Free Republic

ALBANY – When Mario Cuomo was sworn in to his first term as governor on January 1, 1983, a young Bishop Howard Hubbard delivered the invocation. Thirty-two years later, the now retired bishop remembers that moment with crystal clarity. But it’s what Cuomo said to him over breakfast on that inauguration day that stands out even more. "He said to me, on that occasion, 'You know, I ran for office not for any personal reward, but I ran to serve the people of New York, and if you see there are some better ways in which I can serve the...

Funeral services for former Gov. Mario Cuomo are being planned for Tuesday at the Saint Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a church official told the Daily News.

Funeral services for former Gov. Mario Cuomo are being planned for Tuesday at the Saint Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a church official told the Daily News. A time for the service has not been determined but the funeral is likely to cause a week's postponment of the State of the Address, which had been planned for Wednesday, two sources said. Another source said Cuomo administration officials have asked the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, where the speech was to be held, to keep time availabe for the re-scheduled speech the week of Jan. 12. Officials in...

The allegations in the case are downright scary. The complaint contends that Montgomery, a Navy veteran and retired police officer who rose to the rank of detective sergeant during his 30-year career, voluntarily sought treatment for insomnia at a hospital on Long Island in May of 2014 after relocating to a new home several hundred miles from his previous residence. According to the suit, the hospital diagnosed the plaintiff as “mildly depressed,” and his clinical evaluation stated, “Patient has no thoughts of hurting himself. Patient has no thoughts of hurting others. Patient is not having suicidal thoughts. Patient is not...

The death of Mario Cuomo today at age 82 marks the final end for one of the great “what if” figures in American politics. Today, the Left’s standard bearer is Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who was first elected to office only two years ago. Back in the 1980s, the liberal heartthrob was Mario Cuomo. The governor of New York from 1983 to 1995, Cuomo was long considered the great hope of the Left, especially after his riveting keynote speech to the 1984 Democratic National Convention. In it he contrasted Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a “shining city...

Be nice...

Ever-eloquent Mario Cuomo, a son of Queens who rode his rhetorical gifts to three terms as New York governor and tantalized Democrats by flirting with a run for President, died Thursday, two sources close to the family said. He was 82. Cuomo passed away six hours after his oldest son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was formally sworn-in to a second term in Manhattan. The elder Cuomo was too ill with a serious heart condition to attend.

NY1 has learned that former Governor Mario Cuomo has died at the age of 82. This comes just hours after Andrew Cuomo was publicly inaugurated for his second term as the 56th governor of New York. Governor Cuomo said in his speech at One World Trade Center that his father was unable to attend because he was too ill. He also said he and his family had spent New Year's eve with the senior Cuomo. Governor Cuomo had also changed his initial plans for his swearing in ceremony to take place in Manhattan as opposed to Albany.

Here’s a story which you didn’t expect to see coming out of the New York State government. There was a bill on the table which would have exempted New York teachers from being fired if they received the lowest proficiency ratings based on Common Core guidelines. In a bit of irony, this was a bill that Governor Andrew Cuomo had originally proposed himself. But when it came time to finalize it, Cuomo had harsh words for the current system. Declaring the state’s teacher-evaluation system a joke, Gov. Cuomo on Monday night vetoed legislation that would have barred the use of...

The state Inspector General’s Office is finalizing a bombshell investigation into the state Thruway Authority that is said to reach the highest levels of the organization, sources say. While the focus is unclear, two sources confirmed the Cuomo administration has already been approaching possible replacements for Thruway Authority Executive Director Thomas Madison. Reps for the inspector general's office, Cuomo and the Thruway Authority had no comment. Billionaire developer Howard Milstein recently resigned as Thruway Authority chairman. One source said Milstein, a big-time donor to Gov. Cuomo, to avoid getting caught up in the controversy once the IG report is released....

Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral Saturday of a police officer shot to death along with his partner in a brazen daylight ambush that shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police following a series of high-profile deaths in police custody. Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill de Blasio are expected to speak at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, who was described Friday during an eight-hour wake attended by thousands of police officers from across the country as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

ALBANY — The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks... That conclusion was delivered publicly during a year-end cabinet meeting called by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany. It came amid increased calls by environmentalists to ban fracking, which uses water and chemicals to release natural gas trapped in deeply buried shale deposits.

The most immediate consequence of the Democrats’ midterm disaster was losing control of the Senate and ceding Congress to the GOP. For the next two years, Democrats will have to deal with conservative legislation, right-wing hijinks, and—in all odds—a vacancy crisis, as Republicans freeze confirmations and refuse to fill spots in the executive branch and on the federal bench. That is bad for the Democratic Party. What’s on the horizon is worse. As Amy Walter notes for the Cook Political Report, Democrats lost big at all levels of government, including the states. “Today,” she writes, “about 55 percent of all...

If you’re a New Yorker who is dissatisfied with the original set of chromosomes you were dealt at birth, good news is on the way. Historically, various types of reassignment surgeries involved in switching genders have been considered to be either cosmetic or optional by insurance companies and have generally not been covered. These procedures are not cheap, so they remained beyond the reach of a lot of people. But now, Governor Andrew Cuomo has sent a letter to insurers in the Empire State letting them know that they are going to have to start footing the bill. Now...

Lee Albertorio felt like a man trapped in a woman’s body. After serving in the Air Force, he began taking hormones, which deepened his voice and made his physique more masculine. He changed his passport to reflect that he was male, and last year he decided to have a mastectomy, known as top surgery. But his insurance company told him the operation was cosmetic and refused to cover it, he said Wednesday. Now Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is warning insurance companies that they will no longer be allowed to deny gender reassignment surgery or other treatment to change a person’s...

When you need advice on a subject, you go to an expert. Gov. Andrew Cuomo did just that when he had a policy meeting on the subject of how cops enforce the laws with hip-hop mogul Jay Z — who earned most of his expertise in crime as a crack dealer. The governor’s spokeswoman, Melissa DeRosa, on Wednesday described their confab in Cuomo’s Midtown office as “productive.’’ The two discussed “a top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system and how we can all work together to pass a reform package,” she said. The rapper built his musical career on songs...

Officials say New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, has been hospitalized. The governor’s office says Saturday the elder Cuomo is being treated for a heart condition. A gubernatorial spokeswoman says the 82-year-old former three-term governor is in good spirits and is thankful for the best wishes and support he’s received. …

CNN's Chris Cuomo gets tear-gassed covering the riots in Ferguson after the grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

Gov. Cuomo expressed criticism for the National Weather Service and its forecast of the storm that ravaged the region in a news conference late Saturday.Cuomo said the NWS didn't indicate that the heavy snow bands would remain stationary and blast South Buffalo and the Southtowns with unprecedented snowfall.Cuomo indicated that's a big reason why New York is building its own weather forecasting system, that he states will be superior to any other state system in the country."No one had an idea that it was gonna be that much snow that fast. Snow coming down at the rate of about five...

The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.