New York State Bar Association Objects to Governor’s Transfer of Funds That Belong by Law to Low-Income New Yorkers–NYSBA

By Susan DeSantis

Richard Lewis, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued the following statement about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget, which moves $100 million from a fund that pays for low-income New Yorkers to get civil legal services, to the general fund:

“The New York State Bar Association strenuously objects to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s misguided maneuver to take possession of $100 million that rightly belongs to New Yorkers who are about to lose their homes, who are seeking lifesaving medical treatment, who need help recovering from crushing debt or are facing other life-changing civil legal challenges.

“This money is under the purview of the IOLA Fund, which supports 81 non-profit legal services organizations that help New Yorkers in their time of greatest need. The law simply does not allow the governor to divert this money — which comes from escrow on attorney accounts and not from the taxpayers – to the state’s general fund. The New York State Bar Association supports the IOLA Board of Trustees in its unanimous opposition to this misuse of money that was set aside by law to aid low-income New Yorkers.”

Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in defamation damages, jury rules–NBCNews

The verdict comes after a dramatic day in court that included the former president storming out of the courtroom during Carroll’s closing argument.

By Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

 

The award included $11 million for damage to Carroll’s reputation, $7.3 million for emotional harm and other damages, and $65 million in punitive damages.

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Taxpayers should continue to report all cryptocurrency, digital asset income–IRS

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Tax pros: Remind your clients that they must again answer a digital asset question and report all digital asset-related income when they file their 2023 federal income tax return, as they did for their 2022 federal tax returns. Everyone who files Forms 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120 and 1120S must check one box answering either “Yes” or “No” to the digital asset question. The question must be answered by all taxpayers, not just by those who engaged in a transaction involving digital assets in 2023. Read this news release for more information about digital assets, when to check yes or no on tax returns, and how to report digital asset income.

New Guidance on Prohibition of Corporal Punishment, Aversive Interventions, Prone Restraint, and Seclusion…–NYSED

New Guidance Available to Assist Schools with the Regulatory Requirements of Section 19.5 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and Sections 100.2, 200.1, 200.7, 200.15, and 200.22 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education (attachment)

• At the July 2023 Board of Regents meeting, the Board approved the permanent adoption of the amendment of sections 19.5 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and Sections 100.2, 200.1, 200.7, 200.15, and 200.22 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education relating to the  Prohibition of Corporal Punishment, Aversive Interventions, Prone Restraint and Seclusion; Permitted Use of Timeout and Restraint; and Data Collection. The amended regulations:

• prohibit the use of corporal punishment, aversive interventions, prone restraint, and seclusion;
• authorize the limited use of timeout and physical restraint;
• establish new annual data reporting requirements relating to corporal punishment, aversive interventions, seclusion, timeout, and physical restraint; and
• conform Part 200 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education relating to students with disabilities to the new requirements on the use of timeout and physical restraints.

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• Questions regarding the new requirements may be directed to the Office of Student Support Services at studentsupportservices@nysed.gov.
• Questions regarding the requirements specific to students with disabilities may be directed to the Office of Special Education at speced@nysed.gov.
• Questions regarding the reporting of data to NYSED’s Student Information Repository System (SIRS), please contact your Level 1 Reporting Center or Big 5 point of contact. For all other data reporting inquiries, please contact the Office of Information and Reporting Services at Datasupport with the subject line “Student Behavioral Interventions.”

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The Mac turns 40 — and keeps on moving–The Verge

Apple’s longest-running product is an increasingly small part of the company’s business. And yet, it’s never been more successful.

By Jason Snell, who has covered Apple for over 25 years and was the lead editor at Macworld for over a decade. He currently blogs at Six Colors and podcasts on Relay FM and The Incomparable

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Next week, Apple will release financial results that will reinforce that Mac sales are among the best they’ve been in the product’s history. Then, a day later, Apple will release a new device, the Vision Pro, that will join the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch in an ever-expanding lineup of which the Mac is only one small part.

As the Mac turns 40, it’s never been more successful — or more irrelevant to Apple’s bottom line. It’s undergone massive changes in the past few years that ensure its survival but also lash it to a hardware design process dominated by the iPhone. Being middle-aged can be complicated.

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Supreme Court allows Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire installed by Texas at Mexico border–NBCNews

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — A closely-divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut through or move razor wire Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an effort by the state to prevent illegal border crossings.

The court on a 5-4 vote granted an emergency request filed by the Biden administration, which had argued that Texas was preventing agents from carrying out their duties.

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New York’s first restaurant accepting SNAP benefits is in Charlotte–News10NBC

Hailie Higgins

Lakeside Haven is the first restaurant in New York State cleared to let eligible SNAP recipients buy hot meals using their benefits. To be eligible, SNAP recipients — and everyone in their household as defined on the application — must be over the age of 60, disabled, or homeless. 

“We looked at it as a great opportunity to not only bring in more business, but of course to continue to help seniors or disabled or those experiencing homelessness in the community with meals that might otherwise be difficult to either obtain or make for themselves,” Williams said.

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Why Fani Willis Is Not Disqualified Under Georgia Law –Just Security

by Norman L. Eisen, Joyce Vance and Richard Painter

The motion filed by defendant Michael Roman seeks primarily to do just that – to disqualify Willis and Wade from further participation in this case. Under Georgia law, however, even if all the factual allegations regarding Willis and Wade were true, there would be no basis for disqualifying them from prosecuting Roman or any of the other defendants in the election conspiracy case.

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Businessman faces 20 years in prison over accusations of illicit chip exports to Russia–The Register

Shipments alleged to have gone to a sanctioned company

Dan Robinson

Court documents filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York identify the man as Ilya Kahn, a 66-year-old citizen of the US, Israel, and Russia, and listed as a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles.

Kahn was arrested for his alleged involvement in a long-running scheme to acquire and unlawfully export sensitive technology from the US for the benefit of a Russian business, a semiconductor company with close ties to the Russian government.

That business, Joint Stock Company Research and Development Center ELVEES (Elvees), was added to the US Commerce Department’s Entity List in March 2022. It was then sanctioned by the Treasury Department in September 2022 for facilitating Russia’s military and its invasion of Ukraine.

Kahn is claimed to be the owner of Senesys Incorporated, based in California, and Sensor Design Association, which has a contact address in Brooklyn. The companies were supposedly involved in security software development and testing of silicon wafers for military avionics and space use.

As alleged in the complaint [PDF], Kahn is said to have used these businesses to acquire sensitive electronic devices in the US and export them to Elvees, without acquiring the appropriate licenses.

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Bite mark analysis has no basis in science, experts now say. Why is it still being used in court?–NBCNews

“It’s garbage,” said Keith Harward, who spent 33 years in prison for rape and murder based on bite mark evidence before DNA exonerated him.

By Ken Dilanian and Michael Kosnar

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Four separate governmental scientific bodies have concluded that bite mark analysis has no basis in science. That includes the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which said in 2016 that “available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners not only cannot identify the source of bitemark with reasonable accuracy, they cannot even consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bitemark.” The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the gold standard of measurement science, said in 2022 that bite mark forensics “lacks a sufficient scientific foundation” because “human dental patterns have not been shown to be unique at the individual level.”

One 2016 study found that self-described experts couldn’t distinguish between human and animal bite marks. Others have documented how marks in human skin change over time through healing or decomposition.
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