An overdue update to New York’s benefit cards that could prevent food stamp theft could launch as early as next February.

Last month, Governor Kathy Hochul officially came out in support of transitioning to chip-enabled benefit cards, reversing the state’s stance from just a year ago.

The cards New York currently uses for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and cash assistance lack the encrypted chips that have been standard in credit and debit cards for over a decade, leaving users prone to a form of theft called skimming.

An anti-development New York City Councilmember approved a project in her district rather than risk being overruled by a new appeals board — the first sign of a potential sea change in the city’s housing landscape caused by the ballot questions that voters approved in November.

Vickie Paladino, a firebrand Republican who has railed against past efforts to increase housing density, announced Sunday that she would support a rezoning to build an eight-story building in Bay Terrace, Queens with 248 apartments.

In a six-minute Facebook video, Paladino noted that her opposition could have been enough to kill the project in the past when the council generally deferred to members on projects in their districts. But that changed with the passage of Question 4, which created a three-person appeals board including the mayor, council speaker, and local borough president, with the power to overturn the council’s rejections.

Paladino made it clear that she was worried that the project could be made more affordable for residents and potentially include transitional housing. “That is not what we want for Bayside,” she said in the video. While the appeals board does not have the power to modify the project, she suggested that it could find some way to make the project accessible to lower-income households. “We do not want this placed in the hands of the borough president and Mayor Zohran Mamdani,” she said.

With Paladino’s support, the council’s land use and zoning committees voted Monday to advance the project at 217-14 24th Ave, and the full council approved it unanimously Tuesday afternoon. It was a significant turnabout for Paladino, who had previously joined an unsuccessful lawsuit that tried to block the questions last year.

The top investigator at New York’s horse racing regulator has resigned after a New York Focus investigation last month revealed that the agency spent years ignoring key evidence in a massive horse doping scandal.

The former director of racing investigations, Andrew Rakowsky, “resigned in lieu of termination,” New York Gaming Commission spokesperson Lee Park told New York Focus.

Rakowsky could not be reached for comment. His government phone line was disconnected as of publication time.