Former President Barack Obama is headed to upstate New York Thursday evening to speak at a sold-out event at Hamilton College in Oneida County.

The nation's 44th president will host “A Conversation with President Barack Obama,” a moderated question-and-answer event with Steven Tepper, president of the college.

The World Trade Center Health Program could be devastated by this week’s mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 9/11 community advocates say.

They warn the deep job cuts likely include workers supporting the health program, which provides medical care for those sickened by toxic smoke and debris from the Twin Towers' collapse.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday he will seek reelection as an independent, foregoing the Democratic primary after his federal corruption case was permanently dismissed.

In a campaign video first obtained by Politico, Adams said his legal troubles had prevented him from mounting a primary campaign.

There’s an ongoing debate in Washington over whether the federal government should continue funding public news organizations like National Public Radio. President Donald Trump says he would like to strip federal funding from the outlets, calling it a waste of money.

Joining NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss NPR and public broadcasting is journalist and author Steve Oney, the author of a new book: “On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed public masking ban could be in jeopardy.

Her plan has divided Democrats, with supporters seeing their elimination as a crime-fighting issue and others saying a ban would give President Donald Trump a win.

The New York state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) is looking at early releases to address a staffing shortage following the recent three-week correction officer strike.

The state will look to release those with fewer than four months left on their sentence, and the directive does not apply to those convicted of sex crimes, violent felonies, terrorism or arson.

Behavioral health workers said Wednesday lawmakers must significantly increase their pay in the budget to address a rise in severe mental health issues as state leaders debate Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposal to expand the criteria for coercive treatment when a person's condition could result in serious harm.

Advocates are pushing for a 7.8% increase for nonprofit behavior and human service workers based on inflation, and argue the governor's plan to broaden the involuntary commitment statute with an inadequate pay raise would make the state's mental health crisis worse.

Albany is moving through the familiar choreography of creating an annual state spending plan while it’s quite possible that whatever the leaders come up with will be blown to bits later in the year by federal cuts.

Republicans in Washington are looking to cut fraud, streamline government and make the 2017 tax cuts permanent before they expire at the end of the year. To do that, they will need to pass deep cuts to the federal budget, including to Medicaid, education and transportation.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Empire State Development (ESD) said it expects to finalize a letter of intent by the summer to extend Tesla's lease of its gigafactory in South Buffalo.

The new deal would increase the rent the company pays for the state-subsidized facility from $1 per year to $2 million through the end of 2029, the original expiration date, and $5 million annually for an additional five years. However, Manhattan state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said the state Legislature should examine if that's the best path forward.

The cost of child care is a challenge for families across the country. But a New York state assistance program appears to be falling short, leaving some parents with tough decisions to make ends meet.

Waitlists have been rolled out in several counties across the state.

Following the detainment of a woman and three children by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Jefferson County, advocacy groups and supporters gathered at City Hall in Syracuse Wednesday to protest immigration officers in New York.

“We have seen fathers taken, detained on their way to drop their children at school in Fulton. Here in Syracuse, we had a father taken, leaving his 13-year-old U.S. citizen son with no family here,” said Jessica Maxwell, executive director of the Workers Center of Central New York.

Mayor Eric Adams turned the page on his historic indictment.

“Today finally marks the end of this chapter," he said Wednesday.

New York food banks are struggling to handle the fallout from what U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand described as President Donald Trump's "massive" cuts in funding that helps feed Americans in need.

Gillibrand on Wednesday outlined funding cuts to the nation's food banks. She said the Trump administration slashed $1 billion in federal funding dedicated to purchasing food for food banks and schools and child care centers that provide meals, and is canceling another $500 million in already approved funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which helps food banks and other emergency food providers.

A judge on Wednesday tossed Mayor Eric Adams’ federal corruption case, a month and a half after the Justice Department asked for it to be dismissed.

In an order, Manhattan federal judge Dale E. Ho dismissed Adams’ case with prejudice, meaning the charges against the mayor cannot be refiled.

A state Supreme Court judge in Albany County has placed a temporary injunction against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive order in Oneida County barring correction officers who were fired for striking from being hired by local municipalities unless they go through a specific program, according to court papers obtained Wednesday by Spectrum News 1.

The order has been criticized at the county level, with Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente recently calling it "gross overreach and abuse." The ruling is not statewide and only applies to Oneida County.

One of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top priorities is making it easier to hospitalize people with serious mental illness involuntarily and hold them there until they stabilize.

The proposal would change the standard for what clinicians should consider when deciding the likelihood that a person with a mental illness would “result in serious harm.”

The New York state budget is officially late with no clear end in sight. If you’re looking to gain insight for an office pool or a friendly wager on when it will be completed, don’t ask Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

“I’m not helping anybody’s betting odds,” he told Spectrum News 1.

New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has failed to issue draft regulations – the blueprint -- for how to enact the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), and now DEC is being sued over that failure.

The agency was supposed to finalize the regulations by Jan. 1, 2024. Instead, the agency announced this past January that the draft would not be released this year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday proposed a new slate of prison reforms for the budget to reignite criminal justice talks while the head of the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision said he supports the governor's plan to close more facilities.

Multiple lawmakers briefly conferenced proposals from Hochul on Tuesday to expand opportunities for people in prison to reduce long sentences with credits for good behavior or job training — a priority Hochul included in this year's legislative agenda.

Some incarcerated individuals in New York state will be released early as prison guards continue to face a staffing crisis.

DOCCS documents report a 24.4% decline in correction officers and correction sergeant plot plan positions between the years 2000 and 2023. Since then, numbers have only continued to drop. In February, COs were told that 70% of staffing is the new 100% staffing — one of the main reasons behind the statewide wildcat strike that lasted nearly a month.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a plan that could include the implementation of delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as sweeping retaliatory tariffs on other countries throughout the world.

The administration is touting the plan as a bold step toward American economic independence, as well as a way to push back against the flow of illegal drugs into the country. However, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, sees it differently.

A federal judge has ruled that the legal battle over Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation should continue to play out in New Jersey, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to transfer the Columbia University protester’s case to Louisiana.

In a written decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark said jurisdiction over the case should remain in New Jersey since Khalil was being held there at the time his lawyers filed their habeas corpus petition demanding his release.

The removal of a mother and her three children from a home in the Sackets Harbor area for relocation in a detention center in Texas drew fire Tuesday from New York state's top elected leaders.

According to school officials and the New York Immigration Coalition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed the family and four others last week from the North Harbor Dairy farm located just outside the village in Jefferson County.

A 22-day prison strike and the multiple deaths of those incarcerated during that time has reignited conversations about reforms in the state prison system.

A report last fall claims white people were offered parole at higher rates than people of color — and the gap has widened in the last three years.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Attorneys for a white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket want to move his death penalty-eligible trial to New York City, writing in a court filing that it would be difficult to seat a diverse and impartial jury in the upstate city.

About 85% of Buffalo’s Black residents live in East Buffalo, where the shooting occurred, Payton Gendron's lawyers wrote Monday, and many would be prevented from serving on the jury because of ties to the case.

New York youth sports leagues and schools are struggling to find referees. Games are being postponed and some canceled as a result.

There are a number of reasons why, but a big one is the negative and often hostile behavior of spectators and parents as they watch the games.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday that Republicans are looking for what kind of future Rep. Elise Stefanik can bring to the House leadership now that she won’t be serving as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“We’re trying to figure out some creative role for Elise to play,” Johnson said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and 22 other states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration over abruptly cutting billions of dollars in state health funding.

These cuts come as part of a plan announced last week by the Trump White House to pull back $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for local public health departments and other organizations across the country. The Department of Health and Human Services says it will stop spending money on responding to what it claims is a nonexistent pandemic.

The Senate’s top Democrat is no stranger to political maneuvering. But his latest act — a tightly choreographed blitz through Republican-held districts — signals a sharpened strategy: take the fight over federal spending directly into Trump country, and force Republicans to own the response.

On Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer visited two nursing homes, one on Staten Island, the other in suburban Long Island, to spotlight what Democrats warn would be catastrophic consequences if Republican-led efforts to slash Medicaid succeed. The choice of backdrop was deliberate, as both facilities sit in congressional districts held by GOP members who have largely aligned with President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito has been nominated by President Donald Trump’s administration to serve as the next inspector general for the U.S. Department of Labor, months after he narrowly lost his reelection bid in November, the White House said Monday evening.

The role conducts audits to review the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and integrity of all Department of Labor programs and operations, including those performed by its contractors and grantees, according to the department's website. It also conducts criminal, civil, and administrative investigations into alleged violations of federal laws relating to DOL programs, operations, and personnel.

As the state marks four years since the legalization of recreational marijuana, a vacancy to lead the state Office of Cannabis Management remains unfilled after a season of chaos — and it's unclear when that will change.

The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act legalized cannabis for New York adults ages 21 and older in 2021. The department has weathered multiple lawsuits and industry shakeups to open its 335 legal cannabis shops netting over $1.2 billion in sales, but continues to lack an official executive director.

On the eve of the state budget deadline, a deal remains well out of reach.

New York state Budget Director Blake Washington acknowledged to reporters Monday that the debate over changes to the state’s discovery laws has Gov. Kathy Hochul doubling down. When asked if discovery is an area where the governor was not interested in compromise, Washington answered in the affirmative.

A new report by the Legal Aid Society details the ongoing conditions in upstate jails more than two weeks after correction officers agreed to end a months long unauthorized strike.

The strike began in December, which was around the time 10 corrections officers were charged with beating inmate Robert Brooks to death.

A Cornell student who sued the Trump administration over two executive orders he thought could lead to his deportation said Monday that he had decided to leave the United States.

Momodou Taal, a dual-citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia who has spoken out at pro-Palestinian protests, made the announcement on the social media platform "X."

BUFFALO, N.Y. — At the request of former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, introduced legislation at the end of last legislative session that would have allowed the city to institute a 5% bed tax for hotel guests in the city on top of the tax Erie County already collects.

However, the bill never gained traction as state Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, refused to carry it, citing concerns from the hospitality industry.

They all want to be mayor — and be like Eric to win it.

That's how Mayor Eric Adams sees the field of Democrats running against him.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are just hours away from missing their midnight deadline for the state budget.

“We may or may not make April 1,” the governor said on March 28 on Fox 5.

The 22-day unsanctioned correction officers strike at New York prisons is costing New Yorkers more than $100 million a month due to the New York Army National Guard response, state Budget Director Blake Washington told reporters Monday in the state Capitol.

The total cost of the wildcat strike that formally ended March 10 with the firing of more than 2,000 prison guards is going to cost "many hundreds of millions of dollars," Washington said.

The MTA met its deadline Monday to submit information on subway crime — and the steps that it's taking to combat it — to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The submission came in response to a March 18 letter Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent the agency requesting that information and suggesting that noncompliance could result in "redirecting or withholding funding."

A Jefferson County community is reeling after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed eight people, including a mother and her three children, from a farm last week in Sackets Harbor, according to the New York Immigration Coalition advocacy group and others.

It happened in the hometown of President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan, leaving area residents with many questions.

Right out of the gate in January, Gov. Kathy Hochul presented several proposals to address child poverty in the state. The most significant idea was an expansion of the Empire State Child Credit.

In this proposal, the governor eliminates the minimum income requirement for the credit. She also increases the tax credit from $330 to $1,000 per child for children ages 0 to 3, and increases the credit from $330 to $500 for children ages 4 to 16.

All 10 prison guards charged in connection with the death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility have been offered a plea deal.

Each defendant and their attorneys were at a pretrial conference in Oneida County on Monday.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo secured the endorsement of the Queens Democratic Party on Sunday, strengthening his frontrunner status in the race for mayor.

“The next mayor of the city of New York, Andrew Cuomo!” Rep. Gregory Meeks declared at the event.

Rochester City Councilmember Stanley Martin is calling on Mayor Malik Evans and RPD Chief David Smith to fire the officers that assisted border patrol agents in a recent incident involving immigrants, in what city leaders said was a violation of department policy.

The incident in question took place Monday evening and involved Border Patrol requesting an emergency response to a traffic stop of a van. Rochester Police Chief David Smith said body-worn camera shows the RPD supervisor on the scene giving specific directions to RPD officers and making sure the Border Patrol agents were the ones to engage with people in the van. However, Smith said the supervisor became distracted and, when out of view of the supervisor, RPD officers removed and handcuffed some of the people in the van.

U.S. border czar Thomas Homan said that the White House is backing Rochester police officers after they assisted border patrol agents in a recent incident involving immigrants, in what city leaders said was a violation of department policy.

Border Czar stands up for @RochesterNYPD officers involved in ICE call for back up incident. @SPECNews1ROC https://t.co/vZVmVOaWlZ

A little over 72 hours away from the state budget deadline, lawmakers made it clear that New York state’s spending plan will not get done on time, and negotiations continue at a trickle.

“Nothing’s moving at this point,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Thursday as lawmakers headed for the exits for a long weekend.

Local officials across New York state want legislative leaders to have a change of heart as the Senate and Assembly hold the line against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget priority to expand forced treatment for people suffering from mental health issues who pose a danger to themselves or others.

Several Democratic lawmakers are against the proposal, which they argue would criminalize homelessness or be difficult to implement. But mayors and county executives say state lawmakers fighting Hochul's plan don’t know what local governments have been dealing with.

Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong has resigned, returning to her post running the New York school’s medical center.

Armstrong’s return to her former job leading the university’s affiliated hospital comes days after Columbia agreed to a host of policy changes demanded by the Trump administration as a condition of restoring $400 million in government funding.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s attempt to amend the Democratic-led state Legislature’s recent changes to the criminal justice system are yet again at the forefront of state budget negotiations.

This time, Hochul wants to change the way prosecutors hand over evidence to the defense, what’s known as discovery laws.

In the last 10 years, more than 30 New York state nursing homes have closed, resulting in the loss of more than 3,500 beds. Most of the homes were not-for-profit.

Without a significant increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate, more nursing homes will be forced to reduce admissions, turn away applicants or close their doors.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he was withdrawing the nomination of North Country U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik to be America’s ambassador to the United Nations, citing the Republican’s' narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

The withdrawn nomination puts an end to speculation on when a special election might be called in a race where Democrats had already picked their candidate, St. Lawrence County farmer Blake Gendebien.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Erie County Democratic Committee's endorsed candidate for mayor, state Sen. Sean Ryan, stood in front of City Hall to call attention to what he says are serious ethics violations committed by primary opponent and acting Mayor Chris Scanlon.

"We need to bring change to the city of Buffalo," Ryan said.

There's been a lot of movement this week in the effort to raise awareness and move the ball forward in the fight against human trafficking across upstate New York.

“I'm glad this is on the forefront of conversations because it's one of our hidden secrets in our communities,” Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said, weighing in on the severity of the problem of human trafficking and recent developments to attack the problem.

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to free their client from an immigration detention center in Louisiana, describing his imprisonment there as a “Kafkaesque” ploy to chill free speech.

“The longer we wait, the more chill there is,” defense attorney Baher Azmy said. “Everyone knows about this case and is wondering if they’re going to get picked off the street for opposing U.S. foreign policy.”

“A new Republican Star is born. Great going @EliseStefanik!”

That’s what President Donald Trump tweeted on Nov. 17, 2019, about the northern New York congresswoman. Facing his first impeachment at the time, Rep. Elise Stefanik quickly became one of the president’s most vocal and effective defenders during those hearings. At 35 at the time, she quickly earned praise and respect from elders of the GOP in a very public way.

A new poll this week shows that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to be the frontrunner in this year’s crowded Democratic mayoral primary. Since announcing his candidacy, Cuomo has remained at the top of the pack while continuing to deploy a rose garden strategy. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams has finally begun to confront this tough political reality by taking on the former governor in his most pointed language yet. NY1 investigative reporter Courtney Gross, and political reporters Bobby Cuza and Kelly Mena break down all the latest news in the race for mayor.

After that, Columbia University has agreed to sweeping policy changes on campus in an attempt to appease the Trump administration. The changes include hiring more public safety officers, cracking down on discipline and reviewing its Middle Eastern Studies Department. This comes as another New York institution, the law firm Paul Weiss, has capitulated to the Trump administration after the president had signed an executive order attempting to limit the firm’s ability to litigate. The “Off Topic” team looks at these dramatic examples of Trump’s influence on our city.

State Sen. Liz Krueger along is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to immediately sign the New York Health Information Privacy Act.

Krueger told Spectrum News 1 that the need for Hochul’s rubber stamp on the bill she carried with Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal is even more urgent in light of concerns raised by the bankruptcy of DNA testing company 23andMe and the potential sale of customer data.

Fired correction officers returned to the state Capitol Thursday, nearly one month after they rallied on the building’s east front during the heat of the strike, but this time with no chanting and no signs reading “repeal HALT.”

Instead, while officers slammed the state for what they described as a lack of due process and the revocation of their health insurance, they also demonstrated a significant shift in tone when it comes to conversations around solitary confinement.

State Education Department officials told Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders Thursday not to play politics with rules that give greater oversight to the curriculum in religious and nonpublic schools as lawmakers attempt to erode the standards in a backroom budget deal.

Some lawmakers want to sneak language in the budget to give private schools more flexibility to comply with stricter SED guidelines adopted by the Board of Regents in 2022 that provide greater oversight of what instructors teach at religious and nonpublic schools.

With Republicans having a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is withdrawing the nomination of North Country Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik to be the country’s ambassador to the United Nations.

In his post on Truth Social, the president praised Stefanik and said he “looks forward to the day when Elise is able to join my administration.”

The MTA sucks a lot of the oxygen out of the room in Albany during state budget season, but upstate transit needs significant investments as well.

It’s a fight that state Sen. Jeremy Cooney is ready to engage in as state Senate Transportation Committee chairman.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Blockchain is essentially an advanced digital database that allows for the sharing of information and peer-to-peer transactions.

It's most commonly associated with cryptocurrency.

Attorneys for the gunman in the 2022 racist mass shooting in Buffalo are asking a judge to delay his federal trial by a year.

Payton Gendron killed 10 Black people and injured three others at a Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in May 2022.

The number of private sector jobs in New York increased by 3,700 or 0.1%, in February, according to preliminary seasonally adjusted figures released Thursday by the state Department of Labor.

These put the total number of private sector jobs in the state to 8,463,100 in February. The number of private sector jobs in the U.S. also increased by 0.1% in the same period, the department said.

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration makes sweeping changes to the federal government, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday that the Democrats are winning in their fight against President Donald Trump’s policies.

Citing Republican initiatives to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and public education, Jeffries said the Democratic Party is “all hands on deck, and it will continue to be all hands on deck” to protect the programs that make life better for all Americans.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Thursday afternoon that state budget negotiations are “kind of at a standstill” and reiterated his frustration with the amount of policy that gets included in the state’s spending plan every year.

“Things are kind of, kind of at a standstill. We’re going to pass this debt service bill and the members will go home, do work in their districts and we’ll pick it back up next week,” Heastie said.

President Donald Trump is pulling Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, he announced on Truth Social on Thursday.

Stefanik, who represents New York's 21st Congressional District, was one of the first cabinet-level nominees put forward by Trump just days after his election in November. Her confirmation hearings were held the day after Trump’s inauguration in January but two months later was yet to be confirmed.

New York has received more than 1,300 applications for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recruitment campaign for federal workers interested in state service who have been terminated from federal jobs as a result of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Known as the “You’re Hired” initiative, it aims to fill more than 7,000 positions in state government listed in the StateJobsNY portal that were vacant as of the end of February.

The acting Ulster County clerk says he's rejecting a filing of judgment from Texas against a New Paltz physician.

In a statement, Taylor Bruck said he informed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that the judgment against Dr. Maggie Carpenter, charged with providing mifepristone — which can be used to end pregnancies as part of a two-drug regimen with misoprostol — to a Texas resident via telehealth, will not be filed. Bruck cited New York's Shield Law, which is in place to protect New York-based health care providers and patients from both criminal and civil liability in other states in connection with abortion and gender-affirming resources.

When President Donald Trump canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University over its handling of student protests against Israel's war in Gaza, much of the financial pain fell on researchers a train ride away from the school's campus, working on things like curing cancer and studying COVID-19's impact on children.

The urgency of salvaging ongoing research projects at the university's labs and world-renowned medical center was one factor in Columbia's decision last week to bow to the Republican administration’s unprecedented demands for changes in university policy as a condition of getting funding restored.

Gov. Kathy Hochul says she will fight the federal government tooth and nail to protect the health and well-being of New Yorkers from sweeping federal cuts that will take a $300 million toll on New York state.

Hochul says the cuts to New York public health, mental health and addiction services will be devastating across the state.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Columbia University has found itself at the center of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Columbia is no stranger to anti-war protests. In the spring of 1968, a student uprising against the Vietnam War saw students occupy five buildings on campus and hold the acting dean of Columbia College hostage. Most recently, the arrest of Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and the university’s response to policy demands from the Trump administration have found the college making national headlines again.

Shea Vance is the editor-in-chief of the university’s student newspaper, the “Columbia Spectator.” Vance joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss the most recent events on campus. The conversation covered the disciplinary actions against students protesting the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the ongoing atmosphere of fear among some Jewish students due to antisemitic incidents, and the impact of federal threats on withholding university funding. The discussion also included reflections on the past and future of Columbia’s student activism and Vance’s personal aspirations.

The state Health Department has sent several emails since late last week asking state employees to volunteer to help with the ongoing transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program.

The $9 billion Medicaid home care program switches from more than 600 companies to one April 1, but tens of thousands of program users and their personal assistants have until April 30 to complete registration with new management company Public Partnerships LLC.

Although it’s looking like Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders won’t make their April 1 budget deadline, they appear to be in agreement on a big-ticket item for the governor: an all-day ban on cellphones in schools, known as “bell-to-bell.”

“The majority of the members are more comfortable with a bell-to-bell approach, they really are,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester Democrat, said.

Less than a week out from the April 1 state budget deadline, there appears to be significant movement on at least one of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top demands: a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in schools.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins updated reporters on the progress of negotiations Wednesday, a process she described as “at the end of the middle” but “tedious” as a result of uncertainty over federal funding. Stewart-Cousins indicated that making the April 1 deadline appears unlikely, but those close to the process have suggested it does not appear the delay will push past mid April.

The New York State Museum isn’t known for its boundary-pushing artistic expression, but the institution’s exhibits — from Native American tableaux to slavery — embrace intersectionality and generally depict the interconnectedness of social struggles — the very kind of “woke” imagery the Trump administration has railed against.

The question is, will a needed infusion of $150 million by Gov. Kathy Hochul, which could remove the museum from the independence of the state Education Department and place it under the executive branch, put the museum in the crosshairs of politics? Or is it more important to ensure the museum isn't ignored?

Last year was a good year for New York's financial industry as Wall Street bonuses reached a record $47.5 billion in 2024, its first major increase since the COVID-19 pandemic highs, according to a report released Wednesday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

The comptroller said the average bonus of nearly $245,000 represents a more than 30% increase from the previous year and the state is getting about $600 million more in tax revenue as a result. He said robust economic growth led to increased trading, account supervision, underwriting and selling revenues, driving strong profits and helping generate the first significant bump in the average bonus estimate since 2021.

On Tuesday, some of the highest-ranking Massachusetts elected officials including Gov. Maura Healey and state Attorney General Andrea Campbell decried a delay in federal funding for lead pipe abatement, calling it “dangerous.”

As of Wednesday evening, the New York state Department of Health says it is unaware of any changes to funding but stated the department is “committed to ensuring that all New Yorkers have clean and safe drinking water.”

Fast-moving changes to Social Security are ringing some alarm bells.

Staff cuts, office closures and changes to verification systems were all announced earlier this month.

The New York state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) identified 15 people of interest who they said are involved in the investigation into the death of an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County earlier this month, the department announced Wednesday.

There still has been no determination concerning anyone's involvement, DOCCS said, but all of those named as part of the probe are on administrative leave, pending the results of an ongoing internal disciplinary review.

New York state is requesting a disaster declaration for farms from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for several counties that were impacted by heavy snow this winter that resulted in structural damage and loss of livestock, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The request is for Oneida, Lewis, Herkimer, Oswego and Madison counties. A disaster designation would allow for affected farms to apply for USDA low-interest emergency loans.

New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, using her Albany lingo, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that state budget negotiations have reached “the end of the middle” but that talks remains impacted by President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington that could bring various government cuts.

“The process is tedious because what we see on the horizon coming from our Republican colleagues in Washington,” Stewart-Cousins said.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired following the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen's Houthis earlier this month to a group chat that included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

“He should be fired. I agree, he should be fired,” the Democratic New York senator told reporters Wednesday afternoon while leaving a press conference event on Social Security.

It has been arguably the biggest crisis of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s long political career.

Fellow Democrats from all corners of the party have sharply criticized his decision to advance a Republican spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.

More protests are planned at Tesla auto dealerships in the coming days in upstate New York. It’s all part of the effort to rally against Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, and his work in the Trump administration.

The anti-Elon Musk and anti-government movement is called Tesla Takedown.

It looks like Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed bell-to-bell cellphone ban has some critics among lawmakers and school administrators.

Last week, Capital Tonight spoke with New York’s Superintendents’ Association and School Boards Association about why they are pushing for less stringent rules around cellphones.

Critics of the 2020 discovery laws reform argue that prosecutors no longer have access to law enforcement systems needed to obtain information like police reports. But a bill sponsored by state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and state Assemblyman Micah Lasher addresses that hurdle.

The two Democrats have introduced bills that would give prosecutors access to systems they need to fulfill their discovery requirements. S613-A825 would require police departments to provide district attorneys’ offices access to their electronic records for discovery purposes.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Historically, elected officials representing the largest municipalities in Southern Ontario and Western New York have come together to resolve mutual issues.

With ongoing tariffs between the U.S. and Canada, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz reached out to convene a meeting again.

An organization representing many upstate transit groups is urging the Legislature to create a more consistent revenue stream for public transportation outside New York City as top Democrats debate how to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital plan in the budget.

The New York Public Transit Association sent a letter to lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul last week asking for dedicated funding for public transit systems upstate as they negotiate funding for the MTA capital plan.

He’s the Cornell graduate student at the center of a First Amendment case. Momodou Taal says his free speech rights were violated by the recent executive orders issued by the White House. A motion hearing was held Tuesday in Syracuse federal court as Taal's lawyers say he is facing deportation.

The case started recently when Taal sued the Trump administration over two executive orders targeting free speech and calling for the deportation of foreign student protestors.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A report released this week by the New York state Comptroller's Office shows a significant pay discrepancy between men and women in New York.

The report from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that in 2023, women earned 87 cents on the dollar compared to men and that it would take women 53 days to equal that amount.

A top Justice Department official was leaning toward dropping corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams even before summoning the top Manhattan federal prosecutor at the time to Washington to discuss the case, newly unsealed documents show.

Former interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said in a draft memo made public Tuesday that Emil Bove — now the department’s third-in-command — told her of his thinking on Jan. 27, four days before a closed-door meeting at Justice Department headquarters where she and Adams’ lawyers argued for and against keeping the case alive.

The National Transportation Safety Board is hoping to avoid future tragedies by learning more about the bridges Americans cross every day. This comes after six construction workers were killed a year ago on March 26, 2024, when a container ship struck a bridge in Baltimore, Maryland.

Spectrum News 1 dug into a new report drawing attention to infrastructure in New York state.

A Columbia University student who faces potential deportation for her involvement in a pro-Palestinian protest cannot be detained by immigration officials for now as she fights the Trump administration in court, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said in Manhattan court that the government had not laid out enough facts about its claims against Yunseo Chung.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is recommending 23AndMe customers contact the company to delete their data.

This weekend, the San Francisco-based genetic testing company announced that it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell its assets. Sunday’s filing reported total debts of more than $214.7 million as of the end of last year.