Long Island Letitia

State Attorney General Letitia James has been paying a lot of attention to Nassau County as of late. On Friday, she issued a statement threatening to sue Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman over his ban on trans girls playing sports with cis girls at county facilities. The AG said Blakeman’s executive order violates New York’s antidiscrimination laws and demanded that he rescind it by the end of this week or face legal action. Blakeman has so far stood his ground, saying on Friday that his order is not discriminatory because it allows everyone to play sports – just not necessarily on the team that aligns with their gender identity. 

On Saturday, James showed up in Nassau County in person to promote two bills aimed at protecting kids from social media companies’ addictive algorithms and data harvesting. She attended a roundtable hosted by Assembly Member Michaelle Solages, who is not a primary sponsor of the bills but is chair of the Legislature’s powerful Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus. 

And on Monday, James announced an $8.6 million settlement with a nursing home in East Meadow, Nassau County, after what her office said were “years of financial fraud and resident mistreatment.”

A spokesperson for James said the cluster of Nassau events was “purely a coincidence” and that the social media roundtable was scheduled before the Blakeman dust-up.

James did comment on a notable statewide issue at the roundtable on Saturday – coming out against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to the state’s school funding formula. The changes would result in districts with lower enrollment losing some funding. “This is from Tish James, not the Assemblywoman. Blame Tish,” she said, referring to Solages. “We need that funding, that additional funding for our schools all throughout the state of New York.”