State paid $1M to settle gov't sex harassment cases

Posted: Mar 04, 2013 5:25 PM EST

Updated: Mar 04, 2013 5:25 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Records obtained by The Associated Press show that state officials spent more than $1 million in public money over the past four years to settle sexual harassment claims against state workers.

Almost half of the cases were settled in court last year as Albany was embroiled in a scandal over a $103,000 settlement paid to women who accused Assemblyman Vito Lopez of sexual harassment. Lopez has denied harassing anyone and was easily re-elected to his Brooklyn seat in November.

The records obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law show 13 women and one man brought cases against several agencies.

The largest payout was for $650,000.

Records from the state comptroller show millions more in cash settlements, but don't identify which cases involved sexual harassment claims.

Film Screening: The Economics of Happiness

Thursday, March 7 at 7 PM @ the Castleton Library

"The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization." 

Visit www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org for more information about the film.

Opponents of NY’s new gun-control law rally outside the Capitol

ALBANY — Thousands of angry opponents of New York’s new gun-control law rallied outside the Capitol yesterday to vent their anger at Gov. Cuomo and demand a repeal of the state’s strict new rules on guns.

Shannon DeCelle

“What’s happened in New York is outrageous,” Keene said after the rally. “Nothing in the legislation that he’s passed is going to prevent another Newtown.”

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For Immediate Release

Contact:  Nina Martino 732-7023

Subject: Friends of the Castleton Public Library’s Annual Meeting

The Friends of the Castleton Public Library will hold their Annual Meeting on Wednesday, April 17th at 7pm in the upstairs Library Programming Room. This meeting will review 2012, plan for 2013 and elect Officers and Trustees. If you are interested in one of these positions, please emailfriendsofcastletonlibrary@yahoo.com for details.  

  

Sequester Deadline All But Blown, Obama Hopes For Big Deal

Automatic spending cuts set to go into effect at midnight.

The president has summoned the top bipartisan congressional leadership to the White house, a meeting designed to give all sides a chance to stake out their fiscal positions with a new threat of a government shutdown less than four weeks away. There were no expectations of a breakthrough.

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BACK IN THE BLAME GAME

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday that Republicans were right to feel hurt after President Barack Obama gave speeches on the looming sequester.

"Well, no one can think that's been a success for the president. He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening," Romney said...

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DWI charge for TV director

David Ciliberti, in charge of news at WTEN, WXXA, arrested early Thursday

By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Updated 8:47 pm, Thursday, February 28, 2013

City Court Judge Rachel Kretser released Ciliberti on his own recognizance and ordered him to return to court on March 21.

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