| | | | |  | | By Bill Mahoney and Danielle Muoio Dunn | | | |  Exterior view of the New York Court of Appeals building on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Albany, N.Y. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo | The final week of New York's legislative session has arrived, and state lawmakers are downplaying the likelihood of a long list of major accomplishments before they head home. The session, slated to end Thursday, will likely carry over into Friday so lawmakers can pass the hundreds of bills still left unfinished. There might be a few headline grabbing deals — most prominently, advocates' long-sought approval of the Clean Slate Act, which would seal criminal convictions after a period of time. But there’s a good chance that Albany's final days of session in 2023 will be best remembered for actions at a pair of courthouses across the street from the Capitol, where the agenda for the 2024 legislative session could soon be set. Appellate judges will hear arguments Thursday in a redistricting case brought by national Democrats. Last year’s elections were thrown into chaos when the courts ruled that Democratic supermajorities in the legislature didn’t follow the proper steps before drawing district lines, resulting in the congressional and state senate maps being redrawn by a Steuben County judge. The current case argues that the redistricting process should start over from scratch. Should it succeed before a more Democratic-friendly court system than the one that was around last year, Democrats could take another crack at drawing congressional lines next February. That wouldn’t be a silver bullet for the party: Congressional candidates performed so poorly on Long Island in 2022 that they would have lost all four seats there, even if Democratic-drawn lines had been on the books. But it could make a potentially pivotal difference of a few points in some of the districts that will command national attention next year. And last Friday, a trial-level court heard a lawsuit brought by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he hopes to stop the Committee on Ethics and Lobbying in Government from probing his $5 million book deal. If Cuomo prevails, state government could be left without any entity focused on policing subjects like public corruption or sexual harassment by elected officials. That would mean, for the fifth time since 2007, legislators would be forced to reimagine ethics enforcement in New York. The Cuomo case will likely play out for several months — though it surely won’t happen when lawmakers are in town. IT’S MONDAY. WHERE’S KATHY? In Erie County and Albany, delivering remarks at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Buffalo Bills Stadium. WHERE’S ERIC? In New York City, making an asylum-seeker announcement. Afterwards, he will deliver remarks at the Jerusalem Post’s annual conference and meet with Nir Barkat, Israeli minister of economy. Then, he will host a group of Holocaust survivors in honor of Holocaust Survivor Day. Finally, he will hold a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force youth town hall and deliver remarks at the Citizens Committee for New York City’s fundraising gala.
| | A message from ConEd: The road to a cleaner New York starts now. A new transmission line will carry enough energy to power over 200,000 homes and enable the city to retire fossil fuel peaker plants in Queens. It's going to take all of us to make our clean energy future a reality and Con Edison is committed to doing its part. Learn more. | | | |  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | GLOVES OFF FOR LOWER SPEEDS — Safe street advocates are putting pressure on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to bring Sammy’s Law to a floor vote, which would allow New York City to set speed limits as low as 20 miles per hour. On Monday, Families for Safe Streets will rally outside of Heastie’s office in the Bronx. The group will also head up to Albany on Tuesday with Transportation Alternatives to put pressure on lawmakers. “It's political intransigence and lack of transparency in Albany, which it’s historically known for,” said Amy Cohen, the co-founder of Families for Safe Streets. “Put it out on the table, bring it for a vote.” The bill, Sammy’s Law, is named after Cohen’s son, who died 10 years ago after getting hit and killed by a van near his Brooklyn home. The following year, the city announced its Vision Zero program to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries within a decade. But fatalities have spiked recently, with 2021 being the deadliest of the Vision Zero-era. — Danielle Muoio Dunn
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | INFRASTRUCTURE PUSH — A recently formed group of development advocates are heading to Washington this week to push the federal government to spend money from the bipartisan infrastructure bill faster. The Infrastructure Action Council — a contingent of developers, engineers and consultants with the New York Building Congress — will meet with members of the New York congressional delegation and some White House officials Tuesday and Wednesday. They’ll be lobbying to speed up environmental reviews and shore up statutes of limitations for opposing projects in court, among other things that have caused the flow of dollars from the infrastructure law to lag. It passed in November 2021. Carlo Scissura, the president of the New York Building Congress, said in an interview they’ll be focused on a few projects in particular: The much-delayed Gateway project, a major commuter tunnel under the Hudson River; the project to rebuild Penn Station and the project to fix the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. “Getting the money out and moving is really critical now,” he said. “It’s happening slowly.” — Zachary Schermele
| | | | A message from ConEd:   | | | | | What City Hall's reading | |
Internal NYPD documents reveal officer training on involuntary hospitalizations by POLITICO’s Maya Kaufman: Two NYPD officers patrolling a Queens public housing complex spot a woman outside in a tank top and slippers muttering incoherently to herself. The woman says the street is her home, but the temperature is expected to drop below freezing later that day. How should they respond?
The hypothetical scenario is among five posed to police officers in a 15-minute presentation on situations that may warrant involuntary hospitalization. The training was prepared to brief patrol officers on Mayor Eric Adams’ recent directive that people may be forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation when a mental illness is seemingly preventing them from meeting their own basic needs, putting them at risk of harm. Diwali poised to be a school holiday in New York City by POLITICO’s Madina Touré "Where is the State Legislation at Center of Mayor Adams’ Jordan Neely Response?" Gotham Gazette's Ethan Geringer-Sameth
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | |
“Buffalo Leaders Weren’t Ready for Blizzard That Killed 31, Report Says,” The New York Times’ Hurubie Meko and Lola Fadulu: “Five months after a blizzard devastated western New York, killing 31 residents of Buffalo, a report released on Friday cited multiple failures in the city’s response to the blinding snowfall that whipped through the region for three days, trapping many people in their cars, homes and workplaces.”
“Mets owner Steve Cohen spotted with NY Gov. Hochul at Citi Field as casino bid looms,” New York Post’s Rich Calder “Chairman Vincent Bradley is out at the State Liquor Authority,” Times Union’s Steve Barnes “Hochul: 'Confident' a deal for criminal records sealing can be reached,” Spectrum News’ Nick Resiman
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | | | 
Kevin Smith was a truck driver who found himself out of work during the pandemic, so he began organizing car caravans in support of Donald Trump and other conservative causes. | Photos by Mark Peterson for POLITICO | — LONG READ: How a Staunchly Blue State Let MAGA Seep In, David Freedlander for POLITICO — A proposal to tear down I-81 in Syracuse is facing resistance. — The MTA will pilot protective screen doors at three subway station platforms. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: (was Sunday): Mort Zuckerman … Daniel Weiss ... ProPublica’s Justin Elliott … NBC’s Emily Gold … Dentons’ Jason Attermann … Gena Wolfson … (was Saturday): John Kirby … Anderson Cooper … WSJ’s Michelle Hackman … Gina Foote of FGS Global … Edelman’s Rob Rehg … Eric Rosengren … Sophie Oreck ... Judge Ronnie Abrams … Allegra Morosani … Don Teague … Dennis Overbye … (was Friday): Audrey Gelman ... Andy Cohen … Jessica Loeser
MAKING MOVES — Tim Berry has been named global head of corporate responsibility at JPMorgan Chase. He’s currently head of global government relations and chair of the Mid-Atlantic region. … Bryan Lesswing has joined SKDK as a SVP in the firm’s New York office. He most recently was senior adviser to Gov. Hochul. … James Dezell is now communications director for Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. He most recently was campaign manager for Julie Shiroishi’s New York State Senate campaign. … … The Council on Foreign Relations has added two events staffers and promoted a third: Michael McMorrow joined as director of events, Emily Holtzman joined as assistant director of event management and Hannah Ojendyk has been promoted to be events manager. McMorrow most recently was a freelance senior producer and is an HBO alum. Holtzman was a content manager at Marley Spoon. SPOTTED — The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s annual gala Thursday aboard the USS Intrepid honored Holocaust survivors, Mayor Eric Adams, Jeffrey Kessler, John Catsimatidis, Dr. Edith Eger, Dr. Marianne Engle and Montana Tucker. Also in attendance: Erielle Reshef, Ari Ackerman, Adrian Kubicki, Demaurice Smith, Simon Bergson, Jack Simony and cadets and midshipmen from the military service academies who traveled last week to Auschwitz and Oświęcim, Poland, to begin the Ethical Responsibility in the Military and Beyond program.
| | A message from ConEd: Con Edison is preparing today for a cleaner tomorrow. New York's energy future will require modernizing the city's infrastructure to keep up with demand and ensure reliability. That's why Con Edison is upgrading substations, building new transmission lines, and creating clean energy hubs, helping to deliver renewable energy citywide for years to come. Learn More. | | | | | Real Estate | |
“An ambitious plan to transform Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue creeps forward amid fear of gentrification,” New York Daily News’ Téa Kvetenadze: “In describing the so-called 'Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan,' planners point to nearby neighborhoods such as Boerum Hill as an example of what the 13-block span of Atlantic between Vanderbilt and Nostrand Avenues might look like. While details remain scarce, there could be shops, restaurants and a mix of market rate and affordable housing.”
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