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☆ Inside a High-Stakes Fight to Limit Social Media’s Hold on Children
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Jay Root | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When New York’s governor and attorney general joined forces to pass a law trying to restrict social media companies’ ability to use algorithms to shape content for children, they expected Big Tech to put up a battle. That fight has certainly arrived, but with far more opponents than anticipated. A broad range of online service providers, including Google, TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has spent over $700,000 on lobbyists to press legislators and state officials, according to recent state disclosures. The spending represents aggregate amounts that includes other items on the lobbyists’ agendas, and the disclosures do not state whether the companies are for or against the legislation. But interviews and public statements show that most are opposing the bill — and a related bill connected to child data privacy — or raising concerns about the measures going too far, with some saying it could have unintended consequences on e-commerce sites or digital news publishers.

Persons: Big Organizations: New, Big Tech, Google, Meta, Facebook, Companies, eBay, New York Times

☆ How Long Does New York Take to Fix a Staircase? 10 Years and Counting.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Ten years ago, the agency overseeing the upkeep of the majestic New York State Capitol reported that the granite staircase leading to the main entrance was warped and bulging so badly that part of it might collapse at any moment. Inspectors discovered leaning balustrades, rusted steel supports, cracked and displaced granite, failed drainage systems and load-bearing brick walls so weakened by time and neglect that individual bricks could be removed by hand. A thorough repair, estimated at $17 million, was recommended. Instead, only a handful of urgent fixes were made. The entrance, known as the Eastern Approach, has been closed to this day, with access-blocking barricades now a familiar part of the downtown landscape.

Organizations: New York State Capitol

☆ National Guardsmen Accused of Abusing Migrants They Were Sent to Protect
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After two asylum seekers were arrested last summer and accused of sexual assault at Buffalo-area motels, Gov. Kathy Hochul sent in the National Guard to provide a “stabilizing presence” there and at a handful of other motels being used as shelters. But now the Guard is investigating whether some of its members engaged in sexual misconduct with migrants in western New York, amid a new lawsuit accusing Guard members and private supervisors of various abuses. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, describes a culture of coercion, fear and retribution at the Quality Inn motel near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, one of the many low-budget lodgings where recent migrants have been relocated to relieve pressure on New York City’s beleaguered shelter system. One guardsman was accused of sexual assault for coercing a Venezuelan woman to trade sexual favors in exchange for food and housing, and another of groping the woman’s 10-year-old daughter.

Persons: Kathy Hochul Organizations: National Guard, Guard, Court, Buffalo Niagara International Airport, coercing Locations: Buffalo, New York, Manhattan, Venezuelan

☆ N.Y. Reconsiders Capitol Artworks That Offend Native Americans
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Jay Root | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At an informal gathering last summer at the Executive Mansion in Albany, N.Y., Gov. Kathy Hochul shared an anecdote about making an unpleasant discovery there, not long after taking residence: a painting depicting the marriage of Pocahontas. The governor thought Pocahontas looked young and frightened, and had the painting removed. In its place went what she considered to be a more tasteful portrayal of Native people in Niagara Falls. Ms. Fine said the matter would be looked into.

Persons: Kathy Hochul, Pocahontas, Samuel Champlain, Champlain, Hochul, Liz Fine, Fine Organizations: Capitol Locations: Albany, N.Y, Niagara Falls

☆ Montauketts’ Bid for N.Y. State Recognition Is Vetoed for the 5th Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, a Native American tribe from the picturesque East End of Long Island has fought bitterly for formal state recognition, a designation that was stripped away more than a century ago by court decisions that are now widely considered racist. The New York State Legislature passed a bill four times in a decade to recognize the tribe, the Montaukett Indian Nation, but the legislation was vetoed each time — the first three occasions by Andrew M. Cuomo, and the last by Gov. The bill was written differently, and there were signs that Ms. Hochul might be receptive: She recently named an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, Elizabeth Rule, as the state’s deputy secretary for First Nations. But on Friday, the Montauketts learned that their battle must continue. Ms. Hochul vetoed the legislation, saying that she did not see sufficient evidence to overturn the century-old ruling that the tribe “no longer functioned as a governmental unit” in New York.

Persons: Andrew M, Cuomo, Kathy Hochul, Hochul, Elizabeth Rule Organizations: New, Gov, Chickasaw, First Nations Locations: New York

☆ From Smugglers and TikTok, Migrants Get a Message: Go to New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

1 choice of where they wanted to go was New York City,” he said. New York, home to the nation’s largest number of immigrants, has long attracted migrants who come here with connections to jobs, relatives or friends — avoiding the city’s shelter intake centers and public scrutiny. That is especially true in New York, which has recently drawn thousands of migrants with no connection to the city. Immigrant experts — as well as many migrants interviewed by The New York Times — said that an underlying reason is the city’s obligation to provide shelter to anyone who needs it. “Imagine if you have no connection to family, someone telling you, you can stay without cost to you in Manhattan, in the middle of the city,” Mr. Chishti said.

Persons: ”, Mayor Adams —, Muzaffar Chishti, The New York Times —, Mr, Chishti Organizations: Migration Policy Institute, The New York Times Locations: New York City, New York, Manhattan

☆ Mayor Adams’s Ability to Freely Spend Money on Migrants May Be Curtailed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“If we were to revoke the blanket prior approval — yes, then each of those agencies would just need to approach us for approval of any individual contract,” he said. DocGo officials did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment. The company’s contract with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which has not been made public, calls for DocGo to provide some of its subcontracted services with no markup. For example, laundry and food service are “billed at actual cost,” with laundry charges capped at $270,000 a month, and three meals costing no more than $33 per person each day, the contract says. But DocGo is allowed to turn a tidy profit from its largest single monthly expense: the hotel rooms housing the migrants.

Persons: ”, shouldn’t, DocGo Organizations: city’s Department of Housing Preservation, DocGo, Ramada Plaza Locations: Albany, DocGo, New York City

☆ DocGo Used Unregistered Guards at Migrant Hotels, N.Y. Officials Charge
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 50 security guards hired to protect asylum seekers bused upstate from New York City by a troubled migrant contractor are working without proper authorization, a New York Department of State investigation found. The department on Friday notified the two security companies that hired the guards — Trace Assets Protection Service L.L.C. and Wawanda Investigations and Security Company L.L.C. In some cases, it was not even clear if the guards were employees of the two security firms. “Please take notice that the continued employment of the above individuals, unless properly registered with the Department, is a continued and willful violation of law,” Ms. Clark wrote.

Persons: Whitney A, Clark, ” Ms Organizations: New York Department of State, Wawanda Investigations, Security Company, The New York Times, State, Business Development, Department Locations: New York City, New York, Erie County, Albany County

☆ New York Attorney General Will Investigate Troubled Migrant Contractor
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, has begun an investigation of the medical services provider DocGo for possible violations of state or federal laws over the treatment of migrants in its care, according to correspondence obtained by The New York Times. State investigators are looking into allegations that the company gave inaccurate information to them about employment opportunities, made “explicit or implicit threats,” and took “other actions that may jeopardize migrants’ ability to obtain asylum.”They are also looking into reports that DocGo “enrolled migrants in a healthcare plan for which they are not eligible,” the correspondence states. “We write to raise serious concerns with these reported practices, which may violate various state laws and other federal laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation for engaging in protected activity,” the correspondence says.

Persons: Letitia James, DocGo “ Organizations: New York, DocGo, The New York Times Locations: New York State

☆ A New York City Migrant Contractor Faces Scrutiny in Sexual Assault Cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

New York City has put DocGo in charge of key tasks, including helping to manage its main intake center at a Manhattan hotel. The police in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga, where some migrants relocated from New York City are staying, say they are investigating the interactions DocGo had with the victims and suspects in two alleged sexual assaults before the police arrived. In one instance, a migrant was accused of assaulting another migrant staying at one of the hotel shelters DocGo operates, and in another instance a migrant was accused of assaulting a DocGo subcontractor. DocGo’s chief executive, Anthony Capone, said the company was “devastated by what happened” and was fully cooperating with law enforcement. After the assault allegations, New York City temporarily halted migrant relocations to Buffalo, and Ms. Hochul has sent National Guard troops to the hotels where they are staying.

Persons: DocGo, Brian Gould, “ We’re, ”, Anthony Capone, Hochul, Brad Lander Organizations: New York City, National Guard Locations: York City, Manhattan, Buffalo, Cheektowaga, New York City, DocGo, Albany, New York, Rockland County

Mr. Adams said that he wanted to “localize this madness” so that people sleeping outdoors were contained to certain parts of the city, without identifying the potential locations or making it clear if people would be sleeping on sidewalks or in tents. “Our next phase of the strategy now that we have run out of room, we have to figure out how we’re going to localize the inevitable that there’s no more room indoors,” he said at an unrelated news conference on public safety. The firm, DocGo, has bused hundreds of asylum seekers upstate to cities including Albany, but many of the migrants there said that they felt misled and abandoned, and that local security guards hired by DocGo had repeatedly threatened them. DocGo, which provided Covid testing and vaccination services during the pandemic, is also involved in running the city’s “arrival center” for migrants at the Roosevelt Hotel. Over the weekend, people were seen sleeping outside the hotel with blankets, and vans were provided so that people could cool off on a hot summer day.

Persons: Adams, DocGo Organizations: New York Times Locations: Albany

☆ New York City Had a Migrant Crisis. It Hired a Covid Expert to Help.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Jay Root | More About Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Lured by the promise of jobs, legal assistance and a more welcoming environment, hundreds of asylum seekers have boarded buses headed north to Albany, in search of a life better than they had found in New York City. But once they settled in the state capital, many said they realized they had been misled and all but abandoned. Instead of state identification cards, they were given dubious work eligibility and residency letters on what appeared to be a fake letterhead. At the bargain-rate motels where the migrants were relocated, many said they were treated like prisoners in halfway houses, living under written threats that they would be barred from seeking asylum if they were caught drinking or smoking. They complained that crucial mail about their asylum cases had been lost, and worried that they now faced an hourslong trip to the courts where those cases will be heard.

Locations: Albany, New York City

The abrupt maneuver caused a young woman to hit her face on a spike, leaving a gash on her forehead, Ms. Escobar recalled. She said several of the agents stood still for several minutes, until an officer wearing what looked like a soldier’s uniform offered help to the wounded woman. State officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. “I was still in the river, about to jump over, when I saw what that agent did and was horrified,” she said of the officer in the cowboy hat. “What I am against is the use of tactics that hurt people.”The tactics by Texas appear to have intensified in the lead-up to the lifting in late May of Title 42, a public health policy imposed during the coronavirus pandemic that allowed federal agents to rapidly expel most arriving migrants.

Persons: “, Escobar, ”, Rolando Salinas Jr Locations: Mexico, Texas, Eagle

☆ The Secret Deal for a Tribal Casino and Why It Imploded
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For months, talks over a new casino deal between New York State and the Seneca Nation of Indians have been at an impasse, with the two sides deadlocked over the size of the state’s cut of hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling revenue, and what the tribe would get in return. With a few precious hours left before state lawmakers were set to break for the year, that suddenly seemed set to change: Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has faced questions over her husband’s ties to commercial gambling interests, tried to fast-track a bill that would have given her administration blanket authority to negotiate a new compact with the Native American nation — and cut out the scrutiny that accompanied the old one. But now the effort, marked as it was by secrecy and a lack of consultation with virtually anyone besides tribal leaders, has backfired spectacularly. It has alienated local officials and gambling and labor interests that are powerful forces in New York State politics and left the state and the Senecas no closer to a new casino compact.

Persons: Kathy Hochul Organizations: New York State Locations: Seneca Nation, American, New York State, Rochester

☆ Despite Hochul’s Pledge, Her Policies Have Helped Husband’s Firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At issue is a renewal of the Seneca Nation gaming compact, with billions of dollars at stake. The governor says she is recusing herself from the matter, as is her husband, whose $650,000 in compensation last year helped push the Hochuls’ combined income to just under $1 million. Mr. Hochul has signed his own recusal policy with Delaware North on matters concerning the company’s New York operations. Delaware North was founded more than a century ago in Buffalo, beginning as a peanut stand run by L.M. Jacobs and his brothers, and eventually expanding to stadiums and horse and dog tracks all over the country.

☆ Native Burial Sites Will Soon Be Protected Under Law for the First Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Jay Root | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, New York law permitted developers to built atop Native American burial sites without taking steps to preserve the ancient remains, making the state one of only four with no meaningful protection for graves on private lands. But that is set to change thanks to a provision included in the state budget deal Gov. The new law now heads to the governor, and she is expected to sign it this week. “This is a major victory for Native Americans across the state of New York,” said Assemblyman Fred Thiele, a Long Island Democrat and author of the bill. And when a grave protection bill finally passed last year with unanimous approval, Ms. Hochul vetoed it, saying it stripped landowners of their property rights.

In Missouri, Mr. Lester, who lived alone, told the police after the shooting that he fired his gun because he saw someone on his front step apparently trying to enter and was “scared to death” of being physically harmed. Zachary Thompson, the Clay County prosecutor, said that there was a “racial component” to the shooting but did not elaborate. Mr. Lester is white; Ralph, who was released from the hospital and is now recovering at home, is Black. In New York, a lawyer for Mr. Monahan, Kurt Mausert, disputed the authorities’ account of the shooting on Saturday night, saying that several vehicles were speeding up Mr. Monahan’s driveway, with engines revving and lights shining, which “certainly caused some level of alarm to an elderly gentleman who had an elderly wife.”As the two men made court appearances in Missouri and New York, basic outlines of their histories were emerging from neighbors and relatives. Neighbors said that Mr. Monahan, a self-employed builder and longtime resident whose home sits on about 40 mostly wooded acres, had a reputation as a sometimes surly character who loved dirt bikes and largely kept to himself.

☆ How Public Money Goes to Support a Hasidic Village’s Private Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Jay Root | Jonah Markowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Kiryas Joel, a bustling village north of New York City, has run one of the most unusual public school districts in America. The village is almost entirely populated by Hasidic Jews, and the district was created to serve just one group: Hasidic children with disabilities. Most other children attend the community’s private religious schools, which stress the rigorous study of Jewish law and prayer but offer little instruction in secular subjects. Created a little over 30 years ago, the unique public school system immediately drew concerns that a school district created for members of a single faith could never separate itself from their religious institutions. Then, in 2009, New York auditors identified a glaring conflict of interest: Two of the school district’s board members had voted to use tens of millions of tax dollars to lease a building from a private religious school organization that they also helped run.

Persons: Kiryas Joel Locations: New York City, America, New York

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