Peter Sterne

Senate Judiciary chair: Rowan Wilson or Shirley Troutman could be chief judge

After the Commission on Judicial Nomination released a shortlist of seven potential nominees for the chief judge position, state Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal told City & State he was particularly glad to see that two current Court of…

New chief judge shortlist features three current Court of Appeals judges, no Latinos

On Friday, the Commission on Judicial Nomination released a shortlist of seven finalists for the chief judge position. Gov. Hochul now has between 15 and 30 days to select one of the seven candidates to nominate. Once she nominates one of them, the…

Shake-ups are coming to the Commission on Judicial Nomination. How will that impact NY’s chief judge process?

Close observers of the chief judge nomination process expect the Commission on Judicial Nomination to release a “shortlist” of seven potential nominees before the end of the month. Under state law, the commission technically has until mid-June to…

The inside story of the fight against Hector LaSalle

On Dec. 22, Gov. Kathy Hochul nominated Hector LaSalle to be chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court. Within days, unions, reproductive rights groups and a number of state senators had announced their opposition to the…

Legislature takes a knife to Hochul’s agenda in budget proposals

On Tuesday, the state Senate stabbed Gov. Kathy Hochul in the back with a one-house budget that excluded many of her top priorities: bail reform, the charter school cap and suburban housing mandates. Instead, the proposed budget included a number of…

Full state Senate must vote on judicial nominees, judge rules, siding with GOP

On Tuesday, a Suffolk County judge ruled in favor of Republican state Sen. Anthony Palumbo, who had sued the state Senate and a number of Senate Democrats earlier this month.. Palumbo accused the state Senate of violating the state constitution when…

Schumer, AOC and other progressives turn out for Cabán fundraiser

The strength of the city’s progressive movement was on display Saturday night at The Astor, a restaurant and bar in northern Astoria that played host to a reelection fundraiser for socialist City Council Member Tiffany Cabán. A few dozen left-leaning…

Q&A with Ritchie Torres: How crypto can right the failures of the traditional financial system

Rep. Ritchie Torres is a member of the House Financial Services Committee who has advocated for comprehensive federal regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. What benefits do you think cryptocurrency can bring to New Yorkers? I have no interest in…

Q&A with John Olsen: A look at how cryptocurrency benefits New York

John Olsen is the New York state lead for the Blockchain Association, which represents the interests of the cryptocurrency industry. The association has advocated to reform the state’s restrictive virtual currency licensing regime and lobbied…

Q&A with Anna Kelles: Putting a pause on crypto in New York

Assembly Member Anna Kelles sponsored the proof-of-work bitcoin mining moratorium bill, which imposed a two-year moratorium on the issuance of new air permits to cryptocurrency mining companies that own fossil fuel-based power plants and requires the…

Q&A with Clyde Vanel: Is there still reason to hope that crypto can benefit New York?

Assembly Member Clyde Vanel is an outspoken cryptocurrency advocate who personally holds more than 10 different types of cryptocurrency and has introduced multiple bills related to the industry. Last year, he co-sponsored the Cryptocurrency and…

The uncertain fate of upstate’s most controversial bitcoin mining site

First opened in 1937, the coal-fired power plant outside the village of Dresden in the Finger Lakes region is one of many upstate power plants decommissioned in recent decades due to inefficiency and excessive greenhouse gas emissions. But the plant…

Is crypto dead in New York?

Early last year, the cryptocurrency industry was still flying high. A single bitcoin was worth about $40,000, major cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase, FTX and Crypto.com ran ads during the 2022 Super Bowl featuring major celebrities encouraging…

Can Kathy Hochul really sue the NY Senate over Hector LaSalle?

On Wednesday, following a hearing lasting nearly five hours, the state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-9 to reject Hector LaSalle’s nomination to be chief judge of the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. As far as Senate leadership is…

Shelley Mayer will join state Judiciary Committee

State Sen. Shelley Mayer is joining the state Senate Judiciary Committee for the 2023-2024 session, her office confirmed to City & State. Mayer is one of 14 Senate Democrats who have publicly announced that they plan to vote not to confirm Hector…

Latino politicians split on Hochul’s embattled chief judge pick

The political backlash to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nomination of Hector LaSalle to be chief judge, and the subsequent backlash to the backlash, has exposed deep divisions within New York’s Latino political community, pitting “Latinos for LaSalle” against…

Senate Judiciary chair says prospects are dim for Hochul’s chief judge pick

State Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Brad Hoylman said that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pick for chief judge has almost no chance of being confirmed by the Senate, now that 12 Democratic senators have publicly announced that they would vote not to confirm…

‘It’s on life support.’ Hochul’s chief judge pick faces existential opposition

So many Democrats in the state Senate are planning to vote to reject the nomination of Hector LaSalle as chief judge when it comes before the Senate next month that Gov. Kathy Hochul will need to rely on Republican votes to get him confirmed,…

Hochul nominates LaSalle to be chief judge, angering NY Senate progressives

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the nomination of Hector LaSalle to be the next chief judge of the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court on Thursday. LaSalle currently serves as the presiding justice over the appellate division’s Second Department,…

AI enters the newsroom

“These tools could free reporters up to spend more time interviewing sources and digging up information and less time transcribing interviews and writing daily stories on deadline.” The more I look at the latest machine learning models, the more…