In a strange oversight, the copy for the party doesn't mention that I'll be there

Proud that we at the First Amendment Clinic could help wrestle out these public documents for @juliarock.bsky.social

New York doens't allow private immigration detention, and the state has only one ICE-run detention center, so the feds are seeking to expand their use of county jails. Sheriffs are obliging. From @juliarock.bsky.social and Isabelle Taft: nysfocus.com/2025/09/16/i...

Five journalists, including Maryam Abu Daqqa, a freelance correspondent and photojournalist who submitted invaluable reporting to AP, were killed by Israel in a double airstrike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Maryam was 33 years old and leaves behind a 13-year-old son.

Enjoyed speaking with the Capitol Pressroom about the legal fight over Hochul’s stalling on New York’s climate law capitolpressroom.org/2025/07/30/h...

BREAKING: Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas (@votejgr.bsky.social) has filed to run against state Sen. @jessicaramosqns.bsky.social next year. www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Wind and solar developers have a year to put shovels in the ground if they want to hang on to federal tax credits. How many projects could actually achieve that in New York? A lot more than I realized — if Kathy Hochul’s administration gets on board nysfocus.com/2025/07/11/t...

Four high-ranking ex-NYPD chiefs are suing Mayor Adams, claiming they were forced to retire from the department after complaining his “unqualified” friends were being placed in prestigious posts, sometimes after allegedly bribing their way into the jobs. www.nydailynews.com/2025/07/08/e...

ICE's average annual budget through FY 2029 is now going to be $27.6 billion, which makes it a higher-funded agency than the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Prisons combined. We are looking at a level of federal law enforcement in communities not seen in generations.

Many thanks to @jiejennyzou.bsky.social 4 writing this article and @nysfocus.bsky.social for publishing it. It features the story of my son and other NYers’s urgent need for continuation of Medicaid SNAP & other services. nysfocus.com/2025/07/03/t...

Four NY farms are refusing to follow union contracts newly awarded by state-appointed arbitrators -- the first to be reached through that process since NY legalized farmworker collective bargaining in 2019. Remains to be seen how the state labor board will respond... nysfocus.com/2025/07/02/f...

Zohran Mamdani's plan to make NYC affordable requires Albany. Will he get help from the state? TLDR: The legislature is willing to raise taxes, but Hochul is not. Dem leaders like the *idea* of universal child care, but haven't been willing to pay for it. Read more... nysfocus.com/2025/06/26/z...

while reading this my mind wandered to pedro pascal telling dakota johnson he works in private equity...just my dumb contribution for the day

ICYMI: Finance industry groups and the wider business lobby have kicked into gear to oppose a NY bill aiming to protect countries that default on their debt. The bill passed the state Senate last week; the Assembly will decide its fate in the next few days. @juliarock.bsky.social has the story

👀 Little teaser from new official NYS lobbying report coming out tomorrow: Besides the budget, *all* of the most lobbied-on bills for March-April were climate/enviro bills: - Packaging reduction/recycling and business-backed rival waste bill - NY HEAT Act - Advanced Clean Trucks delay

Half (!) of sovereign bonds are issued under New York law, giving state lawmakers the power to shape how countries around the world face off with creditors. Could this be the year Albany reins in the “vulture funds”? nysfocus.com/2025/06/04/n...

NEW: Data obtained by Streetsblog completely undermines Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch's stated rationale for the criminal crackdown on cycling, revealing that in the first four months of this year, e-bike crashes and injuries were down by double-digit percentages. buff.ly/nf0qnFL

Read Maria Silva's profile of Tom Sit, the Kingston restaurateur who journeyed from Mao's China to British Hong Kong to the Hudson Valley. www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...

In Wolcott, NY, a farm that refused to bargain with its union is now refusing to follow a contract reached in arbitration. It's one of a few contracts NY farmworkers have won since they gained the right to unionize in 2019 -- and a big test for the state labor board. nysfocus.com/2025/05/24/n...

A Westchester County mayor helped rezone land he owned — dramatically increasing the value — then sold it to a housing developer for $2.9M nysfocus.com/2025/05/21/m...

Albany wants NYC to help fund the child care vouchers that support 60k low-income families The state budget has a 🥕: put in your own $ and we will match it up to $350 mil And a stick: The state is raising the statutory minimum amount that NYC must spend on the program nysfocus.com/2025/05/09/c...

Exclusive: Newark Airport air traffic controllers lost radar and radio communication for more than a minute last week

When New York correction officers are accused of beating a prisoner — to death, in some cases — the crimes often occur in prison infirmaries. One reason: no fixed cameras. A remarkable investigation by @themarshallproject.org. www.timesunion.com/capitol/arti...

Huge, huge news: after spending 26+ years on Angola death row, maintaining his innocence throughout, Chris Duncan's conviction has been overturned by a Louisiana judge. He told me he was in shock & called his lawyers heroes. "I'm scared to have full joy." boltsmag.org/chris-duncan...

NY opened more prisons than most other states during the 1980s and '90s to boost rural Upstate economies. Now it's closing more, too, with five more potentially on the chopping block. www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/5...

Insurance co. Leading Edge once tried to cut off a coma patient's insurance using faulty paperwork. Now, they're slated to offer bare-bones coverage to thousands of low-wage NY health aides: nysfocus.com/2025/04/28/l...

“Deputies are stopping Hispanic drivers for minor, unprovable traffic violations like veering left of center, then handing them over to Border Patrol agents who are sometimes already at the scene.” www.syracuse.com/news/2025/04...

"In interviews, five Venezuelan experts on Tren de Aragua — two police officials, two scholars and a journalist — told The Times that while some transnational gangs use tattoos as indicators of membership, the Venezuelan group did not."

NEW: There's a small, overlooked unit within NY's education department that is responsible for reviewing ~6K complaints of teacher misconduct each yr. But it can sometimes take years to close out cases because of a huge backlog. @nysfocus.bsky.social nysfocus.com/2025/03/26/n...

“Out of pocket, I wouldn’t be able to afford day care…. Without my day care, I wouldn’t be able to work.” @juliarock.bsky.social spoke with six of the thousands of NYC parents who could lose child care vouchers in the coming months if Albany doesn’t step in: nysfocus.com/2025/03/24/n...

I spoke with six NYC parents who receive the child care assistance about how it's impacted their lives.

The REBNY chair, corporate lobbyist Tonio Burgos, and others are bundling for Cuomo — but the campaign didn’t disclose it. Donations raised by lobbyists aren’t supposed to be matched with public funds, but that’s harder for CFB to enforce if not disclosed… nysfocus.com/2025/03/20/a...

A pro-Israel group fundraising for NYC City Council candidates does not appear in campaign finance disclosures. So @chrisgelardi.bsky.social and I tracked the fundraising activity for you -- about $80k for seven city council candidates. nysfocus.com/2025/03/20/n...

NEW: A Pro-Israel group has raised about $80,000 for seven NYC Council Candidates. But the candidates didn’t disclose the fundraising help — a potential violation of campaign finance law.

He called for deporting Obama, and trying both Biden and Clinton for treason. Trump wants to make him the top lawman in upstate New York. www.syracuse.com/politics/cny...

NEW: Over the past two and a half years, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has spent tens of millions of dollars building an online tool it says will transform all social services in New York City. Two years and $100 million later, the MyCity portal is a skeleton of what it was supposed to be.

The Trump admin is threatening to pull back funding from the MTA, if it doesn’t crack down on crime. But crime *is* down on the subway, and it’s unclear what the letter intends to accomplish. The timing is noteworthy: Trump wants congestion pricing to end this Friday www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/n...

Both labor & businesses want NY to pay off its unemployment debt to the feds, so the weekly unemployment payment goes ⬆️ and taxes on employers go⬇️ But not everyone thinks the Assembly's plan to pay the whole $6 bil debt with state $$ is a good idea nysfocus.com/2025/03/17/n...

Hochul’s middle classic tax cut would in fact cut taxes for the middle class — but it would cut taxes for rich people by even more. Taxpayers making $300k would save $600, while taxpayers making $50k would save only $100. By @sammellins.bsky.social nysfocus.com/2025/03/14/h...

Insurers warn that mass firings at NASA, the US Geological Survey and other science agencies could threaten the public weather and geospatial data they use to manage natural disaster risks — and could raise prices for consumers: on.ft.com/3DI4Q1K

"The change is one that researchers have dreaded finding because it is associated with increased mammal-to-mammal transmission and disease severity."

4,000 to 7,000 NYC kids are about to be kicked off child care each month, starting in April. Hochul and the legislature aren't offering enough money to avert that outcome. The relevant city agency is begging for $, but Eric Adams won't say if he's asking Albany for it. nysfocus.com/2025/03/12/c...

If you're a parent (or employer or child) in NY you might be interested in what the state is proposing to do on child care this year. Highlights: - Hochul wants a task force - Senate wants to ⬆️ child care worker pay - Assembly wants more $$ for vouchers nysfocus.com/2025/03/12/c...

Congestion pricing is cutting tons of car travel to lower Manhattan but it’s not sending that missing traffic to other boroughs nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/03/12/d...

NEW: The lawyers who got tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to defend Andrew Cuomo are throwing him a fundraiser.

New documents show ICE accessed a Westchester, NY database that tracked more than 16 million cars a week despite sanctuary policies that otherwise limit cooperating with ICE. “Westchester can be a sanctuary county or a surveillance state. It can’t be both." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Adrienne Adams has made a decision: the City Council speaker is running for mayor of New York City. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Major @chrisgelardi.bsky.social dive into the dynasty that has shaped New York’s prison system for decades, and the heir who leads the embattled system now. “The Martuscellos — they all get hooked up,” wrote a state investigator. “They got this juice.” nysfocus.com/2025/03/03/d...

In his affordability plan, ex-Gov.-turned-mayoral-candidate Cuomo doesn't call for universal childcare (yet), saying it "would limit the city’s ability to fund other critical priorities." He has some other ideas, though, to make care more accessible and affordable: