[ad_1]
“They were the true leaders.”
[ad_2]
Courtney Ward
Source link
Mamdani’s “rental ripoff” hearings to let tenants air grievances
Category: New York, New York Local News
New York, New York Local News | ReportWire publishes the latest breaking U.S. and world news, trending topics and developing stories from around globe.
-
Will the Justice Department Even Try to Hold Epstein’s World Accountable?
[ad_1]
The DoJ apparently has better things to do.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesThe United States Department of Justice is getting lapped by both Congress and the British authorities on follow-up investigations around the Epstein files. There’s no excuse for either. As British police arrest astonishingly powerful men for their dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and the U.S. House of Representatives tries to force titans of finance and politics to answer tough questions, our Justice Department lags far behind. It’s not even clear the DoJ is doing anything at all.
Over in the U.K., law-enforcement officials have arrested former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson. (Technically, both have been arrested but not yet formally charged, under a wrinkle in British legal procedure.) The putative defendants reportedly face potential charges of “misconduct in public office” for allegedly providing confidential government documents, including sensitive financial information about investment opportunities, to Epstein. (British authorities have accused neither man of participation in Epstein’s child sex-trafficking ring.)
The British case is based in part on emails contained in the U.S. Justice Department’s own Epstein files, which were released less than a month ago. In a matter of weeks, British police investigated and arrested a former prince (Andrew) and a lord (Mandelson); have subjected both men, and others around them, to extensive questioning; and have conducted searches at properties associated with the subjects. Meanwhile, the most memorable step taken by our Justice Department since the release of the files was Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s public-service announcement that “the American people need to understand that it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”
The contrast extends to the tone at the top. King Charles — an actual monarch who wears a literal crown and carries a scepter to work — has told British investigators (in American parlance) to do what you gotta do. Or, in the proper King’s English: “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation. Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.” Other heads of state should follow the king’s hands-off example — in a case against his own brother Andrew, no less.
Our own president isn’t quite of the same mind. He has long dismissed the Epstein case as a hoax, though it’s unclear what exactly he claims is fake. And he recently urged the American public to just get over it already. “I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get onto something else, like health care,” Trump responded when asked about the Epstein matter.
The DoJ has dutifully adopted Trump’s recommended approach: myopia blended with dissembling and a pinch of proactive excuse-making. As Blanche explained earlier this month, “There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs. But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.” Not exactly the tenacious prosecutorial posture Blanche and I learned during our concurrent early days at the Southern District of New York. But hey, if our Justice Department isn’t going to make meaningful use of its own Epstein files, at least others will.
And then there’s Congress, which has taken a flawed but aggressive approach to its Epstein investigation. While a bipartisan (but mostly Democratic) coalition of lawmakers forced passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has pressed forward with a series of aggressive subpoenas for testimony. Yes, the subpoenas are largely for political show, and no, the House has not extracted any damning admissions — but it’s putting powerful people on the spot and making them face meaningful questioning under oath.
Last week, billionaire Les Wexner — whose name the DoJ originally redacted from a document listing him as an unindicted “co-conspirator” but then unredacted after Representative Thomas Massie publicly called out the redaction — faced five hours of questioning from the Oversight Committee. Wexner, a close associate of Epstein’s, claimed no knowledge of his friend’s criminality. Wexner also denied allegations that he had sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who testified in 2016 that, as a minor, she had been trafficked to have sex with Wexner multiple times. (She died by suicide in 2025.)
The beauty of being a federal prosecutor is you don’t have to take a blanket denial as the final word, even from an arrogant billionaire. People disclaim wrongdoing all the time. Sometimes they’re telling the truth; other times they aren’t. So ordinarily, given the lead provided by Congress, DoJ prosecutors may take Wexner’s testimony and subject it to rigorous testing — talk to other witnesses, examine emails and texts, check out phone, financial, and travel records. Yet we’ve seen no indication of DoJ doing any such thing.
This week, the Clintons take their turn at the Oversight Committee’s deposition table. After a prolonged back-and-forth during which they played themselves into a strategic corner, the former First Couple relented and agreed to testify under the looming threat of a contempt-of-Congress charge supported by some bipartisan votes.
The Hillary Clinton subpoena was an obvious stretch by a congressional committee seeking to drag in a boldface name. She had nothing to do with Epstein; the best that Republican committee chair James Comer could do in defense of the subpoena was to note that — brace yourself — Clinton had hired Ghislaine Maxwell’s nephew to work on her 2008 presidential campaign and later at State. Yes, that’s the headliner. Clinton proceeded to tear the committee a new one with her opening statement on Thursday and, predictably, nothing of relevant substance came of her testimony.
But Bill Clinton will have to squirm when he answers questions today. The committee surely will confront the former president — a frequent flier on Epstein’s private jet — with photographs that show him partying with Epstein (not a crime, remember, per the deputy AG); swimming in a pool with Maxwell and a female whose identity has been redacted, and reclining in a hot tub at night, hands behind his head, along with a female whose image has been blacked out.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen no sign that the Justice Department has subpoenaed or otherwise sought to interview Wexner or Clinton or any other powerful Epstein associate — and certainly not the most powerful of all former Epstein pals, Trump himself. (Notably, even the aggressive House Oversight Committee hasn’t sought testimony from the current president.)
The DoJ’s apparent inaction is particularly galling given that prosecutors hold far more potent investigative tools than Congress does. Prosecutors have the vast resources of the Justice Department and FBI at their disposal, while Congress must make do with minimal investigative staff. Prosecutors can obtain search warrants and wiretaps, while Congress can’t. And prosecutorial subpoenas generally can be broader in scope than congressional subpoenas and are enforced more rigorously by the courts.
The Justice Department has been flailing for months now to justify its inactivity. Back in July 2025, top DoJ officials released a memo declaring that, after an exhaustive review of over 300 gigabytes of information, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Since then, the Justice Department has offered mixed messages (at best) about its ongoing investigative efforts. And while prosecutors could be moving stealthily behind the scenes, entirely undetectable to the public — I’m dubious, but it’s possible — we’ve seen zero public indication of actual in-the-field enforcement activity: no search warrants, no subpoenas, no interviews with key players, no arrests.
Meanwhile, the British authorities and Congress forge ahead. It’s an embarrassing moment for our Justice Department’s leadership and a telling indictment of its own stubborn — and perhaps purposeful — indifference.
[ad_2]
Elie Honig
Source link -
Bobby J. Brown, The Wire Actor, Dead at 62
[ad_1]
Bobby J. Brown, who played Officer Bobby Brown in the last two seasons of The Wire, died at the age of 62 after injuries from a barn fire in Maryland, TMZ reports. His daughter confirmed that he died from smoke inhalation on February 24. The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death an accident. He was reportedly trying to jump-start a vehicle when a fire broke out; his wife alleged sufferd burns trying to help him. ”Bobby J. Brown was a formidable talent and a true professional who brought a rare intensity and authenticity to the screen,” his agent Albert Bramante said in a statement. “From his early days as a champion in the ring to his standout performances in projects like The Wire, Bobby was a ‘character actor’ in the truest sense — someone who elevated every scene he was in. We were proud to represent him and will miss his presence and his passion for the craft deeply.”
“My dad was an amazing human being,” his daughter Reina told People. “He was super awesome. He was a pillar in the community, and he’s going to be missed by a lot of people.”
[ad_2]
Alejandra Gularte
Source link -
From ‘Drop Dead’ to ‘Let’s Build’: Mamdani pitches Queens housing development to Trump during surprise Washington trip | amNewYork
[ad_1]
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that his unannounced meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office was productive and expressed optimism about his pitch to build 12,000 units of affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards in Queens with the president’s support.
In a photo posted following the meeting, Trump is seen holding two front pages of the Daily News. One is from 1975, when then‑President Gerald Ford famously told New York City to “drop dead” (as the tabloid put it) after City Hall requested an emergency loan to prevent bankruptcy. The other is a mock-up with the headline, “Trump to City: Let’s Build,” with a subheading noting, “Trump delivers 12,000 homes.”
“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon. I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” Mamdani wrote in the post directly after the visit.
Mamdani’s Press Secretary Joe Calvello said Thursday evening that the mayor presented Trump with the mock-up front pages as he pitched “a project with an estimated 12,000 units.”
“The president was very enthusiastic about the idea that we pitched him,” said Calvello.
He said that during Mamdani’s last in-person meeting with the President, Trump asked him to come back with “some big ideas on how we can build things together here in New York City, and that’s what he did today.”
“The mayor took him up on his offer and went to DC today to pitch him about a possible project in NYC that could deliver one of the biggest federal investments in housing of the past 50 years,” said Calvello.
In a statement issued late Thursday, the mayor’s office confirmed that the city is seeking $21 billion in federal grants to begin construction on the long-stalled, ambitious plan to build above the Sunnyside Yards.
In 2015, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio first suggested building on the site. In 2020, the city and Amtrak, the federal agency that owns the majority of the site, released a long-awaited ‘Sunnyside Yard Master Plan.’
The master plan called for the creation of 100 percent affordable housing with 12,000 homes, 60 acres of new open space, equitable home ownership opportunities, the long-sought Sunnyside Station, and necessary infrastructure and other public amenities.
At the time of the master plan’s release, the city’s Economic Development Corporation said the “generational plan” would likely be rolled out over several decades and involves decking over 115 acres of the 180-acre Sunnyside Yard. At the time, the estimated cost to build the deck would be about $5.4 billion– with the total cost of the platform and infrastructure about $14.4 billion. It then stalled under the Adams administration.
If the grants sought by the mayor are approved, Mamdani’s office said it would pave the way for the construction of those affordable homes, including 6,000 new Mitchell-Lama-style homes which were also outlined in the plan that was shaped by a series of public workshops and meetings held between May 2018 and the end of 2019. The project, city officials said, would create 30,000 union jobs and deliver new parks, schools, and health care clinics on the site.
“New York City is facing a generational affordability challenge,” Mayor Mamdani said. “Working families are being priced out of the neighborhoods they built. To meet this moment, we need a true federal partner prepared to invest boldly and act urgently. I appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with President Trump about building more housing in any single project than our city has seen since 1973.”
According to the city, the Trump administration agreed to “continue discussions in the weeks ahead.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Plea to release students in ICE detention
Also during Thursday’s meeting, Mamdani made a direct appeal to President Trump and secured the release of the Columbia University student who was arrested by ICE agents in her dorm building earlier that morning. The federal officers allegedly said they were NYPD officers looking for a missing child in order to gain access to the building of Elaina Aghayeva, a Columbia School of General Studies senior.
Mamdani said he received a phone call from Trump after leaving the meeting, and “he has just informed me that she will be released imminently.” Aghayeva later posted on her Instagram story at around 3:45 p.m. that she had been released.
Press Secretary Calvello said that after raising Aghayeva’s case, the mayor also gave Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, a list of four NYC students in ICE custody, asking them to consider dismissing their cases as well.
The mayor made the unannounced trip to Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning for a meeting with President Trump, the second in-person meeting between the two leaders whose relationship has drawn national attention.
Mamdani’s visit was not listed on his public schedule and was first reported by The New York Times on Thursday morning. A source familiar with the meeting confirmed the mayor’s presence in the nation’s capital to amNewYork, but did not initially disclose the agenda.
It comes nearly three months after the two held an unexpectedly cordial Oval Office discussion in November, when then-Mayor-elect Mamdani traveled to the White House. During that visit, they discussed shared concerns about housing affordability, public safety, and the cost of living.
At the earlier November meeting, Trump praised Mamdani’s leadership potential and suggested a willingness to support initiatives to improve conditions in the city, even as both men acknowledged significant policy disagreements.
U.S. President Donald Trump and then-New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani react as they speak to members of the media in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstREUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The 34-year-old mayor, a democratic socialist who took office in January, has repeatedly drawn sharp criticism from Trump, who during the 2025 mayoral campaign labeled him a “communist” — a false characterization, but the President has continued to use it. During the election, the president repeatedly threatened to cut off federal funding to the city if Mamdani were to win.
In turn, Mamdani previously called Trump’s approach to governance authoritarian and fascist, and his election victory speech vowed to push back against the president’s threats to defund the city and meddle in his administration. Since taking office, however, the mayor has toned down his campaign criticism of the president as he seeks to foster a good relationship with the federal government.
The pair have kept in constant contact since their initial meeting, and when asked about the content of their conversations, Mamdani has kept the content and frequency of those conversations closely under wraps.
Asked about it on Wednesday, after Trump shouted him out during his State of the Union address, Mamdani said: “I’ll keep the conversations that I have with the president private. I will tell you, however, that whenever they do happen, they always focus on how to better our city.”
[ad_2]
Adam Daly
Source link -
Mamdani’s inaugural “rental ripoff” hearing: more conference than brawl
[ad_1]
When Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his “Rental Ripoff” hearings, he appeared to be advertising a showdown.
A poster marketed the event like a boxing match: “New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords.”
But the inaugural event in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday night was much more subdued than the real estate industry likely expected, or feared. The event, held at George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, bore more similarities to a parent-teacher conference night than a show trial. New Yorkers circulated through a resource fair in a school cafeteria and met one-on-one with city officials in a side room.
A City Hall spokesperson indicated that 450 people registered to testify on Thursday, but did not have an official count of how many attended the one-on-one meetings.
The event may prove to be emblematic of Mamdani’s governing style: big, headline-grabbing proclamations — a fervor of attention — but in the end, something more nuanced.
“We know that every landlord is not a bad landlord, but we want to find the ones that are,” said Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
Weaver rang in the event with a presentation in a school gymnasium filled with reporters and TV cameras. She emphasized the city’s interest in tenants organizing with each other, forming tenant groups across a building or a landlord’s portfolio.
“The most protected tenant is an empowered tenant,” Weaver said. “Organized tenants are better able to enforce their rights.”
After Weaver’s presentation, a social media personality who goes by “Crackhead Barney” climbed onto the stage and grabbed the microphone to decry NYCHA’s exclusion from the hearings. The hearings were focused on private-sector housing, but city officials indicated that NYCHA residents weren’t barred from the event or from testifying. When Weaver and others told her she could speak to a city official, she exited the stage.
Off the gymnasium, conversations between renters and city officials were quiet and sometimes emotional. Residents discussed their personal living situations and their attempts to get issues addressed.
The meetings took place in a small room, the school’s black-box theater where tumbling mats were stacked against a small rock-climbing wall. Tenants sat down at tables with two city employees, including agency heads and deputy mayors. One person took notes on a laptop, while the other listened intently to the tenant.
Ahmed Tigani, the city’s building commissioner, said the conversations were instructive and helped him understand how city information is or is not being received by renters. Mamdani, who was in Washington, D.C., earlier in the day having an unannounced meeting with President Trump, was not in attendance.
Coming out of the hearing room, Nicole Boliaux, a member of a tenant union in Bushwick, said she spoke about landlords threatening to report tenants to credit bureaus over delinquent rent payments. She also advocated for state legislation that would limit when and how landlords can report tenant financial information to consumer reporting agencies.
She noted that it can be difficult to make connections with agencies and appreciated the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a city official. Boliaux was also relieved she didn’t need to deliver her testimony onstage.
“It’s chaotic in there, but I was worried that I’d have to stand in front of a large group of people and speak,” she said. “And so I’m much more grateful that it is a one-on-one experience.”
Despite the blustering lead-up, grandstanding anti-landlord speeches that some expected were largely absent from the event. Also absent were seemingly any landlords.
Developer Humberto Lopes, who has posted several videos on social media condemning the hearings, spoke to reporters outside the school. Lopes has called on fellow property owners to withhold property tax payments in response to the event. He declined to share the status of that effort on Thursday but insisted that it is moving forward.
Lopes asserted that the city should sit down with landlords rather than hold tenant-focused meetings and a resource fair.
“It’s creating an atmosphere of ‘fight,’ where you continue to call us the bad guy,” he said. “What’s the sense of doing this? Why don’t you put us together?”
The mayor’s office has said the testimony will inform a report due later this year and the mayor’s overall housing plan.
Read more
The Daily Dirt: Mamdani kicks off rental ripoff hearings
Mamdani’s “rental ripoff” hearings: Get ready for show trials
[ad_2]
Lilah Burke, Kathryn Brenzel
Source link -
Mamdani pitched Trump on building massive housing development in Sunnyside, Queens
[ad_1]
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday pitched President Donald Trump on a plan to build 12,000 units of housing over Sunnyside Yard in Western Queens, according to senior city housing official Cea Weaver and three other people who were briefed on the Mamdani administration’s plans but not authorized to speak publicly.
The pitch came during an unscheduled Oval Office meeting. While they are ideological opposites, the Republican president and democratic socialist mayor have enjoyed an unexpected bonhomie since Mamdani’s election last year. Trump, a Queens native, lived in New York City for most of his life.
In a statement Thursday evening, the mayor’s office said Mamdani is seeking more than $21 billion in federal grants to build a platform over the rail yard, which it described as the world’s largest deck, to construct 12,000 affordable homes. The administration said 6,000 of those units would follow a Mitchell-Lama-style model.
Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, said the project could deliver thousands of units of affordable housing, while bridging sections of Western Queens separated by the railyard.
“It’s a barrier between some of the most diverse neighborhoods in Queens,” Weaver said. “And so I think it’s important that we’re able to connect neighborhoods.”
But she said the city can’t handle the massive project on its own.
“It’s extraordinarily expensive, and we need federal support in order to be able to do it.”
The idea for housing on the site was first floated under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but stalled under Mamdani’s predecessor Eric Adams. In March 2020, officials at the city Economic Development Commission estimated the project to construct a platform and thousands of new affordable units, along with offices and public space, would cost about $14 billion.
The mayor’s office did not explain the difference between that estimate and the new $21 billion federal funding request.
The statement also said the new proposal would create 30,000 union jobs and include parks, schools and health care clinics. Both sides agreed to continue discussions in the coming weeks.
Weaver said the city would not necessarily rely on the plan issued by the de Blasio administration nearly six years ago.
“We’re looking to take a fresh look at the project and make sure it delivers for the things that New Yorkers really need,” she said.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, Mamdani’s spokesperson Joe Calvello told reporters that the mayor and Trump discussed a plan to build 12,000 new housing units. Calvello did not specify where the housing would be located.
“The last time the president and the mayor met, the president asked him to come back with some big ideas on how we can build things together in New York City,” Calvello said about Mamdani’s previous meeting with Trump at the White House in November. “The president was very enthusiastic about this idea.”
At one point, the mayor held up a mock Daily News front page with the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” City Hall aides did not confirm whether the mayor specifically referenced Sunnyside.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Any construction on the site would require federal approval because the Sunnyside train yards and surrounding rail infrastructure are owned by Amtrak.
The MTA in 2016 dropped previous plans for a new commuter rail station atop Sunnyside Yard, which would have been a centerpiece of a new housing development. The new station would have served Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains that will operate in and out of Penn Station through the MTA’s ongoing Penn Access project.
The station was initially a part of the MTA’s long-delayed East Side Access project, which wrapped in early 2023 and created a new LIRR station beneath Grand Central Terminal. The planned Sunnyside station was abandoned as the East Side Access project faced delays and cost overruns.
It’s unclear if the plan floated by Mamdani at the White House would revive the Sunnyside station plan.
This story has been updated with new information.
[ad_2]
Jimmy Vielkind, David Brand, Brigid Bergin, Clayton Guse
Source link -
Ruoming Pang, Meta’s $200M Superintelligence Hire, Jumps to OpenAI After Just 7 Months
[ad_1]
Sam Altman reportedly courted Pang for months. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Ruoming Pang, a prominent A.I. researcher recruited by Meta last year with a pay package reportedly worth more than $200 million, has left the company to join OpenAI, The Information reported yesterday (Feb. 25). His departure marks another setback for Mark Zuckerberg’s elite A.I. team and underscores the escalating A.I. talent war. Pang joined Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) in July after being poached from Apple. He remained at Meta for only seven months.
Zuckerberg unveiled MSL in July 2025 as the centerpiece of Meta’s push to develop advanced A.I. systems. The lab quickly became the focus of an aggressive—and costly—hiring spree. Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI, now leads the group as Meta’s A.I. chief after Meta acquired 40 percent of his startup. Within MSL, a smaller, more secretive unit known as TBD Lab is tasked with building next-generation foundation models.
Pang was originally from Shanghai and earned his undergraduate degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He holds a master’s in computer science from the University of Southern California and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2006. Over the course of his career, Pang has worked on some of the most consequential A.I. systems in the industry, making him one of the more sought-after engineers in the field.
At Apple, he spent nearly four years as a “senior distinguished engineer,” leading development of the foundation models behind Apple Intelligence. Before Apple, Pang spent roughly 15 years at Google DeepMind as a principal software engineer, where he worked on large-scale machine learning systems, including privacy-preserving technologies and speech recognition.
OpenAI has not disclosed Pang’s title, scope of responsibilities or the terms of his compensation. The Sam Altman-led company reportedly courted him for months, so the package is likely substantial. OpenAI employees earn roughly $1.5 million in annual salary and equity, according to the Wall Street Journal. Pang is widely expected to continue working on foundation models and superintelligence research.
For Meta, Pang’s exit complicates Zuckerberg’s ambition to dominate the superintelligence race. The company has successfully recruited high-profile researchers from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. However, MSL has also seen a steady stream of departures in recent months.
Among the most prominent was Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief A.I. scientist, who exited at the end of last year after more than a decade at the company. LeCun publicly criticized MSL chief Wang’s lack of experience with A.I. research.
Other departures have been quieter but telling. Ethan Knight joined MSL for only a few weeks before moving to OpenAI last August—a stint so brief it never appeared on his LinkedIn profile. Bert Maher, a software engineer, left after 12 years at Meta to join Anthropic. Avi Verma, who had been expected to join Meta from OpenAI, ultimately backed out.
Pang’s move is the latest signal that Silicon Valley’s A.I. talent war is intensifying. Even as talk of an A.I. bubble grows louder and tech companies rely on increasingly complex financial structures to sustain lofty valuations, leaders like Zuckerberg, Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei show little sign of restraint. Instead, they are offering compensation packages worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars to persuade top researchers that their vision for superintelligence will prevail.
[ad_2]
Rachel Curry
Source link -
Gov. Hochul asks Trump administration to refund New Yorkers $13.5 billion in tariff payments
[ad_1]
NEW YORK CITY, New York (WABC) — New York Governor Kathy Hochul sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury this week requesting that $13.5 billion in tariff payments be refunded to New Yorkers.
Hochul’s letter follows a Supreme Court decision ruling that the Trump administration’s tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are unlawful.
“These unlawful taxes wrought havoc on the American economy and increased costs for hard-working families,” Hochul wrote.
The average New York household has faced an estimated $1,751 in added costs due to tariffs since they were enacted last year, for a total estimated statewide impact of $13.5 billion, according to estimates from the Yale Budget Lab.
Hochul said the federal government should “do the right thing” and give back “unlawfully seized billions of dollars.”
“Consumers have paid dramatically more for everyday goods. Small businesses have faced increased supply and equipment costs,” Hochul wrote.
Hochul also addressed New York’s farming industry, as it has taken a hit. She wrote that farmers are reporting “an added layer of uncertainty that makes planning and future investment challenging.”
80% of agrochemical imports and 70% of farm machinery imports come from other countries. These products face tariffs of over 10% or more. Some farmers have indicated their businesses face up to $20,000 annually, as they face higher expenses for fertilizer, equipment, and a 7% fall in milk exports.
At the end of her letter, Hochul said millions of New Yorkers are owed a refund for the consequences of Trump’s “reckless and illegal tariff policy.”
“Compensation is owed to the people of New York, and New Yorkers look forward to receiving our payout in full,” Hochul wrote.
———-
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
Copyright © 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
[ad_2]
WABC
Source link -
DHS Agents Detain Student in Residence Building, Columbia Says
[ad_1]
“Alma Mater” sculpture designed by Daniel Chester French in front of the library building on New York City’s Columbia University campus grounds. A symbol of academic pride since 1903.
Photo: Getty ImagesFederal agents detained a Columbia University student in her university residence on Thursday morning, according to a statement from school leadership.
In a letter to the school community, Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman said government agents provided false details in order to gain access to a university residential building where the student was detained. She did not identify the student in question or the reason given for their detention, but the Columbia Spectator reports that Ellie Aghayeva, a neuroscience student at the university, shared the message, “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help,” on an Instagram Story. Aghayeva’s profile on the platform, which has 104,000 followers, largely features lifestyle content centered around her life as a Columbia student.
“This morning at approximately 6:30 a.m., federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia Residential building and detained a student,” Shipman said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information, working to reach the family, and providing legal support.”
Continued Shipman, “Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’ We are working to gather more details.”
Shipman reemphasized that law-enforcement agents are required to have either a judicial warrant or subpoena to access nonpublic spaces on Columbia’s campus including classrooms, housing, and areas that require ID-swipe access. “An administrative warrant is not sufficient,” she said.
In response to a request for comment, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming Aghayeva’s arrest. “ICE arrested Elmina Aghayeva, an illegal alien from Azerbaijan, whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes. The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” the agency said.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Councilmember Shaun Abreu, whose district encompasses Columbia, issued a joint statement confirming that they were briefed on the incident. “ICE has no place in our schools and universities. These activities do not make our city or country safer, but rather drive mistrust and danger. As Columbia College alumni, our hearts are with the community there, and we have been in contact with the University to offer our assistance,” they said.
Governor Kathy Hochul also weighed in, reemphasizing her push for legislation that would bar ICE from sensitive locations like dorms and schools. “Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence,” she said.
Senator Chuck Schumer called the ICE agents’s actions “outrageous” in a statement. “This is unacceptable. We need immediate answers from ICE on the student’s whereabouts,” he said.
The Columbia Spectator reports that dozens have gathered on Columbia’s campus for an emergency rally protesting the government’s actions, organized by the university’s chapter of the Sunrise Movement. The Intercept captured photos of the growing crowd:
Last year, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Columbia graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil at his university-owned apartment on allegations that he provided misleading information on his green-card application. Khalil was later held for months at an ICE detention center in Louisiana and missed the birth of his firstborn son as the Trump administration sought his deportation. A federal judge approved Khalil’s release, but the federal government continues to press for his deportation.
[ad_2]
Nia Prater
Source link -
Local engaged couples could win luxury getaway
[ad_1]
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Two Capital Region businesses are partnering to offer a luxury getaway to an engaged couple. The winner will get a two-night getaway to The Lake House Guest Cottages of the Berkshires courtesy of Northeastern Fine Jewelry and Mazzone Hospitality. Couples can enter the contest by visiting any of Northeastern Fine Jewelry’s […]
[ad_2]
Courtney Ward
Source link -
2 kids suffer face burns in Tribeca manhole explosion, sources say
[ad_1]
Two kids and an adult were injured when a manhole exploded in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, according to police and fire officials.
The explosion happened just before 4 p.m. near the corner of Warren and Church streets.
The two kids suffered burns to their face and shoulders, according to a law enforcement source. An adult also suffered minor injuries.
Fire officials believe as many as three manhole covers were blown in that area during the incident. A spokesperson from Con Ed confirmed that they had a crew responding to the scene.
This story is developing.
[ad_2]
NBC New York Staff
Source link -
WFP endorses Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in NY-7 Congressional race – QNS
[ad_1]
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso at a campaign event earlier in January. Photo courtesy of Reynoso campaign.
The New York Working Families Party (WFP) has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the race to succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District.
Reynoso is running against Assembly Member Claire Valdez and Council Member Julie Won to succeed Velázquez, who announced late last year that she would not seek re-election after 33 years in office.
The district, which straddles north Brooklyn and western Queens, is one of the most liberal congressional districts in the country, pitting three progressive candidates against each other ahead of the Democratic primary in June.
Reynoso, who scooped an endorsement from Velázquez in January, picked up the WFP endorsement on Monday, with the WFP describing the Brooklyn Borough President as the “best candidate” to represent working families.
“Antonio is deeply trusted by our movement,” Jasmine Gripper, WFP’s state director said in a statement. “We know that as a member of Congress, he will lead the fights to protect immigrants, stand up for tenants, stand arm in arm with labor, and make New York a place where working families can afford to live and thrive.”
Reynoso welcomed the endorsement, descrbing WFP as a “progressive powerhouse.”
“Since my time as an organizer and from the beginning of my time in public office, we have worked together on critical issues for working families in this city like affordable housing, universal childcare and supporting our immigrant communities,” Reynoso said in a statement welcoming the endorsement.
Reynoso has also picked up endorsements from a number of City Council Members, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards in his bid for Congress.
Valdez, meanwhile, has picked up endorsements from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, United Auto Workers and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Won, who entered the race a month after Reynoso and Valdez, has not yet announced any major endorsements but has pointed to the fact that she won a 15-way contest for the 26th Council District in 2020 without any major endorsements.
“Elected officials are amazing and great, but they’re not your voters,” Won told QNS earlier in February.
The WFP endorsement, however, is a significant coup for Reynoso in a hotly-contested race to succeed Velázquez, which, like many ongoing races in western Queens, pits traditional progressives against a DSA-backed candidate.
It is also not the first time that the organization has broken with the DSA in a race in western Queens this year.
In Assembly District 34, the WFP endorsed candidate Brian Romero in his bid to succeed Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, while the DSA endorsed Aber Kawas. Kawas has since dropped out of the race to launch a campaign for the 12th Senate District.
Gripper said the WFP was endorsing Reynoso because he would “unequivocally” continue Velázquez’s legacy in the district.
“In this endorsement, we have big shoes to fill in replacing the titan of the NY Working Families Party, La Luchadora, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. Antonio Reynoso will unequivocally be able to carry on her legacy of championing working families. The New York Working Families Party is ready to send Antonio Reynoso to Congress,” Gripper said.
[ad_2]
By Shane O’Brien
Source link -
Phillip Frankland Lee Brings NADC’s Viral Wagyu Burgers Home to Los Angeles
[ad_1]
Phillip Frankland Lee and Neen Williams. Jake Ostrowski Chef Phillip Frankland Lee moved from Los Angeles to Austin during the Covid-19 pandemic, but there was not a damn chance that he was abandoning California.
Lee, who grew up in Los Angeles, has continued to operate Sushi by Scratch Restaurants. The Montecito outpost earned a 2021 Michelin star, and Sushi by Scratch is also going strong at its locations in Encino and the SLS Beverly Hills. Lee keeps pushing harder at Encino’s Pasta | Bar, which has had a Michelin Star for five consecutive years and was featured in Apple TV’s Knife Edge series last year. (In 2025, Lee and his brother, Lennon, made history by becoming the first siblings to earn a Michelin star at different U.S. restaurants in the same year.)
And now he’s back in L.A. to remind his hometown that he’s also an ace at creating casual food. On Friday, Feb. 27, Lee and pro skateboarder Neen Williams will open NADC Burger’s first Los Angeles location in Westwood, near the UCLA campus.
NADC, which is short for Not a Damn Chance, is a wagyu burger spot that Lee and Williams already operate in Austin, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Denver, Charlotte and Nashville. The menu is straightforward and habit-forming, with double wagyu cheeseburgers and beef tallow fries.
The menu is composed of double wagyu cheeseburgers and beef tallow fries. Jake Ostrowski NADC has become a viral, celebrity-friendly sensation, with clientele including David Beckham and Zedd. Jelly Roll, who has declared that NADC’s burger is the best he’s ever had, loves it so much that he serves the burger at his Goodnight Nashville honky-tonk. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recently popped by NADC in Austin and also headed next door to Lee’s new Shokunin sushi restaurant.
“I think what sets us apart at NADC is that I run it like I run the line at Pasta or Sushi,” Lee tells Observer. “I put as much attention into every spec when we’re building the burger.”
There’s American cheese, secret sauce (a ketchup and mayonnaise base enhanced with Tabasco and some “little secret notes to make it extra umami”), onions, a generous amount of pickles and “slightly tamed” jalapeños that are boiled before they’re pickled. The beef is American wagyu with Japanese genetics. And when each 3-ounce patty comes off the griddle, it goes onto a resting rack with a 90-second timer so that the juices settle and excess grease drips off. This is precision-focused cooking that grew out of Lee’s backyard hangs with Williams.
Lee applied the same principles from his other restaurants to making the burgers at NADC. Jake Ostrowski Like Jelly Roll, Zedd and Joe Rogan (who collaborated with NADC on a limited-edition burger in Austin last year), Williams was a guest at the counter of Sushi by Scratch when he met Lee.
“I was already a fan of his because I grew up skateboarding,” Lee says. “He was solo, and I always talk to everybody. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I like to cook.’ I’m like, ‘OK, cute.’ And then he shows me a picture of his backyard where he has a 12-foot masonry hearth that he built himself. I’m like, ‘Oh, you really cook.’”
Lee and Williams started hanging out a lot, skateboarding together, getting their wives together and cooking together.
“We did whole pigs and a lot of steaks over the fire,” Lee says. “And one thing we were doing often was burgers.”
Lee had recently returned from Bangkok, where he had been working on a sushi restaurant and a burger spot that never opened due to the pandemic. So he was in the mood to make burgers, and he and Williams started giving away burgers at Austin skateparks and comedy shows. That led to a 2022 pop-up and then, in 2023, NADC’s first brick-and-mortar location.
Jelly Roll, a huge fan of the NADC burger, was a guest on Lee and Williams’ ‘Not A Damn Chance!’ podcast. YMH Studios The success of NADC has spawned the Not A Damn Chance! podcast, with Lee and Williams talking to guests like Jelly Roll, Zedd, Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, Mel Robbins, Aaron Franklin and poker pro Doug Polk. Lee is an avid poker player who’s done well in tournaments. And to use a gambling term, he’s been on some kind of rush, opening restaurant after restaurant.
Lee didn’t have any intention of moving to Austin when he went there in 2020 for a sushi pop-up. But after he saw that pop-up sell out with a 25,000-person waiting list, he kept it going month to month. After five months in Austin, Lee looked at his wife, pastry chef Margarita Kallas-Lee, and said, “I think we live in Austin now.”
Lee has built a new life in Texas, where he’s now working to create his most over-the-top project yet. He’s found four acres in Hill Country, about half an hour from Austin, where he plans to have a farm, inn and restaurant with aspirations at three-Michelin-star status and World’s 50 Best recognition.
“We will grow or harvest most of the menu and hunt the rest of the menu,” Lee says. “We’ll milk cows in the morning to get the cream to make butter. We’ll get dairy cows from a local farm and finish them on the grain of the local brewery and the mash of the local olive oil mill.”
Lee is nothing if not ambitious. In 2017, when he was 30 years old, he told me he wanted to have “100 world-class restaurants” by the time he was 50. The pandemic slowed him down a bit, but the L.A. location of NADC Burger puts him at 30 restaurants, and he still thinks he’ll hit his lofty goal.
“I’m the same age Thomas Keller was when he took over The French Laundry, and you could argue that was the beginning of his career,” Lee says. “I’m going to be 39 on March 9, so I’m still young. I think I’ll probably surpass 100 restaurants by the time I’m 50. But I don’t think I’m doing it for the same reasons that made me want to do it before.”
All the success he’s had has motivated him in a more meaningful way.
“I’ve now gotten the stars and the TV and the accolades and the personal freedom to feel like I’ve ‘done it,’” Lee says. “But I think I now get off on different things. It used to be more ego-driven. Now I look around and see someone who comes on as a prep cook, moves all the way into executive chef in our company, has a child and gets a fully paid paternity or maternity leave. They’re getting a 401(k). I have cooks and bartenders buying houses. The more I grow, the more we grow.”
NADC Burger, located at 1091 Broxton Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024, will be open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to midnight.
[ad_2]
Andy Wang
Source link -
Traitors UK Has Landed on Peacock
[ad_1]
Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage
We’re just hours away from the fourth season finale of The Traitors dropping, but fans of the franchise fearful of suffering withdrawal pains, fret not: Peacock has more traitorous content ready to go. In addition to a reunion special dropping tonight, the streamer is also gifting us Yanks season four of Traitors UK, which wrapped its run on the BBC last month with record ratings. All 12 episodes of the Claudia Winkleman-hosted version of the Studio Lambert format will drop on Peacock early Thursday morning (5 a.m. ET, to be precise), allowing faithful viewers to binge-watch the whole season right after the U.S. edition wraps up (or right before if you’ve got Thursday off and nothing else to do).
Unlike Peacock’s take on the format, the main version of Traitors UK features a cast of non-celebrities playing the game rather than a collection of reality stars and other pop culture notables. (The BBC did launch a spin-off with celebrities last fall, and that version has been streaming on Peacock since November.) In addition, NBC has already announced its own all-civilians take on Traitors that’s expected to air on the network (and stream on Peacock) this fall. Now all we need is for Alan Cumming and Winkleman to cross-over on to each other’s versions of the show, or at least swap costume designers for an episode.
[ad_2]
Josef Adalian
Source link -
Partial roof collapse at ice rink in Westfield, New Jersey; no injuries
[ad_1]
WESTFIELD, New Jersey (WABC) — No injuries were reported after a roof partially collapsed at an ice rink in Westfield, New Jersey on Wednesday.
First responders were dispatched to the Westfield Rink at Gumbert Park on South Chestnut Street around 3:45 p.m. for reports of a partial roof collapse.
When they arrived, they determined the facility was closed, and nobody was on site other the rink’s owner/operator, who was one of the people who called 911. They were not injured during the collapse.
Police say the Union County Hazardous Materials Response Team was requested to respond due to the presence of propylene glycol on-site, which is a heat transfer fluid that circulates through pipes under the rink to maintain ice temperature. It was determined there is no public health threat.
Officials say the rink’s utilities have been secured, and the rink will remain closed. It was due to close for the season on March 8.
The Westfield Police Department will remain on site to ensure public safety until the rink’s owner/operator is able to have the structure disassembled.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation, although recent heavy snowfall was likely a factor, according to police.
———-
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
Copyright © 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
[ad_2]
WABC
Source link -
Falling tree narrowly misses nun and child on Hell’s Kitchen sidewalk
[ad_1]
A tree weighed down by snow from the blizzard snapped on a street in Hell’s Kitchen, nearly missing a nun walking with a child, and the close call was captured on camera.
The 30-foot tree, covered in snow as a result of the Nor’easter, collapsed onto West 51st Street, outside the Sacred Heart of Jesus convent. Neighbors couldn’t believe their eyes.
“All of a sudden I hear a crack and dthis thing came down in this direction, ” neighbor John Lombardi told News 4. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Sister Mary Joy cradled the young boy moments before the tree crashed on their path. Her fellow nuns were inside the convent when it happened, but said it was a gut feeling that sent Sister Mary Joy into safety mode, to shield the boy, who had been to the convent with his mom.
“Out of nowhere, really, the tree just uprooted,” Sister Mary Casey O’Connor said.
No injuries were reported as a result of the tree collapse. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) cleared the tree remnants, leaving a cone in its place.
“We know that God’s hand was directing every moment, because had anyone been within one foot direction different ways, it might not have ended so happily,” Sister O’Connor said.
[ad_2]
Kay Angrum
Source link -
NYC bill restricting protests outside religious and educational institutions gains steam
[ad_1]
A City Council bill that supporters said would help tame raucous protests outside of houses of worship and educational facilities got a key endorsement Wednesday from the NYPD, which had earlier expressed apprehension about the legislation.
To get there, a critical provision that would have allowed for the establishment of 100-foot security barriers or buffer zones outside of houses of worship, schools and colleges was removed from the legislation. Michael Gerber, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of legal matters, told a City Council hearing that the change resolved the department’s concerns about the proposed protest measures.
Supporters of the revised protest bills, part of City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s legislative package designed to combat antisemitism, told a public hearing on Wednesday the bills would nonetheless help ensure safe access for worshipers to houses of worship during rowdy demonstrations.
The revised legislation merely calls for the NYPD to establish a plan for dealing with such protests. But police officials said it would change nothing on the ground, in terms of how the department oversees demonstrations. And progressive opponents argued that in the absence of any substantive measures the legislation is a hollow gesture that does little to address actual hate against religious communities.
“My concern here is we’re putting forth a symbolic bill that doesn’t really address the real concerns and fears that are being expressed today, and that are held by a broad spectrum of New Yorkers,” Councilmember Sandy Nurse said.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, many colleges and universities, which were hotbeds for protest over the Israel-Hamas war, conducted self-examinations aimed at addressing antisemitism and improving the religious climate on their campuses. The protest bills represent the City Council’s further entry into how New Yorkers are heard.
A number of elected officials voiced support for the legislation, despite the absence of any buffer provisions, including Jewish councilmembers and state legislators who said they were alarmed by the rise in antisemitism. Anti-Jewish bias made up the highest proportion of hate crime complaints in 2024 (53%), according to the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, more than all other groups combined.
“ When I go into my synagogue, I am struck by the extent of the security measures that exist today that did not exist when I was a kid,” said Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who represents Upper Manhattan. “Because that is what we must do in this time to make sure that people entering a synagogue are safe.”
At a rally in support of the bills before the hearing, Menin said the legislation would strengthen police transparency and ensure “safe access while fully safeguarding First Amendment rights.”
“We must protect freedom of religion and freedom of education while upholding the sacrosanct First Amendment rights that define our city,” Menin said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not weigh in on the bill during a press conference on Wednesday. But he said the removal of the 100-foot barrier provision represented “a distinct shift from the original legislation, which proposed a specific policy that I know our police department, as well as a number of legal scholars, had expressed concerns about.”
Gerber, the NYPD official, told the Council that in the absence of any buffer zones, the bills “would not change what we do day-to-day,” and would merely require the NYPD to develop a plan related to demonstrations.
“It would require us to articulate and put in words and on paper our approaches in these situations,” he said, referring to protests.
At times, supporters of a buffer zone took issue with the NYPD official’s insistence that any such zone, if applied broadly, would be unconstitutional.
“Why can’t you have something 200 feet from houses of worship?” Councilmember Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn asked Gerber.
“Any situation in which the [NYPD] were to say in advance, ‘Oh, we’re going to have some bright line rule for the number of feet’ is going to run into legal issues,” Gerber said. “It is. Because it has to be case specific, context specific to avoid legal problems.”
The Supreme Court, in a long line of cases, has allowed time, place and manner restrictions on protests if they are content-neutral, narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels for communication.
In a 2014 case, the court rejected a fixed, 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics, ruling they were unconstitutional because the restriction was not narrowly tailored. However, in a 2000 case, the court upheld a more limited “floating” buffer zone of just 8 feet. The court’s decisions make plain that the totality of the circumstances matter in a constitutional review, including whether the restriction is content-neutral.
Progressive groups argued that the debate over public safety was designed to stifle free speech.
“At best, the bills change little about existing NYPD protocol,” said Sophie Ellman-Golan, the director of strategic communications at Jews For Racial & Economic Justice.
“At worst, they contribute to a climate of government repression of protest, and further embolden the NYPD to racially profile and target protests towards which the agency is historically antagonistic,” Ellman-Golan said. “Either way, the legislation fails to accomplish the speaker’s stated goal of combating antisemitism.”
[ad_2]
Arun Venugopal
Source link -
Cornyn’s Nasty Attack on Paxton May Haunt Texas Republicans
[ad_1]
Photo-Illustration: Cornyn Lonestar Victory Fund
In many years of observing politics, I’ve seen a lot of nasty, negative ads between primary opponents who belong to the same party. But for sheer volume of vitriol, the latest John Cornyn ad against Ken Paxton, his opponent in the Texas GOP Senate primary, is hard to top:
As Inside Elections reporter Jacob Rubashkin points out, this wildly negative ad is co-sponsored by the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, whose fundamental purpose is to maintain GOP control of the upper chamber. Cornyn’s seat is one that could very well become the key to a Democratic takeover of the Senate, which was thought to be highly improbable just months ago. So the very people running this ad calling Paxton a despicable family-wrecking, corrupt, and LGBTQ-loving piece of garbage may soon be backing his general-election candidacy to the absolute hilt. Paxton is the favorite in a toxic contest that will almost certainly go to a May runoff, in which his brand of fierce MAGA conservatives are likely to dominate turnout.
Democrats have their own issues in this race: U.S. representative Jasmine Crockett and state legislator James Talarico are locked in a close and increasingly fractious primary of their own. But at least Democrats are very likely to know the identity of their Senate nominee six days from now (barring a virtual tie that allows a minor candidate’s vote to deny either major candidate a majority). They will have many months to heal their divisions as Cornyn and Paxton drag each other to the bottom of the sea like sharks taking down their prey.
It’s unclear how effective the savage (and lavishly funded) attacks by Cornyn and his D.C. friends will be in eroding or eliminating Paxton’s long-standing lead in this race. The intensely combative attorney general’s many ethics issues involving both his personal life and his finances are very well known. Republican voters may have already discounted them, much like Donald Trump’s many vices, as acceptable considering his longtime service to right-wing causes like stamping out abortion and blowing up public education in favor of private (and often religious) schools.
The Texas GOP is in the midst of an ideological revolution against a “Republican Establishment” typified by Cornyn. In 2024 Paxton, along with Texas governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, led a high-profile primary purge of Republican legislators who resisted a school-voucher push and voted to impeach Paxton on corruption grounds (he was acquitted by the Texas Senate). To put it simply, the Texas party is racing to the right at an amazing pace, and the four-term incumbent simply hasn’t been able to keep up. Worse yet, Cornyn looks and sounds like a stereotypical senator, making him a “swamp” creature in the eyes of Washington-hating Texas Republicans (his self-depiction in his latest ad as a cowboy-hat-wearing “Texas Workhouse” probably inspires as much derision as admiration).
Team Cornyn had hoped his bacon might be saved by a Trump endorsement, but the president chose to endorse all three major candidates in the race (Cornyn, Paxton, and U.S. representative Wesley Hunt), a familiar tactic that operates as a permission slip for MAGA diehards in Texas to follow their own preferences. Any way the wind blows, the GOP is going to have a major restoration project come May to bring supporters of either the empty-suit RINO Cornyn or the adulterous “Crooked Ken” back into the party corral during what could be a very difficult midterm election for the party.
[ad_2]
Ed Kilgore
Source link -
Debts, bills and lawsuits pile up for Irving Langer
[ad_1]
Irving Langer, one of the biggest apartment landlords in the city, is under siege from disgruntled partners, lenders and even his credit card company — who have collectively sued for more than $30 million.
Langer and his company, Brooklyn-based E&M Associates, at one point owned more than 4,500 apartments in New York. But in recent years he’s struggled with his properties’ finances and complaints from tenants. And he owns many of his investments through syndications and partnerships that have come under stress.
Now a mountain of lawsuits involving different properties is piling up, further fracturing Langer’s real estate empire.
Langer’s attorney, David Shlansky, said the landlord’s business had been impacted by the 2019 rent law changes and rising interest rates, and then one lawsuit piled on another.
“Each one of these is different, all sort of a little bit of a pile-up that has some common causes in the market being upside down,” he said. “Each one of these depends on its particular facts and circumstances.”
In November, for example, a Manhattan judge awarded one of Langer’s lenders a $2.8 million judgment for a loan that the landlord had personally guaranteed.
Aaron Harrow, an Israel-based lender, provided Langer a $1.5 million loan in 2019 to purchase a group of office properties in Mount Arlington, New Jersey. Harrow said Langer failed to repay the loan when it matured and sued in July 2024 to collect on the money due, which was growing ever larger with a 24 percent default rate.
Langer’s attorneys, however, questioned whether he ever received the loan proceeds or whether they were paid to a business partner, Ariel Fein. (Langer and Fein also owned nursing homes in Arizona, which they had a dispute over.)
“There is good reason to believe that Plaintiff may have advanced money, negligently or improperly, to Langer’s former business partner, Ariel Fein,” Langer’s attorney wrote in court papers.
Harrow’s attorney, though, said Langer is responsible for repaying the loan.
“The note in this case is a promise to pay. Period,” he wrote.
Langer, who personally guaranteed the $1.5 million principal, is appealing the judge’s decision.
Another case centers on a $3.4 million broker’s fee that Langer spent 10 years disputing.
Brokerage Georgia Malone & Company in early 2024 won a judgment against Langer’s E&M for work on a $350 million, 87-building Harlem portfolio Langer bought in 2013. With interest, the judgment totaled $6.7 million.
But by the time Malone came to collect, the broker claims Langer started cashing out the properties “thereby depleting all equity . . . [and] rendering the Judgment Debtors insolvent and unable to satisfy the Judgment,” according to court papers.
Malone said Langer sold at least 59 of the 87 buildings at an $80 million profit, then dispersed money to himself and investors, including industry heavyweights like Baruch Singer and Abraham Fruchthandler. She said he refinanced the remaining ones, taking out all the equity and paying his investors. And finally she alleges he sold buildings to affiliated “fronts” for no consideration.
She said he spent more money on defending the case than the commission he owed.
“Contrary to the Judgment Creditors’ claim that they are insolvent, by paying at least $3,700,000.00 in legal fees defending the Georgia Malone & Company’s $3,400,000.00 claim by raising fraudulent and baseless defenses, the Judgment Creditors’ claim of insolvency rings hollow and is further evidence of the fraud that they continue to perpetrate on the Court,” her attorneys wrote.
Malone sued in March last year asking the court to declare the transfers null and void. But last week Langer won his appeal challenging the original $6.7 million judgment. That case was ordered to go to a new trial.
Mounting debts
Langer got his start in the 1970s investing in New York City, then expanded to Florida and the Hudson Valley. He often bought rent-stabilized buildings and converted them to market rate, which drew criticism from tenant groups and politicians.
His most high-profile investment may have been the $40 million Gulliver’s Gate tourist attraction he invested in with his son in 2016 near Times Square, which eventually went bankrupt.
While the Malone case carries on, Langer’s bills are adding up.
In January, the estate of Lawrence Rothberg (an investor and lender to Langer) sued him and E&M for $5.7 million in loans and investments the estate claims Langer failed to repay.
In November, lender Stillwater Asset Management sued Langer over a $4.8 million personal guarantee he signed on an $18 million loan backing a New Jersey office property that Stillwater took over in September through a foreclosure.
And Langer even has credit card bills piling up.
American Express sued him in October and January, claiming he owes nearly $238,000 on his personal and business Platinum cards.
Some of the disputes illustrate the complex nature of Langer’s partnerships.
In May, Langer was sued for $11.2 million by Eva Silber, whose deceased husband, Harry, provided Langer with a $10 million loan collateralized by membership interest in properties in Sunny Isles, Florida and 63 Tiffany Place in Brooklyn.
Langer had signed a confession of judgment with the loan, but in August he filed a motion to have it thrown out. He claimed that Michelle Fuchs, a woman who had been in a longstanding relationship with Silber’s son, and a business associate named Howard Walfish, tricked him into signing the judgment by using a phony company name using Harry’s initials.
“I now believe that Ms. Fuchs and Mr. Walfish were trying to get me to give up 63 Tiffany Place to their new company with them, posing as Eva Silber’s company,” Langer wrote in court papers.
Read more
Irving Langer’s E & M owes $3.4M broker’s fee for Harlem portfolio
Multifamily giant Irving Langer racing to refi 3K-unit portfolio
[ad_2]
Rich Bockmann
Source link -
Gillibrand wants $130B tariff refund
[ad_1]
New York Democratic leaders are demanding that President Donald Trump refund billions of dollars to small businesses and consumers after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled his global tariffs were illegal.
[ad_2]
Johan Sheridan
Source link
