maybe realize what's going on until you take a minute to stop and see what's going on,” she said. The crash happened around 6 p.m. Tuesday at exit 22 in Selkirk. The same exit Shepard takes to get home to Ravena. She said she had just gotten off a 10-hour shift at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown! “The gentleman did eject into the passenger side. I went down there. Collectively tried to see if he was conscious and made the decision that he didn't have paralysis. If he could wiggle himself out that would be the best option for him.” Miraculously, he did. Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement ONLY ON 13: the shocking story of a car falling of a thruway bride and the remarkable interview with the woman who helped save the driver's life! With no medical kit and only Shepard's experience to help her in this emergency, she said she was able to evaluate the man because of her specialized trauma training. “Focusing on neurological status, focusing on airwaves, focusing on breathing and circulation,” Shepard said about her ATLS training (advanced trauma life support). Investigators believe the 84-year-old man suffered a medical emergency before the crash and was taken to Albany Med for minor injuries. Shepard said the man was disoriented but was able to speak. He was grateful for all the help. “After I left work, I had already taken off my cap – my healthcare cap – and I put on my mom's cap. When I'm in the car, I'm thinking mom mode but when I saw this I said, ‘I have to take my mom cap off, put on my healthcare cap.'” Shepard is also 27 weeks pregnant with a baby girl! Being pregnant, she said, did not slow her down. “I don't even notice. I'm in the OR (operating room) all day. I'm doing this at work all day. If anything, it was just hard to jump over the guardrail and people helped with that.” Those bystanders not only helped Shepard get to the 84-year-old man, but Shepard said those people also made sure the man was physically OK. “Someone was literally giving their jacket to put on the ground for this guy, someone else was making sure that the car wasn't on fire. Even though they noticed some fluid leaking, others – just for support,” Shepard said. “It was a collective group effort and I think everyone should be proud of what happened that day and that time.”

Attorney: Schenectady woman accused of dropping baby in pipe indicted in county court The woman accused of dropping her baby down a pipe at General Electric's campus has been indicted in county court, according to her attorney. Persia Nelson, 24, was back in Schenectady City Court on Friday for a hearing. She has been charged with murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of her 10-month-old baby Halo. Public defender Stephen Signore said Nelson has been indicted on two charges and the case is heading to Schenectady County Court. However, Signore said he didn't know what the charges were at this point. “It's probably going to be close to, if not mirror the charges that she had here,” he said. When asked to comment on Nelson's mental state and whether it would be a factor in the trial, Signore said it was too soon to comment on that and that his client “is the state of a mom who's lost her child.” Nelson was found at the GE campus on Sunday inside a heated utility building. She told police she had no idea how she got there or where her baby was. A search of the property found the baby inside the utility tunnel in muddy water up to her chest. Halo died from exposure. Police said she had been at an address on Campbell Avenue on Saturday night and entered the GE property at 12th street. Nelson had posted to social media that she had been drinking. Her friends said she was drinking and smoking marijuana and then left the residence. Text messages from GE employees obtained by NewsChannel 13 said she was vomiting and soaking wet from the waste down. Signore said he could not comment on whether his client was intoxicated. He has not had a chance to examine all the evidence that the district attorney has to provide. “I'd be doing a disservice to my client,” he said. Family members were in the courtroom. Many of them wearing jackets with a picture of baby Halo printed on it. When asked whether the family was in court to support baby Halo or Persia Nelson, Signore said he did not know. He has only been in contact with Nelson's mother, who believed was in the courtroom. Stay tuned to NewsChannel 13 on air and online for the latest developments in this story.

What's that smell? DEC investigating reports of odor in Albany Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. The DEC is investigating reports of a foul smell near the I-787/I-90 interchange. If you're driving in North Albany and find yourself saying, “what's that smell” – you're not alone. An unpleasant odor has created quite the fuss. The Department of Environmental Conservation is now looking into it. “It smells like rotting garbage; like sewage basically,” Jasmine said, an Uber driver. “It smells like rotten eggs,” Jada said, who lives in the Capital Region. Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. DEC is getting reports of an odor near the I-787/I-90 interchange The DEC is getting reports of a stench near the I-787/I-90 interchange. In a statement the state agency said, “DEC encourages residents to report any unfamiliar or unpleasant odors in that area to DEC's Divisions of Air and Water at 518-357-2045 or email [email protected] . Callers are asked to provide as many details as possible including the location, time of day, duration, and frequency of the odor, and a description of the odor. If anyone has a condition that is influenced by exposure to unpleasant odors and have any health issues, they should consult their medical provider.” It's also important to mention the Rensselaer County Sewer District and the Albany County Water Purification District are close to where the DEC is getting reports of that odor. It's a possibility those two areas could also be contributing factors.

An out-of-place moose has everyone wondering if they are going to spot it.Several viewers sent newschannel13 pictures of the moose sightings in East Greenbush. Two people in Troy caught the moose on video from a safe distance.“I thought it was a small pony, maybe, or a horse or something walking down the sidewalk. I look […]

Hudson Valley Community College exclusively sits down with 13Investigates after the college’s faculty union filed a lawsuit, over not sharing a new campus safety assessment.The college is not budging on releasing that security assessment.Last summer, HVCC hired an outside consultant to examine campus safety and security, in the hopes of better understanding any potential threats.Dennis Kennedy, HVCC’s Director of Communications and Marketing, said this […]