Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie comes to the North Country to give a huge boost, $3-million dollars in state funding, to a proposed project that will build a new indoor rec center for kids in Malone & Franklin County. The facility that would be built a short ways from the Malone Recreation Park would have an indoor track and soccer field, and then a proposed phase two that would include an indoor hockey rink. We also asked Speaker Heastie about the growing migrant crisis in New York City.
There was some movement on that this week, the Biden administration announced it will offer work permits and temporary legal status to nearly half a million migrants from Venezuela, who make up about 40% of the 110,000 migrants who have arrived in New York City in the past year.
The Speaker was also asked about a new gun safety law in New York. Background checks are now required to buy ammunition, as well as firearms, and background check requests will now go through the New York State Police instead of the FBI, which could delay purchases. Also, new fees are being implemented to pay for the background checks, $9 for a firearm purchase, and $2.50 for ammo.
Mary Vann, who is the owner of Vann’s Guns in Plattsburgh, says the rollout of the rules this past week resulted in much longer wait times. Assembly Speaker Heastie said the safeguards are needed to help reduce gun violence statewide.