Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany with no public events or interviews yet announced.
The state Legislature isn’t yet in session, (that occurs tomorrow), but when lawmakers return tomorrow after the Memorial Day break, they will have just 13 session days before the 2019 legislative session is scheduled to end June 19.
Issues yet unresolved include: Rent regulations, marijuana legalization for recreational use, medically assisted suicide, cracking down on sexual harassment, prevailing wage requirement for all publicly-funded projects, capital spending (left out of the budget deal), sports betting (online gaming), letting undocumented immigrants get drier’s licenses, a farmer workers’ bill of rights…and much more.
At 9 a.m., NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and a coalition of advocates will hold a rally in support of legislation from the public advocate mandating paid personal time for employees, ahead of a hearing on the bill, City Hall steps, Manhattan.
At 10 a.m., the state Senate and Assembly to hold the first-ever joint public hearing on the New York Health Act (single payer health care), Legislative Office Building, Hearing Room A, 2nd Fl., 198 State St., Albany.
Also at 10 a.m., the NYC Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor will hold a hearing on Williams’ bill, Intro 800-A, which would mandate that employers provide paid personal time for employees, Council chambers, City Hall, Manhattan.
Also at 10 a.m., the state Senate Committee on Housing, Construction, and Community Development holds a public hearing, Town Hall, 177 Hillside Ave., Greenburgh.
At 10:30 a.m., LG Kathy Hochul announces funding for Restore the Gorge and launches the Discover Niagara shuttle season, Whirlpool State Park, Niagara Scenic Parkway, Niagara Falls.
At 11 a.m., Howie Hawkins will formally announce his bid for the Green Party nod for president in 2020, Brooklyn Commons, 388 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn.
At noon, NYPIRG releases a report analyzing federal drinking water data regarding emerging contaminants detected in water systems in New York, 3rd Fl., state Capitol, between the Senate and Assembly chambers, Albany.
Also at noon, state Sen. Brad Hoylman, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, parents,and their immunocompromised school aged children who are threatened by the ongoing measles epidemic urge the Legislature to end the non-medical exemption for vaccinations in New York, 250 Broadway, 20th Fl., Albany.
Also at noon, Hochul delivers remarks at a Pride Week flag raising ceremony, Buffalo City Hall, 65 Niagara Sq., Buffalo.
At 1 p.m., NYC Councilmen Chaim Deutsch and Rafael Espinal host a rally to call for Mayor Bill de Blasio to fund kosher and halal school lunches for students in the city, City Hall steps, Manhattan.
At 2 p.m., Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, holds a field hearing on the census, The Little Theater, LaGuardia Community College, 31-10 Thomson Ave., Queens.
At 4 p.m., state Assemblyman David Weprin sponsors a measles immunization testing event, Young Israel of Jamaica Estates, 83-10 188th St., Queens.
Also at 4 p.m., Hochul announces the launch of the University at Buffalo Innovation Hub, NYS Center of Excellence, 2nd Fl., Bioinformatics and Life Sciences Center, 701 Ellicott St., Buffalo.
At 6 p.m., Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer co-sponsors a Pier 40 legislative forum, 75 Morton St., cafeteria, Manhattan.
Also at 6 p.m., Williams and state Sen. Jessica Ramos will hold a discussion on tenants’ rights, with a focus on MCIs (Major Capital Improvements) and the rent regulation legislation currently before Albany lawmakers, 55-01 94th St., Elmhurst, Queens.
At 6:30 p.m., Brewer hosts an Iftar dinner, Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, 102 W. 116th St., Manhattan.
Also at 6:30 p.m., Rep. Nydia Velázquez attends CODA Annual Spring Fundraiser event honoring community members and organizations, Loverboy, 127 Avenue C, Manhattan.
Also at 6:30 p.m., Weprin attends NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Jewish Heritage Month celebration, Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, Manhattan.
At 7:30 p.m., following a screening of “The Grass is Greener,” Williams, state Sen. Leroy Comrie, Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman, and the Drug Policy Alliance will discuss the ongoing marijuana legalization efforts, 153-10 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, Queens.
Headlines…
In what might be seen as a Memorial Day gift to President Trump, residents of a mountain range outside of El Paso woke up yesterday to a new vista—a mile-long wall of metal slats constructed along the border with Mexico that just shot up over the weekend.
GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.
A China-US trade deal will happen – but not just yet, Trump said while in Japan.
After two years spent unraveling the environmental policies of his predecessors, Trump and his political appointees are launching a new assault, seeking to undermine the very science on which climate change policy rests.
Lawmakers in gun-loving Texas have quietly gone around the National Rifle Association by slipping language into a massive spending bill that would fund a $1 million public safety campaign on gun storage.
Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who now represents dairy farmers, is pushing Congress to provide financial incentives for farmers to move toward zero-emission agricultural operations because of the high cost.
Beneath the surface of a seemingly placid race for the 2020 Democratic nod, with former VP Joe Biden enjoying an early lead, is a much more volatile contest, as a series of primaries-within-the-primary unfold along lines that reflect some of the most animating forces in the Trump era: race, gender, age and ideology.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand brought her 2020 presidential bid back to Iowa, and sang a Lizzo song on the hustings.
From the back of the pack, Gillibrand is building her campaign on ideas as well as imagery. She has a number of policy proposals, though that hasn’t translated into much media coverage or support from voters in the polls.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani blamed Democrats, financier and philanthropist George Soros, and the former U.S. ambassador in Kyiv for undermining his Ukraine trip.
Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks mocked Trump as “the real low IQ person” after the president endorsed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un saying Biden has low IQ.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo marched in the New Castle Memorial Day parade alongside former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton had some pointed words for Scrabble game makers, Hasbro, while tweeting out a complaint that took a swipe at Trump and his lawyer, Giuliani.
After walking away from a deal to build a headquarters on the Queens waterfront in Long Island City, Amazon is back to shopping for office space on Manhattan’s West Side.
It’s going to be a tough day today for disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, who faces two nearly back-to-back arraignments in Manhattan federal court.
Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is among the House Democrats helping Speaker Nancy Pelosi hold the line on impeachment for now.
Bronx/Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the New York Times, describing the newspaper’s treatment of whether former Trump administration staffer Hope Hicks would comply with a subpoena as “Hope’s Choice.”
An animal rights group has accused Facebook of lending its global platform to unethical puppy trading and illegal dogfighting.
New York City politicians and community leaders are pushing Mayor Bill de Blasio for more funding to fight hate crimes, as police record a dramatic rise – 83 percent – in anti-Semitism and other complaints.
De Blasio’s run for president is turning out to be a huge hit — with Republicans. He ranks among the top most-talked-about Democratic 2020 primary candidates online, but the majority of the Web chatter is coming from conservatives mocking his quixotic run.
As de Blasio enters the 2020 race, an exclusive group of people would seem to be natural allies: the 115 people who contributed $458,000 to his federal political action committee. Yet even among those who gave the maximum $5,000, few said they were willing to put their votes where their money went.
Thousands of veterans, their families and survivors — along with hundreds of active duty members in town for Fleet Week — commemorated Memorial Day at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
De Blasio hopes to “more than triple” the number of teens who are released from city jails with no bail on charges as serious as armed robbery, assault and burglary.
Michigan State University is set to name Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley Jr. as its new president following nearly three years of upheaval from the Larry Nassar scandal, according to a source informed of the decision.
State lawmakers championing the legalization of recreational marijuana have taken steps to reach common ground with Cuomo, in the hopes of seeing a legalization bill become law sometime in the next few weeks.
As recreational marijuana shapes up to be a tough sell for New York lawmakers this session, there is one medical marijuana deal on the table that appears poised to move with little fanfare.
Major cities across the US are facing increasingly clogged roads and have had frustratingly little success in dealing with them. But now that New York has adopted congestion pricing in Manhattan, the rest of the country is far more likely to seriously consider embracing such a policy.
Fallout from Brexit has helped New York overtake London to become the world’s pre-eminent financial centre, a survey of financial executives by Duff & Phelps showed.
New York City’s ferry system was hit with crowds of passengers over the Memorial Day weekend, leading to hourlong waits to board vessels and spurring complaints that the fleet of boats can’t handle the demand.
NYC Ferry service went off without a hitch on Memorial Day — because service had been so abysmal the day before that many would-be passengers gave it a wide berth.
New York AG Letitia James has joined 50 of her counterparts from other states and territories in urging federal Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to forgive the college loans of veterans whose service-related injuries have rendered them disabled.
New York lawmakers are considering a stricter standard for workplace-harassment claims that they say would better protect employees from inappropriate behavior.
A NYC Department of Education sponsored panel designed to combat racism told parents that Asian American students “benefit from white supremacy” and “proximity to white privilege,” an outraged mom told The NY Post.
Long before former Rep. Anthony Weiner earned himself a rap sheet for trading X-rated messages with a 15-year-old girl, he complained about sex offenders living in the Queens congressional district he represented.
Orchard Park Town Board members paid former Police Chief Mark F. Pacholec an additional $100,000 to retire under an agreement that was not disclosed to the public.
The history of the Erie Canal may get a new chapter with the announcement of a new state initiative by Cuomo.
Antoine Meyer and partner Guillaume Alotto, both natives of France, are working on a cocktail bar full of Skaneateles-area references in Strasbourg, a large French city near the border with Germany.
Those headed to the Hamptons for the long holiday weekend were greeted by jarring new sight along an otherwise piney, bucolic stretch of Sunrise Highway: two six-story illuminated billboards being hastily constructed by a local Native American tribe just in time for the high season.
RIP John F.X. Mannion, an insurance executive who dived headlong into Central New York politics and philanthropy, later becoming known as former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner’s husband, who died unexpectedly at the age of 86.
RIP Bill Buckner, a star hitter who became known for making one of the most infamous plays in major league history, who died yesterday at the age of 69.
Congratulations to Sen. Andrew Gounardes on his engagement.
Over the past three decades, federal and local governments have poured more than $5 billion into buying tens of thousands of vulnerable properties across the country, with many of the costliest purchases coming in the last decade after strong storms pounded Texas, New York and New Jersey.
The body pulled from the East River over a week ago has been identified as a 21-year-old University of Albany student who disappeared earlier this month, police said.
A baking flour made at the ADM Milling production facility in Buffalo is being recalled by ALDI over concerns of possible E.coli contamination.
Three people killed in Sunday’s crash in Genesee County were packed into a seven-passenger minivan with six other family members in which not all occupants were wearing restraints, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office reported. Those killed were members of a family from near Perth Amboy, N.J., and included a 4-year-old.
Luna the springer spaniel is learning to sniff out a troublesome golf course fungus in return for a tennis ball while helping her handler fetch a new breed of bachelor’s degree at SUNY Cobleskill.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley attributed his ouster at “CBS Evening News” to his series of complaints about a “hostile” work environment at CBS.
Professional burnout is being recognized as a medical condition for the first time by the World Health Organization.
Internet influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli reportedly was clued into her parents’ scheme to bribe her way into the University of Southern California.
College admissions guru William “Rick” Singer was a con man so brazen that he lied under oath about serving on admissions committees at a handful of schools.
Celebrity Hamptons developer Joe Farrell hosted a 75th birthday bash for Giuliani over the Memorial Day weekend at his $50 million home, Sandcastle.
Last night, while the rest of America reeled from Memorial Day celebrations, James Holzhauer, 34, obliterated his rivals on the way to his 28th straight “Jeopardy!” win.