Merf Radio | radioNOVO News NY News Roundup for May 26, 2026

Good morning,We begin at the State Capitol, where lawmakers are returning to Albany today to face a gridlocked fiscal crisis. Lawmakers are heading back to the floor to continue voting on a state budget that is now nearly two consecutive months late. While voting on parts of the massive fiscal plan officially began late last week, a complete agreement remains up in the air. The initial legal deadline to have the budget passed was way back on April first. Officials confirm this year officially marks the latest an agreement has been approved in the Empire State since 2010. The total price tag for the deeply contested budget is currently projected to exceed an historic two hundred sixty billion dollars.Meanwhile, Senator Chuck Schumer is pushing a new federal legislative blitz aimed at bringing financial relief to New York dinner tables. Speaking in Schenectady, the Senate Minority Leader unveiled the Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act. Schumer says the sweeping bill aims to lower skyrocketing grocery costs for working families by aggressively breaking up major meatpacking monopolies and restoring marketplace competition. The push comes as recent data reveals meat prices continue to shatter records across New York, with the average cost of standard ground beef and sirloin jumping nearly twenty percent over the past year alone.Turning to central New York, a heartbreaking murder investigation continues in Tompkins County following a violent holiday weekend stabbing. Authorities have officially identified the victim killed Saturday afternoon near Cornell University as nineteen-year-old Breanne Keane, a native of Syracuse. Investigators say Keane was inside her Cayuga Heights apartment on Triphammer Road when she was attacked and stabbed multiple times. She tragically succumbed to her injuries while being rushed to a regional trauma center. Police arrested twenty-year-old Damien Stewart at the scene. Stewart is currently being held behind bars without bail at the Tompkins County Jail on second-degree murder charges.Shifting to Western New York, a massive community effort honored the fallen this Memorial Day weekend. Thousands of volunteers gathered at Buffalo's historic Forest Lawn Cemetery to carefully place thousands of American flags on the graves of local veterans. The tributes concluded with a moving twenty-one-gun salute and the playing of Taps, while regional landmarks—including Niagara Falls—were illuminated in red, white, and blue to honor the nation's military casualties.And finally, it is a glorious morning to be a sports fan in the Empire State. For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks are officially heading back to the NBA Finals! Karl-Anthony Towns completely dominated the court last night, racking up nineteen points to lead New York to a massive one hundred thirty to ninety-three blowout victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Ohio. OG Anunoby added seventeen points for the red-hot Knicks, completing an absolute four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference Finals. New York now awaits the winner of the Western Conference to see who they will battle for the ultimate world championship.For more breaking news from across the Empire State, download the radioNOVO app. I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News, a service of Seven Mountains Media.