jwhittaker@post-journal.com
State legislators want to make it harder for bad police officers to get a job in another police department in New York state.
Assemblyman Phil Ramos, D-Brentwood, and Sen. Brian Benjamin, D-New York City, have introduced A.7284/S.6489, titled the “Wandering Officers Act.”
The legislation would prohibit provisional or permanent hiring of a police officer if the person has been fired from any jurisdiction either inside or outside New York state if the officer left while being investigated, if the officer left while the subject of a disciplinary action that could have resulted in the officer being fired or if the officer resigned while criminal charges were pending stemming from actions committed while on duty as a police officer.
jwhittaker@post-journal.com
State legislators want to make it harder for bad police officers to get a job in another police department in New York state.
Assemblyman Phil Ramos, D-Brentwood, and Sen. Brian Benjamin, D-New York City, have introduced A.7284/S.6489, titled the “Wandering Officers Act.”
The legislation would prohibit provisional or permanent hiring of a police officer if the person has been fired from any jurisdiction either inside or outside New York state if the officer left while being investigated, if the officer left while the subject of a disciplinary action that could have resulted in the officer being fired or if the officer resigned while criminal charges were pending stemming from actions committed while on duty as a police officer.
jwhittaker@post-journal.com
Legalization of marijuana in New York state is leading to added interest in some colleges’ agricultural programs.
During discussion earlier this week of a loan forgiveness program for young farmers by the state Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City, discuss the increased interest with state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay. Borrello has been a vocal critic of the marijuana legalization program, particularly the lack of state funding for drug recognition experts.
“I don’t know how you’ll cope with this George, but I’ve heard from several upstate colleges there is a lot of interest in agriculture by young people in cannabis and hemp,” Krueger said. “Now that we have new legal products for people to farm they have already voiced their interest in this career path. .. The farming community was and continues to be very interested in exploring opportunities with the products. It’s a good match with the young people.�
Last year, talk of COVID-19 travel bans were all the rage across the country.
As the nation struggles to return to normalcy in its second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York state Legislature has returned to a bit of normalcy with two bills proposing travel bans on state employees to Georgia and Arkansas that have nothing to do with COVID-19.
These travel bans are political in nature.
Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti, D-Port Washington, has introduced A.6969 to suspend all state-related travel to Georgia while Sen. Robert Jackson, D-New York City, has proposed S.6088 to suspend state travel to Arkansas.
Dozens of Democrats in the state Senate support creating a COVID-19 Health Registry.
Introduced last month in the Senate by Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-New York City, S.5927 has 22 Democrat co-sponsors. Hoylman proposes to amend the state Public Health Law to establish the registry to track the long-term health impacts and outcomes of volunteer enrollees who have been infected with COVID-19.
The state Health Department would be able to periodically survey those who enroll in the registry and to share survey data or other registry information with researchers for the purpose of medical, public health or other scientific research; and providing enrollees with information about COVID-19-related health studies, programs, benefits and other relevant information. Any data shared by the registry with researchers must comply with confidentiality requirements and be conditioned on the free public accessibility of any resulting public studies, reports or findings.