Impact
Our New York state reporting has uncovered secret government committees, caused legislators to introduce new bills, and more.
Two women have died by suicide and a third from cancer at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the reporting found.
The state rescinded its request to dismiss a sexual abuse lawsuit after a judge became aware of New York Focus’s findings.
The Legislative Correspondents Alumni Association recognized Chris Gelardi with its award for the year’s best state government reporting — the second year in a row that Focus has earned the honor.
A week after incarcerated journalist Sara Kielly published an article criticizing the prison system for its solitary confinement practices, officers ransacked her cell.
Referencing a New York Focus story, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas introduced legislation to prevent public agencies from naming the medically discredited condition in their reports.
The legislation cites multiple New York Focus investigations in its attempt to safeguard the rights of incarcerated people.
The policy and its sudden reversal will be among Acting Commissioner Anthony Annucci’s last acts.
A new bill would subject the state prison system to independent oversight for sexual assault complaints. The Senate has two weeks to bring it to a floor vote.
A health insurer offering shoddy coverage to low-wage workers at taxpayer expense will be replaced next year. But will what comes next be any better?
The rollout follows years of reporting by New York Focus on delays and missed deadlines.
A legally mandated program to reimburse organ donors has languished since 2022. The health department now says it’ll fix that this year.
The first significant pay increase in years could strengthen the office responsible for reviewing major legislation.
The final budget excludes a loophole that would have exempted corporate giants like Spotify and Amazon, after New York Focus reported on the carveout in February.
The disclosures included over a dozen missing or incomplete reports covering a period of more than four years.
Rebecca Lamorte was let go by her employer in June, prompting the Assembly Speaker to place an upset call to her boss.
A secret group of Senate Democrats helped decide the fate of nearly 650 bills over the last month. Just don’t ask any questions.
New York’s transparency watchdog found that the ethics commission violated open records law by redacting its own recusal forms.
Hochul has a month to nominate one of the seven candidates to be New York’s next chief judge, after the state Senate rejected her first pick last month.
After New York Focus reported that the elections board wasn’t enforcing a landmark transparency law, it sent delinquent donors a letter requesting that they comply. Thousands did within weeks.
The move comes after New York Focus reported on widespread violations of campaign finance law and the Board’s lack of enforcement.
The legislation follows New York Focus reporting that showed a major gas utility may have been siphoning off customers’ bills to fund an anti-electrification campaign.
Just a few months after launching in 2020, our reporting on the burning of toxic waste steps away from a public housing complex “opened the eyes of many in and outside government” and pushed the former governor to sign into law an incineration ban he had opposed behind closed doors, according to a former EPA administrator.
After we exposed that dozens of New York City businesses were flouting a ban on plastic bags, the state levied significant fines against a major chain of stores.
Our reporting prompted US Rep. Tom Suozzi to disclose more information about an eyebrow-raising investment in a biotech company tied to a powerful political stakeholder.
The "Stop Illegal Evictions Act," introduced by Councilmember Sandy Nurse, cites our 2021 reporting in this area. The law would further penalize landlords who illegally evict tenants, and increase tenants' access to their homes following an illegal eviction attempt.
