Cuomo demands MTA execs fix
Wandering Dago, Inc. v. Destito, No. 16-622 (2d Cir. 2018)
Justia Opinion Summary
WD filed suit against OGS, alleging that defendants violated its rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and the New York State Constitution by denying WD's applications to participate as a food truck vendor in the Lunch Program based on its ethnic-slur branding. The Second Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendant, holding that defendants' action violated WD's equal protection rights and its rights under the New York State Constitution. In this case, it was undisputed that defendants denied WD's applications solely because of its ethnic-slur branding. In Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), the Supreme Court clarified that this action amounted to viewpoint discrimination and, if not government speech or otherwise protected, was prohibited by the First Amendment. The court rejected defendants' argument that their actions were unobjectionable because they were either part of OGS's government speech or permissible regulation of a government contractor's speech.
WD filed suit against OGS, alleging that defendants violated its rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and the New York State Constitution by denying WD's applications to participate as a food truck vendor in the Lunch Program based on its ethnic-slur branding. The Second Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendant, holding that defendants' action violated WD's equal protection rights and its rights under the New York State Constitution. In this case, it was undisputed that defendants denied WD's applications solely because of its ethnic-slur branding. In Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), the Supreme Court clarified that this action amounted to viewpoint discrimination and, if not government speech or otherwise protected, was prohibited by the First Amendment. The court rejected defendants' argument that their actions were unobjectionable because they were either part of OGS's government speech or permissible regulation of a government contractor's speech.
‘egregious’ subway homeless crisis
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Gov. Cuomo fired off a letter to MTA execs Friday demanding they address the homeless crisis in the city’s subways — saying he’s “never seen it this bad.”
“I’ve never seen it this egregious, either on the numbers and on the statistics, or as a matter of visibility,” Cuomo told reporters in a conference call, describing the overwhelming number of vagabonds sleeping in stations and on subway cars.
“We had homeless people who would go into subways and terminals in the winter, I’ve never seen it as a year-round phenomena. I’ve never seen it in the summer,” he said.
More than 1,770 homeless people were found living in the subway in 2018, according to the governor’s letter, which was sent to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors.
In 2019, the number rose to 2,713.
There were 659 vagrant-caused train delays in 2018, according to the MTA, up from 428 such delays in 2014.
“I never met a homeless person who says, ‘I love sleeping in the terminal, I love sleeping on the trains.’ Constant noise, subject to harassment, etc. It is shelter of last resort is what it is, and we can be better than that, we must be better than that,” the governor said.
Cuomo also called on the authority to beef up law enforcement presence on trains and buses, crackdown on fare evasion and boost train speeds.
The MTA is set to come up with a reorganization plan is due at the end of the month.
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