Governor Kathy Hochul is digging in after a state court ruled Friday that New York is violating its flagship climate law and ordered the state to comply. Rebuffing the judge, she is gearing up for a rematch in the courts and a potential showdown over the state’s green energy transition during next year’s legislative session.

Ulster County Supreme Court Judge Julian Schreibman gave Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration until February 6 to issue regulations that would “ensure” the state meet emissions targets set out in the law. They include a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, which the state estimates it is at least six years behind on.

Everything is under control, lawyers for the state prison system told a judge last week: “At this time, general population across the state is operating as normal.”

That’s news to the nearly 1,200 men incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility.

Prisoners at Auburn are going stir-crazy. Classes, programs, and jobs at the maximum security facility in Cayuga County are mostly canceled. Aside from meal time, people in general population units get an hour out of their cells every other day, according to two incarcerated people — the only time they’re given to shower, purchase items from the commissary, and exercise or socialize in the recreation area.

“This place is a circus,” said Naythen Aubain, who’s incarcerated at Auburn.

Organ donors in New York can now get their costs paid by the state, thanks to a first-in-the-nation program that could save dozens of lives a year.

Last Thursday, the state health department announced that it is launching the Living Donor Support Program, which will reimburse organ donors up to $14,000 for their medical expenses and recovery-related costs, such as lost wages and childcare. Both the donor and recipient must be New Yorkers.

New York Focus has covered the effort to launch the program, and the health department’s repeated delays in implementing it, since 2021.

The Department of Homeland Security has sent unaccompanied immigrant teenagers $5,000 fines for illegally entering the United States, according to youth advocates and fine notices reviewed by New York Focus and The Intercept.

Roughly 10 teenagers in New York, ages 14 to 17, received the fine in mid-October, said Meena Shah, managing director of the Legal Services Center at The Door, a New York City-based nonprofit that serves young people. At least one teenager in Michigan has received the fine, too, according to the teen’s lawyer. New York Focus and The Intercept reviewed copies of the fine notices delivered in both New York and Michigan.

The fine is one of several new financial penalties for immigrants created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed in July. The federal government is issuing the fines under a section of the law titled “Inadmissible alien apprehension fee,” which is set at $5,000 and can be applied to people apprehended between official ports of entry. Homeland Security’s application of the fine hasn’t been previously reported.