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.

New York has one of the longest organ waitlists in the country, and hundreds of New Yorkers die waiting for an organ donation each year. This new program could significantly reduce that toll.

The health department estimates that as many as 500 New Yorkers a year will use the program. Most are likely to be kidney donors, since kidneys are by far the most commonly donated organ.

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.

New York is violating its climate law — and doesn’t get a pass because implementing the law is “complicated,” a judge found Friday.

The 2019 law, which remains one of the most ambitious in the country, gave the state Department of Environmental Conservation until the start of 2024 to issue regulations that would “ensure” New York meet its binding greenhouse gas emissions targets. More than a year and half later, it has not — a fact that Ulster County Supreme Court Judge Julian Schreibman said was “undisputed” in the case.