Good Tuesday morning, CivMixers.
It’s a day close to my former reporter’s heart: National Freedom of Information Day, which falls on the second day of the annual Sunshine Week – a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and access to a wide variety of data related to it.
Government transparency is basically the key to a working democracy, as the public’s right to know creates accountability for organizations and keeps citizens informed about how their government is operating
Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors — now the News Leaders Association — and has grown into an enduring initiative to promote open government.
Today happens to be the birthday (in 1751) of James Madison, a founding father who served as fourth president of the United States and was a staunch open government advocate.
At the federal level, the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, giving the public the right to access records from any federal executive branch agency – with some exemptions and exceptions that allow agencies to withhold information to protect national security and personal privacy, among other matters.
The FOIA does not apply to Congress, though it may inform communications between the legislative branch and FOIA-covered entities.
In 2015, the Center for Public Integrity ranked each state’s public records law and found that only three states scored higher than a D+ – New York was not one of them.
There have been amendments passed by the Legislature, (which is NOT subject to FOIL in New York), to make the law stronger, but it’s still not ideal.
I also want to note that it’s National Panda Day, just because I think they’re really adorable. And they’re a vulnerable species, having been upgraded from “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
We’re in for another day on the cool side, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 30s. There will be partly cloudy skies in the morning, and just plain all clouds in the afternoon.
In the headlines…
A former aide who has accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, Charlotte Bennett, told investigators that he was preoccupied with talking to subordinates about his “hand size” and “what the large size of his hands indicated,” her lawyer revealed.
Bennett, 25, spent four hours talking via Zoom teleconference software to investigators conducting a probe of claims by her and several other women that Cuomo had sexually harassed them, or otherwise made inappropriate comments and physical contact.
Bennett “detailed her allegations of sexual harassment and provided the investigators with more than 120 pages of contemporaneous records, as well as other examples of documentary evidence, to corroborate her accusations against Gov. Cuomo and his senior staff,” her lawyer Debra Katz said in a statement.
“We urge others who have been subjected to inappropriate conduct by the Governor – and we know you are out there – to come forward with what you experienced,” Katz said. And to those who observed the behavior, we urge you to do the same.”
More New Yorkers believe that Cuomo has committed sexual harassment than not, but half of those surveyed say that he should not immediately resign, according to a Siena College poll released yesterday.
Slightly more than a third of voters, 35 percent, said they believed the governor had committed sexual harassment, while 24 percent believed he had not, according to the poll, which was conducted in the second week of March.
The responses were largely the same among men and women, with a plurality of voters undecided: 41 percent said they were unsure if Cuomo was guilty of sexual harassment.
As a longtime friend of Cuomo, President Joe Biden is one of the few people with the potential to prevent a protracted standoff between an increasingly isolated governor and the rest of the Democratic Party. Thus far, however, he has not called for resignation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden won’t strip Cuomo of his role leading the nation’s weekly COVID-19 coordinating calls with governors.
With Albany engulfed in controversy, LG Kathy Hochul has sought to exude an attitude of normalcy through her carefully controlled public appearances and statements.
Cuomo appeared at an event on Long Island to promote the state’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Black communities. The governor, 63 years old, said he would be vaccinated “in the coming days.”
Larry Schwartz, the governor’s hand-picked COVID vaccine czar, is getting support from Cuomo’s administration amid reports he asked county officials about their loyalty to his boss amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wants another probe into the Cuomo administration – this time focused on Schwartz’s conversations with local leaders.
De Blasio said he has basically stopped working with Cuomo, whom he said should “get the hell out of the way.”
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy confirmed Schwartz called him to ask about his support for Cuomo, a fellow Democrat beset by allegations of sexual harassment and a cover-up of nursing home deaths.
At the urging of his GOP colleagues, state Sen. James Skoufis, chair of the investigations committee, said he wants to examine Cuomo’s COVID-19 policies at group home facilities for people with developmental disabilities, which have mirrored those of nursing homes.
Rep. Mondaire Jones wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to urge an investigation into potential structural deficiencies on the bridge that connects Rockland and Westchester counties, in an area he represents about 25 miles north of New York City.
Cannabis stocks moved higher yesterday after Cuomo said New York is “very close” on legalizing the drug for recreational use.
The state Legislature is close to a deal on legalizing marijuana for recreational, adult use in New York, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, with lawmakers now trying to move on the issue in the next two weeks.
Heastie said he expects state budget negotiations to continue as “normal,” despite his decision to authorize an impeachment inquiry of Cuomo over allegations from multiple women of sexual harassment, and a nursing home scandal.
Before the cannabis bill is finalized, lawmakers and the governor are reportedly working through a number of sticking points, including how many plants people can grow for personal use and what type of evidence that can be used in impaired driving cases.
The Legislature has not only torpedoed Cuomo’s plan to raid millions from New York’s mass transit systems — lawmakers now plan to give more funding to the cash-strapped MTA than it expected.
More than 1.9 million people rode the New York City subway on Friday — the transit system’s busiest day since the city went into COVID-19 lockdown last March.
Biden’s sweeping stimulus package includes the largest single infusion of federal aid that public transportation has ever received, allowing agencies to scrap plans for draconian cuts.
Both the Senate and Assembly plans also propose greater increases in spending on schools, health care and other support services that would be reduced under Cuomo’s initial fiscal blueprint.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Rep. Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat, as Interior secretary, making her the first Native American to serve in a presidential Cabinet. The vote was 51-40 with all Democrats and a handful of Republicans voting to confirm her.
As Biden pushes to vaccinate as many Americans as possible, he faces deep skepticism among many Republicans, a group especially challenging for him to persuade.
The Biden administration isn’t waiting for help from former President Donald Trump to persuade his followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
From a vaccination site in the desert West to a grade school on the Eastern seaboard, President Joe Biden’s top messengers — his vice president and wife among them — led a cross-country effort yesterday to highlight the benefits of his huge COVID relief plan.
All the living ex-U.S. presidents, except Trump, appear in a public service ad touting COVID-19 vaccine.
The World Health Organization has scheduled a meeting with safety experts today to address AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine after Germany, France, Spain and Italy suspended its use.
Mississippi will become the second state – after Alaska – to open Covid-19 vaccinations to all of its adult residents, following a call from Biden for all states to do so by May 1.
“Starting tomorrow, ALL new appointments will be open to ALL Mississippians,” Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted. “Get your shot — and let’s get back to normal!”
In New York City, the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 over an average of seven days has hovered between 6% and 7% for the past several weeks, a plateau that epidemiologists warn will be difficult to push down.
Airline executives said they are starting to see a path out of the coronavirus pandemic as more passengers resume travel, following a weekend when airport volumes hit their highest levels in a year.
The Democratic-led House hopes to revive a Clinton-era law to strengthen domestic violence and sexual violence protections for women.
After the American Rescue Plan waived taxes on cancelled student loan debt, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s no reason Biden shouldn’t immediately erase $50,000 in student loans for each borrower.
The Vatican declared that the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”
The family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP agreed to pay roughly $4.28 billion—a larger sum than previously promised—to resolve lawsuits accusing it of helping to fuel the opioid epidemic.
Two men have been charged with assaulting Officer Brian D. Sicknick of the Capitol Police and other officers during the Jan. 6 riot, the Justice Department said on Monday, but prosecutors stopped short of linking the attack to Officer Sicknick’s death the next day.
The state Board of Regents voted unanimously to cancel all Regents exams this year except for four federally mandated tests in English, algebra, earth science and the living environment.
A sweeping lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan that accuses 88 brokerage firms and landlords in New York City of discriminating against people with housing vouchers.
With just over three months until the primary, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, kicked off a quixotic Republican run for City Hall, promising to crack down on rising crime and revive a police force he said has been rendered “impotent.”
Mayoral wannabe Andrew Yang’s lovefest with rival candidates continued with a joint press conference with Kathryn Garcia. He embraced her plan to make New York City’s business license application process less confusing.
Yang has raised more than $2.1 million in direct contributions in two months for his New York City mayoral race, an amount expected to grow to $6.5 million when matchable donations are counted, according to a campaign memo.
Maya Wiley received $1.9 million for her mayoral run as part of the system in which the city matches campaign contributions from New Yorkers.
When a 24-hour spree of subway-system attacks left two homeless New Yorkers dead and two others wounded in February, the eight Democratic candidates running for Manhattan DA didn’t follow the traditional playbook with calls for more policing and harsher sentencing.
The ex-commander of the NYPD unit that investigates discrimination complaints lied three separate times when questioned by the department about posting online racist screeds — some of which he wrote on a department-issued device while on vacation in Florida.
The city’s five police unions said the surge in gun violence will only get worse unless the bail reform laws are changed — and elected officials worry more about protecting New Yorkers than trying to reform the NYPD.
The former head of a New York City good government group, Dick Dadey, wants his good name back now that charges were dropped after being falsely accused of attacking an ex-boyfriend with a hammer.
Thousands of graduate students and student workers at Columbia University began striking yesterday after negotiations with school administrators stalled once again.
The Metropolitan Opera House has been dark for a year, and its musicians have gone unpaid for almost as long. About 40 percent left the New York area. More than a tenth retired.
Albany County was notified that it is getting 500 shots of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, McCoy said.
Albany Public Library’s largest branch on Washington Ave. opened yesterday for curbside pickup. The Washington Ave. Branch is allowing drive up and walk up service.
Officials at the Freihofer’s Run for Women announced that the event’s 43rd edition, which was originally set for Saturday, June 5, has been moved to Saturday, September 25 in downtown Albany.
A man who sent 19 letters containing white powder falsely marked as “anthrax” to federal courthouses and Social Security offices in New York and Connecticut was sentenced to two years of prison time – a punishment he’s already served.
Fish fraud! Recent analysis in more than 30 countries found that 36% of seafood studied was mislabeled, according to a new Guardian Seascape survey. Researchers combed 44 recent studies of more than 9,000 seafood samples from restaurants, fish stores and supermarkets.
