TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLawmakers want to make attacks on police, firefighters, others, a hate crime
Three former law enforcement officers-turned-senators are the prime movers behind a proposal that would make attacks on uniformed personnel a hate crime.
“It sends a very clear message,” GOP Southern Tier Sen. Fred Akshar, a former Broome County undersheriff, said of the proposal which they call the “Community Heroes Protection Act.”
Also sponsoring the measure are GOP Senators Pat Gallivan, a former Erie County Sheriff and former NYPD officer Marty Golden.
As well as police, the measure would apply to attacks on firefighters, EMTs and corrections officers — all of who make up the ”uniformed” part of the state payroll.
Read more: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/271727/lawmakers-want-to-make-attacks-on-police-firefighters-etc-a-hate-crime/
DeVry to pay restitution to NY graduates after settling with AG
DeVry University will pay $2.25 million in restitution to certain New York graduates following a settlement with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman over the college’s advertising practices.
The settlement, announced Tuesday, calls for restitution for certain graduates of associates and bachelor’s degree programs at DeVry’s New York campuses and New Yorkers who graduated from the college’s online associates and bachelor’s degree programs. DeVry also will have to pay $500,000 in penalties, fees and costs and reform its practices regarding how it represents graduates’ employment and salary outcomes.
DeVry has three New York City campuses.
Schneiderman’s office said DeVry advertisements claimed that 90 percent of graduates who are actively seeking employment find a job in the field they studied within six months of graduating. But Schneiderman’s office claims the 90 percent number was misleading because a large number of graduates included in that count were already employed prior to graduation or employed before they enrolled at DeVry.
Read more: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/271761/devry-to-pay-restitution-to-ny-graduates-after-settling-with-ag/
Cuomo pocket vetoes NYRA reprivatization bill
Last year’s effort to reprivatize the New York Racing Association is officially dead.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his pocket veto powers on a reprivatization bill, the final holdover from the 2016 legislative session, on Wednesday. That action was not a surprise.
State appointees have controlled NYRA since 2012. In his 2017 budget plan, Cuomo proposes reestablishing control by a private board of directors (see part NN of the revenue bill).
But that doesn’t mean the governor is giving up on his quest for increased oversight of NYRA. He proposes enhancements of the state Franchise Oversight Board to allow it to require in certain circumstances an independent financial review of NYRA’s books, a corrective action plan be put in place and other actions be taken.
Read more: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/271850/cuomo-pocket-vetoes-nyra-reprivatization-bill/
Schneiderman sues cable company over internet speed, reliability
ALBANY — Alleging that one of the nation's dominant cable and internet providers "has been ripping you off," state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Wednesday announced his office had sued Charter Communications and its subsidiary Spectrum, formerly known as Time Warner Cable.
In a Manhattan news conference, he said the 87-page complaint — filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan — told "a consistent story of bad performance and a long-term business plan built on deceit."
The communications giant is the dominant cable and internet service provider in the Capital Region. In a statement, Connecticut-based Charter says it is "disappointed" that Schneiderman is suing the company over promises made by Time Warner before the acquisition. It says it's making "substantial" investments to upgrade the system.
The suit claims that at least since January 2012, the company engaged in what Schneiderman referred to in a Manhattan press conference as a "deliberate scheme" to defraud and mislead customers about what Charter's subsidiaries claimed were "blazing fast" connectivity speeds. Frequently, it failed to deliver — deficiencies that were discussed in numerous corporate communications excerpted in the complaint, but were allegedly ignored by corporate officials due to the cost of capital improvements.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Schneiderman-to-outline-Spectrum-Time-Warner-10899513.php
Cuomo gives AG authority to probe Rensselaer County DA
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has granted the state attorney general's office the authority to investigate Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove for his handling of the fatal shooting of a DWI suspect by a Troy police officer last April.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sought authorization from Cuomo last year after information surfaced that a Troy police investigation of the shooting was incomplete when Abelove presented the case to a grand jury that cleared the officer who fired the shots. The grand jury took action less than a week after the shooting.
"Real questions have been raised here, and we owe it to the community and the victim's family to get to the bottom of them," said a person familiar with the decision by Cuomo's office.
At the time Abelove presented the case to a grand jury, the attorney general's office was reviewing whether to investigate the shooting under an executive order Cuomo signed two years ago giving Schneiderman the authority to intervene in cases in which unarmed citizens are killed during police encounters. Schneiderman's office said Abelove did not notify them that he was putting the case before a grand jury.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/allwcm/article/Cuomo-gives-AG-authority-to-probe-Rensselaer-10901120.php
Blast felt in downtown Albany
ALBANY - An explosion rocked a portion of downtown Wednesday afternoon, though it does not appear that anyone was injured.
The incident happened at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of State Street and Broadway, a part of the neighborhood that includes SUNY headquarters and the U.S. District Court House.
National Grid crews were called to the scene and it appears an underground cable may have burned, utility spokesman Patrick Stella said. The cable is part of an extensive system of underground cables. Stella said no one lost utility service.
Witnesses said the blast could be felt in surrounding businesses.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Blast-felt-in-downtown-Albany-10901144.php
Young Democrats hold panel discussion on future of labor under Trump
President Stacey Eliuk of the Queens County Young Democrats held a panel discussion Jan. 12 with labor leaders on the Trump administration’s position on labor at the new Latin American Intercultural Alliance center in Jamaica.
They spoke about the importance of being educated about the issues surrounding labor, how labor unions are the first line of defense for many communities and what union members, representatives and supporters of labor unions can do to fight for workers rights in a Trump presidency.
“The future that we dream of is tenuous at best,” said Eliuk. “The person that Donald Trump wants to appoint as the secretary of labor (Andy Puzner, owner of fast food chain Carl’s Jr.) literally does not believe in the minimum wage. One of the people that works for him is a 47-year-old mother of two who for eight years still is making $8.75 an hour working the graveyard shift at one of his restaurants. We need to learn about the issues to protect workers.”
First on the panel to speak was the business agent for Steamfitters 638 union, Brian Wangerman.
Read more: http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2017/4/labor_2017_01_27_q.html
Yonkers Banker Gets Prison Time For Stealing $122,000 From Elderly Client
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. - A personal banker from Westchester County is heading to prison after he was found guilty of stealing more than $100,000 from an elderly client.
Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino announced that New Rochelle resident Matthew Gunther, 34, has been sentenced to between one and a half and four and a half years in state prison after being found guilty by a jury of multiple felony charges on Wednesday.
According to Scarpino, between December 2012 and July 2013, Gunther, who worked as a personal banker at Chase Bank in Yonkers, stole $122,100 from a customer’s account after he deposited money from a Certificate of Deposit that had recently matured.
The victim came to Gunther’s branch with the intention of placing the funds in a savings account. Gunther was the banker to set up the new account and knew that the victim wasn’t expecting to use it on a daily basis, Scarpino said.
Read more: http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/yonkers-banker-gets-prison-time-for-stealing-122000-from-elderly-client/698383/
To Save Lives and Billions of Dollars, New York State Must Pass Universal Health Care
As President Trump and the Republican Congress threaten the health care coverage of millions of Americans, New York State could create a universal health care system that would save residents tens of billions of dollars — if the Legislature passes it.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office estimated earlier this month that if the Affordable Care Act were repealed, 2.7 million people in New York State would lose their health insurance coverage, most in New York City. That figure, the state Health Department says, includes 1.9 million people who would lose the Medicaid coverage extended above the poverty level by Obamacare; 586,000 enrolled in the state Essential Plan, which covers people making somewhat more than the maximum for Medicaid; and 220,000 who bought private insurance through the state’s Obamacare exchange.
Congressional Republicans’ proposals to privatize Medicare and convert Medicaid to finite block grants to states could cut off even more people. More than 3.4 million New Yorkers were on Medicare as of October 2016, according to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, while more than 6.4 million were receiving Medicaid or federally funded Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits.
“As bad as so many things were in our health care system, it is all about to get a lot worse,” Assembly Health Committee chair Richard Gottfried says. As bad as the repeal of Obamacare would be, he adds, “I think what they’re going to do to Medicaid and Medicare is probably going to do more damage.”
Read more: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/to-save-lives-and-billions-of-dollars-new-york-state-must-pass-universal-health-care-9626315
NYC 'Wasted' $2.5 Billion on Tax Breaks For Developers
The city’s venerable 421-a tax break for housing development, which expired last January and which Governor Cuomo now wants to renew and expand, has long come under fire from housing advocates as an insanely inefficient way to spur new residential construction. Now, thanks to a new report from the city’s Independent Budget Office, we can put a number on exactly how much tax money the city has been throwing down a hole: at least $250 million a year, and possibly much more.
The study’s methodology gets a bit hairy — IBO researchers looked at how much of a premium condo buyers in buildings getting 421-a breaks were willing to pay compared to non-421-a buildings. Their findings: “Owners in Manhattan spend on average 53 cents to 61 cents for each $1 of tax savings. Condo owners in the rest of the city spend on average 42 cents to 50 cents for each $1 of tax savings.”
Since the point of throwing tax breaks at developers is to earn them higher sale prices, providing a financial incentive to erect buildings they otherwise wouldn’t — thus boosting the housing supply and, in theory, lowering housing costs for all New Yorkers — that means that the other 39 to 58 percent of the tax breaks are “wasted,” in the IBO’s words. The total cost: between $2.5 billion and $2.8 billion in city money between 2005 and 2015.
And that could well be the tip of the iceberg. Other 421-a costs that aren’t evaluated by the IBO study include:
Read more: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/report-nyc-wasted-25-billion-on-tax-breaks-for-developers-9623202
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