Tuesday Headlines: The Squak Box Premium Edition
There’s nothing like appealing to people’s worst qualities.
Gov. Hochul spent yesterday in Long Island, which included a Long Island News Radio appearance that saw her tout her car insurance reforms. The changes to insurance law, covered in depth by Streetsblog earlier this year, include a disastrous rollback of car crash victims’ rights that, in theory, reduce costs for insurers, which they then pass on to consumers. Insurance companies never agreed to do this, but that’s a problem for the future, apparently.
“We’re going to see a decrease in premiums because of what I was able to force through the Legislature,” she said.
The governor made sure to blast the New York State Trial Lawyers Association while she was at it.
“I took on the trial lawyers who had been powerful and said we have to change the laws, we have to change these insane liability laws that have been on the books forever,” Hochul added.
She is facing Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who represents half of the car-dependent region, in the gubernatorial election. She’s likely to win, but let’s see how well this affordability push on insurance plays in a part of the region that’s no stranger to lawyers either.
Elsewhere in the Empire State:
- The driver of the deadly Pembroke tour bus crash pleaded guilty to five counts of criminally negligent homicide. (BTPM)
- The state has begun a $98 million resurfacing project on the state Thruway in Onondaga and Cayuga Counties. (The Buffalo News)
- An e-bike operator was injured in a car crash Monday. (The Daily Freeman)
- Rochester’s new “Roc City Skatepark” will open ahead of schedule in October. (WXXI)
- An e-bike rider fatally struck a utility pole in Granby on Friday. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)
- The I-81 project will cost $1 billion more than what was originally budgeted. (Syracuse.com)
- Crosswalk safety beacons were installed in Mahopac. (Mid Hudson News)
- IOUs are dropping in cost for LIRR riders who forget to pay. (Newsday)
- A pedestrian was critically injured by a car driver in Rochester Sunday night. (Democrat & Chronicle)
- Hochul signed legislation to preserve part of the Port Jefferson railyard property as open space. (Newsday)
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