Apple trees in bloom.
(Albany, NY) Today, the Senate Democratic Majority advanced legislation supporting farmers and the agriculture industry across New York State. The legislation passed by the Senate Democratic Majority broadens the presence and promotion of farmers’ markets and New York farm products, places in statute the New York State Council on Food Policy, makes the Nourish New York Program permanent, and establishes the carbon farming tax credit.
“New York’s family farms and agriculture industry are crucial to the economy and communities across the state,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “Throughout the pandemic, we have seen how local farms can help New Yorkers who are living in food deserts access healthy foods. These bills will help increase access to locally grown food and assist struggling farms. I thank the bill sponsors for their strong support of New York’s agriculture industry and farmers.”
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Just two years ago, on a sweltering day in the Peruvian capital, Lima, Silvana was telling me that she couldn’t remember how long she’d been selling pineapple juice on Miguel Grau Avenue. “I was perhaps fifteen? I tried to do something else, but this is the only thing I can do.” I wonder, now, how she is coping during the Covid-19 pandemic, if she is safe. It will be a long time before I can visit in person, so I call.
Her number is not connected. Perhaps she has changed it; I hope so. The pandemic has been disastrous for workers like Silvana in Latin America’s informal economy the bread sellers on the streets in La Paz, the cardboard collectors in Buenos Aires, the domestic workers in Santiago, the fruit sellers on the streets of Lima and she will have encountered many hardships since we last met.
Ranked-choice voting sees first test AG’s suit against NRA moves forward Garcia calls for vaccine czar
Presented by Opportunities for NY
A new system of ranked-choice voting will transform New York City’s elections, including this year s race for mayor. Now it’s about to get its first test: early voting
Instead of picking one candidate, voters
will choose up to five, ranking them in order of preference. If a candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes, they win and that’s the end of it. But if no one does, a computerized system eliminates the last-place candidate and parcels out their votes to the second choice. The process repeats itself until someone gets a majority.
Hundreds have tested positive for the virus this month, with daily averages about seven-times higher than early December. Meanwhile, advocates among them Chelsea Clinton are calling on Gov. Cuomo to get moving on inoculations.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was absolutely right to swiftly sanction the Bronx’s Luis Sepúlveda, stripping him of committee assignments, after his arrest this week on charges he assaulted his wife. (Ironically, he was chairman of the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee.)