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Hochul’s Chapter Amendments Could Undermine New Birth Center Law

A rift grew among birth advocates as progressive legislators asked them to compromise with the governor – or risk a veto.

Lee Harris   ·   January 20, 2022
Hochul’s Budget Charts a Middle Path on Climate

The $216 billion budget would ban gas in new construction, but otherwise offers few dramatic moves on climate.

Sam Mellins and Lissa Harris   ·   January 20, 2022
Smokestacks Loom Over New York’s Clean Energy Plan

New York is building renewables - but it doesn’t have a plan to shut down the plants they’re supposed to replace.

Colin Kinniburgh   ·   January 18, 2022
Hochul at Divide with Lawmakers on Child Care, Once A Top Priority

Child care used to be Hochul’s marquee issue. Now, she’s proposing a modest expansion—but only if Congress doesn’t act.

Sam Mellins   ·   January 12, 2022
Hochul Proposes Medicaid Expansion for Seniors and Disabled, Marking a Shift From Past Governors

Two proposals in Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State would constitute the most significant expansion of New York’s health plan for low-income individuals in years.

Sam Mellins   ·   January 7, 2022
Ron Kim Targets a Progressive Heavyweight in Allegations of Wage Theft

Kim accuses the Chinese-American Planning Council of rampant wage theft—and, in coordination with 1199SEIU, of blocking workers’ access to the courts.

Daniel Moritz-Rabson   ·   January 4, 2022
He Was Homeless, So the Judge Kept Him at Rikers

How a lack of stable housing, combined with bureaucratic hurdles in New York’s labyrinthine re-entry process, kept one man at Rikers during the height of its crisis.

Sam Mellins   ·   January 3, 2022
State Lawmakers Push to Scale Back Fossil Fuel Subsidies

The state spends $1.6 billion a year subsidizing oil and gas. Lawmakers are trying to eliminate about one-fifth of that spending.

Sam Mellins   ·   December 23, 2021
Hochul Signs Bill to Remove Barriers to Addiction Treatment

In the latest of a series of steps Hochul has taken to change the direction of drug policy, doctors will no longer have to ask insurance companies for permission to prescribe opioid use disorder medications to Medicaid patients.

Sam Mellins   ·   December 23, 2021
After Initial Setback, Amazon Workers on Staten Island Refile for Union Election

This time, workers are trying to unionize just one warehouse, where they say they’ve gotten a majority of workers to sign union authorization cards.

Amir Khafagy   ·   December 22, 2021
Failure of Build Back Better Casts Uncertainty over New York’s Climate Plans

New York was counting on federal money to help pay for its transition to clean energy, which will cost the state an estimated $15 billion each year.

Lissa Harris and Colin Kinniburgh   ·   December 22, 2021
Columbia Student Worker Strike Could Become Testing Ground for Biden-Era NLRB

An NLRB ruling on a grievance made by striking Columbia student workers could suggest the board’s approach to a major question about the legal status of student workers.

Maxwell Parrott   ·   December 20, 2021
Judge Orders City to Delay Retiree Health Care Switch Until April 1

Retired city employees will be able to opt out of their newly-privatized health insurance until June 30, the judge ruled

Sam Mellins   ·   December 14, 2021
What Will It Take To Bring Cell Coverage to New York’s North Country?

A recent report renewed a decades-long debate over a regulatory requirement that cell towers in Adirondack Park be “substantially invisible.”

Lilah Burke   ·   December 13, 2021
New York City Mailed Misinformation on New Health Insurance to Retired City Employees — and Won’t Send Out a Correction

Guides sent to a quarter million retired city employees contained false information on the availability of dozens of treatments under the new plan.

Sam Mellins   ·   December 9, 2021
Women Sent from Rikers to Maximum-Security Prison: ‘They Treat Us Like State Property’

Governor Hochul and Mayor de Blasio’s quixotic plan to relocate women from Rikers Island to the Bedford Hills state prison has prompted fierce opposition from women who insist they do not want to go.

Tana Ganeva   ·   December 9, 2021
Hochul Vetoes Bill to Create Utility Consumer Advocate

Hochul argues the office would be redundant, because the state already protects utility consumers.

Julia Rock   ·   December 8, 2021
State Senators Ask Gov. Hochul to Commute Sentence of Man Who Spent Over 800 Days in Rikers

Reginald Randolph is currently serving a two to four year sentence in state prison for stealing cold medicine.

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg   ·   December 4, 2021
Westchester Hospital Network To Shift Thousands of Retirees to Private Health Insurance

Three days before the deadline to opt out of a new health insurance plan, Westchester retirees still don’t know what’s in it.

Sam Mellins   ·   December 3, 2021
New York Utilities Polarize Over Push to Ban Natural Gas

A proposed gas ban has pitted ConEd against big oil, real estate lobbyists, and other investor-owned utilities.

Lee Harris   ·   December 1, 2021