Chris Hippensteel

1 month ago | timesunion.com | Chris Hippensteel

ALBANY — Two state lawmakers are championing legislation that would forbid insurance companies from exempting lead poisoning claims from policies covering landlords — a move they hope will incentivize the industry to do something about lead hazards in the properties they insure. Those exemptions are the result of a decades-old policy that allowed New York insurers to leave landlords on the hook for lawsuits brought by children poisoned in their properties. State Sen.

1 month ago | star-telegram.com | Chris Hippensteel

ALBANY - For years, New York's strategy for protecting children from exposure to lead has been to intervene after a child has already been poisoned. Since the 1990s, the state has mandated blood testing of young children for elevated levels of lead, which indicate exposure to the toxic metal through paint, pipes, or other environmental hazards.

1 month ago | timesunion.com | Chris Hippensteel

ALBANY — For years, New York’s strategy for protecting children from exposure to lead has been to intervene after a child has already been poisoned. Since the 1990s, the state has mandated blood testing of young children for elevated levels of lead, which indicate exposure to the toxic metal through paint, pipes, or other environmental hazards.

1 month ago | timesunion.com | Chris Hippensteel

ALBANY — On a bright, bitterly cold February afternoon, city workers using heavy equipment bored through a small section of Myrtle Avenue, sifting through layers of asphalt, brick and earth. They were searching for — and, for a time, struggling to find — a section of lead pipe running from the water main to the curb.

Feb 6, 2025 | timesunion.com | Chris Hippensteel

ALBANY — U.S. authorities have extradited and arraigned a Colombian national sought in connection with the death of a pregnant woman who drowned while being smuggled into the U.S. from Canada 14 months ago. The accused, 36-year-old Jhader Augusto Uribe-Tobar, is alleged to have smuggled Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores over the border between Quebec and New York’s Clinton County in December 2023.