October is National Farm to School Month, and New York schools are using grant funding to participate.
School districts statewide have received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Local Food for Schools program. These grants allow schools to buy food directly from local or regional farmers, so kids have nutritious meals.
Jenny Lester Moffitt, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the USDA, said this program allows farmers to get more of the "food dollar" back by selling their wares directly.
"So traditionally, a farmer gives about 14 cents of every food dollar back to their farming operation," she said. "But when farmers can sell locally, direct to their community, selling direct to their schools, more of the food dollar comes back to their farm."
She said it also provides them with a reliable and stable place to sell their products.
This year, New York school districts received more than $700,000 in grant funding from the Patrick Leahy Farm to School program. Lester Moffitt noted that a future goal is to expand the program.
This week, the USDA announced an additional $500 million for the grants, with another $200 million for child-care facilities to purchase directly from farms.
Feedback about the program has been positive from farmers and schools. From speaking with food producers, Lester Moffitt said it's been a safety net for them, especially those who have lost other local or international markets. Despite its benefits, she said, there are some challenges for farmers.
"There are barriers, especially if you're a small producer; if you're a producer that has one product to be able to sell directly to schools in the neighborhood and into the region," she said. "Farmers are often very busy farming and harvesting, and don't have a lot of time to be able to make all those different phone calls and deliver products."
Funds are also provided for farmers and schools to overcome these barriers. One solution is an aggregation system, where farmers can bring their products to one location to be distributed to different schools.

New Yorkers are reeling from the news that Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with wire fraud, bribery and campaign finance offenses.
The charges center around whether the New York City leader received illegal foreign donations for his mayoral campaign from the Turkish government, as well as personal perks like luxury travel and lodging.
Adams is vowing to remain in office and fight the charges, even as calls grow for his resignation.
Daniel Coates, director of public affairs for the advocacy group Make the Road New York, feels the investigation corroborates mismanagement claims during Adams' time in office, citing what he sees as the mayor's scapegoating of migrants in budget talks.
"The mayor has used, multiple times, the costs the city has incurred supporting and receiving new migrants into the city as a reason to make cuts," Coates pointed out. "And then, throughout the budget process, ended up reversing those cuts."
Several city agency commissioners have already resigned, either as part of the corruption investigation or because they said it prevented them from doing their jobs.
Adams can choose to stay in office but the city's charter gives Gov. Kathy Hochul the power to remove him. If Adams is out, Jumaane Williams, the city's Public Advocate, would become the acting mayor. Williams would then have three days to set up a special election for his replacement.
Gov. Hochul has not given any indication she will remove Adams if he doesn't resign. But some community groups and public officials worry Adams remaining in power could be a setback for city progress on a variety of fronts.
John Kaehny, executive director of the group Reinvent Albany, noted the effects it may already be having on city workers.
"It will be incredibly demoralizing to the city's workforce and result in a big loss in productivity," Kaehny asserted. "And a decline in delivery of services that could most hurt the poor and most vulnerable."
While some doubt the strength of the federal government's case against Adams, Kaehny thinks it's solid. He observed the case falls outside the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 McDonnell v. United States ruling, which narrowed the legal definition of public corruption, making it harder to prove an elected official engaged in bribery.

A new study found minimum wage increases have little or no impact on job loss.
The Economic Policy Institute study comes as federal lawmakers consider raising the minimum wage. The New York Legislature considered a bill to raise the state's $15 hourly minimum wage over the next three years and index it to match inflation. The bill never made it out of committee.

A federal bill could spell trouble for New York farmers.
The Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act would remove local and state governments' power to enact policies affecting farms. Studies show it could spell the end for more than 1,000 public health, safety and welfare laws.
Michael Chameides, a member of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, said farmers do not want such vital farm laws terminated.
"There's a real urgency to pass a robust Farm Bill that really does support rural communities and support farmers and support people all around the country to get healthy, safe and affordable food," Chameides contended. "There's lots of reasons for Congress to take action to support farmers and the EATS Act is not it."
The measure began as a way to counter the animal welfare laws enacted through California's Proposition 12. The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court about Proposition 12. After the court rejected it, several Republican governors sent a letter to Congressional lawmakers urging the reintroduction of the act.
Recently, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution opposing the EATS Act.
Some lawmakers want to put elements of the act into the Farm Bill. But Chameides noted what farmers really need is access to land, loans and support from the federal government through the Farm Bill. He argued the bill's effects on New York would mean repealing laws ranging from controlling invasive species to animal welfare.
"Rolling those laws back you might see the spread of either diseases or invasive species which are going to have both public health impacts," Chameides pointed out. "But also that it could impact the viability of certain kinds of farming."
Chameides noted regional response laws are important because of the rapid and often unpredictable nature of certain invasive species and the spread of disease. He added passing the act could upend states' rights.

New York groups are building support with federal lawmakers for several voting-rights bills.
In passing the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Native American Voting Rights Act, some hope to clarify how people can access their ballot. New York has passed a series of voting-rights protections since 2020, although attacks on them persist.
Retired teacher Chaitram Aklu, a member of the American Federation of Teachers, said the federal bills create fair elections.
"The John Lewis Act provides for federal review of changes to ensure that new changes are not discriminatory," he said. "I think that's very, very important, and also the equal access to the ballot box."
Aklu added that the Freedom to Vote Act can modernize and expand voting opportunities. However, he said he feels states can do more to improve ballot-box access. He's had his polling place change several times, although he wasn't told about it, and said improving communication with voters and providing public service announcements about where to vote can fix this.
Aklu said eligible voters shouldn't have trouble knowing where to cast their ballot. However, improving ballot access and modernizing voting costs money. The 2020 Congressional and Presidential elections were the costliest in U.s. history.
Christine Wood, co-director of Declaration for American Democracy, said the Freedom to Vote Act has provisions to improve campaign finance regulations.
"In the Freedom to Vote Act, there are something called State Innovation Funds, which would allow states to explore programs like small-donor public financing for House candidates that volunteer to opt into that system," she said. "That would address the issue of money in politics, for example, by amplifying the voice of small donors."
Paying for the State Innovation Fund would come from fines and fees collected from corporations breaking that law. Wood said the bill is careful to ensure the burden isn't on taxpayers but on those limiting the impact smaller everyday donors have on Congressional candidates.

Environmental critics feel New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is not doing enough to meet the state's 2030 climate goals.
The concerns come after Hochul convened an energy summit to see how the state can regroup since reports suggested it will not meet its goals. Renewable energy projects in New York and across the country stumbled after the pandemic increased construction costs.
Peter LaVenia Jr., co-chair of the Green Party of New York, said the state can do a lot with the 6 years it has before 2030.
"We do have the capacity to build out wind, solar and also reduce our energy use," LaVenia contended. "Part of what we have to do is reduce our the amount of energy that we're using so that we can meet these climate goals. And we're not doing that and we're not doing it fast enough. So, we need to be able to site renewables faster. We need to be able to build them."
The state legislature passed the RAPID Act earlier this year to speed up clean energy permitting and interconnection. Other bills have met significant legislative hurdles. LaVenia pointed to the HEAT Act which phases out gas line extension allowances and lets the Public Service Commission align utility companies with the state's climate laws. The bill was not included in recent state budgets by the legislative session's end.
However, there are concerns Hochul and other lawmakers could just throw out the goals in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Some Republican lawmakers and business groups are uncertain about its provisions and feel the goals should be cast aside.
LaVenia argued now is not the time for that given how climate change is affecting New Yorkers.
"New York State set itself up to fail and now it's saying, 'Well we can't do it so we have to weaken these things, and oh, by the way, our campaign donors want us to do that anyway,'" LaVenia emphasized. "I think that the dark path would be that things get worse. I mean there's real evidence that climate change is hitting us really hard now in the 2020s and it's only going to get worse."
Recent storms have led to widespread flooding across the state. This contributes to sea level rise, worsening erosion, and storm surges. The frequency of billion dollar disasters is rising and depleting state coffers.

A newly enacted law provides New York freelancers with labor protections.
The "Freelance Isn't Free Act" prevents companies from not paying freelancers. The law requires a contract between freelancers and clients for any work valued at $800 or more. It also requires clients to pay freelancers by the contract's due date or within 30 days of work completion if no date is specified.
Rafael Espinal, executive director of the Freelancers Union, said the law has been needed for a long time.
"We've found that freelancers, on average, lose about $6,000 a year because of nonpaying clients," Espinal reported. "We know, in a state like New York, $6,000 goes a long way in being able to keep up with the cost of living and being able to pay their bills like their rent, utilities, putting food on the table."
Freelancers have provided positive feedback on the law but it faced hurdles before passing in late 2023. Some companies expressed compliance concerns about larger businesses' interactions with freelancers. Gov. Kathy Hochul initially vetoed the bill. At first, enforcing the bill went to the Department of Labor but the passed version puts the responsibility on the Attorney General's office.
Before the bill passed, Espinal advised freelancers about how to make contracts bulletproof so they were guaranteed payment. Some steps involve stipulations ensuring payment at milestone periods of a job and net payment terms. Espinal noted the new law expands what is considered a written agreement to protect freelancers further.
"The law really captures all written agreements and considers them to be contracts," Espinal explained. "It could be anything as simple as a text message, outlining the work with the payment terms. It can be an email, it doesn't necessarily have to be a traditional contract on legal paper."
This bill was modeled after New York City's own "Freelance Isn't Free" law. Aside from New York, Kansas, Missouri and Los Angeles have similar protections for freelancers.

New Yorkers could see relief from medical debt if several national proposals move forward.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule to eliminate medical debt from credit reports. Studies show medical debt does not predict whether a person can pay down a debt.
An Urban Institute report finds more than 740,000 New Yorkers have medical debt.
Ursula Rozum, health care campaign lead for the group Citizen Action of New York, said the change can remove the punitive aspects of medical debt.
"What we're talking about is relief for the 15 million Americans that have medical debt," Rozum pointed out. "As well as people who we know are skipping care or delaying care 'cause they're scared of the debt and what impact it would have on their lives."
Vice President Kamala Harris is supporting the bureau's proposal while considering other ways to cancel medical debt. Congressional Republicans such as Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., oppose the proposed change. Several House GOP members signed a letter to the bureau saying its proposed rule can negatively affect credit access and affordability for all consumers.
New York passed legislation prohibiting medical debt from being reported to credit agencies but it has not stopped medical debt disparities.
Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel for the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, said communities of color often have the highest medical debt rates for many reasons.
"Black and Latine families are more likely to have jobs without access to health insurance, and so that would drive up medical debt," Zinner explained. "There's also been disparate health treatments for these communities."
Other causes for medical debt include growing facility fees. While New York passed legislation to reform the fees, studies show they are a bulk of what patients pay for. Between 2004 and 2021, facility fees grew 531%, surpassing professional fees for certain emergency department services.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have developed variations of the policy, which would let workers keep more of their tips. But many tipped workers do not earn enough income for a living wage because they make a subminimum wage, which is $16 with tip credits in New York.

Despite claims crime, particularly youth crime, is rising, a new report by The Sentencing Project showed national juvenile incarceration dropped to more than 27,000 in 2022. In New York, 40 of 100,000 young people were held in juvenile facilities, pre- and post-adjudication in 2021.