NYN Media Buzz: Dec. 26, 2017

The Police Athletic League raised more than $330,000 at its 29th annual Women of the Year Luncheon, held on Dec. 14. The Manhattan event honored Lisa Friel, special counsel for investigations at the National Football League and Kathryn Lu, executive vice president and chief compliance officer at Mutual of America Life Insurance Co.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and five other senators are urging Congress to keep the U.S. Department of Justice from interfering with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws. They argue Congress should include provisions in an appropriations package for fiscal year 2018 that would prevent the department from accessing funding for enforcement actions against states with medical marijuana programs, according to a letter signed by the senators. Twenty-nine states, including New York, have legalized medical marijuana. Federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance alongside heroin.

Former state Public Employment Relations Board Chairman Jerome “Jerry” Lefkowitz died on Dec. 21. He was 86. In the 1960s, he was tasked by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to draft a version of legislation that would eventually allow New York public employees to unionize. He served as PERB chairman from 2007 until 2015. Here is an in-depth profile of his work on labor relations in the state.