Please declare a state of emergency in NY . We need Rehabs, crisis centers and half-way houses for heroin addicts. Our children are dying.

A.2778 S.1081 An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to community based initiatives for the purpose of trapping, neutering, vaccinating and returning feral cats to the area from which they were trapped. PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: This bill would authorize up to twenty percent of the animal population control program fund balance to be utilized for grants, to eligible entities working in coordination with community based initiatives, for the purpose of trapping, neutering, vaccinating and returning feral cats to the area from which they were trapped. The New York State Animal Population Control Program serves Upstate and Long Island, providing grants to local governments and eligible not-for-profit organizations for low-cost, low-income spay/neuter initiatives and services directly related to such programs. Operated by the ASPCA at no cost to the state, the APCP funds viable, effective and high-impact programs each year to help communities manage homeless animal populations and serve areas of great need, as well as projects reaching more remote and less served populations. Unfortunately, the APCP does not provide sufficient authority to award grants for the management of "Trap-Neuter-Return" or "TNR" feral cat programs. As the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies, these systems can have enormous value to a community. At least 15 other state-sponsored animal population control programs - including those in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware - authorize the use of spay/neuter funds to cover the costs of viable TNR programs. Justification: Once considered unconventional, TNR is now generally accepted as a viable and effective population control tool. Successfully practiced in thousands of communities and in every landscape and setting, Trap-Neuter-Return programs humanely trap feral cats - which cannot be socialized to live with humans safely - and take them to a veterinarian to be neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped. After recovery, the cats are returned to their colony. Kittens of feral cats that can be socialized to people may be adopted into homes. Grounded in science. TNR stops the breeding cycle of feral cats and therefore improves their lives. Historically, the ineffective and costly "catch and kill" approach was used to control feral cat populations, but history has now demonstrated the futility of attempts to permanently clear an area of cats because of the scientifically-documented phenomenon known as the "vacuum effect." In basic terms, whenever cats are removed, new cats move in to take advantage of the now-available resources (like food and shelter), or the surviving cats left behind breed to capacity. Under TNR, the returned cats act as placeholders, preventing intact cats from moving into the area. The cats being returned via TNR have significantly reduced nuisance behaviors (spraying, noise from mating and fighting) and are better community neighbors than the intact cats who would otherwise fill that space if there were a vacuum. As a result, there is robust support for TNR both at the grassroots level and within traditional political structures. This legislation is consistent with the statutory purpose of this program, especially since its reinvention as a grants initiative in 2010. The bill would simply authorize a small percentage of funds available through the APCP each year to be used to support the collaborative work of humane societies, animal welfare organizations and animal shelters with community-based TNR initiatives so they may improve the quality of life for feral cats in a given area, and improve the character of that community for its residents. This in turn supports sound public health policy by proactively reducing the risk of rabies and other zoonotic diseases."

Don’t strike a bad transportation funding deal that cuts taxes on inherited wealth for New Jersey's rich and raises them for everyone else.

Residents of the small town of Franklin, NY are the latest eminent domain victims of the natural gas pipeline companies. This will be the fate of many more small communities across the state and the nation. Please watch our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXbPhy8Gh2Y and sign a petition to Governor Cuomo to enforce the Clean Water Act to stop the pipeline from using eminent domain for corporate gain.

Please help our friend Igor Kuznetsov, get back to his family from immigration detention. He is being unlawfully detained and his green card revoked because of his trouble with the law as a teenager 15 years ago. This came up suddenly when he applied for his citizenship interview.

A family member should be able to press charges directly against an abusive parent for any suspected abuse that is made known, witnessed, or observed of the child.

Kids have the right to independently access sinks in public restrooms. It's often a hardship on parents carryng younger children or packages to safely lift their tot up to the sink. Equal Rights. Equal Access.

Stop making it so hard for people, already in the vulnerable state of being unemployed, to collect their rightfully earned unemployment insurance. The process and the personnel too often make normally hard working people feel like they are begging for a handout.

Under current NYS law, juror information is available to ANYONE willing to pay for it. This means that convicted felons CAN gain access to the names of the people that convicted them. Juror information SHOULD NOT be available to the public, let alone to the individual you, as a juror, helped convict.

Now that the A.S.P.C.A has abdicated it's humane law enforcement duties to the N.Y.P.D it is critical police officers are provided with tranquilizer guns to subdue an aggressive animal versus firing their guns thus murdering the animal and risking the possibility of an errant shot hitting an innocent bystander. This is an issue of preventing a cruel method of death for the pet and a public safety matter.