One SUNY student said if officials really want to reduce exposure on campuses by forcing students to get vaccinated, then all segments of the higher education community should be required to get a jab.
âI feel like thatâs messed up ⦠Itâs not fair that they can choose not to get it, Madison Mack, a senior international relations major at Buffalo State, said of SUNY employees not be covered by the vaccination edict.
Extending the mandatory vaccine order for SUNY employees would run into unions representing those workers that have something college students donât have: political might. SUNY last year enforced mandatory testing for students in certain cases, while, according to one SUNY document, such testing was âstrongly recommendedâ per written understandings between SUNY and various unions representing employees at the college system.
4:16
New York officials and consumer activists say it should be easier for the average person and small business to repair certain electronics.
The Digital Fair Repair Act allows individuals and small businesses to repair digital devices ranging from smartphones, computers, farm equipment to household appliances.
Backers say products from companies like Apple and Samsung can only be repaired by the manufacturer or by a sanctioned third party, often so expensive a fix that it makes more sense to purchase a new device.
Louis Rossman owns a fix-it shop in Manhattan and he firmly supports the legislation, citing a 2019 MacBook that retails for $2,000.
New York State Team
New York hospitals received mixed safety grades from a consumer watchdog group that analyzed conditions just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck last spring.
Only 16 hospitals statewide, or 10.7%, received the highest A safety grade from Leapfrog, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, while 30 hospitals received the second-lowest D grade. Just one, New York Community Hospital in Brooklyn, received an F.
The review looked at a variety of serious health-related issues, including data related to infectious disease prevention metrics considered crucial to limiting the spread of coronavirus.
“Seeing how well hospitals are doing on infection prevention, in general, may indicate how well they were able to control the spread of COVID inside their facility,” said Erica Mobley, vice president of administration at Leapfrog.
By Susan Arbetter City of Albany PUBLISHED 4:53 PM ET May. 04, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:53 PM EDT May. 04, 2021
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Now that the Census numbers are out, New York’s Redistricting Commission will start the process of drawing new maps for both congressional and legislative seats.
According to Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), the historical trend has been “that the gravitational pull is really downstate, in terms of population.”
“The population typically grows the most in the City of New York and up to Saratoga in the Hudson Valley, according to estimates so far,” he told
Capital Tonight.