New York City

Gov. Andrew Cuomo seems to have gained the upper hand and some new allies in his policy skirmish with New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio over how to fund pre-kindergarten, as the fight threatens to turn into an upstate downstate split.

DeBlasio has been seeking permission from Cuomo and the legislature to raise income taxes on the wealthy in New York City in order to pay for access to pre-kindergarten for almost 75,000 four-year-olds there, arguing that it would help ease income inequality.

Experience New York City with WRVO Public Media this spring. We've planned a weekend getaway downstate from May 9-11 that is sure to be both fun and convenient. Accommodations at the Radisson Martinique on Broadway in Manhattan are included in your ticket price, along with coach transportation to and from the city.

The debate regarding universal pre-kindergarten shows no signs of slowing down at the New York Capitol. The Democratic Mayor of New York City is not backing down from his plan to tax the wealthy to pay for pre-K, while upstate and suburban Republicans in the state Senate say they will block a vote on the tax proposal.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, in his State of the City address, stuck to his plan to continue to ask state lawmakers for permission to tax the wealthy to fund universal pre-K. De Blasio says he’s not advocating for a statewide income tax hike.   

In 1950, New York City’s garment industry employed 300,000 workers. During the last several decades, those production jobs have all but disappeared. But the story of what happened next in this industry is dramatically different from others in cities elsewhere in the state.

Today, Fashion Week in New York City attracts nearly 250,000 visitors from around the world and has an economic impact on the city of of more than $750 million.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo commented for the first time since the latest revelations about New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s sexting activities surfaced. Cuomo is still refusing to get dragged into the race, saying the recent events remind him of tragi-comic theater.

Cuomo won’t take a position on whether Weiner should drop out of the mayor’s race, as many of the governor’s fellow Democrats have demanded. Cuomo tried to downplay the recent news, calling it “summer political theater” in New York.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says he thinks he can work with Eliot Spitzer, should the former governor win the post of New York City comptroller, even though he is supporting his opponent in the contest.

DiNapoli says his endorsement of former Assemblyman and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer still stands.

“I can work with just about anybody,” DiNapoli said.

Though he qualified that assessment, saying he’ll have to see “how that plays out.”

Most of the time, Eric Andrus is a beef and rice farmer. But lately, he’s learning to be a boat builder. On this day, he’s in the barn, sanding the hull of a big wooden barge.

“We’re about to apply the second layer of plywood,” Andrus says.

Republicans in the New York State Senate plan to hold hearings Tuesday, May 7, on what they say are abuses in New York City’s public campaign finance system. 

The Champlain Hudson Power Express, or CHPE, is the name of a proposed underground transmission line that would bring hydropower generated in Canada under both Lake Champlain and the Hudson River, and into New York City. Now, the project is one step closer to becoming a reality, following approval by the New York State Public Service Commission Thursday.

The scandal around state Sen. Malcolm Smith is continuing to have repercussions in both political parties and in every level of the state’s government. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on an upstate tour to promote the recently passed state budget, has been dogged by questions about the scandal instead.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith, a former New York Senate majority leader, has been arrested and indicted in a far reaching bribery and corruption scandal.

In Québec, electricity is cheap. Hydro-Québec, a state-owned utility, has over 60 generating stations that use the province’s rivers to produce power. One of them is Beauharnois, southwest of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo conducted the state's first large-scale earthquake simulation on Tuesday to determine how prone unreinforced masonry walls are to quake damage.

Someday your local weatherman may also be able predict the latest flu outbreak. That's according to a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In our latest Innovation Trail report for New York NOW, we traveled to one of the places hit the hardest by Sandy, the beachfront community of Breezy Point in Queens.

Governor Andrew Cuomo took a helicopter tour of areas devastated from Hurricane Sandy, along with New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.  The governor says the state faces significant challenges to rebuild, and will have to fundamentally rethink New York city’s infrastructure going forward.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, told reporters he spent a “frightening” night monitoring storm devastation in lower Manhattan at a briefing addressing short term repair efforts and long term weather concerns.

It’s the staple of just about everything. From dinner parties, to weekend shenanigans, to church, wine is a big part of our lives – and it’s a big part of the economy, too.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana found during police searches, to  fix what he  says is a “blatant inconsistency” in New York City’s controversial stop and frisk policy.

Governor Cuomo says New York City’s stop and frisk police procedure has unfairly led to the arrest of thousands of mainly young black and Hispanic men who were caught with possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The arrests often lead to criminal records with lifelong consequences that can prevent the young person from getting college aid, or living in public housing.