Tag: new york

Catholic nuns who look after dying patients lash out against New York gender rules which could see them jailed

Catholic nuns who have been looking after dying patients for decades have sued the state of New York over gender laws which could see the carers jailed.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne filed a lawsuit against Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday opposing a bill that requires facilities to assign rooms by gender identity, not biological sex – something the nuns said clashes with their religion. 

Hochul signed the bill into law in November, 2023, which states that long-term care facilities and their staff cannot discriminate against ‘any resident on the basis of a resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.’

‘New York’s seniors should be able to live their lives with the dignity and respect they deserve, free from discrimination of every kind,’ Hochul said on the press release at the time. 

‘LGBTQIA+ and HIV-positive seniors are among our most vulnerable populations, and today we are taking steps to ensure that all New Yorkers- regardless of who they are, who they love or their HIV status – find safety and support in places where they need it most. Hate will never have a place in New York.’ 

However, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne claim that the bill forces them to choose between their mission and faith and facing fines, license loss or jail time. 

The group takes patients into their care at the 42-bed Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York and ‘provide comfort and nursing care for patients who are poor or suffering from incurable cancer.’

‘We are consecrated religious Sisters and have one mission,’ Mother Marie Edward OP told Fox News. ‘It is to provide comfort and skilled care to persons dying of cancer who cannot afford nursing care.’

‘We do not take insurance or government funds or money from our patients or families. The care is totally free.’

Mother Edward went on to say that their work is supported by ‘the goodness of our benefactors,’ and it hasn’t discriminated against anyone on the basis of race, religion or sex. 

‘We do it because Jesus taught us that, when the least among us are sick, we should care for them, as if they were Christ himself,’ she told the outlet. 

The religious group claims that the law forces them to assign rooms to patients by gender identity and not biological sex, allow expression, relationships and identity practices, and use preferred pronouns. 

It also requires staff training in gender ideology, post a public notice of compliance with the law and allow opposite-sex bathroom access, a press release stated. 

‘We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies and faiths. 

‘We treat every patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had any complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith.’ 

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Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Launches Investigation Into Swalwell Sexual Assault Allegations

The Manhattan District Attorney has launched an investigation into Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell over serious allegations of sexual assault.

The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday published a story about a woman who claimed that Democrat Eric Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice.

The woman, who worked as a staffer in Swalwell’s office for two years, told The San Francisco Chronicle that Swalwell began pursuing her just weeks after she was hired at the age of 21 in 2019.

After The San Francisco Chronicle dropped their bombshell report on Swalwell, three additional women spoke to CNN and provided evidence about alleged additional misconduct by the California Democrat.

The Swalwell staffer said she was sexually assaulted by Swalwell in 2019

The staffer also said Swalwell raped her years later in 2024 after she left his employment.

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said on Saturday it is investigating an allegation of sexual assault against Rep. Eric Swalwell, a day after CNN reported that a former staffer for the congressman accused him of having sex with her when she was unable to consent,” CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported.

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Mamdani pushed combined $23B worth of new NYC taxes in just his first 100 days

The past 100 days have been a taxing experience.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has backed new taxes during his short time in office that would squeeze a combined at least $23 billion out of even middle-class New Yorkers — despite his campaign pledge to only hike levies on the rich.

The democratic socialist campaigned on a freebie-filled agenda he contended could be funded by taxes on Big Apple millionaires and the largest corporations.

Once in office, Mamdani largely shifted his tax talk toward the need to fill a budget shortfall he initially said was $12 billion, but eventually revised down to $5.4 billion.

He even threatened an across-the-board nearly 10% property tax increase citywide if he didn’t get his “tax the rich” wish. And he accused City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Manhattan Democrat, of preferring to back cuts to city services rather than supporting his tax schemes — moves that baffled lawmakers and insiders.

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Scandal Hits Mamdani Administration – NYC Employee Says She Was Fired for Blowing the Whistle

One day shy of his first 100 days in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was hit with his first potential political scandal.

A lawsuit filed by a subordinate of a woman Mamdani appointed to run the city’s department of probation — and clean up ethical messes from the previous administration — claims she was fired for blowing the whistle on an “intimate relationship” between her boss and the agency’s top attorney, according to Politico.

And Mamdani himself is already facing public questions about it.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday by now-former city Department of Probation chief investigator Ebony Huntley.

According to the New York Post, Huntley claimed that the Department of Probation Commissioner Sharun Goodwin was engaged in a personal relationship with Wayne McKenzie, the agency’s general counsel.

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NYC Mayor Mamdani Declares He Will Override Police Commissioner Whenever He Feels Like It

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly stated he would have the last word on all New York Police Department (NYPD) decisions — not Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

He made the comments during an interview with The New York Times at City Hall. 

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the mayor said that he was willing to institute policy changes at the Police Department if he and the commissioner, Jessica Tisch, could not reach an agreement.

“Yes, ultimately I hold the final decision no matter which department or agency we’re speaking about,” Mr. Mamdani said, speaking from his offices at City Hall.

He was specifically responding to a question about whether to dismantle a unit known as the Strategic Response Group, which polices protests and other mass events and has been faulted for using heavy-handed tactics. Ms. Tisch, who was also police commissioner under former Mayor Eric Adams, has been dubious in the past about getting rid of the entity.

The mayor remains committed to disband the SRG, a promise he made on the campaign trail. In January, he told reporters, “We need to disband the SRG, and I’m currently in conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we can do so that are operational,” according to City & State NY.

The SRG issue is not the only point of contention between Mamdani and Tisch. Mamdani also supports abolishing the NYPD’s gang database, a system with more than 16,000 entries, Politico reported. The database has faced criticism for unfairly targeting racial minorities.

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Democrats Turn to Unconstitutional Exit Taxes After Their Policies Drove the Wealthy Out of Blue States

Democrats believe all our money belongs to them. They believe they have the moral and legal authority to take the money we earn and redistribute it to their preferred constituencies, while ignoring (or even facilitating) massive fraud and enriching themselves in the process. 

With the news of massive fraud scandals in Minnesota and California, it’s clear we don’t have a revenue problem; we have a fraud problem, and we’d bet the majority of our deficit could be erased if we eliminated fraud. But Democrats don’t have any interest in doing that. They just keep taxing people more and more to make up for their fiscal mismanagement. 

And when they raise taxes, the people who can afford to move from those blue states to tax-friendlier red states. That leaves the blue states with even more self-inflicted budget woes.

Rather than roll back wealth taxes, Democrats have decided to tax the people even more in the form of an exit tax, and that concept is gaining traction in blue states.

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Mamdani’s Proposed Racial Equity Tax Targeting White Neighborhoods

The mayor of America’s largest city, socialist Zohran Mamdani, has a plan to tax white people more. This appears to be an egregious violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for all races to have equal protection under the law.

On April 7, 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released the Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan, described as the first government-wide racial equity framework in the city’s history, along with a “True Cost of Living” measure. The plan spans 45 agencies and includes more than 200 agency-level goals, over 800 strategies, and roughly 600 performance indicators.

The framework is inseparable from a property tax proposal Mamdani advanced during his mayoral campaign, in which he called for shifting tax burdens from outer-borough homeowners to “more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” arguing the current system undertaxes high-value real estate.

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Millions of gallons of RADIOACTIVE water released into New York’s Hudson River, damning report shows

Radioactive water was discharged into New York’s Hudson River for more than 60 years, with millions of gallons released annually during its decades of operation.

The long-running practice at the now-defunct Indian Point nuclear plant is drawing renewed scrutiny after a 2025 court approved a controversial plan to release an additional 45,000 gallons of radioactive water per year from the shuttered facility.

The Daily Mail has uncovered a 1970 federal investigation showing the plant discharged an average of two to three million gallons of processed wastewater each year between 1962 and 2021, including treated radioactive effluents.

The probe into the plant’s environmental impact found that millions of fish were killed during its early years, largely after being pulled into the facility’s cooling system.

Investigators also documented chemical discharges that exceeded state safety limits and warned that gaps in monitoring made it impossible to rule out toxic releases that may have contributed to fish kills.

Testing conducted near the plant further detected measurable increases in radioactivity in water, sediment, vegetation and fish closest to discharge areas.

The findings, combined with a newly circulated stakeholder letter from the plant’s current owner, Holtec International, confirming decades of releases, have intensified concerns about the long-term environmental impact on the Hudson River.

Patrick O’Brien, director of government affairs and communications for Holtec International, which purchased the plant in 2021, told the Daily Mail: ‘I can’t speak to operations, since that covers previous owners to the ’60s.’

‘During our ownership, no releases have occurred exceeding federal limits, and every batch is tested and reviewed prior to dilution and discharge.’

The Indian Point nuclear power plant is located along the Hudson River just south of Peekskill. Holtec International purchased the facility shortly after its closure and now oversees its decommissioning, including the handling of stored wastewater and spent nuclear fuel.

A recently circulated letter to stakeholders confirmed that treated radioactive wastewater had been discharged into the Hudson River since the plant’s earliest years, with annual environmental and radiation reports submitted to federal regulators.

Those records indicate that radioactive materials, including tritium and other radionuclides, were diluted and released into the river following treatment processes designed to remove most contaminants before discharge.

Federal investigators first examined concerns about the plant’s environmental impact decades ago, launching a detailed study in 1970 amid growing public alarm about the effects of nuclear facilities along the Hudson River.

While the investigation found no clear evidence that radioactive releases alone caused widespread ecosystem collapse, it documented significant environmental impacts tied to plant operations.

Among the most notable findings was the death of large numbers of fish during the plant’s early years.

Between 1962 and 1970, officials estimated that between 1.5 million and five million fish were killed after becoming trapped against intake screens used to draw cooling water from the river.

The report also warned that fish eggs, larvae and other small aquatic organisms were likely harmed as they passed through the plant’s cooling systems. 

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NYC Socialist Mayor Mamdani Openly Declares War on White Taxpayers, DOJ Fires Back

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a “Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan” on Monday, outlining a broad framework aimed at addressing disparities in housing, education, income, and other areas across the city.

According to a press release from the mayor’s office, the report was delivered within the first 100 days of his administration and is intended to reshape how the city measures affordability and evaluates inequality.

Officials said the plan seeks to “establish a new framework for how New York City measures affordability, understands inequity and plans for a more equitable future.”

Mamdani said the report introduces a new cost-of-living analysis designed to reflect the financial realities faced by residents.

“The True Cost of Living Measure offers an honest account of what it actually costs to live in this city — and who is being left behind. It shows that this is not a crisis affecting a small minority of New Yorkers. It is a crisis touching the vast majority of our city, in every borough and every neighborhood,” Mamdani said in the press release.

He added that the impact of rising costs is not evenly distributed among residents.

“But we know this crisis is not felt equally. Black and Latino New Yorkers — who have been pushed out of this city for decades — are bearing the brunt. The Preliminary Racial Equity Plan is where we begin to reverse that pattern. These reports make one thing clear: we cannot tackle systemic racial inequity without confronting the affordability crisis head-on, and we cannot solve the cost-of-living crisis without dismantling systemic racial inequity.”

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Kiwi Farms Challenges DMCA Subpoenas as Tools to Unmask Anonymous Speech

A new lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York offers a clean example of something that keeps happening and keeps getting ignored: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act being used to censor speech and unmask anonymous speakers.

The case is Lolcow LLC v. Fong-Jones, filed on March 12, 2026, and it pits the operator of the web forum Kiwi Farms against Liz Fong-Jones, an activist and field Chief Technology Officer at SaaS observability platform Honeycomb, who has been filing DMCA subpoenas in an attempt to identify anonymous forum users.

The content Fong-Jones wants censored is a screenshot of a Fong-Jones Bluesky post and an edited version of a Fong-Jones headshot, both related to what Fong-Jones has previously described publicly as a “consent accident.”

Forum users posted and discussed those images. Fong-Jones responded by claiming copyright ownership and filing DMCA subpoenas to force the site to hand over the identities of the people who posted them.

The copyright claims seem thin. Kiwi Farms operator Joshua Moon argues that the screenshot is a derivative work over which Fong-Jones holds no copyright, and that the edited headshot represents a textbook case of fair use, given that the image has no commercial value and was modified specifically for purposes of criticism and commentary.

That argument carries weight. Courts have long recognized that transformative use of images for commentary or ridicule sits comfortably within fair use protections.

What makes this case useful as a case study is less the copyright question itself and more the mechanism being exploited. The DMCA subpoena process, codified in Section 512(h), allows copyright holders to obtain a judicial subpoena to unmask the identities of allegedly infringing anonymous internet users just by asking a court clerk to issue one and attaching a copy of the infringement notice.

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