Free Republic

Public heath insurance programs would be required to cover medical marijuana in New York if a new Assembly bill is enacted. “Cost is the primary barrier to patient access in New York’s medical marijuana program,” reads a memo attached to the legislation. “Medicaid, other public health plans, and commercial health insurance plans do not cover medical marijuana, forcing patients to pay out of pocket. Some patients begin treatment only to stop due to inability to pay, while others turn to the black market.” “For thousands of patients, medical marijuana is a safer and more effective medication than other drugs, especially...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding onto a 22-point lead over Republican Marc Molinaro as the 2018 race for governor enters its final five weeks, according to a new poll made public Monday. Cuomo, a two-term Democrat, leads Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, 50-28 percent, according to the Siena College poll of likely voters. The governor also leads by wide margins over four other third-party candidates who will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot, the poll found. A combined 14 percent of likely voters said they will vote for one of the third-party candidates.

At a packed town hall meeting in Brooklyn Thursday evening to discuss options for saving a crumbling section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, city officials from the Department of Transportation came up against some not-unexpected pushback against a proposal that would involve closing the Brooklyn Heights promenade for six years. This was the first public meeting since the city unveiled two separate proposals for the project last week. The meeting opened with a presentation of both options—each projected to cost between $3 billion and $4 billion—while Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner, braced herself for the inevitable backlash. “I understand a...

Republicans raged Saturday at the expanding number of top New York Democrats who are giving their challengers the silent treatment rather than debate them. So far, Gov. Cuomo, and two top Dems — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and attorney general candidate Letitia James — are ducking debates with their darkhorse opponents.

**SNIP** Crowley has formed a state campaign committee “Joe for NY,” and is holding a fundraiser Oct. 29 at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel in Manhattan, where the maximum suggested donation is $10,000. According to an email sent to “Irish Americans & Friends Crowley” by Walter Swett of the firm Dynamic SRG, who is the Crowley committee’s campaign treasurer, the group was “established to position Joe for future opportunities in public service.” **SNIP** The IrishCentral website recently floated Crowley’s name for statewide office, noting that, “While white ethnic Catholic no longer plays that well in Queens, it is a powerful...

Insane lunatic, NY Governor, Cuomo, politically slaughters supreme Nutcase Cynthia. You do not want to know the numbers...it's hilarious!!!

It seems that Democratic socialist and New York City congressional hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a lot to learn about Congress. Ocasio-Cortez spoke Monday at her alma mater of Boston University, raising eyebrows with a comment on implementing her campaign promises if she wins in November. "It doesn't mean you get everything tomorrow. As much as I would love that, I would love to get inaugurated January 3rd [and] January 4th we're signing health care, we're signing this."

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- The Staten Island lady who scaled Lady Liberty wants a group of her peers to decide her fate -- not a judge -- when her case heads for trial this fall. Therese Patricia Okoumou, 44, is asking for a jury trial, even though she does not have a legal right to one considering the "petty offenses" she is facing, according to court papers filed in Manhattan federal court. The St. George resident faces charges of trespassing, interfering with agency functions and disorderly conduct after climbing to the base of the landmark and refusing to get down, officials...

The City Council on Wednesday approved legislation that will allow New Yorkers to select a third gender category on their birth certificates. The change, which has the backing of Mayor de Blasio, ensures a new “non-binary” identity category known as “X” will be available on birth certificates for those who don’t consider their gender to be male or female. It was approved 41-6 in a Council vote. Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who introduced the legislation, said it will make “New York birth certificates more inclusive for all and will send a powerful signal to the world that New York City government...

Giving Christine Blasey Ford the opportunity to testify about her unsubstantiated accusations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is, somehow, silencing her, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) declared Wednesday night. Refusing to launch an FBI investigation into Ford’s claims is also “silencing her,” Sen. Gillibrand said in a tweet: “Denying Dr. Ford an FBI investigation is silencing her. Forcing her into a sham hearing is silencing her. And pushing through Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is silencing her.”

A Tuesday request by The New York Times asking for readers’ help in finding examples of “false information” intended to “confuse, mislead, or influence voters” met with predictable results. The request teed up a blast of sarcasm from critics, many of whom suggested reading the newspaper’s own pages or posted stories such as last week’s walked-back Times report on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley’s curtains. “Have you checked your op-ed page lately?” tweeted on commentator in a typical post. Others jabs included, “Buy a mirror,” “Look within,” “Start with every article you publish,” and “The offices of Bret...

Several New York politicians, particularly Governor Cuomo and Maria T. Vullo, have verbally attacked the National Rifle Association (NRA), written letters to state regulatory agencies, industries regulated by New York State, and advised the industries to evaluate whether they should keep the NRA as a customer. The NRA has filed a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. The issue is whether the state government can single out a particular entity it politically disagrees with, and use its regulatory power against that entity.Such use would effectively silence political foes, nullifying First Amendment protections.  The New Republic, a leftist publication, noted the...

FULL TITLE: Patrick Mouratoglou admits he WAS 'coaching' Serena during the controversial US Open final but says he doesn't believe Williams saw him Patrick Mouratoglou has admitted to coaching Serena Williams during the US Open final but believes she didn't see him - which is why she became so enraged at the umpire. Williams has made headlines for coming to blows with umpire Carlos Ramos after he gave her a coaching violation in the second set. The tennis legend, who was then docked a point after she smashed her racket, told Ramos she would rather lose than cheat. 'I'm honest,...

Fatima Perspectives #1231 As this column goes to press, the news has leaked that New York Attorney General Barbara Dale Underwood “has subpoenaed all New York Roman Catholic dioceses as part of a state-wide investigation into sex crimes committed by the church…”.I wonder if Cardinal Dolan, the endlessly amused Archbishop of New York, is laughing now — just as he belly-laughed when confronted by a staffer of The Fatima Center on the Borgo Pio in Rome, who reminded him of the manner in which he had disgraced the Church by leading a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade knowing full well that it...

Serena Williams given warning for coaching, which she fiercely disputes A code violation then brings about a point penalty Williams unleashes a volley of abuse and is given a game penalty for verbal abuse Osaka holds her nerve to win 6-2, 6-4 for first major title

New York and New Jersey have launched new probes into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in light of Pennsylvania’s recent grand jury report. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, moved by the Pennsylvania report on child sexual abuse, subpoenaed all eight dioceses in the state for information and documents regarding any allegations of sexual abuse, payments to alleged victims, and church investigation findings. Gurbir Grewal, the attorney general of New Jersey, meanwhile, announced the formation of a special task force assigned to investigate the way seven dioceses have handled sexual abuse allegations. (RELATED: Main Org For Catholic Business Owners...

**SNIP** The 27-year-old Democratic candidate for the New York Senate has come unstuck in recent days after she was outed as a former Republican and accused of faking her hardscrabble immigrant backstory. Now, DailyMail.com can reveal the extent of her deception with a series of images documenting Salazar's privileged upbringing in the upmarket Florida enclave of Jupiter, where her family built their own four-bedroom home, owned boats, a jet ski and rubbed shoulders with celebrities. It can also be revealed for the first time that Salazar's Colombian father, a commercial and cargo pilot who became a naturalized US citizen years...

I haven't seen any poll info about the socialist bartender anywhere.

“The number of immigrants added to the labor force every year is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a century,” one American president wrote back in 2006 – and it wasn’t Donald Trump. The excerpt is from Obama’s 2006 memoir “The Audacity of Hope,” and the full quote has gone viral after commentator Candace Owens posted it to her twitter. The rest of the quote is as follows: Re: Illegal Immigrants “…this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides some benefits to the economy as a whole —it also threatens to depress further the wages of...

Disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate won’t take no for an answer. The felon is running for office again — this time for a Democratic district leader’s post in East Elmhurst, Queens, the lowest rung on the ladder. Monserrate lost a comeback bid for a City Council seat last year when he was defeated by Francisco Moya. But he still received 44 percent of the vote in that contest and retains a loyal following on his East Elmhurst-Corona turf.