Capitol Confidential
Albany
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/62594/no-pizza-no-peace-no-pizza-no-peace/
Stomachs were growling and the crowd was getting hungry down in the Capitol’s Washington Avenue entrance as the delivery of some 70 pizzas hit a security snag. Yes, it sounds absurd and a bit surrealistic, but that’s what happened.
Dozens of T-shirted protesters along with a full scrum of press photographers had gathered to document the pizza arrival. Instead of going through the turnstiles, though, the pizzas were being X-rayed in a freight delivery room off the main entrance.
“We’re just doing what the troopers told us to do,” said one demonstrator wearing a green “Protect kids, not millionaires” shirt.
Then Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, arrived to help haul the pizza upstairs to where the bulk of the demonstrators are. Perkins, as some readers know, is a darling of teachers unions and school funding advocates who were especially pleased with his criticism last year of charter schools.
But Perkins was initially told the pizza’s weren’t being allowed in the building, at which point some of the demonstrators started yelling and chanting. Fearing a potential food fight, Alliance for Quality Education’s Billy Easton, one of the event’s main organizers, tried to pipe the crowd down, assuring them that “Sen. Perkins is working on it. Just hang in there. We have a right to eat.”
With a little last-minute diplomacy from Perkins and renowned diplomat Sen. Kevin Parker, a squad of young people finally carried the pizzas through the freight entrance and whisked them in the direction of the Western Staircase.
As of a half hour ago, senators were still waiting on a slew of budget bills they need to debate and pass in order to complete the budget.
Still to be voted on are bills on aid to localities, judiciary, education and health, welfare.
