NYC #civictech could decry Eric Adams' last-hour renewal of the opaque Big Apple Connect program, in a giveaway to Altice USA and Spectrum. Story by Zachary Groz for @nysfocus.bsky.social,who is staying on the #govtech beat in NYC and nine-figure spending favors by the insider-driven Adams admin:

I'm incredibly excited to welcome Isabelle Taft as @nysfocus.bsky.social's immigration reporter. She's a dogged journalist who is going to rock it during these dark, eventful times. Her first piece is up today, give it a read: nysfocus.com/2025/09/04/t... And send tips: [email protected]

NEW: This summer, ICE was quietly granted access to sensitive Medicaid enrollment information as part of the agency’s efforts to root out “the location of aliens.” Advocates say they’re seeing a chilling effect, with immigrants delaying or avoiding health care to protect themselves.

NEW: We’ve been keeping a close eye on the Bronx Community Foundation. Since we reported it had failed to spend nearly $400,000 it raised for fire victims, the foundation received $300,000 in new government grants. nysfocus.com/2025/08/28/b...

A hearing focused on the turmoil in New York's popular home care program didn't get far, as key witnesses deflected and refused to answer questions. "A complete waste of our time," one of the hearing's organizers said. nysfocus.com/2025/08/22/n...

BREAKING: Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...

"Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers use CDPAP, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers work for CDPAP...even if you have no relation to the program, if you're a NY taxpayer, this is your money." @sammellins.bsky.social joined The Capitol Pressroom to talk about wage parity for home care workers.

I've been reporting on New York's troubled home care program for months. On Thursday, lawmakers are holding a hearing to understand its recent turmoil. Here are 5 questions I'd like answers to: nysfocus.com/2025/08/19/n...

Fraud and falsehoods often don’t stop debt collectors from pursuing their targets for years, reports @sammellins.bsky.social. nysfocus.com/2025/08/14/z...

New for @nysfocus: Two companies managing NY's home health program could pocket millions 💰💰💰 meant for low-wage care aides every year. That's because they're offering "benefits" that many workers can't actually use, but are forced to pay for. nysfocus.com/2025/07/21/n...

SCOOP: DOGE moved to kill Direct File, the IRS's popular free tax filing tool, days after meeting with private tax filing software lobbyists. www.wired.com/story/doge-d...

The Department of Labor offers a hotline for people to call in cases where they have questions about applying for unemployment or experience delays in payments. It seems as though nobody answers the phone.

NEW: If you need help with an unemployment claim in New York state, you might not get it from the Labor Department. One week in June, just a third of callers to the unemployment hotline reached a human.

NEW: Eric Adams was slated to be the guest of honor at an event with a speaker who has called for violence against Muslims and boycotts of non-Hindu businesses. He withdrew yesterday, following inquiries from New York Focus. nysfocus.com/2025/07/10/e...

Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that almost *half* of NY hospitals could be at risk of closing if Congress goes ahead with Medicaid cuts fiscalpolicy.org/new-york-hos...

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...

Listen to WBAI 99.5fm to hear @sammellins.bsky.social talk about whether Zohran Mamdani's agenda can survive Albany with @theindypendent.bsky.social's John Tarleton. Live here at 5:20: wbai.org/program.php?...

NEW: From free buses to universal childcare, much of Zohran Mamdani's agenda will need Albany's approval. Will he get it? nysfocus.com/2025/06/26/z...

NEW: Hotels and motels have quietly become New York’s most common solution for emergency shelter for homeless people outside NYC. Many stay in dilapidated rooms without the social services that shelters are required to provide. With @propublica.org and support from @economichardship.bsky.social.

As Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo put fraudulent debt collection firms on notice. Documents suggest that the settlement his office negotiated changed nothing for the vast majority of people it was supposed to help. “It was a complete pass” for the debt collectors, one consumer attorney said.

The one Cuomo story I can almost guarantee you've never heard about. This one came from @sammellins.bsky.social' research into "sewer service" — or fraudulent process serving — in New York. nysfocus.com/2025/06/22/a...

This solicitation sounds very much like ICE is trying to deploy its own souped up "predictive policing" apparatus via continued surveillance of up to a million people. Real Minority Report shit.

NEW: Anna Gelman was unable to purchase Kosher foods for Passover or Hanukkah, and she spent her 90th birthday "unhappy" — all because of stolen SNAP funds. She's now part of a lawsuit calling on NY to transition to more secure card technology and compensate victims for their losses.

New York Focus has been awarded the Walter T. Brown Award for excellence in coverage of New York state government for the second year in a row 🤩 nysfocus.com/2025/06/10/n...

A company with a history of lawsuits and unpaid claims is now managing health insurance for thousands of New Yorkers on the taxpayers’ dime.

🚨New York just handed a major public contract to a health insurer with a history of lawsuits and unpaid claims. Our latest investigation shows who’s paying the price: home care workers and their doctors. The company’s own employees call the company’s practices “shitty” and “very disheartening.” 🧵

No time to read @sammellins.bsky.social's investigation into Leading Edge, the company now providing health insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of NY's home care workers? We got you. nysfocus.com/2025/06/13/5...

New for @nysfocus.bsky.social Thousands of NY home health aides are now covered by insurance that slashes payments to doctors and leaves patients to pay the bill. One woman on the plan is skipping MRIs for a brain tumor — she just can’t afford more uncovered bills. nysfocus.com/2025/06/12/l...

Got my hands on an internal IRS report on how Direct File went this season. TLDR: pretty well. 94% of users said their experience was excellent or above average. That said, the IRS is reportedly killing the free tax filing service. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

As chair of the NYC’s Land Use Committee, Rafael Salamanca is a magnet for campaign donations from the real estate industry. Records show developers have maxed out donations to his city campaign fund, then made much larger donations to a less restricted second committee — sometimes on the same day.

Are you a New Yorker who receives public benefits? Fill out our survey to help us track programs across the state and monitor the impact of ongoing federal cuts. Or email our social services reporter, @jiejennyzou.bsky.social, at [email protected]. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Have you ever been trapped in a subscription that you wanted to cancel, but couldn’t figure out how? Those days appear to be over for New Yorkers.

Reporter's Notebook from @sammellins.bsky.social: The Modim Foundation is tied to a health insurer that will begin providing coverage to thousands of New York’s home health aides in May. It refuses to disclose where its gifts go, in a violation of tax law.

Charities are required to disclose who they give money to. But the Modim Foundation — funded and run by health insurance execs now doing big Medicaid business with New York state — has given away over $4 million without IDing a single recipient: nysfocus.com/2025/05/01/j...

Reporter @sammellins.bsky.social reviewed lawsuits against the company selected to provide health coverage to NY's home care workers, Leading Edge. Here's what he found. nysfocus.com/2025/04/28/l...

NEW: Starting May 1, Leading Edge will begin offering two bare-bones insurance plans to thousands of home health aides in New York. The company has a record of backing out of paying for health procedures and trying to leave patients with the bill.

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...

A special invitation: New York Focus and @hellgatenyc.com have teamed up to present an evening at the Public Theater with the top Democratic mayoral candidates ahead of the June 24 primary election. Join us on May 15: www.eventbrite.com/e/new-york-f...

🚨 @nysfocus.bsky.social scoop: The State Police maintain a gang database that gets shared with ICE. It contains over 5,100 names and uses hazy criteria like tattoos, clothing, and social associations to label people as gang members. It hasn't been audited by an outside entity. full story⬇️

After *years* of inaction, the NY Dept. of Health is moving forward with a life-saving program to boost kidney donations. It follows our recent reporting on their failure to act: nysfocus.com/2025/04/10/n...

NEW: A life-saving but long-stalled program to reimburse kidney donors will start within a few months. Following reporting from New York Focus on the agency’s continued failure to follow the law, Department of Health officials committed to a timeline.

I spent nine months investigating the spending of the largest health care union in the U.S. What I found: 1199SEIU President George Gresham has for years used union money to benefit himself, his family and political allies. www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

The Health Insurance Stabilization Fund — which affects some 960,000 NYC workers — went belly-up in October, @sammellins.bsky.social finds. Here's what could happen next. nysfocus.com/2025/03/31/n...

NEW: New York lawmakers are considering weakening the state Education Department’s recent guidelines on yeshivas and other nonpublic schools. Nonpublic schools face a looming deadline to prove they offer an education similar to the state's public schools.

One of Hochul's top consumer protection proposals this year has a big exception that would exempt companies like Verizon, Comcast, and Apple Music. The state Senate wants to close that loophole: nysfocus.com/2025/03/27/c...

On the heels of @sammellins.bsky.social's reporting, the state Senate is seeking to strengthen consumer protections for New Yorkers. nysfocus.com/2025/03/27/c...

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...

DOGE might have lost the U.S. 500 billion dollars from the IRS' inability to do tax enforcement. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Stunning scoop from Sam. Hochul’s home care plan has been subject to remarkable scrutiny — yet the company picked to take over insurance was founded by someone convicted of fraud, and has made millions helping home care companies get out of paying their workers benefits. nysfocus.com/2025/03/20/h...