Mayors say that the proposal, designed to steer cities, counties and school districts from bankruptcy, won't help fix rising pensions and worker payrolls

Six Occupy Albany demonstrators were charged with misdemeanor trespassing in New York's Capitol on Thursday in a demonstration aimed at raising the minimum wage.

Business tax cuts, tax incentives for hiring the unemployed, a moratorium on new taxes and a state spending cap will be part of the budget proposal of the New York Senate's Republican majority.

Nearly 2,000 union members demonstrated in Albany on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to block New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to cut the taxpayer cost of pensions for future public workers.

Legislative leaders from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are pushing a novel, unified approach to promote higher minimum wages, hoping to spur a national movement and eliminate a major argument of opponents in the Northeast who say hikes hinder a state's competitiveness.

Some New York women receiving Medicaid-paid contraceptives are being told that under a recent state cost-cutting measure they can't get their preferred, brand-name methods unless a generic version "fails first," which could mean bleeding, nausea or pregnancy.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday increased pressure on state lawmakers to win support for his plan to cut pension costs, promising to make sure voters remember which legislators opposed him in the effort he said will reduce taxpayers' burden.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Legislature on Wednesday that he's willing to risk a shut-down of government to create a cheaper pension system for the next generations of public workers.