According to XXL Mag, the mayor sent a letter to Diddy’s offices in New York and Los Angeles, respectively. In the letter, he requested the Bad Boy founder return the honorary key he received in 2023. Adams referred to the video footage as the reason for revoking the key and described it as deeply disturbing. Mayor Adams also made it clear that he “condemns” Diddy’s actions and stands with victims of domestic violence.
Mayor Eric Adams And NYC Request Diddy Returns Key To The City
Source: Raymond Hall / Getty
“Our city has worked tirelessly to make sure survivors are heard and seen by our administration,” Mayor Adams stated.
Adams did not make the decision to nullify the honor alone. The letters sent to Diddy stated the Key to the City of New York committee recommended rescinding his honorary key.
“I have accepted their recommendation and am requesting that Mr. Combs immediately [returned] his Key to the City,” Adams stated.
The New York City Deputy Mayor of Communications, Fabien Levy, confirmed the key’s return on June 10, 2024, after the letters sent on June 4, 2024.
Diddy received the honor of the Key to the City of New York in September 2023. Coincidentally, this was just weeks before Cassie filed a lawsuit accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. He had just released his first album in 17 years, Love Album: Off the Grid. Neither the former rap mogul nor his team has made a statement regarding the letters of the revoking of the honorary key.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – It’s been one year since asylum seekers from New York City were sent to the Capital District by busloads. We told you about the evacuation at the Rotterdam Super 8, where many of them were living, now the New York City mayor’s office is asking the Rotterdam community for help housing them.
Following their removal from the Rotterdam Super 8 – due to no working sprinkler or fire alarm system – asylum seekers tell NEWS10 they have been told by DocGo that they will be removed from the current hotel they’re staying in.
One person told me, “They only gave us 8 days to vacate the hotel where we are, in reality we don’t have anything to rent and we don’t want to go to New York.”
Many of the children attend school in the Mohonasen Central School District. Superintendent Shannon Shine said the situation is dynamic.
“They were informed they could stay for six weeks, which would take them to the end of the school year and apparently the hotel mid-last week said it would be sold and everyone had to be out by June 1,” said Shine.
Shine said DocGo has offered to buy asylum seekers tickets, on any mode of transportation, to anywhere they have family or other living arrangements. However, an asylum seeker tells me he’s concerned because he does not have a place to go.
“They will transport them free of charge, plane, train or automobile. The guy said actually anywhere in the world and I guess that would deal with, can you get into another country or not? Passports, customs laws. But certainly anywhere in the United States they want to go if they have family or if they have friends. A job, a place to go,” said Shine.
Shine said things are changing rapidly, but he’s been following the situation closely because they have a legal obligation to educate all students in the district.
“We want them to finish if at all possible, we know it’s good for them, but some of these things may ultimately turn out to be beyond our control,” said Shine.
He and his staff have heard harrowing stories about what the students and their families have been through.
“It’s pretty affronting when you listen to the sheer number of miles traveled. People taking advantage in, different countries. It runs the gamut from murder, extortion, rape, bribery, charging excessive amounts, taking advantage of people financially. Sex trafficking. All of that isn’t like ‘Oh yeah we think that this could happen’. No, it did happen, it is happening which makes it pretty brutal,” said Shine. “And then you have kids who were there throughout the whole thing, depending on the age of the kids they may have been involved in some of these things.”
Shine said the district has resources and helping asylum seekers does not take away from other students. He said the students and their families have been through some heart wrenching challenges.
“People may have political opinions about this, but that’s outside of my purview. What is inside of my purview is students in our district, residing here, are our responsibility and we will do the best we can for them,” said Shine.
Shine said there’s a slim chance asylum seekers could stay in the area and if they stay he will do what he can to transport students to school.
The New York City Mayor’s office released a statement saying, “We are pursuing all available options to keep these families in Rotterdam, where they have lived for months, so that school-aged children can finish their school year there. We welcome any businesses, faith institutions, or community organizations in the area who can temporarily accommodate these families to please reach out.”
The New York City mayor’s office is asking anyone in a position to help to contact the city by sending an email to asylumseekersupport@cityhall.nyc.gov
NYC shutters 75 illicit weed shops in first week of crackdown, with hundreds and hundreds to go – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news
Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam (above, center) was one of several mayors that spoke to the media during the opening press conference of the African American Mayors Association conference in Atlanta on April 24, 2024. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
The mayor of Tracy, California, looked around the grand ballroom inside the Omni Atlanta Hotel and smiled. She was 2,200 miles away from the city she is leading, but felt right at home at the same time. “I love the connectivity,” said Nancy Young.
The first Black mayor and female mayor in the history of the northern California city of just under 100,000 residents, Young is no stranger to Atlanta, her son attended Morehouse College some years back, so she knew she was definitely returning to Atlanta for this special occasion. “And I have been talking to other mayors in California about coming to the conference too,” she said.
Asked what she is looking to accomplish while she is in town and among dozens of other Black mayors from cities both big (Atlanta, New York City, Memphis, and St. Louis, to name a few) and small (Palmetto, Georgia, Miramar, Florida, and Earle, Arkansas, pop. 1,800) Young said she wanted to learn more about how to get larger businesses to connect with and invest in smaller businesses. Tracy, located in San Joaquin County, is 60 miles east of major tech hub San Francisco and 60 miles west of agribusiness and food manufacturing giant Sacramento. Tracy’s population is just under 6% Black, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
“I’m trying to find out new ideas and new ways to bring back home to our residents,” said Young, who is in the fourth year of her first term as mayor. She served the city council for a decade before running for mayor.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
The African American Mayors Association Conference (AAMA) is taking place in Atlanta this week at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park. Black mayors from across the country gathered in the heart of downtown Atlanta to exchange ideas, fellowship and in the words of Mount Vernon, New York Mayor and AAMA President Shawn Patterson Howard, to be in “the only place where you are going to see this collection of mayors.”
Some of the speakers at this year’s conference have been making national news, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, the first and only female mayor in the city’s history, were also on hand. Former Phoenix Suns star and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former AAMA president, was also in attendance.
The State of Our City opening press conference took place Wednesday, April 24 with current Patterson Howard, incoming AAMA President and Montgomery (AL) Mayor Steven Reed, Little Rock (AR) Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. and Miramar (FL) Mayor Wayne Messam all taking turns speaking on the behalves of American cities that are being led by Black men and women.
Montgomery (AL) Mayor Steven Reed. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Following the press conference, Palmetto (GA) Mayor Teresa Thomas-Smith, that city’s first Black and female leader, said she was at the conference to “tap into what my peers have already been doing around the country.”
Thomas-Smith, an Atlanta native and graduate of Benjamin E. Mays High School, was elected on Nov. 7, 2023 and said she brought Atlanta-style politics to that town of just over 5,000 residents for that election.
“I ran a campaign like I was running for governor,” she said.
The first Black and Black female mayor in the history of Jonesboro, Georgia was also in attendance Wednesday night. Dr. Donya L. Sartor, a longtime educator and former Jonesboro city council member, was elected on the same day as Thomas-Smith. This is her first AAMA and said it could not be taking place in a better location.
“It’s coming full-circle with Maynard Jackson being so pivotal,” Sartor explained. “With all of the different local and national elections coming up, this is an opportunity for all of us to fellowship and share ideas.”
Jackson’s time as the first Black mayor of Atlanta was an ever-present theme throughout the opening press conference and will be through the week, according to Patterson Howard.
“You can’t move into the future until you understand the past and how the foundation was laid,” she explained. “Atlanta is who it is because of his vision.”
Mount Vernon, New York Mayor and AAMA President Shawn Patterson Howard (above) said this is “the only place where you are going to see this collection of mayors.” Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Little Rock (AR) mayor Frank Scott, Jr. said he and his fellow mayors are in Atlanta to revive, reset and resurrect.
Montgomery (AL) Mayor Steven Reed said the purpose of the conference is to bring change to their respective cities. “It’s about working hard to bring about the types of change all of the residents of our cities want to see,” he said. “We are here today to reset.”
There were several panels planned for the four-day conference that will take place through Saturday that include discussion topics ranging from social policy and justice to protecting our democracy via civic engagement.
There is also a community town hall scheduled for Saturday morning inside the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College that will include former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and National Urban League President and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial.
On Wednesday, Memphis Mayor Paul Young and St. Louis Mayor, Tishaura Jones, spoke about efforts to combat and reduce violence in their respective cities. Jones, who is in the third year of her first term as mayor, said homicides are down by 40%. She credited a three-pronged plan that is taking place in St. Louis: prevention, intervention and enforcement.
“We are not defunding the police, we are recruiting police,” Jones said.
Miramar (FL) Mayor Wayne Messam, one of the scheduled speakers for the opening press conference, spoke about how DEI has been used to disregard and disrespect certain Black mayors around America. “DEI is the new boogeyman and it’s impacting us all. As AAMA, we must stay vigilant and stay focussed.”
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NYS Governor Kathy Hochul announced more details of the state’s long-awaited approved housing plan at a joint press conference with NYC Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Hochul originally introduced the plan as part of the final state budget — a $237 billion spending plan — that was announced on Saturday, April 20. The plan, an agreement with state lawmakers to combat the ongoing affordable housing shortage in the state, advances policies to increase the housing supply, promote affordability, strengthen protections for New York renters and homeowners, and combat bias and discrimination in housing.
“Since I became governor, I’ve held a vision to build housing that New Yorkers desperately need, and we’re celebrating this historic agreement that will transform lives and put working families first,” Hochul said. “This housing deal enacts a plan endorsed by unions and a diverse and vibrant coalition of New Yorkers to revolutionize the housing landscape and create the biggest expansion of tenant rights in New York in generations.”
Elected officials and union representatives at the press conference called the plan a “landmark agreement” and “historic,” as it was difficult for lawmakers to agree on a package in previous years.
Affordable housing in NYC
Hochul’s housing plan includes a package of programs and initiatives to create new housing, including affordable housing, in the Big Apple.
“This is such a significant moment, because I tell people all the time that housing is the precursor to seek that allows you to experience the American dream,” NYC Mayor Eric Adams said. “When you have a home, you can plan for the future.”
It includes the new 485-x tax incentive, a 10-year program building on the now-expired 421-a incentive program, which provides benefits for housing construction while “encouraging affordability and delivering strengthened wage standards for building service and construction workers, where applicable,” according to a press release from the governor.
The plan also includes historic anti-price gouging and eviction protections for renters in the city. It makes annual rent increases above 10% or 5% plus the Consumer Price Index (whichever is lower) presumptively unreasonable to protect tenants against price gouging and strengthens legal protections for covered renters in eviction proceedings.
As part of the FY 2025 enacted budget, Governor Hochul has also advanced legislation to prohibit insurance carriers from inquiring about or considering tenants’ source of income, the existence of affordable dwelling units, or the receipt of governmental housing assistance in the decision to issue or continue to provide insurance for residential real property.
The governor also announced a plan to increase the state’s housing supply that would put up to 15,000 homes on stand land, and aims to reduce housing costs for New Yorkers by increasing the housing supply.
“There’s only one way out of the affordable housing crisis our city faces, building,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “I’m proud that Queens continues to lead New York City in affordable housing production, but with countless families living on the sharp edge of poverty, it’s never been clearer that much more must be done to grow our affordable housing stock.”
Mayor Eric Adams (at podium) with (l. to r.) Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Police Commissioner Edward Caban and Chief of Patrol John Chell at an April 18, 2024 briefing at One Police Plaza.
Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office
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Two more classes of NYPD recruits will be added this spring and summer, bringing the department rank-and-file to near its highest headcount in the coming year, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced on Saturday.
Hizzoner credited strong fiscal management and a stronger-than-expected economic rebound for the city in enabling City Hall to restore funding to two additional Police Department classes in the executive budget.
“This will allow us to have 1,200 additional officers who will be hitting our streets to keep our city even safer in the coming year,” Mayor Adams said during an April 20 press conference in Manhattanville.
The two 600-recruit classes will be added this May and July, and will supplement two other classes added in recent months. By next year, the four combined classes, upon graduation from the NYPD Police Academy, will deliver 2,400 new police officers to the city, and bring the total uniformed NYPD headcount to 35,000, which Caban said would be “more or less” near a record high.
“The people we serve demand public safety, and the men and women of the NYPD are proud to hold that line,” Caban said. “These additional officers will play a key role in our efforts to reduce violence and protect New Yorkers.”
The influx of new officers could not come sooner for the NYPD. While Mayor Adams and Commissioner Caban touted a sustained drop in crime citywide, the department has had to do more with less, as attrition within the rank-and-file — namely from a surge in officer retirements — saw the headcount drop to under 34,000 and a surge in overtime expenses.
Even with the logistical challenges, Mayor Adams noted, major crimes have dropped each month so far in 2024 off a year-long decrease in 2023. Shootings and homicides have plummeted in particular, and the NYPD has turned the tide on an early spike in transit crime — as a surge of 1,000 police officers daily into the subway system resulted in double-digit crime decreases underground in February and March.
“We’re driving down crime, we’ve saved lives and we have laid the foundation for our economic recovery,” the mayor said. “But we want to keep the success going. … [This] puts New York City on the path of having a total of 35,000 uniformed officers in the coming year. We’re getting those numbers back up to the numbers that we believe are needed to continue our success.”
Caban noted that the NYPD’s increased use in technology — from drones to weapons detection software — have helped the department do more to stop crime, but there is no substitute for having more officers on the streets throughout the city.
“The men and women of the NYPD are the ultimate fighters of crime,” the commissioner noted. “They’re the ones who know our neighborhoods and use technology to develop solutions. They’re the ones who stand on the street corner and let the world know, ‘Not today, not on my watch.’”
FCC chairman Jessica Rosenworcel (center) said President Joe Biden should sign the TikTok ban if he gets the opportunity. (L-R) Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Representative Tony Cárdenas (DC-CA 29th District), Rosenworcel, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC). Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Federal Communications Commission chairman Jessica Rosenworcel shared her clear stance on a potential TikTok ban during a luncheon at the Paley Center for Media on Tuesday (April 16), which was attended by media industry insiders from companies like Hearst, AARP and New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ communications team. In a Q&A session with Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, Rosenworcel said that if the House of Representatives passes the bill and makes it to President Joe Biden’s desk, “He should absolutely sign it.”
“For decades, we’ve had policies in the Communications Act that would prevent, for instance, a Chinese national or a Chinese company from owning our nation’s broadcast television stations,” Rosenworcel said. “And yet here we have something arguably among the newer forms of media, and there’s zero oversight. I think that’s stunning.”
Other FCC leaders have been vocal about restricting access to TikTok. In 2022, Rosenworcel’s colleague Brendan Carr wrote an open letter asking Google and Apple to ban TikTok from their app stores.
“TikTok is not just another video app,” Carr posted on X. “That’s the sheep’s clothing.”
TikTok is not just another video app. That’s the sheep’s clothing.
It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.
Millions of Americans are waiting to see if the U.S. government will follow through on banning the popular video-sharing app. The proposal is that TikTok must break away from its Chinese owner, BtyeDance, or become inaccessible in the United States. President Biden has already said that if a bill banning TikTok comes to him, he will sign it. This would also mean stopping the TikTok page his team created for Biden’s reelection campaign. At the moment, the bill appears to be stalled out in the House.
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has begun his own campaign to keep TikTok in the U.S. The executive rarely makes public appeals, but he took to the app in March, asking for American TikTok users to speak out against the potential ban.
“I encourage you to keep sharing your stories,” Chew said in the TikTok video. “Share them with your friends, share them with your family. Share them with your senators. Protect your constitutional rights.”
Rosenworcel feels that the FCC regulations for data privacy are the “gold standard” for traditional telecommunications. However, she acknowledged a clear gap between the rapid development of digital media and other emerging technologies, like A.I., and the federal government’s capabilities.
“I think that those protections are really solid. We have to figure out how to extend them to a digital age where so much is unprotected,” Rosenworcel said.
TikTok’s fate is not in the hands of the FCC, but policies around net neutrality, data privacy and internet connectivity fall under Rosenworcel’s leadership. She is currently advocating for the Commission to reinstate net neutrality rules that bring back a national standard for private internet providers, including prohibiting them from making customers pay extra money to access high-speed internet. Former chairman Ajit Pai repealed those protections. The vote to bring the rules back is on April 25.
A 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New Jersey and New York City on Friday morning, followed by a 4.0 magnitude aftershock in the evening — surprising and confusing area residents not used to seismic phenomena. Below are the latest updates and everything we know about the quake, aftershock, and aftermath.
An AI chatbot released by the New York City government to help business owners access pertinent information has been spouting falsehoods, at times even misinforming users about actions that are against the law, according to a report from . The report, which was co-published with the local nonprofit newsrooms Documented and The City, includes numerous examples of inaccuracies in the chatbot’s responses to questions relating to housing policies, workers’ rights and other topics.
Mayor Adams’ administration in October as an addition to the MyCity portal, which as “a one-stop shop for city services and benefits.” The chatbot, powered by Microsoft’s Azure AI, is aimed at current and aspiring business owners, and was billed as a source of “actionable and trusted information” that comes directly from the city government’s sites. But it is a pilot program, and a disclaimer on the website notes that it “may occasionally produce incorrect, harmful or biased content.”
In The Markup’s tests, the chatbot repeatedly provided incorrect information. In response to the question, “Can I make my store cashless?”, for example, it replied, “Yes, you can make your store cashless in New York City” — despite the fact that New York City banned cashless stores in 2020. The report shows the chatbot also responded incorrectly about whether employers can take their workers’ tips, whether landlords have to accept section 8 vouchers or tenants on rental assistance, and whether businesses have to inform staff of scheduling changes. A housing policy expert that spoke to The Markup called the chatbot “dangerously inaccurate” at its worst.
The city has indicated that the chatbot is still a work in progress. In a statement to The Markup, Leslie Brown, a spokesperson for the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, said the chatbot “has already provided thousands of people with timely, accurate answers,” but added, “We will continue to focus on upgrading this tool so that we can better support small businesses across the city.”
NEW YORK — Following a series of violent incidents in the New York City subway system, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced a new five-point safety plan that includes bringing in hundreds of National Guard troops and adding new security cameras.
“I know how it plays on your psyche when you hear about some random acts of violence and that’s why we must be proactive,” Adams told CBS New York in an interview earlier Wednesday ahead of Hochul’s announcement.
The governor and mayor both argued the new safety plan will protect both passengers and transit workers. However, within an hour of the its announcement, another subway conductor was attacked. The conductor was struck on the head with a bottle at the East 170th/Jerome Avenue station, the NYPD said.
In Wednesday’s interview with CBS New York, both the mayor, who was noticeably absent during the governor’s announcement, and NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper, defended the bag checks as an important safety tool.
“Including with what they’re doing checking bags to make sure explosive or illegal weapons are not entering our subway system, it’s also creating another sense of presence,” Kemper said.
City Hall sources told CBS New York that each week the NYPD will deploy 94 bag-screening teams at 136 stations, about one-third of the 472 stations in the system.
A plan to improve coordination between police officers and district attorneys to go after repeat offenders, the suspects who seem to make all the headlines that scare people
“There’s a psychological impact. People worry they could be next,” Hochul said.
Transit riders have mixed feeling about whether bag checks will improve safety.
“How many people do you know that actually carry a knife or gun in their bag when it is they are ready to stick you up, ‘Oh, hold up, I’m going to go into my bag.’ It doesn’t make sense,” one person said.
“New York City’s subways are crazy. You don’t know what to anticipate anymore. I would rather the bag checks than end up dead,” another said.
“I know these are difficult times in many ways and I’ve been through bag checks before. They do them at theaters. I can do it if I have to do it,” another added.
Richard Davis, the head of the Transport Workers Union, said the measures don’t go far enough, and that the 1,000 National Guardsmen and MTA Police cannot be temporary. CBS New York asked Hochul how long the surge would last, but she refused to say how long and how long the state would fund the program.
She tartly pointed out that New York City has an unanticipated $3 billion surplus.
New York City launched a $53 million program to provide pre-paid debit cards to illegal immigrants earlier this month.
According to an analysis of the contract by the New York Post, the initial number is just a fee for the pilot program, while the contract allows for debit cards to be issued as high as $10,000 per illegal alien at a cost of $2.5 billion annually.
“One misperception is that the program allows the city to give out just $50 million to migrants,” Post columnist Nicole Gelinas writes.
Gelinas, a financial analyst and senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy, describes the debit card program as “an open-ended, multibillion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose.”
“It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no ID check, no restrictions and no fraud control,” she writes.
LATE BREAKING: ⚠️ Illegal Migrants in New York City to Receive Debit Cards stocked with up to $10,000 each..
THOUGHTS?
Inside Mayor Adams’ migrant debit card boondoggle — NO-bid bank gets $50 MILLION, border crossers up to $10,000 each. -NY POST
Illegal Immigrant Debit Card Program – $10,000 Each
While it comes as no surprise that a government program would be more costly than initially estimated, the details of the contract seem to have been presented rather deceptively by New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office.
When initial reports indicated that the debit card program for illegal immigrants would cost $53 million, the public was outraged, but Adams’ people presented it as a money saver.
“Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million annually,” Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelaksaid.
Daily Mail explains that “the $53 million is not the total cost,” but rather, just a fee to the bank for its services.
“City Hall has actually given itself the flexibility to disburse at least $2.5 billion on the pre-paid debit cards over a year,” it continues.
The absurdity of the program is in the details.
NYC to give illegals up to $10,000 each on Mastercards at a cost of up to 2.5 Billion yearly to taxpayers.
Cards are printed without names on them and delivered to city offices to distribute.
Identification is not required to acquire, nor are there restrictions on what can… pic.twitter.com/375paUmoVd
New York City is paying a $53 million fee to implement a program with an “open-ended” contract to disburse at least $2.5 billion on pre-paid debit cards to illegal immigrants over a single year.
All to save “$7.2 million annually,” according to the Mayor’s office.
And that’s if the program goes smoothly and there is no fraud. Fortunately, New York City is very serious about eliminating waste and fraud from the program by relying on people who entered the country illegally to essentially pinky swear that they will use the debit cards appropriately.
To ensure the funds are used properly, recipients must sign an affidavit swearing to use the money only for food and baby supplies or risk being removed from the program.
In other words, they promise not to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws, despite their entire presence here being an effort to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws.
The insanely incompetent @NYCMayor has the illegals pinky swear that they will only spend YOUR money on food and baby supplies. This should go well. I think between him, Hochul and Biden this has to be the most incompetence ever assembled. https://t.co/Q5IsEnfPFR via @MailOnline
Well, at least the city has contracted an experienced bank to run the program and ensure problems are minimized.
Oh, wait.
“What kind of experience did MoCaFi (Mobility Capital Finance) bring to this complex endeavor?” Gelinas reports. “None.”
MoCaFi was given a no-bid contract. The founder of the financial institution previously claimed that the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 inspired him to serve the “underbanked” and “narrow the racial wealth gap.”
The details of the debit card program for illegal aliens are far worse than initially reported, and certainly won’t dissuade those whom Adams once claimed would “destroy” the city from coming.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — The NYPD says it has foiled the largest robbery pattern in the city – thieves snatching women’s purses and phones out of their hands.
Officers raided a suspected safe house in the Bronx early Monday morning. The suspects are migrants from Venezuela.
“In recent a months a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city, but by no means are the individuals committing these crimes representing the vast number of people coming to New York to build a better life,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.
The string of 62 thefts of phones stolen from women on the street and in the subway system has been linked to a mastermind overseeing the spree from his Bronx apartment, the NYPD said on Monday.
Victor Parra, who is still being sought, ran a sophisticated criminal enterprise of migrants predominantly living in the city’s system, police said.
“They use social media platforms to organize and coordinate their thefts. This is how they operate. The leader of the crew identified as Victor Parra will blast out a message via WhatsApp that he’s looking for phones,” Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said.
Video released by the NYPD shows a 52-year-old woman being violently dragged by thieves on a scooter after being mugged of her bag, phone, credit cards, keys, glasses, $60 cash and her ID. It happened last month in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn.
To carry out their crimes, they would ride up behind their victims, mostly women walking alone on the sidewalk, and grab their phones or purses and make their getaway.
A scooter operator would make $100 and a phone snatcher $300 to $600.
The phones were taken to Parra’s apartment, where his ‘tech guy’ hacked into the stolen phones, accessing the victims’ financial and banking apps for fraudulent purchases in the U.S. or Central America.
The phones were then sent to Colombia, where they were wiped clean.
Police recovered 22 stolen phones as well as victim’s identification from Parra’s home during a search on Monday.
Investigators said they took five people into custody on Monday.
The following individuals have been identified and charged:
– 20-year-old Cleyber Andrade is charged with 25 counts of grand larceny.
– 23-year-old Juan Uzcatgui is charged with 23 counts of grand larceny.
– 24-year-old Roxanna Sahos is charged with tampering with evidence.
– 20-year-old Alexander Dayker is charged with criminal possession of stolen property.
In all, seven of the 14 members of this crew have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of grand larceny.
“They’re essentially ghost criminals. No criminal history. Not photos. No cell phone. No social media. Sometimes we’re even unclear on name or a date of birth. And on top of that these operations are extremely sophisticated.” Caban said.
“If they’re found guilty and they do their time they should be deported. You should not be allowed to walk the streets of New York,” Mayor Eric Adams added.
Parra is from Venezuela and entered the country last year. He was last before a judge in December on a grand larceny charge.
The string started in November 2023 on the Upper East Side and the most recent incident was in Chinatown on Sunday night
The thefts occurred in every borough except Staten Island. Nearly 56% of them were in Manhattan
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New York philanthropist Daniel Neiditch presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, January 31st, commemorating Adams’s dedication to the education of children in New York City.
MANHATTAN, N.Y., February 2, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Daniel Neiditch, a philanthropist and founder of River 2 River Realty, Inc., presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, January 31st, commemorating Adams’s dedication to the education of children in New York City. The event took place at Neiditch’s Atelier Condo building in New York.
Dan Neiditch, a longtime proponent of child education and welfare worldwide, serves as a board member of the Promise Project Charity, which helps diagnose underprivileged children with learning disabilities and helps them receive a proper education – a cause reflective of both Mayor Adams’s ongoing advocacy and personal background. Growing up in Brooklyn, Adams was never properly diagnosed with dyslexia, which led to prolonged anxiety and difficulty with his self-image. When he was finally diagnosed in college, Adams pressed forward in his professional ambitions, eventually becoming a police captain and, later, the Mayor of New York City.
Daniel Neiditch and Eric Adams will continue to work together to ensure the children of New York City are educated properly – and that no child goes undiagnosed for dyslexia again.
A group of illegal immigrants were seen attacking two NYPD officers outside a migrant shelter in Times Square, New York City.
The incident occurred when the officers attempted to advise the illegal aliens to move along. They then appear to attempt to subdue one of the individuals.
As the officers attempted to make an arrest, the suspects reportedly kicked and punched them in the head and body. The attack was captured on video and then shared on social media.
Four suspects were arrested a little while later and identified as aging in the range from 19 to 24.
“They were kicking and punching one of the cops,” a security guard nearby told the New York Daily News. “They mobbed [the cops]. It was wild.”
A large group of migrants assaulted two NYPD officers on 42nd street. This is the result of migrants arriving into an environment where it feels as if there are no consequences for committing crimes.
The New York Daily News report seems more concerned about how this assault by illegal immigrants is going to reflect on the debate regarding the border crisis.
The incident, they fret, is “likely to raise the temperature of the already heated debate surrounding the migrant crisis, in which more than 100,000 migrants came to the city last year.”
Yea, probably. Seeing video of animals assaulting police officers in the hopes that they can free one of their own based on overwhelming numbers seems concerning – especially when they number in the hundreds of thousands in NYC alone, millions across the country.
If they’re brazen enough to go after law enforcement, what will they do to the average person walking down the street?
⚡️ VIDEO: A group of migrants pummel NYPD cops outside a Times Square shelter
They tried to arrest one, when a group of men attacked.
They kicked and punched the officers in the head and body, video showshttps://t.co/7pVLMYoXtf
Astoundingly, the illegal immigrants clearly caught on tape trying to assault police officers were, according to the report, “released without bail following arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.”
Even better? One of those arrested and released without bail has two pending cases in Manhattan for assault and robbery.
A statement from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office explains the illegal immigrants may have been released due to a lack of information on them at the time of the arrest.
“We now have additional video surveillance that was not available at the time of arraignment and are continuing to speak to witnesses in order to determine the specific role of each defendant,” the statement reads, according to Fox News.
What are the odds they track these guys – who are, by the left’s definition, undocumented – down? We’d wager the next time they are seen is when they end up assaulting somebody else, or worse, murdering them.
Bragg, you may recall, has been heavily criticized for his ‘soft on crime’ policies and was eviscerated by the wife of a fallen NYPD officer at his memorial.
NYPD officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the streets of Harlem. His widowed wife addressed DA Alvin Bragg:
“The system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore. I hope [Bragg] is watching you speak through me right now.” pic.twitter.com/Fg3Zx2xp8V
In another shocking video to emerge Tuesday, two illegal immigrants driving a van unlicensed and uninsured almost took out a little girl and a bus full of schoolchildren in upstate New York.
Meanwhile, the New York City Council has maintained its focus on reining in the NYPD, not illegal immigrants who haven’t met a law they’re seemingly unwilling to break.
While these illegal aliens remain on the streets undocumented and out on bail, police officers in New York City will be forced to document every single interaction they have with the public.
If you want to know why the city in chaos, why criminals have no fear of consequences, why our streets are flooded with illegals and homeless, why cops are attacked openly, why our subways are a disaster, why our kids can’t read, and why our tax base is fleeing… here you go. https://t.co/2cmB4xcDap
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Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox… More about Rusty Weiss
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NEW YORK — In a stunning and unexpected move to stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from shipping busloads of asylum seekers to New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has filed a lawsuit against 17 charter bus companies used by the Lone Star State.
He wants the bus companies to reimburse the city for the hundreds of millions of dollars it’s cost to shelter them.
Just call it the Empire State strikes back, with a bold counter punch to Abbott.
“New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the cost of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas, alone,” Adams said.
The mayor sued the bus companies who, since the spring of 2022, have been used by Abbott to ship asylum seekers to New York, with officials showing them maps, giving them bar-coded bracelets with their destinations clearly marked, and then checked by drivers to make sure they land in the city.
The suit seeks $708 million to compensate the city for the cost of shelter, food and health care.
“These companies have violated state law by not paying the cost of caring for these migrants,” Adams said.
The suit charges the companies with “bad faith” conduct and violating New York social service law by dumping the asylum seekers in New York City without providing a means of support.
“Gov. Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane, but makes clear he puts politics over people,” Adams said.
Adams is also seeking to build a regional coalition to stop Abbott.
“I communicated with the governor of New Jersey last night. We also spoke with the governor of Connecticut. We’ve got to continue to reach out to our colleagues in the region,” Adams said.
Adams and Abbott have been engaged in an intense game of Texas Hold ‘Em poker over the asylum seeker crisis. It remains to be seen if the suit will force Abbott to throw in his chips.
Marcia Kramer joined CBS2 in 1990 as an investigative and political reporter. Prior to CBS2, she was the City Hall bureau chief at the New York Daily News.
The New York City Council has voted in favor of banning most uses of solitary confinement in city jails, which could put a near-total end to a controversial practice that has been used for centuries.
Solitary confinement, also called punitive segregation, is a form of punishment in which an prisoner is detained to a single cell for most of the day — though there have been several instances in which detainees are held for long periods of indefinite isolation.
With a vote of 39 to 7 on Wednesday, the City Council passed a measure to ban the use of solitary confinement beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period during emergencies, such as when a detainee has caused harm to someone else or is at risk of doing so. The measure also calls for detainees to spend at least 14 hours outside of their cells each day.
The bill follows scrutiny over deaths reported at the Rikers Island jail complex and in various facilities across the city, some of which were linked to prolonged use of solitary confinement, NBC News reported.
Nationally, the use of solitary confinement has divided communities, with detractors arguing that it is torture and backers upholding it as a legitimate form of punishment for detainees who break prison rules.
The New York measure can only take effect if signed within the next 30 days by Mayor Eric Adams, who appears to have reservations. However, two-thirds of the city’s legislative body supported the bill and signed on as co-sponsors, indicating that it has the power to override a veto, NBC News reported. This week, Adams told reporters that he doesn’t believe in solitary confinement but also doesn’t like the bill’s current form.
Despite a vote from the Board of Correction, which oversees New York City’s jail system, to end solitary confinement in 2021, politicians and activists have insisted that the practice continues, NBC News reported.
During a City Council hearing last year, city jail officials said that 117 of 6,000 detainees were held separately, maintaining that it’s an important tool to ensure safety when dealing with violent inmates, The New York Times reported. Adams echoed those concerns, saying the measure could make jails less safe.
“This assault on public safety is just wrong,” Adams said on Wednesday after the vote, according to The Times. “There is a philosophical difference in this city, and the numerical minority is controlling the narrative.”
More than a decade ago, a United Nations official said that solitary confinement should be banned in the U.S., explaining that “it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pretrial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.”
Studies show that people of color, specifically Black and Latino people, are more likely to be perceived as a threat and subjected to solitary confinement.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the punishment has been found to cause serious psychological damage, increased mental health issues and other forms of harm among incarcerated people, especially disabled inmates. Nearly 50% of suicides by incarcerated people have occurred in solitary confinement.
According to a report from the Columbia University Center for Justice, the New York City Department of Corrections’ most recent forms of solitary confinement have placed people in structurally restrictive housing and repeatedly locked up inmates for much longer than the six-hour limit.
“No matter what terminology you use, there is isolation that the U.N. has called torture, and that is what we want to end,” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who helped introduce the measure last year, told reporters ahead of the City Council’s vote, according to NBC News.
“We want to make sure that the psychological effects that are proven are not something that is done in the city, and hopefully, across the country,” Williams said.
Opponents of solitary confinement have advocated for alternatives such as incentive- and program-based forms of separation for inmates rather than isolation. Separation has been found to be more effective and safer for not only the incarcerated people but also for jail staff and communities.
According to Solitary Watch, 45 states in the U.S. have introduced bills to regulate, limit or ban solitary confinement, and 25 states have introduced bills to limit solitary to 15 days or less. Three bills have passed. Action has also been taken on a federal level to address solitary confinement, with bills in both the Senate and the U.S. House introduced this year to ban its use in federal prisons.
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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams says his top fundraiser has been reassigned.
Twenty-five-year-old Brianna Suggs is no longer raising money for his re-election bid.
“With Brianna, she’s no longer doing fundraising for the campaign,” Adams said in a news conference Tuesday, but did not elaborate.
Suggs is still with the Adams campaign, but has transitioned to another role, CBS News learned.
Suggs’ home in Brooklyn was raided by the FBI on Nov. 2.
According to published reports, Suggs was questioned by FBI agents during the raid. She has not been charged with a crime.
The search was part of an investigation into whether the Adams campaign received illegal donations from Turkey.
The FBI later searched the homes of two more people in the mayor’s circle. Sources close to the investigation identified them as former Turkish Airlines executive Cenk Ocal, who was on Adams’ transition team, and Rana Abbasova, who worked in the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs.
Earlier this month, Adams told CBS New York, “I know that no one can state that we participated in any type of donor scheme or any type of improper behavior. We followed the law and I’m going to continue to cooperate, and I’m going to continue to navigate the city out of the crises that we have as we continue to do every day.”
The mayor has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing. He has set up a legal defense fund, which will be monitored by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.
Since 2022, thousands of survivors of sexual assault have used New York’s Adult Survivors Act to seek justice for attacks that the state’s statute of limitations would have previously prevented. But that act—which Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in May 2022—allowed only a year for the new civil suits to be filed. A last-minute surge of lawsuits, many against high-profile actors, musicians, and politicians, was filed just before the Thursday, November 24 deadline.
Some suits involved names already familiar to people who follow misconduct allegations. One example is a lawsuit filed against Bill Cosby Tuesday by a stand-in on The Cosby Show who says the comedian drugged and raped her in the 1980s. Cosby, who’s been accused of sexual assault by over 60 women, was convicted for one such alleged attack in 2018, a conviction overturned in 2021 due to a dispute over an agreement with a prosecutor.
The alleged victim in the case filed this week has not been named; via email, Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt suggested that the Adult Survivors Act was being abused, telling the Associated Press, “When will it stop and who will be the next man to be victimized by these look-back windows?”
Cuba Gooding Jr. is another actor who’s faced previous allegations: in June, he settled a civil case involving an alleged 2013 rape just minutes before jury selection was to begin, Deadline reported at the time. Now two women say that Gooding groped them in separate incidents at New York restaurants in 2018 and 2019. (The lawsuit can be viewed online.) Both incidents resulted in criminal charges, to which Gooding pleaded guilty.
According to attorney Gloria Allred, who represents both victims, Gooding’s penalties in criminal cases were insufficient, hence the suits. “Our clients were deprived of the justice they sought in the criminal case,” Allred said. “They are now seeking justice and accountability in their civil cases. We are proud of their courage and intend to vigorously fight for them until they win the justice that they deserve.” A representative for Gooding has not responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment as of publication time.
Sean Combs, who settled one sexual assault suit last week, now faces two more. One involves an alleged 1990s-era rape, Deadline reports. The other, filed by Joi Dickerson-Neal, claims the music mogul drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1991, when she was a student at Syracuse University. He later used images from the incident as “revenge porn,” she claims.
A Combs spokesperson denies the claims, saying, “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be misused. Ms. Dickerson’s 32-year-old story is false and not credible. Mr. Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more.” In a statement, Dickerson-Neal’s lawyer, Jonathan Goldhirsh, writes, “Our client has not been able to escape the continuing impact of the harm Combs caused her many years ago. Through the Adult Survivors Act, she can avail herself to the courts to finally seek justice.”
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose was also named in a Wednesday lawsuit from actress and model Sheila Kennedy. According to the suit, which was reported on by CNN, among others, Rose attacked Kennedy in a New York hotel room in 1989. Kennedy has made these allegations before, including in her 2016 memoir and 2021 sexual assault documentary Look Away, the Guardian notes.
Kennedy has not responded to a request for comment; Rose attorney Alan Gutman says, “Simply put, this incident never happened. Notably, these fictional claims were filed the day before the New York State filing deadline expires … Mr. Rose has no recollection of ever meeting or speaking to the Plaintiff. He has never heard about these fictional allegations prior to today.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993 while both were working for the city in a $5 million lawsuit filed this week. Adams has denied the allegations.
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