Government

The state board of elections approved the language for a ballot amendment that would change the way redistricting  is done in New York. But not everyone is happy with the wording, or the amendment.

The November ballot amendment would permit the Senate and the Assembly to appoint members to what the amendment describes as an “independent” commission to redraw legislative district lines every ten years, as required by the census.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The New York Attorney General's Office says it will take applications to help Land Banks restore abandoned properties with up to $20 million.

The office says that follows $13 million allocated in the initiative last year.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is dedicating money from the 2012 national settlement with five major mortgage lenders over foreclosure practices.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign an amendment to New York's laws against drunken driving that would turn three DWI-related offenses within 15 years into a felony.

Possible penalties for the felony are up to seven years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

The measure is called "Vince's Law" for a man killed in suburban Syracuse by a driver with five prior offenses.

Authorities say the driver's blood-alcohol content was four times the legal limit

The law would take effect Nov. 1 and apply to offenses after that.

Governor Cuomo confirms that the U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara, sent a warning letter to the lawyer representing the now disbanded Moreland Act Commission on ethics, as first reported in the New York Times.  In it, the paper says, Bharara threatened to investigate the governor’s aides and maybe even Cuomo himself for “possible obstruction of justice or witness tampering.”

The State Sheriff's Association is recommending its members refuse requests by the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to hold foreign-born detainees for additional time so they can investigate any immigration-related offenses.

They're called ICE detainers.

Wayne County Sheirff  Barry Virts says he's not holding individuals on a detainer, but he's only following the law.

He says an Oregon court judge ruled earlier this year that ICE detainers amounted to a request, not a court order.

Rochester is getting a grant of just over $300,000 from the federal government to help with brownfield cleanup.

Mayor Lovely Warren says the money will revive the Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund which provides low-interest loans to small businesses to clean up brownfield sites in Rochester.  Brownfields are abandoned and contaminated properties.

Warren says the money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the first grant under the city's designation as a "manufacturing community."  That gives the city preferential consideration for certain federal funds.

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s opponents in the November races are stepping up accusations over the ethics commission scandal, and citing sections of state law that they say might have been broken by the governor’s aides.

Lieutenant Governor candidate Tim Wu, who along with Zephyr Teachout is challenging Cuomo and Kathy Hochul in the state Democratic primary, teaches New York State criminal law at Columbia University.

  Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says there's been an endless wave of sexual assaults on the nation's college campuses.

So she's co-sponsoring legislation designed to create incentives for schools to take proactive steps to protect students.

Gillibrand says she was moved by a recent article about a Hobart and William Smith college student named "Anna" who told the New York Times she was sexually assaulted on campus.

The college said it handled the case properly with compassion, respect and seriousness.

The little known and underfunded Republican challenger for Governor in New York has been getting a boost from incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo’s troubles over alleged interference in an ethics panel. Rob Astorino has been doing his best to keep the controversy, first reported in an in depth story in the New York Times, alive.

Governor Cuomo, in his first appearance since the controversy over his disbanded ethics commission was detailed in the New York Times,  delivered a spirited  speech in Buffalo, touting the work he’s done to help the city’s troubled economy, calling it an  “unbelievable turn around”, and announcing the creation of over 600 new jobs.