Applications open for NY Home Energy Assistance Program

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that funding from the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is now available.

HEAP aims to help low and middle-income households pay heating bills during the winter season. Eligible New Yorkers could receive up to $996 in assistance. Additionally, residents caring for vulnerable family members may also be qualified for HEAP funding.

Eligibility for HEAP is dependent on household size, income levels and more. New Yorkers can apply through ny.gov/heat . Applications can also be submitted in-person or via mail.

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U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Monday that last week's election giving Republicans control of the chamber and leaving Democrats in the minority is now part of the calculus as he evaluates his political future. Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 ranking Democrat, turns 80 on Nov. 21 and has yet to say if he'll run for reelection in 2026. He has been in the Senate since 1997 after serving 14 ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Data provider Decision Desk HQ projected on Monday that President-elect Donald Trump's Republican Party had won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would signal that Republicans would hold a majority in both chambers of Congress. Edison Research has not yet projected House control. It has projected that Republicans will hold at least 215 seats, with Democrats holding at least 206.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and current deputy chair of the country's Security Council, has accused German conservative leader Friedrich Merz of making incendiary comments about Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Merz has said in the past that if he was in power Germany could send long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev - a step Chancellor Olaf Scholz has steadfastly refused to take. Medvedev wrote on Telegram that these missiles are incapable of significantly altering the course

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he will appoint Republican former Congressman Lee Zeldin, who often voted against legislation on green issues including a measure to stop oil companies from price gouging, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. "He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet," Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. Trump, a Republican, will likely look to reverse many rules administered by the EPA on the burning of fossil fuels including one curbing carbon emissions from power plants and another slashing such emissions from vehicles.

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday set a trial date for April 14 in the libel lawsuit that Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, brought against The New York Times. "This case should not require very much preparation since it's a retrial," Judge Jed Rakoff said during a conference Tuesday. A lawyer for the newspaper, David Axelrod, raised the possibility the two sides could settle and asked for more time.

(Reuters) -The U.S. Senate's Democratic majority began a crusade on Tuesday to confirm as many new federal judges nominated by President Joe Biden as possible to avoid leaving vacancies that Republican Donald Trump could fill after taking office on Jan. 20. With Republicans set to take control of the chamber on Jan. 3, the Senate on Tuesday held a confirmation vote on one of Biden's judicial nominees - former prosecutor April Perry - for the first time since Trump won the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Democrat Cleo Fields has won Louisiana's congressional race in a recently redrawn second majority-Black district, flipping a once reliably Republican seat blue. Fields' win means Democrats will hold two congressional seats in the state for the first time in a decade. This is only the second time in nearly 50 years that a Democrat has won in Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, where new political boundaries were drawn by lawmakers earlier this year.