A secret group of Senate Democrats helped decide the fate of nearly 650 bills over the last month. Just don’t ask any questions.

Before Kathy Hochul paused it, the tolling program lost the little labor support it had when the Transport Workers Union withdrew its backing this spring.

Great Meadow and Sullivan prisons are slated to shut down in November. The state could close up to three more over the next year.

In New York, unemployment recipients can be found guilty of fraud even if they thought their information was true. The state demands repayment at the highest rate in the country.

While Heastie privately pledged to avoid meetings with relevant interests, lobbyist Rebecca Lamorte has sought to keep representing them before the Assembly, according to her employer’s attorney.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed billions toward public transit in New York, but the state is choosing to spend billions more on highways.

Since announcing her plan to put the program on ice, the governor has not appeared in public.

Backing primary opponents to progressive Democrats, the new Solidarity PAC resembles a state-level analog to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

New York’s incarcerated population has been declining for decades. Why is it so hard for prison closures to keep pace?

A version of good cause eviction and new hate crimes are in; new taxes on the wealthy and education cuts are out. Here’s where things landed in this year’s budget.

Before Kathy Hochul paused it, the tolling program lost the little labor support it had when the Transport Workers Union withdrew its backing this spring.

A quarter of lawmakers in Albany are landlords. Almost none of them are covered by the most significant tenant protection law in years.

The police department’s PR team has more than doubled in size in the past two years. Some of its recent hires have histories of dishonesty and misconduct.

Rebecca Lamorte was let go by her employer in June, prompting the Assembly Speaker to place an upset call to her boss.

You haven’t heard of it, and your state senator might not have either. The Working Rules group helps determine the fate of hundreds of bills at the end of each legislative session.

We asked 26 lawmakers who support the congestion pricing pause how they propose to fund transit upgrades. Most shrugged.

After the governor declined to answer questions, a New York Focus reporter was ejected from her event.

We read the governor’s, Senate’s, and Assembly’s budget proposals — so you don’t have to.

A new four-judge bloc has consistently voted together in its most recent term, impacting criminal defendants, workers and people suing police.

While the nonprofit Greater New York Hospital Association lobbied, a lucrative for-profit arm may have run up costs for hospitals.

In the New York City teachers union, anger over a plan to privatize retiree health care could send a longshot campaign over the edge.

The situation at Rikers is bad, but at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum security facility more than 200 miles north of New York City, it’s worse.

He hopes the settlement will lead to reforms in New York prisons, where three-quarters of trans people say corrections officers have inappropriately touched or sexually assaulted them.

The Assembly rejected legislation that would have sped up New York’s transition away from gas.

After DA Sandra Doorley berated a police officer, Hochul referred her to a commission that is yet to become active — and lacks the authority to issue discipline.

As the relationship was coming to light, Heastie returned $5,000 in campaign cash to a labor group from which he’d recused himself.

The small Catholic university banned Students for Justice in Palestine in 2016. Amid protests and crackdowns, the move has become increasingly popular.

State lawmakers are set to introduce a sweeping proposal for a public takeover of Central Hudson, the region’s scandal-plagued gas and electric utility.

New York’s labyrinthine “rate case” process, explained.

Medicare Advantage plans are spreading across upstate New York, despite a reputation for denying care. In Cortland County, retirees kept it at bay.

We answer your questions on the state’s notoriously opaque budget process.

The former budget director’s role may break a law meant to keep ex-state employees from monetizing insider knowledge.

Lawsuits had threatened to kill congestion pricing. Now, it might take a lawsuit to save it.

Asked for records related to top politicians’ use of a Buffalo Bills suite, Empire State Development cited potential interference with a law enforcement investigation.

The recently formed Solidarity PAC has mobilized big finance and real estate to target socialists and the Working Families Party.

The state is blowing past key milestones on the way to its big emissions targets.

Migrants from Mauritania and Senegal were the most likely to receive eviction notices, but not the most populous groups in shelters, a New York Focus analysis found.

Previously unreleased disciplinary files expose officers who beat, slap, and pepper spray the residents they’re supposed to protect. Most are back at work within a month.

Her administration says the fund won’t be harmed. Legal experts question whether she can take it at all.

The state wants to phase out fossil fuels. Localities have given over a billion dollars in tax breaks to help keep them around.

The Assembly and Senate want to beef up labor standards and farmland protections for clean energy projects. Developers say that would slow down the energy transition.

New York municipalities used to keep the surplus from foreclosed homes sold at auction. Then the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

As climate disasters threaten a home insurance crisis, a new state bill aims at the problem’s root.

The Senate will consider Daniel Martuscello III’s bid to run New York’s prison and parole agency. His supporters point to his decades of experience. His opponents say that’s the problem.

Hochul’s proposed Medicaid cuts include $125 million from Health Homes, a program that connects the neediest New Yorkers with medical care, food assistance, and more.