Governor Hochul Signs Legislation to Ensure Safe Schools

Legislation S.2629A/A.286A Requires All School Districts Consider Design Principles in Facilities Planning to Ensure Safe, Secure, and Healthy School Environments

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Safe Schools by Design Act” that will require all school districts’ five-year capital facilities plans to consider incorporating design principles that will provide a safe, secure, and healthy school environment. The legislation also expands eligible expenses for Extended Day and School Violence Prevention Grants to include programs that facilitate and promote community involvement in school facility planning.

“A safe school environment is an essential component to providing the best education for our students,” Governor Hochul said. “This legislation highlights our commitment to our students and educators by ensuring that health and safety are considered at the outset of all school construction projects.”

Current law requires that five-year capital facilities plans are developed by each school district to include a building inventory, estimated expenses for building construction, repairs, or renovation, and estimated expenses for building maintenance and energy consumption.

Legislation S.2629A/A.286A amends the education law by requiring that school districts consider the incorporation of design principles and strategies, pursuant to guidance issued by the Commissioner of Education, in their five-year capital plan as part of a comprehensive approach to providing a healthy, secure, and safe school environment. In addition, the legislation includes programs which facilitate and promote community involvement in school facility planning to be eligible expenses for Extended Day and School Violence Prevention Grants.

MAYOR ADAMS SIGNS BILLS CONDUCTING DYSLEXIA SCREENINGS IN CITY JAILS, HELPING EMS WORKERS BECOME FIREFIGHTERS

  

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today signed two bills that will make New York City safer and provide a pathway to opportunity for more New Yorkers. Intro. 349-A will allow the city to screen New Yorkers in city jails for dyslexia and provide appropriate interventions. Intro. 1190 will allow more employees of the Fire Department of the City of New York Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (FDNY EMS) to apply to become firefighters.

Expanded dyslexia screenings under Intro. 349-A build on Mayor Adams’ historic investment in the country’s largest, most comprehensive approach to supporting public school students with dyslexia, announced in May 2022.

“If we don’t educate, we incarcerate. Too many young people are part of the pipeline to jail because of a lack of literacy and dyslexia screenings — and once they are in the prison system, they continue to fall behind,” said Mayor Adams. “We are changing that today by signing Intro. 349-A and preparing to launch lifesaving dyslexia screenings for New Yorkers in custody. As our administration continues to make public safety our number one priority, we are signing Intro. 1190, which recognizes the countless sacrifices our FDNY EMS frontline workers have made for our city. This law will strengthen our fire department and help us keep New Yorkers safe. We thank our partners for these important bills and for working with us to move our city forward.”

“This important new law will help change the lives of justice-involved individuals through screening and connection to critical educational services,” said New York City Department of Correction (DOC) Commissioner Louis A. Molina. “By offering them the support they need for a better path forward, we will not only improve their future, we will also improve public safety across our city.”

“The bill will enable affected members of EMS to be eligible to take the exam just as they would have been if the exam had not been delayed by the pandemic,” said Fire Department of the City of New York Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. “We are grateful to the City Council and to our partners in the administration for working out a solution. The affected EMS members are already making valuable contributions to this city and the people of New York, and we value them as members of the Fire Department. The Fire Department recognizes that many EMS members may have joined the FDNY with the hope of one day becoming a firefighter and would be denied that opportunity due to a phenomenon that was out of the control of the members and of the city. Thanks to this bill, that will no longer be the case.”

Intro. 349-A requires DOC to provide screenings for dyslexia and appropriate interventions to individuals between 18 and 21 years old in custody who self-report that they do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent. This requirement would expand to the entire jail population by December 31, 2025. DOC will coordinate with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and city-contracted programs that serve justice-involved individuals to provide dyslexia interventions after individuals are released from custody and issue quarterly reports updating on its progress.

Intro. 1190 creates a one-time waiver for EMS workers to apply to become firefighters even if they have passed the maximum age. Under existing local law, to become a firefighter for the FDNY, an individual must not have turned 29 years old before the date of the filing of their application for a civil service examination. This waiver would apply to the next promotion examination for EMS workers to become firefighters.

Two Men Plead Guilty to Falsifying Documents Related to Testing of Equipment at Nuclear Power Plants

 

Two men pleaded guilty today for their roles in creating false calibration certificates in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

According to court documents, Miguel Marcial Amaro, 56, of Newark, Delaware, and Martin Ramos, 52, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, worked for a company that provided acoustic emissions (AE) testing to nuclear power plants to detect structural defects in the plant’s equipment. Following the testing, Marcial and Ramos helped create and transmit final testing reports to the owners of the plants which, among other things, contained calibration certificates for the equipment used.

Between 2010 and 2021, Marcial was responsible for ensuring that the company’s AE testing equipment was calibrated annually; Ramos worked under Marcial as an engineer. The two men created numerous false calibration certificates for AE testing equipment, and 15 of these false certificates were sent a total of 29 times to nuclear plant owners as part of final testing reports required by the NRC. The falsified calibration certificates were discovered in 2021 during an external audit.

“Today, we hold defendants accountable for deliberately attempting to bypass testing protocols that are essential to keeping nuclear power plants safe,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “We will continue to use all available enforcement authorities to support NRC’s efforts to ensure that nuclear energy is safely created.”

“Many thanks to the NRC and the ENRD for partnering in enforcement and ensuring the accuracy of inspection reports critical to the safe operation of nuclear power plants,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “My office takes safety matters such as these seriously, and these guilty pleas show that anyone seeking to evade nuclear testing protocols will be held accountable.”

“The NRC takes its mission of protecting public health and safety very seriously,” said Director Thomas G. Ashley Jr. of the NRC’s Office of Investigations. “It’s vital that employees at NRC-regulated entities act with integrity. Today’s announcement shows deliberate violations of NRC requirements will not be tolerated.”

Marcial and Ramos are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 25, 2024. Each faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The NRC’s Office of Investigation conducted the investigation.

Attorney General James Secures $350,000 from Long Island Home Health Care Company for Failing to Protect Patient and Employee Data

  

Personal Touch’s Data Breach Compromised the Personal and Medical Data of More Than 300,000 New Yorkers

AG James Secured Additional $100,000 from Insurance Software Vendor for Compromising Personal Touch Employees’ Data

New York Attorney General Letitia James today secured $350,000 from a Long Island-based home health care company, Personal Touch Holding Corporation (Personal Touch), for failing to protect vulnerable New Yorkers’ personal information and health care data. Personal Touch’s poor data security made it vulnerable to a ransomware attack that compromised the personal and medical information of approximately 316,845 New Yorkers. Personal Touch’s data security failures violated both state law and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which required Personal Touch to adhere to specific data protection practices. As a result of today’s agreement, Personal Touch has agreed to pay $350,000 in penalties to New York, update and improve their cybersecurity infrastructure, and offer free credit monitoring and identity theft services to affected individuals. In addition, Attorney General James secured $100,000 from an insurance software vendor for compromising Personal Touch employees’ data.

“Health care institutions have a responsibility to safeguard New Yorkers’ wellbeing, but also to protect their confidential and private information,” said Attorney General James. “The security failures by Personal Touch caused undue stress and financial problems for New Yorkers who simply wanted to have access to high-quality health care. My office will always step up and hold companies responsible if their negligence puts New Yorkers’ private information in jeopardy.”

Personal Touch is the parent company of subsidiaries that operate Medicare-certified home health, home care, and hospice at home services throughout the country, including in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. In January 2021, a Personal Touch employee opened a malware-infected file attached to a phishing email that allowed a hacker to gain access to Personal Touch’s network and collect patient and employee records from an unencrypted server. These records dated back decades and included confidential personal and health information, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, medical treatments, and financial information of thousands of people.

The Office of the Attorney General's (OAG) investigation determined that Personal Touch failed to maintain reasonable data security safeguards to protect patient and employee data. Personal Touch’s information security and risk management program was informal and immature. There was inadequate security training of its staff, poor access controls, a lack of a continuous monitoring system, and a failure to encrypt personal and medical data.

During the OAG’s investigation, Personal Touch was notified of a third-party breach that affected its employees’ personal information, including Social Security numbers. Personal Touch had provided this data to its insurance broker, who provided the data to an enrollment software vendor, Falcon Technologies, Inc. (Falcon), which placed the data on an unsecured site. Personal Touch did not have any agreements in place with its insurance broker concerning data security standards that applied to personal information not covered by HIPAA. The OAG secured a separate agreement with Falcon for failing to secure this information. Under the terms of Falcon’s agreement with the OAG, Falcon must pay $100,000 in penalties to New York and ensure the use of encryption and proper access controls in handling private information. 

As a result of today’s agreement, Personal Touch will pay $350,000 in penalties and offer affected consumers free identity theft protection and recovery services. In addition, Personal Touch will be required to enhance its information security program and implement safeguards to better protect its employees’ and patients’ personal and health information, including:

• Maintaining a comprehensive information security program that includes regular risk assessments, regular testing and monitoring of existing safeguards, and regular updates to the information security program;
• Maintaining reasonable access control and authentication procedures;
• Encrypting personal and health information;
• Implementing a continuous logging and monitoring system, anti-malware protections, an intrusion detection and prevention solution, and an email filtering and phishing solution; 
• Developing a vulnerability management program that includes regular vulnerability scanning and penetration testing;
• Updating its data collection, retention, and disposal practices to ensure that personal and health information is maintained only to the minimum extent necessary to accomplish legitimate business purposes;
• Conducting annual employee security training; and
• Establishing reasonable vendor management procedures. 

Today’s agreement continues Attorney General James’ efforts to protect New Yorkers’ personal information and hold companies accountable for their poor data security practices. Last week, Attorney General James and a multistate coalition secured $49.5 million from a cloud company, Blackbaud, over a massive data breach that impacted thousands of nonprofits. In September, Attorney General James reached an agreement with Marymount Manhattan College to invest $3.5 million to protect students’ online data. This past May, Attorney General James secured $300,000 from Sports Warehouse for failing to protect the data of 2.5 million customers. Also in May, Attorney General James recouped $550,000 from a medical management company for failing to protect patient data. In April, Attorney General James released a comprehensive data security guide to help companies strengthen their data security practices. In December 2022, Attorney General James secured $200,000 from student cap and gown producer Herff Jones for failing to protect consumers’ personal information. In October 2022, Attorney General James announced a $1.9 million agreement with the owner of SHEIN and Zoetop for failing to properly handle a data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of consumers. In June 2022, Attorney General James secured $400,000 from Wegmans and required the retailer to improve data storage security after a data breach exposed consumers’ personal information. In March 2022, Attorney General James issued a consumer alert advising T-Mobile customers to take appropriate steps to protect their personal information following a data breach.

Governor Hochul Takes Action to Support Local Stop-DWI Programs and Protect New Yorkers From Impaired Drivers

Governor Signed Legislation S.2712B/A.4755B to Send Surcharges Directly to Local STOP-DWI Programs to Ensure Communities Have the Resources They Need to Prevent Impaired Driving and Keep New York Roads Safe

Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation S.2712B/A.4755B to support local STOP-DWI programs by directing two of the mandatory surcharges currently assessed against those committing impaired driving offenses to fund local prevention programs. This law will provide essential resources to support county-level, community led interventions to protect New Yorkers.

“As a former County Clerk, I know how critical our local STOP-DWI programs are to protecting our families across the state from impaired driving,” Governor Hochul said. “Community led interventions are the most effective methods we have, and I am proud to sign this legislation to provide them direct support.”

New York State is a nationally recognized leader in traffic safety and combatting impaired driving, establishing the first Special Traffic Options Program for Driving While Impaired (STOP-DWI) program in the nation. Since 1981, STOP-DWI has provided thousands of training and intervention programs in schools and community centers, employing a general deterrence model focused on prevention, incapacitation, reform and changing behavior.

This new law will direct two surcharges assessed as part of impaired driving convictions to the relevant county’s STOP-DWI program. Since their inception, STOP-DWI programs have been funded by fines included in sentencing for impaired driving offenses. In recent years, as mandatory surcharges and other fees have been imposed on impaired driving convictions in addition to the base fine, funding for STOP-DWI has gone down by as much as 50 percent in certain counties, imperiling the financial stability of critical programs.

Housing Lottery Launches For 1739 Grand Avenue In Morris Heights, The Bronx

 

The affordable housing lottery has launched for 1739 Grand Avenue, a seven-story residential building in Morris Heights, The Bronx. Designed by RSLN Architecture and developed by Affordable Living NY, the structure yields 31 residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are 30 units for residents at 130 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $99,086 to $198,250.

Furnishings include hardwood floors, recessed lighting, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Tenants have access to an open parking garage on the ground floor.

At 130 percent of the AMI, there are seven studios with a monthly rent of $2,890 for incomes ranging from $99,086 to $146,900; 13 one-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $3,059 for incomes ranging from $104,880 to $165,230; and 10 two-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $3,599 for incomes ranging from $123,395 to $198,250.

Prospective renters must meet income and household size requirements to apply for these apartments. Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than December 8, 2023.

MAYOR ADAMS, GOVERNOR HOCHUL, CHAN ZUCKERBURG INITIATIVE ANNOUNCE NEARLY $300 MILLION FOR NEW BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH HUB IN NEW YORK CITY

 

New Research Hub Brings Together Leading Institutions to Engineer Immune Cells for Early Disease Prevention, Detection, and Treatment

 

New York City and New York State Each Contributing $10 Million to New Facility

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative (CZI) today announced plans for the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY), a new biomedical research hub in New York City that will leverage a nearly $300 million public-private investment to drive collaboration between leading research institutions and solve significant scientific challenges. CZ Biohub NY will bring together experts from Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University to focus on early disease prevention, detection, and treatment — particularly for ovarian and pancreatic cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as aging and autoimmunity — and further propel New York City’s thriving life sciences sector as a major job creator and economic engine in New York City.

 

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest $250 million into the new hub. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Empire State Development (ESD) will each contribute $10 million. The New York City metro area is the country’s leading regional life sciences hub, with nearly 150,000 jobs and 5,100 businesses generating over $23 billion in wages last year.

 

“New York City’s unparalleled diversity, thriving innovation ecosystem, and world-class research institutions have made us a life sciences powerhouse. And the strong partnerships between city government, state government, the private sector, and leading universities have made us number one in the country,” said Mayor Adams. “Thanks to this nearly $300 million joint effort with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Governor Hochul, and three top-tier academic institutions, the new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York will break biomedical barriers — as New York City continues to do its part to foster a healthier world.”

 

“With a world-class faculty, cutting-edge research, and a time-tested model for innovation, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub will help us continue to build the future of medicine in New York,” said Governor Hochul. “This new Biohub will open a world of possibilities for early disease prevention, detection, and treatment, and thanks to this investment and our partnership with Mayor Adams and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, our state is one step closer to the next major medical breakthrough.”

 

“The grand scientific question that these scientists are going to go after is around cellular engineering — to engineer immune cells to detect specific diseases and then eventually encode their molecular make-up, so that scientists can use it as a diagnostic and eventually, they can engineer cells to go to a site of a disease and help treat it,” said CZI co-founder and co-CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The ultimate goal is to not go after a specific disease – it’s to create a new tool or platform that all scientists can use to study and make more specific advances.”

 

“We’re thrilled to launch the New York Biohub, which will focus on harnessing our immune system to detect, prevent, and ultimately treat diseases before they advance,” said CZI co-founder and co-CEO Priscilla Chan. “Right now, diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s are often diagnosed after the onset of obvious symptoms, making them harder or even impossible to treat. To change that, researchers and engineers at the New York Biohub will bioengineer immune cells to scout, report, and repair damage to our cells before it leads to serious illnesses. Solving ambitious challenges, like identifying diseases earlier when our options for treatment are far better, underpins our work across the Biohub Network, and we’re excited to continue to scale this collaborative research model with the New York Biohub.”

 

“New York City is continuing to cement itself as the global leader in biomedical research and life sciences, and we are thrilled the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has selected New York to launch its newest biomedical research hub,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Andrew Kimball. “The CZ Biohub NY, with $250 million in private investment from CZI and an additional $20 million from New York City and New York State, will spark new economic opportunity and accelerate cutting-edge research that will transform the future of medicine.”

The CZ Biohub NY is the fourth and newest research institute in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network, a groundbreaking collaborative model for scientific research. The network includes the first CZ Biohub, in San Francisco, a second in Chicago, and the Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging in Redwood City, California.

 

Led by Professor Andrea Califano of Columbia University, the CZ Biohub NY will focus on the creation of new technologies to characterize and bioengineer immune cells with the goal of creating disease-specific “cellular endoscopes” that can detect early stages of disease in cells, monitor cell changes, and resolve diseases before they become untreatable. The hub will apply these novel, technology-driven approaches to hard-to-detect cancers, such as ovarian and pancreatic cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The next step is further training immune cells to make targeted repairs, such as promoting inflammation at a tumor site to activate a robust immune response.

 

New York City is a growing hub of life sciences research, with nine major research centers and over 100 total research centers, over 50 hospitals, a highly talented and diverse workforce, and industry-leading companies. Through LifeSci NYC, NYCEDC’s $1 billion initiative, the City of New York is on track to create 1,000 companies and 40,000 jobs, unlock 10 million square feet of wet- and dry-lab real estate, and generate billions of dollars in economic impact over the next 15 years. Since taking office, Mayor Adams has invested $27 million for new life sciences facilities for the City College of New York and Mount Sinai Health System, a new center for sustainability-focused biotech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and supported the opening of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine on Manhattan’s West Side. Investing in future-focused industries like life sciences was a key recommendation in the “Making New York Work for Everyone” action plan released by Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul earlier this year to make New York City the best place to work and serve as a roadmap for the city’s future.

 

The CZ Biohub also builds on statewide efforts to grow and modernize the sector through New York’s $620 million Life Science Initiative. Last year, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul unveiled plans for SPARC Kips Bay, a first-of-its kind job and education hub for innovation in health and the life sciences, on Manhattan’s East Side. Governor Hochul also unveiled a $700 million transformation of the former Taystee Bakery site in West Harlem into the Taystee Lab Building, a Class A, LEED-certified building purpose-built for life sciences companies. Earlier this year, the governor additionally announced the $7.6 million expansion of Schrödinger, Inc., whose physics-based computational platform is transforming the way therapeutics and materials are discovered, at the Taystee Lab Building, creating at least 80 new jobs. In March, the governor announced plans for a $50 million “Lab of the Future” in Midtown Manhattan that will rely on automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to make the preclinical drug discovery process faster, more data-driven, and cost-effective.

 

“The selection of New York as the next CZ Biohub demonstrates that the targeted investments in life science under Governor Hochul’s leadership are working,” said New York State Empire State Development President, CEO, and Commissioner Hope Knight. “Being part of the CZ Biohub Network will create incredible opportunities for New York’s research community and will have ripple effects across the state, further cementing New York as a powerful economic driver and a global destination for life science translation and innovation.”

Defendant Charged with Operating Sex-Trafficking Ring on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn Known As The "Penn Track"

 

Douglas Welch Allegedly Threatened and Assaulted Victims to Force them to Work in Prostitution

An indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn federal court charging Douglas Welch, also known as “Paradise,” with sex trafficking by force, sex trafficking conspiracy, interstate prostitution and promotion of prostitution.  The charges in the indictment relate to Welch allegedly forcing victims to engage in prostitution, in among other places, a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn known as the “Penn Track.”  Welch was arrested and is scheduled to be arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Cho.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Edward A. Caban, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the arrest and charges.

“As alleged, Welch has trafficked multiple women for his own financial benefit while boasting about the cruel and brutal violence he has inflicted on the vulnerable victims,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “Running a brazen, open-air commercial sex market in East New York or anywhere else in our district is unacceptable, dangerous to our communities, and especially harmful to women caught in this terrible cycle of abuse.  Today’s indictment will hold the defendant accountable in a federal courtroom for his exploitative crimes.”

Mr. Peace also thanked the New York City Department of Corrections, the New York City Human Resources Administration, and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office for their valuable assistance with the case.

“These charges further affirm our unwavering commitment to protecting the survivors of sex trafficking,” stated NYPD Commissioner Caban.  “Together with our law enforcement partners, the NYPD will continue to ensure that anyone seeking to profit through the abuse and exploitation of another human being is identified, investigated, and indicted. I commend everyone involved at the FBI and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York for their work on this important case.”

The Penn Track has for years operated as an open-air market where Welch and others have forced trafficking victims to earn money for them by engaging in commercial sex acts with customers in cars or nearby hotels.

As alleged in court documents, Welch recruited women to work on his behalf along the Penn Track and used threats and violence to force those victims to engage in commercial sex with customers, and provide him with the profits.  Welch routinely threatened his victims with physical violence if they disobeyed his orders, telling one victim, “if you f*** with the pimping, I’m gonna crack your head” and threatening to “slap the s***” out of another victim for not listening to him.  He also bragged about knocking unconscious trafficking victims who disrespected him or other traffickers, including describing one instance in which he grabbed a woman by the throat, knocked her onto the sidewalk and then body slammed her for disrespecting another pimp along the Penn Track.   Welch struck a victim with a baseball bat for refusing to engage in prostitution after he directed her to do so, telling another sex trafficker that he wanted to leave a “stain on her brain.”

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  If convicted of the charges, Welch faces a minimum term of 15 years in prison, and up to life imprisonment.

If you are a victim of trafficking—whether by Welch or someone else—and have information to provide, please contact the FBI, which is prepared to help you regardless of your immigration status, at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.