CityLaw Profile: Arthur Leonard, Professor, Author, Editor, Chronicler, Composer, Bassist

Arthur Leonard for 40 years has been one of the most important and most-read chronicler of the LGBT rights movement. In 1979, as the founder and president of the City’s Gay Lawyers Association Leonard began reporting judicial decisions involving LGBT rights and slipping them in the monthly mailer—this was the start of LGBT Law Notes. Originally a two-sided photocopied sheet of paper, LGBT Law Notes is now a monthly newsletter with a circulation of thousands. … <Read More>


New York’s Constitutional Convention Vote: Hit or Stand?

In 2017, along with voting for mayor, council members, and other elected officials, the voters of New York will be asked to answer “Yes “or “No” to this question:  “Shall there be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” Every twenty years, the New York State constitution requires that the voters of the State be given the option to call a constitutional convention for revising and amending the New York State constitution … <Read More>


New York State’s New System for Tracking Prescription Drugs

prescriptions_finalOn June 19, 2012, one lone gunman entered a small pharmacy in Medford, Long Island.  Seven gunshots later, four people lay dead—killed at close range without signs of resistance.  Three days later, David Laffer and his wife, Melinda Brady, were arrested.  Laffer was charged with first-degree murder.  Melinda Brady, driver of the getaway car, was charged with third-degree robbery. 


Judge Judith S. Kaye: Juvenile Justice Reform: Now is Really the Moment

 

Judge Judith S. Kaye delivered these remarks at the CityLaw Breakfast on October 18, 2013.

A little more than three years ago—on August 27, 2010, to be precise—I had the privilege of standing before you as part of the CityLaw Breakfast Series. I began by complimenting all of you, as I do today, for arriving at the crack of dawn to chew on the subject of justice for breakfast.

On that beautiful summer day, I … <Read More>


Medicaid: 5 Million New Yorkers, $53 Billion and Growing

Fiscal year 2010 Medicaid spending by the fifty states, excluding administrative costs, exceeded $389 billion dollars.  New York State led the states in total spending at $52 billion dollars. Medicaid costs are now the largest driver of state and local spending in New York State. Recent changes in State law have helped reduce the local costs, but Medicaid continues to dominate State and local expenses.

Congress in 1965 established Medicaid under Title XIX of the <Read More>


2013 Election Special: Campaign Finance Board Executive Director Amy Loprest

The dramatic suicide of Queens Borough President Donald Manes in 1986 shocked the City. Manes was under investigation in the Parking Violations Bureau ticket collection scandal when he drove a knife through his heart while talking on the phone with his psychiatrist. It was out of this scandal-plagued era that the City’s Campaign Finance Board was born. A joint City-State Commission to combat corruption organized by Mayor Ed Koch and Governor Mario Cuomo recommended public … <Read More>