New York is taking steps to stop therapists from trying to change young people’s sexual orientation, joining a number of states that have taken action against what’s known as “conversion therapy.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced new regulations Saturday. They will bar New York insurers from covering the therapy for minors and will prohibit mental health facilities under state jurisdiction from offering it to minors.
The Port Authority is poised to take a lead role in the multiagency effort to build a new rail tunnel from New Jersey into Manhattan and refurbish the decaying 105-year-old tunnel badly damaged in superstorm Sandy.
The board of the Port Authority took the first step last week by agreeing to create a development corporation that would include representation from the Port, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Creation of the corporation is expected to help expedite the so-called Gateway Tunnel Project, an effort that could take 10 years and cost about $14 billion, officials said. The federal government has said it will pay for half of the project, but how it will be financed by local governments hasn’t been determined.
Congress may have declined to ban the sale of guns to people on federal terrorism watch lists, but one state — New Jersey — has, at least theoretically, been stopping such purchases since 2013.
It isn’t clear whether New Jersey’s ban has actually stopped a would-be extremist from buying a firearm. But the system could potentially serve as a model for a handful of other states, including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois and California, where lawmakers have been exploring ways to restrict sales without an act of Congress.
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