New York State Bar Outlines 2025 Legislative Priorities, Aiming for Fairness, Equity

By Brian Lee, original publication 12/18/24.

At the approach of the 2025 legislative session, New York’s largest bar association announced that it will lobby Albany lawmakers to enact right-to-counsel measures for children, families and immigrants in New York.

The new priorities, the statewide bar group said, will move the state closer to creating a more fair and equitable justice system.

The New York State Bar Association said it will also continue to advocate fervently for a series of past proposals that have failed to become law.

Mayor Adams on Hearing the People and Other Matters

The Democrat mayor made the comments while speaking to Fox News's Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, in which he also discussed the illegal immigration crisis impacting the city.

The host asked Adams what he thought of President-elect Donald Trump's sweeping victory over Harris, in which he secured substantial support in the five NYC boroughs that have historically voted Democrat. McCollum inquired as to where the Democratic Party had gone wrong.

"We stopped speaking to people, we started speaking at people," Mayor Adams told McCollum. "Not hearing the people and you engaging in dialogue while individuals are fearful of affordability, losing their home, the future of their children, and you're having these intellectual conversations, and people are, like, saying, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm hurting and you're asking, 'Is Donald Trump Hitler or not?'" Adams said. "It's just not talking to the real needs of the people."

Daniel Penny Acquitted in Subway Chokehold Death

By Ben Kochman, Kyle Schnitzer and Emily Crane.

Marine veteran Daniel Penny [wearing brown jacket] was acquitted by a Manhattan jury Monday in the choke hold death of Jordan Neely – a lightning-rod case that cast a light on the mayhem plaguing Big Apple subways.

Jurors cleared Penny, a 26-year-old Long Islander, of criminally negligent homicide after the fatal caught-on-camera encounter on an uptown F train last year sparked fierce debate about mental illness, public safety and vigilantism.

A suited-up Penny, who remained stone-faced for much of the four-week trial, broke out a huge smile as his not guilty verdict was read out – prompting both applause and anger inside the courtroom as the high-profile case came to an end.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – who quickly faced calls to resign for bringing the case against Penny in the first place — said he respected the jury’s ruling and insisted prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end.”

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said after the verdict. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged.”