An organizer for the Freelance Solidarity Project describes how getting a bill passed through Albany takes “running into a brick wall repeatedly, waiting for a tiny crack to show.”
More than two years into the pandemic, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office is still prohibiting all jail visits. That helped rake in more than half a million dollars last year.
The IBEW opposes a bill awaiting signature by Gov. Kathy Hochul that would put a moratorium on new fossil fuel power plants for the crypto industry.
As part of an initiative by Mayor Eric Adams, the city has swept the encampment where Jose Hernandez would often sleep nearly 10 times this year.
Twice this year, Kathy Hochul has ordered a State Police-run fusion center to beef up its social media monitoring. Documents show that analysts create fake accounts to do that work.
After New York Focus revealed that Hochul had failed to disclose the individuals behind corporate donations to her campaign, she provided that information for recent donors — revealing major support from a nursing home industry powerhouse.
Maloney’s announcement that he will exit his old district for a slightly safer seat alarmed Democrats—and rang a familiar bell back home.
The comptroller sounded the alarm that the budget includes $18 billion in “unnecessarily opaque” spending, most of it under Hochul’s control.
The Assembly Labor Committee has emerged as a bottleneck for unions’ top legislative priorities.
A bill to increase kidney donation rates is stuck in the “traffic jam” of the Assembly.
Biogas credits are incentivizing the expansion of factory farming in New York—and might end up increasing carbon emissions.
Adams promised they’d be different. But a roster compiled by New York Focus shows that officers who trained for the new teams allegedly beat, harassed, and illegally arrested people while previously working on plainclothes teams.
Buffalo workers were the first to unionize - but labor law went unenforced during their elections.
At the urging of the correction officers union, the prison agency is restricting packages to private vendors that charge steep markups and have limited selections.
After New York Focus reported that the elections board wasn’t enforcing a landmark transparency law, it sent delinquent donors a letter requesting that they comply. Thousands did within weeks.
Black and Latino nonunion flaggers on public construction projects say they’re paid just a third of wages they’re legally entitled to.
“Expect delays, expect secondary screening, expect frustration, and expect to miss your train from time to time.”
In the raucous debate over bail reform, simple facts have fallen out of sight.
A bill in the state legislature would prohibit police from interrogating minors before they consulted with a lawyer.
Before the Russian-funded delivery startup collapsed, Buyk sold itself as a way for workers to escape the gig economy. Former workers say it failed to deliver.
The state legislature has passed a measure intended to counter a court ruling that made it easier for lenders to win cases against homeowners.
Legislators opposed to a bill enacting a temporary moratorium on proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining are warning that it could harm New Yorkers often excluded from traditional financial markets, sources say.
After New York Focus reported on illegal contributions to candidate Russell Squire, his campaign announced it would return the money.
The state’s grand plan to convert unused hotels into affordable housing hasn’t gotten off the ground. Lawmakers just boosted funding — but developers and housing advocates say that won’t help without lifting onerous zoning restrictions.
Officials routinely refuse to send requests for medical release to the state parole board, frustrating advocates and raising questions about the murky criteria for medical release.
“I told the workers beforehand that they would lose based on the ‘numbers.’ They said they knew the workers. They were right!”
A comprehensive tracker of the issues at stake in New York’s budget.
The final budget made changes to bail law, discovery law, pre-arraignment detention, involuntary commitment and more.
The legislature wants to spend $250 million to combat homelessness. Hochul says it’ll actually cost $6 billion.
Rather than try to improve Hochul’s proposal, some environmentalists want to scrap it and instead concentrate on a forthcoming bill from Assemblymember Steve Englebright.
Green groups charged that Kathy Hochul is punting the issue until after the primary.
Democrats immediately said they would appeal the decision.
New York Focus obtained and analyzed a proposal presented by Senate leadership to the chamber’s Democratic caucus.
Experts say the state needs to spend at least $1 billion a year to cut pollution from buildings. Legislators are trying to get the governor closer to that figure.
New York state legislators have just days to question phone hacking, forensics, and fusion centers before the budget passes.
The governor’s projected price tag is five times higher than estimates by the legislature and outside researchers—but she hasn’t said how she arrived at her figure.
Striking employees of United Metro Energy say management replaced them with workers who weren’t certified to operate the Brooklyn oil terminal, increasing the risk of an oil spill.
Budget negotiations center on one crucial question: should New York save or spend?
Advocates organizing for similar laws say loopholes in Hochul’s proposal make it “virtually meaningless,” and are encouraging the governor to withdraw the measure.
How the three budget proposals from the governor, Assembly and Senate stack up.