Free Republic

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a tough new plan Wednesday to address the heroin problem in New York. Just one day before the Legislative session ends, New York lawmakers struck a deal with Cuomo on a series of bills that take aim at the growing heroin crisis, WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman reported. New York Lawmakers, Gov. Cuomo Announce New Plan To Combat Heroin Use The governor said the first step in dealing with the drug problem “is to admit the reality, right? Denial is not an option.” And the reality is “New York has a much more...

Let's play a game. Let's say you've done something wrong and will therefore be punished. Here's your punishment: You must retire from your job. You will receive a full pension. Your days will be free for whatever your heart desires. Hey, stop smiling. You're being punished! In the real world, of course, retirement is generally seen as a good thing, especially if the retiree will be financially comfortable. But when a cop misbehaves, retirement is treated like the guillotine. Consider the plea deal for Schenectady Detective John Hotaling. His road-rage charges will be essentially dropped if he trades his badge...

Shortly after John J. O’Connor became Archbishop of New York in March 1984, he found himself in a battle with the state’s governor, Mario M. Cuomo, which not only made national headlines but also had a profound impact on the abortion debate in America.It began when the archbishop said during a press conference: “I do not see how a Catholic, in good conscience, can vote for an individual expressing himself or herself as favoring abortion.” That didn’t sit well with Cuomo.  The governor, who in the early 1970s had been publicly pro-life, changed his position after losing a primary for lieutenant governor...

A Queens (gym) teacher was charged today with raping a second student, an apparent rebound from an affair with another 16-year-old boy that ended when he took someone else to the school prom. Joy Morsi, 38, was back in court for a second day in a row after prosecutors hit her with more rape and child endangerment charges for alleged abuses that happened right under her husband’s nose. A day earlier, prosecutors said the Grover Cleveland High School teacher had been carrying on a months-long affair with a student, and flipped when she learned he was taking someone else to...

Eastside Gynecology is located in a neighborhood in New York City where very important people live in close proximity. That’s why it seems fitting that the high-end abortion clinic would appeal to nearby potential clientele by offering VIP Abortion Services.For women with discriminating tastes, Eastside Gynecology offers “exclusive and VIP surgical services” for early and late-term abortions, surgical abortions, and manual vacuum aspirations (MVA) “for any patient who requires the utmost in service, comfort, and confidentiality.”According to the Eastside Gynecology website: Our VIP rooms are designed to make you feel at home, with a luxurious mahogany bed, oil paintings,...

WATERVLIET - Firefighters in Watervliet spent Thursdsay morning, not fighting fires but raising money for the World War II veteran who had his benefits slashed to just $6 a month. They're hoping to raise at least $3,000 for 89-year-old Joseph Teson. As NewsChannel 13 first told you over the weekend, the Department Of Veterans Affairs told Teson he was overpaid by more than $3,000. So, they're withholding most of his benefits until they get the money back. Teson's relatives say he relies on the money and is now selling some of his coin collection just to pay the bills. “The...

WATERVLIET – On this Memorial Day weekend, World War II veteran Joseph Teson is thinking about his fallen comrades – and his personal finances. Teson, a D-Day survivor, told NewsChannel 13 the federal government has reduced his veterans benefits to just $6 per month in order to recoup an overpayment. “I don’t know how they did it, but they did it,” Teson, 89, said Saturday. “I didn’t say nothing. I just let it go. Everybody else complained but me.” Teson said he used to receive about $300.00 per month in veterans benefits, about a third of which he donated to...

New York is losing the battle to lure outsourced jobs now slowly trickling back to the US — and more competitive regions are poaching Gotham’s jobs. The tax breaks and incentives to stem New York’s slide? Too little, too late, critics say. “If you’re a businessman thinking of bringing jobs back to one of the 50 states, then New York is at the bottom of that list,” said Neal Asbury, a manufacturer who grew up in Morristown, NJ, and has studied New York’s high cost base. “You have a governor telling the world he doesn’t want conservatives in his state...

Carl Paladino, the conservative businessman who pulled off an upset to win the Republican primary in the 2010 New York's governor's race, is counting on Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney to pull off a similar upset in the state's 22nd Congressional District. Paladino said today he will back Tenney, R-New Hartford, in her GOP primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, the two-term Republican who faces his second consecutive challenge from his party's conservative base.

New York state Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney announced a primary challenge to Republican Rep. Richard Hanna Wednesday morning, hitting her opponent from the right. Tenney, a second-term conservative Republican and “lifelong resident of New Hartford,” launched the challenge to the two-term congressman at 9 a.m.

Kathleen C. Hochul, a former member of Congress and Erie County clerk with a reputation as a personable politician and strong campaigner, is Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s choice to run for lieutenant governor.Hochul, 55, would replace Robert Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, who opted not to seek a second term as lieutenant governor.“This should be another big boost for Buffalo,” Cuomo said. “This is a big deal to have a lieutenant governor from your town.”After months of speculation, Cuomo this afternoon made his selection known to the delegates attending the convention here that Hochul will be running with him...

LANCASTER, NY - Representative Kathy Hochul (D - 26th District) was booed at her own town hall meeting on Friday morning in Lancaster. The packed crowd was critical of Hochul for supporting President Obama's plan to require religiously affiliated employers, such as hospitals and schools, to provide full contraception coverage to female employees. The plan was later altered. It now calls for those workers to get free contraceptive coverage from health insurers, thus sparing religious based groups, morally opposed to paying for birth control, from having to do so. Even though Hochul's town hall meeting was open to any topic,...

RYE BROOK - New York Republicans have officially nominated Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino (R) as their candidate in the race for governor. Republicans wrapped up their state party convention Thursday at the Hilton Hotel in Rye Brook after nominating Astorino. Other candidates nominated include Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci for comptroller and chief of staff to former Gov. George Pataki John Cahill as attorney general. Astorino says his success in Westchester shows he can appeal to all kinds of voters in heavily Democratic New York. In his acceptance speech, Astorino called for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has a modest, tongue-in-cheek suggestion for people in New York City who support his agenda: move to North Dakota. "I said, 'Move to North Dakota!" "If I could just get about a million surplus votes in Brooklyn out to Nebraska, Wyoming," he said, drawing laughs from the crowd of about 50 people.

NORTHEAST and SOUTH There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Maine: BRUCE POLIQUIN, MAINE-2, JUNE 10th .... Open Seat Endorsed by: Maine Right to Life, Freedom Works Bruce Poliquin -- FACEBOOK -- TWITTER -- DONATEFreedomWorks: "As a...

He’s been dead for eight years, but try telling that to the NYPD. Cops have barged into James Jordan Sr.’s family home looking for him more than a dozen times since he died in 2006 — prompting his exasperated relatives to finally post his death certificate on the front door. “I tell them over and over, ‘James isn’t here! He’s dead! It’s that simple. What’s so difficult to understand about that?’ ” the Brooklyn security guard’s widow, Karen, told The Post on Monday. James Jordan Sr., who died from diabetes at age 46, was last arrested in 1996 — for turnstile-jumping,...

The working day in the retrial of former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno will be shorter — as long as the former political powerhouse is not too talkative outside of court. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gary Sharpe conditionally ruled on Thursday that the trial, which begins Monday, will start at 10 a.m. and last until 4:30 p.m. each day. He said Bruno, 85, of Brunswick requested the shorter days for medical-related reasons. (...) But Sharpe said his view will change if he sees Bruno outside the courthouse speaking to reporters about the trial. The longtime Republican senator...

WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the White House Wednesday to give "immediate attention'' to safety issues involving the increased use of freight trains to transport crude oil. He made his comments just hours before the latest derailment in Lynchburg, Va. Cuomo later said the accident and other recent derailments are "a startling pattern that underscores the need for action." "In addition to steps that states like New York are taking, the federal government must overhaul the safety regulations, starting with taking DOT-111 trains off the rails now," he said in a statement. "These trains travel through populated...

Heroin peddled by Mexican drug cartels have flooded the Northeast – and unlike its predecessors from the 1980s, the drug is stronger, cheaper and purer. New York City has become the hub for the criminal enterprise and lawmakers in the state are putting forward a package of legislation that seeks to fight the resurgence of heroin. The bills, expected to become public on Monday, would toughen penalties for dealers, impose more funding for overdose-reversal drugs and increase insurance coverage for treatment. The proposed laws follow a series of forums that Senate Democrats held around the state on the sudden spread...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will be arriving in New York this afternoon for a trip trying to lure businesses to the Lone Star State, offered a Texas-sized take-down of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s record on job creation this morning and challenged him to a debate. “I’d be more than happy to sit down and have a thoughtful conversation, a debate with Gov. Cuomo over the issues that face us as a state and talk about the economic policies and compare New York to Texas,” said Mr. Perry, speaking on New York Post columnist Fred Dicker’s Live from the State Capitol...