Tag: new york

New York Man Arrested After Building and Stashing 7 Bombs on Subway Tracks, Rooftops

A New York man was arrested and charged after building at least seven bombs and stashing them on rooftops and subway tracks.

Michael Gann, 55, was taken into custody last month and on Tuesday was charged by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

According to prosecutors, Michael Gann “manufactured at least seven improvised explosive devices (“IEDs”) using precursor chemicals—chemicals that can be combined to create an explosive mixture—that he had ordered on the internet, stored at least five IEDs and shotgun shells on adjoining rooftops of residential apartment buildings in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, threw at least one IED onto the subway tracks of the Williamsburg Bridge, and subsequently lied to law enforcement about having disposed of his explosives and supplies in a dumpster.”

Gann stored 5 IEDs (pictured below) on the rooftops of residential buildings in SoHo.

Gann tossed one of the IEDs on the subway tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Keep reading

Her Biggest Scandal Yet! Iran and China Are Circumventing Sanctions via Notorious Bank and Letitia James Is Implicated

The Standard Chartered Bank sanctions evasion case, now in court in the US Second Circuit, found at least $9.6 billion of illegal payments by the bank to Iranian and Hezbollah entities.

The case implicates NYAG Letitia James and the Federal Reserve for ignoring billions of these illicit payments and ignoring Treasury sanctions designations. Maximum Pressure is not being enforced because of the failures of the Fed and the NYAG.

Make sure this case continues.

** Call the Southern District of New York …. Office number: 212-637-2200

At least $9.6 billion of specifically identified illicit payments were made by SCB from its NYC branch to OFAC and known terrorist names. The $9.6 billion was found in internal trade reports turned over by bank whistleblowers and represents the first batch from SCB Dubai office that cleared through SCB NYC. There are estimated over $100 billion more of illegal payments that are more recent and from SCB China where it has 53 mainland branches that facilitate dollar trade payments for oil and war-making materials.

These payments were hidden by SCB from required disclosure in its ongoing Deferred Prosecution Agreement now under the jurisdiction of DCUSA Pirro and SDNY Clayton where both were briefed on SCB after their appointments. There are career blockers at each jurisdiction.

Keep reading

Columbia University says it has suspended and expelled students who participated in protests

 Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

Keep reading

New York Has Awarded $600 Million To Sanctuary Groups Resisting Trump

New York’s city and state governments have given more than $600 million of taxpayer money to legal and immigrant-advocacy groups fighting President Trump’s immigration agenda.

One group, the Bronx Defenders, has received more than $500 million in city contracts since fiscal year 2018 to provide legal services to migrants.

Other groups, such as Make the Road NY, have received tens of millions of dollars in contracts as well.

Make the Road organized a rally at the state capitol last month in support of a sanctuary bill. Protesters chanted, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

The New York Immigration Coalition received $46 million in taxpayer money.

“New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump’s mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws,” Tweeted Murad Awadeh, executive director of the NYICC.

These groups have been pushing a statewide sanctuary bill called the New York for All Act that would prevent state and local law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. This would include providing ICE with information, as well as turning over or deporting illegal immigrants.

Another bill in the works, the Dignity not Detention Act, would ban local jails from renting space to ICE for detention of migrants.

Neither bill has yet passed the state Senate.

Keep reading

Village tries to fine Long Island woman who replaced lawn with native plants

“That front yard look hideous”

Xilin Zhang overhauled her front lawn with native plants in New Hyde Park.

“It’s a very natural look,” she said. “There’s tons of butterflies and bees and birds coming … It’s not just some grass doing nothing.” 

It’s the outgrowth of a Town of North Hempstead grant to encourage native plant gardens. But Zhang was told her yard clashes with the village code, and she received a summons with a fine up of $2,000. 

The village mayor, bluntly, said Zhang’s yard was “hideous.”

“When ugly is that overwhelming, you have to call it what it is. That front yard looks hideous,” Mayor Christopher Devane said. 

After four rounds in court, the village and Zhang reached a compromise. The summons was dismissed, but the garden must stay below 4 feet. 

“We need to move away from big green lawns”

Native plant advocates in Port Washington launched a movement to get suburbanites to ditch their lawns. Gardens, like Zhang’s, have more attractive benefits, they say. 

“Sustainable gardens are not just beautiful for the eye. They protect our drinking water,” Mindy Germain, Port Washington’s water commissioner, said. “We’re trying to move away from these big green lawns that are sucking up too much water from our aquifer.” 

“There are lots of towns on Long Island which are encouraging people to put in wild flowers because they don’t want all that pollution going into the bay,” Raju Rajan, president of Rewild Long Island, said. 

Keep reading

America’s Armchair Revolutionaries: How The Left Is Rediscovering Marxism As The Ultimate Virtue Signal

During the Cold War, Soviet communists reportedly referred to American liberals as “useful idiots.”

Although the origin of the quote has been challenged (and attributed to both Lenin and Stalin), it captured many of the adherents of communism after World War II. From higher education to Hollywood, dilettantes on the left embraced Marxism with little real understanding of the philosophy or its implications.

We are now seeing the rise of a new generation of armchair revolutionaries who are calling for everything from the overthrow of the U.S. government to the seizure of factories and homes.

Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani personifies this new movement of young people lacking any memory of the failure of socialist and communist systems in the 20th Century.

Mamdani is perfect for this rising movement of Latte Leninists and trust-fund baby Trotskyites. The privileged son of a radical Columbia professor and a Hollywood producer, Mamdani went to the elite Bowdoin College, which charges over $70,000 annually in tuition. He is part of the “radical chic” of American higher education, where extreme views are fully mainstream.

Mamdani shows the appeal of mouthing Marxist manifestos as manifest truths. It is Marxism-lite — promises of everything from rent control to making “Halal eight bucks again.”

In one speech before the Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, Mamdani even stated matter-of-factly how one of the goals is to “seize the means of production” in America.

“Right now, if we’re talking about the cancellation of student debt, if we’re talking about Medicare for all, you know, these are issues which have the groundswell of popular support across this country,” he said.

“But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it’s [boycott-divestment-sanctions against Israel] or whether it is the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment.”

Mamdani offers few details of what it would mean to seize all industry in this country or how such a system would work in the United States after failing in literally every nation where it has been attempted.

He has also called for the seizure of unoccupied luxury condos in New York to turn over to the homeless.

Keep reading

The Democratic Candidate for Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani, on prisons and jails

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic Candidate for NYC Mayor, Questions the Purpose of Prisons: The Progressive Experiment Endangering Public Safety

In yet another example of how far the modern left has gone, Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City, publicly questioned the very existence of the prison system. At a recent event —which felt more like a college book club than a serious policy proposal— Mamdani not only revealed his lack of grasp on the issue but also implicitly mocked crime victims with a flippant, condescending tone. “What are prisons for, really?” he asked out loud, while name-dropping authors and book titles that supposedly support his abolitionist stance. Still, he admitted he hasn’t actually read some of those books.

These kinds of statements are not harmless. They reflect the dangerous trend among some Democrats to prioritize ideology over reality. New York is already reeling from “reform” policies that have weakened the justice system, enabled the early release of repeat offenders, and downplayed the need to protect law-abiding citizens. Mamdani’s rhetoric doesn’t just advocate closing prisons; it seeks to delegitimize the very concept of punitive justice—based on emotional and intellectual narratives that ignore the communities most affected by violence.

Keep reading

Watch Mamdani the Commie Say That He’s OK With the ‘Abolition of Private Property’

People on the left keep insisting that New York City Democrat nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani is not a communist, yet clip after clip of this guy talking reveals him to be an outspoken Marxist through and through.

This time, it’s a clip of him on some podcast saying that he is fine with the abolition of private property.

Note how he frames it. He wraps these comments in claims that he just cares so much about making sure that everyone has housing that he is open to doing away with private property. See? It’s just because he cares so much that he might have to take homes away from some people in order to make sure that other people have homes. It’s all about caring.

FOX News reports:

Zohran Mamdani’s past comments are once again coming back to haunt his New York City mayoral campaign, as a resurfaced video reveals the socialist candidate floated the “abolition of private property.”

“My platform is that every single person should have housing, and I think faced with these two options, the system has hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, right? For what?” Mamdani questioned in a resurfaced video that has been clipped and reposted across conservative social media.

“If there was any system that could guarantee each person housing, whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it, you know, just a statewide housing guarantee, it is preferable to what is going on right now,” Mamdani said.

“People try and play like gotcha games about these kinds of things, and it’s like, look, I care more about whether somebody has a home,” he said.

The clip drew widespread condemnation from conservatives, including GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who told Fox News Digital, “He claims to be a socialist, whether it’s wanting to abolish private property or wanting to seize the means of production, these are communist ideas right out of the playbook of Karl Marx.”

Keep reading

Zohran Mamdani Gets Whisked Off Stage by an Aide When Asked to Clarify His Remarks About ‘Globalizing the Intifada’

During a campaign event on Monday, New York City communist and Democrat nominee for mayor Zohran Mamdani was quickly whisked off camera by an aide when a reporter asked him to clarify his remarks about globalizing the Intifada.

The aide can be heard saying “I think we’re done here. We’re going to go.’

This is clearly a line of questioning that his campaign doesn’t like, which makes perfect sense.

FOX News reports:

Zohran Mamdani press conference abruptly ends with aide pulling him away during reporters questions

An endorsement event for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, came to an abrupt end Monday when he was pulled offstage by a campaign aide.

After accepting the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802’s endorsement, Mamdani answered a few questions about former Gov. Andrew Cuomo deciding to stay in the race as an independent candidate and his upcoming meeting with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

About 20 minutes into the event, before Mamdani could continue answering reporters’ questions, his campaign staffers stepped in to say: “I think we’re done here. We’re going to go. Come on. We’re wrapping up, folks. Sorry folks. We’re wrapping up.”

But Mamdani stood by the podium, attempting to hear the reporters’ questions over the chorus of campaign aides’ voices, until the band on site for the event began playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” With a smile on his face, Mamdani was pulled away when a campaign aide grabbed his arm.

Keep reading

Zohran Mamdani Claims to be Against Billionaires – Has Benefited From Millions Funneled to Left Wing Groups by George Soros

New York City communist and Democrat nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani is on the record saying that he does not like billionaires. He said that he doesn’t even think they should exist.

And yet…

It turns out that Mamdani wouldn’t even be in his current position without the help of numerous left wing groups that have received tens of millions from left wing billionaire George Soros over the years.

This news is as predictable as the rising sun.

The New York Post reports:

George Soros funneled $37M to Working Families Party, other lefty groups backing Zohran Mamdani

That’s rich.

Socialist Zohran Mamdani has declared billionaires shouldn’t exist, but it’s unlikely he’d be the front-runner to become the Big Apple’s next mayor if it wasn’t for one — far-left kingmaker George Soros, financial records reviewed by The Post show.

Mamdani recently told NBC News’ “Meet the Press, “I don’t think that we should have billionaires, frankly” while doubling down on his plan to jack up property taxes on “richer and whiter neighborhoods” if elected mayor.

But in less than a decade, Soros’ ultra-woke grant-making network Open Society Foundation has indirectly funneled a combined $37 million to the Working Families Party and at least other nine left-wing groups whose endorsements and get-out-the-vote groundwork played a pivotal role in helping Mamdani upset ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, the foundation’s records show.

Since 2016, the far-left, socialist-friendly WFP — which helped score Mandani the Democratic line by brokering cross-endorsement deals that squeezed out Cuomo — has pocketed a staggering $23.7 million from Soros through its nonprofit fundraising arm Working Families Organization Inc.

You couldn’t make this up. It’s all a con.

Keep reading