Tag: new york

Andrew Cuomo’s pandering to the vile teachers union sets a record for shamelessness

Even in a state packed with shameless politicians, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long stood out — but his gyrations in wooing the United Federation of Teachers as he runs for mayor are still a marvel to behold.

To be clear: We’ve long had the impression that Cuomo privately despises New York’s teachers unions, whether on personal grounds or (conceivably!) the principled objections we share; it’s one of his most attractive qualities.

And he took on all the state’s teachers unions early in his first back term as governor, first by championing charter schools against an assault by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and then by pushing for a rigorous-sounding statewide public-schoolteacher-evaluation process — a drive for which he declared himself “the students’ lobbyist.”

The unions hate charters, but saw the evaluations as an existential threat, since the point of them was to get incompetent teachers fired; they fought back, and beat him soundly.

But now the UFT could derail his comeback run, so Cuomo’s desperate to jump if he even thinks the union might’ve said “frog!”

At a cozy sitdown with UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and union activists last weekend, the ex-gov attacked his own past support for teacher evaluations and disowned the money-saving “Tier 6” public pension reforms he pushed through as gov.

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New York Officials Take Steps To Expand Marijuana Farmers Market Program

New York marijuana regulators are moving forward with new proposed regulations around the state’s so-called “cannabis showcase” program, which allows licensed businesses to sell to consumers at pop-up, farmers market-like events.

Members of the Cannabis Control Board (CCB), which oversees the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), voted without opposition at a meeting on Tuesday to advance the 23-page showcase expansion plan, which next proceeds to a public comment stage.

The new rules follow the enactment of legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in March that built on the existing showcase program, which was first created in 2023.

In a presentation to the board on Tuesday, John Kagia, OCM’s director of policy, said the program has “proved to be a particularly compelling way for the new, fast-growing, regulated cannabis market to get out in the community, to build relationships with consumers and to begin the process of normalizing cannabis in the state of New York.”

Between summer 2023 and the end of that year, he noted, New York saw over 60 showcase events that together brought in more than $10 million in revenue for participating businesses.

“It really established that there was real interest, both from the licensees and from the communities where these events were being hosted, to allow cannabis to exist out of the four walls of our retail dispensaries,” Kagia said.

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Trump officials allow NY wind farm project to resume construction following intervention from Hochul, Adams

The Trump administration lifted a stop-work order that threatened over 1,000 jobs at a wind farm project off the coast of Long Island Monday — at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams.

Construction at the Empire Wind 1 site was halted on April 16 after the Department of the Interior concluded that the project and its permit approval were “rushed through” by the Biden administration.

The project, just one cog in New York’s grander push to become fossil fuel-free by 2050, is set to power 500,000 homes through green energy provided by wind turbines. It has faced steep criticism from Nassau County officials, who claim that the project threatens marine life and the local fishing industry.

Hochul promised to fight the stop-work order the same day it was put into place, noting that the bipartisan plan had “already put shovels in the ground.”

“I knew this critical project needed to move forward and have spent weeks pushing the federal government to rescind the stop work order to allow the workers to return and ensure this important source of renewable power could come to fruition,” Hochul said.

“I want to thank President Trump for his willingness to work with me to save the 1,500 good-paying union jobs that were on the line and helping get this essential project back on track. New York’s economic future is going to be powered by abundant, clean energy that helps our homes and businesses thrive. I fought to save clean energy jobs in New York — and we got it done.”

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U.S. Coast Guard REJECTS Chuck Schumer’s Idiotic Suggestion That Trump Admin. to Blame for Mexican Ship Accident in NYC

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer actually tried to blame the Trump administration for the Mexican Navy accident over the weekend, where a tall training ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.

This is definitive proof that Schumer’s criticisms of Trump have just become a reflex that is cartoonishly stupid.

He tried to imply that DOGE related cuts at the U.S. Coast Guard were somehow to blame.

The Coast Guard has responded, and they have completely rejected this idiocy.

FOX News reports:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that the Department of Government Efficiency may be at least partly responsible for a Mexican navy tall ship crashing into the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night.

Schumer made the claim in a press release on Sunday, saying he had been briefed on the details of the deadly crash, which left two people dead and over a dozen more injured. Schumer argued that a U.S. Coast Guard system may have been operating at partial capacity due to a DOGE hiring freeze at the Department of Homeland Security, but the Coast Guard itself says the system was “fully functional during the incident.”…

The Coast Guard rejected Schumer’s claim in a statement of its own. Furthermore, there were no other ships involved in Saturday’s crash that would have involved the VTS.

The Coast Guard told Fox News Digital that VTS was “fully functional during the incident and operating in accordance with established procedures to manage commercial traffic and facilitate safe navigation.”

Schumer even posted this stupidity on Twitter/X and still hasn’t taken it down.

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AOC’s Constituent Says the Congresswoman Ditched Her Own Town Hall After She Asked About Crime in the District

A constituent of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recounted to Fox News how the congresswoman abandoned her own town hall event in the Bronx after she asked her about rising crime in the district.

Guadelupe Alvarez told the network that she had asked Ocasio-Cortez what she is doing for the district, which is facing increased crime and prostitution.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this week, major crime has skyrocketed by 70 percent in the congressional district represented by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez since she assumed office in 2019. This surge in illegal activity is more than double the overall increase across New York City, which remained at 30 percent during the same period.

“I went to one of the town halls where she was speaking in the Bronx, I believe, and when I asked the question of what are you doing for Jackson Heights? How are you aware of the crime and prostitution? Have you seen the neighborhood lately? She dismissed me,” Alvarez recalled.

The congresswoman walked out instead of answering the simple questions.

“She said she’d be right back and never came back and just handed the floor to her assistant, which was really infuriating,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez also alleged that people at the town hall were given pre-written questions to ask the congresswoman.

A new poll has found that Democrat and left-leaning voters view either Ocasio-Cortez or “no one” as the face of their party.

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AOC’s district sees 70% crime surge — more than double NYC average: ‘She doesn’t care’

What these neighborhoods really need is a “Squad” car.

Major crime rose by an eye-popping 70% in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Bronx and Queens district since the ‘defund the police’ socialist lawmaker took office in 2019 — more than double the citywide increase of 30% over that same span, a Post analysis of NYPD data shows.

The 110th Precinct in Queens, which covers part of the infamous “Market of Sweethearts” human-trafficking and prostitution mecca on Roosevelt Avenue, saw a 105% surge, the highest increase of any NYC precinct in that period.

Major crimes consist of murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft.

The 115th Precinct, which also serves part of Roosevelt Avenue in addition to Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, and north Corona, saw major offenses rise by 85%.

The other four precincts in her Queens-Bronx congressional district similarly saw major-crime increases higher than the citywide average.

Some residents blamed the increasingly lawlessness squarely on the no-show lawmaker.

“She’s not doing s–t. She doesn’t live in the neighborhood, she doesn’t care,” vented Elmhurst resident Guadelupe Alvarez, who has lived in the 110th Precinct her whole life and is one of several constituents who ripped the jet-setting absentee “Squad” member for letting the district turn to “trash” while she focuses on elevating herself on the national stage.

Alvarez, 34, a former AOC supporter, has had to endure a brothel setting up across the street from her childhood home, and the drunken men she says constantly swarm in and out of the place. She said she also regularly witnesses gang activity, car thefts and assaults, but nothing gets done.

She used to dream of building a life in the neighborhood, but not anymore.

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Red Flags in Letitia James Handling of Her Father’s Estate Demand Another Investigation

Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General, has presented herself as a champion of legal integrity.

Yet documents filed under oath in her late father’s estate proceedings in 1999 appear to present legal problems for James involving property law, mortgage representations, and taxation requirements.

Letitia James’ father, Robert James, died on January 15, 1986. Thirteen years later, in 1999, Letitia filed a petition in Queens Surrogate’s Court seeking to administer his estate.

The only asset was a small townhome at 114-04 Inwood Street in Jamaica, Queens, a property Letitia had purchased with her father as “husband and wife” in 1983.

In sworn estate documents, Letitia claimed that the property was held as “tenants in common,” a legal classification that would require the probate court to transfer her father’s share of the house to Letitia.

“The property would not pass to the heirs of the decedent by operation of law,” James wrote in her affirmation, “because the decedent held the property with the undersigned as tenants in common with no right of survivorship.”

That distinction was crucial: unlike “joint tenancy,” which passes ownership directly to a surviving party such as a spouse, “tenancy in common” requires probate court to transfer the deceased’s share.

However, James’s account is contradicted by the mortgage Letitia and her father obtained as “husband and wife” in May 1983.

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Judge STRIPS NYC of Control Over Rikers Island — Cites ‘Unprecedented’ Violence and Mismanagement

A federal judge has stripped the city of control over its notorious Rikers Island jail complex, citing “unprecedented” levels of violence, systemic mismanagement, and a blatant disregard for court orders.

In a scathing 77-page ruling released Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain officially stripped New York City and its Department of Correction (DOC) of full control over Rikers Island, citing a decade of failure to protect inmates from “grave and immediate” harm, including unconstitutional levels of violence, abuse, and systemic mismanagement.

The ruling, issued in the landmark Nunez v. City of New York case, appoints an independent “Nunez Remediation Manager” to take control over key safety and use-of-force functions at Rikers.

The decision comes after Judge Swain previously found the City in civil contempt of 18 separate provisions of the Consent Judgment and multiple court orders dating back to 2015.

The DOC was cited for repeated failures to address excessive use of force, violent incidents, inadequate staff supervision, and failure to protect incarcerated youth.

Despite nearly a decade of oversight by a federal Monitor and more than 700 expert recommendations, the court concluded that the City had failed to make meaningful progress.

“Nine years have passed since the parties first agreed that the perilous conditions in the Rikers Island jails were unconstitutional; that the level of unconstitutional danger has not improved for the people who live and work in the jails is both alarming and unacceptable,” Swain wrote.

In a last-ditch effort to avoid a receivership, the City proposed giving current DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie enhanced authority as a so-called “Compliance Director.”

But the judge rejected this as insufficient, noting that while Maginley-Liddie had shown early promise, the City had already proven incapable of reform on its own.

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Postal Service Releases Final Report – Contract Driver Jesse Morgan Vindicated – Report CONFIRMS He Hauled Trailer of Ballots from NY to PA in Late October 2020

As The Gateway Pundit reported back in 2020, election fraud whistleblowers came forward in December following the controversial election, including one who witnessed the shipping of an estimated 144,000-288,000 completed ballots across three state lines on October 21 2020.

The information was made public at a press conference by the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, a national constitutional litigation organization.

The Amistad Project said at the time that they had sworn declarations that over 300,000 ballots were issued in Arizona, 548,000 in Michigan, 204,000 in Georgia, and over 121,000 in Pennsylvania.

They said that their evidence reveals multi-state illegal efforts by USPS workers to influence the election in at least three of six swing states.

The whistleblower statements included potentially hundreds of thousands of completed absentee ballots being transported across three state lines and a trailer filled with ballots disappearing in Pennsylvania.

Attorney Phil Kline said, “130,000 to 280,000 completed ballots for the 2020 general election were shipped from Bethpage, NY, to Lancaster, PA, where those ballots and the trailer in which they were shipped disappeared.”

Truck driver Jesse Morgan was present at the press conference and spoke for 9 minutes about his unbelievable ordeal. Morgan was tasked with delivering completed ballots to Pennsylvania from New York State.

This was explosive testimony.

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‘Predatory Indoctrination’: Parents Outraged Over Museum Of Natural History’s New Video Aimed At Kids

Although the Trump administration has made significant inroads toward eradicating the taxpayer-supported spread of transgender ideology across America’s youth, some examples of the insidious practice still remain.

Most recently, New York’s Museum of Natural History began drawing harsh criticism from parents and others who oppose an eight-minute video being played on a loop inside the museum.

“Dragfox,” a stop-motion-animated production, tells the story of a fox who takes a “magical journey” with a cross-dressing boy wearing his sister’s dress.

The thinly veiled pro-trans message wasn’t lost on a slew of parents and children’s advocates, as the New York Post reported:

De-transitioner Oli London rejected the film’s sentiment that transitioning magically brings happiness.

“Children should not be exposed to gender ideology in any format,” said London, who’s 35 and detransitioned two years after beginning the grueling process.

He railed against the animated film aimed at “targeting” youngsters by including a character with a “cute, friendly-looking fox . . . encouraging them to become confused with their gender identity and become trans. Children should be off-limits from radical gender ideology.”

Parents accused the museum of straying from its mission to “discover, interpret, and disseminate —through scientific research and education — knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”

Instead of understanding science, they’re “ignoring” it by “presenting something that’s ideological as scientific fact,” said Natalya Murakhaver, an UWS mom-of-two and documentary filmmaker, who blasted the screening as “predatory behavior for young, impressionable children.

“I think we have activists running the museum who are trying to portray their idea of reality as fact, when it’s actually ideological,” she added.

But “Dragfox” director, Lisa Ott, exulted during a 2024 BAFTA award acceptance speech that the short “celebrates drag queens and trans joy.” The singular goal of the film was to “have one little queer kid or trans child out there feel a little bit less alone.”

The festival is a way to “step beyond your comfort zone to listen, feel, and see yourself reflected in the stories presented on screen,” insisted Jacqueline Handy, the AMNH Director of Public Programs.

It’s more insidious than that, said downtown mom of two, Jacqueline Toboroff. Showing a loaded film aimed at kids is “predatory indoctrination” meant to sow chaos, she said.

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