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万得福

Millions up in smoke: NY has nation's highest cigarette tax; why do so few pay it?
http://www.syracuse.com/state/index.ssf/2015/12/ny_losing_big_with_nations_highest_cigarette_tax.html

http://nypost.com/2015/12/27/cigarette-tax-revenue-plunges-as-smokers-buy-outside-new-york/
Cigarette tax revenue plunges as smokers buy outside New York

By John Aidan Byrne

High cigarette taxes not only assist global crime networks but also have a disproportionate impact on the poor. According to the New York State Department of Health, low-income smokers, defined as individuals in households earning less than $30,000 a year, spent 23.6 percent of the annual household income on cigarettes in 2010-2011. That number is up from 11.6 percent in 2003-2004. Smokers in households in wealthier households earning over $60,000 a year spent an around 2.2 percent of their household income on cigarettes.


Not surprisingly, say experts, sales of taxed cigs in New York are off by 54 percent in the past decade, which is also cutting into the profits of local store owners peddling smokes. In that same period, about 19 percent of New Yorkers stopped smoking, a pace well below the huge sales dip.
“The Germans call it ‘schadenfreude’ when you take pleasure from another person’s misfortune,” noted Dan Mitchell, a tax expert at the Washington DC-based Cato Institute, commenting on the New York smoking tax fiasco.
“Normally, I would think people who feel this way have a character flaw.
“But not in this case,” he added. “I confess that I get a certain joy from this story because politicians are being punished for their greed. I like the fact that they have less money to waste.”

万得福

New York Can Fine You $250k For ‘Misgendering’ Somebody

NYC Commission on Human Rights Announces Strong Protections for City's Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Communities in Housing, Employment and Public Spaces

http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-th ... s&utm_content=nycmo

The policy requires all covered entities to let people use a bathroom and locker room consistent with their chosen gender identity,
“regardless of their sex assigned at birth, anatomy, medical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on their identification.”
Interestingly, the policy explicitly allows transgender individuals to use bathrooms of either gender, though this right is not given to others.


Other aspects of the policy include a ban on gender-specific dress codes (such as compelling men to wear a tie at a restaurant), and a requirement that company health plans cover gender-transition and gender-affirming care, such as hormone treatments, voice training, and surgery. The law defines such treatments as “necessary” and “life-saving.”
Ordinary violations of the guidelines can result in fines of up to $125,000, while offenses stemming from “willful, wanton, or malicious conduct” can incur fines of up to $250,000. In addition to these civil penalties, the commission may award an unlimited amount of compensatory damages to anybody deemed a victim of discrimination.

Officials estimated that New York has just over 25,000 transgender and intersex people living in the city.