Mayor de Blasio & Comptroller Stringer (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)

Amid the larger discussion about addressing climate change before it’s too late, debate is raging in New York over whether government-run and -affiliated pension funds worth hundreds of billions of dollars and responsible for payments that support hundreds of thousands of retirees should divest from fossil fuel company stock.

Advocates, elected officials, and others have been pushing at the city and state levels for full divestment so that the pension funds

Comptroller Stringer (photo: @scottmstringer)

New York City’s pension funds have faced criticism in the past for owning a stake, however small, in two for-profit private prison operators. On Thursday, one of the funds took the first significant step to recognize the issue by announcing a study of divestment from the controversial industry.

Comptroller Scott Stringer and the trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), one of the city’s five pension funds, voted unanimously to ...

A recent decision by the federal Department of Justice to scale back and eventually end the use of private prisons indirectly impacted New York City’s pension funds, reducing holding values by millions of dollars and leading to renewed calls from activists for the city to divest from the for-profit corporations that operate these prisons.

Earlier this month, the Obama administration took a major step against an industry that has long been criticized for its culture of violence, secrecy, and the devaluation of human life: private

Photo by Bill Alatriste/City Council

NEW YORK — The historic overhaul of New York City government this year goes well beyond the mayor's office.

There are 21 new members of the City Council, four new borough presidents, and fresh, yet familiar, faces in the offices of Brooklyn district attorney, comptroller, and public advocate. With the city’s politics taking an increasingly liberal turn, there are few outright conservatives left in city government.

“Reapportionment and term limits combined to make the City