Richard Khavkine

New York

Editor at The Chief Leader

Editor @TheChiefLeader. Lapsed line cook, cab driver, messenger.

Featured in: Favicon

thechiefleader.com Favicon

nj.com

westsidespirit.com Favicon

ourtownny.com Favicon

portside.org

Articles

City moves forward with new municipal employee health plan

5 days ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 6/6/25 Most municipal employees would be enrolled in a new, cost-saving health benefit plan city officials say would allow them to see more doctors, specialists and other clinicians than their current plans, Mayor Eric Adams and Labor Commissioner Renee Campion announced Monday.
5 Amtrak workers admit participation in $11 million health benefit fraud

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 6/6/25 Five area Amtrak employees who participated in a widespread multi-million-dollar scam to defraud the railroad’s health benefit plan have pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy counts that could each net them a decade behind bars, Department of Justice officials in New Jersey announced.
Mulgrew secures 6th UFT term, besting 2 challengers

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 6/6/25 The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, handily won a sixth consecutive three-year term as head of the 200,000-member union, this time beating two challengers. Mulgrew and the Unity Caucus candidates received 54 percent of the vote, while Amy Arundell, of the A Better Contract Caucus, polled 32 percent of ballots and Olivia Swisher, of ARISE Caucus, trailed in third with 14 percent, according to results posted on the UFT’s website.
WTC Health Program gets infusion of support from state AGs

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/30/25 As a funding shortfall threatens the federal program that provides treatment for tens of thousands of people affected by the September 11 attacks, dozens of state attorneys general last week urged Congress to ensure its continued viability. Although the World Trade Center Health Program itself has been authorized by Congress through 2090, its funding is secured only through 2027.
Suffolk County to pay out $18 million and repair jails

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/30/25 Suffolk County will make significant infrastructure repairs to two jails, hire an environmental health professional and pay $18 million to current and former detainees and inmates, among other provisions, to settle a longstanding class-action suit that called out deplorable conditions at the correctional facilities, according to a preliminary settlement.
NY offshore wind project resumes after Trump administration lifts pause

2 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Jennifer McDermott |Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/23/25 Union leaders were elated following the lifting of a stop-work order imposed last month by the Trump administration on the Empire Wind project, the wind farm off the southwest coast of Long Island. The project had generated more than 1,000 union jobs and which was expected to produce thousands more.
City retirees await state high court decision on Medicare matter

2 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine |Lilliam Barrios-Paoli

In what likely were the final arguments in the years-long battle over whether the city is obligated to provide its 250,000 municipal retirees with no-cost Medicare and supplemental insurance, attorneys for both sides presented their cases before the state’s highest court last week.
Learning on The Job: cops contend with a changed law-enforcement landscape

3 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/16/25 Calls to defund, violence in the street, prosecutions, record numbers of retirements and quits, recruitment issues, lingering questions about justice, enforcement and resources. Police departments — and cops — nationwide have contended with those issues since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin five years ago this month and the subsequent unrest and riots that followed.
Overall crime down for 7th straight month: NYPD

3 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/16/25 Overall crime citywide dropped for the seventh straight month in April, contributing to a roughly 8-percent drop in index crimes through the first four months of the year compared with 2024, according to NYPD data. So-called “index crimes” — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assaults together with the property offenses of burglary, larceny and auto theft — dropped 3 percent overall last month compared with April 2022, with property crimes driving down the decrease.
DC 37 withdraws support of Council members backing city retirees on health care - The Chief

3 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/16/25 District Council 37, the city’s largest public-sector union, has once again gone on the offensive against City Council members opposed to switching municipal retirees to a privately administered health plan.