FC Buffalo couldn’t find a way home in its home opener on Saturday, falling 4-0 to Valley Division powers Fort Wayne FC at Williamsville South Athletic Field. Trailing 2-0 at the break, the Wolves couldn’t rally like they did in Cleveland last week in a 3-3 away draw to open life in USL League Two. […]
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With help from Shawn Ness
Happening now:
DA DILEMMA: Monroe County’s district attorney wants you to know she’s “been humbled by my own stupidity.”
Sandra Doorley, the top prosecutor in Rochester and its suburbs, released an apology video this morning after she was caught on police body camera footage evading a traffic stop.
Now it will fall to Albany to decide what happens next, in part through the newly founded and longtime struggling Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct to decide the Republican’s fate.
Elected officials — Assembly members, a state senator and Rochester City Council members — are calling for a host of investigations into her conduct, stopping just short of calling on Doorley to step down.
She hasn’t budged, and local GOP officials have stood by her.
So there’s really only one person in the state who can force her out of office — Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul, a Democrat, on Sunday called on the commission to investigate last week’s incident.
In a statement, Hochul said Doorley “was acting in contravention of her responsibility as a district attorney and undermined her ability to hold others accountable for violating the law.”
The commission’s proposed rules show that any review conducted by the committee would be handed back to the governor. The commission itself has dealt with legal fights from district attorneys who felt it was an overreach since it was established in 2021, and it only recently got up and running.
The state’s constitution also grants the governor the authority to remove local officials from office — including sheriffs, clerks, mayors and district attorneys. But governors haven’t fully exercised that power for about 100 years, according to Albany Law School professor Bennett Liebman, who has researched the issue.
“While removal was once a regular power of governors and employed fairly frequently, in the last 100 years it has simply gone out of fashion,” Liebman said.
The last time a governor held a proceeding to remove an official was Gov. Herbert Lehman in 1936, and the last time a district attorney was removed in the state was 1900 by Gov. Teddy Roosevelt, Liebman said.
Rochester Assemblymembers Harry Bronson and Demond Meeks both want to see investigations play out before Doorley is called on to resign.
The two told Playbook in interviews that they are particularly focused on finding out what Doorley was doing when she entered her home after pulling into her garage: “What was she covering up?” Meeks said.
In the police video, Doorley refuses to pull over after going 55 mph on a 35 mph road near her Webster home.
Instead, she drove half a mile to her home, pulled into her garage and, at one point, left the officer in the garage and entered her house. Doorley also phoned the local chief of police and invoked her title as the county’s district attorney to the officer as she attempted to get out of the ticket.
Ultimately, she tells the officer to “just write me the fucking ticket.”
Doorley has said that she also wants to see investigations into her own conduct and will appoint a district attorney from another county to investigate her, but Bronson told Playbook she shouldn’t be able to choose her own investigator.
“Her sense of privilege and entitlement all are alarming, and she should be held accountable,” Bronson said. “I don't think she should get to select who investigates her.”
The incident is also renewing scrutiny on the ways police officers may treat people of color differently than those who are white, like Doorley, Meeks said.
“I have a hard time believing that a person of color would have been able to talk about that situation the next day, even potentially not surviving that matter,” Meeks said. — Jason Beeferman
BIRTHING CENTER STAYS OPEN: The Burdett Birth Center in Troy will stay open after an arduous fight that ensnared state and local officials.
It received $5 million in the state budget to stay open for at least another five years, the sides announced today.
The center was initially slated to be closed down by St. Peter’s Health Partners, Burdett’s parent company, but it became the first facility in the state to be forced to complete a Health Equity Impact Assessment under a new state law that requires the review before a hospital can reduce to eliminate a service, the Times Union reported.
In the meantime, Attorney General Letitia James' office was investigating the hospital’s decision, which led St. Peters to sue and then was followed with the state Health Department order in December that the place couldn’t close without state approval.
“We rejoice that the community’s concerns and outrage about closing Burdett have been heard, and funding has been secured to keep Burdett open for another five years,” Ashley Saupp, an organizer with Save Burdett Birth Center Coalition, said in a statement.
The coalition gave much of the credit to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Assemblymember John McDonald and Assembly Health Chair Amy Paulin for securing $5 million to keep the center open. — Shawn Ness
ERIE CANAL BICENTENNIAL: A new attraction at the Erie Canal will be done just in time to celebrate its bicentennial next year.
“Waterway of Change: A Complex Legacy of the Erie Canal” was announced earlier today by Hochul.
“Waterway of Change will share the remarkable story of the Erie Canal and the area now known as Canalside with visitors,” Hochul said in a statement. “As the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal approaches in 2025, this visitors’ experience will draw more people to Buffalo’s waterfront and help them connect to its history in a new and participative way.”
Local Projects, a New York City design firm, has been working with the canal’s development corporation to create the exhibit. Other exhibits will also be created in collaboration with local groups.
An accompanying project of a 2,900 square-foot Longshed was also just completed after four years, right outside of where the new exhibit will be built. It will function as a gathering space for visitors embarking on the canal’s bicentennial experience. — Shawn Ness
LOWEST BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT: Mayor Eric Adams today celebrated a new report that found that the Black unemployment rate has hit a five-year low.
The unemployment rate decreased from 10.7 percent to less than 8 percent between January 2022 and April 2024.
It is the first time it has been that low since 2019 — which was before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.
“As recently as last January, Black New Yorkers were four times more likely to be unemployed than white New Yorkers, but we have been able to narrow this gap,” Adams said in a statement. “We have more to do, and that’s why we’re going to bring new opportunities to working people across the five boroughs that have been overlooked for far too long.”
To celebrate the milestone, Adams announced the launch of the “Run This Town” campaign, a $1 million multi-media ad campaign to encourage New Yorkers from diverse backgrounds to apply for government jobs.
The campaign will include ads on TV, radio, as well as posters on the walls of the subway system, bus stops and other locations.
The announcement comes on the heels of another city initiative, “Jobs NYC,” designed to reduce barriers for economic opportunities for areas experiencing high unemployment.
“When we couple this advertising campaign with our Jobs NYC initiative, we’ll be able to more easily bring the public and private sectors together with talented New Yorkers who are ready to put their skills to work,” Adams added. — Shawn Ness
COLUMBIA THREATENS STUDENT PROTESTERS: Students in an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University were picketing this afternoon to prevent officials from entering and delivering suspension slips.
A sea of students — many sporting keffiyehs, a traditional scarf that symbolizes the Palestinian cause — marched outside the encampment and around campus shouting slogans like “Free Palestine!” and “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!”
Dozens of faculty in high visibility vests were also standing at the entrance of the encampment.
At least 1,000 students — both in and outside of encampment — could be seen on campus as the encampment is in its 12th day.
In a notice distributed to students this morning, officials said they won’t face suspension and will complete the semester in good academic standing if they leave the encampment by 2 p.m.
“We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik wrote Monday in a university-wide email. “We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible.”
In a statement, Columbia University Apartheid Divest — the group behind the protest — accused the university of unlawfully fabricating a state of emergency to suspect, expel and evict hundreds of protesters en masse. (The university denied that claim).
Student representatives for the encampment were planning to address reporters this afternoon. — Madina Touré and Irie Sentner
ZELDIN’S ANTI-ERA: Count former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin among those opposed to the proposed amendment meant to enshrine a broad set of rights in the state constitution.
The proposed Equal Rights Amendment includes state-level constitutional protections for abortion in New York, and Democrats want the ballot question put before voters to help boost down-ballot turnout this fall.
A half-dozen swing House districts in New York could determine control of the chamber in January.
Zedlin, the party’s 2022 nominee for governor, echoed many of put forth by Republican opposition to the proposed amendment. An anti-ERA campaign has raised the specter of teens buying alcohol and minors receiving gender-affirming care without parental consent.
“There are wide ranging negative consequences if this amendment passes, harming parental rights, destroying the integrity of girls’ sports, extending constitutional rights to illegal aliens, and more,” Zeldin said in a statement.
Democratic supporters of the amendment have dismissed the claims as fear-mongering tactics — suggesting it’s a sign GOP officials are concerned with the potential electoral impact of the vote. — Nick Reisman
RENEWABLE AWARDS: NYSERDA has made tentative awards for large-scale land-based solar and wind projects from last year’s accelerated solicitation.
The authority announced provisional agreements with 24 projects totaling 2.4 gigawatts, some of which may be completed as early as 2025.
While NYSERDA has previously released project details and estimated cost impacts at this stage, the authority declined to release that information today. Project details and costs will be released after final awards are negotiated, according to the announcement, which is expected this fall.
That means New York residents won’t know the potential future bill impacts of the projects for months. The projects are largely ones that had previous agreements with NYSERDA, sought higher prices from the Public Service Commission and were rejected.
The 2.4 GW figure is a little more than half of the 5 gigawatts that were bid from 57 projects. The projects will provide about 3 percent of New York’s forecast 2030 electricity demand, meaning the state is now at about 60 percent. The 2030 target under the climate law is for 70 percent renewable electricity.
The authority is seeking developers and public input on another land-based renewable solicitation planned to begin in June. Comments on the request for information are due May 13. NYSERDA is also trying to backfill its offshore wind portfolio with another bidding process starting in June. — Marie J. French
CYBERATTACK CONCERNS: UnitedHealth, the parent company of Change Healthcare, is receiving pressure from a coalition of 22 state attorneys general, including New York’s Tish James, to better protect its patients.
The company was hit with a cyberattack in February that disrupted company networks and resulted in delayed access to patient care.
“Patients and health care providers nationwide should not have to suffer because of UnitedHealth’s failures,” James said in a statement. “UnitedHealth has an obligation to protect its patients and must do more to minimize the harm of the cyberattack on its systems.”
The coalition is calling on UnitedHealth to expand financial assistance to everyone affected, suspend requirements for prior authorization, among other provisions.
“Since day one, we have prioritized patient access to care and providing resources and support to concerned individuals, providers, and customers. We continue to offer financial assistance to those providers who need it and encourage them to contact us,” the company responded in a statement. — Shawn Ness
— Billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is beginning a multimillion-dollar offensive as a key lawmaker cools to his Citi Field gaming proposal. (POLITICO)
— A local weed dispensary owner charged with vehicular assault and for driving drunk and high when he drove his Tesla off an overpass in Albany. (Times Union)
— 2024 could be the deadliest year since 2014 for pedestrians and motorists if deaths keep the current pace. (Daily News)
With help from Shawn Ness
Happening now:
BATTLE ON CAMPUS: Tensions continue to boil at Columbia University as student protests rage in support of Palestinians in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Columbia University has threatened to expel pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied a campus building early Tuesday morning — and remain in the building as of this afternoon.
“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances — and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” Ben Chang, Columbia’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “Students occupying the building face expulsion.”
Columbia officials — who moved to limit access to university grounds to students living in residential buildings on campus and essential staffers — closed all libraries just as final exams are set to begin. Student protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, the same campus building that students pushing for racial justice took over in the 1960s.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the line “has been crossed” when actions cross over into harassment and destruction of property. She called for accountability, either through disciplinary action or through law enforcement.
“What we need to do is deescalate the situation, restore a sense of normalcy on campus and make sure that every student is safe and unharmed,” Hochul told reporters at an unrelated event. “The state of New York has offered our universities any assistance should they need them.”
Mayor Eric Adams, for his part, said the city is in contact with Columbia daily and will continue to monitor the situation. The university, he said, asked the NYPD to come to all entry points to monitor who is supposed to be going in and out of campus, as well as checking IDs.
“You have to be very careful because it can continue to elevate, and we cannot allow the elevation of actions like that,” he said, speaking on the ongoing occupation of Hamilton Hall. “The police department is going to greet me later. We're going to communicate with Columbia and make the determination on what the next steps are.”
Separately, Adams announced a new curriculum on hate crimes — a series of lessons aimed at teaching students in sixth through 12th grades about hate crimes and bias incidents.
It comes as schools Chancellor David Banks is set to testify at a congressional hearing on antisemitism — and the mayor’s recent firing of the head of the hate crimes prevention unit.
Meanwhile, demonstrators at Hamilton — which houses three undergraduate dormitories — shouted until at least 4 a.m. despite 24/7 quiet hours going into effect last night at 10 p.m. A demonstrator was also seen walking on the roof of Hamilton surveying campus.
Despite the lockdown, a group of demonstrators chanted outside Columbia’s gates this afternoon on 116th St. and Broadway. Reporters were camped across the street from the gates on 116th St. and Amsterdam Ave. as students and others lined up to have their IDs and bags checked by security.
A student representative for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest — the group behind the ongoing encampment — said their protest is peaceful and has nothing to do with the occupation of the campus building.
The university has begun issuing interim suspensions, the representative said, adding they have been determined arbitrarily and targeted at least three Palestinian students regardless of their presence at the encampment. One of the students who received an interim suspension is on the negotiating team.
The student said she didn’t have details on the occupation of the building but said those protesters want the university to commit to not sending in the NYPD or public safety and to commit to bringing food and water. — Madina Touré
FOIL FALLOUT: State Sen. James Tedisco knocked Hochul for not releasing contracts related to Covid-19 pandemic policy reviews that resulted in 15,000 deaths in state-operated nursing homes.
The Schenectady Republican filed a Freedom of Information Law request on March 19 to obtain a copy of the contract between Hochul’s administration and Olson Group, LTD, which received the contract in 2022. Hochul’s office said that they needed until May 14 to grant the request.
“The public has a right to know what their government is doing in their stead … Why should it take months for the governor’s office to send me a copy of a simple contract for this report that should be publicly accessible for all to read? ” Tedisco said in a statement.
He added “Gimme a break! This is verging on obstruction!”
The company was contracted to conduct a year-long review of the decisions that resulted in elderly patients being moved into nursing homes.
Tedisco is sponsoring a bill that would get an investigation with subpoena power into the deaths.
“Our administration has taken significant steps to improve the FOIL process, and we follow the law in all cases,” Avi Small, a Hochul spokesperson, responded in a statement. — Shawn Ness
WEED STORE BUSTS COMING: The mayor said today the city is preparing to descend on unlicensed cannabis shops around the city, though the forthcoming blitz is unlikely to live up to his initial pledge of shuttering every shop within 30 days of legislation passing in Albany.
“We’re going to make a substantial dent in 30 days,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference, later warning that no one should be “standing in front of City Hall on the 31st day saying, ‘Hey, I saw a weed shop,’ because they are going to continue to open.”
One reason for the lag: Despite Albany including beefed up cannabis regulation in the state budget, the city still needs to hash out how enforcement will work in practice, according to First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.
“The law was passed, but then rules have to be enacted before we can do anything,” she said. “So that's still in process. It doesn't happen overnight, but we're ready to go.” — Joe Anuta
LATIMER’S DONORS: Thirty of Democratic congressional candidate George Latimer’s largest donors have something in common — they’re also sizable donors to Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in a neighboring district. That’s according to an analysis by the Working Families Party, which is backing Rep. Jamaal Bowman in his primary battle with Latimer.
The WFP found that $85,000 raised by Latimer has come from Lawler donors. Bowman supporters have spent months hammering on the idea that Latimer’s campaign is close to the right.
“George Latimer could have chosen to use his time and energy to help Democrats defeat Mike Lawler,” state party co-director Jasmine Gripper said. “Instead, he’s taking money from the same donors who bankrolled Lawler’s rise to power.”
Several of the donors on the list are active funders of pro-Israeli causes, Latimer’s campaign noted.
“Jamaal Bowman's endless scandals, his divisiveness, and his votes with MAGA Republicans against President Biden have certainly helped build a broad base of support for Democrat George Latimer,” Latimer’s campaign said in a statement. “If the WFP truly wants to help elect Democrats, they should stop working to undermine President Biden and start focusing on defeating Republicans for a change.” — Bill Mahoney
MTA DISCOUNTS: Two House members in the Hudson Valley, one Democrat and one Republican, agree on one thing: Lower suburban costs to ride the MTA’s commuter trains.
Hudson Valley Reps. Pat Ryan, a Democrat, and Mike Lawler, a Republican, penned a letter to the MTA urging that Metro-North and Long Island Railroad discounts be extended to all riders, not just those living in the five boroughs.
They wrote the letter after the MTA approved congestion pricing last week to charge a $15 toll starting in June for drivers into parts of Manhattan, but also included a 10 percent discount on monthly tickets for riders within the city who ride those two systems.
“This is yet another example of Hudson Valley residents paying their hard-earned tax dollars to the MTA, only to watch all the benefits go to New York City,” Ryan said in a statement.
The letter states that the duo was both “disgusted” and in “disbelief” over the prospect of today’s vote which would enshrine the discounts only for those living in the five boroughs.
“Hudson Valley families are struggling under the weight of a crushing affordability crisis and cannot afford the thousands in new tolls a year that it would cost the average Rockland County resident just to commute to New York City for work,” Lawler said in a statement.
Long Island Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican, and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat, joined in on the calls aimed at MTA CEO Janno Leiber to extend the discounts. — Shawn Ness
ERA ENDS FOR LCA: Longtime radio journalist Karen DeWitt is ending her decades-long run covering the state Capitol.
DeWitt announced today on X she would leave the beat effective June 21, concluding a career as one of the go-to reporters at New York Public Radio.
“It’s been a fabulous ride, but it’s time to go,” she wrote.
DeWitt’s reach as a reporter for public radio stations is unmatched: Her audience can hear her on stations statewide, making her reports an entry point for New Yorkers on what’s happening in the statehouse.
Her institutional knowledge stretches back to 1990, making her the last Capitol reporter who covered Mario Cuomo. — Nick Reisman
GRISANTI CENSURED: A judicial oversight panel censured Judge Mark Grisanti four years after the former state senator engaged in a profanity-laced and bare-chested battle with his Buffalo neighbors.
The June 2020 incident ended with Grisanti in handcuffs and in the back of a police car where he name-dropped prominent officials including the Buffalo mayor.
At the same time, the watchdog panel criticized the Court of Claims judge for taking action in eight cases that involved a lawyer who had paid Grisanti thousands of dollars for his law firm and had been making monthly payments.
Grisanti, however, avoided the harshest outcome of being removed from the bench by the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“Public confidence in the judiciary is seriously damaged when, among other things, a judge engages in a street brawl, shoves an officer and is handcuffed, and makes remunerative appointments and otherwise handles cases involving a lawyer who owes him money,” Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said in a statement.
“While a bare majority of Commission members disagreed with my recommendation that Judge Grisanti should be removed from office, they made clear that egregious wrongdoing such as his will result in stern public discipline.”
Grisanti, a Buffalo Republican, cast one of the deciding votes in 2011 same-sex marriage vote in the state Senate and ensured the landmark measure’s passage.
He was appointed to the Court of Claims in 2015 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Grisanti’s attorneys in a legal brief made public by the commission wrote the judge realized his behavior in the June 2020 altercation was “inappropriate.”
“He expressed sincere remorse, and sought counseling and treatment to understand his actions, and ensure they would not recur,” Grisanti’s attorneys wrote. “Judge Grisanti’s record, before and after the events in question, is otherwise unblemished. He has a well-deserved reputation as an excellent judge with exceptional judicial temperament.” — Nick Reisman
— Seven different newspapers — including the Daily News — are suing Microsoft claiming that its artificial intelligence software stole millions of copyrighted articles. (Daily News)
— New York City officials will decide the future on how much rent can increase in the nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments across the city. (The New York Times)
— A new provision, which largely went under the radar in the state budget, will clarify language of the law that prevents drivers from passing stopped school buses. (Newsday)
The appeals court has denied Donald Trump's request to have Justice Juan Merchan recused from the Manhattan hush money trial, Law360's Stewart Bishop reported Tuesday morning.
Trump has also demanded that the trial be paused because he is awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on his "presidential immunity" claims. That too was denied.
Trump faces 34 felony counts in Manhattan surrounding a so-called hush money agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say he paid her to keep quiet about a sexual relationship they had before the 2016 election.
ALSO READ: Mike Pence: latest presidential campaign deadbeat?
Trump claimed Merchan was biased against him because the judge's daughter works for Democratic campaigns.
Merchan asked a judicial ethics board to examine the issue last year, and it was ruled that everything was above board. Still, Trump appealed his refusal of recuse.
