The warning lights that NY state lawmakers and Gov. Hochul missed in the leadup to the prison strike: surging injury rates and big overtime.

Oil and coal keeping the lights on in New England as temps dip into the single digits. This is year 9 of New York blocking pipelines to supply New England with natural gas, which otherwise would have displaced the coal, and some of the oil, years ago.

Headcount peaked around 1990 after several prisons opened and before the 1991 recession prompted layoffs. It has since trended down, in part as government has become more paperless (end of Thruway toll collectors, stenographers, etc)—often over pols' objections.

www.nydailynews.com/2009/10/19/a...

An indicator that NY state lawmakers aren't minding the cash register: the state payroll (measured without the prison system and public universities) is bigger than it was before COVID.

A consequence of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good: New England's electric grid still burns coal on colder mornings.

Remarkable NYS population projection from Cornell, indicating the number of NYers will fall by about 1.8 million, almost 9 percent, by 2050.

news.cornell.edu/stories/2024...

Over 1M views on a story with provably false details (the NY governor can't shut off gas to an individual building or to anyone else, for that matter).