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On Thursday, a group of art experts and descendants of Betsey Colt Foot gathered at Albany Academy to examine the unsigned and unframed oil portrait of Foot.

The experts and Foot’s decedents gathered to shed light on the mystery associated with the painting. They wanted to examine who painted the portrait and what's the connection to Foot, the guiding force behind one of the nation's oldest single-gender independent schools, founded in 1814.

Foot's husband, Ebenezer, lawyer died just months after the couple founded the girls academy to provide a classical education for their only child, Lucretia. However, her husband was reckless and a gambler and left Ebenezer in deep debt.

An Albany man, Craig Alexander Lazon, has been facing charges including attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault. According to authorities of Linn County, the accused had kidnapped, raped and tried to kill his own wife. The man also kept her against her will for a week, the authorities said.

According to reports, the woman somehow managed to run from the house on Monday evening. She ran to a neighbor's house and told that her husband was trying to kill her. When the woman appeared in the neighbor's house, she was with a bruised and bloody face, the reports further stated.

On Sunday, the Albany State Lady Rams won the SIAC Tournament title by beating Benedict 72-64. The Lady Rams showed no tiredness and end the first half with a 36-32 lead.

According to Head coach Robert Skinner, it is great honor to represent the SIAC and the city of Albany. Skinner said that the majority of their players were in bed by 9 o’clock. They all know that they had to get an early morning start, so they all woke up early and had breakfast according to their routine.

The selection committee is going to meet and will make an announcement about the official NCAA Division II tournament matchups. According to Skinner, this year they’re well prepared for the challenges playing on a grand stage.

On Wednesday, a rally was conducted by New York City’s charter school in Albany in order to support expansion of charter schools. The rally was attended by thousands of students, some state leaders and a pop star. According to organizers, the event was organized to attract attention to schools, which are not operating properly.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, called for some educational reforms, together with one which would permit for an additional 100 charter schools, and another that could pave the way for charter organizations to take over regular public schools.

The ninth annual Albany Marathon, divided into a full 26.2-mile marathon and a 13-mile half-marathon, drew 1,509 runners from around 40 different states and five different countries, on a brisk Saturday morning.

Christopher Zablocki of Essex, Conn., stood as the full marathon overall winner and faced no trouble taking the top slot among the 730 marathoners as he reached the finish line in a brisk 2 hours, 18 minutes and 57 seconds.

After crossing the finish line, Zablocki, 26, said that two years ago he came second in the same marathon but he wanted to come first so he came again. Zablocki, the marathon winner, is a student of medicine at St. Martin in the Netherland Antilles, located some 150 miles east of Puerto Rico.

A Tampa woman and her daughter recently gave birth not only in a same month but in the same hour. When Angela Patram, 37, and daughter, Teranisha Billups, 20, found that they were pregnant they thought that their babies will be born within a few weeks of one another.

But the situation was surprising as the mother and her daughter delivered their babies only at a gap of 34 minutes in Tampa General Hospital in late February.

Dr. Atef Zakhary, who practices at Tampa General, said that he was quite shocked by the momentous occasion. He also said that he has been in this field for 29 years now, but has never seen a mum and daughter delivering babies on the same day.