Covering the politics, policies and people of New York State government.
By Anne Reynolds and Bob Keefe After spending much of the past six months in Albany, legislators from across the state are returning to their home districts for the summer and fall. Since the legislative session began in January, how have their home districts changed? For one, there’s probably […]
To the editor, All of us mourn the loss of life and the act of violence that occurred in Orlando last weekend. This was an attack on freedom-loving people and freedom-loving societies everywhere. Acts of terrorism, foreign or domestic, aimed at gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation must be […]
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 […]