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Visits to Nursing Homes to be Temporarily Restricted Nationwide About two and a half million Americans live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Unfortunately, the coronavirus is particularly deadly to the elderly – so much so that about 80 percent of all COVID-19 deaths occur among the over-65 age group. The danger to people…

New York City’s performance is even worse than the statewide average Statistically, New York has the fifth-highest per capita income of any US state. It also enjoys the advantage of the fourth-highest population and the third-highest aggregate GDP. You might conclude that with such a large tax base, the state of New York would offer…

Under pressure from the federal government, colleges have been responding aggressively to sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations made by students against other students. Although many of the recent reforms may have been well-intended, some schools have simply gone too far by denying accused students a fair chance to defend themselves. It is situations like…

On April 1, 2019, the New York state legislature passed a new criminal justice reform bill that, among other reforms, requires significant changes in the pre-trial discovery process. These reforms will be contained in Article 245 of the Criminal Procedure Law.  The new law goes into effect on January 1, 2020, and district attorneys throughout…

Beginning in 2020, New York will allow most criminal defendants charged with misdemeanors and non-violent felonies to remain free until their trial date without posting bail. The Bail Elimination Act of the New York Criminal Procedure Law takes effect in January 2020, and it will operate as a major reform that affects not only the…

Discriminatory Impact Cited Marijuana is legal for recreational purposes in 11 US states, and it is legal for medical use in 33 states including New York. The criminalization of marijuana in the state of New York, however, has a long history. Marijuana was legal in New York until 1914, at which point it became a…

The statistics are stunning. Numerous studies have shown that nearly 3 billion people use social media. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been praised for their benefits and criticized for their dangers, and both proponents and critics of social media probably have valid points to make. One danger of social media that…

Nursing home abuse and neglect is a nationwide problem and, unfortunately, the situation isn’t any better in New York than it is anywhere else. A 2011 study at Cornell University estimated that, in New York alone, over a quarter of a million elderly people have been subject to some form of abuse, whether inside or…

A criminal conviction, or even an arrest that did not lead to a conviction, can follow you around for the rest of your life. You may be denied housing, employment, or a professional license for this reason – and you might not even be told why, for example, that your employment application was rejected. New…