Karen DeWitt

1 month ago | timesunion.com | Karen DeWitt

Julie Farrar is as scared as she’s ever been. That’s saying something when you’ve spent all of your 56 years with sacral agenesis, which means she was born without a fully formed spine. She gets around in a wheelchair because the disease has paralyzed her legs. Article continues below this adThe Colonie resident is among the nearly 300,000 New Yorkers who benefited from CDPAP, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. Under its rules, she can hire and manage her own home care workers.

2 months ago | timesunion.com | Karen DeWitt

Andrew Cuomo appears to be steamrolling his way to becoming New York City’s next mayor, his Act III in American politics. And during this surreal and unbelievably fraught time — as an oligarch burns down the federal government, the president mounts a shambolic trade war with Canada, and a U.S. health secretary recommends cod liver oil instead of vaccines to stem a measles outbreak — that might not be such a terrible thing. I’m not the first person you’d predict to express this opinion.

Jan 19, 2025 | timesunion.com | Karen DeWitt

My friends have deserted me. At least when it comes to avidly following the news. It was just a few short weeks ago, namely before Nov. 5, that we were all on text chains analyzing minute details in the latest polls, offering each other running commentary on each twist and turn of the presidential campaign, assuaging each other’s fears that what we viewed as an existential threat would not happen.

Jun 22, 2024 | timesunion.com | Karen DeWitt

It’s November 8, 1994. I’m at a hotel ballroom in Midtown Manhattan, covering then-Gov. Mario Cuomo’s reelection night party for New York’s public radio stations. Cuomo, a national figure and a hero of the liberal left, was seeking a fourth term in office. In my recollection, many of his aides and advisers that night were hopeful, even confident, that he would succeed.

Jun 20, 2024 | wamc.org | Karen DeWitt

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Thursday that will regulate how children use social media. Hochul championed the bills, making them her top priority in the final days of the legislative session. “Today, we save our children,” Hochul said.