Tag: new york

Federal Court Rules Against Amish Families in Religious Exemption Case — Will Supreme Court Have the Last Word?

A federal court last week ruled against a group of Amish parents who sought religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements for their children — a ruling that legal experts suggest may lead to a U.S. Supreme Court showdown that could determine the future of religious exemptions nationwide.

In its ruling in Miller v. McDonald, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York State’s law eliminating religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements is “neutral and generally applicable,” doesn’t discriminate against specific religious practices and furthers the state’s interest in protecting the public from disease.

The plaintiffs, a group of parents and representatives of Amish schools in New York, sued New York’s Department of Health and Department of Education in 2023, alleging the state’s law barring religious exemptions violates the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause under the First and 14th Amendments.

The parents face $118,000 in fines for noncompliance with the state’s vaccination requirements.

Last week’s decision was the second time the 2nd Circuit ruled against the plaintiffs. The same court previously dismissed the suit in 2024, upholding a decision by another federal court earlier that year.

In December 2025, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the 2nd Circuit, asking it to review constitutional questions arising out of a separate ruling, Mahmoud v. Taylor, in 2024. In that case, the Supreme Court found that parents have the right to request an exemption for their children from LGBTQ curriculum on religious grounds.

According to The Washington Post, last week’s ruling in Miller v. McDonald may “set the stage for a potential Supreme Court battle over vaccine mandates,” citing legal experts who suggested the court is likely to accept the case for review on constitutional grounds and in light of the Mahmoud v. Taylor decision.

Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor of health law and an outspoken vaccine proponent, told the Post he expects the Supreme Court to “reverse the appellate court’s decision” if it chooses to review the case.

A review could result in a ruling that would “allow religious vaccine exemptions nationwide,” the Post reported.

The Post reported last month that the Supreme Court has signaled that it “may be open to a constitutional claim based on the lack of a religious exemption for vaccine mandates in New York.”

A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Amish plaintiffs would be “the anti-vaccine movement’s biggest win,” the Post wrote.

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New York Bodega Owners to City: Drop Dead!

It’s been more than 50 years since the New York Daily News reported that President Gerald Ford would veto any bailout for the city’s endless red ink with the headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Ford never said exactly that, of course, but the headline created such a backlash that Ford backed down a few months later, putting his signature on $2.3 billion worth of emergency loans. That’s about $14.3 billion in 2026 money — a very nice little bailout, indeed.

Today, New York City bodega owners know that nobody will bail them out when the city’s Commie-Islamist Mayor Zohran Mamdani puts them out of business, which is why they just silently told him to drop dead.

Or at least that’s the impression I got from a Monday morning New York Post exclusive detailing the showdown between Gracie Mansion and local retailers threatened by Mamdani’s campaign promise to build and operate city-run grocery stores.

“Business owners gripe that city officials are only now seeking their input — and seemingly as an afterthought — after sparking alarms in April with a surprise plan to build a public grocery store in East Harlem at La Marqueta,” the Post reported. “That store will cost a whopping $30 million to build – and threatens the livelihood of more than a dozen existing stores nearby.”

All of that is to be expected. The city can throw Other People’s Money at its socialist stores until it runs out, while typical grocers operate on razor-thin 2% profit margins. Considering the services they provide and the complexity of their operations, the real crime is how little money they make.

But I digress, as I usually do.

What I love about this story — and what makes it so newsworthy — is the sheer gall of the Mamdani administration. 

“We met with bodega owners so they could help us plan and ensure that we take into account their challenges and their role as a part of the food ecosystem,” Julie Su, deputy mayor for “economic justice,” told the Post in a statement. But what really happened was that bodega owners reported to City Hall last week at Su’s invitation for a roundtable discussion, “only to get barraged with ‘intrusive’ questions about their businesses,” according to the Post’s source.

The questionnaire bodega owners were expected to fill out included questions like, “What items are sold the most at your stores?” and “Where is your profit margin the greatest?” 

The correct answer to questions like those is, “Get stuffed.” The polite answer is, “Try running a bodega and figure it out for yourself, or get stuffed.”

Instead, an anonymous bodega owner who spoke to the Post said, “They wanted us to share proprietary information with them but they don’t answer our questions and that’s why there is distrust.”

“Tell us how to run you out of business with your hard-won institutional knowledge and your tax dollars” is pretty much the height of gall, I thought. But then I read the part where Su told the Post, “One of the questions we wanted to understand is whether there are key products bodegas sell and rely on that we should not sell. That’s how serious we are about not undercutting them.”

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Cynthia Nixon’s wife gets $200k city gig after ‘Sex and the City’ star’s Mamdani endorsement

The Mamdani patronage machine has hired the wife of lefty actress Cynthia Nixon as an educrat making $203,500 a year, The Post has learned.

Christine Marinoni is working as the chief of mass engagement at the Family and Community Empowerment (FACE) office at the Department of Education, according to a well-placed DOE source.

The DOE source said this was Mamdani’s reward to the former “Sex and the City” star after she endorsed him during the mayoral primary.

Nixon held a fundraiser for Mamdani in March 2025 and raised over $200,000 for the socialist mayoral upstart.

“So thrilled to host a fundraiser for the incredible Zohran Mamdani whose clear message & ambitious plan for a more affordable NYC is exactly what we need right now,” she posted on Instagram at the time beside a picture of her and Mamdani standing together grinning ear to ear.

The hire is already drawing sharp comparisons to New York’s most notorious political machine.

“It’s painfully fitting that inside Tweed Courthouse, a DSA machine reminiscent of Tammany Hall is handing taxpayer-funded jobs to the well-connected spouses of multimillionaire celebrities,” another source, a City Hall insider, said.

When reached for comment, Nixon denied that her wife was rehired by the DOE for political reasons, and declined to speak further. Marinoni could not be reached for comment.

Marinoni previously worked as special assistant to the chancellor during the de Blasio administration and made $131,708, according to public data.

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‘Snake the Bigfoot Hunter’ claims he unearthed scientific proof of Sasquatch — and DNA shows it’s part human

A Bigfoot hunter who claimed to have found the legendary creature’s corpse now says he has scientific proof the remains are a real-life Sasquatch — and its DNA is part human.

Charles Stuart, who bills himself as “Snake the Bigfoot Hunter,” made highly disputed claims in 2024 that he found the decomposing remains of an 8-foot, 300-pound Sasquatch in upstate New York’s Adirondack mountains.

Now he claims he enlisted Cornell University to conduct a DNA test and found the creature is a mixture of Neanderthal and human, according to the hunter’s website. 

“After doing a DNA test — we found that this is 58.5% Neanderthal — and this 41.5% remaining, that is human,” Stuart told Local 4 Detroit on Sunday.

“What we have is a Neanderthal-human hybrid — and that neanderthal side that has been evolving over the millennia has remained very aggressive,” Stuart said about Dack, which is what he named the supposed corpse. 

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Mamdani Rent Freeze Will Effectively Take 40% of NYC Apartments off the Market

On June 25, 2026, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) voted 7-1 to set the annual rent adjustment for rent-stabilized apartments at 0% for both one-year and two-year lease renewals commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, fulfilling Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge to “freeze the rent.” It is the first time in the board’s history, dating to 1969, that a two-year lease has been frozen at 0%; one-year freezes had occurred three times previously under Mayor de Blasio.

The board also set the hotel and single-room-occupancy (SRO) order at 0% for the same 2026-27 period, extending the freeze to every category the RGB regulates that year, including rooming and lodging houses.

Six of the nine board members were appointed by Mamdani before the vote. Owner representative Christina Smyth resigned hours before the final vote, calling the process predetermined. The lone dissent came from Arpit Gupta, a holdover appointee from former Mayor Eric Adams.

New York City has roughly 2.2 million rental units. Of those, about 1 million are rent-stabilized, close to 40-45% of the total rental stock, depending on the year’s survey, and are subject to annual RGB decisions. Nearly half of those stabilized units are occupied by people born outside the US.

Rent controls of any kind are a classic example of misguided socialist economic policies intended to solve a problem while, in reality, making it worse. Ultimately, suppressing rent increases reduces the number of units available for rent by encouraging landlord exit and tenant lock-in. A rent freeze does not simply cap future increases. It widens the gap between what a rent-stabilized unit can legally charge and what it could command on the open market.

As that gap grows, a landlord’s financial incentive shifts away from continuing to rent the unit and toward selling it to an owner-occupant, converting it to a condominium, combining units, or leaving it vacant rather than re-renting it at below-market rates. Each of these outcomes effectively removes the apartment from the rental market, even though the building itself remains.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani Ordered New Yorkers to Cut Back on AC — But City Hall Was Kept as Cold as 54 Degrees

New York City Hall was kept as cold as 54 degrees during this week’s heat wave, despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani urging residents to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees to reduce strain on the power grid.

According to an investigation by the New York Post, reporters measured temperatures at 20 locations inside City Hall and other municipal buildings using an infrared thermometer.

All but five locations were below the 78-degree level Mamdani had urged New Yorkers to follow.

Around noon, areas including the Rotunda, the Governor’s Room, the City Council chambers and hallways near the mayor’s office reportedly measured around 77 degrees, while the mayor’s first-floor press office registered 78 degrees.

As the day progressed, temperatures reportedly dropped further.

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Gun Control to Gun Patrol: U.S. Army, Over 120 Police Turn MSG into Fortress for Taylor Swift Star-Studded Wedding

Pop superstar and gun control proponent Taylor Swift will enjoy the protection of over 120 police officers as she marries Travis Kelce in Madison Square Garden today, in a blowout wedding featuring some 1,000 friends and family, many of them Hollywood celebrities.

Indeed, Swift voiced her support for gun control after the February 14, 2018, Parkland shooting and donated to March for Our Lives.

Swift posted to her 273 million Instagram followers “No one should have to go to school in fear of gun violence. Or to a nightclub. Or to a concert. Or to a movie theater. Or to their place of worship.”

The post continued, “I’ve made a donation to show my support for the students, for the March For Our Lives campaign, for everyone affected by these tragedies, and to support gun reform. I’m so moved by the Parkland High School students, faculty, by all families and friends of victims who have spoken out, trying to prevent this from happening again.”

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MAMDANI’S NYC: Con Edison Shuts Off Power to 10,000 Customers in Queens as Temps Soar Over 100 Degrees

Mamdani’s New York City.

Con Edison shut off power to 10,000 customers in Queens, New York, on Friday as temperatures soared over 100 degrees.

This is after Communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged New Yorkers to raise their thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate strain on the energy grid.

“ConEd pulls the plug on nearly 10,000 customers in Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park as power demand soars with temps pushing 100 degree,” 4 New York reported.

It gets even worse.

500,000 customers are being urged to reduce their electricity use while the ConEd crews make repairs.

Per 4 New York: ConEd cuts voltage by 8% across parts of the Bronx, Westchester, Queens and Brooklyn under soaring demand. Nearly 500,000 customers are being urged to slash electricity use while crews make repairs. Neighborhoods include: Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Pelham, Bronxville, Eastchester, Northeast Bronx, City Island, Glendale, Forest Hills, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Long Island City, Hunters Point, Sunnyside, Woodside, Bay Ridge, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Borough Park, Dyker Heights, Flatbush, Kensington, Bensonhurst and Windsor Terrace

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Conservative Catches CNN Host Abby Phillip in a Glaring Hypocrisy as She Defends Communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Absurd Demand on Air Conditioning

Notorious CNN host Abby Phillip’s efforts to defend communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s demand for air conditioning went sideways when one of her guests caught her in a huge hypocrisy.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Mamdani on Wednesday requested that New Yorkers set their thermostats to 78 degrees. He claimed this was to alleviate stress on the energy grid.

Temperatures are soaring into the triple digits in the Midwest and East Coast this week and into the July 4th holiday weekend.

“The best protection against extreme heat is air conditioning, he added. If you don’t have it at home, know now where you’ll go to stay cool. Check in on your neighbors, especially seniors, and if you see someone outside who appears to be in distress, call 311 so we can get help to them.

“This administration is using every tool we have to keep New Yorkers safe, but the strongest city is one where neighbors look out for one another. And to every business owner, please set your thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate the stress on our grid.”

Of course, we all know the Gracie Mansion (where Mamdani lives) will be fully air-conditioned. According to Marxists like him, the rules should apply only to the masses.

Phillip, though, saw Mamdani’s demands as reasonable. During her show last night, she repeatedly cited then-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s similar requests from a 2015 heat wave in the Palmetto State as a reason to let New Yorkers suffer.

Conservative guest Ben Ferguson then challenged Phillip by asking whether she raised the temperature in her home in solidarity with Mamdani. This caused the panel to go off the rails.

After the shouting died down, Ferguson dropped a bombshell: the CNN studio they were debating in was nowhere near 78 degrees.

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Mamdani Gives 250th Anniversary Speech, and Boy, Does This Guy Hate America

New York City’s Communist Twelver Shi’ite Mayor Zohran Mamdani has bestowed upon a waiting world his speech commemorating America’s 250th anniversary, and it is just as small, petty, grievance-laden, fantasy-based, and angry as you’d expect a speech from a man who hates America to be.

The visual effect was even worse, as Mamdani delivered the speech while seated at a desk that seemed to be turned the wrong way around, while surrounded by a social studies-book array of glum-looking, unsmiling, unhappy people, all black and brown and hijabed and whatnot and all forlornly holding small flags of the country their mayor despises, with a single grim-faced white guy standing in the back (as is his place). But even if one didn’t avail oneself of the joys of watching Mamdani, who was just as grim as his prop companions, what the young Commie mayor said was bad enough.

America, in Mamdani’s view, is a sad place where heartless, racist, xenophobic plutocrats rule the roost and oppress the rest of us to the degree that you wonder why anyone from elsewhere would want to immigrate in the first place. Mamdani does hold out some hope in the end, saying that the foes of these cruel tyrants can throw off their yoke and remake this unhappy land in their own image. And that, of course, is just what Mamdani has set out to do.

Mamdani began by painting a verbal picture of the “land, lush and teeming with life” to which newcomers arrived, only to encounter “men waiting at the docks to take them into bondage” and “tenements rife with squalor.” As you’d expect, he claimed that the Declaration of Independence established “the ideals our nation still strives to fulfill,” with no indication of how marvelously it has fulfilled them already, or how it has inspired the world in doing so.

The mayor goes on to fill in all the expected blanks, telling the story of how a freed slave made a new life for himself, thereby showing America to be “a place each of us has the power to make.” Immigrants poured into America, not yet seeing “the nativism they would face — the jobs they would be refused, the landlords who would not rent to them, and the abject labor and living conditions they would withstand.” Still, they kept coming.

Mamdani goes on to mock and misrepresent the idea of American exceptionalism, and here he begins to claim that “we are told” a series of things that few people, if any, have ever been told. “We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else.” On the contrary, in less fractious days, we were told that we were “richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else,” because we were a uniquely just society in which anyone could make something of himself.

Mamdani, however, couldn’t possibly admit that without betraying his Marxist ideas, which tell him that America is inherently oppressive, and his Islamic beliefs, which tell him that only a Sharia society is truly just.

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