New York is stepping up its efforts to crack down on fraud and abuse of painkillers, but that’s not the state’s only prescription drug problem.… [More]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s team aims to expand state M/WBE contracting.… [More]

The New York City mayoral candidates on who should be the next schools chancellor.… [More]

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday laid out his latest request for federal aid to repair New York’s storm damage – $32.8 billion and rising, plus $9.1 to prepare for a future storm – he noted that Sandy was worse for New York than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were in Louisiana in terms of housing damage and the number of power outages. Katrina’s impact exceeds Sandy in terms of lives lost and overall damages ($146.3 billion compared to more than $50 billion), but… [More]

One of the questions that is always raised after a major natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy is whether electric utilities like Con Edison should bury their systems underground. And one part of the answer is that such an undertaking is a major expense, said Carlos Torres, vice president for emergency management at Con Edison, at a panel discussion last night on climate change adaptation in New York City. The cost of moving an overhead system underground would be in the range… [More]

Specialized health courts could cut costs and litigation, but lawyers cry foul.… [More]

Education is likely to be one of the big issues in the New York City mayoral race in 2013, but will it be the biggest one? Speaking at The Blackboard Awards yesterday (which are organized by City & State‘s parent company Manhattan Media), Bill Thompson, a Democratic mayoral candidate who was his party’s nominee in 2009, said it certainly won’t be the only issue, and then emphasized how important it will be for the next mayor to tackle the city’s strained… [More]

New York City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, one of a handful of candidates expected to run for Manhattan borough president in 2013, mingled with Hollywood writers and producers on Thursday at a Los Angeles fundraising event co-hosted by California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lappin, whose campaign hopes to bring in close to $10,000 from the event, already has over $650,000 on hand and is on track to complete fundraising for the Manhattan borough president primary by the end of the year. “When… [More]

Insurance industry pushes for reforms to no-fault auto insurance.… [More]

New York City isn’t the only part of the state that has been attracting a growing number of high-tech companies.… [More]