VESTAL, NY (WSKG) -- The Steuben County judge overseeing the redrawing of New York's congressional and State Senate maps has ordered that primary elections for those races to be held in August.
The decision came two days after the state's highest court ordered the lower court to create new maps for congressional and State Senate districts, ruling that the old lines were improperly approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and drawn with partisan intent.
The court left State Assembly districts intact.
The judge didn't address in his oral ruling whether or not the $10,000-a-day fine was retroactive to the date Trump was supposed to have turned over the documents -- March 31 -- or if the clock would start running on Monday.
He was expected to issue a written ruling by Tuesday.
***
The Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers sent a letter to ABA President Reginald Turner on Monday that proposes a change to Model Rule 5.5 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which can be adopted by states as their own. Model Rule 5.5 governs unauthorized practice of law and multijurisdictional practice.
"Our proposal advocates that a lawyer admitted in any United States jurisdiction should be able to practice law and represent willing clients without regard to the geographic location of the lawyer or the client, without regard to the forum where the services are to be provided, and without regard to which jurisdiction's rules apply at a given moment in time," said the letter, written by Brian Faughnan, president of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.
A public-private partnership is throwing the book at climate change, but a treatise for reducing carbon emissions had to be written first.
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Empire State Realty Trust, the Durst Organization, Vornado Realty Trust and Hudson Square Properties produced a free online guidebook for making buildings compliant with Local Law 97, using the Empire State Building's efforts to go greener as an example.
***
Read more...get the guidebook...
ALBANY -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany's effort to keep secret the psychological treatment records of suspected pedophile priests was rejected Thursday by a state appellate court in a ruling that could affect thousands of Child Victims Act cases in New York.
The appellate panel also upheld state Supreme Court Justice L. Michael Mackey's decision ordering the diocese to turn over the personnel records of at least 48 priests whom the church determined had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse over a period stretching from 1946 to 1999.
***
Read more about this major interpretation of the NYS Child Victims Act...
POUGHKEEPSIE - Attorneys throughout the state have organized a three-day protest after Governor Hochul removed modest rate increases for attorneys that participate in the "assigned counsel" program for people who cannot afford an attorney. The attorneys will not be accepting new clients from any courts on April 18th, 19th, and 20th.
Governor Hochul removed the raises for 18-b attorneys from the state budget. The Senate and the Assembly had approved raising the rates in criminal cases from $75 an hour to $150 an hour for people charged with felonies and $120.00 an hour for misdemeanor cases. The family court rate was slated to go from $75 an hour to $150 an hour. The current rate structure has been in place for more than a decade without any increases.
***
Kathleen M. Dougherty is the executive director of the Onondaga County Bar Association Assigned Counsel Program.
Open Letter to Sens John Mannion and Rachel May; and Assembly members Will Barclay, John Lemondes, Pam Hunter, Bill Magnarelli and Al Stirpe:
It was with great disappointment that I learned that Gov. Kathy Hochul's final state budget did not include any amendments to county law article 18-b or the Family Court Act regarding compensation for assigned counsel and attorneys for the child (AFCs). Nor did the budget include any funding for an increase in the hourly rates. Almost as upsetting, there seems to be no clear reason given for the failure to include the increase, especially in light of the fact that it was in both the Senate and Assembly one-house budgets.
***
New York approved 52 licenses Thursday that will allow hemp farmers to get a head start on growing marijuana for the state's upcoming adult market.
Of them, the most -- six -- are in Dutchess County, with four each in Schoharie and Washington counties.
The state Cannabis Control Board approved the licenses under a recent law that allows hemp cultivators to grow marijuana for the legal recreational market for two years. Hemp is a type of cannabis plant with lower levels of THC, marijuana's active ingredient.
***
Read more...see list of farms by county...
(CNN)CNN has obtained text messages of separate conversations that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas after the 2020 presidential election and through early January 2021.
The 4-foot bronze Fearless Girl statue that was deposited in front of New York City's Charging Bull in 2017 will remain in its current spot opposite the New York Stock Exchange at least until early next year while city officials wrestle with a permanent disposition for the popular symbol of female empowerment, a city board decided Monday.
Members of the Public Design Commission granted an 11-month permit extension and said they would spend the next six months exploring a way for New York City to take ownership of the statue, which is currently the subject of litigation between artist Kristen Visbal and State Street Global Advisors, the Boston-based asset-management firm that commissioned it.
***
-
A.940B passed the Assembly by a 102-44 vote largely along party lines. Both Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, and Joe Giglio, R-Gowanda, voted against the legislation. Versions of the bill had been introduced in 2019 and 2020 and didn't make it out of the Assembly Governmental Operations Committee.
A companion bill (S685) has been introduced in the state Senate but has not made it out of the Senate Consumer Protection Committee.
The bill requires the state Municipal Police Training Council, which operates under the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, to develop, maintain and disseminate a minimum standards policy governing the use of automatic license plate reader systems. The minimum standards policy must include provisions on permissible uses of automated license plate reader technology, data sharing and dissemination, prohibited uses, record retention and management, and training. It also calls on the Municipal Police Training Council to recommend to the governor a series of rules and regulations to establish an ongoing training program for all current and new police officers regarding license plate readers along with recommendations for periodic retraining of police officers.
***
Radio producer David Goren has been researching, mapping and archiving audio from pirate stations for his Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map project. He said stations exist in West Indian, Latino and some Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. And despite lots of FCC enforcement in the area, "activity is stable. In Brooklyn there are 25-30 stations on every day," Goren said.
During the pandemic, underground stations moved even closer to their immigrant audiences, he noted. They spent more hours on air and targeted programming to the demographically vulnerable.
***
If you're an adult-use cannabis products distributor, you must pay an excise tax on your sales of adult-use cannabis products (AUC) to adult-use cannabis products retailers. If you're an adult-use cannabis products retailer, you must pay a retail excise tax on the AUC you sell or transfer to retail customers.
Before you begin distributing or selling AUC, you must register with the Tax Department. If you're not a licensed distributor or retailer, you must first apply for an AUC license with the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM).
***
