True or False T or F: Speaker Heastie has a better job than Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. True: The Speaker is king. He and his people will tell you about the power of his conference. He might say, “They tell ME what to do, not the other way around.” They […]
Month: April 2021
Governor visits Western New York where positivity rates reached 3.5 percent this week
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday the Buffalo Marathon will return in June for its twentieth anniversary. The governor also joined Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes to announce a new pop-vaccination site in the region just for young people. The race will operate at roughly 50 percent of its typical capacity […]
Restaurant and bar owners celebrate end of “food rule” as Legislature overturns executive orders
With the state Senate rescinding a number of executive orders put in place by Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the pandemic, restaurants are celebrating the suspension of a directive that required food to be sold in restaurants and bars to every customer purchasing alcohol. “This will single-handedly boost the bottom line […]
New York resumes Johnson & Johnson vaccines
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration, announced that vaccine providers may once again distribute the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after reports of blood clotting in a handful of recipients. As a result, New York has resumed using the one-shot Johnson […]
Gov. Cuomo asks Attorney General to explore legal challenges to Census Apportionment
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Attorney General Letitia James to review legal options to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau’s report after it was announced that New York will lose one congressional seat. Cuomo said that Census takers faced unprecedented challenges last year due to the effect the pandemic has had […]
New York expected to lose one congressional seat
New York will lose one congressional seat before the midterm elections next year, and upstate districts are most in jeopardy, based on U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Monday. Four regions of New York gained population — New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Capital region — while […]
State Police task force investigating hate crimes against Asian man and Bronx synagogues
As a surge of hate crimes escalates across the country, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is directing the New York State Police Hate Crime Force to aid in the investigation of two separate incidents of violence toward an Asian American man as well as vandalism at two synagogues in the Bronx. “We […]
Watchdog coalition wants hearings on JCOPE and Legislative Ethics Commission
A coalition of watchdog groups is calling for Senate and Assembly hearings on the “failures of the state’s ethics laws” and to assess how New York can restore the confidence of the public in ethics enforcement, while reducing conflicts of interest. In an April 21 letter to legislative leaders, the […]