The opening moments of former Assemblymember Michael Blake’s November video salvo against Representative Ritchie Torres lambaste the Bronx congressman for his investment in aerospace giants such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which do business with the Pentagon. But financial disclosures show that Blake himself, who served in the state legislature from 2015 until 2021 and ran a failed campaign for mayor earlier this year, has long worked for a military contractor based in Maryland.

“Ritchie Torres invested in weapon makers,” a female voice says at the 11-second mark of Blake’s primary campaign launch video, which features screengrabs of headlines from Sludge and Truthout articles about the congressman’s stock holdings. “He profited from it.”

Tasers, virtual reality headsets, and a baby shower. These are just some of the ways New York counties spent their share of opioid settlement dollars this past year.

Over the past four years, counties have received over $330 million from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies for their role in fueling the opioid crisis. But how counties have spent that money remains in many cases a mystery, despite a new mandate aimed at improving transparency.

Altogether, Hochul vetoed or negotiated amendments to 228 bills in 2025, or 27 percent, once again using her bill-signing powers more aggressively than any of her recent predecessors.

Here are some highlights among the scores of bills Hochul vetoed in 2025. You can also browse the full list yourself — including the governor’s “veto memos” justifying each — in our database.