Latest news with #BigUgly
New York Post
08-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Mammoth $254B NY state budget revealed, goes up for vote: ‘Albany at its cynical worst'
The bulk of the mammoth $254 billion state budget deal was unveiled Wednesday with some last minute self-serving quietly slipped into the batter before Albany lawmakers were set to finally vote on it. The spending plan documents — nicknamed 'The Big Ugly' in capital lingo — provide a last-minute, warts-and-all look at much-anticipated legislation focused on New York City's mental health crisis, recidivism problems and more. Gov. Kathy Hochul ran a victory lap Wednesday after a deal to revamp the state's discovery laws — a move to combat a slew of criminal cases that have been getting dismissed on technicalities. The tweaks caused a weeks-long impasse on the overall mammoth budget deal. Advertisement 4 New York Senate lawmakers debate budget bills during a legislative session in the Senate Chamber at the state Capitol Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Albany, NY. Hans Pennink 'I said all along I would hold up a $250 billion budget on this issue,' she said. Sources have hinted to The Post that the budget's final price tag will actually be more than the $254 billion hinted by Hochul. Advertisement The discovery changes will prevent criminal cases from being thrown out over trivial mistakes and narrow how much evidence prosecutors must turn over to defense attorneys. Involuntary commitment standards – the rules by which severely mentally ill people can be forced into psychiatric care against their will – will be expanded and loosened under the agreement. Hochul and state lawmakers reached the deal after months of backroom talks prompted in part by violence in the subways, random attacks on the city's streets and Mayor Eric Adams using his bully pulpit to push for changes to involuntary commitment rules. 4 Kathy Hochul, joined by Queens DA Melinda Katz, Bronx DA, Darcel Clark, Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Staten Island DA Michael McMahon announce changes to State discovery laws on May 7, 2025. James Messerschmidt Advertisement The budget was due April 1, but it went far over that deadline — a delay that state Sen. Jim Skoufis (D-Orange) lambasted. 'I'm sick and tired of one individual – the Governor – superseding the will of up to 213 duly elected Senators and Assembly Members,' he said in a statement. 'The current operating procedure is nothing short of authoritarian.' Albany's single-party Democratic rule also let Hochul, state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) sign off on a slew of self-serving deals for their party faithful. 4 The New York state Capitol is seen as lawmakers vote on budget bills Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Albany, N.Y. Hans Pennink for the NY Post Advertisement The state budget package wraps in measures to help incumbents game New York's new public campaign financing system, allow lawmakers to keep collecting salaries from side jobs and assist Hochul in warding off a challenge from her estranged lieutenant governor. 'All in all, it's a generally bad Albany at its cynical worst, and we have nothing positive to say about this and how they've done this just underlines that these are self-serving changes Democratic incumbents,' John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, told The Post. The budget also includes a highly controversial measure pushed by Orthodox Jewish communities that would make it easier for Yeshivas to demonstrate compliance with educational standards that public schools need to meet. 4 A man who attacked an MTA worker with a hammer in the 14th St. and 8th Ave L train station in Manhattan, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022 is taken into custody by police at the scene. Robert Mecea for NY Post The state Department of Education required non-public schools to demonstrate their curriculums are 'substantially equivalent' to those of public schools. A 2023 investigation by the city's education department found 18 Yeshivas weren't educating students on basic English and math. 'Despite how people try to characterize this, this is not the elimination of substantial currency,' Hochul told reporters Tuesday. The new plan will give the non-public schools several other different ways to prove substantial equivalency beyond those outlined by the state education department, which is opposed to the move. Additional reporting by Haley Brown
Axios
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Prolific Triangle songwriter Aaron Dowdy is gaining recognition
Aaron Dowdy is constantly writing songs — recording on his phone the melodies that loop in his head or jotting down lyrics with the pen he always keeps in his breast pocket. It's something he's been doing since middle school, producing countless demos in his bedroom that most people have never heard. Why it matters: His music is now finding its biggest audiences yet, as his Durham-based band Fust has slowly drawn attention from fans and critics alike in the past few years. (The influential music site Stereogum named Fust one of the best new bands of 2023.) Dowdy, also a Ph.D. literature candidate at Duke, has risen to become one of the Triangle's most prolific songwriters. He's released dozens of tunes exploring the parts of southern Virginia where he grew up, the area's towns in decline, and rich character studies of the people who inhabit them. Driving the news: Fust's third album, " Big Ugly," is out Friday. The collection of country-tinged rock features songs about places, like the Shenandoah Valley in " Spangled," and mournful ballads about memories of summers long ago in songs like " Bleached." What they're saying: "I have been working on writing songs for a very long time, and I feel like my way of writing songs is very firmly in place," Dowdy told Axios. This album, though, felt different, he said, because the band's last record "was the first time strangers really listened and enjoyed the music." "But one thing I firmly believe is there are so many songs that are yet to be written; I am just one that is writing them" at the moment, he added. State of play: Fust is part of a growing community of bands in North Carolina performing modern takes on Southern rock music and often swapping roles in each other's bands. Fust's members include guitarist Justin Morris, of Durham band Sluice; drummer Avery Sullivan, who has performed with a host of bands, like Sluice and Indigo De Souza; and fiddler Libby Rodenbough, who has released albums on her own and with the popular folk group Mipso. "Big Ugly" was produced by Alex Farrar, an Asheville-based producer who has helped record albums from groups like Wednesday and MJ Lenderman. What's next: Fust is hitting the road to perform its new album up and down the East Coast and in the Midwest starting this month. The band will perform at the Cat's Cradle Back Room on April 19. All the while, though, Dowdy will continue to write and record demos on his phone. "I am definitely someone who is convinced that momentum is a good thing," Dowdy said of his prolific output. "I like moving on to the next thing."
