Golden talks congestion pricing, speed cameras

As state budget negotiations intensified in Albany ahead of an April 1 deadline, an influential Brooklyn state senator said he is in favor, at least in principle, of a proposal to institute a congestion pricing plan to get vehicles off clogged Midtown Manhattan streets and another idea that would double the number of speed cameras outside of New York City schools. But state Sen. Marty Golden , the only Republican state senator representing a Brooklyn district, said his support is contingent on getting certain provisions into both bills.

LOVETT: GOP boss seeks probe into Cuomo over ‘abetting’ Percoco

State GOP Chairman Ed Cox is calling on Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to investigate Gov. Cuomo and his office. Cox, in a letter to be delivered Monday to Vance's office, says testimony coming out of the trial of former Cuomo aide and confidante Joseph Percoco raises questions about "what role other executive chamber employees, including the governor, played in Mr. Percoco's unlawful acts and whether they knowingly aided and abetted or acquiesced to such unlawful acts."

Howe’s folly a new black eye for Bharara, legal experts say

The following is an expanded version of the third item from my "Albany Insider" column that was cut for space from Monday's print editions: The embarrassment of seeing their star witness in the trial against former long-time Gov. Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco put behind bars for violating his cooperation deal with prosecutors could be another black eye for former crusading Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's legacy, legal and political sources say. Prosecutors had made it clear Howe's background was one of frequent lies and crimes.

In New York, Trump infrastructure plan prompts questions

If President Donald Trump needs help in picking projects for his $1.5 trillion infrastructure program, he needs only to look to his home state of New York, where the list of mega projects needing billions of dollars has been piling up for years. It's unclear however just how much - if any - new money New York can expect for its two most pressing transportation needs.

Businesswoman Chele Farley to challenge Gillibrand

Republican Chele Farley, who most recently served as New York City finance chair of the state party, on Thursday launched a run against U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is up for re-election to a second full term this fall. Farley, a partner at the equity firm Mistral Capital, launched her effort with a video that borrowed an argument recently deployed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo : New York State pays roughly more in federal taxes than it gets back in federal aid - money, Farley said, that could be used to rebuild state infrastructure and boost education, among other things.

Sic ‘Em On The Oil Industry – Climate Change Activist Uses Scare Tactics To Get His Way

Bill McKibben - journalist, gadfly, Bernie Sanders supporter, and briefly an inmate of Washington, D.C.'s Central Cell Block - is one of America's foremost environmental activists. As the founder of an organization known as " 350.org ," he leads a global network of climate change zealots who believe that persecuting energy companies involved in the production of fossil fuels is necessary to achieve "climate justice."

3 Northeast states to sue feds over GOP’s tax overhaul plan

New Jersey and Connecticut are joining New York in planning to sue Washington over the Republican-led federal tax overhaul, the Democratic governors of the three states announced Friday. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Dannel Malloy of Connecticut and Phil Murphy of New Jersey announced Friday that they're talking to leaders of other states that stand to be hurt by the federal tax plan that's expected to cost taxpayers in their states billions of dollars.

NY To Keep Medicaid Benefits For Young Immigrants

New York will continue to provide Medicaid benefits to people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children - no matter what officials in Washington do with the program that protected them from deportation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this week. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by former Democratic President Barack Obama protected certain immigrants who entered the country as children from deportation.

Cuomoa s a repeal and replacea tax attack is…

Gov. Andrew Cuomo previously said he wanted to launch a "repeal and replace" campaign against the just-passed federal tax overhaul which he says will harm high-tax Blue state like New York and California. Still unclear is how much they will spend and if this may be borrowed or replicated in other states, particularly battleground Purple states or even congressional districts where there could be competitive Congressional elections in November.

Cuomo: Change way NY collects taxes to counter GOP tax law

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says a major change he is proposing in the way the state collects income taxes would negate some of the harm that the GOP tax law will do to New Yorkers with more than $10,000 in state and local taxes to deduct. Cuomo proposed as part of his 2018 state budget Tuesday to essentially do away with the state income tax on the wages earned by New Yorkers and replace it with an equivalent tax on employers.

Walters: Brown sees ramifications for killing the golden geese

To intertwine cliches, Gov. Jerry Brown let the cat out of the bag last week and acknowledged that he's concerned about killing the golden geese. Those geese are the few thousand Californians with the highest incomes whose taxes allow Brown and other California politicians to spend tens of billions of dollars a year and the new federal tax overhaul encourages them to take their money elsewhere.

King children criticize Trump, decry racism on MLK holiday

Haitian and pro-Trump protesters yelled at each other from opposing corners just down the street from the president's Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago retreat. Bernice King, the daughter of the Rev.

A Top Lawmaker Seeks Investigation Into Sex Harassment Claim

Allegations that an influential New York state senator forcibly kissed a former staffer are "extremely disturbing," the fellow Democrat who leads the party's primary caucus in the chamber said Thursday. Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Yonkers, said in a statement that an "immediate independent investigation" needs to be started into the allegations against Sen. Jeff Klein, of the Bronx.

After Florida, more states press for offshore drilling exemptions

Governors and other officials from several U.S. coastal states ramped up pressure on the Trump administration on Wednesday to exempt their waters from an offshore drilling plan, hours after the Interior Department granted Florida's request to opt out. The backlash could complicate President Donald Trump's efforts to expand oil and gas production offshore.