Albany Superintendent Eva Joseph, who used to look parents and teachers in the eye and claim there were no major problems with violence in her public schools, wants to turn members of the "Jungle Junkies" gang in high school and at the troubled Philip Livingston Magnet Academy into active members of the "Council for Unity."

Modeled after an anti-gang program in NYC, it sounds kind of like a big old group hug for gang-members. "Our kids go from gang-bangers to taxpayers," Council for Unity founder Bob DeSena tells the Times Union.

Well... good luck.

The Albany Common Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to fund the program.

Elsewhere, the Buffalo News takes a look at what local schools have been doing to beef up security in the wake of the recent Amish schoolhouse shooting in Pennyslvania.