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New York Toughens Bail Law in $220 Billion Budget Agreement

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ALBANY, N.Y. — Confronted with rising considerations over crime in an election yr, Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York State legislative leaders on Thursday reached settlement on an expansive state price range that included measures to strengthen bail restrictions and tighten guidelines for repeat offenders.

The $220 billion price range options various notable commitments, together with tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in reduction for New Yorkers grappling with skyrocketing gasoline costs, greater than a billion {dollars} to make baby care extra reasonably priced and a considerable taxpayer subsidy for a brand new Buffalo Payments stadium.

However essentially the most notable and fraught negotiations centered on a nonfiscal initiative: the governor’s push to incorporate modifications to the state’s bail legal guidelines within the price range discussions, a stumbling block that brought on lawmakers to blow previous the April 1 deadline.

Beneath the settlement, Ms. Hochul, a reasonable Democrat operating for her first full time period this yr, managed to influence a largely reluctant Democratic-led Legislature to enact modifications to a 2019 bail legislation that had made solely essentially the most severe crimes eligible for money bail.

The modifications marked a big win for Ms. Hochul, who, in negotiating her first price range, held agency with extra progressive Democratic lawmakers who had strenuously objected to rolling again any bail reforms.

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The end result mirrored the most recent efforts by Democratic leaders in New York to handle considerations voters have about public security forward of elections in November, when Republicans are anticipated to carry out strongly.

Democratic leaders in Albany have argued that the 2019 reforms are to not blame for an uptick in sure kinds of violence in New York Metropolis. However they’ve additionally mentioned that they hoped that alterations to the legislation would enhance public security.

The price range negotiations have been considerably atypical: The state just isn’t going through the same old gloom-and-doom projections of deficits and is as a substitute overflowing with an inflow of federal cash.

That gave Democratic leaders the pliability to unfold spending throughout a bevy of voter-friendly initiatives, regardless that it typically put Ms. Hochul at odds with lawmakers over how a lot to spend on sure applications.

The ultimate price range consists of bold spending will increase to increase entry to baby care by offering subsidies to 1000’s of households who beforehand didn’t qualify, one of many prime coverage priorities for Democrats in Albany this yr. The governor had proposed an growth of kid care companies, however legislative leaders efficiently pushed for much more spending.

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Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Democratic majority chief within the Senate, mentioned on Thursday that lawmakers had additionally reached an settlement with Ms. Hochul on extra spending to extend wages for residence care staff and increase well being care protection for undocumented immigrants.

Ms. Hochul had sought to completely enable bars and eating places to promote alcoholic drinks to-go, a pandemic-era measure that expired final yr. Beneath the deal, lawmakers agreed to permit to-go drinks once more for 3 years, regardless of opposition from the liquor retailer business and considerations that the measure might result in extra public consuming.

The governor clinched different prime priorities, together with a plan meant to overtake the state’s troubled ethics fee, in addition to $600 million in public cash to assist exchange the Payments’ getting old Highmark Stadium within the Buffalo suburbs, overcoming opposition from critics who denounced the subsidy as company welfare.

The price range will even expedite already deliberate tax cuts for the center class and quickly droop some state taxes on gasoline from June till the top of the yr in response to rising costs on the pump. Each measures might play effectively with suburban voters in an election yr.

“This price range will put extra money again in folks’s pockets,” Ms. Hochul mentioned on Thursday. “All of us wished to ensure that that was the end result and elevate those that have been hardest hit.”

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There have been no new tax will increase included, however the state is poised to faucet into a brand new profitable stream of income: Lawmakers agreed to expedite licenses for 3 new casinos which are prone to open within the New York Metropolis space, overcoming resistance from some downstate legislators cautious of erecting playing institutions of their districts.

The precise particulars and exact greenback figures behind the price range for the 2023 fiscal yr gained’t turn out to be clear till lawmakers introduce legislative payments. They’re anticipated to start voting on payments on Thursday night time, Ms. Stewart-Cousins mentioned.

Lawmakers handed emergency laws on Monday to make sure that state staff could be paid on time this week regardless of the delay, although the state comptroller warned that some paychecks could also be late.

Whereas late budgets are nothing new in Albany, this yr’s delay served as a visual reminder of how a lot hasn’t modified within the State Capitol, even below a brand new governor. The price range course of was as opaque as ever: The allocation of billions of {dollars} was negotiated largely behind closed doorways between Ms. Hochul and the Democratic legislative leaders.

“It is a very regular price range course of,” mentioned Ms. Hochul, who vowed to extend transparency in authorities when she took workplace in August, when requested on Monday in regards to the lack of transparency. “That is very regular.”

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The delay was partly a results of Ms. Hochul’s introducing two proposals — modifications to the bail legal guidelines and public funding for the Payments stadium — late within the course of, pitting her towards an more and more emboldened Legislature. Many members of the governor’s negotiating crew additionally fell unwell with Covid-19 final week.

By far essentially the most contentious facet of the negotiations involved Ms. Hochul’s efforts to change the state’s bail legal guidelines.

The modifications the governor and lawmakers in the end agreed to represented a grudging center floor between the stance of a legislative physique largely reluctant to make any alterations and a 10-point proposal that Ms. Hochul vigorously pursued in non-public discussions. The deal would change the way in which some gun crimes are dealt with, enable for arrests to be made in sure cases of repeated offenses and ease the invention burden confronted by prosecutors.

“I feel that it’s a considerate bundle that reacts not simply to a story, however really reacts to the necessity for folks to really feel protected,” Ms. Stewart-Cousins mentioned on Thursday. “And for us actually to handle the gun crime.”

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New York

Transcript of Trump Manhattan Trial, May 30, 2024

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Transcript of Trump Manhattan Trial, May 30, 2024

-
Jury Deliberation Re-charge
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK CRIMINAL TERM
-
-
PART: 59
Χ
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
-against-
DONALD J. TRUMP,
DEFENDANT.
BEFORE:
Indict. No.
71543-2023
CHARGE
4909
FALSIFYING BUSINESS
RECORDS 1ST DEGREE
JURY TRIAL
100 Centre Street
New York, New York 10013
May 30, 2024
HONORABLE JUAN M. MERCHAN
JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT
APPEARANCES:
FOR THE PEOPLE:
ALVIN BRAGG, JR., ESQ.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, NEW YORK COUNTY
One Hogan Place
New York, New York 10013
BY:
JOSHUA STEINGLASS, ESQ.
MATTHEW COLANGELO,
ESQ.
SUSAN HOFFINGER, ESQ.
CHRISTOPHER CONROY, ESQ.
BECKY MANGOLD, ESQ.
KATHERINE ELLIS, ESQ.
Assistant District Attorneys
BLANCHE LAW
BY:
TODD BLANCHE, ESQ.
EMIL BOVE, ESQ.
KENDRA WHARTON, ESQ.
NECHELES LAW, LLP
BY: SUSAN NECHELES, ESQ.
GEDALIA STERN, ESQ.
Attorneys for the Defendant
SUSAN PEARCE-BATES, RPR, CSR, RSA
Principal Court Reporter
LAURIE EISENBERG, RPR, CSR
LISA KRAMSKY
THERESA MAGNICCARI
Senior Court Reporters
Susan Pearce-Bates, RPR, CCR, RSA
Principal Court Reporter

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New York

Transcript of Trump Manhattan Trial, May 29, 2024

Published

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Transcript of Trump Manhattan Trial, May 29, 2024

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK CRIMINAL TERM
-
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
PART: 59
Indict. No.
71543-2023
CHARGE
-against-
DONALD J. TRUMP,
DEFENDANT.
BEFORE:
4815
FALSIFYING BUSINESS
RECORDS 1ST DEGREE
JURY TRIAL
X
100 Centre Street
New York, New York 10013
May 29, 2024
HONORABLE JUAN M. MERCHAN
JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT
APPEARANCES:
FOR THE
PEOPLE:
ALVIN BRAGG, JR.,
ESQ.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, NEW YORK COUNTY
One Hogan Place
New York, New York 10013
BY:
JOSHUA STEINGLASS, ESQ.
MATTHEW COLANGELO,
ESQ.
SUSAN HOFFINGER, ESQ.
CHRISTOPHER CONROY, ESQ.
BECKY MANGOLD, ESQ.
KATHERINE ELLIS, ESQ.
Assistant District Attorneys
BLANCHE LAW
BY:
TODD BLANCHE, ESQ.
EMIL BOVE, ESQ.
KENDRA WHARTON, ESQ.
NECHELES LAW, LLP
BY: SUSAN NECHELES, ESQ.
Attorneys for the Defendant
SUSAN PEARCE-BATES, RPR, CSR, RSA
Principal Court Reporter
LAURIE EISENBERG, RPR, CSR
LISA KRAMSKY
THERESA MAGNICCARI
Senior Court Reporters
Susan Pearce-Bates,
RPR, CCR, RSA
Principal Court Reporter

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New York

Critics Fault ‘Aggressive’ N.Y.P.D. Response to Pro-Palestinian Rally

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Critics Fault ‘Aggressive’ N.Y.P.D. Response to Pro-Palestinian Rally

Violent confrontations at a pro-Palestinian rally in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Saturday reflected what some local officials and protest organizers called an unexpectedly aggressive Police Department response, with officers flooding the neighborhood and using force against protesters.

At the rally, which drew hundreds of demonstrators, at least two officers wearing the white shirts of commanders were filmed punching three protesters who were prone in the middle of a crosswalk. One officer had pinned a man to the ground and repeatedly punched him in the ribs, a 50-second video clip shows. Another officer punched the left side of a man’s face as he held his head to the asphalt.

The police arrested around 40 people who were “unlawfully blocking roadways,” Kaz Daughtry, the department’s deputy commissioner of operations, said on social media on Sunday.

Mr. Daughtry shared drone footage of one person who climbed on a city bus, “putting himself and others in danger.” The Police Department, he wrote, “proudly protects everyone’s right to protest, but lawlessness will never be tolerated.”

Neither Mr. Daughtry nor the police commented on the use of force by officers. A spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the police response. The Police Department’s patrol guide states that officers must use “only the reasonable force necessary to gain control or custody of a subject.”

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Bay Ridge has a significant Arab American population and hosts demonstrations in mid-May every year to commemorate what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe” — when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israel’s founding in 1948.

Andrew Gounardes, a state senator and a Democrat who represents the area, said local politicians had been in touch with the commanding officer of the 68th police precinct before the preplanned protest and said there had been no indication that there would be such a heavy police response. He called the videos he saw of the events “deeply concerning.”

“It certainly seems like the police came ready for a much more aggressive and a much more confrontational demonstration than perhaps they had gotten,” he added.

Justin Brannan, a Democrat who is the city councilman for the area, said the protest was smaller than last year’s but that officers had come from all over the city to police it. He said their approach appeared to be directed by 1 Police Plaza, the department headquarters in Manhattan.

“These were not our local cops. Clearly, there was a zero-tolerance edict sent down from 1PP, which escalated everything and made it worse,” Mr. Brannan said.

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“I’m still waiting on information and details about the arrests that were made,” he added, “but from my vantage point, the response appeared pre-emptive, retaliatory and cumulatively aggressive.”

The Republican state assemblyman whose district includes parts of Bay Ridge, Alec Brook-Krasny, had a different perspective. He said an investigation would determine whether the officers’ actions were warranted, but he said some protesters were “breaking the law” by refusing to clear the street.

“I think that those bad apples are really hurting the ability of the other people to express their opinions,” Mr. Brook-Krasny said.

Some local residents supported the police and said they were tired of the protests’ disruptive impact. “Enough is enough,” said Peter Cheris, 52, a 40-year resident of Bay Ridge, who said he had viewed the videos of the protest. “If you’re going to break the law, you deserve it,” he said.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, singled out the presence of the Police Department’s Strategic Response Group, a unit that is sometimes deployed to protests and has been the subject of several lawsuits brought by the civil liberties union and other groups.

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The police unit’s handling of the demonstration “was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression,” Ms. Lieberman said in a statement. “N.Y.C.L.U. protest monitors witnessed violent arrests, protester injuries, and even arrests of credentialed members of the press.”

She added: “The continual pattern of N.Y.P.D. aggression against pro-Palestine demonstrators raises important questions about the city’s disparate treatment of speakers based on their message.”

Abdullah Akl, an organizer with Within Our Lifetime, the pro-Palestinian group that organized the protests, said the response took organizers aback, particularly for a demonstration that occurs every year in Bay Ridge and is known to be frequented by families with children.

“It was really an unusual and unprecedented response,” Mr. Akl said.

He said he witnessed two men being pushed to the ground. One of them can be seen in a video with blood streaming down the side of his face. Nerdeen Kiswani, chair of Within Our Lifetime, said three protesters — including the two who can be seen being punched — were treated for their injuries at hospitals.

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The Police Department has arrested hundreds of demonstrators since street protests began shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. The protests have been largely peaceful, with few injuries or violent clashes.

In a turning point, on April 30 officers cleared Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, which had been occupied by protesters for 17 hours. Many officers showed restraint during the arrests, though a handful were filmed pushing and dragging students as they removed them from the building.

On Sunday, Ms. Lieberman said police response to the protests in Bay Ridge underscored the importance of implementing the terms of a $512,000 settlement the civil liberties union and the Legal Aid Society reached with the city this month. The settlement set new terms for how the Police Department manages protests, creating a tiered system that dictates how many officers can be sent to demonstrations and limits the use of the Strategic Response Group. It will take years to put into practice.

The settlement is one of several that stemmed from the George Floyd racial justice protests in 2020. Last year, the city agreed to pay $13.7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed unlawful police tactics had violated the rights of demonstrators in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In March, the city agreed to pay $21,500 to each of roughly 300 people who attended another Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 in the Bronx. Those people were penned in by the police, then charged at or beaten with batons, according to a legal settlement.

Andy Newman and Camille Baker contributed reporting.

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