Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall gave up his fight Wednesday for a spot on the ballot in the race to fill Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s vacant seat in Congress. “We are dismayed that the people of the 20th Congressional District will not have the opportunity to vote for Eric Sundwall due to a technicality that hinges on [...]
Governor David Paterson and state legislative leaders are closing in on an agreement to repeal much of what remains of the state’s 1970s-era Rockefeller drug laws. According to a spokeswoman for the governor, the deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences for lower-level drug felons. It also gives judges the discretion to [...]
Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have reached tentative agreements on major cuts to health care spending and a significant expansion of recycling laws, legislators, aides and lobbyists who have been briefed on the negotiations said Wednesday evening. But with some Democrats in the narrowly divided Senate balking at the provisions, it is unclear [...]
After months of warning about its so-called “doomsday budget,” the Metropolitan Transportation passed by a nearly unanimous vote today a so-called “doomsday plan” to raise fares, cut service and cut nearly 1,000 transit employees’ jobs. The plan will affect millions of New Yorkers in the coming months, as base subway and bus fares will jump [...]
The Justice Department filed a complaint Tuesday against the New York State Board of Elections and Gov. David Paterson, seeking additional time for members of the military to cast absentee ballots in Tuesday’s special election for the vacant 20th Congressional District seat. John Conklin, a spokesman for the state board of elections, said the lawsuit [...]
New York’s inspector general says a state tax commissioner broke the law by arranging tenured jobs for herself and nine other lawyers and then telecommuting under a false name from her South Carolina home to a part-time tax agency job. Inspector General Joseph Fisch says the Department of Taxation and Finance abused the hiring system [...]
In a memo released Tuesday, Governor David Paterson renewed his threat to fire nearly 9,000 state workers as ongoing negotiations with union leaders reached a standstill. Faced with a newly-estimated $16 billion budget deficit, Paterson has been calling for concessions by the unions, including pension reform. His office says the layoffs could save nearly $500 [...]
The Second Avenue subway will be more economy, less luxury. That’s how a transit official put it when the MTA board voted Monday to scale back the $16 billion project in light of growing costs. “We’re getting a Chevy,” said Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction. To save money, the MTA is removing the [...]
About 10 years ago, Anthony S. Seminerio, an assemblyman from Queens, began asking the president of a Queens nonprofit to hire his consulting firm, prosecutors said. The executive, whose organization depended on the state for much of its financing, did not respond. The next year, according to a revised indictment announced on Tuesday, Mr. Seminerio [...]
The City Council voted Tuesday to extend rent stabilization laws for another three years. To do that, the council had to also pass a resolution declaring the city is in a housing emergency, with vacancy rates below five percent. Those laws were set to expire on April 1st. The City Council is still pushing for [...]
