Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Federal agriculture researchers will again be doing a census of New York maple syrup production in April and May.    

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the state ranked second to Vermont in last year's survey of producers in 10 states. Inspectors will collect information about the number of taps, yield, prices and the overall value of the maple products from New York. The results will be released in June. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration says it backs the state police commander who discussed the Newtown school shootings at a law enforcement seminar and won't punish him. 

The Journal Inquirer reports that Mark Ojakian, Malloy's chief of staff, called Col. Daniel Stebbins to ask how information about what he discussed at the seminar in New Orleans was published in a column in the New York Daily News earlier this month.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.

New York has its third straight on-time budget after decades of missed deadlines.

The Assembly passed the final bills of the $135 billion spending plan just before midnight Thursday.

The budget approved by the Senate Wednesday is due Sunday, the start of the new fiscal year.

Major elements of the budget negotiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders includes $350 tax rebate checks for most middle class families and a new minimum wage that will rise to $9 over three years.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings says it's time National Grid reviewed the city's aging underground infrastructure, after the third incidence of exploding manhole covers downtown.

Fire officials and National Grid say an underground electrical fire sparked an explosion early Saturday that sent four manhole covers flying into the air in a downtown neighborhood. It was the third such incident in less than six months.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York legislators will need much of this week to pass the $135 billion budget it negotiated with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut Historical Society has purchased a collection of letters written in the 1830s and 1840s by a woman describing the lives of the African captives from the slave ship Amistad.

The society paid $66,000 Tuesday for the letters written by Charlotte Cowles, whose abolitionist family took in one of the former Amistad captives.

Cowles described a captive showing her where she was burned on her shoulder with a red-hot pipe in Africa and her interactions with the leader of the captives.

BOSTON (AP) — Film companies have been awarded $44 million in Massachusetts tax credits for projects filmed in 2011, with nearly two-thirds of new spending generated by the productions going to individuals and businesses located out-of-state, including many individuals making more than $1 million.

That's a jump over the $18 million in credits in 2010.

The Department of Revenue report credited the increase on the return of multiple major feature films being made in Massachusetts.

BOSTON (AP) — Several candidates vying in the special U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts are working to define their positions on abortion.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a conservative Democrat, has been trying to reconcile his stated anti-abortion position with the more nuanced stance he has taken since entering the race. Lynch has emphasized that he would not vote to make abortion illegal.

Lynch's Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, has been endorsed by two major abortion rights groups.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut's Department of Labor says the state unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in January.

The department says the state added 4,700 jobs in January -- a sign of considerable improvement in the state's labor market.

The agency's research director says the data shows the state's job market is continuing on a modest but positive recovery path established in 2011.