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Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the first time publicly addressed sexual harassment accusations against him, saying Wednesday that he did not intend to make anyone uncomfortable and that he is truly sorry.

Many are calling for his resignation, including some members of Cuomo’s own Democratic Party, but the governor says he’s not leaving.

At times welling with emotion, Cuomo looked into the camera and offered an apology to all New Yorkers, and to the women who say he harassed them.

Oneida County houses 17 nursing homes–the most in the Mohawk Valley. But despite the state loosening restrictions on nursing home visits last Friday, only about one-third of those facilities are actually allowing visitors.

This past Sunday, Eastern Star Home in Oriskany opened its doors for family members to visit its residents.

“This will be the first time in quite a period of time they've actually had an inside visit,” said Eastern Star’s administrator, Jeff French. He said his facility was one of the lucky ones throughout the pandemic.

For the past three years, the Oswego Police Department has been working on a kind of diversion program for 911 calls that involve a mental health issue. Rather than just arresting individuals or taking them to the hospital, the police call in mental health counselors from Liberty Resources, a behavioral health agency serving central New York, to deescalate the situation and provide treatment on scene.

Theresa Humennyj, director of this Regional Mobile Crisis Program with Liberty, said it's been well received by the community.

With all of the Great Lakes below where they were at this time last year, including Lake Ontario which is down almost 2 feet and is forecast to rise only a few inches by the end of March, the international body that helps regulate the Lake's water levels is taking its foot off the gas a bit. The Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board will no longer deviate from its water management plan, called Plan 2014, meaning it's now going to reduce how much water is released from the lake to the St. Lawrence River through the Moses-Saunders Dam.

New York state legislative leaders have announced agreement on a bill to curb Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The measure comes as Cuomo is embroiled in two scandals:  One over his nursing home policies during the health crisis, and another over accusations that he sexually harassed former staffers.

More COVID-19 vaccine is making its way to central and northern New York this week. Onondaga County alone is in line to receive nearly 7,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the most ever in one week.  This latest allocation is about three times what the county has been getting in recent weeks.

"There’s a lot of pharmacies getting supply, and then the state site that we help staff at the fairgrounds has a lot of supply, so there’s going to be a lot of people vaccinated this week,” said County Executive Ryan McMahon Monday.

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed coronavirus case in New York. Since then, over 38,000 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 and more than 1.5 million who were sickened.

At this point last year, though, nobody imagined what was in store.

On the evening of March 1, 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a press release, announcing that a case of COVID-19 had been found in New York. 

A SUNY Oswego professor has co-launched a new academic journal focused on mass violence research. The authors say the various topics they cover can be difficult to get into major publications. 

Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate professor of criminal justice at SUNY Oswego, specializes in mass shootings and school shootings. She said there can be some bias against mass violence research, which can be viewed more critically and harder for publishers to assess.

A second woman has come forward and accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment. Cuomo denies the allegations, but has agreed to make a referral to state Attorney General Letitia James to conduct an investigation.

Nursing homes in New York state can now allow more visitors in their facilities, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo, expanded the guidelines for visitations. Some state legislators say long-term reform of the nursing home industry is also needed.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his staff were in damage control mode Thursday as they faced two scandals: the governor’s handling of nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the months-long suppression of the true number of residents’ deaths, and allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed a former staffer. 

Cuomo’s health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, testified at a long-awaited legislative budget hearing. Zucker -- who had postponed his testimony, originally scheduled for three weeks ago -- appeared 2½ hours late. He immediately addressed the nursing home controversy.

The experience of Onondaga County during the pandemic is now part of the Congressional Record. County Executive Ryan McMahon provided lawmakers with a boots-on-the-ground insight during a congressional hearing Wednesday.

Two female former aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo are accusing him of bad behavior, with one saying the governor sexually harassed her in incidents that included inappropriate touching and an invitation to play strip poker. Cuomo denies the allegations.

A group tasked with reimagining public safety in Ithaca and Tompkins County has submitted a draft set of recommendations including a proposal to abolish the Ithaca Police Department.

For a time in 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was considered one of the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic for his steady and focused daily briefings when national leadership was lacking.

But recently, the governor has suffered a reversal of fortune, as a scandal over the suppression of the number of nursing home deaths dominates news coverage of his administration. Additionally, a new poll finds the majority of New Yorkers now think the governor did something wrong.

It took three months after Election Day for Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) to be declared the winner, but the 22nd Congressional District now finally has representation in Congress. Tenney is serving her second term in office, after being unseated in 2018. She reflected on the frustrating legal process over the last few months, as well as the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump.

When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are often responsible for giving out information. But not everyone has a doctor they trust, especially in communities of color.

Jada Hamilton is a family physician and deputy medical director at Cornell Health. Hamilton, who is Black, spoke with Tompkins County residents during a Q&A session hosted by the county’s health department this month focused on concerns from people of color about the vaccine.

The Syracuse VA Medical Center is working on getting coronavirus vaccines to veterans in a 14-county area stretching from the North Country to the Southern Tier.

More than 6,000 eligible and enrolled veterans have already started the vaccination process; either at the Syracuse hospital, or clinics in Rome, Binghamton and Watertown. Syracuse VA Medical Center Director Frank Pearson said the VA has been expanding clinics since it started vaccinating vets against COVID-19.

Residents of nursing homes in New York state will be able to have visitors again, starting this Friday, Feb. 26, under new rules laid out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state health officials.

State officials delayed reopening the nursing homes, closed to visitors since last March, until all the residents were offered a chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, 73% of residents have now agreed to receive both doses. So far, 15,000 elderly residents in nursing homes or other long-term adult care facilities have died of COVID-19, the vast majority of them alone.