Covering the politics, policies and people of New York State government.
To the editor: The success of public transportation can be traced back to one of the late President Lyndon Johnson’s greatest accomplishments which continues benefiting many Americans today. On July 9th, 1964 he signed the “Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964” into law. Subsequently this has resulted in the […]
State Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan If the recently-concluded legislative session is remembered for one thing, it should be this: 2016 was the year the Legislature and Governor took significant steps to improve the overall quality-of-life for all of our residents. Let’s start with passage of the […]
To the editor: This week, the New York State Public Service Commission continues its public hearings on its new Clean Energy Standard. New York has set an ambitious goal which would mandate that 50 percent of all electricity consumed in New York by 2030 come from clean and renewable […]
To the editor: A federal judge sentenced Dean Skelos, the former Senate Majority Leader, to five years in jail for public corruption. Sheldon Silver, former Speaker of the Assembly, was sentenced to 12 years for public corruption. Many other officials in New York state have been arrested, convicted, sentenced to […]
To the editor: New York’s proposed “Cecil’s Law,” which would ban “trophies” from lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, and elephants, shows that the state shared the disgust that the rest of the world felt upon hearing that beloved lion Cecil suffered for nearly two days before finally succumbing to his injuries, […]
To the editor: Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal creating the New York State Design and Construction Corporation to provide oversight for all Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital projects worth $50 million or more is redundant. On a yearly basis, the United States Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration provides over $1 […]
To the editor: Having been brought up in a house full of women, one toilet, going to the bathroom was a physical necessity not a political statement. As far as public restrooms go, as long as I have privacy what is going on in the stall next to me […]
To the editor: Regarding the Department of Environmental Conservation’s announcement that hunters killed a near-record number of New York’s black bears in 2015 (more than 1,700 animals), decimation of a quarter of the species is nothing to celebrate. Black bears, including mothers, rarely attack when humans approach them and […]