News Briefs:
May 2026
Suspect Identified in Local student’s Death
(May 25): Updated: Cayuga Heights Police Monday identified the suspect arrested and charged with murder in the Saturday, May 23 stabbing death of a 19- year old Breanne Stacy Keane, a student at Ithaca’s Lehman Alternative Community School.
Damien Stewart was charged with second-degree murder and is being held in Tompkins County Jail, according to The Ithaca Voice.
Cayuga Heights Police Chief Jerry Wright identified Stewart as the sole suspect in a news release Monday. Wright said the investigation is ongoing.
Wright’s report confirms the basic details of a story first published late Sunday by the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Breanne Keane was set to graduate from the Lehman school next month, according to the victim’s father, Matt Keane.
Mr. Keane told the Post-Standard that police had informed him that the suspect had stabbed his daughter multiple times in the chest, abdomen and face.
According to The Voice, Chief Wright said police responded to a stabbing incident at approximately 2 p.m. on May 23 at 709 Triphammer Road in Cayuga Heights. Ms. Keane succumbed to her injuries while she was being transported to a local trauma center, police reported.
In a Facebook posting Sunday, Matt Keane said his daughter loved animals, had been accepted at Tompkins Cortland Community College to study canine training, and had planned to advance to SUNY Cobleskill.
Details about the suspect, Damien Stewart, were not immediately reported.
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ITA Backs Tripp, Garner; Bypasses Cardona
(May 9): In a reversal of its preferences of one year ago, the Ithaca Teachers Association (ITA) PAC has endorsed candidate Jill Tripp to return to the Ithaca Board of Education.
The ITA also endorsed newcomer Sara Garner in her first-ever candidacy, but declined to re-endorse Madeline Cardona, who filled a one-year vacancy in the 2025 election and sought a full, three-year term this cycle.
The ITA’s endorsements, posted on its website, but without elaboration, also supported incumbent Garrick Blalock for the third of three positions open in the May 19 election.
Backing of the ITA, Ithaca’s instructional union, often propels board candidates to victory, especially in low-turnout elections.
After serving a single term, Jill Tripp lost last year’s election after failing to secure the ITA’s endorsement. “This year’s candidacy was prompted by my loss last year,” Tripp, a 30-year district employee, now retired, stated in answer to an ITA candidate questionnaire.
Meanwhile, Sara Garner, Director of Community Nursery School in Ithaca, said she’s concerned over “a lack of accountability in leadership” and poor student performance.
Last September, “despite more than a hundred community members speaking out… to ask the Board to delay or reconsider the vote to extend the superintendent’s contract, their concerns were not meaningfully addressed,” Garner stated on her questionnaire, “That is not what responsive board leadership looks like,” she said.
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NY Dems’ Sleeper Primary
(May 9): Contrary to earlier speculation, Democrats will have a June Primary this year. But don’t be surprised if participation hits record lows; that is, unless either of two upstart candidacies catches fire.
For Democrats, the only primary nomination to be decided across Tompkins County is that for State Comptroller. Incumbent Tom DiNapoli has held the post since 2007. But on May 5, the New York State Board of Elections certified Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle as challengers.
Both men submitted sufficient petitions to qualify for the ballot. A party endorsement at a February convention assured DiNapoli a line in the primary.
Electing a Comptroller sounds as bland as picking an accountant. But this year’s primary could prove different.
Both Warshaw and Goyle are running to the left of DiNapoli. In many respects, their platforms mirror each other. They’d divest from fossil fuels and from foreign bonds. Warshaw specifically names Israel. They’d each pump more into affordable housing.
Goyle would target utility rate hikes and profits. He faults DiNapoli’s management of the enormous state pension fund.
Warshaw graduated from Cornell and was Chief of Staff of the Port Authority during World Trade Center reconstruction. Raj Goyle, once a Kansas legislator, most recently headed a legal analytics company.
It will take progressive push to make June 23 anything other than a DiNapoli coronation. It didn’t help either insurgent when the liberal Working Families Party May 6 declined to endorse anyone in the race.
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Budget Deal… Maybe Not
(May 9): Underscoring the dysfunctional nature of New York budget politics, Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday of this week announced that “agreement has been reached” with State Senate and Assembly legislative leaders on what she termed “key priorities” of a 2026-27 State Budget.
But before the day was over, one of those leaders, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, denied that a deal had been struck. Hochul spoke prematurely, Heastie told The Gothamist. We may be “close,” he said. But nearly 50 items remain unresolved.
As New York does things, an annual budget is as much about policy as spending. Governor Hochul’s more than 2,400-word budget proclaiming press release—long on generalities, short on details—would spend $268 Billion.
There’d be no new general taxes. But Hochul’s “agreement” would approve that much-touted Pied-a-terre tax on $5 Million second homes, yet only in New York City. There’s be a $1 Billion statewide energy rebate, but only given out once. Pre-K would be free and available for all four-year old’s, but not until 2028.
Some climate laws would be rolled back. But the announcement makes no mention of ending the electric school bus mandate.
And what’s captured national headlines, the purported deal would unmask Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and constrain local police from cooperating with ICE.
Speaker Heastie has sent the Assembly home, for now. And it may take weeks to write Hochul’s handshakes into law. New York could have the most delayed budget since 2010.
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Portelli, GOP Primary Back On
(May 2; updated May 9): Because of a single candidate’s uphill battle for Congress, Republicans across Tompkins County and the NY-19 District will have a primary this year.
Democrats, on the other hand, have only a State Comptroller primary locally this cycle. A Town of Ulysses Councilperson’s race is the only exception.
The off-then-on Republican primary comes after Alex Portelli, a 36-year old resident of Cherry Valley, succeeded April 24 in beating back petition challenges that initially had jeopardized his candidacy to unseat Democratic Congressman Josh Riley.
Barring any further legal maneuvers, Portelli holds the right to challenge State Senator Peter Oberacker, endorsed by the GOP establishment, in the June 23 Republican Primary district-wide.
The Oberacker-Portelli contest will be the only nomination Tompkins County Republicans will decide that day.
For the Democrats, State Senator Lea Webb, Assemblymember Anna Kelles, Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne and County Clerk aspirant Rachel Graham, seek party nominations unopposed.
Alex Portelli’s volunteers collected over 1600 Republican signatures to qualify him for the primary. Portelli claims he gathered nearly 1,100 of those names himself. Elections officials required 1,250.
In response to a Columbia County woman’s objection, those officials had initially invalidated 387 of the names, but then restored enough of them to reach the threshold.
“The State Board of Elections has determined… that the objector was Lying about her accusations that I committed fraud for my petitions,” Portelli asserted April 24 on social media.
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