A local cable company has agreed to a record $72 million settlement with New York after last summer’s response to Tropical Storm Isaias. The storm left around 400,000 Altice customers without service, in some cases for up to two weeks. The settlement is the largest ever in New York for any company under PSC jurisdiction for failing to follow procedures related to an emergency response. Altice is also required to develop a more robust storm-response program and enhance communication and coordination with municipal and county governments.
Rockland Officials Press State for Mass Vaccination Site for the County
Despite what might be long odds at this point, the county and other state and federal representatives continue to work to get a mass vaccination site located in Rockland. County Executive Ed Day says the occasional, temporary pop-up site is not enough…
COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we lost another to COVID, the total is 910. We’ve got 51 hospitalized confirmed with coronavirus, and 2,014 active cases. Our total case count is 41,729, that’s 183 more than Friday.
Ramapo Supervisor: 20% in the Ball Park is a Good Start, But We Need More
While the New York Boulders and other outdoor facilities around the state have been given the green light to open at 20 percent capacity come April first, the town of Ramapo is hoping they’ll be able to have a higher number than that in the stands when the team’s season opens at the end of May. Ramapo supervisor Michael Specht says while the Yankees and Mets have lucrative TV rights to help pay the bills, the Boulders do not, and they depend on ticket and concession sales…
The Boulders say they are looking forward to having fans in the stands for the start of their inaugural season with the Frontier League.
Off-duty Ramapo Detective Cleared in Fatal Shooting Last Summer
An off-duty Ramapo Police detective has been cleared by an Orange County grand jury in the fatal shooting of his neighbor in Cornwall last summer. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler announced state criminal charges would not be brought against the unidentified detective, who shot the unidentified 40 year-old victim after he threatened him with a knife. The District Attorney determined the off-duty detective’s actions in this case were a justifiable use of deadly physical force in self-defense, though the victim was determined to suffer from mental illness and associated issues.
Group Urges NY to Tax the Rich to Help State’s Budget Crunch, Local Biz Group CEO Says That’s a Bad Idea
Forget about marijuana…New York can get its money from millionaires! More than four-dozen New York millionaires are asking state lawmakers to increase their taxes to help the state recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. Mike Lapham is with the Responsible Wealth Project and says raising taxes on high-income earners, corporations, and stock sales, for example, is a good start…
Some argue that, if taxes are raised on the rich, they’d move to a state with lower taxes. Rockland Business Association CEO Al Samuels says more than a million people have left New York State in the past decade, and that number has to turn around…
Lapham, however, says taxing those who can afford to pay would reverse decades of growing economic inequality….
To learn more about the Responsible Wealth Project, visit www.ResponsibleWealth.org.