radioNOVO News NY News Roundup for July 31, 2026

Good morning. Here is your New York State Roundup.Governor Kathy Hochul is rolling out a new slate of aggressive gun control measures across the Empire State in response to proposed federal deregulation. The Governor announced that State Police will immediately step up on-site inspections for gun dealers linked to firearms recovered from crime scenes. Hochul is also pushing new state legislation requiring all gun sales to be made strictly in person, blocking federal proposals that would permit online firearm sales delivered directly to buyers' homes.Meanwhile, local officials across Eastern New York are assessing heavy storm damage following a deluge of rainfall. Emergency management teams report the Town of Coxsackie in Greene County bore the brunt of the storm, taking on ten inches of rain in just twenty hours and generating over sixty emergency pump-out calls. Coxsackie remains under a boil water advisory, and an emergency shelter at Hunter Elementary School has reopened to distribute drinking water to affected families.In federal court, a jury in Buffalo has convicted the man who attacked author Salman Rushdie on federal terrorism charges. Twenty-eight-year-old Hadi Matar was found guilty after just two hours of deliberation for carrying out foreign terrorist orders when he stabbed Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in 2022. Already serving a twenty-five-year state sentence, Matar now faces life in federal prison.Down in New York City, a union representing horse-drawn carriage drivers claims underground stray electricity may have triggered a fatal Central Park carriage crash. Transport Workers Union officials say testing near the Cherry Hill fountain detected stray voltage that may have shocked the horse, causing it to bolt and kill an eighteen-year-old tourist. Utility giant Con Edison confirmed detecting minor voltage but maintains the issue did not originate from its equipment.In classroom policy, a controversial pilot program in Western New York has sparked a statewide push for artificial intelligence guardrails. Following intense community backlash that led the Salamanca City School District to pause its fifty-seven-thousand-dollar purchase of a humanoid AI assistant, New York State United Teachers is urging lawmakers to enact enforceable, statewide rules governing AI in public schools.And in Westchester County, officials have officially banned the sale of e-cigarettes and vaping devices designed to look like everyday objects. County Executive Ken Jenkins signed the bill targeting devices disguised as pens, smartwatches, and toys, with violators facing fines of up to twenty-five-hundred dollars.I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News, a service of Seven Mountains Media.