With a month left in this year’s legislative session, a newly formed coalition of citizens, businesses, school districts and local governments is banding together to press lawmakers in Albany and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reduce programs and services that are mandated by the state. The mandate relief group is calling… Read More →
Senate Racing and Wagering Committee chairman John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, Orange County, introduced legislation today that would authorize seven casinos in New York—with up to three in the Catskills and one each in Westchester County and Queens. The other two would go to the Albany area and the Southern Tier,... Read More →
Westchester County has invested $6 million to restore the North Bathhouse at Playland in Rye, so that the Westchester Children’s Museum can build a facility projected to draw tens of thousands of visitors to the seaside park. Though the county restoration was completed in October, County Executive Rob Astorino won’t… Read More →
Per student public education spending in the country fell in 2011 for the first time since at least 1977—but not in New York, which still leads the nation in per-pupil spending. The U.S. Census Bureau today released data that showed New York, as has long been the case, spends the… Read More →
Westchester County officials have negotiated a $700,000 settlement with the estate of Gabriela Garin of White Plains, a Playland Amusement Park employee who was killed six years ago when she was thrown from the Mind Scrambler ride, The Journal News/lohud.com reports today. Under the agreement, which must be approved by… Read More →
Here’s the Assembly’s resolution that will start the process to expel Assemblyman Vito Lopez after Lopez was found to have sexually harassed female aides. The Assembly Ethics Committee is expected to be tasked on Monday with coming up with a recommendation on Lopez and will undoubtedly recommend his expulsion. He… Read More →
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Friday will begin the process that could lead to embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez’ expulsion from the chamber, according to his spokesman. Silver, who was criticized in an ethics report for his handling of sexual harassment allegations against Lopez, will introduce a resolution Friday asking the… Read More →
Assemblyman Vito Lopez outlined his defense to a series of sexual harassment claims in a 23-page document sent to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics earlier this year, claiming a series of text messages sent by his female employees—messages they claim they were forced to send—showed they enjoyed their jobs…. Read More →
Embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez put out a three-page statement this afternoon and condemned a state investigation that found he had sexually harassed a number of young female aides. “Salacious and sensational claims in the JCOPE report are fallacious,” the Lopez statement says. The statement went on to knock his accusers,... Read More →
