Cuomo’s mounting troubles, Zoom in the classroom + an end to qualified immunity

Local News

• Governor Cuomo allegedly secured COVID-19 tests for his family in the early days of the pandemic when COVID-19 tests were not widely available—special treatment that appears to violate state law.
• Alyssa McGrath, an aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo, has accused the governor of sexual harassment and corraborated the accusation of another Cuomo employee.
• The attorney general’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo is shedding light on the governor’s practice of avoiding paper trails.
• Some high school students returned to in-person classes this week and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the City will open another opportunity for parents to enroll students in in-person classes, a move prompted by the CDC’s revised guidelines now saying students can be three rather than six feet apart in classrooms. Some students have critiqued the return to brick-and-mortar schools as simply a commute to log onto Zoom from the classroom, rather than an experience that deploys classroom-specific teaching techniques or allows for any socializing.
• The New York State legislature passed a law repealing COVID-19 legal liability protections granted to nursing homes and hospitals.
• The New York City Council voted to end qualified immunity for the city’s police officers, making it easier to take them to court for abuse of power.
• All of the City’s 80,000 municipal office workers will stop working remotely starting May 3.
• After two years of failed negotiations, the governor and legislature have reached a deal to legalize recreational cannabis in New York State.
• New York Senator Chuck Schumer is calling on President Joe Biden to name Damian Williams as the next U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Williams would be the first Black prosecutor to lead that office.
• Restrictions in New York’s rent relief program have allowed the state to spend only $7 million of the $60 million allocated to New Yorkers who have fallen behind on rent during the pandemic.
• The New York State Board of Elections is set to miss an April 12 deadline to implement a statewide online voter registration that would have allowed NYC voters to take advantage of the system before the June primaries.

Elections

• Recent polling shows 50 percent of likely voters in the Democratic mayoral primary are undecided with just three months left until the election.
• Two special City Council elections in the Bronx are awaiting winners after no candidate received an outright majority because the State cannot tabulate voters’ ranked choices until April 7, after all absentee ballots are received. Tenant lawyer Oswald Feliz currently leads to replace Ritchie Torres in the District 15 (Bedford Park, Fordham, East Tremont). Real estate-backed candidate Eric Dinowitz holds an advantage to replace Andrew Cohen in District 11 (Bedford Park, Kingsbride, Riverdale, Van Cortlandt Village, Woodlawn). Turnout in both races was extremely low.
• Republican Congressional Representative Tom Reed (NY-23), who had previously discussed running for governor in 2022, announced that he will run for neither governor nor reelection after a lobbyist accused him of sexual harassment.