Nearly all of the New York’s school districts had submitted teacher evaluation plans to the state at the year’s end with a costly deadline looming just weeks away. About a dozen districts have not yet submitted, a state Education Department spokeswoman said Monday. The department does expect more submissions before… Read More →
Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, Monroe County, is considered a front-runner for Assembly majority leader, the second-highest ranking position behind Assembly speaker. But he’s not making calls or lobbying Speaker Sheldon Silver. Morelle said he hasn’t lobbied for the position, and he has asked others not to campaign on his behalf…. Read More →
New York City was host to a record 52 million visitors in 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday, the last day of the year. Two percent more tourists traveled to the Big Apple this year than in 2011, generating an estimated $55.3 billion for the city’s economy, Bloomberg and NYC… Read More →
Some New York stores that sell lottery games appear to be luckier than others, a review by Gannett’s Albany Bureau found. Forty-seven stores outside New York City and Long Island had five or more winners who cashed in $5,000 or more between 2009 and 2011. The luckiest was Memorial Stationery,... Read More →
A study of hunger in New York showed that seniors make up 20 percent of people who visit food pantries and soup kitchens. The national rate was about one-third of all visitors to receive free food and meals were senior citizens, the report today from Hunger Action, an Albany-based group… Read More →
The state Thruway Authority said it will have free coffee and hot tea at its 27 travel plazas starting at 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve through 7 a.m. The Thruway started the coffee giveaway 42 years ago. It’s the latest act of goodwill by the embattled Thruway Authority. It… Read More →
Many local governments are struggling to keep up with growing costs as revenues decline, a report Friday from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. From 2006 through 2011, expenditures for the state’s nearly 4,000 local governments grew by 17.4 percent, while revenues increased 15 percent, the report said. The disparity has meant… Read More →
Sixteen days into the latest public-comment period on the state’s proposed hydrofracking regulations, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has received a total of 837 comments. That total includes 390 submitted online and 447 sent via mail, according to DEC spokeswoman Emily DeSantis. The DEC unveiled its latest set of… Read More →
With the House of Representatives set to return to session on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is out with a lengthy statement urging the chamber to support the Superstorm Sandy aid package moved forward by the Senate. The $60.4 billion package would provide aid to the states hardest hit by the… Read More →
The state’s Committee on Open Government wants local and state governments to more proactively post records and information on their websites, limiting the need for Freedom of Information requests, Gannett’s Albany Bureau reported today. The committee, in its annual report released this month, said New York laws should be changed… Read More →