By TALI ARBEL Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Internet companies are readying for a showdown with telecoms and a Republican-controlled government over a policy near and dear to their hearts: net neutrality. Net neutrality basically prevents broadband providers from playing favorites or steering users toward (or away from) particular internet sites. Under rules enacted during […]

Whether it was fear, racism or economic concerns that led the U.S. in the 1930s to ban growing or even possessing marijuana, the nation's wall against pot lasted a generation. Now, it's showing signs of wear. Twenty-nine U.S. states consider pot legal for people with certain medical conditions. Eight of those states, plus the District […]

By ANNA GRONEWOLD and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) There's a big string attached to New York's free middle-class college tuition initiative: Students must stay in the state after graduation or else pay back the benefit. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the requirement was added to protect the state's investment in […]

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) If you build it, they will stay. The small businesses that dominate the home remodeling industry are expecting robust growth in the next few years, thanks partly to baby boomers who want to remain in their homes. Home remodelers say they’ve had a pickup in […]

By ANNA GRONEWOLD Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Adrian Thomas falsely confessed to harming his infant son when Troy police told him that admittance could save the boy’s life. Video footage of the nearly 10-hour interrogation revealed what they didn’t tell him: the boy was already dead. The recording of the coercive interrogation gave Thomas […]

Assemblyman Bob Oaks (R-C Macedon), the ranking member on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, led a debate on the Assembly’s one-house budget resolution last week in Albany. The resolution is a ceremonial position statement that would spend well over the state’s 2-percent spending cap, while proposing $7 billion in new taxes, and increasing state […]

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump has finalized his first budget for the federal government, a blueprint that would make deep cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency and other domestic programs while significantly increasing spending on the military. The budget, submitted to Congress on Thursday, was widely expected to cause political […]

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) The hiring freeze at small businesses looks like it's finally thawing. Recruiting is picking up after being dormant at many companies even years after the recession. The factors behind companies' decisions to hire vary, with some anticipating a big revenue kick from the Trump administration's […]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Advocates for the elderly say each year con artists and greedy family members cheat New York seniors out of $1.5 billion in assets but they worry the number of reported cases is only the tip of the financial abuse iceberg. The Senate and Assembly's Joint Committee on Aging heard testimony Tuesday from […]

By MARY ESCH Associated Press FLORIDA, N.Y. (AP) When Denise Krohn came home to find her goldendoodle Kirby bleeding on the kitchen floor, she at first thought it was a terrible accident. But she soon realized that her home had been ransacked, and that her other dog, Quigley, was lying dead on his favorite blanket […]