Gov. David Paterson today got a vote of confidence – sort of – from the state’s top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.“David is doing great,’’ Bruno said in a radio interview on Talk-1300 in Albany. “He’s hands-on…He’s my best partner.’’

But he said Paterson didn’t handle properly his big decision so far this week: to [...]

    Here’s a message from Albany to Rockland and Putnam counties: You may consider yourself part of the metropolitan region but, for purposes of a new state law, you’re part of Upstate.

Changes included in the new state budget in the Wicks Law  that governs public-construction sites divides the state into New York City, its suburbs [...]

   Assemblyman Richard Brodsky wasn’t quite ready to take a victory lap around noon today with the congestion-pricing issue unlikely to be approved by the Legislature by midnight, which is the deadline for passage if New York City is to get $354 million from the federal government to ease traffic congestion.

But he sounded confident the [...]

   The budget deadlock is expected to roll into next week, with lawmakers leaving the Capitol today with major issues like education aid and new taxes and fees still undecided.They have been in town for 10 days and are eager to get home, an aide said this morning.They stayed last weekend as part of a [...]

  Kristine Hamann, the state’s embattled inspector general, announced today she is resigning – another in the list of officials touched by the “Troopergate’’ scandal who is leaving state government.

Hamann, 55, a former longtime Manhattan prosecutor, got into trouble last year when she endorsed  report from Attorney General  Andrew Cuomo about aides to Eliot Spitzer [...]

The state Assembly will vote on the Manhattan congestion-pricing plan on Monday if there is enough support to approve it, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.

Monday is the deadline for the Legislature to act on the plan and retain New York City’s eligibility for about $350 million in federal transportation aid. The [...]

   Among the flock of lobbyists hired by tobacco companies trying to block a plan to raise the cigarette tax is former state senator Nicholas Spano of Yonkers, according to an agreement he signed with Reynolds American Inc. last December.

Spano signed up for a year’s worth of lobbying for $4,500 a month, or a total [...]

   While upstate communities have been fighting – and winning- to keep prisons open that the state wants to close, a Westchester lawmaker said she would love to get rid of a local prison.

“Too bad we just couldn’t move Sing Sing upstate,’’ said Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, musing that the prime riverfront property that the [...]

Gov. Paterson has asked for resignation letters from all of his top staff members and state-agency commissioners, Press Secretary Errol Cockfield said today.”This is a typical step in the transition from one administration to another,’’ he said.Cockfield said the step doesn’t necessarily mean that Paterson, who took office on Monday, plans wholesale [...]

Seven percent of those who voted in Tuesday’s presidential primaries in New York were gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to exit polling cited by the Empire State Pride Agenda.

“Gay New Yorkers are a large and loyal block of Democrats who vote in New York,’‘said Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle. “Not [...]