Filed my federal and new York state 2018 tax returns on January 10th. The federal return was accepted on the 14th. The state return is still in "pending" status. Why?

Because New York is not accepting tax returns until January 28, 2019.

The IRS is not officially accepting tax returns until January 28, 2019, either, but they have pulled some returns for test processing.

Please check again after January 28.

Follow this link for New York's announcement: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/file/default.htm