| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Presented by New Yorkers for Responsible Gaming | If you thought a court order earlier this month was the last blow to Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his administration's stilted reporting on the Covid-19 deaths in nursing home, you're not alone. Yet this morning we find ourselves with calls for the governor's resignation or impeachment coming in from New York Republicans, and quite a few Democrats, after new information Thursday night on how his administration concealed true Covid-19 death tolls. Those revelations, via the New York Post: Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, told Democratic state legislators in a virtual meeting on Wednesday that the administration "froze" out of fear that the data would "be used against us" by federal prosecutors under the Trump administration. According to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Post, DeRosa admitted to and apologized for stonewalling legislators' requests for a full count of nursing home deaths, explaining that it came at the same time former President Donald Trump turned "this into a giant political football." "And basically, we froze," she told the legislators. "Because then we were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation." The issue at hand: Nearly 15,000 New Yorkers who were in long-term care facilities died from Covid-19, according to the latest figures. The number has increased by several thousand from the administration's initial reporting after a state court and Attorney General Tish James prompted officials to release more complete data. The firestorm that greeted the Post's report, as our Bill Mahoney put it, is a barrage of criticism arguably unparalleled at any point during Cuomo's decade in office. "Prosecution and impeachment discussions must begin right away," state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy said. "If the Governor is involved, he should be immediately removed from office," said state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, who will hold a press conference this morning to push for further investigation. Cuomo's office sent DeRosa's response well past midnight: "I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature's request to deal with the federal request first. We informed the houses of this at the time. We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic." An effort has already been building to strip Cuomo of some of the expansive emergency powers he has assumed during the pandemic, and that fight is likely to ramp up. The governor is heading to Washington today for his first White House visit under the Biden administration, and he is carrying plenty of new baggage with him. IT'S FRIDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S ANDREW? In Albany and meeting with President Biden and other leaders at The White House. WHERE'S BILL? Appearing on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show and speaking at a NYCHA vaccination site. ABOVE THE FOLD: "On Friday, New York City will pull back indoor dining restrictions. Not every restaurant plans to open its doors. Major chains like McDonald's Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. are opting to keep their tables cordoned off due to health and staffing concerns. Other restaurants say opening at New York's limit of 25% capacity won't yield enough sales to warrant the additional staffing, cleaning and operational costs. 'For us, 25% is four tables,' said T.J. Steele, chef and co-owner of the Mexican restaurant Claro in Brooklyn. 'Restaurants are already on such slim margins. Unless overhead was being reduced 75%, the numbers don't add up.' The city's restaurant owners were already struggling financially after being closed for more than five months during the initial Covid-19 outbreak. Allowed to reopen at limited capacity in September, indoor dining lasted less than three months before being halted by Governor Andrew Cuomo to quell a post-holiday Covid surge. While cases declined from January highs, the seven-day average of new cases in the city remains higher than on Dec. 12, when Cuomo shut down indoor dining." Bloomberg's Kate Krader, Leslie Patton, Jonathan Roeder, and Henry Ren PROGRAMMING NOTE: New York Playbook will not publish on Monday, Feb. 15. After the brief hiatus, we'll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday, Feb 16. Please continue to follow POLITICO New York. | | A message from New Yorkers for Responsible Gaming: Throughout this unprecedented health crisis, Resorts World New York City's commitment to their employees, community and New York State has not wavered. Expansion of existing facilities will allow them to continue to build on their track record of creating good-paying union jobs with full-service employer paid health care, while generating critical resources for education in New York State. Learn more about how Resorts World is supporting its employees and investing in New York's future. | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO on Thursday railed that micromanagement by his longtime political rival Gov. Andrew Cuomo has hampered New York's rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. De Blasio took the jabs at Cuomo as he testified at a virtual Albany legislative budget hearing on local governments while under questioning from Long Island Assemblyman Fred Thiele who asked de Blasio about the mounting frustrations among local officials and lawmakers over the governor's centralized control of the vaccine effort. 'Our local health officials know what they're doing, but don't have clear direction from the state on what we're going to get at any given point,' de Blasio said referring to vaccine supply. 'And there's lots of specific rules the state adds on and changes all the time. It's just gumming up the works.' Hizzoner made the remarks as he pressed for lawmakers to reconsider the emergency powers they granted to Cuomo during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic almost a year ago — telling a receptive audience it was time restore local control." New York Post's Nolan Hicks and Natalie Musumeci — De Blasio said Cuomo's budget proposal would cut nearly $500 million in funding from the city's public hospital system. — The mayor called for state lawmakers to raise taxes on the rich, but couldn't say by how much or on whom. "NEW YORK CITY Mayor Bill de Blasio has yet to fulfill a promise to set up a legal defense fund to raise more than $300,000 he owes BigLaw firm and lobbying shop Kramer Levin for representing him in ethics probes, meaning he could avoid public scrutiny of how he's settled the debt if he waits until he's out of office. The unpaid bill highlights a loophole in a new law mandating how legal defense trusts can operate for municipal officials, which includes public disclosure requirements, contribution limits and bans on donations from corporations, LLCs, lobbyists and others doing business with the city." Law 360's Anna Sanders "MONUMENTS TO Christopher Columbus on city parkland remain under constant NYPD protection and behind barricades — 10 months after nationwide protests against police brutality ignited a renewed reckoning over historic symbols of oppression. While statues of the Italian explorer have been defaced or come down in several cities across the country, the five monuments in Columbus Circle and in Central Park in Manhattan, along with ones in Downtown Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens, are shielded by the constant presence of police vehicles or barricades." The City's Jose Martinez FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Manhattan District Attorney candidate Eliza Orlins will announce a plan today for how she would release more data from the prosecutor's office, if she wins the post. As DA, she would redirect some of the money spent on prosecution of misdemeanors to create a dedicated data and analytics team, which will release statistics and reports tracking prosecution trends, plea deals, how often bail is being set, racial disparities and other metrics. She would also have the office hire a chief policy scientist to oversee the effort. Orlins, a public defender, is also pledging to publicize metrics including percentage of cases dismissed, time to disposition for misdemeanors and felonies, time to initial appearance, percentage of cases referred to alternatives to incarceration, and length of prison sentence. | | | | THE INDISPENSABLE GUIDE TO CONGRESS: Looking for the latest on the Schumer/McConnell dynamic or the increasing tensions in the House? What are the latest whispers coming out of the Speaker's Lobby? Just leave it to Beavers... New author Olivia Beavers delivers the scoop in Huddle, the morning Capitol Hill must-read with assists from POLITICO's deeply sourced Congress team. Subscribe to Huddle today. | | | | |
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "MORTON KLEINER had expected to vaccinate more than 100 employees of his Island Rehabilitative Services through New York state's hospital vaccination program, which prioritized front-line healthcare workers. His eight facilities, sprinkled across the Greater New York area and based in Staten Island, serve about 1,500 patients on dialysis and thousands more who have renal disease. Some of those patients have Covid-19. Dr. Kleiner was approved by the state to be a vaccine provider and was, at one point over the past two months, set to get as many as 200 doses for his workers, he said. Those doses never arrived due to overall vaccine shortages, he was told. 'I am constantly calling, constantly reaching out,' said Dr. Kleiner. 'Not only is it frustrating, it's a safety issue. It represents a breakdown in the process.' Thousands of healthcare workers in New York state remain unvaccinated against Covid-19, and the reasons are a nuanced mix of bureaucracy, limited supply and reluctance." Wall Street Journal's Melanie Grayce West — "New York will follow updated guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will not require certain people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to quarantine after being exposed to someone with the virus." ALSO IN THE NURSING HOME REPORT: "James recommended a repeal of the immunity provisions made possible by Cuomo's office because they 'can provide financial incentives to for-profit nursing home operators to put residents at risk of harm.' With the immunity shield in place, nursing homes could have been 'refraining from investing public funds to obtain sufficient staffing to meet residents' care needs, to purchase sufficient PPE for staff, and to provide effective training to staff to comply with infection control protocols during pandemics and other public health emergencies.' It was a direct rebuke of a law that a select number of state legislators have been trying to strike from the books since it first appeared in the budget last spring without their consultation." Gothamist's Ross Barkan "THE CATHOLIC bishops of New York sold a lucrative insurance business they controlled and stored the proceeds in a foundation they also administer, keeping billions out of the reach of survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The move occurred in 2018, with the church selling its Fidelis Care insurance company and moving $4.3 billion of the proceeds into the new Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. At the same time, the Child Victims Act in New York was gaining momentum in the Legislature, a measure that the church had lobbied against for more than a decade." Times Union's Edward McKinley "THE CITY of Rochester Thursday released more police body-worn camera footage showing a distraught and dismayed 9-year-old girl being apprehended on Jan. 29, taken to the ground, handcuffed, and then put in the back of a Rochester Police Department police vehicle as she is pepper sprayed and calls out repeatedly for her father… Newly-released footage shows the child struggling in the back of the police vehicle as the pepper spray runs from her eyes and into her mouth. The girl, whom her mother said was making threats to harm herself and her mother, is in the back of the vehicle while police await the arrival of an ambulance." Democrat & Chronicle's Will Cleveland, Brian Sharp and Justin Murphy "THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE may leave New York State if Albany imposes a transfer tax on stock sales . the president of the Intercontinental Exchange Inc-owned exchange operator said on Tuesday in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. NYSE President Stacey Cunningham said she and 25 other representatives of New York's securities industry sent a letter last Wednesday to state legislative leaders warning against the unintended consequences of imposing such a tax, which would ultimately be borne by investors." Reuters' John McCrank #Upstate America: A funeral home van with a dead body was stolen outside a convenience store in north St. Louis County. | | | |   | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "REPUBLICAN CLAUDIA Tenney was officially sworn in Thursday morning to the U.S. House of Representatives by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve New York's 22nd congressional district, ending the seat's nearly three months-long vacancy and epic court battle over mail-in ballot disputes. The New York State Board of Elections certified Tenney's win by 109 votes on Tuesday over Democratic incumbent Anthony Brindisi, clinching her victory for the seat that covers parts of eight upstate counties spanning from the cities of Utica to Binghamton." New York Post's Bernadette Hogan "HOPES among millions of upper-income and middle-class taxpayers for a repeal of the Trump administration's limits on their federal deductions will likely be on hold for now, as an effort to include the measure in the Covid-19 aid package is poised to fail. The House Ways and Means Committee is slated to clear the tax portions of President Joe Biden's stimulus legislation on Friday. Calls by some New Jersey Democrats to repeal the $10,000 cap on state and local tax, or SALT, write-offs, have gone unheeded in the legislation so far. The panel's chair, Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, didn't include the item in the draft legislation released by the committee earlier this week. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat on the committee who's among the lawmakers pushing for a SALT-cap repeal, isn't going to propose an amendment with the measure, according to his spokesman Mark Greenbaum. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also called for a repeal, his chamber's Covid-19 relief bill is also unlikely to include that, according to a Senate Democratic aide familiar with the plans." Bloomberg's Laura Davison | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The City Council passed bills to study turning Rikers Island into a renewable energy hub after the jail complex there is closed, and to transfer custody of the island from the Department of Correction to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. — Chief Judge Janet DiFiore's daughter sailed to a state Supreme Court seat last fall after Cuomo elevated one of her main opponents to a separate judicial post. — A grand jury decided not to indict two Buffalo police officers who were suspended and charged with felonies for pushing a 75-year-old protester as they cleared the front of City Hall. — The Buffalo Teachers Federation on Thursday lost its court battle to halt in-person instruction in the city's schools. — More than 1.7 million counterfeit N95 masks were seized in a raid on a Queens warehouse. — Cuomo wants health insurers to cover fertility treatment for same-sex couples from the start, instead of waiting six to 12 months. — Last year saw a record number of bias attacks against Asians in New York City, police statistics show. — The Public Service Commission is asking Cuomo to expand its number of seats to seven. — Lawmakers announced a bill that would prohibit state and local police from assisting federal immigration enforcement. — Two Queens Defenders employees were fired after vocally supporting a push to unionize the organization. — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is backing Tahanie Aboushi for Manhattan DA, earning the race some attention from Fox News. — City Council Member Francisco Moya is getting many of the contributions for his re-election campaign from people tied to Queens' new pro soccer club. — Rev. Al Sharpton filed for divorce from his long-estranged wife. — People of color held nearly 70 percent of jobs lost in 2020, according to a New School study. | | | | TRACK THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: President Biden's cabinet is getting confirmed, bringing change to agencies and departments across the Executive Branch. From the West Wing to Foggy Bottom, track the first 100 days of the Biden administration with Transition Playbook, our scoop-filled newsletter that chronicles the policies, people, and emerging power centers of the new administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jim VandeHei is 5-0 … Ben Sherwood … WSJ's Rachel Feintzeig … Megan Apper of the White House … Jeremy Iloulian ... CBN's David Brody … NBC News' Marianna Sotomayor … Jeff Schlagenhauf … POLITICO's Chris Suellentrop MAKING MOVES — Ryan Dalton will be the new director of external affairs for Siemens, based in New York. He was previously senior director of state affairs at the BGR Group and a member of the Democratic Governors Association Finance Committee. MEDIAWATCH — "A hedge fund that owns a big stake in Tribune Publishing Co. is in talks to buy the newspaper chain behind titles including the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News. Alden Global Capital LLC, Tribune's largest shareholder with a 32% stake, is discussing a deal with the publishing company to buy the shares it doesn't already own, according to people familiar with the matter." Wall Street Journal's Cara Lombardo and Lukas I. Alpert — " Bloomberg News has begun layoffs, and insiders expect about 100 people to be affected,"by Insider's Steven Perlberg — PER POLITICO PLAYBOOK: NYT DRAMA, PART XXCCXXXIX: NBC reports that NYT columnist BRET STEPHENS wrote a column Monday taking issue with DEAN BAQUET'S controversial and much-maligned statement that "We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent." The statement shocked Times staffers, especially since last Sunday the Times published a long magazine piece that included the use of the N-word when quoting from an autobiography of Frederick Douglass. In his column Stephens reportedly wrote, "Do any of us want to live in a world, or work in a field, where intent is categorically ruled out as a mitigating factor? I hope not." In an email obtained by NBC, Stephens included the column and revealed, "I wrote the following column on Monday morning. If you're wondering why it wasn't in the paper, it's because AG Sulzberger spiked it." (The Daily Beast reported that while Sulzberger was consulted , it was editorial page editor Kathleen Kingsbury's call.) On the same day the spiked column was revealed, Baquet backtracked on the intent statement. "In our zeal to make a powerful statement about our workplace culture, we ham-handedly said something that some of you saw as threatening to our journalism," he reportedly said in a meeting with Times staffers. "Of course intent matters when we are talking about language in journalism." MORE NY PLAYBOOK: Look for the new New York Playbook PM in your inbox starting Feb. 22. Just like you read our morning Playbook, Playbook PM by Anna Gronewold in Albany and our top-notch political team in the city will bring you the news you need to know from the Capitol and New York City Hall. It will publish at the height of the legislative session and the New York City mayoral race, telling you the latest political news from around the Empire State. | | A message from New Yorkers for Responsible Gaming: Since opening its doors in 2011, Resorts World New York City has created thousands of good paying union jobs for New Yorkers and generated more than $3 billion for education for New York schools. As the state's largest taxpayer, they're proud of the investments made to revitalize their community and provide meaningful careers to so many.
Last year, when the pandemic struck, their commitment to their employees and the community never wavered. They provided employees with full employer-paid healthcare, supported their neighbors most in need by contributing to different community based organizations, and opened up their facilities for COVID testing.
As the state continues to recover from the worst economic crisis in decades, expansion of existing facilities will allow Resorts World NYC to create thousands of union jobs for New Yorkers, while generating desperately needed revenue for schools and surrounding communities. Learn More. | | |
| | REAL ESTATE | | "MAYOR BILL de Blasio on Thursday slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to allow office and hotel owners to convert their buildings to residential use — even though a committee he created had a similar idea. Testifying on the governor's proposed 2022 budget, de Blasio said it includes provisions that 'usurp the city's local authority and silence community input.' He said he 'strongly opposes' a measure that would override local zoning rules to allow the conversion of class B and C office buildings and hotels with fewer than 150 rooms." Real Deal's Kathryn Brenzel "BEFORE THE PANDEMIC struck New York 11 months ago, Janine Labriola's Ditmas Park fitness business was thriving. A studio she started five years ago for classes and personal training was solidly profitable, and the self-service gym she later opened nearby was building clientele. Labriola shuttered the fitness studio for good over the summer and is able to keep the gym open only because her landlord agreed to a deal where she is paying only half the rent. Most of her customers at Park Fitness BK are either too afraid of COVID-19 to come to the Coney Island Avenue gym or have left the city for elsewhere. Some days, she signs up a new member but often two cancel. 'I cut my losses and closed a thriving business,' she said. 'I don't even know how much debt I am in.' As the shutdown that sent the city's economy into a free fall nears the one-year mark, prospects for small businesses in New York City are worsening, new data shows. Businesses that are hanging on are doing so because their landlords have decided some rent is better than no tenant." The City's Greg David "NEW YORKERS are one step closer to having their very own Manhattan beach. On Wednesday, the Hudson River Park Trust announced that they would start construction on Gansevoort Peninsula this spring. The 5.5 acre park at Little West 12th Street will come with a sports field, a salt marsh, a dog run, and yes, 'a sandy beach area with kayak access on the south side,' according to a press release. Wading or swimming will not be permitted, as the Hudson River's water quality is not quite there yet (lots of sewage still flows from the city into the river)." Gothamist's Christopher Robbins
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