Politics on the Hudson

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today he will be doubling the size of his office’s Civil Rights Bureau. The addition of 10 new lawyers will make it the largest in the history of the office. The bureau will focus on initiatives including what Cuomo terms a “New Immigrant Initiative” to develop a “coordinated multi-bureau response focusing on labor, civil rights, and consumer fraud, and that will crack down on phony immigration service providers.” Cuomo is also launching a “reinvigorated outreach program” that includes making the entire contents of the department of law’s website available in Spanish, and adding instructions in Mandarin, Cantonese and Russian to the AG’s hotline (in addition to English and Spanish).

Cuomo named Dianne E. Dixon as the new Assistant Attorney General-In-Charge of the Civil Rights Bureau. Most recently, she served as the executive director of the New York City Loft Board. He also announced the appointments of Sandra Grannum as assistant attorney general-in-charge of legal recruitment and Lillian “Lee� Llambelis as director of intergovernmental relations.