Painting, drawing or otherwise placing or displaying a noose is now a felony under New York law—punishable by up to four years in prison.

Gov. David Paterson signed the legislation that was proposed in the state after the well-publicized “Jena 6” case in Louisiana and two cases in New York—one noose was found in the locker room at the Hempstead Police Department on Long Island, and another was on the door of a Columbia University Teachers College professor. In Louisiana, white students hung nooses from a tree and black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder when they attacked a white boy who had been taunting them.

“It is sad that in these modern times there remains a need to address the problem of individuals who use nooses as a means of threat and intimidation,” Paterson said in a statement. “But it is a reality, and if we ignore it we would be derelict in our duty.”

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just announced he is expanding his “double dipping” investigation on pension fraud by requesting information from each of New York’s 685 public-school districts on hiring retired officials who had already been receiving public pensions. (He had previously sought this information just from Long Island districts.)

Cuomo’s office is looking for “double dippers” engaged in fraudulent activity and has been investigating local governments and special districts in addition to school districts.

Cuomo the Legislature will hold a public hearing next Thursday on the pension-fund investigation.

“New Yorkers need to know that their tax dollars on not being wasted on state benefits for those who do not deserve them,” he said in a statement. Read more of this entry »

Gov. David Paterson said today that he would not give in to pressure from Republicans to give the state a sales tax “holiday” between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Although the Senate Republican Majority said its bill authorizes anti-price-gouging penalties for gas station owners and gas distributors that don’t pass along the savings, Paterson said there is no guarantee that would happen. The Senate bill calls for suspending about 32 cents per gallon in state taxes.

The governor, speaking at a news conference in New York City, said he was taking responsibility for the issue by doing nothing.

“Sometimes nothing is a cool hand,” he said, referring to the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke.

The Democrat-controlled Assembly has refused to pass a gas-tax holiday bill.

Gov. David Paterson signed legislation this morning that would require sexual offenders to register their online screen names with state authorities and ban them from joining Internet social networking sites.

Paterson was joined by legislative leaders and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who pushed for the legislation after reaching settlements with sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, over inappropriate material on their Web pages.

The law will:—Require sex offenders to register all of their Internet accounts and Internet names and email addresses with the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
—Authorize the Division of Criminal Justice Services to release the information to social-networking sites and other online services to help prescreen or remove sex offenders from using the site and potentially notify police.
—Mandates that convicted sex offenders who are serving a term of probation, conditional discharge or parole be prohibited from using the Internet to contact children.

There were also some funny exchanges during the press conference that Liz at The Daily Politics recounts.

From GNS reporter Dan Osburn:

The Senate Democrats urged the Republican majority today to bring legislation to the floor that would place a moratorium on foreclosures resulting from subprime mortgages.

“In the first quarter of 2008 the rate of foreclosures throughout the state has increased by 40 percent,” said Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith. “Let’s keep people in their homes.”

Smith argued that the bipartisan legislation could prevent up to 125,000 foreclosures in the next year.

Without the moratorium and other reforms, foreclosures could result in an average property value decline of $18,000—leading to a $65 billion tax base decline, Smith said.

A subprime loan is made at a high rate, usually made by people who do not qualify for prime-rate financing.

The Legislature and governor have already set aside $25 million to provide grants for non-profits to counsel and provide legal representation people with subprime loans.

The Democrat-controlled Assembly passed a package of bills last week to tackle the subprime crisis, yet the Senate Republicans, who are in the majority, have not come on board.

Not really, but the press release yesterday from Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County, said he “lashes out at Gov. Paterson: Upstate Czar must remain.”

Let’s just say Alesi, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business , mildly criticizes Paterson over planning to do away with the two-headed, upstate-downstate Empire State Development Corp.

But the “lashing” is making its way around the blogosphere today, so here it is and you can judge for yourself.

Gov. David Paterson today said he’s committed to improving the upstate economy, saying the recently approved state budget includes $700 million for upstate economic development projects.

He said he supports Upstate Empire State Development Chairman Dan Gundersen, but wants to change the agency’s structure so it has one chairperson for the entire state – instead of the upstate-downstate branches that exist now.

“We’re very happy with the work Chairman Gundersen has performed, bringing businesses in and establishing a headquarters in Buffalo,” Paterson said.

“Somehow unfortunately his name got confused with a different issue that has to do with the leadership of any agency that I think should be centralized because upstate and downstate are interrelated.”

He said by having an upstate and downstate chairman, “we wound up in competition with each other” and initiatives, such as reforms of Industrial Development Agencies was stalled.

He said that in some cases, the state was paying for the same services twice by having a bifurcated agency.

“If somebody ran a business like this, you would want the CEO fired,” Paterson told reporters in Albany. “I’m the one running the business no matter what anyone else says. I’m the one who is responsible for this dysfunction and I’m trying to change it.”

“In changing it, I have not the least less desire to invest and to pay attention to the upstate region. But what I will say is that I understand the anxiety and the fear a lot of the business leaders and elected officials have from upstate.

“They feel that decade after decade—and I think the facts would bear out that they are right—that we have ignored nearly 50 counties in this state, time and time again.

He said he understands how upstate feels, having served as a senator in Harlem in which state leaders often ignored their difficult plight.

“I am well aware of how agitated people can get when they feel government is letting them down,” he said. “And we are not letting them down in the state. We are going to have a strong and vibrant development plan for the upstate region.”

He said that even Empire State Development doesn’t think the two-headed system is working.

“I invite you to go to people who work in ESDC and when you find someone who thought that structure was working, please give them my phone number, I’d like to talk to them,” he said.

By a 60 – 33 percent margin, Democrats say Barack Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate, a national Quinnipiac Poll found today.

Also, Obama or Clinton leads Arizona Sen. John McCain. Obama leads McCain, the GOP nominee, 47 – 40 percent while Clinton is up 46 – 41 percent, the poll found.

Among Democrats, Obama is ahead slightly as 45 percent say they want to see him win the nomination, while 41 percent want to see Clinton as the nominee.

And Democrats say 63 – 34 percent Clinton should stay in the race.

“Party leaders may be cringing over the potential damage to Democratic chances in November from the endless primary campaign, but two-thirds of the rank-and-file think Clinton ought to keep battling,” said Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll.

“The ‘dream ticket?’ Three out of five Democrats like the idea.”

Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo yesterday endorsed the idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket.

“Look, what we want more than anything is to win, and to win you’re going to need all the votes she gets and you don’t,” said Cuomo on CNN’s The Situation Room. “The best way to do it is to invite her on the ticket. If, in fact, at the end of process you win, which it looks like you might very well, then why not add her to the ticket?”

She wrote this to donors today:

Dear Friend,

There are some people out there who want to declare this race over now, before all the ballots have been counted or even cast. There are some who say they don’t know why I’m in this race. So let me tell you why I’m still running.

I’m in this race for everyone who needs a champion. For the hardworking families who are losing sleep over gas prices and grocery costs and mortgage payments and medical bills—but who never lose that American can-do spirit and optimism.

I’m in this race for the more than 16 million people like you who have supported me—for the people who have put their hearts into winning this race. You never gave up on me, and I’ll never give up on you.

We are in the homestretch. After sixteen months, there are only three weeks left to compete in the final contests. With your help I’m going to keep fighting until every last American has a chance to be heard, and as we learned last night in West Virginia, I know we can win.

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I’m also in this race because I have the best chance of beating John McCain in November and putting America on the right track.

We proved something in West Virginia last night—a state every Democratic president has won since 1916. And we proved something in a few other battleground states that have a history of picking presidents. Pennsylvania. Ohio. Arkansas. New Hampshire. New Jersey. New Mexico. Nevada. And, yes, Michigan and Florida.

I am in this race, and so are you, because we both know the stakes in this election are too high to stay on the sidelines.

So let’s keep going together, you and me. Let’s keep driving our campaign forward, and let’s keep winning.

Make a contribution today to help me win.

I want to thank you again for the incredible generosity of spirit you have shown over the course of this campaign. Together, you and I are going to make history.

   The State University of New York is making progress on finding a new chancellor for the 64-campus system and is on track to make an appointment during summer, Board of Trustees Chairman Carl Hayden reported today.

   SUNY has been without a permanent chancellor since John Ryan resigned from the $340,000-per-year position last May. John Clark is interim chancellor.

   With the help of its hired search firm, the search committee reviewed the credentials of about 30 potential candidates a few weeks ago and whittled the number down to six. A few of them need to interview as soon as possible because of other potential job offers, so a few members of the search committee will be traveling to meet with them in coming weeks, Hayden said.

   Hayden said he was not satisfied that the list of candidates is “sufficiently diverse,” and SUNY is working with the search firm to change that. The committee will not make a decision until it has “an appropriately diverse array” of people, he said.