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    Hochul Chooses a Congressman Who Has Won in a Swing District

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    Antonio Delgado will replace Brian Benjamin as the governor’s running mate in the upcoming Democratic primary.Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We’ll meet the man Gov. Kathy Hochul has chosen to be the new lieutenant governor. We’ll also check on how a federal rule about light bulbs will make New York look a little different.Monica Jorge for The New York Times“Upstate, downstate, doesn’t matter,” said Representative Antonio Delgado, above, who grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., and now lives in Rhinebeck, N.Y. — places many people in the five boroughs would consider upstate. “We all want the same things: security, family and opportunity.”The immediate opportunity for him is a new job, as lieutenant governor. It means leaving Congress, a prospect that compounded the anxiety for Democrats already worried about losing control of the House after the midterm elections this fall. He was facing a difficult fight for re-election in a district that was likely to be more competitive than the one on the Democratic-drawn map struck down by the state’s highest court last week.My colleagues Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Nicholas Fandos write that Delgado, 45, has shown that he can win contested elections, raise large sums of money and appeal to a broad range of voters. On Tuesday a special state committee moved to add his name to the primary ballot as the favored Democratic candidate in the June primary, replacing former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who resigned last month after federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed bribery charges.Hochul chose Benjamin, a Black former state senator from Harlem, last summer when she ascended to the governor’s office following former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation. A Buffalo native, she had been the lieutenant governor for slightly more than six and a half years. Like Delgado, she had served in Congress.Before settling on Delgado, Hochul and her team also considered Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, and Vincent Alvarez, the president of the New York City Central Labor Council, as well as other Latino candidates, according to two people familiar with the process.Delgado, a former corporate lawyer who is Black, said on Tuesday that he said he was well positioned to represent the city along with the rest of the state. And as a prospective running mate, he offered Hochul considerable political attributes, including twice winning one of the most competitive swing districts in the country and fending off Republican opponents who branded him a “big-city rapper.”He also proved to be a prolific fund-raiser. He has nearly $6 million in his House campaign account, money he can spend on a lieutenant governor’s campaign.In Congress, Delgado has largely avoided the partisan fights that dominate cable news; he rarely speaks with reporters. In the primary for lieutenant governor, he will face two opponents, both Latina women: Diana Reyna, a former member of the New York City Council, and Ana María Archila, a progressive activist. His centrist credentials, paired with institutional party support, could allow him to push Reyna out of the moderate lane she was looking to occupy.WeatherPrepare for showers and a possible thunderstorms early in the day, with temps in the mid-60s. At night, there’s a chance of showers with temps in the mid-50s.alternate-side parkingSuspended today (Eid al-Fitr).State lawmakers promise to protect access to abortionReacting to the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Democratic leaders in Albany said they were working to make New York a safe haven for women seeking reproductive care.The State Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said that it was “an outrage that the Supreme Court is poised to reverse the rights of women in this country” and that she expected to pass legislation to reaffirm abortion rights before the end of the session.If the court overturns the 49-year-old decision, New York and other states with strong support for abortion rights could see a rush of people from states that have banned abortions. State Senator Liz Krueger of Manhattan has introduced a bill to protect New York doctors who treat those patients by prohibiting law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state investigations of abortion cases.The latest New York newsDr. David Sabatini, a biologist facing accusations of sexual harassment, is no longer in the running for a faculty position at N.Y.U. News of his potential hiring had sparked a protest.National Democrats made an 11th-hour appeal to a federal court to intervene in New York’s heated redistricting dispute.New York’s Law Department fired the city lawyer who handled lawsuits from George Floyd protesters after discovering she had made a misrepresentation in court filings.A sommelier charged last year with arson will be required to pay thousands of dollars to two restaurants whose outdoor dining structures he set on fire.For the second time in less than a week, New York City canceled plans for a shelter in Chinatown after protests from the community.A teacher in Rochester was placed on leave and is being investigated after parents said he told students to pick cotton during a lesson on slavery.The look of lightAlex Wroblewski for The New York TimesLights always shine brightly in New York, and a lot of them are old-fashioned incandescent lights — the roundish bulbs with filaments in the middle that Thomas Edison would recognize.Some New Yorkers don’t want to give them up.“The government is trying to get us not to sell them,” said David Brooks, the owner of Just Bulbs, a store on the East Side of Manhattan that carries — well, you figure it out. “There’s really no good reason why you shouldn’t want to switch to LED, but a lot of customers are dinosaurs.”Selling incandescent bulbs, which are less energy efficient than LEDs, is just “giving them what they’re asking for,” Brooks said, adding that he had “scrounged the corners of the earth to find the old bulbs people want.”His scrounging may become more difficult before long. Last week the Biden administration adopted energy-efficiency standards that would phase out most incandescent bulbs — the familiar household ones, anyway — next year. There are exceptions for many of the so-called specialty bulbs that Brooks keeps in stock.LEDs already illuminate much of New York, just as they illuminate much of the country. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services does not use incandescent bulbs in the 55 city-owned buildings — City Hall among them. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is converting fluorescent bulbs on station platforms to LEDs. It is also preparing to “transition” light banks for track workers in tunnels to LEDs, a spokesman said.The move away from incandescents has been going on for years — a decade ago, The New York Times said decorators were “laying in light bulbs like canned goods,” buying large quantities because they were not happy with the light from LEDs.What to Know About Lt. Gov. Brian BenjaminCard 1 of 5Who is Brian Benjamin? More

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      The Democrats’ Use of Dark Money: Is It Hypocritical?

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      More from our inbox:Trump’s Big ‘If’Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, Taking Cancel Culture Too FarEpilepsy and LEDs  Mark HarrisTo the Editor:“Denouncing Dark Money, Then Deploying It in 2020” (front page, Jan. 30) is one of many examples of attempts to gin up controversy over Democrats’ understandable reaction to Republican fund-raising operations.The piece details, at length, the many “dark money” activities of both Democrats and Republicans, while characterizing the Democrats’ behavior as exposing “the stark tension between their efforts to win elections and their commitment to curtail secretive political spending by the superrich.”Really? Is it valid to negatively judge Democrats for being forced to use dark money to level the playing field after Republicans’ long history of influencing elections with dark money? Dark money shouldn’t be legal, but it is. Until that changes Democrats can’t be held to a higher standard that puts their candidates at a serious disadvantage to Republicans.Gail M. BartlettChicagoTo the Editor:While your front-page story provided a great analysis of “dark money” spending in the 2020 election, it did not highlight who is working for and against regulation and transparency in campaign spending.For the past three years, my organization has been part of the Declaration for American Democracy coalition, working to pass the For the People Act. This legislation will reduce the influence of money in politics and create more robust ethics rules for elected officials.Almost every House and Senate Democrat has endorsed this legislation, and it has broad support from Democratic, independent and Republican voters. Conversely, every Republican member of Congress has voted against these bills when they’ve come up for a vote.I encourage all of us, when writing about subjects that significantly shape our elections, to think about who is working for the people and who is standing in the way of change.Alex MorganChicagoThe writer is executive director of the Progressive Turnout Project.To the Editor:While it would be healthy for the nation to regulate or eliminate dark money, I cannot criticize Democratic large donors for preserving their anonymity. There was a fair chance that Donald Trump, the most vengeful president in my time and probably in the nation’s history, was going to be re-elected. He has an enemies list a mile long, and I don’t envy anyone on it.Many of his supporters and fellow Republicans have been acting in like fashion. Respect for one’s opponents or their donors is a remnant of the past.George UbogySarasota, Fla.Trump’s Big ‘If’“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” former President Donald J. Trump said at a speech on Saturday in Conroe, Texas.Meridith Kohut for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Trump Suggests He May Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters if He Has Another Term” (news article, Jan. 31):Former President Donald Trump said at a political rally on Saturday night that if he wins the White House back, he may pardon people sentenced for the Capitol riot. He said they “are being treated so unfairly.”These words are important on three levels. First, he’s seriously thinking about running in 2024. Second, stunningly, he would actually consider pardoning convicted insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.But most remarkable of all, perhaps, is that he said, “If I run and I win.” This man with a monstrous ego and narcissism said “if”! Who knew that word was even in his vocabulary?It’s telling as he consciously and steadfastly remains to this day true to his “Big Lie” that he actually won the 2020 election. His “if” he wins in 2024 suggests that he knows, at least subconsciously, that he truly lost in 2020 and could do so again, if he runs in 2024.When Mr. Trump rambles on long enough, the truth sometimes spills out, as it seems to have at this rally. Our truth is that it is incumbent on all of us who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 to not allow Donald Trump to ever disgrace the office of the presidency again!Ken DerowSwarthmore, Pa.Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, Taking Cancel Culture Too FarJoni Mitchell was honored by the Kennedy Center last year.Pool photo by Ron Sachs/EPA, via ShutterstockDarren Hauck/Getty ImagesTo the Editor:Re “Joni Mitchell Plans to Follow Neil Young Off Spotify, Citing ‘Lies’” (Daily Arts Briefing, nytimes.com, Jan. 28):So Joni Mitchell and Neil Young don’t want their music played on Spotify because it also carries “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Am I now supposed to follow their example and cancel my cable TV subscription because Spectrum carries Fox News, an even greater source of misinformation?Once in a while, the radical right has a legitimate point about “cancel culture” going too far, and this is one of them.Lawrence PeitzmanStudio City, Calif.Epilepsy and LEDsDeborah Turner of Columbus, Ohio, found that her local dollar stores didn’t stock LED bulbs, which could have saved her hundreds of dollars in electricity bills.Maddie McGarvey for The New York TimesTo the Editor:“Obsolete Bulbs Fill the Shelves at Dollar Stores” (front page, Jan. 24) ignores a critical problem with LED lighting: It’s making many people seriously ill. I am one. I have epilepsy, and even the briefest glimpse of an LED light instantly throws me into a seizure. It’s incredibly dangerous for me to be anywhere near LEDs.LED-triggered seizures have left me with broken teeth, bruises and excruciating pain that lingers for days. I need to be able to buy incandescent bulbs. I can’t enter LED-lit stores, doctor’s offices, hospitals or civic buildings. How am I supposed to live if no one can purchase incandescent light bulbs?Super-efficient incandescent bulbs were developed but put aside by the industry in favor of LEDs. For the tens of thousands of Americans with light-reactive conditions, having access to incandescent bulbs is no mere “consumer choice”; it is a medical necessity.MarieAnn CherryCambridge, N.Y. More

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      The Business Rules the Trump Administration Is Racing to Finish

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Jobs CrisisCurrent Unemployment RateThe First Six MonthsPermanent LayoffsWhen a $600 Lifeline EndedAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Business Rules the Trump Administration Is Racing to FinishFrom tariffs and trade to the status of Uber drivers, regulators are trying to install new rules or reduce regulations before President-elect Joe Biden takes over.President Trump is rushing to put into effect new economic regulations and executive orders before his term comes to a close.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 11, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETIn the remaining days of his administration, President Trump is rushing to put into effect a raft of new regulations and executive orders that are intended to put his stamp on business, trade and the economy.Previous presidents in their final term have used the period between the election and the inauguration to take last-minute actions to extend and seal their agendas. Some of the changes are clearly aimed at making it harder, at least for a time, for the next administration to pursue its goals.Of course, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. could issue new executive orders to overturn Mr. Trump’s. And Democrats in Congress, who will control the House and the Senate, could use the Congressional Review Act to quickly reverse regulatory actions from as far back as late August.Here are some of the things that Mr. Trump and his appointees have done or are trying to do before Mr. Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. — Peter EavisProhibiting Chinese apps and other products. Mr. Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Alipay. It was the latest escalation of the president’s economic war with China. Details and the start of the ban will fall to Mr. Biden, who could decide not to follow through on the idea. Separately, the Trump administration has also banned the import of some cotton from the Xinjiang region, where China has detained vast numbers of people who are members of ethnic minorities and forced them to work in fields and factories. In another move, the administration prohibited several Chinese companies, including the chip maker SMIC and the drone maker DJI, from buying American products. The administration is weighing further restrictions on China in its final days, including adding Alibaba and Tencent to a list of companies with ties to the Chinese military, a designation that would prevent Americans from investing in those businesses. — Ana SwansonDefining gig workers as contractors. The Labor Department on Wednesday released the final version of a rule that could classify millions of workers in industries like construction, cleaning and the gig economy as contractors rather than employees, another step toward endorsing the business practices of companies like Uber and Lyft. — Noam ScheiberTrimming social media’s legal shield. The Trump administration recently filed a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to narrow its interpretation of a powerful legal shield for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. If the commission doesn’t act before Inauguration Day, the matter will land in the desk of whomever Mr. Biden picks to lead the agency. — David McCabeTaking the tech giants to court. The Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust suit against Facebook in December, two months after the Justice Department sued Google. Mr. Biden’s appointees will have to decide how best to move forward with the cases. — David McCabeAdding new cryptocurrency disclosure requirements. The Treasury Department late last month proposed new reporting requirements that it said were intended to prevent money laundering for certain cryptocurrency transactions. It gave only 15 days — over the holidays — for public comment. Lawmakers and digital currency enthusiasts wrote to the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to protest and won a short extension. But opponents of the proposed rule say the process and substance are flawed, arguing that the requirement would hinder innovation, and are likely to challenge it in court. — Ephrat LivniLimiting banks on social and environmental issues. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is rushing a proposed rule that would ban banks from not lending to certain kinds of businesses, like those in the fossil fuel industry, on environmental or social grounds. The regulator unveiled the proposal on Nov. 20 and limited the time it would accept comments to six weeks despite the interruptions of the holidays. — Emily FlitterOverhauling rules on banks and underserved communities. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is also proposing new guidelines on how banks can measure their activities to get credit for fulfilling their obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act, an anti-redlining law that forces them to do business in poor and minority communities. The agency rewrote some of the rules in May, but other regulators — the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — did not sign on. — Emily FlitterInsuring “hot money” deposits. On Dec. 15, the F.D.I.C. expanded the eligibility of brokered deposits for insurance coverage. These deposits are infusions of cash into a bank in exchange for a high interest rate, but are known as “hot money” because the clients can move the deposits from bank to bank for higher returns. Critics say the change could put the insurance fund at risk. F.D.I.C. officials said the new rule was needed to “modernize” the brokered deposits system. — Emily FlitterNarrowing regulatory authority over airlines. The Department of Transportation in December authorized a rule, sought by airlines and travel agents, that limits the department’s authority over the industry by defining what constitutes an unfair and deceptive practice. Consumer groups widely opposed the rule. Airlines argued that the rule would limit regulatory overreach. And the department said the definitions it used were in line with its past practice. — Niraj ChokshiRolling back a light bulb rule. The Department of Energy has moved to block a rule that would phase out incandescent light bulbs, which people and businesses have increasingly been replacing with much more efficient LED and compact fluorescent bulbs. The energy secretary, Dan Brouillette, a former auto industry lobbyist, said in December that the Trump administration did not want to limit consumer choice. The rule had been slated to go into effect on Jan. 1 and was required by a law passed in 2007. — Ivan PennAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More