Today, our hat is not merely tipped, but fully doffed in honor of our friends at New York Focus for finding yet another flaw in Gov. Hochul's effort to lower car insurance premiums.
As the outlet's Albany Bureau Chief Chris Bragg reported on Wednesday, two decades ago, the state created a fund with tens of millions of dollars that was supposed to be in a lockbox to crack down on insurance fraud — but instead was funneled simply to law enforcement agencies' general operating funds.
As a result only a tiny portion was spent actually fighting fraud — even as Gov. Hochul claims that rampant fraud is driving up the cost of car insurance. But if fighting fraud is the real goal here, why isn't the governor fully exploiting the hundreds of millions of dollars raised for that purpose by the "Motor Vehicle Law Enforcement Fee" program?
Not to be outdone, of course, our own Albany Bureau Chief Austin C. Jefferson and his Streetsblog NYC colleague Kevin Duggan had their own scoop on Hochul's insurance proposal today in Streetsblog Empire State — namely that fraud is not nearly as rampant as the governor claims.
As much as we loved NY Focus's piece, it's worth repeating that no one has been covering Gov. Hochul's insurance reform proposal with the diligence of Streetsblog. Since Hochul announced her plan in January, Jefferson in Albany and Duggan at the Streetsblog mothership have joined forces to publish nearly two dozen deeply reported pieces on the plan. They are all archived here and they are must-reads.
In other news:
- Speaking of Hochul, her sell-out of the planet to the gods of "affordability" is confirmed. (Gothamist)
- Streetsblog readers will be pleased to hear that cyclist Jose Ramos's killer, who was speeding on Atlantic Avenue in Cypress Hills when he killed the beloved hearing-impaired man in 2021, has been sent to jail in a plea deal. It took cops two years to find the driver, Julio Sandoval, who had fled. (The Brooklyn Paper)
- And, finally, check out Komanoff's tribute to Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy, who was described as "a rare mainstream avatar of cycle commuting." (Via Twitter)
- Turturro two? A court ruling could open the door for lots of liability suits against the city for failing to keep streets safe. (amNY)
- News12 will literally swallow anything — in this case, spoiled pastries from a Bronx bakery owner who claims that a bike lane (which didn't really remove much parking anyway) has killed his business.
- Cops identified the woman who was killed by the Department of Transportation dump truck driver in Queens. Nilufar Komilova was 31. (Patch)
- And a hit-and-run driver killed another woman in Queens. (ABC7)
- And a firetruck driver killed a Brooklyn man. (Gothamist)
- U.S. Department of Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy said some more dumb stuff about the subway and revealed his secret desire to convert the entire nation into a parking lot from sea to smoggy sea. (CSpan)
- Congrats to two great shooters at amNY for a well-earned award.
- Wouldn't it be nice if all the outlets that complain about delivery workers would also complain about their wealthy customers ordering all that take-out food and groceries? (Our Town)
- Nothing to see here, just another car into a building. (LoHud)
- Finally, watch how Bill and Hillary Clinton are endanger by cars in Midtown:
Watch as Bill Clinton almost pushes Hillary into an intersection in NYC.
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) March 11, 2026
(elderordonez1) pic.twitter.com/PndtE2eMkb
