The Capitol Pressroom

April 25, 2025 - In a new excerpt from Dispatches from Planet Albany, we broke down the evolving field of GOP gubernatorial candidates with Republican communications consultant Chapin Fay.

April 25, 2025 - Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking to give the state's prisons some breathing room by moving up the release date of hundreds of New Yorkers already scheduled to be let go. We discuss this policy with Laura Roan, vice president of in-prison services for The Osborne Association.

April 25, 2025 - New York Attorney General Letitia James could soon find herself under a federal criminal investigation, but is this a weaponization of the justice system? We explore the case against the Brooklyn Democrat and the response by the Trump administration with Dale Margolin Cecka, an assistant professor of law at Albany Law School.

April 23, 2025 - We break down the latest survey of voters by the Siena College Research Institute, which asked if New Yorkers care about a late budget, who they want to be the gubernatorial nominees next year, and their reactions to some Trump administration priorities. Our guest is Siena pollster Steve Greenberg.

April 23, 2025 - Assemblymember Emérita Torres, a Bronx Democrat, explains her legislation regulating the use of price adjustments informed by consumer data.

April 23, 2025 - New York State Attorney General Letitia James is going after de facto payday lending operations that she claims are engaging in abusive and deceptive practices. Andy Morrison, associate director of the New Economy Project, discusses the attorney general's lawsuit and makes the case for stricter regulations of online financial services.

April 23, 2025 - Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, a Brooklyn Democrat, talks about why kids in foster care need to be provided with luggage. The thousands of kids in the system without luggage, and how the problem could be addressed, was recently explored by The Imprint.

April 22, 2025 - New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang discusses a recent report on workers' compensation fraud investigations in 2024, which led to an increase in arrests and recovered payouts.

April 22, 2025 - New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario calls on state policymakers to stop siphoning off funds intended for New York's 9-1-1 system in order to pay for critical upgrades to the emergency network.

April 21, 2025 - We get an update on the Trump administration's decision to take control of the long-stalled overhaul of Penn Station, Our guest, Stephen Nessen, a transportation reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, explains what had been happening under the Metropolitan Transit Authority and identifies some of the big questions moving forward.

April 21, 2025 - State Senator Rachel May, a Syracuse Democrat, and Assembly Member Alex Bores, a Manhattan Democrat, make the case for allowing a handful of municipalities to transition how they tax land in an attempt to promote growth and shift the local tax burden.

April 21, 2025 - Antony Gemmell, supervising attorney with the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, discusses a lawsuit against the Hochul Administration's pause on parts of a state law restricting the use of solitary confinement in New York prisons.

April 18, 2025 - New York League of Conservation Voters President Julie Tighe responds to the Trump administration hitting pause on the construction of an offshore wind project along Long Island that was expected to be in operation next year and power about 500,000 homes.

April 18, 2025 - In order to improve the processing of sex offense evidence, legislation has been introduced to ensure that rape kits processed at hospitals are part of a statewide tracking system and are addressed by law enforcement in a timely manner. Our guest is Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy at the Joyful Heart Foundation.

April 18, 2025 - Gabrielle Lerner, president of the Student Government Association at Empire State University, makes the case for codifying a student bill of rights for SUNY and CUNY students.

April 18, 2025 - New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli discusses an audit of more than $450 million of medical equipment purchased by the state in the early days of the pandemic and has gone almost completely unused. He also addresses why his office didn't conduct this review years earlier.

April 17, 2025 - Assemblymember Scott Gray, a North Country Republican, discusses his role in helping a family of constituents who were detained and brought to Texas by federal immigration officials.

April 17, 2025 - Assemblymember D. Billy Jones, a North Country Democrat, discusses the prison landscape in New York and makes the case for hiring prison guards dismissed earlier this year. We also talk about the potential closing of additional facilities, the high-profile killings in central New York prisons, and much more.

April 16, 2025 - We get an update on the transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program from Katelyn Cordero, a health care reporter with Politico New York.

April 16, 2025 - Assemblymember Robert Smullen, a Mohawk Valley Republican, defends the Trump Administration's approach to tariffs and argues that increased tariffs could benefit American manufacturing and the federal government's coffers.