Mid-Hudson News is reporting state Senator George Latimer, a Democrat representing New York's 37th Senate District, has introduced legislation that would classify bomb scares phoned into religiously affiliated community centers as hate crimes. Currently, similar bomb threats to houses of worship are considered hate crimes, but same threats made to community centers are not. Latimer wants to close that loophole. “These are not jokes; these are not things to take trivially,” Latimer said. “These are intimidating actions and they need to be treated with a higher degree of penalty for conviction.”