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2 months ago | 
thedailystar.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
Prompted by a New York Focus article last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is seeking investigations into the mysterious funding behind a $10 million campaign targeting the governor’s plan to remake New York’s home care industry.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
pressrepublican.com | Sam Mellins |Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
— This story first appeared in New York Focus, a non-profit news publication investigating New York state politics. Sign up for their stories at nysfocus.com/newsletter. Last month, New York Focus published a guide to the key issues on New Yorker’s ballots in this year’s election. We asked five questions: 1. Does Donald Trump have any chance in New York? 2. Can New York Republicans help their party keep control of the House? 3.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
thedailystar.com | Sam Mellins |Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
Last month, we published a guide to the key issues on New Yorker’s ballots in this year’s election. We asked five questions:1. Does Donald Trump have any chance in New York? 2. Can New York Republicans help their party keep control of the House? 3. Will Eric Adams’s bid to revise New York City’s charter be successful despite his indictment? 4. Will New York voters pass an amendment enshrining abortion rights? 5. Can Republicans make a dent in the state legislature’s Democratic majorities?
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Jun 3, 2024 | 
pressrepublican.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
The New York ethics watchdog agency has subpoenaed Governor Kathy Hochul’s economic development agency for records related to top Albany politicians’ use of a Buffalo Bills luxury suite, New York Focus has learned. Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, and 13 others gained exclusive access to the state-owned “I Love New York” suite for a December 17 clash between the Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
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Apr 25, 2024 | 
pressrepublican.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
— This story first appeared in New York Focus, a non-profit news publication investigating New York state politics. Sign up for their stories at nysfocus.com/newsletter. With the New York State budget nearly completed, lawmakers this week have been negotiating a last-minute proposal to drastically lower penalties for employers that illegally fail to pay their workers weekly.
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Apr 8, 2024 | 
pressrepublican.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
As Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie cheered for the Dallas Cowboys from a luxury Buffalo Bills suite, he was surrounded by friends: his college roommate and now lobbyist Patrick Jenkins; Jenkins’s wife; and a state lobbyist Heastie has been quietly dating, Rebecca Lamorte. The taxpayer-subsidized suite is meant to be used to boost western New York’s economy or for other public or charitable purposes.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
thedailystar.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
The lobbyist dating State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has been cleared to return to work before the Assembly, New York Focus has learned. A spokesperson for the Greater New York Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, or LECET, told New York Focus that after being barred on the advice of its former ethics lawyer, legislative and communications director Rebecca Lamorte can resume lobbying the Assembly — including Heastie’s staff — but not the speaker himself.
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Mar 4, 2024 | 
pressrepublican.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
Two-thirds of New York hospitals and health systems are losing money. To Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, one clear reason is that while drug, supply, and labor costs have climbed, the state government’s hospital spending has not kept pace. In Raske’s view, Albany should — and can afford to — spend billions more. “You’re sitting on a mountain of cash,” Raske told members of the state legislature during a January budget hearing.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
thedailystar.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
One of Albany's most influential lobbying groups argues that New York can afford to ramp up health care spending — on the advice of an expert who would know. Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said in a January interview that he was receiving counsel concerning the state budget from Robert Mujica, who served as New York’s top budget official under governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul.
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Jan 8, 2024 | 
thedailystar.com | Chris Bragg |Chris Bragg Focus
To anonymously spend millions in New York elections, all you need is some creative paperwork, out-of-state consultants and a delete button. Last year, New York’s top election law enforcement official investigated whether the nonprofit Empire Results violated state law by failing to disclose the donors behind $2 million on ads attacking Gov. Kathy Hochul during the 2022 primary. The State Board of Elections later closed the investigation — but not because the allegations lacked merit.
