The National Women’s Hall of Fame has a new executive director.

The Seneca Falls-based museum has named Jennifer Gabriel to the newly created position.

Gabriel most recently headed up development and community relations for Hospicare & Palliative Care Services, based in Tompkins and Cortland counties.

Gabriel grew up in Ithaca, and she said that one of her goals is to get more people, both locally and nationally, to learn about the Finger Lakes connection to women’s rights as well as the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Over the weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a package of voting reforms, including ones that ease the rules and restrictions on mail-in absentee balloting.

But a leading voter access advocate said the state still has more to do before mail-in balloting is universally accessible.

The bills that Cuomo approved include eliminating the requirement that voters have to submit signed applications for absentee ballots. They will now be able to request the ballots by an unsigned letter or by going online to get one mailed to them.

After a recent AARP survey found that nearly 80% of New York’s 2.5 million unpaid family caregivers spend a significant amount of their own money to care for a loved one, the organization is pushing for federal and state tax credits to help ease that growing burden.

The chair of the state Senate Ethics Committee said even though hearings to fix New York’s dysfunctional ethics panel have been delayed, she’s hopeful that solutions can be reached by the end of the summer.

Sen. Alessandra Biaggi this week canceled a planned hearing that was to feature testimony from the executive director of the troubled Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE. Concerns about whether the hearing was adhering to the state’s Open Meetings Law led to the postponement.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday defended the state’s death count during the COVID-19 pandemic after a report by the Associated Press that said New York may have undercounted the number of deaths from the disease by as many as 11,000 people.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a unity event Wednesday with Eric Adams, the winner of the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, where they announced plans to work to combat rising gun violence.

Cuomo -- who has bitterly feuded with current Mayor Bill de Blasio, a former ally -- said things will be different if Adams, as expected, wins the general election in November.

“I pledge today to work in full partnership with him,” Cuomo said, adding that Adams displays “courage and competence.”

“I am so excited about Eric Adams,” he said.

The commission tasked with drawing new district lines for the state’s congressional and state legislative seats will hold nine public hearings, which they describe as a virtual listening tour to involve the public in how the districts should be structured.

Commission members say the public hearings, all to be held over Zoom, will allow communities to have a voice on how they want the new Senate, Assembly and congressional districts to be designed.  

A New York State Senate hearing scheduled to examine the troubled state ethics commission was postponed Monday over concerns that it might have been in violation of the Open Meetings Law because too many senators were participating over Zoom instead of showing up in person.  

The hearing was to feature senators grilling the chair of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, a panel that critics say is overly influenced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But after an hour’s delay, Senate Ethics Committee Chair Alessandra Biaggi postponed it. 

Calling them “villains for the history books,” the attorneys general of New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota on Thursday announced a $4.5 billion settlement with the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the drug OxyContin that contributed to the nation’s opioid addiction crisis.

A new Siena College Poll says that only one-third of New York voters say that Governor Andrew Cuomo should run for reelection.

The poll released on Thursday asked voters what they would like Cuomo to do:

23% say he should resign immediately;

39% say he should serve out his term but not seek re-election;

33% say Cuomo should continue to serve and run for re-election.