Bobby Cuza is reporting for Spectrum News former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for a bribery and corruption scheme. Silver has managed to stay out of prison since his conviction in 2015, which was overturned on appeal after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a separate case, narrowed the legal definition of public corruption. He was re-tried, re-convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018, but some of those charges were overturned by an appeals court in January. “It has been a long time coming,” Judge Valerie Caproni said when re-sentencing the 76-year-old Silver. Caproni dismissed Silver’s concerns about contracting COVID-19 in prison, suggesting the federal government had done a reasonably good job managing the crisis. Silver addressed the court and expressed remorse. “I want to be clear: What I did was wrong,” he said. “Let me just say I am very sorry.” In addition to prison time, Silver must pay a $1 million fine. He is scheduled to surrender by August 26. Read the full story at spectrumlocalnews [dot] com.