Kathy Hochul Archives - Public Seminar

Public Health

Death Rights

The risks of New York State’s new Medical Aid in Dying law

February 19, 2026 • by Megan Robinson

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAiD) into state law in early February, months after the legislation passed the state Senate in June 2025. The bill’s passing prompted an extended period of debate, advocacy, and amending, centered on whether mentally competent, terminally ill New ...

Corporations

The High Cost of Cheap Corporate Utilities

Discounted energy is a backdoor subsidy

March 30, 2023 • by Pat Garofalo

Make any utility discounts for “economic development” transparent and debatable before public bodies, if they have to be allowed at all...

The High Cost of Cheap Corporate Utilities

Corporations

Election Day 2022: Good (and Some Bad) News for State Corporate Power Politics

Big tech antagonists did well, but so did megadeal boosters

November 14, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

Big Tech antagonists won big in attorneys general races. So did all of the governors who have been promoting major corporate subsidy deals in recent months won their reelection races, lending more evidence to the already existing heap of it that massive corporate handouts can be potent political tools....

Election Day 2022: Good (and Some Bad) News for State Corporate Power Politics

Activism

Statewide Democratic Candidates Rally in Brooklyn

A photo essay

November 8, 2022 • by Jo Freeman

The Democratic candidates for all five of New York’s statewide offices on the 2022 ballot rallied the troops in downtown Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon before election day. They were all incumbents seeking re-election. ...

Statewide Democratic Candidates Rally in Brooklyn

Activism

Historic Women’s Rally in NYC Five Days Before the Election

A photo essay

November 7, 2022 • by Jo Freeman

Seven top Democratic women and one man spoke at a Women’s Vote rally at Barnard College on November 3. All but one were New York elected officials. Many were “firsts” in their jobs. The sheer number of women officials was historic by itself. This rally illustrated that having many women ...

Historic Women’s Rally in NYC Five Days Before the Election

Capitalism

The Semiconductor Shell Game Has a Big Winner

Money in politics finds a current in semiconductors

October 13, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

This deal confirms my worst fears about the confluence of a genuine semiconductor shortage and lack of domestic manufacturing with a huge pot of federal subsidies that state officials are vying for in an election year. The table was perfectly set for overspending on giant deals in order to facilitate ...

The Semiconductor Shell Game Has a Big Winner

Technology

The Chip Wars Heat Up

Chips with a side of CHIPS

February 7, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

"...there’s something much bigger at work here: The Chip Wars, as I’ve dubbed them, are heating up, and revealing some of the tensions between national needs and extraction from local communities."...

Politics

Cuomo and the Buffalo Bills’ Billion

When a political scandal and a stadium subsidy collide

August 23, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation last week following the release of a report by New York Attorney General Tish James showing that Cuomo had sexually harassed several women. When Cuomo officially leaves office next week, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will take over. Cuomo has been governor for more ...