Far too many New Yorkers with criminal convictions are still paying a price long after they finished their sentences. Their criminal records follow them, preventing them from getting jobs, going to school, or finding a home. Having a criminal record can make it extremely difficult for someone to rebuild their life — but it doesn’t have to be this way. CEOs, clergy, labor leaders, civil rights advocates, and lawmakers have all come together in support of a bill that would change the lives of millions of New Yorkers ..read more

One might think the Fox-Dominion lawsuit settlement and the debunking of so many election conspiracies would deter future conspiracists. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Untruths and outright lies continue to be directed toward our elections and voting processes at great cost to our democratic institutions and the people, often volunteers and civic-minded citizens, who make Election Day possible ..read more

New York State’s voting machines are aging and will need replacement. This creates a challenge for our state: can we get new equipment that is as good as the old ..read more

When Alexander Hamilton, as the first Treasury secretary, starting in 1789, began issuing debt to borrow on the good name of the new government of the United States until now, there has never been a default on its loans. Ever. That’s 234 years of paying its obligations despite a Civil War, a Great Depression and a couple of world wars. The long streak was going to stop tomorrow, X-date, said Janet Yellen — Hamilton’s successor as the 78th secretary — when the cash would be exhausted and creditors would have gone unpaid ..read more

There are many measures of how well a city promotes safety and justice: crime rates, relations between police and the community, the treatment of those jailed and more. An essential indicator that gets far too little attention is clearance rates — the percentage of offenses where cops make an arrest. And it’s worrying that the NYPD rates have fallen sharply. A crime unsolved is justice undone, a victim or surviving family still treading water in a swamp of fear and disillusionment ..read more

Jim Simons went to MIT for undergrad, then got his Ph.D. at Cal Berkeley, before landing on the faculty at SUNY Stony Brook and establishing himself as a math genius. Then he went on to develop a trading algorithm that earned him a reputation as, in the words of a 2019 book, “the greatest money maker in modern financial history ..read more

Los Altos, Calif.: I write to express my deep concern about the staggering national debt and the factors contributing to its alarming rise. I believe it is essential to question the excessive spending on unnecessary wars that not only drain our resources but also exacerbate global hostility and instability ..read more

In the “Focus on Equity” statement that now begins every city agency’s section in the Mayor’s Management Report, the Department of Correction declares itself “committed to building jails that serve the public interest and foster the public’s trust” and thus “focused on creating a culture of accountability and service to persons experiencing incarceration that will ultimately lead to safer and more humane jails ..read more

Cornell 'Black Benjie' Benjamin, 25, a founder of the Ghetto Brothers, was on his way to negotiate a peace deal between two street gangs in the South Bronx when he was brutally murdered, beaten to death with a pipe ..read more

In a new deal with the city’s largest union, DC37, Mayor Adams has finally accepted that the modern workplace is one where many employees can work from home, with tens of thousands of city employees soon gaining the right to work remotely up to two days a week as part of a pilot program ..read more