By CAROLYN THOMPSON

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Ely Samuel Parker, a Seneca leader and Civil War officer who served in President Ulysses S. Grant’s cabinet, was posthumously admitted Friday to the New York State Bar, an achievement denied him in life because he was Native American.

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His admission inside a ceremonial courtroom in Buffalo 130 years after his death followed a yearslong effort by his descendants, who saw bitter irony in the fact that an important figure in U.S. history was never seen as a U.S. citizen, then a requirement to practice law.

“Today … we correct that injustice,” Melissa Parker Leonard, a great-great-great-grandniece of Parker’s, said to an audience that included robed judges from several New York courts. “We acknowledge that the failure was never his. It was the law itself.”

Parker was at Grant’s side for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s 1865 surrender at the Appomattox, Virginia, courthouse, where he was tasked with writing out the final terms that the generals signed. Grant later chose Parker, by then a brigadier general, to be commissioner of Indian Affairs, making him the first Native American to serve in the position.

Melissa Parker Leonard, a descendant of Seneca leader and Civil War General Ely Samuel Parker, speaks with guests inside the courtroom after a ceremony to posthumously admit Parker to the New York state bar on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025 in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

He is also the first Native American to be posthumously admitted to the bar, said retired Judge John Browning, who worked on the application.

“Even a cursory review of his biography will show that Mr. Parker was not only clearly qualified for admission to the bar, but he in fact exemplified the best and highest ideals of the legal profession that the bar represents,” Judge Gerald Whalen, the presiding justice of the 4th Appellate Division, said before finalizing the admission.

Parker was born on the Seneca Nation of Indians’ Tonawanda reservation outside Buffalo in 1828. He was educated at a Baptist mission school, where he went by Ely Samuel Parker instead of his Seneca name, Hasanoanda, and studied law at a firm in Ellicottville, New York. His admission to the bar was denied at a time when only natural-born or naturalized citizens could be admitted.

Native Americans were granted citizenship in 1924.

Seneca Nation of Indians President J. Conrad Seneca speaks inside a courtroom during a ceremony to posthumously admit Seneca leader and Civil War General Ely Samuel Parker to the New York state bar on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025 in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

“Today is Ely’s triumph, but it is also all of ours, too,” said Lee Redeye, deputy counsel for the Seneca Nation of Indians, “for we stand victorious over the prejudice of the past.”

Unable to practice law, Parker became a civil engineer but continued to use his legal training to help the Seneca defend their land, partnering with attorney John Martindale to win victories in the New York Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court.

But he is most widely recognized for his Civil War service, first serving as Grant’s military secretary. Parker and Grant had met and become friends in Galena, Illinois, where Grant had a home and where Parker, then an engineer for the U.S. Treasury Department, was supervising construction of a federal building.

Justice Mark Montour wears a headdress inside a courtroom as he opens a ceremony to posthumously admit Seneca leader and Civil War General Ely Samuel Parker to the New York state bar on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025 in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

Parker died in 1895 and is buried in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.

“This moment is deeply personal for our family. It allows Ely to rest in the knowledge that he did his best,” Leonard said Friday, “and that his best changed the course of our history.”

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and SOPHIE AUSTIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause new California laws expected to require thousands of companies to report emissions and climate-risk information.

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The laws are the most sweeping of their kind in the nation, and a collection of business groups argued in an emergency appeal that they violate free-speech rights.

The measures were signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, and reporting requirements are expected to start early next year.

Lower courts have so far refused to block the laws, which the state says will increase transparency and encourage companies to assess how they can cut their emissions.

The Chamber of Commerce asked the justices to put the laws on hold while lawsuits continue to play out.

One requires businesses that make more than $1 billion a year and operate in California to annually report their direct and indirect carbon emissions, beginning in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

That includes planet-warming pollution from burning fossil fuels directly, as well as releases from activities such as delivering products from warehouses to stores and employee business travel. The Chamber of Commerce estimates it will affect about 5,000 companies, though state air regulators say it will apply to roughly 2,600.

The other law requires companies that make more than $500,000 a year to biennially disclose how climate change could hurt them financially. The state Air Resources Board estimates more than 4,100 companies will have to comply.

“Without this Court’s immediate intervention, California’s unconstitutional efforts to slant public debate through compelled speech will take effect and inflict irreparable harm on thousands of companies across the country,” the companies argued.

Companies that fail to publish could be subject to civil penalties. ExxonMobil also challenged the laws in a lawsuit filed last month.

The state has argued that the laws don’t violate the First Amendment because commercial speech isn’t protected the same way under the Constitution.

In 2023, Newsom called the emissions-disclosure law an important policy and of the state’s “bold responses to the climate crisis, turning information transparency into climate action.” The environmental group Ceres has said the information will help people decide whether to support the businesses.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule last year requiring some public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks, but the agency paused the regulation amid litigation.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court has cast a skeptical eye on some environmental regulations in recent years, including a landmark decision that limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in 2022, and another that halted the agency’s air-pollution-fighting “good neighbor” rule.

Austin reported from Sacramento.

While the federal government has officially reopened, local SNAP recipients had to navigate empty refrigerators and cabinets for more than a week. Now, work requirements imposed by the Trump administration are expected to cause further hardship. 

A supermarket in Inwood. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Mobility for 67-year-old Pinkie Grier is limited to walking just a couple of blocks around NYCHA’s Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, where she lives.

So, when her Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) benefits didn’t arrive at the start of November, due to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, her options for finding food were limited to the small radius she could walk.

“I walked to the senior place,” Grier said, referring to the local senior center in her neighborhood. “I was too late for the seniors’ place, because breakfast was over, so basically, for a couple of days here, I was kind of pretty messed up.”

Grier is among the nearly 1.8 million New York City residents who receive federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, which help low-income households afford groceries. 

And while the federal government officially reopened Thursday, local SNAP recipients who depend on the benefits had to navigate empty refrigerators and cabinets for more than a week, uncertain about where their next meals would come from. 

“They don’t understand that,” said Diana Gatham, a resident of NYCHA’s Woodside Houses who uses SNAP to feed her three-person household. “They don’t feel for us. I’m saying it’s not right. Once upon a time, I used to work too. I had it all. But now I’m on disability. I have hardly nothing.”

Following a court ruling earlier this week, New York began distributing funds to local SNAP recipients on Nov. 9 and 10, according to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), which administers the program in New York.

All New York City beneficiaries had received their full benefits as of Friday, according to the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS).

“While Donald Trump has fought relentlessly to keep food off New Yorkers’ tables, families who rely on SNAP can finally breathe a sigh of relief as benefits begin to arrive,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said on social media on Sunday.

That same night, Grier said she went to bed early without having eaten. “That’s not fun. That’s not a good feeling at all,” she said. “And you wake up…and know you don’t have no food in your house, but you go in your kitchen anyway and look and know it’s empty.” 

Grier said she usually spends her funds throughout the month. And after the delay from the shutdown, she decided to save $90 on her card for next month, in case it happens again. 

During the week-long delay, emergency food giveaways popped up around the city. Pantries saw longer lines, and some hunger programs reported serving twice as many people.

Contents of a food bag prepared for clients experiencing homelessness at St. John’s Bread & Life, a food pantry in Brooklyn. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, a national nonprofit and advocacy organization, said calls to the National Hunger Hotline doubled during the first days of November.

“Food delayed is food denied,” Berg said. “We did our best to refer people to pantries and kitchens, but that’s not nearly enough. Everyone should understand that this is not even a Band-Aid.”

In Queens, Liz Alvarez is the programs director of The Connected Chef, a community-based organization working with food-insecure families—including those who don’t qualify or are unable to receive sufficient government assistance. 

She said that they went from giving out 800 boxes of food to families per month to 1,240 in October, and project serving 1,840 boxes in November with the help of other organizations and mutual aid groups. 

Other SNAP recipients told City Limits that finding food during that week without funds became their 24-hour task. They got up early to get to the lines at food pantries, which had become longer, and called and visited all the organizations they knew that could help. 

“On a couple of occasions, we just wasted our time because the food ran out before we could get through,” a 31-year-old South Bronx resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told City Limits in Spanish. 

Other times they got a reduced ration, so they had to continue searching. “Three potatoes, one broccoli, one onion, for example,” said the woman, who is mom to a 1-year-old. She was able to buy some food items on credit at her local grocery store, she said.

300,000 New Yorkers might be affected by new job requirements

The federal government is back open, and the deal passed by Congress this week funds SNAP through September 2026. OTDA said benefits for December will be issued on time.

But other challenges remain, advocates say.

Back in July, lawmakers passed the Trump administration’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which included new work requirements for food assistance.

The rules mostly affect people who are considered Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs), requiring them to work or volunteer at least 20 hours per week to receive benefits.

It also expanded the age range for who is counted as an ABAWD, from 18 to 54 to 18 to 64, and removed exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and foster youth aged 24 or younger, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) memo laying out the new rules.

A storefront on East 204th Street in the Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The Trump administration also surprised many states by eliminating the waiting period for the above provisions, terminating waivers that had previously suspended the work requirements on Nov. 1. 

New York’s waiver wasn’t expected to end until February. But advocates sued the USDA, saying it arbitrarily terminated them ahead of schedule. 

Last week, a federal court in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Trump administration from ending the waivers early.

As of Friday, DSS told City Limits, New Yorkers who fail to demonstrate compliance with the work rules within the three months established by the federal law could start losing their SNAP funds in June. For now, the waivers are set to expire at the end of February 2026, the work requirements would start in March, and households that don’t comply would lose their SNAP benefits in June.

Neither OTDA nor DSS knows whether USDA will decide to challenge the TRO decision, which could change that timeline.

“You have from the federal government a combination of incompetence and malevolence that are making all of this so much worse, Berg said. “And look, we support people getting jobs, and people on SNAP want to get higher-paying jobs, but this isn’t the way to do it.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post ‘Not a Good Feeling’: How Delayed SNAP Benefits Impacted New Yorkers appeared first on City Limits.

What to know when the Vikings host the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon:

Vikings vs. Bears
When: Noon Sunday
Where: U.S. Bank Stadium
TV: FOX / KMSP Ch. 9
Radio: KFAN
Line: Vikings -2.5
Over/Under: 48.5

Keys for the Vikings

— It shouldn’t be hard for the Vikings to move the chains against the Bears. They are going up against a defense that allows 375.7 yards of total offense per game. The only way the Vikings could get themselves into trouble is if quarterback J.J. McCarthy is careless with the ball. He has thrown six interceptions so far this season and is going up against a Bears defense that leads the league with 20 takeaways. It will be on McCarthy to keep the ball out of harm’s way this weekend.

Keys for the Bears

— All the Bears should be trying to do against the Vikings is keep the game close until the final minutes. They will enter the game as the underdog despite boasting a better record. It will be on the Bears to simply hang around by any means necessary. If they’re able to give quarterback Caleb Williams a chance to showcase his magic down the stretch, there’s a good chance he’ll get the job done. He currently leads the league in game-winning drives. It’s a big reason the Bears are currently in playoff position.

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