Robert Gavin and Steve Hughes report in the Albany Times Union that former local Congressperson John Sweeney, who now works for the Rensselaer County IDA, is in court this week for hiring a private investigator to tail a woman in a child custody matter, but then not paying the private eye. Mario Pecoraro, the CEO of Alliance Worldwide Investigative Group, is suing Sweeney for $3,419 worth of investigative work. Sweeney has filed a $5,000 counter claim, saying the woman caught on that she was being watched and went to the State Police. A trial on the matter is scheduled for Oct. 12. Sweeney represented the WGXC listening area in Congress from 1998 to 2006, when Kirsten Gillibrand, now a Senator, beat him. Sweeney was hired by the Rensselaer County IDA last month for a $70,000-a-year job. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.