Street named for late Queens assemblymember

Street named for late Queens assemblymember

Family, friends and former colleagues gathered on Sunday in Kew Gardens Hills to re-name a corner of Main Street in honor of late Assemblymember Michael Simanowitz, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 45.

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Orgs call on gov to boost Raise the Age funding

Orgs call on gov to boost Raise the Age funding

A group of nearly 100 organizations demanded on Monday that the governor and legislative leaders increase funding for the implementation of New York’s Raise the Age laws in the state’s budget, which is due in a little less than a month.

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Resorts World bets on casino expansion

Resorts World bets on casino expansion

The owners of Resorts World New York City in Southeast Queens unveiled their proposal for a massive casino expansion and entertainment complex on Thursday, marking the latest proposal soon to be officially submitted to the state’s Gaming Commission and the second planned for Queens.

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Nonprofits given ax by DOC last year return to work on Rikers for free

Nonprofits given ax by DOC last year return to work on Rikers for free

A little more than half a year after the Department of Correction cut a contract with several nonprofit service providers, two of those organizations have been asked to again provide programming to detainees on Rikers Island – and to do it for free.

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Gov calls for broader enforcement against illegal pot shops

Gov calls for broader enforcement against illegal pot shops

Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday renewed her call for increased enforcement against illegal cannabis shops and announced steps to broaden the state’s enforcement through a proposal first introduced through her state budget plan last month.

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‘Unorthodox approaches’: Chief judge lays out vision to reform courts during State of the Judiciary address

‘Unorthodox approaches’: Chief judge lays out vision to reform courts during State of the Judiciary address

Chief Judge Rowan Wilson doesn’t just want to reimagine how New York’s courts operate, he wants to reimagine why they operate. For the first time since taking office as the top judge in the state last spring, Wilson delivered his State of the Judiciary speech from the Court of Appeals’ courtroom in Albany on Tuesday.

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Legislature shoots down congressional maps in favor of their own

Legislature shoots down congressional maps in favor of their own

Democrats in the state legislature voted on Monday to toss out congressional redistricting lines drawn by a bipartisan commission, choosing to draw and propose their own maps – which have little impact on district boundaries in Queens.

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Attys call for state to increase law school loan debt relief

Attys call for state to increase law school loan debt relief

Hundreds of lawyers this week called on the governor and state legislature to include in the state’s upcoming budget a bill from a Queens lawmaker that would increase the amount of student loan forgiveness for public interest attorneys saddled with debt from law school.

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Queens pols push bill to close illegal pot shops but details are hazy

Queens pols push bill to close illegal pot shops but details are hazy

Queens elected officials and advocates rallied on the steps of City Hall on Friday in support of a bill that they say will help the city crackdown on illegal pot shops – but just how that crackdown would look under the bill remains unclear.

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Courts make ‘significant progress’ toward modernization, report says

Courts make ‘significant progress’ toward modernization, report says

The state’s court system has “made significant progress” in the past year modernizing its relatively archaic courthouses, according to the inaugural report from the Court Modernization Action Committee.

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‘Unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous’: Use of pepper spray skyrocketed on Rikers Island, new report finds

‘Unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous’: Use of pepper spray skyrocketed on Rikers Island, new report finds

In a single month last year, Department of Correction officers used pepper spray on eight different detainees attempting to hang themselves, highlighting a concerning pattern in violation of department policy, according to a new report from the department’s citizen watchdog board.

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